sparkrobot

Analog projectionist extraordinaire, projectorhead.

Since the announcement from Polaroid that they would cease to manufacture in February, a group of instant film enthusiasts and talented artists have pooled together in joint effort to save instant film by creating savepolaroid.com. I have a couple of SX-70 Polaroids that I’d love to keep using, so I can certainly get into the movement. Hopefully, with some nudging, either Polaroid or another manufacturer will step in to produce more film in the future.

From the site:

Since this announcement, we’ve been assembling articles, links, stories and planning out the best way to create a joint effort to save instant film. We’ve contacted Polaroid, Fuji and Ilford about licensing. We have more in the works and will update this site regularly.

Link to Save Polaroid – Save Instant Film.

The marketing machine over at The Lomographic Society just dropped limited editions of the plastic lens Holga and new Diana+ in glorious red and white peppermint stripes in coordination with Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes. The Diana+ was recently reissued through Lomo, and the Holga is a 120CFN (with the color flash). They both shoot 120 medium format film and produce notoriously unpredictable results. I have been using a 120CFN for a couple of years. They’re cheap in every way, and it’s a necessity to keep nearby a roll of electrical tape to keep the thing from falling apart. This is all part of the experience. With the ubiquity of digital images, it’s refreshing and surprisingly simple to create unique images experimenting with analog equipment.

The legendary Diana+ and Holga cameras are known for their serendipitous ‘imperfections’ and cinematic qualities. These special editions follow the band’s red, white and black color scheme down to the peppermint swirl on their frame advance dials. Frequent collaborator Rob Jones designed the custom packaging for both sets. Together, The White Stripes and Lomography are taking an analog look at life in the digital age.

For only $180, you too can pick up a $20 camera. But hey, don’t forget, it comes with a bunch of rock memorabilia too. There are only 200 pieces of each the Jack Holga and the Meg Diana+, and purchases are limited to 1 JACK Holga set and 1 MEG Diana+ set per customer.

For the nostalgic, here are some photos of the White Stripes doing an in-store performance at Fallout Records in Seattle back in 2000 taken by Tim Hayes. This was back before they took over the world.

Wow. This is pretty amazing. I’m not sure I’m ever going to look at eggplant the same way ever again.

“In November 2006 Till Nowak created the image “Salad”. For this image he created 12 digital vegetable models in 3ds max using photographic references. They were combined to become a tribute to the fantastic biomechanical creations of H.R. Giger and the vegetable portraits of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.”

Check out A Tribute to H.R. Giger AND Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

A series of black and white photos from the Western State Hospital grounds in Lakewood.

Initially, I thought of posting all the photos here, but I’ve decided against wheel reinventing. So, here’s the Western State Hospital Slideshow. I made these last weekend on an outing with the Tacoma Flickr group.

McKinley Park, Tacoma.

Center of the stage
Secret to longevity
Being right up front

I found this scene at a benefit show at the Swiss Pub last Sunday, May 6th. The event was a fundraiser entitled “Fight Fistula!” and was arranged to raise money for education and efforts toward the erradication of Fistula worldwide. While I didn’t happen to catch his name, he was right up front dancing and a big hit with the ladies.

The band on stage is The Fucking Eagles from Tacoma. Though I missed some of the bands, I’ve posted several galleries of bands that performed that evening to Live Rock Photos.

One of the themes for issue JPG magazine’s issue 11 is “Are You Ready to Rock?”. Well, actually yes. Yes I am. I’ve submitted this photograph as my contribution to be considered by the community. If you’ve got a few seconds, head over to JPG magazine site and vote for this photo: Yeah, It Rocks! if you please. Registration is required to vote, but I promise you, with only 5 fields, the signup form isn’t all that intimidating. Thanks in advance for your support.

More information about Fistula

Obstetric fistula is a devastating childbirth injury caused by days of unrelieved obstructed labor that can easily be avoided through Caesarian section delivery – an option often unavailable to women in developing and third-world countries. In as high as 90 percent of fistula cases, the baby dies and the woman is left with chronic incontinence.

Sufferers are often cast out by their husbands and families and are frequently ostracized by their communities. Without treatment, fistula can lead to infections, kidney disease and death. Currently, two million women suffer from obstetric fistula.

More information about Fistula can be found on the web at the Fistula Foundation website.

Sunday, April 29th was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. A pinhole camera is essentially a camera in it’s very simplest form. There is no lens. Just a tiny hole to let light pass through an improvised camera body to film. I set out over the weekend just past and created my first set of pinhole images. I could tell you I knew exactly what I was doing, but I would be lying to you. I ended up putting expired Kodak Gold 400 in a Zero Image 135 I picked up from Freestyle. I sometimes used the light meter on my Nikon to calculate approximate exposure times for the pinhole. Mostly, I guessed.

Lo-fi from the gate, here are some of the photos: needle drop, forest, forest light leak, beached briefly, dash point, the vet, abandoned, cherries, sky light, the old girl, & thai. (Once the gallery is open, you can click on the right or left side of each image to move back and forward between the images.) Thanks for looking.

Found quite a nice collection of Swiss poster designs on the Flickr today: Swiss Graphic Design History – a photoset on Flickr

I’ve posted a couple of submissions to JPG magazine for the upcoming issue, including an image taken in Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood last summer of the Western State Hospital ruins under the umbrella category “Entropy: Things fall apart.”. Another theme for image submission is “Breakthrough: Discovery, progress, and revolution.” for which I’ve submitted an image taken at the Hotel San Jose in Austin, Texas last summer. The themes are to be included in Issue 10, which closes in 18 days. So this is a call to you—my really-good-very-best-super-awesome friend—to vote for my images. This is a democracy. You don’t want to be responsible for its elementary breakdown. This is about freedom. So go vote.

If you haven’t heard of it, JPG magazine is a new concept magazine / community built around people who love photography. I have a few of the early print-on-demand issues and a purchased a subscription when it became their new offset press publishing model. Unlike most photography magazines, JPG is not one of those magazines with reviews of every new digital camera (gear gear gear) and ads that consume most of the available page real estate. It’s about photography and there are huge spreads of (believe it or not) photographs. There are some ads, but not the variety that are huge bargain price lists that clutter other mags.

The manifesto:

JPG Magazine is for people who love imagemaking without attitude. It’s about the kind of photography you get when you love the moment more than the camera. It’s for photographers who, like us, have found themselves online, sharing their work, and would like to see that work in print.

If you want to see more images of the ruins of the Western State Hospital facility in Lakewood, they’re online on my flickr account. Sorry if you’re reading this twice, WordPress is tripping out on jpgmag’s promo banner javascript…