So my friend and roommate, Chris L. Taylor fetched me in Winter Park
and we drove a U-Haul up to New York, freshly gradumacated from Daytona Beach Community College. A 4x5 Polaroid of Eric Breitenbach faces our front door pouring down his blessing from above:
My immediate roommates, close friends and also talented photographers:
Meghan McInnis
Chris Taylor:
My extended roommates:
Justin Ouellette:
Brendan Griffiths:
With these four people, and myself, we five live in harmony in a small (but the normal U.S. version of small. Not the New York version of small) three bedroom apartment in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
on a little street called Dean. Near Atlantic. Near Fulton. Near Bedford.
Not near Manhattan. Hence we travel the bricks-and-browns-of-Brooklyn many a week, day and night.
I recently made a trip to Portland and Seattle to do a job, and I had a grand old time making fires in fireplaces, coffee shopping, ferry riding, apartment visiting and friend-introduction making.
I was reminded of things like GREEN and YARDS and SWINGSETS in the woods and all in all it was a nice fantastic feeling and I liked it very much.
In Washington, I ventured across the Puget Sound in a ferry and managed to photograph some Vashon Islanders on the ginormous-we-ain't-building-no-bridge-ferry-hol'-your-car-too-boat. They seemed like people who have breathed fresh air for long periods of time, and that is all I can say, really.
Today is a day of printing prints and photograph taking and bed laying and take-out eating and headphone listening.
Chris and I have recently started school. Here we are on our first day:
And excited to take advantage of what is now called the 'cage' whereas in Daytona we fondly referred to it as the 'stock room.' 4x5 come to me! However in a much smaller, more compact version. Ex:
My first camera that my brother and I bought when we were eight and ten years old was a Kodak Fun Saver Pocket Flash Camera complete with plastic coated case for fun filled mermaid movement inducing face making madness. I think that could technically be my first camera. That was a question that was requested of me the first week of school. Some kid actually said "Hasselblad." Eat a bag of D's dude.
12 comments:
That was a lovely story.
cary. yeah, she's talked about you. aren't you a photographer? maybe that's a different cary? i'm sure she'll see your note when she visits thine blog.
have an explosive good night,
tessa
this is already wonderful
I came accross your site via Justin's blog. I am a former student at DBCC also... funny seeing Eric's mug on your site.
Allen,
Eric is a great teacher and continues to give us encouragement, especially as we walk through the front door. What years did you go to DBCC?
I went from 92-95ish :) Actually didnt finish the last semester (was commercial back then).
I had Eric in his first ever film making class (dont know if he still does it or not). Although I never had him for a regular photography class, he was always supportive and seemed to like my work. I used to work at the Museum also while there, and he would always stop and talk to me if he in there.
I had Dan for 1st and 2nd sememsters (black and white and then 4x5). didnt pass 2nd class then had patrick for the 2nd go around and then for color printing and portrait (3rd semester).
eat a bad of d's dude! ahahahhaha i love you
em
cary. thanks for the church rec. i haven't gone anywhere yet, but williamsburg ain't far away. i like your site very much. we should hang out if you ever come to new york.
em. i showed jordi some of smith and stone's masterpieces and he liked them. translation: move here. it's just money then you die. also, i saw trash and vaudeville man in st. marks! weird, huh? he looked (and smelled) the same.
allen. that's crazy. i can't believe you flunked bif's class. i guess it doesn't matter now!
hahahaha yeah I had some things going on oustside of school and didnt enjoy the zone system as much as biffy :)
But with flunking his class, I was put on academic probation, lost my scholership (it was a small one) and forced me to take some cheap classes (art classes and art history) and take a break from photography. That really helped my photography. I approached my photography more from an artistic point of view rather than the technical. I took it over again with VanDusen and since he wasnt a Zone System Master, he didnt teach too much on it, and I was able to really just focus on the art. It was more of an open lab for me that semester :)
It also made me look into alt ways of getting money for school, and with a light workload I was able to volunteer many hours at the Museum and lead me to getting a Pell grant that paid for all my schools, supplies and equipment. :)
It all turned out well in the end.
i'm sure all in all uncle bif is proud of you. i'm sure he'll read his at some point, too. i don't remember any zone system mastery, only an obsession with duane michals. which, ya know. is totally fine.
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