Off Center

There’s something eerily familiar about this old polaroid ad from the 60’s…

If you haven’t already heard, Polaroid Corporation is killing off all of it’s instant film production. It’s demise is likely to be complete as early as 2009. In fact, our local camera shop - West Photo - claims to be completely out of certain types already and the distributor will not take any new orders.

If you’re seriously worried, be sure to check out savepolaroid.com.

Most consumer-fans of polaroid film shouldn’t fret too much as the patent will certainly be licensed to other companies willing to manufacture it. In fact, Fuji already makes a color version of the pack film for certain cameras, and it’s been rumored that they will be taking on more, most likely going after the fringe market of the 600 series and Time-Zero equivalents.

Some of us in the professional market won’t be so lucky. Most large format instant film will probably disappear, along with our ability to proof and check focus when shooting large format film. Believe it or not, there are still clients who demand 4×5 transparencies for reproduction.

What can we expect from artists like Chuck Close, Lucas Samaras, and Mike Slack who have made the medium part of their trademark styles? Even if they are able to hoard the last remaning boxes, the stuff has a shelf life of less than a year. As aptly stated at savepolaroid.com “Best before: It’s too late”

Photographer Vincent Laforet has recently been getting a lot of attention for his aerial work with shift lenses. After seeing his feature in a recent New York Times Magazine, I decided I’d take out a few of our old shift lenses and go for a walk in the garden.

Typically used to correct distortion in architectural photography, shift lenses can also be used to create a false sense of closeness by mimicking an extremely shallow depth of field. Such a shallow depth of field — or the amount of the image that is in sharp focus — is usually only attainable when viewing a subject from a short distance.

You can hear Vincent speak on his techinique and see examples of his work with shift lenses HERE.

As Cameron has been posting some of the portraits that come out of the Walker Photo Studio, I’m sure you have a sense of how great the work Cam and Gene do truly is.

We try to document all of the visiting artists that visit the Walker with a portrait, and I often get to escort visiting filmmakers down to the studio for their portraits. It’s always a pleasure to watch Cam and Gene work, and makes me look forward to seeing the results.

Last night, Cameron was able to work a portrait of Li Zhenhua into his schedule. I took a few pictures to document the occasion.

Zhenhua is in from China to present The Wave and to complete the installation of Virtual China. (Be sure to check this out, it is fantastic! Also, be sure to read his Artist in Residence blog, to read the account of his first visit to the US.)

I can’t wait to see the final pics.

A recent portrait of punk rock pioneer and poet, Richard Hell. Despite his somewhat ominous appearance he was a very nice, easy going guy.

He gave me a piece of Sugarless BubbleYum. (Actual wrapper shown.)

Jem Cohen came to the Walker photo studio the other night and, after some discussion, we decided to shoot his portrait with SX-70 (Time Zero) polaroid film and an old 70’s-era camera–a perfect format to capture an artist who works in, as he describes, “archaic mediums.”

Photo editors are a picky breed. That’s why for a photographer, getting your image on the cover of a magazine is a huge compliment (Or, it was just better than any other available choice). This spring two magazines featured Walker-produced photos for their March 2006 covers. Art In America featured an exhibition view of Huang’s Bat Project IV (2004-2005) shot by Gene Pittman. Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art made a somewhat unusual decision to use an artist portrait on their cover with terrific results. Artist portrait of Huang Yongping by Cameron Wittig.

When writing about artists whose work deals with issues of citizenship and patriotism for our March issue of Walker (mentioned here and here), I encountered a conundrum. The piece references works by choreographer Bill T. Jones and poet Sekou Sundiata, but I couldn’t illustrate it with photos from those performances because they’d be used elsewhere in the magazine. Plus, the story is about the broader issues artists face when dealing with “political” subject matter.

Enter: Walker photographer Cameron Wittig, who created this photo illustration, a perfect metaphor for the difference between active citizenship and superficial patriotism. As Sundiata told me, “I have never been interested in patriotism. I am interested in a citizenship of conscience. The first proposes a kind of uncritical blindness; the other proposes a look at America that does not flinch or blink.”

Look for the essay in two weeks in the print issue of Walker. Details on Jones’ March 10 performance Blind Date here, and info on Sundiata’s the 51st (dream) state, March 31 and April 1, is here.