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

Fiuggi, Italy copyright of Douglas Stockdale 2009

Clouds (over Atlanta) by Douglas Stockdale

This last trip to Europe was a essentially all business, either in a hotel or a manufacturing facility from sun-up to past sunset. Initially I was going to have a brief opportunity to stop in Milan, but plans changed in many aspects, but instead an extra day in Rome before making the connection up to Manchester, UK.

Interesting hotel in the greater Manchester area, White’s hotel is connected to the Bolton Wanders soccer stadium. There are a couple of rooms in the hotel that allow you to see inside the stadium, but the room I had was not one of them.

At the moment, still feeling the effects of the jet lag, although sipping my morning cup of Joe, my body thinks it is evening time. oh well, what comes with the job, eh?

With the fly time, I have had a chance to work on some book reviews, having finished my Linda Gordon biography of Dorothea Lange on the way to Rome, collecting my notes and publishing my review while in Manchester. But I think that I might need to re-read this book again some time in the near future, Gordon provided a lot of interesting information and I enjoyed her writing style. Likewise, I also started to work on a review of Chris McCaw’s Sunburn and Arnoud Bakker’s Atropa bella donna. For Bakker’s book, I only recently figured out the title is a name within the genus of plants in the nightshade family, and this is the particular name is for the deadly nightshade; Atropa belladonna. hmmmm, an interesting aspect of this book that I will need to spend a little more time considering.

Best regards, Douglas

San Diego Harbour Skyline by Douglas Stockdale

If this photograph appears a little soft, it’s because it was 1/30th of a second from a slow moving ship, made from our stateroom as we backed out of the slip. A photograph that is more about catching a memory as we left with my entire family and some really good friends on a short cruise out of San Diego. Saw this cliche, but what the heck, why not, eh?

Best regards, Douglas

A little over a year ago I started to publish my photographic book reviews on The PhotoBook and now some 75 photobook reviews later, I have started to co-publish a few of my reviews in conjunction with photo-eye’s online magazine, which they publish in conjunction with their book store and gallery, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This has been an interesting journey, from writing an occasional book review on this site, then realizing that I had a lot of books in my library and creating The PhotoBook, a separate blog focused on just photobooks that dealt with projects, series or monographs. There seemed to be enough photographic technical book reviews available and these books were not interesting to me (not that I had not accumulated enough of those books as well over the years). So thanks to those who endured my basic criticism & writing skills early on, which I have found is much akin to photography itself, you need to practice, study, think, reflect and be open to feedback, achieve a certain level of competency, then work like hell some more.

The first of these photobook reviews is Deanna Templeton’s 17 Days, which can be found on photo-eye here and on The PhotoBook here. For Templeton’s review, the only difference between the two sites are the selection and size of the photographs to illustrate the article. And not too surprising, the photo-eye article is hot linked to their book store to enable a quick purchase. For Templeton’s 17 Days, I believe that photo-eye also has some signed copies.

Best regards, Douglas

Ocean-scape 11-13-09 by Douglas Stockdale

We recently did a little 4 night trip to Cabo this last weekend to celebrate a birthday or two. Having recently reviewed the book by Debra Bloomfield for The PhotoBook about her ocean-scapes, I must have been open to my own versions of atmospheric & interpretative ocean-scapes. Since I had to immediately catch a plane after we returned to port, posting a photo or two from this trip will take a few extra days (or more!). 

Meanwhile since I am passing through Paris CDG airport, it is an excellent opportunity to work on my fashion portfolio.

Best regards, Douglas

Merry-go-round, Roma, Italy 2009 by Douglas Stockdale

As I prepare to return to Rome again, one of the images from the week before that I captured in the late afternoon was this Merry-go-round (I don’t know the Italian name for this), which still haunts my memory. I have also tweaked this in a Black & White version, and I am not sure which version works the best for me. There are the expectant, but empty chairs, and no children hanging on the horses or waiting patiently for their turn to ride. Everything is in place. The image and this place has a bit of saddness to it.

I know where this Merry-go-round is, so I may try to work on this composition and explore these feelings again later next week.

Best regards, Douglas