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Last November I made a trip to Detroit and Ann Arbor, MI to get in a couple of nights of shooting before the horrible permafrost set in. First night was Detroit, and my friend Anna Cicone and I roamed all corners of the city well into the night, including a walk from 2 to 3am through the barren wasteland that is downtown. The shot I got was almost directly under the enormous Ambassador Bridge, which spans the Detroit River and links Windsor, Ontario to Detroit. To get this shot, I had to position the tripod and camera right in the lane of the oncoming traffic, which was sparse. Brave Anna stood by the camera so none of the few passing cars would hit it, while I walked around these buildings painting them with my lights. With literally seconds left in the exposure, a cop car drove by and slammed the brakes. I closed the camera’s shutter, while the cop jumped out yelling, “Are you trying to get yourselves killed! If you get hit here, in this part of town, don’t expect helped for hours!” We apologized and the cop forgave, but told us to get the hell out of there. I agreed, happy with the shot stored safely in my camera.
Alley 129, Bond & Bailey, 2009, Detroit, MI, 12am
Here are a couple of production shots from my work shooting Bubbles (the inspiration of which was the tragic, but heroic, homeless heroin addict from the great TV series The Wire).
These are production photos from the recent Count Blankfein bug image (btw, dedicated to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs). To get an idea of the scale, there’s a red thumbtack (a little obscured) holding down some blackwrap on the left side. The bug was at most a half inch tall, and although you can’t see them in the final image, it was propped up by its wings. The newspaper clipping - with an old alley image of mine - served as the background, which was only slightly visible in blue. The Count’s trophy wall hanging was a mess of bugs caught up in a web that I found last October while packing to move to Chicago. Oddly, among the victims was a spider.
If I needed further proof that my mind is in a dubious state, here is what I’ve been working on. Although I’m a little worried that this is what I’m inspired to produce, I’m nevertheless thrilled with the results! My next blog posts will show production photos from the Count and Bubbles shoots.
And if you’re in the Chicago area, my studio and gallery will be open to the public this Friday night 6-10pm, as part of the Chicago Arts District 2nd Friday events.
Count Blankfein: collected souls (part of the Glam Bugs series)
Bubbles is the most recent addition to my cadaverous family: the Glam Bugs. This series has suffered some neglect – Bubbles is the first addition in many years. I would welcome Bubbles home, but he is homeless.
Bubbles: homeless at last
A few months ago I contributed four of my bug images to a large installation opening today at the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (Museu Brasileiro da Escultura). A Book About Death explores just that, through hundreds of images from different artists. The exhibition runs to Feb 27
Ophelia: a lover spurned (from the Glam Bugs series)
Opening today is a group show, “Art from the Heartland”, at the Indianapolis Art Center, featuring the work of several Midwest artists, including myself. The show runs through January 31 and was juried by Chicago curator Paul Klein, creator of the Art Letter.
June 18th the Center will be featuring a solo show of my work, my first solo in years!
And here in Chicago, you can see my work at the River Bank Lofts Gallery. The opening reception for this group show is Tuesday, February 2 from 6-8pm - the show runs for 3 months. The gallery is at 550 North Kingsbury Street, and I’ll be at the opening. You can’t miss me, I’ll be the guy with a drink in his hand…
Here’s an alley shot I’ve never shown, Alley no. 66, shot in 2005 in New Orleans just a few months before Hurricane Katrina hit the city.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my bug series lately, so when my friend Oliver Mielenz in Montreal sent me these fly pictures from photographer Magnus Muhr, I had to laugh.
On an unrelated topic, I’m right in the middle of an intense marathon through the HBO series The Wire. This is the brilliantly constructed drama set in Baltimore, MD. If you haven’t seen it, and you get my alley and bug series, you need to see the sprawling 60-hr long epic. The show was told like no other TV drama, in a story laid out like literature, focusing on the American city and its dysfunctional institutions, including the government, cops, the illegal drug trade, schools etc
A Magnus Muhr fly photo:
While researching the South Bronx for a possible shoot in the Spring, I came across these incredible life-like model slums with an electric L-Train running through it. Peter Feiganbaum has re-created, in fantastic detail, some of New York City’s outer boroughs in a project called Trainset Ghetto - complete with abandoned buildings and burned out cars.
This was shot in Seattle last July. Finding it was a bizarre stroke of luck… After several hours of searching through Seattle’s run down neighborhoods, I had found nothing. We were getting frustrated and the voice of doubt was waking up in my head. We make a turn onto another desolate street and I see a building in disrepair that would make a fine addition to my Alley series. I get excited and exclaim: “This is it! The shot! lets park it.” I jump out and I’m so certain that I grab my gear and walk to the building to set up. As I stare at it, my heart sinks - its a false alarm. There’s nothing here for me and I swear silently to myself. Just before leaving I turn to look down the alley next to this building, and I can’t believe it. Beautiful desolation.
Click here to see the original post, and the original Polaroid test
Alley 128, Beautiful Desolation (2009, Seattle, WA, 1:30am)
