considering pictures | sean justice > open journal

A note, a reminder: do not delete. In class yesterday this idea caught some folks by surprise. I don't know what makes an idea resonate, or when. Here it is again: do not delete pictures from your digital camera when you're taking pictures. Instead, after the pictures have been downloaded to the computer, reformat the card with the camera's "format" menu. There are two reasons for this:

No matter where you are when you begin or get up to go again, whether this is your first class in photography or your fifteenth, whether you're continuing from last term or going back to school for the first time after a long break — we have to start at the picture itself. What I mean is, learning photography begins with paying attention to pictures.

Long walks in winter break the malaise and settle the soul. With my son the other week, sub-freezing, sun low, we talked about the coming year. Classes begin this week. I'm looking forward to starting up again. As you know (I think), education is my passion. Next to actually making pictures, it's what I think about the most. Ken Robinson: Children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue, despite all the expertise,...what the world will look like in five years time, and yet we're meant to be educating them for it. What I find moving and of most immediacy is this conversation about how we learn what we learn. And the purpose of learning itself. Working with you this spring I hope we'll scratch the surface on this topic. When we talk about photography — apertures, ISO, shutter speeds, cameras, papers, computers — I think, at root, we're also talking about paying attention to ourselves and to others, and exploring the way we learn. That...

In the morning at St George the sun skids into the terminal and skews the grid of the day, reminding us of our shadows and our momentary passing. An open letter to everyone who worked with me these last four months: Congratulations on finishing (and beginning) your study of photography! I know the learning curve can be stressful and perhaps even overwhelming at times. But you’re on the way now… In closing the year on our work together I’d like to briefly repeat something I’ve said several times, beginning from the first day we met: these are exciting times to be working in the visual arts. We’re entering an uncharted world of picture-making, and you are at the threshold of these new days. From my perspective, having watched these changes over these last twenty years, from the pre-digital, non-digital, what-is-digital??, into the current thrill-ride rollercoaster of new possibilities and challenges, it feels momentous and extraordinary. Last week at a holiday party with photographers an...

This is my favorite time of year. In class you're making pictures that couldn't have been predicted even a few short weeks ago. I'm enthralled by the process, this convergence, this transmutation of one thing into another thing, idea into material, image into body. I don't know how it happens, even as it unfolds right in front of me. Last Sunday afternoon at the Brooklyn Central Library we heard Trio Solisti perform chamber music from several different eras. As always, the comfortable elegance of the Dweck Center was the perfect setting for a quiet reprieve from the rush of the end of the term. (I've written about the Library's concert program here , and I still recommend it strongly.) The end of the afternoon brought Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition . You've probably heard it before; I'd heard it many times but never knew what it was called. (Click the 'play' button to hear the Promenade opening.) The story behind this comp...

On the ferry, end of day, low light across the harbor: a woman steps up to snap a photo for Penelope. Later, I'm sure, another sun will set on flickr, where Penelope will find it. Another sun among the millions. Centuries past Galileo we prove him wrong — we're at the center, finally. See Penelope Umbrico's take on it: a glimpse of agreement we barely understand.

With a photo project, the more you push into it, the more it starts to feel inevitable. That's when you let go a little and allow your intuition take some of the weight. That's when I switch on automatic pilot and start to feel a kind of lightness. I've been noticing the flower pictures around me for years now, and have started to make notes and reportage pictures of those pictures more seriously. I feel it gathering gravity. In fact, my awareness feels tweaked and tense: I find myself pulled into environments that resonate...and I smack into flower pictures. On Third Ave near 12th St I got a bagel after teaching. Toasted poppy seed with garlic herb cream cheese, and a side of Black-eyed Susans. Speaking of asides--a friend called over the weekend to say that she's buried in flowers too. Her daughters bring home flowers made of clay, paper, papier-mache, in crayon and paint, made from pipe cleaners and Popsicle sticks, and pulled from the gardens of neighbors as they wa...

Check it out. I found another picture tonight. At TC my colleague Cathy slapped down large rolls for a demo, and before we could get to tearing and folding I saw what was actually happening...a wonderland of texture material and edge. Love it. Ion saw it first. I was in his world for a moment. See his work on his website or at his gallery . Nice.

Teachers College, Columbia, after Shannon Fagan As we cross the half-way mark in the semester an old question appears again: what is a project in photography? In class the topic seems part of school, an assignment on the syllabus. But the word we use — project — applies to many endeavors (working an election, painting a kitchen, helping a friend move) and isn't rooted in this institution. Instead, working with photographs is part of life, a motivation for further learning. This is what I hope you'll take away from our time together. In our discussions I've asked you to think about what connects you to your life, what wakes you up in the morning. To begin, let your curiosity guide you — what do you want to know about? What do you want to learn about? There's no right or wrong answer to this question. Shanghai dish, apple, on the windowsill At root, though, is just that: a question. Whether your project is short-term (through the end of the semester) or follows a longer a...

Out the door but not quite I'm drawn to an iridescent whisper from the corner. Refraction reflecting my prismatic messenger. My god it's Iris. What color space is this? Below, my friends at the DOT manage the signs of good counsel to insure we pass quietly and don't collide. These are the days of peace and tranquility. The sun wheels across the heavens and brightness reigns, momentarily. Inspired I breathe and take a photograph, and then leave for the ferry to Manhattan. In the basement at ICP we'll dream of rainbows refracting past our screens.

