LINCOLN AVENUE, 2005

The little house in front is where Consuelo sleeps after she cleans the house and tucks the babies in to bed.

askew

bless you.

JJ Diamonds Channels Cali (Sabina/Beto/Lalo '81)

I asked for some carrot and he gives me this instead. You know this young man, the self-made writer who started humbly (but wholeheartedly) in Poughkeepsie as an intern at the Poughkeepsie Journal...from chicken wangs and bbq sauce to boulud and amuse bouches...it's all the same, really, but he can describe it MUCH better than you or I...JJ and I have a happy jade garden that we tend to as much as possible, given the nature of this year for me... There is a photo of Pop, Sabina, and Beto holding a knife and cilantro in Colombia in 1981. The three of them are beautiful Borjas / siblings / disconnected/ connected only by blood it seems / and thousands of photos. Pop is wearing a red shirt in the photo, and all three have hair blacker than jet.

LA PIDGE STREET (for those who know my SF haunts...)

On a bench in 2005, I sat waiting for...absolutely nothing. Hmm. Apparently it was spring (no shoes or I am uncouth) and apparently this pigeon is a true city dweller...unflinching, brave...I ain't scared of your big ass foot! Get off that bench and kick me, I double dare you!!! So I guess I just took a photo instead of getting up. Wow, must have been one rrrrrrrrrrrreeeally productive year.

Where's Wanda?!

I remember that when I took this photo in 2005, I was so utterly pleased with myself that amidst the monochromatic distraction of the grey white and black leaves, there could be found a grey black and white face of a woman, sitting about 30 feet beyond the bush...street photography this was not! I might as well have been in a hitchcock movie, with a broken leg looking out a window with my binoculars.

JJ Diamonds: A Girl's Best Friend

ROSA (de Puebla) HENRY (de Manhattan)

Hemos comenzado.

In a play room on 86th and Broadway on a rainy day, there are any number of little bobbleheads wandering around in their overalls and striped socks while their nannies congregate around them, taking quick breaks for conversation or discipline. Today I met Rosa and Irma, who care for Henry and Sara, respectively, and I remembered all over again why I wanted to do this 'project.' Rosa and Irma are both from Puebla. I am invited to their house for dinner so we can discuss the why and the what about this job called mothering, errrrr, nannying...

Amateur Hour with Yours Truly (for Phil Breezy)(take 2)

...my baby sister, because he loves children, for one Phil Breezy...the NEWEST READER OF THIS BLOGGINS! she, too, is english...supposedly...he told me himself, that he's reading, and not just that he's taking a piss, and other stereotypical English slang. Breezy is actually 'BROWN,' but since he's landed in Brooklyn/New York and in my general circumference he is now Phil Breezy. Breezy is Boogie's intern, aaaaaaaaaaaand that's about it. No no no no, he's much more. He is a passionate but under-the-radar SARDONIC type who gets a kick out of me re-learning everything I should have learned a long time ago (film processing, raw files not jpgs, etc.). I get a kick out of it, too. It's like I was always only concerned with one thing: me and the image---riiiight, that's two. Breezy is a black and white dude; a classicist...of the proud, stubborn kind, the best kind really...he falls into the fortressed / intelligent / independent camp...If he saw my room he would have a hernia. And if I saw his room, I would marvel and wax envious at the organization...impeccable.

The Disposable

I see a lot of this kind of shit in 'art' school. Not all of it is shit. Much of it (the who and the when and the why matter, too, of course). I mean, the snap, you know, mattress against big blue eyes, with little regard to why / sans context / disposable camera / flash on camera. Trends, man...like the fucking female magazine world...I've been reading the same magazine since I was 13. Same applies to art trends, yes? Or maybe I'm just jealous because I haven't figured out how to light, yet...and strobe creates all these definitions/lines/borders that makes (darkroom) printing a dream. Also, outside of the color darkroom (where's the safe light, she says...), I see a lot of students fretting over the color of their shoes, when they shouldn't be wearing them in the first place...Like this photo maybe...monochrome, maybe a little magenta...but why even look at it? Why are we fine tuning it when it shouldn't even be looked at? No? Then again, LIKE I SHOULD BE TALKING...I spent an hour last (hungover) Sunday developing a roll of 3200 film I'd had since February only to switch the chemicals and emerge with nothing but the memory of snapping those 36 frames. Interestingly, I have NO clue what was on that roll...(memory / regret / forgetting / oblivion / history: discuss)...

If a roll of film gets destroyed in the forest, did you really live what was on those frames?

Black and White (No, Seriously)

I was standing against a black backdrop when a beautiful swan came into view. Swan, I said, halt, please lay your wings like so against this black back drop...Swan said why should I? I have to be paddling across a scenic setting in T Minus 10 minutes; tourists are depending on it. Swan, I said, you'll look much more beautiful like this. And that was enough.

Dáme La Mano

(Marissa / Emma)(Skirts and Sun)(Parks and Rites of Passage)(Crocusses and Crackers)(Hands and Hands)(Class and Culture)(Innocence and Females)(No difference / Complete difference)

Drama Queen Takes the G / Bed - Stuy

This is the cemetery where I'm burying the past 9 weeks of unproductivity and negative thought. Not ONE single image, people, not one.

Brown Crowns

Crown Heights, pre-taco, post-party-clean-up.

Me and You, Tu Madre y Tu Pri-ma, too...rollin' down the strip on vogues, scummin' up slammin' Cadillac dooooooooooors...yes.

Regarding Baby Birds...

...so rare...and so fine.
...if you've ever held a baby bird you know that you have to cup its whole body in one hand, letting it breathe, while stroking its chest quietly and safely with one light touch from the other hand...the difference between clutching something and holding something is the manner in which safety / a nest is implied and provided, or not.

Chloe is, among other things, an arteeeeeeeest with a steady hand, a sweet heart, an eye for the bold the baubled and the bespeckled, not to mention a nose for apple crisp aprons and toast...themes include: birds, owls, roosters and long, long lashes...

Chloe has been reading this lil' blog here since its inception and has provided sincere, heartfelt feedback (and praise...) during times when I thought I was just writing and posting into the wind...

Buildings Sky Flags

Another instance wherein I supposed my camara had color film in...nice light though! (on the building...)