foto-mondo: August 2007

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

my boss is boss of all boss's

a small portion of the front of some kind of car repair place on Jackson Street, Monroe... there are all sorts of Bible verses written all over the building. this is serious folk art, folks!

shot with my new Casio Exilim- 7 MP digital [w/zoom] ... while driving! i finally decided i needed a digital zoom [after Prague!]- but should have stopped, got out, and really shot it... but plan on shooting this building over [and the whole funky area] with my toy plastic -and maybe a good SLR w/various zeiss lenses- & maybe my Rollei TLR- and Leica rangefinder this week. gotta get it while it's still standing!
[c]2007 doug duffey

my own walden- shot w/fuji pack film

i got my Fuji pack [Polaroid peel-apart type] film yesterday- i ordered about 5 packs to try out- [and a lot more other film] but will be using it 'sparingly'- as i will with the rest of my Polaroid peel-apart- until i get a chance to make a road trip and do some shooting. below is my 1st test shot: a shot of my pond, shot mid-day- when it was waaaaay too bright- w/my polaroid 210 Land camera.

[c]2007 doug duffey

jackson street

some local color- in b&w- shot when i was going to my doctor appointment the other day.

jackson street [and the south grand area] used to be a really nice area- as did the whole south side of monroe... which is now a ghetto! there are still beautiful tree lined streets and lots with trees- really beautiful lots. there are some great old houses which have been left/ ruined by renters/ and eventually abandoned due to people fleeing to the suburbs- and further- to try and escape the crack heads and crime. a typical tale of most typical American cities.

i don't know why monroe doesn't do what new orleans once DID: people with vision [and money]went in, bought, and renovated the old houses [the whole neighborhoods- one block at a time] and reclaimed the neighborhoods! there are some real antique jewels [old historic houses] scattered throughout the area that could probably be bought for damned near nothing... and saved. there again... somebody's got to start!

abandoned house- jackson street- monroe, louisiana 8.2007

old house-jackson street- monroe, louisiana 8.2007

man sprawled on front steps-jackson street- monroe, louisiana 8.2007

[c]2007 doug duffey

Friday, August 17, 2007

PRAHA REDUX

various shots made with vintage and toy film cameras- prague [july 2007]

i really love these 2 last blurred ones ... i need to do a whole series of only blurred pix

[c]2007 doug duffey

Thursday, August 09, 2007

brucke/schaufenster -buren a/aare, schweiz

shot on the way home from bern w/a casio exilim; edited in photoshop

brucke [bridge]- buren a/aare, schweiz

schaufenster [show window]- buren a/aare, schweiz

[c]2007 doug duffey

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

inspiration translated

before and after seeing the "expressionism from the mountains" exhibit in Bern yesterday, i shot some photos of the billboards on the street... tonight i messed around with them [and many more] in Photoshop and voila: the fotos look like woodcuts [of which there were many in the exhibit] ... inspiration translated.

[c]2007 doug duffey

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

bern- blur is beautiful

i went to bern today- to go to an exhibit at the kunstmuseum. en route i stopped at some 2nd hand shops and found yet another praktica slr + lenses, and of course had to buy it. i didn't make any fotos with it [no battery] ... but instead shot some stuff on the street and in the museum with my "keychain" toy & casio digi cameras... blur is beautiful

street/bern- shot w/ vision quest keychain digital toy camera

woodcut/ bern kunstmuseum- shot w/ vision quest keychain digital toy camera

business suits/bern- shot with casio digital camera

[c]2007 doug duffey

shoot the television!

i shot the television [sounds like elvis!] last night w/the vision quest key chain [toy] digital camera... of some german documentary on the DDR... i like the reflection of the lamp -in color- floating in the "vortex" in the background of the top one. i liked the blurred images in the one below...

speaking of blurred: the old saying is [of nude photos] "if it's in focus it's pornography; if it's out of focus it's art" --- i ran across fotos online by german photographer thomas ruff, which really blur that line!

i shot the pic [below] w/ the casio the night before last: a shot of the tv in my bedroom, showing some B&D scene from a porn clip/ad. you don't see this on normal cable in america!

