Blog

Yesterday on the street.

Okay, I don’t think Alec read the letter. I’m over it. Thought I’d do a post on the making of 2.5. Before I get into the specific design, a quick word on constraints.

The pandemic had brought my photography to a halt. I no longer had access to the community darkroom where I used to print, and without having the means to fully realize a photograph the motivation just waned. But then a year into it, your YouTube channel arrived.

You know how sometimes you come across a thing that just makes wonder how you had never heard of it before? Definitely feel that way about Posca Pens.

Who remembers these Camlin compass boxes from school? The first thing I’d do was to discard the dividers and set-squares. No one ever taught us what those were for, and the only use for a divider I’d seen was to use it like a compass to scratch circles onto our desks.

By any measure, it is an ungodly amount of work. Wipe down the bathroom. Place planks on bathtub to create work surface. Carefully snake 25-foot extension cord around various obstacles to provide electricity to bathtub area.

I had a couple of book binding projects underway, and one more that I had planned but not started. Before diving into the next rabbit hole (the darkroom project) I thought I should finish these up lest they languish unfinished.

As I scrubbed the grime from the trays and reels, I couldn’t help but think about his father. Crusted old chemicals, bits of hair, an abandoned wasp’s nest.

I’ve never been one for new. With technology in particular. So I surprised myself a little bit when I decided to back this Kickstarter campaign.

Couldn’t find an art store that had everything I needed within walking distance, so biked down to Market St. with Y to pick up some bookbinding materials.

I’m struggling to remember the exact moment it happened, but - BOOK BINDING! Found some great tutorials, and ta-da! I made a book!

Used to be a time not long ago, when Saturdays were my busiest days. Yakuta had her volunteer programs to run, and I had to hit the community darkroom by 10am.

It should come as no surprise that bingeing Alex Soth’s new YouTube channel has got me itching to make a photobook. The latest video about a book called “Encampment, Wyoming” just got the juices flowing. And of course any discussion of photobooks quickly ends up at Steidlville.

The impetus behind starting this blog was an attempt to be free and spontaneous - not bound by the creative constraints of “traditional” social media, and away from all those fickle follower folks. In that vein, I’m starting a new series called “Random photos from my phone”. Here is part 1.

“Renowned Bay Area epidemiologist predicts prolonged pandemic, ”the headline in the SF Chronicle read. Disturbing of course, but concerns about variants, and the lack of a cohesive global vaccination effort are obviously valid. As cases fall in the Bay Area, it seems only fair to temper the optimism with some caution. But something seemed odd.

While in normal times his talks may have been reserved for a small class at some prestigious institution, in pandemic times we are fortunate to have them easily accessible to all. Alec Soth has started a YouTube channel!

It was already dark. A warm, inviting glow emanated from the windows of the houses around us. In one corner of the park, lit by nothing more than a streetlight, our ragtag group dribbled tennis balls.

That had to be him. Hidden among the bushes, in an area of the SF Botanical Garden that was cordoned off and ominously marked “Area Closed For Your Safety”, I could make out an old bronze statue.