foto-mondo: October 2008

Saturday, October 11, 2008

the lennon shrine- shot at enochs- 10.9..2008

[c]2008 doug duffey

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

papa's got a brand new blog

as if i didn't have enough blogs and merde flying around, i put up another blog of "VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY" [as i found it was called] meaning= old found photos; i discovered that 'name' in some magazine i saw in the doctor's office.

i've been collecting old photos & negatives for years; starting with my family's. i got my mom and dad's, grandmother's, and several aunt's collections. i began buying them in thrift stores as well. i've been buying up all the old slides i can find in European thrift stores [it amazes me that family's would throw them out!] and i have huge boxes full- literally thousands of slides- in switzerland. i scanned a lot over the years and saved them [at hi-resolution, in case i decided to print any] to my computer, so decided to begin showing some online in lower resolution.

i also collect old cameras- and have sometimes found unfinished rolls of film in them. i had some of the film processed at wally-world, but after finding some semi risque stuff, was a bit afraid of what MIGHT be on there; you never know! so, i hand process any b&w, now! but i have several rolls of color 620 film i found in cameras that need to be sent off. i've also bought negatives in junk stores, which i scan.

on the new blog, i am mixing the format: images from slides, fotos, negatives, polaroids etc which i have found or bought. i really find them fascinating. i've even considered editing [cleaning up, possibly grey scaling] some of them and exhibiting them. the slides/Polaroids- ARE the originals, and therefore the 'negative'- and since i bought them, i own them, and therefore the copyrights. SO an exhibit/and possible sale of some of them is possible in the future.

as said, i own thousands of vintage slides. i plan to eventually donate them to the fotomuseum in winterthur, switzerland- since the majority of the stuff is swiss, shot by swiss... and needs to stay in switzerland, where future generations of swiss [and foreign visitors to the museum] can enjoy them.
i would also have the peace of mind of knowing they would be cared for.

[c]2008 doug duffey

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

shots from the 1st post katrina mardi gras- new orleans 2006

Monday, October 06, 2008

new orleans non blur

decatur street

a wall on decatur street

st. paul church of god in christ- lower 9th

circle food store and interstate over-pass

[now defunct] st. roch fish market [the good gumbo & po-boys... gone!]

[c]2008 doug duffey

Sunday, October 05, 2008

more new orleans blur

some shots from harrah's casino- new orleans- september 27, 2008

brass band & dancers- harrah's casino- new orleans 10.27.08

okay... call me crazy, but i think these 'brass band' fotos look like impressionist paintings! they look timeless. i've scanned these negatives at very high resolution to be blown up 3 feet by 5 feet! yeah baby! can't wait to see them! BUT i might just make 16 x 20 prints from the negatives, myself... old school.

steve at the slot machines

masked sculpture- harrah's- new orleans

and one from jackson square!

[c]2008 doug duffey

Saturday, October 04, 2008

SX-70 enochs- MLU- 10.05.08

i stopped by enoch's tonight [10.05.08], and took some shots w/the sx-70- decided before developing negatives to scan and photoshop and post these. i did nothing to the originals [no tricks] but scan, gray scale, then EQ the levels.
[c]2008 doug duffey

supply & demand

i just went to B&H and Adorama to price peel apart pack film- for my Land cameras and was shocked to see the jump in prices! Fuji has taken up the mantle of Polaroid and is cheaper, BUT the old B&WPolaroid peel apart pack film is the best- has the best tones. i did some series in Prague, Bern, and on Hwy 80 [from monroe to vicksburg] w/it and got some really good stuff.
thank god a friend gave me about 400 packs of 600 color instant pack film- which i have in 3 different refrigerators- and will use with the sx70 and my normal Polaroid cameras. i love the land cameras and their reults BUT on prinicple i am NOT going to 'go there' at the moment... and since i have a few backs in reserve. i can always shoot the 600 color, scan it at 4800 dpi, greyscale, and edit in photoshop. c'est la vie... mais, quel que fois, la vie est merde, absolutement!
[c]2008 doug duffey

sookie & sebi blurs- shreveport- sx70

sept 24th, 2008- shreveport- post benfit jam fotos- drinking and playing dress up. the sx70 is great for this- due to 600 film being 4x too fast for the camera, it usually works well in low light situations. it also has a focus wheel, and lighten/darken wheel, BUT i sometimesforgot to focus, which is all the better... like thomas ruff! okay NOT that extreme yet!

foto stats: shot with polaroid sx-70 camera; polaroid 600 instant pack film; greyscaled, cropped and equalized in photoshop
[c]2008 doug duffey

MLU 6AM

my friend chip white @ the monroe airport about 6AM - ran into him at walgreen the night before- hadn't seen him since NYC early 90s. he and Sebi -my bassist from switzerland- were taking the same flight to Newark. 09.30.08
[c]2008 doug duffey

Friday, October 03, 2008

miroslav tichy

i LOVE miroslav tichy - his work and the fact that he built all the crazy cameras, lenses and enlargers he used to make incredible fotos. this man was committed- in more ways than one.
this article about him is really interesting as are the videos HERE and HERE
[c]2008 doug duffey

Thursday, October 02, 2008

art crawl- monroe, louisiana SX-70 SHOTS

foto stats: shot with polaroid sx-70 camera; polaroid 600 instant pack film; greyscaled, cropped and equalized in photoshop
[c]2008 doug duffey

walgreen halloween- monroe, louisiana

what are they trying to say with this? smothering poor Hillary! they should be doing that to Ms. Palin!

my friend and bassist, sebi from zurich, in a mask. on his last night after a month here.

i ran into my old friend chip white from NYC on the parking lot of Walgreen in Monroe- i hadn't seen him since the early 90s in NYC- we went in and talked while doing our shopping, and as is our wont, got into the Halloween department and started trying ou the masks and such- and, of course, i had to shoot everything. made maybe 30 shots w/the digicam.

[c]2008 doug duffey

HARRAH'S GO-GO BLUR

harrah's casino -new orleans [9.27.08] the bar near the canal street entrance was wild! absolute decadence! a round bar w/a gazillion tv/video screens, around a huge lighted column; a dee-jay atop blaring, and go-go girls on the catwalk at the top of the column, as well as on pedestals on the floor. it was visual overload; especially with everyone milling around, dancing, with drinks or Styrofoam boxes of food...and that carpet! lawd lawd. gotta go back and shoot more!
[c]2008 doug duffey

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Polaroid Land Camera 9.28.08

church and oak- saint francisville, louisiana

live oak by old defunct high school- saint francisville, louisiana

mammy's cupboard- highway 61- near natchez, mississippi

these were shot sunday [9.28.08] using my old Polaroid Land 210 camera- and peel apart black and white Polaroid film. i love this camera and film and the results they get. i've been saving the film for a road trip, but unfortunately didn't have the time to really search out subject matter. i plan to finish my Hwy 80 series [going westward] soon- and also shoot in and around vicksburg and natchez with this camera, soon. i hope Fuji continues to make pack film, since polaroid has stopped!

[c]2008 doug duffey

bourbon street blur- digital shots

above are some blur shots done with my digital casio exilim- happy accidents, as it were. i've grayscaled some of them and photo-shopped them, for possible exhibit- but the color versions also have a nice look and feel [c]2008 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