[c]2007 doug duffey

Monday, August 06, 2007

DD IN PRAGUE X JT

these shots [made by jacqueline trachsel] are of me in prague. the top one is of me with one of my old stand-by toy plastic cameras - a vivitar panorama 35mm- which i use all the time. fool proof. no battery/no focus. the panorama pix come out really cool. but the overall quality is usally great when i use Ilford xp-2 [the best]- or even kodak BW400 CN

the shot below was made in the "old town square" of prague, where we were having coffee at an outdoor cafe [grand cafe praha]. i was up and making fotos between sips and puffs off my fag. jackie shot me with her pentax digital. hi tech shooting no tech!

below: me in action with the Polaroid 210 Land camera- holding the 'foto' in my mouth until i could count 30 seconds, then peel it apart. people sometimes came up to talk to me about the camera, which made me lose count and which made me crazy! i also have the casio digital around my neck; a vivitar plastic camera in each shirt pocket; an agfa isola [medium format film camera] in my shorts pocket, film in the other one; and 3 heavy slr cameras in the black bag... no wonder i look so BIG... and... no wonder i've been having shoulder pain ever since i got back. i wagged all those cameras everywhere, every day.

i wrote a whole rant in my travel-ology blog about how i lost [temporarily] ALL 539 of my digital fotos, when the 1GB memory card crapped out the last night in prague. i'm really glad i made almost every shot i took with about 5 different cameras. now, i have a gallon sized plastic bag full of film to have processed [color, slide and BW c-41] and many standard BW rolls to process myself.

[c]2007 doug duffey

about this blog

i began making photos in my teens. i wasn't really making much more than snapshots [except for a few psychedelic polaroids in the late 60s] until the 90s, when i bought a used Canon AE1 camera from a guy on Bourbon Street [probably 'hot']. that's when i began getting serious about photography. i taught myself everything by doing: how to use the camera; how to develop film; how to make the prints [b&w only]. when i bought 2nd hand darkroom equipment and began printing, it really became a passion.

i collect and use cameras: everything from crap 50-cent fixed focus plastic 35mm ones i find at junk stores to good quality Leica, Rollei, Bronica, Yashica, Nikon-i particularly like old manual cameras that don't use batteries etc. [Voigtlander, Zeiss, etc] i've been collecting rangefinders like crazy-it's gotten ridiculous: i have more cameras than i can use... but keep collecting. i sometimes turn broken cameras into pinhole film cameras.

i really like the effects i get with the crap plastic cameras [i like the element of surprise] using 'color process' b&w film- i usually load several w/different ASA film and take them when i go shooting. they're light, easy to carry, never need batteries, and i don't have to worry about lighting, or f/stops etc. i've also bought a lot of medium format plastic cameras as well [diana, agfa isola, etc] and old 127 ,120, & 620 film-cameras [both good quality and bad] - the fixed focus plastic lens make for dream-like, soft focus shots. i love old photographs and these were the type cameras that made the majority of those!

i've been trying to scan/archive most of my negatives/fotos for years now- but considering i have been making fotos from my teen years until now that is a major on-going work. i have about 4 external hard drives w/ thousands of fotos on them... and thousands of 'actual' physical negatives... and fotos- things i've shot all over the world; however, my favorite subject matter remains the beautiful but tragically disappearing old south, which i hope to capture as much of as possible.

i almost never have prints made. i usually print photographs myself, when i am going to do a series and or a show. i also develop all true b&w film/negatives myself, after having some negatives ruined by so-called professionals, who either used old chemicals or didn't time things right. as said, i collect old cameras and have many different film formats; many of the negatives would have to be sent off; so, doing it myself is faster and much cheaper. i'm not really into digital, because i like film... and i like working in the darkroom. digital cameras take the photos when THEY decide to; a manual camera makes the foto when YOU press the button. i've also seen digital fotos just 'disappear'- due to computer crashes- or media cards- so i prefer film. i have my grandmother's and mother's negatives from waaaaaaaaaaaaay back... which i can still print from... who knows that whatever digital medium we're using these days will even be functional in 5 years? give me film any time!

for a long time i have been using Ilford xp-2 - and Kodak BW400 [both are color processed b&w you can have processed anywhere] and scan the negatives into my computer. but , now to make things even easier, i just have whoever develops the negatives scan them to cd. of course i only print b&w- so for true B&W i print myself. if i photoshop anything it has to be a digital print; especially anything in color.

i've had exhibits in louisiana and europe, but due to the fact that music is my top priority business, i haven't been doing any printing lately. i just keep shooting more and more film and keep acquiring more and more negatives, polaroids, and cds of the work... [and collecting more cameras] at least i can post some of the digitized shots/scans here!

check out the IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT to save and continue Polaroid film