Yep, that’s me.  My friend Dirk took this with my trusty Hexar classic (the Hexar was the first auto-focus camera I ever bought).  That’s the Mamiya 6 on the tripod; I was shooting with the 150mm. It was a very rainy season. I sort of remember them saying it hadn’t rained that much in x number of years. I also remember being a little scared up there on the rock which was slippery with water; and that I did a lot of my moving around in the crouched position.

And here is the resulting shot:

As I go through the old photos, I have to admit, that I sort of miss some of the cameras. The Mamiya 6 is one of them. I never was crazy about the 7 because it didn’t fold up the way the six did. However, the idea that the Mamiya 6 was like an overgrown Leica M6, or as they called it the Texas Rangefinder – that never was the case for the very simple reason that the lenses are longer, meaning that a lot of techniques you might do with the Leica M, such as hyperfocal focusing, was more difficult if not impossible with the normal 75mm lens for the Mamiya 6. It also meant that depth of field was always going to be shorter; and that you weren’t going to work with ultra-fast lenses. And finally, you are going to be changing film rolls more often.

I liked the Mamiya 6 as a sort of lightweight field camera for scenics which is why it was with me at Yosemite.

Okay, that problem is sort of solved; or at least there’s a workaround for it.  It’s possible that his stuff was being eaten by Askimet.  Just leaving this here in case someone comes to it from twitter.  I’ve also made it easier to post a comment.  Let’s see if that causes me problems or solves them.

The not so-new family.

I was on my way to work, and a fair distance away when I saw this scene forming. That’s mostly what street photography is, anticipation. I ran as quickly as I could, thinking setting the focus and whatnot and got there just at this moment; freeze; click; and go on to my real job wondering if I “got it.” About ten years ago.

I’m picking pictures out for various small blurb books I’m going to do. I’ve never been happy with the b&w renditions, and I’ve tested just about every print on demand that’s out there, and MyPublisher is very good; but I am going to have to do some work for my father (he wants a poetry book done) so I’ll be setting up something with Blurb and I’ll enter the Blurb community. It seems that the only way to get print on demand books “out there” is to have a cheap price point, and to have some community behind it.

Unlike the photographic print – which I feel is completed when it is ready to be framed; the book doesn’t feel worthwhile unless it is in the hands of people. Why I should make that distinction, I don’t know – but I do. I’m tempted to start in simple chronological order. Images by Dave Beckerman: 1980 – 1990, etc. Everytime I try to put some theme to it, I run into trouble.

I don’t want to do one book which is just Paris, or one book which is just the Subway… etc. I want it to unfold, pretty much like the blog.

Tonemapped / ASA 1600 / 20mm / 500D

From my dinner with Matt. Sailors Monument. Tonight.

Along the lines of An American Girl in Italy by Ruth Orkin – though someone told me that shot was setup. I don’t know that for sure; though this was definitely not setup, just a matter of lingering on the corner.

Prelude to a Post:

The post that follows was written quickly, and after thinking it over and chatting with M. it seemed to become a worse and worse idea.  In fact, it makes more sense to just point people to establishments where my pictures are already adorning the joint.  And I will make a list.

However, as part of my policy to try and not erase stuff just because I’ve changed my mind, I’ve decided to leave the following post, and it may be food for thought for someone else.  Another thing that happened, was that I went back to look at my workload for the rest of the week, and started to wonder a) how could I spend time in an out-of-the-way gallery space during the week, essentially doing nothing but waiting for drop-ins (no); or making appointments for people to stop by and spending a good part of the day going over, waiting, chatting, and coming back, with no assurance of a sale; ugh; that would be like going back to selling in front of the Met.

If a presence was the main thing, there were cheaper ways to do this… one of them being the Photo Co-op in Soho (for example) or just finding a few more places where I could hang pictures, and even offer to do it for free; and send people to the local bar etc.

Nevertheless, if money wasn’t an issue, then the following post would make sense (isn’t that always the issue: money?)

* * *

Now you guys tell me, what if four or five of us got together to open an actual physical gallery.  The theme would pretty much have to be New York Photography.  It would be a place where those of us who have a decent web presence could at least present “the real thing.”

Obviously it would have to be fairly small.  But do artists do this sort of thing, and do they work?  I know that I am constantly asked if there is someplace where the actual prints can be seen.

If I had one wall, I could fill it with New York photography easily.

The first problem is that there’s now an overhead that none of us had before.  That little ole thing they call rent and utilities.

Markus – for example – do you know what it would cost to rent a space like you had for your American 2010 exhibit monthly.

I would also guess that there’s a choice of either getting a cheap place where there isn’t any walk-in traffic, which would mean lots of publicity type stuff, announcements, etc.

Or, if we could afford a spot with walk-in trade – then the price would be substantial.

I could do okay with a low rent location, get everything framed and matted etc.  If they buy it from the gallery, they can take it with them, and pay the gallery price.  If they just come by and browse and then go to the web site, then they pay the web site price.

You might want to carry this conversation on offline; or online.  The real question is whether other artists have been able to make this work in New York.  That’s what I’m really curious about.

