New York/New Year's Eve

Richmond, Virginia, 1977 (35mm) © Brian Rose

It's the end of 2008, and the calamitous Bush reign comes down to its final days. The economy--capitalism itself--lies broken, while almost 150,000 American soldiers remain in Iraq. I look to 2009 with trepidation, but with measured hope, that all is not lost, as a new president comes to Washington.

The photograph above was taken in downtown Richmond, Virginia, when I first began shooting color. I was struck by a photo of the earth, made a few years earlier on one of the moon missions, taped to the wall in a dusty window of a café. It was one of the first images of the earth seen as a ball floating in the darkness of space. That image changed the way we saw ourselves forever.

New York/Holiday Interlude

Amsterdam, 2000 (digital) © Brian Rose

A holiday interlude.

Picture taken in the courtyard when we lived in the Jordaan, a neighborhood in central Amsterdam.

New York/South Bronx

The South Bronx, 1980, 35mm slide, © Brian Rose

I've been up to the Bronx a number of times in the past year shooting some new buildings for an architecture client. For anyone old enough to remember the devastation of the 1980s, the rebuilding that has taken place in the South Bronx in recent years is amazing, and heartwarming. While doing my Lower East Side project in 1980, which also dealt with urban desolation, I made my way up to the South Bronx a few times. The image above, scanned from a 35mm Kodachrome, is from one of those trips.


The South Bronx, Ray Mortenson

There is currently a show at the Museum of the City of New York that provides a vivid look back at the Bronx of that time--Broken Glass, photographs by Ray Mortenson. Mortenson photographed the abandoned buildings of the area with a dogged comprehensiveness. His work, evoking Bernd and Hilla Becher's building typologies, is suspended somewhere between documentary and art. But unlike the Bechers who approached their subjects with absolute consistency, even to the point of shooting only on cloudy days, Mortenson's photographs are less rigorously composed, done with a smaller camera, and are the result of more haphazard wanderings through the streets and cadaverous tenements of the Bronx.


The South Bronx, Ray Mortenson

It's hard to tell from the pictures themselves what Mortenson's motivation was exactly besides a wide-eyed astonishment gazing on such a desolate landscape of failure and ruin. They offer no explanation, no political engagement, no connection to the fragments of community that remained in the Bronx through the worst years. But that detachment makes them stronger historical documents--evidence rather than commentary.


The South Bronx, Ray Mortenson

That said, however, I can see Mortenson schlepping day after day through the streets with his camera, tip toeing gingerly through the rubble not knowing who or what lurks around the corner or in the next darkened room. That personal sense of mission, of passion--or whatever it was--comes through in these otherwise cooly realized images of destruction.

More images from Broken Glass.

New York/Film

Washington, D.C., 1977, 35mm slide
© Brian Rose

The other day I went to Fotocare on 22nd Street to buy some 4x5 film--Readyload Portra VC 160 to be exact. These are pre-loaded packs that do not require individual holders, a pricey convenience, but a great saving in weight, bulk, and time. Although I had just bought some a few weeks earlier, I was informed by the staff person that Kodak had discontinued the film. Boom. Apparently, Kodak had announced this a while ago, but I was unaware of it.

So, my only option, other than carrying 20 film holders on shoots, was to revert back to Fujifilm color negative film, which was still available in Quickload format. My guess is that it came down to something trivial having to do with the company Kodak employed to package the film into the paper Readyload sleeves. It's the same film, after all, as the individual sheet film.

It has been a rough ride staying with film as the industry massively shifts away from analog materials. For the moment, Fuji seems committed to picking up the pieces as Kodak abandons us. And their 4x5 instant film is the only way to go now that Polaroid is out of the film business.

I remember years ago talking to a Kodak executive on the phone imploring him to drop the the two sheet Readyload film packs they were making as so unwieldy and inconvenient that every photographer I knew had jumped ship to Fuji. He defended the company's position. But within a year they joined Fuji with one sheet packs.


Washington D.C., 1977, 35mm slide
© Brian Rose

Kodak has lurched from one corporate/marketing decision to another seemingly without a long range plan--akin to other giant American corporations now feeding at the public trough. Almost no photo equipment of any quality is made by American companies, which has been the case for a long time.

