a different wedding photograph

The New York Times had an article today about wedding photographers who get their clients to pose post-wedding in shots that pretty much "trash the dress." Some interesting shots there, some feel like more of the same preciousness, but now brides are in the waterfall instead of next to it.

One photog - John Michael Cooper - the alleged originator of the trend has a couple of cool shots. The first one you see is with the woman submerged in the shallow overgrown part of a pond. It's lovely, but it also feels like you've stumbled upon a dead body. The second of his images leaves no room for doubt. A bride stuffed into a trunk with a shovel next to her. How's that for a wedding momento? "Look how happy were were kids!" Great shot for the photographer's book. Definitely not something for Grandma's mantelpiece.

Socially what's interesting with this trend is that many women no longer want to lovingly preserve this expensive symbolic dress. There's a total break with the notion that this day is continuous to the next generation. On or soon after your wedding day you're ready to play with the notion that not only is the dress not forever, neither is the marriage.

Hallelujah

it was just over six years ago that my friend Nicole and I were rounding a bend in California, on highway 1, she was driving. I'd never listened to Jeff Buckley before. She told me that this one song, Hallelujah, was something that she had listened to every night before going to bed, at one time, for a time.

"No, no, we have to start it over again. Did you hear him sigh?"

I hadn't. We started the CD over. I listened for it. Jeff Buckley, at the beginning of this song, breathes a sigh, that feels more like a way of gathering energy to tell a tale that's hard to recount.

From the moment I heard that sigh, I was in. I loved the song. All I remember is hearing that sigh just as we're getting onto an on-ramp. The rest of the song plays out as I look at the green hills, one bigger than the next, on my right. On my left, an ocean - blue and white and crashing into rocks black and brown and wet.

It was beautiful. I needed to see it.

When I was editing a group of photos tonight, I saw this one, and I heard that song immediately. This image has sky and sea and land. More than what the photo depicts though, whenever I really felt that Jeff Buckley song it had more to do with leaving one existence and trying to inhabit another. But, when I first heard that song, it was like angels singing. I felt like it had captured the beauty and the immediate abandonment of something beautiful. Leaving earth feels that way. Flying feels that way. Saying goodbye in an airport feels that way.

Subway shots

A friend recently asked me if it's legal to take pictures in the NYC subway system. I didn't think so, but I wasn't entirely sure. There was talk of a ban some years back and I didn't really remember the outcome. Anyway - some searching turned up this interesting list of subways which require permits and which don't.

BUT... while that's interesting, I started telling her about Bill Sullivan - the photographer who took photos of people just as they were coming through the turnstiles. Using the turnstile as the frame. The installation photos of these are so compelling. I found his work a little while ago through a link on some other site, but I wanted to post it here.

I love his framing devices of turnstiles and elevators. Also his seeming non-chalance and stealth in getting these. People know he's there, but he's turned away, reading a magazine or looking in a different direction. And must just be releasing the shutter at the right time without anyone the wiser. Now... he must have been using a tripod. I wonder if he had a permit for that in the subway?

PDN blog

Photo District News now has a blog. I guess it's been up since May, just noticed it. Good mix of photo-related news and photographer projects.

Beautiful work: The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings

The Morning News has a beautiful gallery up today. The work is by Kaylynn Deveney, a PhD student in photographic studies at the University of Wales. She's had book published recently of images she's taken of her elderly neighbor, Bert, over a period of several years. They are so delicate and gentle and like you're just at the end of the world with this gentleman. Quite a few steps past the ordinary and right before stepping over the edge. There's an interview with Deveney accompanying the gallery. The best part though is the captions to the images, written by Bert himself.

Love it.