Burning Down - Burned Out

I must confess, I have not been in the Spirit of Detroit photo mood the past few months. Just imagine how difficult , how emotionally draining it is to drive around the city looking for dysfunctional street scenes, burned homes, ravaged stores, trashed neighborhoods, and homeless people. Photographing the city has never been ‘fun.’ I did it because I thought it was important for people to see the conditions in the city. And when I first started doing so, Detroit was a good example of post-Industrial decay, but it wasn’t evident that she was also a harbinger for things to come. Now, many large cities have, like Detroit, taken gas and on in free fall further down the spiral. Crash and burn. Greed is destroying our cities and the people who live in them.

Greed.

Back to the streets of Detroit, the city has changed. It used to be like a ferocious tiger/lion (depending on which sports team one supports) and the streets had a lot of attitude. And danger. I do not enjoy driving around the suburbs looking for trouble as I do in Detroit. However, I can find quite a few Virgin Mary statues in the suburbs, but not so many in Detroit, so I haven’t given up on the ‘burbs just yet. Lately, Detroit’s streets, at least the times when I invade them, usually early morning, have been tamed, feel beaten, on the skids. The trash has mostly been picked up, many abandoned houses have been boarded up instead of torched, and those that were torched have largely been demolished. Some areas where houses sat uncomfortably c lose to one another are now vast open fields with a house here or there, giving some areas a rural, not urban feel.

People are just trying to get by.

If you don’t see as many photos of Detroit flowing through my gallery, you’ll know why. I need a break. But then of course as soon as I commit this to writing, I’ll be back combing the streets, looking for shots. But just in case you don’t, or you see photos from my archives, since some of you are focused on freshness, you’ll know why.

This IS my season right now and when I drive around taking in all the color, roll down the window and feel the cool temperatures, smell the sweet aromas of decay…it’s refreshing and so very different than smelling the putrid smell of natural gas leaking from abandoned homes, and the occasional fermenting trash at the curbside of abandoned homes that have been gutted and left for pick-up.

Under Pressure

Not that what I eat has anything to do with what I shoot, I mean, with a camera, at least...

Good news for the Tooloose homestead...I just received a new pressure cooker. Little known factoid about me is that I love to cook. About 4-5 years ago I went through all my spices and ingredients and completely stocked my shelves with necessities for cooking Indian food. IMHO, it is the best, the absolute best in the world. The hot spicy dishes keep my sinuses clear, for one thing.

A pressure cooker is a necessity for Indian cooking. The legumes/lentils (dal) cook up in a flash under pressure. I have a huge pressure cooker for massive doses of this wonderful cuisine, and a much smaller one, an Indian utensil, for small quantities, and for pressure cooking rice. The Indian cookers are quite different than my American-friendly unit as the Indian cookers work on the principle of building up steam, then blowing it off in a huge blast that might last a few seconds, and cooking is measured in 'whistles,' whereas my Fagor cooks in minutes. Both are great and together, I make some damn yummy meals.

I've been at this for a while now and have quite a library of Indian cookbooks. And I have been honored...a former client of mine grew up in India to a rather privileged life, from what I understand. She did not cook at home. After many discussions of Indian food, she confessed that I knew more about cooking Indian food than her, and even gave me a cookbook from her motherland that she never used.

Dals are my favorite, and usually that with rice will fill me nicely. But I love the vegetables, too, especially eggplant and okra. Since I shop at Indian markets, I also enjoy the wonderful fresh vegetables used in traditional Indian cooking, the various squashes, (opo (aka long squash), winter squash, cayote, bitter melon, etc.) and love to cook simple meals from South India, rasams and sambhars.

I submitted a recipe of my own design to a really excellent You Tube channel that presents Indian recipes, and it was featured here. If you like Indian food, this is a great show to watch. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the two ladies are extremely cute. ;)

So I will be blowing off some steam in my kitchen, butt worry not...I won't be posting pictures of my cooking, neither before or after consumption.

I do also cook Middle Eastern and Thai dishes as well.

Got any favorite recipes in these cuisines, please post to this blog.

Feeling Foggy

Finally...some fog. It wasn't thick as pee soup butt I'll take it anyway.