What do you think?  I mean from a very practical point of view.  Obviously it would be a great thing to have; but it’s also the type of endeavor that could quickly put me out of business if I had to commit for any length of time.  Just getting everything framed is going to be costly.  But it may be time for a few of us to get together and see if this is practical or not.  As far as who gets to display their prints in the gallery; I would guess that it would be limited at first to the partners.  But maybe one wall is left open for anyone who can pay for wall space.

Obviously, I’m sitting here thinking / writing outloud – but what do you think?  Crazy?

There’s a restaurant in midtown, 34th and Park (The Palace) which is completely filled with my prints – two floors.  Maybe I should just send people there if they want to see what the prints look like.  Not exactly a gallery, but the burgers are good, and the prints are pretty large.  There are also several buildings, all over town that have my prints in the lobby.  And now that I think about it, a hospital and a library.  Maybe I should just make a list of installations and let people see them in their natural environments.

The turnaround time, from the initial discussion with the novelist, until the novel is published, can take a pretty long time (think months, or years). Usually, by the time the novel is published, I’ve forgotten all about it, as in this case by Joan Nelson (though this wasn’t such a long turnaround).  I wish her luck with this novel.

“Dave,
Final Exit is a hybrid of romance and high drama combined with thrilling intrigue. It is not primarily a mystery; except in the sense of knowing the truth about someone we care deeply about, but whose life is shrouded in secrecy. The writing is sexy, smart and sophisticated. My readers say I’m, “a master at portraying emotion, passion and suspense,” and that they “love the way I delve into both the loving and sinister aspects of the human condition. A must read!” The book will be available Mid-August and the website is under construction. I will keep you posted as to where and when it can be purchased. Thanks for your interest.” – Joan Nelson

Maybe one day I’ll get it together and write my own bit of fiction.  The fact that I don’t find the time, doesn’t mean I don’t have the time, it just means that I get distracted by other things that are more interesting at the time.  For example, the Paris stuff.  That might make a small book.  Maybe I’ll take a crack at books again.  The one thing I learned about self-publishing, is that they’ve got to be fairly cheap to sell; and they’ve got to have some sort of support from the publisher.

Anyhow, here’s the back cover:

The factory (photo: 1991) is on Water Street and Dock Street (one of the nice things about shooting with the view camera is that there’s almost always a sign that’s easy to read). And I was wondering whether the Bridge or the building came first. I sort of remember reading that the factories went back to at least the Civil War, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, I already know that there’s a historian among the blog readers, so just out of curiosity, sort of chicken or egg question – which came first?

Did the iron stars have political significance – or just some contemporary decoration?

I’ll bet that the owners of condos will want these images soon to put in the lobby so that they have a sense of what the place used to be like. For you, I put this keyword phrase in:

photographs of DUMBO in black and white (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).

Another aside — I don’t remember why, but the flag on the bridge is at half mast.  Since I was working at a “real job” at the time, I wonder if it was a national holiday, and I used the day to return to these haunts, but I don’t think the flag flies at half mast for any national holidays.

This is one of those photos that it would be very cool if you could click on it and explore it at full size.  I can’t see anyway of doing that (though there might be some widget to do it?) other than sticking the whole thing up with real resolution so that you could pan and zoom in and out (without stealing the thing).

Little boys are the same in any part of the this world. We did the same thing with sticks on the streets of the Bronx.

I was browsing around this morning, and frankly don’t even remember what site I was on, but I noticed that the ads were showing camera stuff I had looked at recently.  I wasn’t even on a photography site but I was getting a widget ad showing view cameras, and the Rollei TLR.

I was curious about how this was being done and clicked on the link to the ad supplier:  Criteo.

They re-target visitors that have been on one site and use that info to display stuff they looked at on other sites they visit.  Now from a marketing point-of-view, wow – what a great idea.  One of my hats is, after all, sales person for Dave Beckerman. Continue reading ‘Little Brother’ »

With the Alps in the background. We stayed at a camp for one night, slept in the car; and I was up early as morning fog came down to the lake.

But I think I’ve posted the bulk of what is decent from my French trips.

I still have a stack of 35mm French stuff to look through more carefully, but it’s going to have to sit for a while. I’d actually like to get out and do a bit of shooting now, not to mention getting out from beneath all the printing that’s waiting for me.

The Parisian cemeteries are beautiful little cities, filled with famous painters, writers and other artists. They are incorporated into the city, in the sense that you could be walking across a bridge – as in this shot – and take a peek to see if anyone famous has arrived. These are genuinely famous people – famous for doing something – as opposed to being famous for having a million Twitter followers. Now if they could only twitter from the grave…

To take a shot like this with a mf camera on a tripod, you pretty much have to setup and wait for something to happen. I had seen a number of people stop and stick their heads through to see the cemetery – so I set up and waited, and waited… and waited…

Relations between police and street people seems to be the same wherever I go. I only say “seems” because I haven’t been many places. But if you’ve lived in modern cities, I think you know what I mean.

Not the steps to the Cathedral, but a fairly long flight of stairs that at least at that time lead down to a narrow street with a paint store.

I didn’t have a tripod, so I was balancing the camera (Rollei TLR) on one of the railings.