NYSAT this morning: Voice for the future of our city. Before: After: Before: After: Before: Before: After: After each whitewashing we posted a notice of our intent: From the Metropolitan Landscape Control Committee: The MLCC has recently become aware of the fact that NPA City Outdoor is operating over 500 illegal street level billboards in NYC, as well as many illegal wildposting locations. Despite private contracts, and other previous arrangements made between NPA City Outdoor and building owners, the above-mentioned advertising locations have been found to be illegal due to lack of permitting and failure to adhere to New York City zoning regulations. Under the Department of Buildings sign code § 26-256 these advertisements are subject to civil penalties and violations of up to $15,000. The Municipal Landscape Control Committee has organized the whitewashing of all NPA City Outdoor street level advertising locations until further structural removal can be implemented. The continued po...

Please join me in a refreshing, free-form photo-share event. Sign up at the flickr group PhotoGroupFSJ to participate. The idea is to have a casual and inspirational conversation about photography and learning photography. I'm launching this flickr space in the hope that students and teachers can keep an outer-classroom discussion percolating, share random photo favorites, and talk about the experience of being photographers today. There aren't any restrictions! Anyone can join...teachers, students, student-teachers — after all, we're all embedded in the culture of the photo-world. One goal of the group is to mix it up, swap places — we can learn from each other. For instance, I learn a ton by talking with friends, students, other teachers, and even with people who don't even consider themselves 'photographers.' (And vice versa: you learn more about what you do when you gear up to teach about it.) I hope you'll come aboard for a while and share some thought...

Where do ideas come from? This is the question that takes a lifetime. You know how to use the camera; you're learning the computer; and printing just takes time and practice (lots of practice). The hard stuff is more diffuse than that, more difficult to touch: where do you point your camera? what do you want me to see? what are you learning? Here's where we fight with each other. Some of my best friends and most valued colleagues believe it's impossible to teach artists to be artists, that you can't teach curiosity. I don't want to agree: if that's true, then what have I been doing all this time? The model I've proposed in the classroom is pretty simple: pay attention and respond. That's the core, I think. The essays and the photo prompts are all directed at it. So are the emails back-and-forth and the walking tours and the invitations to post on flickr. Then we close the loop with conversations about the pictures and about the process itself. At root is...

Hiroshi gave me new seeds after my lovely persimmon went to sleep. (I'm still watering it, by the way, and keeping my fingers crossed that it will somehow come back to life; Hiroshi says nature is strong and unpredictable!) These are planatus seeds. They are fluffy and spindly, hard and soft simultaneously. The instructions are to mix the seeds with some soil, add some moisture, and then put them in a ziplock bag in the fridge. For two months. After that I'm supposed to dump the whole mixture into a small terracotta pot and keep it watered. And warm. So that'll be December in New York. I hope it'll be warm enough in the sun-room. The heat just came on last night and right now the entire apartment feels like a sauna, so presumably we'll have warmth enough to grow with. I still feel like a failure with the persimmon, but I'm happy to get another chance. The Planatus Orientalis, aka the Oriental Plane, is a fast growing deciduous flowering tree. If th...

I'd like to highlight a foundational part of the conversation. I've mentioned this in class several times, but I want to emphasize it again here, in writing: It's important to know where you are in the digital landscape when you use computers to make pictures. In class I've talked about the three domains of computer imaging. A metaphor I've used is the three-legged stool. I've also referred to a map, or schematic, that describes three primary arenas within the world of computer-based picture making. The three basic areas are Capture, Control, and Display. Here again are the basic distinctions in terms of purpose, hardware and software. Capture Snag the image using a camera or scanner (that's the hardware). They're everywhere in our lives: DSLRs, cell phones, snappy digi shooters, and all manner of scan-type (non-camera obscurra) devices. As well, as you know, there's no distinction anymore (or very little) between still and motion capture — each devi...

798 Factory Area, Beijing So we've gotten the ball rolling and bouncing in a dozen ways all at the same time. Classes at NYU, ICP and Parsons are flying now, full speed. Learning photography often seems to require that you know something while simultaneously already knowing something else, in order to learn some other fairly critical fundamental. I'm familiar with the way it begins to feel overwhelming; it seems to be part of the process, though that doesn't make it easier. But I'd like to focus back on something that precedes all of that, at least in my mind. Namely the question: what are we doing when we work in photography? That is, what is the work? And what are you trying to learn? After mulling it over for a while, and after watching a lot of people surf the learning curve, I want to suggest that the pictures you're making are NOT the work. Or, at least, the pictures are not the entirety of the work. Here's the thing, I can "teach" you how to use...

I'm thrilled to report that our visit to the Pingyao International Photography Festival was a huge success. The exhibit "Young Artists Emerging in America" was well received, and many conversations were begun around it. Thanks to all of you who participated — I'm truly honored by your good work. A report of the exhibit has been posted on my flickr site, under the photo set titled PIP2009 Report . There are 193 photographs with captions, some of them extensive. To view the report you can either dip in and out of the photostream as you like, or go to the flickr slideshow function and turn on "Show Info" to read the captions. (Hint: for better viewing of both the pictures and the captions, go to Options and uncheck "embiggen," and check "always show title.") For participating artists: if you'd like copies of any of the installation photographs, either download them directly from flickr or contact me for higher resolution files. For every...