Kodak's fickleness with regard to legacy film products could be forgiven if they were taking the lead in the digital business. But they offer nothing for the professional. So, when Kodak discontinues a critical film product we are basically kicked out for good. You go either to Fuji for film, or if you go straight digital, to Canon or Nikon.

Good bye USA. Hello Japan.

New York/Early Color

Wilmington, Delaware, 1978, 35mm slide
© Brian Rose

Continuing going through my slides from 1975 to 1980. I was looking at a lot of painting as well as photography during those years, and I was thinking about how far you could reduce down an image and have it still be about real things and real space.


Interstate 95, North Carolina, 1978, 35mm slide
© Brian Rose

As flat as the image above is, I would never have taken this picture without including a sliver of deep space--the sky ad pickup truck on the right. Both of these photographs were made on the road, traveling south. As reductive as they are, I was keenly aware of what they were photographs of--the chalk scrawls of children playing in a Wilmington, Delaware parking lot, and a soda machine set against a gas station wall along Interstate 95 in North Carolina.

New York/Early Color

Richmond, Virginia, circa 1975, 35mm Ektachrome

I've been looking back at my early color images made mostly on 35mm slide film. Although I was vaguely aware of work being done by Eggleston and a few others, I was pretty much making things up as I went along.

This picture was made in Richmond, Virginia in the older part of downtown--Main Street near the train station most likely. I was particularly interested in compositional density in those days.

New York/Inspiring Space

This blog has been a little quiet lately, but I've been busy with a few photo shoots, reorganizing my studio, and meeting with people about the Lower East Side project. It's too early to say anything specific, but there is reason to be hopeful that there will be a major exhibition of the LES pictures in the foreseeable future


The New Museum in Inspiring Space

One of the people I met with recently is Ethan Swann of the New Museum, which is located around the corner from my apartment/studio. Ethan is heading up an initiative of the museum called the Bowery Artists Tribute, which is an educational and community outreach program having to do with the rich cultural heritage of the Bowery and surrounding neighborhood. There is a website with a map and bios of many of the artists, past and present, who have lived or worked in the area.


Pages from Inspiring Space

A few weeks ago I attended a panel discussion at the museum, sponsored by the Bowery Artists Tribute, featuring several artists talking about how they ended up on the Bowery, and how the surroundings may have influenced their work. Ethan has a great job, part of which consists of patiently listening to people like me rambling on about life and art on the Bowery. And I think it is admirable of the museum to open itself up to the local community.


Bowery images, Inspiring Space

Back in the summer I made photographs for a Dutch publication called Inspiring Space, which is basically a promotional vehicle for a large real estate firm in the Netherlands. I worked with a journalist and put together a series of pictures about new park, cultural, and environmental projects currently underway in New York. The magazine can be read online--although the article is in Dutch--and 10 of my photographs are presented. Part of the article discusses the New Museum as a catalyst for change on the Bowery, and two of my Bowery/Houston Street photos are included.

New York/Rodger Kingston

Rodger Kingston nails a door (digital)

A while back, when the weather was still warm, I was paid a visit by Rodger Kingston down from the Boston area. Rodger and I met online--somehow that doesn't sound right--and have been corresponding regularly.

We spent a few hours walking around the Lower East Side, and Rodger snapped away using his wide format Lumix camera. It's territory I've covered extensively using a 4x5 view camera, and it's interesting to see how differently another photographer looks at the same subject.

Rodger often goes at things very frontally using the extended frame of his camera to its fullest. I caught Rodger in the act above firing away at a flaming doorway. He was kind enough to send me the result below.


Flaming door by Rodger Kingston

I didn't take as many pictures during our walk as Rodger, but I felt I compelled every now and then to follow his lead. One result below.



Bowery restaurant supply with door
© Brian Rose

Be sure to visit Rodger Kingston's SmugMug site to see more of his photographs including others shot during our walk together. Don't miss his New American Photographs and recent photos made in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the footsteps of Walker Evans.