December 2008

Sitting at my computer and reading through the New York Times, observing all the stories paying tribute to a year now passing, I - quite by accident really - came across their video section. As the one I was interested in finished - a lovely and inspiring short of 17-year old Naeelah Murray (born blind and unable to walk) found confidence and employment at Wagon Road Camp - the next one loaded about some media scrum in front of a restaurant in Harlem. Low and behold — there he was — wait for it —

Oh thank the Lord!

Can this be the end of the digital? Graflex and a Metz. Oh sweet mama I think there may be hope —   what’s next a Polaroid Resurrection? I wonder what the boys and girls with their new D3x’s were thinking?

I just love this. Whoever you are man — you gotta fan — Spank those digi boys - show ‘em how it’s done. You just gotta love the black trench and fedora. See him at work - its only a couple seconds - @ Video/ NY Times.

…. this li’l ditty of mine. Seems it made its way into Women’s Health.

It’s great finding traditional stock buyers still are out there.

 7:00 am. I look out the window and see a fresh layer of frost. Cold. It’s going to be cold.

I have been fascinated with the painterly scenes that nature is producing through night as of late. She has not stopped for a rest. So I felt today I would break with routine and make my way into the woods and out onto the field that overlooks Coleshill.

And in this exercise would move away from the digital camera - and instead use my old Polaroid 190 and some Fuji instant film. I love this. The tactile and sequenced operation of working - the time waiting and knowing when the work was “cooked” properly — measuring the exposure by sensing and seeing and feeling - relying on one’s own internal light meter and not some spot meter in a highly advanced camera. I enjoyed returning to the communication with light and atmosphere that one gets when needing to be sensitive to the art of creating an image when left with most minimal equipment. And with instant film running a pound per sheet — there is this focus to detail — attention to all the elements that make photography - PHOTOGRAPHY — and not just shoting and shooting and shooting in the hopes of photocopying some piece of life that arranges well within the frame and becomes a success because the numbers are there.

return to space

copyright karl grupe 2008      

diary of a burned out car

copyright karl grupe 2008