I love the fog, the mystery behind it. I can almost sense the invisible earth forces at work in the watery visions of fog. And it seems to active in the cemetery, amongst the dead. And like the watery element, the fog environment changes so rapidly, thickening, thinning, lifting, descending. I was very fortunate this time, anticipating the fog and heading out before sunrise to various cemeteries in the area. One day, last Thursday, was very special. The large cemetery I visited had so many different views and settings of the fog. The most spectacular moment, though, was when the sun was beginning to rise. I really felt a sense of piety for some reason. The autumn is truly MY time of year, the time when I have feel my soul forces bursting with a great joy of the return of the elemental forces to the earth, gathering underneath my feet, preparing for the winter.

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Equal Time

It's 'that' time of year again...when the forces of light and dark are equally balanced on the equinox. The yearly cycle has been a fascination for years. Many years in fact. It probably isn't evident from my photo gallery, but I am quite taken with Nature, the diversity and just the whole process of life...and death. Now we are into my season, the season of colors, of harvest, of chilly temps and hot apple cider, of spicy squash soup, and even the college football games that mean nothing to me. Then after, Nature strips. Black and white. Everything.

I even enjoy early winter and the most uplifting day of the year has to be the winter solstice, when the forces of darkness have reached its zenith and the forces of light are being to wax. If the temperature is not overly cold, it can be such a wonderful day/night. I sometimes wonder what this day was like at a stone site eons ago, like Knoweth in Ireland (never been there), when on the morning of the solstice, a beam of light travels down the passageway of the entrance, hits a special crystal, and the entire inner chamber is filled with a burst of light, signaling the event.

The least exciting season change for me has to be summer. How odd, the forces of light reach their maximum and the hot temperatures are yet to follow.

The whole planet is a living organism onto itself, breathing in for the winter and breathing out for the summer, as new life bursts forth from the earth. It is an amazing process, something I think about often.

Needing Some Fog

Autumn is in the air, so I'm in the mood. Autumn's colors and cool temps tickle my fancy. The sunsets during this time of year are often spectacular. And there is a feeling of activity in the air, with the forces of Nature preparing herself for the cold winter months. The seasons are like a breathing process, inhaling in the autumn, exhaling in spring. And the cycle continues.

This past year has been challenging in many ways and my photography has taken a slam. It is not that I have lost interest in any way as my main focus still is imagery. When I'm not behind the lens, I'm often buried in the pages of books, monographs, pouring over photos of photographers with whom I share a kindred spirit. There are many....Walker Evans, William Christenberry, Gary Winogrand, Diane Arbus, Clarence John Laughlin...the list is long.

I just discovered Christopher Churchill and hope to gather enough pop bottles to purchase his book on faith due out in November. I heard a fascinating interview of him on the "Thoughts on Photopgraphy" podcast and then viewed his website. He's a bit offbeat, which of course appeals to me, and I like that he delves into the topic of spirituality in an offbeat way. He wandered across the country photographing people discussing various aspects of faith, recording their words, and he includes sound clips on his website, which you can listen to while viewing his wonderful photographs.

I've already scored my first gallons of apple cider. Next step will be to scout for some excellent autumn vegetables. Perhaps a spicy butternut squash soup is in my future, with some wonderful Indian spices, of course. I can't wait for the leaves to turn, for the sweet smell of decay in the air, the crunch of leaves underfoot. What a great time of year! When I was a kid, we'd all burn piles of leaves at the curb, and that aroma actually was pleasant in its own way. I don't mind winter at all, so the pending cold waves do not chill my enthusiasm for the autumn. Early winter is equally as beautiful, when the first snows begin. Suddenly, from a world of magnificent colors, we are thrust into a world of stark black and white. Color disappears for a few months, only to return in late spring.

I have already been revisiting cemeteries in my area and whenver I catch wind of fog or haze in the forecast, I plot which cemetery I want to visit. Cemetery photography is not as interesting to me in the summer.

And on top of that I have been trying to get all my photo files in order, redoing so many now that I am getting more comfortable in Photo Shop. I have in the neighborhood of 144,000 photo files on my hard drive, though not all of those are candidates for printing. Actually, only a small portion of them are. And I've started printing my favorites and am sorting through them. I can't believe the hours I spend before my computer screen sorting through, examining and processing images!

So...I'd love to hear from you about who your favorite photographers are. I'm always on the lookout for something interesting to view when I cannot get out and shoot.

Links:

Christopher Churchill's photo website.

