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nazis
Posted on September 19th, 2009 in Art & Theory, Collodion Images, Europe, Family, Wet Plate Collodion Instructional Videos, nazis, politics | Leave A Comment
I have a couple of really important goals that I want to accomplish in the next few months. One of them is to make work for my project, exhibition and book.
I thought I would get creative with my time and my commitments. We are leaving Thursday for ten days and wanted to post the October Video Podcast on Chemical Pictures before we left. I also had an image in mind that I’ve wanted to make for a few weeks. I thought, why not make a few plates, create an image for my project and cover the podcast, too? So that’s what I did today.
These image are about numbers, labeling, skulls & sockets, history, evilness, genetics and otherness. I distressed plate #3 a little bit. I varnished it shortly after making this copy and it cleaned up quite a bit - I was a little disappointed about that but I still like the image. I look so different in each image, it trips me out a wee bit.
It took four plates to get two that I really like.
Self Portrait #3 With Y-DNA Sequence Backwards (written by hand)
September 19, 2009 Viernheim, Germany - 8×10 Alumitype
Self Portrait #1 With Y-DNA Sequence Forward (not handwritten)
September 19, 2009 Viernheim, Germany - 8×10 Alumitype
Posted on May 4th, 2009 in Collodion Images, Europe, nazis | 1 Comment
The world is a strange place and so much of it is relative. In other words, we seek truth, we want truth, and sometimes we even believe we have truth, but most of the time it’s not truth at all, only our interpretation of truth. (Please keep in mind when I say “truth” I’m referring to “reality” – mostly).
I have a funny and relevant story to tell you now that I’ve laid that ground work. I’m writing it down, because I want to refer to it when I see something and assume that I know what it is without inquiring or doing research about it. It will force me to ask questions and do the research before I make up my mind as to what it is I’m seeing, reading or listening to, I hope.
In Germany, you’re always being watched. At least to some degree. If you have 80 year-old German neighbors, like we do, most likely, everything you do that can be observed, will be observed. I have my own opinions on why this is, but it would defeat the point I’m trying to make and would take much longer to write about than I have time for (I have to be in a certain mood and a certain frame of mind to “blog” – I just can’t “turn it on” whenever I want).
Anyway, our neighbors, the Knopps (Ka-Nops) let our landlord know that they were very upset about us putting some plastic in the wrong recycle bin. We have four, yes four, recycle bins: paper, Gelbe (yellow sack, for plastic, wrappers, etc), Bio (for coffee grounds, food waste, etc.), and Abfalle (yard waste, leaves, grass clippings, tree limbs, etc.).
The Knopps inspect what’s in the bins and keep a tight reign on recycling waste. Sometimes, we make mistakes, but not often. On a side note, about a month ago, not far from here, a German man beat his neighbors to death for putting the yard waste in the wrong bin – true story. The Knopps also told our landlords that we need to spend more time on our yard and sweeping the street on Saturday morning (German ritual – to stave off chaos).
Now you have a good sense of what our neighbors are like (which is typical here) let me tell you the rest of the story. The Knopps had one last thing to tell our landlords about us. Most every weekend, you can find me, and a lot of times Summer, making photographs (Wet Plate Collodion) on our winter garden. The Knopps can see what we do – so I would imagine they’ve watched us make a lot of photographs. But going back to my original point, what the Knopps watch is not two artist’s working in their studio making photographs, they see the American neighbors putting on puppet shows, yes, I said puppet shows. They mean this in a derogatory way, too. Does that blow your mind? I can understand why they “see” that. The camera is always facing the opposite way from their view and every time someone goes under the dark-cloth it must look like a performance as the sitter is looking on and sometimes holding props or wearing some kind of costume. I can’t imagine what the dark-box represents – maybe that’s where we make the puppets? Can you imagine what they’re thinking as they are watching the puppet show from the crack in their window blind? Wow! I was blown away and literally started laughing when I heard this and it’s been on my mind since. I now refer to making Wet Plate Collodion photographs, as a puppet show - “Hey Summer, do you want to do a puppet show today?”
Posted on April 21st, 2009 in Dachau, Education, Europe, Holocaust, Shoah, nazis | Leave A Comment
Yom HaShoah is a day of remembrance for the six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust, and a range of events take place. In Israel, it is a national memorial day. On the evening beforehand, there is a state ceremony at the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Authority, Yad Vashem. At 10am on the day of Yom HaShoah, air-raid sirens are sounded and people stop what they are doing to think of and pay respect to those who died. Places of public entertainment are closed and flags on public buildings are flown at half mast.
 Jews who were classified as "not fit to work" waiting in a grove outside Crematorium IV before they were to be gassed. Tags: Holocaust Day of Rememberance, Yom HaShoah
Posted on March 29th, 2009 in Art & Theory, Collodion Images, Europe, Holocaust, Shoah, nazis | Leave A Comment
A sense of urgency overtook me today and I was able to get a couple of important photographs made. I’m exhausted right now, but elated. While I call everything an experiment, it’s not exactly true. For now, however, I’m calling the work experimental.
The “train tracks” image below is something I’ve been meaning to try for a while. Most all of the tracks here were used, at least in some part, to transport Jews and other undesirables to either bigger train stations or directly to the concentration camps. My friend, Caron, mentioned that I should look at making some images like this - I couldn’t agree more.
The feeling I get when I look at this empty, quiet image is one of anxiety. I’m waiting for a train to rip through this space headed east (the direction of this image) with cars full of people going to their death. Although, it doesn’t look like it, I was very close to the tracks. It made me a little bit nervous. I shot this with my new (old) CC Harrison portrait lens - wide open - what a neo-pictorialist, huh? I was lucky to find a spot where I had access to the tracks (and schlep all of my Scheise to it). Sometimes, it’s difficult doing these kinds of things. I was thinking about how I would probably be arrested in the United States for doing this… you know the whole terrorist scare thing. No one was around when I made the images. It was out of the way and “in between” towns.
Train Tracks Headed East - Bahnhof Ahead
29 March 2008 - 1305
10×8 Black Glass Ambrotype
Southwestern Germany (quiet countryside)
I’m going to keep making images of memorials, tracks, and portraits (and whatever else strikes me). I’m also going to explore making images of smokestacks. All of these symbols are very powerful to me. I have no idea how all of this is translating, or will translate, but I’ll keep making images, thinking out loud, writing my thoughts and ideas down and hopefully, someday put it all together.
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