Rural Massachusetts Through the Viewfinder

While home with my family over the holidays, I spent some time playing around with "TTV" - a technique known as Through the Viewfinder, where you shoot through the viewfinder of a 1950s era camera with another camera, using the older camera solely as a lens. In trying this out, I was inspired by the flickr group Through the Viewfinder. This technique produces a slightly distorted effect, softens the colors, and allows you to capture the crackles and scratches on the older lens.

Though not without its difficulties - I found myself wishing I had a third hand to help juggle two cameras while also keeping my image framed, in focus, and out of the sun's glare - I like the new way it lets me see the world.

Mini Concerts in Back Alleys

Totally last minute but this looks cool. Enjoy before we're all confined to our mini-apartment muffled worlds by tomorrow's snow. Here's the 411 on today's performance, presented by Lower East Side gallery Smith-Stewart and local nonprofit Creative Time, just back from a nationally-acclaimed performance in New Orleans of Waiting for Godot:

Though your mother may have warned you not to go into the back alleys, this certainly won’t be the first time you ignore her, and this time for good reason. Creative Council Member Carlton DeWoody, with Jen DeNike and Smith-Stewart Gallery, invite you to a one-day rock out in Lower East Side.

Mini Concerts in Back Alleys
Saturday, December 1, 2007
2:00 – 11:30 PM
locations throughout the Lower East Side (see schedule below or click for more info)

Mini Concerts will make various interventions on sites chosen by each artist throughout the Lower East Side. Be it on a mews or median, in an alley or cellar, each site specific location marries the audience to the performance, which collectively can only be described as shiny moments in dusty corners. All performances are between 5 and 15 minutes long, and are only performed once, serving to expose the drama of time. In a land where ‘before’ and ‘after’ are as significant as the ‘during’, the planned meets the impromptu and the important meets the forgotten.

Here’s the musical line up featuring Creative Time curator Mark Beasley.
Schedule:
2:03 pm Rachel Mason Hamilton Fish Park- Pitt btw Houston and Stanton
3:11 pm Mind Castle Freeman Alley- Rivington btw Bowery and Chrystie
3:41 pm Dirt Mound Rivington btw Chrystie and Forsyth
4:29 pm Artic Circle Hester btw Chrystie and Forsyth
5:43.21 pm Y.O.U. 1st btw 1st and A
6:27 pm Mads Lynnerup 227 Bowery btw Rivington and Stanton
9:03 pm Georgia Sagri Delancy and Allen
9:36 pm Caroline Breton 162 Eldridge btw Delancy and Rivington
10:16 pm Brian Bellot 71 Hestor btw Orchard and Ludlow
11:01 pm Mark Beasley and Rose Kallal 35 Orchard btw Hester and Canal

Spectators & Spectacle: Photos from the Dyke March

I'll be showing photos from the NYC Dyke March on Wednesday June 13th (tomorrow!) at Sincerely, an incredible new afterwork dyke party at Dirty Disco on 14th Street.

The photo series is called Spectators & Spectacle: Photos from the Dyke March. At the last few dykes marches, I've turned the camera back on the spectators and taken pictures of those observing. And of course there are lots of fabulous photos of eye-candy paraders in the dyke march.

The Show:
Wednesday June 13, 5-10pm
Sincerely at Dirty Disco
248 W. 14th St
RSVP required to sincerely@dirtydisco.com

Shots from 11 Spring

An amazing, overwhelming show. Props to the new owners for doing this. More photos here.

RIP 11 Spring

It's time to say farewell to 11 Spring Street, which has been a gathering point for graffiti by New York, national and international graffiti artists over the past twenty years. Now, 11 Spring has been sold and will be turned into condos. The new buyers are cognizant of the important part this building has played in New York graffiti life, and want to honor it through a final hurrah.

Over the past two months, graffiti artists have covered the entire inside of the building, five stories in all, with their work. The building will be open to the public Friday through Sunday, 11 to 5. Monday morning, they'll start sealing the art up behind drywall as they transform the building into condos: a full-building time capsule.

Full story [NY Times]

Neckface Kicks

Graffiti artist Neckface has teamed up with Vans to put out a series of skate shoes emblazoned with his designs. After being based out of NYC for a number of years, Neckface has moved back to his native California. You can still see his prickly arms stretching across NYC walls and rooftops - a great view of a big one is from the F train as it goes above ground at Smith/9th. My personal favorites are his stickers (below), which show his irreverent and self-deprecating sense of humor.

Dumba at the Under the Bridge Festival

Brooklyn Ramblings checked out the Dumbo artists open studios today. Powerhouse Books presented No Sleep 'til Brooklyn, a hip hop retrospective that runs until November 19, and includes classic shots from the 1980s, some intense series, and current shots from around Brooklyn. Art collective Dumba showed a number of artists, and the collective itself is something to see. These kids have put a lot of work into the building over the years, and it shows. Here are two shots from their place.

Gowanus Artists Are Agast

Coming up October 21st and 22nd is the annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour (aka AGAST), now in its tenth year. In those ten years, they've grown from 15 artists to over 120.

On a crisp fall day, it's easy to get off at one of the nearby F train stops and amble from studio to studio. As in past years, if you get your "passport" stamped at four of seven locations, you can win prizes donated by local businesses. (Full disclosure: I won a lovely dinner at Aunt Suzie's a few years back - thanks guys.)

The multitude of street graffiti in the Gowanus area are not an official part of the studio tour, but are well worth checking out. Keep your eyes peeled for gems by elbow-toe, TO, cheekz, flower face killah, royce bannon, gore b, inkhead, metal-worker revs, and others.

more: photo tour of Gowanus [Bluejake]

Graffiti Street Scenes by Banksy

The top two Banksy street paintings are from Williamsburg (catured by photoblogger Jake Dobkin); the bottom two are from London. The description at right is written by Banksy, a British graffiti artist / prankster who calls himself an "art terrorist." (Previous Banksy posts here and here.)

Banksy on the West Bank

Banksy, a British graffiti artist / prankster who calls himself an "art terrorist," painted these and other images on the separation wall in the West Bank in 2005. He described the wall as "the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers."

Conversation with a soldier:
Soldier: What the f*** are you doing?
Banksy: You'll have to wait until it's finished.
Soldier (to colleagues): Safety's off.

Conversation with an elderly Palestinian:
Old man: You paint the wall, you make it look beautiful.
Banksy: Thanks.
Old man: We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall, go home.

Sunday is for Buffing

The unintentional art of buffed (covered over) graffiti.

shades of red wall by limonada

handball court/mccarren park by meadows

Providence wall by Shield