Tim Soter… blog.

I managed to go through six giant boxes, twice, in order to match up negatives to 4×6 prints.  I had narrowed down a selection of fifty to seventy-five 4×6 photos and the corresponding negatives were all in paper sleeves with the “gist” of the roll written on the outside.  I had given a lot of consideration to implementing a numbering system but in the end, the quick titles I had initially given the removed photos had been quite effective.  You know you’re a photographer when you receive a rush of joy upon seeing an envelope marked “Piñata in trash/Dreads in dumpster.”

I still have exactly ten prints that I have so far been unsuccessful in locating the negatives. There is a possibility that those negs are lost.  ABOVE is one such image.  Please light a candle for it (me) …us.

David Archuleta … narrowly missed being last year’s American Idol winner, though that doesn’t seem to have affected the sales of his album which were purchased by over 700,000 people.  He is a member of the Boy Scouts of America, he sites singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles (who I’ve also had the pleasure of photographing) as someone he looks up to, and his fans refer to themselves as “Archies” or “Arch Angels.”

“Holiday in Cambodia”  DEAD KENNEDYS   (MP3)

“Long Time”  BOSTON   (MP3)

“No Quarter”  LED ZEPPELIN   (MP3)

I was in Chestnut Hill, PA on Memorial Day and caught a four hour rotating set by the kids comprising the Paul Green School of Rock students; Fort Washington, PA chapter.  I was completely impressed and enthralled, especially by their choices of songs.  Luckily I was smart enough to pack my audio recorder – above are my three favorites out of the fifteen I managed to get “on tape.”  I would have also included Queen/David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” which deserved to be preserved for all to hear, except it was interrupted about twenty five seconds before its climax, so the local fire department could make a lost child announcement.  The price of rock.

While editing photos I came across a suggestion sheet that was inserted in a developed roll of photos that I had processed at a drug store, eighteen years ago.  Mind you, the lab had somehow made these fantastic images, merging my photos of Mexico with someone else’s family shots, throwing the color into a magenta tailspin and adding some photographic dust on top of it all.  Chuck Close had a pretty great observation back in the 40th Anniversary issue of Aperture and the gist, as I remember, is that photography is the only medium that you can have a truly great accident, apologies to Mr. Close if I butchered this.  Wolfgang Tillmans’ book, ‘View From Above’ includes some great prints in which darkroom accidents altered and enhanced the end print with true beauty, the darkroom version of a lens flare.

I started to associate photographers with the suggestion sheet breakdown, some photographers have used these to their advantage.  Some have even made it their visual signature.

2.  OVEREXPOSURE   Jason Nocito had a run where he underexposed his prints by a stop or stop and a half giving them this bright airy feel.  See FADER magazine, about three or four years back.

4.  RED EYE   Terry Richardson uses it deliberately to reinforced the less precious, disposable snapshot.

6.   LIGHT STREAKS   Ryan McGinley’s prints (the Morrissey series comes to mind.)

13.  OFF-CENTER IMAGE   Jessica Craig-Martin.  You know who shot the ad campaign when the person’s head is cropped off.

I was happy with my returned mistakes; it’s stating the obvious that people who veer from what is considered the normal or correct way to do things often find success. I was just struck by the signature styles that could be connected with each rule offered.

Play on your own.