Thoughts on Photography Podcast: Christopher Churchill.

We All Fall Down

Time to Drag Down the Sun.

Ah, I noticed while driving home from work last evening the long shadows. Actually, I spotted them descending a while ago. I keep an eye out for that, for this time of year when the arc of the sun drops. It certainly makes for lovely long dark shadows, something that pulls me in.

The summer is winding down. The really hot days seem to be gone…I hope. Cool mornings, chilly mornings…a harbinger for my favorite season, autumn! To me, summer is massive GREEN. Everything is green, a wall of green. Trees and bushes block my view. It’s scenery. But then autumn comes along and starts the transformation to a time when the green turns brown, then disappears and suddenly the world has a barren depth that was hidden in the summer months. Instead of not ‘seeing the forest for the trees’ and suddenly, striped of green, the forest becomes vast, and empty. Soon thereafter, snow will accentuate the bleak barrenness, with everything looking so black and white.

But autumn is coming. The chill in the air…apple cider, squash soup, the crunch of leaves underfoot, horror movies, Halloween…wait, I forgot. No Halloween this year. Don’t you recall that the Rapture was rescheduled for 15 October. Hmmm. I don’t want to miss Halloween so I just might see if I can get our city to declare Halloween early this year, due to Rapture. I mean, I’m sure nobody wants to miss Rapture, but then, who wants to miss Halloween?

I only hope I have the time and inclination to get out with the camera and celebrate my season.

Just Kidding...

Kids say the darnest things. Kids DO the darnest things, too. Since they haven't developed (or been indoctrinated) with social norms, anything can happen in any given situation. Also, there is the element of innocence.

However, if you are familiar with my photo interests, you’d know that photographing kids is not one of my topics. With all the burned out homes and cemeteries about, who needs kids?

Kids have been subject matter of many photographers. An indie B&W photo magazine (in the style of a zine) often calls for submissions of photos of kids.

Why am I kidding you, you might ask?

The other day I heard a disturbing news report on the tube. It was about an unnamed photographer. The newscaster described a photographer, armed with a telephoto lens, who had attended a kid’s sports event. A vigilant soccer mom approached said photographer (armed with a telephoto lens) and asked him which kid playing was his. None. Said vigilant soccer mom proceeded to call the police and report said unnamed photographer (armed with a telephoto lens) and now the police in that city are on the lookout for suspicious lone photographers hanging around kid’s sporting events.

I really don’t care about photographing children, but this story sends a chill up my spine. Photographers tend to be spontaneous beings who are constantly on the lookout for interesting things to photograph. I didn’t invest thousands of dollars into my equipment to take family photos. And yes, I do photograph strangers. I don’t talk to strangers because my mother warned me about that, but I do take pictures of strangers. I can do that. It’s legal. At least, for now.

Sure, this unnamed photographer (armed with a telephoto lens) could well have been a predator of children. But then so could the baseball coach. Or one of the father’s of a kid playing in the game. I wonder if said soccer mom runs a background check on her local priests and boy scout troop leaders? I suppose she would have to…if she really cares about the safety and well being of her children. Better yet, why not lock the kid up in the yard and let him/her out when s/he reaches legal age?

The world is a scary and dangerous place and children need to be protected from these dangers. They just aren’t able to discern another person’s motives. And that goes for said soccer mom, too. She cannot know what the intentions of the said unnamed photographer (armed with a telephoto lens) but apparently we are now only permitted to photograph our own.

America is really a messed up place, morally. We commit crimes against humanity and justify them with a core belief that God is on our side and he has a special mission for us as a nation: we can do no wrong. Corporations are protected by law and stand above the law. A manufacturer of defective medical equipment can knowingly sell their wares, fully aware that the product can kill, and in the event of a wrongful death, get off scott free. You can’t send a corporation to prison, even though by law corporations are considered to be ‘people.’

A few weeks ago I saw a sports event going on and I nearly stopped, just to try my hand at action photography. (You’d think I found enough action in Detroit, right?) I don’t recall if the game was for kids, but had it been, and I do use telephoto lenses, I could well be the subject of a news alert, another unnamed photographer armed with a telephoto lens.

That soccer mom…is armed with a suspicious mind and is VERY dangerous to all of us.

And while you are out taking pictures, keep in mind that a terrorist could be hiding behind any telephone pole or hiding in a phone booth.