Went down to Oakland last Friday to pick up the youngest daughter, who was finishing up a summer school course in photography at the California College of the Arts. It's in the family - lots of artists on her mother's side, and photographers on both.
While Oakland has a bad reputation internationally, up in the hills where the school was it's still pretty upper class, although very leftist. She had lots of fun hanging out with some interesting people (her roommate was from Turkey, of all places), but the wife and I are glad to have her back.
Below is her work on display. It's the big picture on the left, then the next eight in two rows of four.
While there her brother the 17 year old practiced his street photography, an odd art in itself. I like these two best.
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And it wouldn't be the Bay Area without at least one hippie van. Naturally, we came across one right there on the street. Beautiful. I can just imagine Cheece and Chong behind the wheel in a cloud of fragrant smoke.
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I remember spending a fortune on film, paper and chemicals as a kid. Is it still an expensive hobby? Are the savings made possible by digital media eaten up by other things?
ReplyDeleteAs always, nice pics.
Digital has made a huge difference in lowering the cost. I well remember the film days, and the care that each exposure took to get as right as possible the first time. Now, you can see the image immediately, and delete without cost if you don't like it. The computer is your photo lab, and you only print what you really like. One of the things they make the kids do is take 50 images a day, and 150 on weekends, at a minimum, as there is essentially no cost to it, and it gives you much raw material to work with. It's a new and much better world for photographers.
DeleteI remember developing and enlarging B/W photos in the '50's with my dad. When I cleaned out my mom's garage recently I found the photo enlarger my dad had built after the war. The frame was carved from a piece of redwood and the lens and light were mounted in a 1 gallon anti-freeze can. It looked like Edison himself had made it but it worked great.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, Lou. Your dad was a real life armchair engineer and inventor.
DeleteI really like the shot of the telephone/utilities pole. I love photography that captures the elements of "life".
ReplyDeleteArt defines the society. People appropriately define art in so many ways -- but it always comes back to art if you want to understand the culture.
Culture = art = soul = life
DeleteAlways good to have the kids back - Glad your daughter had a good time!
ReplyDeleteFrom your l7 year old - reflection in a window? Or double/triple exposure?
Interesting photo!
It's a reflection of some kind, I'll have to ask him to confirm. Looks kinda like some sort of portal to another world, doesn't it?
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