3.15.10

 

 
 
I really cannot believe it is already March. I’d totally planned on making some sort of new-year stort of post (new-year lower case, not like New Years or whatever) but that got done over at my photo blog and never cross posted.  
 
Speaking of annoying cross-posting, I’ve recruited Winslow Taft to conjure from his mystical cauldron of design witchery a new website for me that will once again show its face at carynorton.com. I think the most exciting part of this is that this site will finally bring together all blog-style units I produce. I’m looking forward to having ONE place to post things and actually have those things be visible just by being at my site.  
 
 
I most just wanted to say hi to the people reading this. I don’t have any scale of how many people that may be, but I promise when the new site launches there will be BILLIONS (literally billions) of blog posts. 
 
I’ll show you a photo I’ve taken this year that I love (see above, or if you’re reading this via blog reader, you may have to view it on the site to see the image). It’s my friend Bob shot on 8×10 and I consider this my first successful 8×10 photograph. There are some others posted at the aforementioned photo blog, for your fyi.

11.23.09

As a matter of circumstance and habit, I don’t often see other photographers’ work unless I subscribe to a blog they produce or a blog that I read that happens to show their work. On one hand, I find this a most appropriate work to follow / lead my own to wherever it may be headed. (Recently, an artist I greatly admire said to me, ” imitate and emulate, no one but yourself,” and I am finding this advice to sound quite satisfactory.) On the other hand, I occasionally take a gander at others’ work by accident or by way of direction from a friend, and I can find it most inspiring. 
 
There are two recent images that wound up saved to my computer for the inability to let them go. By that I mean, as much information as I intake daily (important or utterly, utterly banal) most of it flows right back out and I only grab one tiny nugget of it. But occasionally I’ll see something that demands its own room in my brain. 
 
The first of these is by a photographer I have never heard of—Aneta Bartos. I don’t exactly recall how I found this image, but I love it. Her work is totally different than what I am used to seeing, but there is something so…something..moving? genuine? that it stops me in my tracks. 
 
 
© Aneta Bartos 
 
The next image is the result of a long bunny trail. My new friend Jonathan Canlas sent me a message to check out a podcast by The Candid Frame on Dan Winters, which was a very good listen. I decided to check out their blog a bit more and ran across the classic Jim Herrington. I don’t know if it matters that I love the music this woman creates, or if this portrait of Gillian Welch is just universally arresting. Just look. 
 
 
© Jim Herrington 
 
 
 
Anyway. That’s it. Two inspiring images.

10.7.09

Such a sad day for me, as of like five mintues ago. I learned that the photographic legendIrving Penn died today at the age of 92. There isn’t much a I can say about him that wouldn’t be repeating the outpouring of grief at his passing and praise of his work and work ethic. I’d love to post a photo I took of him, but I never did. And even if I’d had the chance I probably would have shit myself trying.
 
Here’s a photo of his I enjoy.
 
Sigh. 

©Irving Penn

8.16.09

I am tinkering with the idea of making a 4×5 out of Lego. Any ideas or suggestions, email me. That’s all!

8.3.09

I shoot a very limited number weddings each year bur rarely mention that here. I cannot help mentioning my last week, however.
 
My friends Bob Miller and Allison Thornhill had the most gloriously beautiful and laid back wedding I’ve ever witnessed or been proud to be a part of. A few of us went down to Costa Rica this past week to help the celebrate and I took photos the entire week. I send off the film tomorrow, but literally the moment I walked in the door (3 am Saturday morning) I grabbed the 4×5 I shot and jumped into the darkroom to develop—I had to see them AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
 
I was not disappointed. I could never seen another photo from their wedding and be completely satisfied from just the handful of 4x5s I have. The shot below is not necessarily my favorite from the day, but it gives a good idea of the people and location I was working with. How could I even take a bad photograph down there with these people? I submit it is not possible. Anyway…heres that shot:

 

6.26.09

mental_floss is an amazing magazine full of non-stop nerdery, facts, and more thorough insight lots of things than you may need. Fortunately, they are based, at least in part, here in Birmingham. A good portion of the content of the magazine is historical or in someway abstract which lends itself to illustration or various elements of stock photography. However, Winslow Taft (m_f art director) and I have great plans of figuring out ways create brand new, creative photography for as many of their stories as we can. The most recent collaboration is a simple one. They have an entire article on toilet paper and, as the subtitle indicates, it’s all about “how America convinced the world to wipe”. We settled on a hero shot of a roll of TP. I look forward to working more and more with mental_floss in the future. (Also, I don’t know if I blogged the last thing I did for them…here is one of the shots from the “Most Important Questions of 2009″ cover story from a couple of issues ago.)

6.11.09

VOLTRON RAWWWWWWRRRRWRWRW!!!
 
Okay, so I just saw this post over at Gizmodo, featuring the following image:
 

 
This is awesome because I received this exact camera when I was 6. I had an entirely Voltron-themed that year and it. was. awesome. The only thing I didn’t get was a whole set of the individual characters to create the “full sized” Voltron figure, which at the time I was sad about, but I get now was just that my parents were smart enough not to completely spoil me.
 
All I am saying is Voltron kicks ass still, and I was super excited to see this classic camera posted online. It is even more appropriate now that I am a photographer.
 
Also, I just got back from Japan. Took a trip with my sister to celebrate her graduation from Grad School and man did we have fun. Here is a random snap while I wait for my film to get processed. I shot 8mm as well. That’s exciting.
 

5.22.09

I love a photograph in print. It is really were they belong, in my opinion. So, in this increasingly online world, I always love to see stuff I’ve shot in print.
 
Today, I got in the mail copies of an annual report I shot up in New York back in January for a non-profit called The International Longevity Center. 
It was a lot of fun to slip it in right before I went to Uganda for DIG. 
 
Anyway….it printed really well and it reminds me how important good paper is. Love some thick stock. Here are a couple of pages from it. 
 

5.7.09

Hey everybody. Just an official blog post to mention I put up a new section to this website for the work I did in Uganda for DIG.

If you want, following along with the words in the intro and the IMAGE NOTES. The goal, of course, is to tell the story with the images themselves, but hopefully the words will give a bit more insight into DIG and the people you see in the photos.

 

Check it out!
 

4.20.09

I’ve been on a big 4×5 kick lately.

Here is Greogy and his glorious beard. It has apparently been going since November (which would make it an unofficial Whiskerino I gues).