Modern Baseball, Bled Fest 2013
Adventures, Bled Fest 2013
october/ the death of things | photo book release
“october/the death of things” is a collaboration between photographer, Joe Librandi-Cowan and writer, Eric Hirsh. All images made were inspired by Hirsh’s text, “october/the death of things.” The resulting project has been released as a self-published photo book.
To purchase the photo book, please email Joe: joelibrandicowan@gmail.com
The books are $6 local pick up or $8 shipped!
SISTER ROSE, 2012. Crown Graphic 4x5, Portra 400
I made this portrait this summer. Sister Rose is a very close friend of the family. I took this on the day of my grandpa’s funeral. She’s very close with my grandpa’s sister and has watched me grow up. I’ve always thought her face told such a powerful story.
I was digging through my files and I found some images from the end of summer that I never got around to posting. I shot these at the New York State Fair. I had originally planned on shooting 4x5 - maybe that’s what I’ll do next year. I kind of wish I got some portraits, but this made the day a little more interesting.
I’ll be posting more from my summer archives shortly.
Photo-related rant
Nothing is more disappointing than somehow ruining your film. I spent hours shooting yesterday and when I developed the images there was nothing on my negatives. It wouldn’t be a huge deal normally, but these were special images. Images I have no idea how to recreate. I spent weeks thinking about them, planning, preparing. I had never made images like these and I was really excited to see them. I put all of my mental energy into making them and that’s all been lost. I felt kind of dumb for getting so upset about it, but I guess I never realized how emotionally close I am with my work. It feels like loosing a part of who you are at a certain moment, as stupid as that may sound. Yes, they’re images. I can take them again. But can I make them the same way? I really don’t think so. The worst part is not knowing what happened. I did nothing differently than I usually do and I’ve been developing film for over 4 years, almost weekly. And this is the first time I’ve ever had anything like this happen. The only thing I can think of it being is fixer contamination from my presoak tank or fixer in the developer tank. And I have no idea how that would happen. I guess I should try to make them again, I’m just not sure if they’ll be what I want now. And I’m worried about getting the person to model again and the fact that it’ll be cold when we shoot again. I’m going to attempt to stop worrying and just focus on reshooting. But this has just taken a lot out of me, mixed with everything else going on in my life right now. I guess I’m just a little upset by the whole thing. I could use some inspiration right now.
Funeral, 2012. Yashica 124G, Expired Tri-X 320
I feel like I’ve been struggling lately with having my individual images tell the visual story. I feel like my images work better in a series. Before I started still photography, I was very interested in cinematography. My early influences came from film. I think some of my images have a cinematic quality to them because of this. I guess I still think cinematically - I see events or people as a series of images, not always as a single image with a large amount of information in it. I don’t know if this is a good thing or not. I feel like it’s a bad thing at times, because photography should be powerful enough to tell the story much quicker than film can. I feel like I should be able to capture everything in one image, but I can’t. Aside from that feeling, I actually like the aesthetic choice of having the mini photo essay to tell the story. I guess I’m just afraid that my images have to rely on each other to make sense. And I know it’s something I need to work on.
I saw Alec Soth speak in Syracuse about a year ago, and he talks a lot about “connecting the dots” between images. This is something that I hadn’t completely thought about. What’s the story between my images? I started thinking a lot differently about my work after this lecture.
Here’s a quote from Alec in an article published after the lecture I atended:”A problem I have with so much photography is that it’s just a collection of pictures,” he said, adding that books are the most powerful narrative vehicle in photography. The photographer, however, must connect the dots and tell a story through his work.” (http://www.thenewshouse.com/blog/connect-dots)
I think this is what I’m attempting to do with my work. I’m making images that show part of the story, but they don’t give it away completely. And I’m also trying not to be extremely literal with my presentation. In other words, I’m not trying to show A+B=C. I’m trying to show and connect the “dots” without being too literal. And I’m trying to not have my work just be “a collection of pictures.”
I think I have a lot of work to do, but the concept seems to be working.
I’d like to know what people think about this series of images. Do the images make sense? What’s the story you see? I’d love some constructive criticism. It would be much appreciated.
I feel like I should add that photographing at the funeral was my way of dealing with the day. I don’t feel like the images are distasteful at all. If they are, then I apologize. Some people write or make music to cope with these types of situations. I make images. I made these images on the day of my grandpa’s calling hours. He was the last grandparent I had left. He was 92 years old and pretty much the only thing holding our family together. I guess, overall, that’s what was on my mind all day. I kind of felt pretty distant from the whole situation. I observed family members form their usual cliques - some ignoring others, some nervously talking to the members they hadn’t seen in years. The whole situation was pretty upsetting. Maybe that’s what made me take the images. It’s the only thing that really made me feel any better. So there’s my explanation on why I shot at a funeral, if anyone was wondering.
