Let's start with Franky

We'll see if I can re-vamp this ole bloggy blog. I'll start with a pic of the Little Bubba.



Here's another picture - an unskilled attempt at basic digital photo editing:

Circa 1994

Thanks to Digg for putting this on my radar today.

Pirkle Jones, 1914 - 2009

Pirkle Jones was not as famous as Ansel Adams or Dorothea Lange, but he was just as good. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Pirkle Jones, a San Francisco photographer whose wide-ranging work focused on everything from pastoral California landscapes to the Black Panthers, grape pickers and foggy cityscapes, died Sunday of heart failure in San Rafael. He was 95.

A genial and spirited man who taught for 28 years at the San Francisco Art Institute, Mr. Jones developed his mastery of black and white photography in the late 1940s, studying with Ansel Adams and Minor White at the California School of Fine Arts, which became the Art Institute. He was part of the modernist milieu that included Adams, White, Edward Weston and Dorothea Lange.

Here and here you can find more info and some of his photographs.

Guess who?

Click here for the answer.

Celebrity Mug Shots

The LA Times is running a short spread of celebrity mug shots over the years.

Ever since someone said that Nick Nolte looked like a wet, angry cat in this mug shot, I can't help but laugh whenever I see it:

Inspiring

With all the talk about the economy, and a woman who could be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, I thought I would mention a woman who is a true inspiration: Dorothea Lange.

How to make a daguerreotype

Wired posted a cool article about creating daguerreotypes "the old way" as well as with modern conveniences such as Photoshop.

Wired says this picture of Edgar Allen Poe is the most famous daguerreotype:



Check out a gallery of images here, courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.

The Prock Life has a cute set of photos, each containing a different letter (to spell out the name of their blog).

I checked out the photographer's site (Leo Reynolds) and he has thousands of pictures, literally. But his collection of letters is very cool. Check it out!

Julia Margaret Cameron

I just found this lovely video that features some of Cameron's photographs:



I saw a collection of her photographs at the Getty several years ago, and they blew me away. Possibly because I'm a Victorian literature freak, and so her portraits of famous writers and poets, as well as depictions of literary figures really appealed to me.

She often made albumen prints of her photos, which conveyed the same feel as tintype photographs.

On photographing her subjects:
When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavored to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man.

Fine Art Taco Photography

Please do yourself a favor and check out this site.

Cat Cam!

Came across this adorable site today... A little camera was put on a sweet cat named Mr. Lee and photos were taken of his adventures!

Some are really beautiful... and the captions are funny.

This one reads: "Mr. Lee is going into professional photography?!"

Richard Avedon exhibit

The Stanford Cantor Center is exhibiting Richard Avedon's "In the American West" series of photographs, as part of a 20th anniversary tour of the series.

I absolutely love this collection of photos. They're haunting and weird, but they are also beautiful and fascinating. So, if you happen to be in Palo Alto this weekend, you should definitely check it out!

Street Photos, Found Photos, Vernacular Photos

(Thanks to Karen for some of these links!)

I really love documentary or "street" photography, which was made into an artform by photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Helen Levitt, Diane Arbus, and Roy DeCarava.

Somewhat related are found photos and vernacular photos (photos by amateurs capturing their everyday life), which are on display on several sites.

Shorpy is a cool, early 20th-century archive; The "In the Booth" collection at Square America is definitely worth checking out; Flickr has an area where users can post their own images, such as the cool one here. And of course, we all know the joys of Found Magazine.

Now, I just have to go to a flea market and find my own found photos... or start taking my own pics!