I photographed the very lovely and very talented Imelda Mays at her show at Southpaw this past Wednesday. Just one picture from the show; more to come soon on NewYorkCool.

“In any case, if most viewers can’t tell whether pictures were taken with analogue or digital cameras, who cares if film fades? Whatever photographers use, their goal is no longer taking pictures but showing how their work is not painting, cinema, sculpture or any other medium. The negative is no longer a square of film: it’s a question of survival.”

This quote is the closing paragraph of Jennifer Allen’s essay Long Exposure in Frieze Magazine. As I was reading the essay, I kept wondering if the questions she was asking weren’t at odds to something she wasn’t discussing: is photography as a physical medium different than it’s digital incarnation? Are we seeing a new medium form? Analogue photography (and I would include printed photographs produced in the digital dakroom here) is a physical medium. Once it is translated onto the screen, it is something different. Just as a photo-realistic painting functions differently than a photograph, so too does a digital photograph on screen function differently. Is there more than one photography? Is what Allen is talking about the fitful defining of a new medium, much as video art worked to define itself as separate from cinema.

As a photographer working with both analogue and digital cameras, I still work in a primarily analogue way. I make photographs and present them in physical forms. How does digital a digital origin change this? It doesn’t. In a similar vein, if I digitized an image from film and embedded it with audio files or turn it into a hyperlink, then I’m engaging in a different kind of medium; one that is partly photography, but partly something else.

Allen’s assertions that the technological advances of cameras changes the medium, is valid but weak. Photographers have long been editors. Anyone who photographed in the PD (pre-digital) era, particularly those shooting smaller formats, selected their best images from amongst many. Winogrand is an extreme example of this. Just because one’s camera can shoot many more continuous frames without needing a new roll of film or memory card doesn’t make this selection process any more important–if one is making prints.

What does matter is the way that the images are used. When these digital images are used in a way that are uniquely digital, that can only be accomplished through interacting with a computer, then we are finding something new. Simply replicating the white wall of a gallery or the turning pages of a magazine in a website isn’t enough. When the viewer can interact and make choices, when audio and video enrich the experience then we are looking at something new. There may be precedent in analogue PD era, but it was still film becoming physical prints.

I’m heading to a wedding in Puerto Rico next week. My intention had been to bring a beat up polaroid camera and shoot instant pictures during the trip. Now, I’m definitely going to do so. My photographic practice isn’t fighting for survival and is clearly not any other medium. That is not to say that my digital practice isn’t seeking new directions, new alliances and new opportunities.

because sometimes one needs to experience directly, unmediated by a camera.

After digging my car out of the snow last night, I began reading Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget. I’m only halfway through the first chapter, but it has already shifted how I view the internet and the risks and possibilities inherent in collective computing and digital information exchange. Once I’m done the book, I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts to share on the implications for photography. As is, the book has already clarified my distaste for Facebook–though I’m not sure I can quit it entirely.

Thanks to Bob Black for recommending the book on Lightstalkers.

On the wall this morning.

All taken last week.

My exhibition of my Journeys photographs at 88 Orchard has been extended through February 15th. If you’ve got a free afternoon and haven’t yet, please stop in. 88 Orchard is at the corner of Orchard Street and Broome Street in the Lower East Side. B/D to Grand Street or the F to Delancy/Essex will both get you to within a few blocks.

The artist statement that goes along with my Journeys work begins with the line: “Everything is always in flux, constantly shifting.” That seems particularly apt right now, though maybe less so the next couple of years. For the last seven years I’ve been working as a freelancer, scrambling after jobs and seeking exhibition opportunities for my personal work. Over the past seven months I’ve been working in a long term temp capacity for a single client shooting tabletop. Though it was not what I’d imagined doing with my photography skills, it has been a decent paycheck. At the turn of the new year I asked for a bump in my hourly rate–we’re not Vogue here, no day rates. As a concession for the bump in hourly wage, I was asked to commit to a full time schedule. Starting next week I’ll be a full time employee of NES. Forty hours. Healthcare. Taxes paid. TransitCheck. This is going to put a whole lot more normal into my life. It is also going to put my bank statements in better standing with my girlfriend.  I should be thrilled, but I’m non-plussed.

This is going to be a shift for me.

The full time thing is flexible enough that I can continue to take the odd freelance job once in a while, especially for past clients. However, I’m not going to be looking for freelance work, obviously. Hopefully I can scale back my self-promotion without entirely disappearing. When this job ends, and it will eventually end either by taking me somewhere better or by taking me nowhere, I’d like to be on the radar of book designers, ad agencies, magazines and design companies.

I’ll still look for exhibition opportunities, and the energy that once went to seeking gigs will go towards these endeavors. This is going to mean a shift in how I present my photography. The website redesign that I’ve been working on is no longer appropriate. The underlying point of this blog remains, but the tone of it will need to shift. It will probably remain a series of semi-frequent postings of works in progress, announcements and off-hand snapshots with the occasional book or exhibition review. A lot is going to change, and I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to approach things given this new stability.

On that note, I’m planning a series of reviews over the next couple of weeks of several of the Korean photography books I bought back in November (yes, finally). It has taken me a while to spend enough time with the books to have something to say. Of the many books I bought, I’ll be writing about only a few. First up will be Seung Woo Back’s Utopia / Blow Up.