A couple of months ago I posted a picture of my wife scanned from some old slides I came across. Here’s another one from the same period i.e. around the early 1980s
Another Picture of My Wife
Two Statues in New York City
Taken at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York City with an Olympus Stylus Epic (also known as the μ[mju:]-II: a 35mm point and shoot camera from the late 1990s.
Back to film: Olympus Stylus Epic
And
A Row of Trees
I liked the way that the trees receded into the distance and the textures of the bark and the seed pods (if that’s what they are) on the ground.
Old Brandreth Pill Factory Revisited
I’m glad I took some pictures about a year ago (March 30 2014) of this magnificent old factory building in Ossining, NY as it’s now mostly gone. It’s the old Brandreth Pill Factory and it had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. I just now read that the entire west facade of the building (as seen in the photograph above) has now been demolished. Apparently this was done illegally, without the permits required by the town and without the town’s knowledge. The owner of the building maintains that they had a permit, but the town considered that permit to have expired. The town has stopped further demolition and parts of the building still stand, but it’s hard to see how anything can be recovered.
For the full story see: Historic Ossining pill factory illegally razed
Although I hate to see buildings like this demolished, I believe in this case the situation has been complicated because of the buildings physical location. There had apparently been prior agreements to renovate the existing structure, but after three tropical storms (most notably Sandy) changes in flood plain regulations would have required raising the building by several feet, which may not have been an economically viable proposition.
Josef Sudek
I came across this short piece on one of my favourite photographers: Josef Sudek on the great Art of Photography website.
I love Sudek’s photographs, particularly those that can be characterized as neo-romantic. Maybe this is not so surprising as I’m also very fond of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss music. I know that it’s not popular to like ‘pictorialist’ photographs nowadays, but I find that I do. I find Sudek’s photographs to be particularly atmospheric, especially those of the interior of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague such as the example below:
Sudek: St. Vitus Cathedral Under Construction. Via “From My Window”: The Late Work of André Kertész and Josef Sudek
I’m also impressed by his series of panoramic photographs.
Charles Bridge, Prague. Josef Sudek via ‘What is a Film Camera’
Finally apart from the qaulity of his work I find his personal story inspiring. He lost an arm in World War I, but this didn’t stop him from taking photographs, and those days we’re not taking about cameras of the size we mostly use today. We’re talking about something much, much larger (see below). Talk about refusing to let a disability get you down.
Josef Sudek with his large format camera. Via “From My Window”: The Late Work of André Kertész and Josef Sudek
A number of the images in this post are linked to a very interesting article: “From My Window”: The Late Work of André Kertész and Josef Sudek.