I think it was the beginning of 2009 that I came up with this brilliant idea of posting items related to my projects on the project blog pages, e.g. anything related to my project Insomnia would be on the Insomnia blog (www.insomniahotelnoir.wordpress.com).
Okay, so this was not so brilliant.
But like any idea, it was worth a try and this time it did not work out to my satisfaction. Probably not yours either, as it meant jumping from one place to another to see if I had anything of value to read. So for the project (Insomnia or project of the day), my thoughts here, and a few updated photos posted on both blogs. Thus, visit the project blog only if you just want to see the current photos.
Keep my life simple, and hopefully yours as well. So the photobook reviews will still be on The PhotoBook, and everything else here. nice.
Best, Douglas
BTW, that also means that I have just deleted all of my writing off the project blogs and left just the photographs.
Okay, this is putting a positive spin on reality; one of the up-sides of my intense travel schedule this past four months has been to allow myself some space between finishing my Insomnia: Hotel Noir book dummy last Fall and examining it again now. When I brought this dummy with me to Italy last month, I realized that I had not really looked at it for the last four months. So reading it again was refreshing, probably not unlike the late Gary Winogrand’s mantra of not wanting to look at his photographs for about a year after he made them, to gain some needed perspective.
Meanwhile, I have also completed another twenty photobook reviews during the interim, taking mental notes of what I appreciated and what was not working for me. And so I realize that my concept for this project and printing it with a blue tonality is really rubbing me the wrong way. The use of the blue toning is making this project look too obvious, such that it seems that I am unsure of the underlying strength of the body of work, and appears that I am searching for a gimmick to help make it work. sigh. reality sucks.
So I will be working on this project again, another refinement.
Meanwhile, rather than outright deleting the Blue Edition dummy off of Blurb while I reconfigure this project, I am just going to not make it publicly available anymore. In the past, I would just delete the Blurb book and that would be it. This time, I am going to try a slightly different tack, but I need to pull the details together first.
Best regards, Douglas
When I start taking photographs, I cease to see.
Because instead I am now taking photographs.
Best regards, Douglas
Fiuggi, snowstorm copyright Douglas Stockdale 2010
Last December I recevied the Chamber of Commerce line about snow in Fiuggi: “oh, it does not every snow in Fiuggi” – Ha! I know what that white crap looks like, and this is it. So now you know my friends, it does snow in Fiuggi ;- )
Douglas
Self portrait, Rome copyright Douglas Stockdale
Pantheon, detail by Douglas Stockdale
There are a lot of old archeology digs in Rome to see, but this was one of the few compositions that drew me in. For all of the rest, they were just interesting to causally look at.
Fiuggi, Italy, Winter copyright of Douglas Stockdale
Half way through the first month of the 2010 New Year and I am just now posting my first article on this blog. I have already posted three or four book reviews, my top ten books for 2009 and some other book information on The PhotoBook, as well as some related links from The PhotoBook Facebook fan page.
So I find myself reflecting on what I plan to do with this blog?
It is apparent to me that I want to maintain and keep providing book reviews on The PhotoBook blog, which now has over 90 reviews published. I initiated the experiment in 2009 with Facebook, and sense that the fan page for The PhotoBook is a good idea. My personal Facebook page is of some interest when quickly add a very brief thought, but it seems difficult to archive and access than a blog. If I have something of note to discuss or point out, I still think that this will be the place I want to publish it and provide a link back from my personal Facebook page.
So it appears that this blog is ideal for my personal reflections and throwing some photographs up against the wall to see if they stick. At the moment, I do not see that I want or need to provide a constant stream (read: daily stream) of content. Unlike a few other photo-bloggers who have recently stopped posting on their sites, I don’t feel the need to totally abandon this blog either.
So I will continue to see how this evolves…
Best regards, Douglas
copyright Douglas Stockdale
Fiuggi Plazza, copyright Douglas Stockdale 2009
Still thinking about the body of work that I might develop around the city of Fiuggi, Italy, which is located adjacent to an assignment that I am working on. First, I had to get the “classic” photographs of this old city out of my system. Most of the recent images that I posted were from one really nice day that I had the opportunity to break away from my assignment. This last trip I had a couple of hours available, but drizzling rain and temperatures of 3 C did not entice me out of my hotel room (so instead I finished a book review and posted it on The PhotoBook) and I made some investigative landscape photos from my hotel room window.
I know that it took two trips to China before I really connected with a project that interested me, then the third subsequent trip was an amazing three weeks. So for my creative process, it sometimes takes a while to connect with my muse. Such that this photograph above, a whimsical image inside one of the small plazza’s of Fiuggi in which there are a cluster of flats in which people live, is the one that has connected with me. Most of the time I had been really interested in the narrow steps and walk ways that weave through this old city, so you could say I was mostly looking down. So I took my own advice and if I was looking mostly down the decending steps, what would I see if I looked “up”? And what I saw was interesting,but still not sure where it will go, but if the weather is decent when I return in January, I may find myself looking “up” more often.
Best regards, Douglas
Fiuggi Fashion Exhibition copyright 2009 Douglas Stockdale
