I'm moving blogs

I'm switching over to a wordpress blog that is connected to my new website (still under constuction).  Look forward to bigger images and more posts.

http://sallydefordphotography.com/blog

The Power of Photography

I'm reading a great book, at the suggestion of Justin Hackworth, called On Being a Photographer: a Practical Guide by David Hurn and Bill Jay.  I love it so much.  Bill Jay recounts David Hurns journey to photography and tells a story about when David was in the British army, he saw an image in a magazine that changed him.  To quote the book:

One image struck him most forcibly: it showed a Russian soldier in a department storebuying a new hat for his wife. “I remember most distinctly accompanying my parents ona shopping trip to Howells (a smart department store in Cardiff) as soon as my father had returned from the war. I was about eleven. And he bought my mother a hat. My memory of that event and the emotion of the Russian picture were identical. I had been led to believe that all Russians were desperately poor and grotesquely belligerent, yet here was a Russian who seemed to be reasonably affluent, at least with enough spare cash to buy his wife a gift, and who was displaying human emotions of tenderness and caring. This image had the touch of authenticity. It felt real and true.”  

David began to question and challenge his teachers, skilled practitioners in propaganda, and soon developed a distinctly suspicious attitude towards the military. “What I saw in my viewfinder and in published images”, he says, “made me profoundly pacifist”; hardly an encouraging trait in a future military officer.

The Army and David Hurn mutually agreed that he was not suited to a soldier’s life.

In 1955, David Hurn had exchanged a rifle for a camera and determined that he would be a photographer.

The other day I saw this image of a 13 year old boy working in a Bangladesh factory.  Just looking at this picture made me want to commit to stop buying cheap junk from places where they use little kids to make it so cheap.  I'm always torn between my desire and necessity to save money and my conscious.  This image had the power to make me change my behavior.  Amazing.

Photo: G.M.B. Akash, Panos Pictures. Graphic: Mina Liu. Source: International Labour Organization

Pumpkin Patch

Hank and I got to go with Wyatt on his kindergarden field trip to the pumpkin patch.  These kids were having the time of their life.  After each kids picked out their pumpkin we went back to their classroom for a halloween party.

The Dojo

I love bringing my camera to karate for belt promotions.  I grew up in a ballet studio.  In my teenage years, I would go straight to the studio right after school until evening almost every day of the week. It was another home of mine.  I wonder if this place will become like that for Wyatt.  I love seeing the parents dote over their kids, the kids are excited about moving up a level, and the teachers are proud of their students. Wyatt has been improving so quickly. He just received his first belt with a black stripe in it and he's overjoyed because he knows that black is the ultimate goal.  

I snapped the picture below of the two boys lying on the floor right before they got busted.

Helen Levitt: MoMA

On my recent trip to New York, Willie and I went to several photography exhibits. The pictures by women exhibit at the MoMA was great.  One photographer, Helen Levitt, had a few pictures that really stuck out to me.  In 1959 and 1960 Helen received two Guggenheim grants to take color photographs on the streets of New York.  Soon after much of her work in color was stolen from her apartment and was lost forever.  She was a active photographer for 70 years. Here are a few pictures that I really liked.

Dorothea Lange's photography has always moved me.  I remember when I started my degree in English education (soon after I decided to drop the education part of my major)  I had to prepare some curriculum with my group and my segment was on Dorothea Lange's photography.  Here is a picture I took of her exhibit and a post with some of her pictures from a while back.

Sandy and Steve, Ouray, Colorado

Sandy and Steve got married in Ouray yesterday. The location was absolutely stunning.  After a beautiful ceremony, we moved to the reception in this great old hotel.  The day was all about love and family, not to mention delicious food, live music and friendship.  I'm so glad I was a part of this wedding.

George

I met my new nephew George this week.  He is so sweet.  He barely makes a peep, sleeps all the time, (except for at night) and make the cutest grunts.  Something I can't get over is his full head of dark hair.  It is such a novelty to me.  Babies don't come that way in our house.  They are born with a bit of a blonde fuzz on the sides, then it all falls out and they are bald for years.

Women of Virtue

I've been working on a great project.  The Relief Society (the women's organization of the LDS church) presidency asked if I would take some pictures of the women in our ward as part of a program that encourages the women to set goals, recognize and improve their virtues based on Proverbs 31:10-31.  We are hoping to have a celebration that includes a slideshow of these portraits in April of 2011.  I'm trying to shoot two women a week to keep a steady pace and I spend about 20-30 minutes at their house.  Most of them I know quite well, for some it is our first real one on one conversation.  I can't tell you how fun this is.  My mentor and friend Justin Hackworth has done several posts about having a project to work on as a photographer and his recurring 30 Strangers has been an inspiration to me to find something that moves me and let it help make me a better photographer.  The 17th St. project is next, once i can get our old garage/new studio dry-walled.

Some of the benefits of this project are that I know most of the women I'm photographing and I love them.  If I don't know them that well, at the end of the 20 minutes we have taken care of that and we are best of friends.  I'm sure it's the same in a lot of churches, but I feel very strongly when I meet a Mormon, anywhere around the word, they are family to me.  I feel safe and loved when I go to their houses. I'm not getting paid, so I don't feel pressure to please them.

A few challenges are that I haven't spent time scouting out their house for great locations to shoot so I'm working off the cuff.  I usually spend time thinking about them before I come and have some ideas, but when I arrive I have to immediately try to find the best locations and light and make it work.  Another challenge is that i usually have my kids with me and Hank is tearing apart their house and walking into the pictures.  He's just so cute I don't mind.