STEELWORKER SCULPTURE

STEELWORKERS, #2, UNION SQUARE



STEELWORKERS, #1, UNION SQUARE

Which one do you like better. I like #2 better because of the trees in the background and I think having a better sense of the entire sculpture. In case you can't tell, or haven't seen this before - it is actually sitting atop a truck, and I suppose can be moved around the city. Whether it is an exact reproduction in sculpture of the famous photograph (was that one done while building the Empire State Building?) I don't know. But I haven't seen this before in Union Square and my initial reaction was: only in New York.

Dad's Birthday in Tarrytown

Back from two days at the Marriot Tarrytown Hotel. It was the annual family reunion for the patriarchs birthday. I used to think that I could find something to shoot anywhere - but as I stood on the 10th floor balcony overlooking the parking lot with the highway in the background and some office building that looked like it has just landed and unfolded - I thought long and hard about pressing the shutter and concluded that as sterile as it was - it wasn't worth a 1/36th of a roll of film.

And I guess you got me there. Stick me in the suburbs and although I've seen work by artists about this tortured sterile land - I don't want to document it. I don't. You can't make me press the shutter.

And inside the hotel. A major dance contest - mostly ballroom. Little girls heavily made-up with their hair tied back. Bigger girls marching their little potential contest winners around.

Help me Ronda. They've taken me to another planet. I can leave any time I want - so long as the cake has been served and the presents for the octogenarian handed out.

Presents - my dad asks me if I'll buy him a CD changer (5-CDs) and then calls (after I've bought it) to declaim that he has thought better of it and that he doesn't have room for a CD changer. How would I like to have the CD changer for my birthday (in December) instead.

He has no room? He lives in a five room apartment in Long Island - each room as large as my entire apartment.

No - he has talked with his companion and there is no room. And he would just like to see me. That's all the present he wants.

Dang. Now what. I can return it. Maybe I'll find a spot for it.

But I only have one thing to say, "What a wasteland" out there. How do you do it? So happy to come back to my tiny apartment in what I will call a freakin' neighborhood. I need a neighborhood to be happy. Hey - Johnny! What's goin' on.

Noodle Shop

Noodle Shop, Times Square - 2006

Padlock

Padlock, 2006

Purple Haze

Before I soup my next two rolls of tri-x - question. Lately my tri-x has retained a slight purpleness - i.e. the film hasn't gone to clear.

Am I not giving it enough time / hypo?

Too much time in the hypo?

I'm using Ilford Rapid Fix for 5 minutes, shaking every 30 secs. This is pretty much what I've been doing forever. Then I wash it for about 30 minutes.

What've I done wrong? I have three rolls to soup.

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Consensus is that the hypo isn't doing enough of it's thing (too cold, weak, not enough time). That's the easiest thing to fix (no pun intended) as I can take a piece of this film and put it through the fix again and see what happens.

I ended up down in Times Square around 11 p.m. (after seeing Spamalot) - and I was just having this great time with my new 35mm summicron buddy. I had been creeping through one roll of film over the last week or so - nursing it along - and then ZOOM!!! Times Square took over and neurons sped up; stuff was zipping around, and although I was shooting at f2, I could watch as people walked in and out of focus and just see it so clearly.

Oh - Spamalot is a great show if you like Monty Python humor (I'm a fan from way back). From even before - Beyond the Fringe - Peter Cooke et. al. Anyway - this was a tremendous production and frankly - when I left - I felt like I could sit through it again if someone would give me another ticket. Special kudos to the lady in the lake who stole my heart.

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THANKS ALL. I doubled the hypo time to 10 minutes and negs. look the way they should.

Articles Blog

I'm moving the articles into a blog format so people can comment on them. I've just put the first one in. This I would expect, would be more of a repository than a fluid blog.

PHOTO TECH BLOG

Boy on Bench, Paris

Here's Boy on Bench 1/100 on eBay. I think it's pretty special. I know that a lot of readers of this blog liked it when I first posted it, but I'm not sure if this will sell or not since my own experience is that scenics, architecture etc. sell better than anonymous people.



Boy on Bench on eBay

d.u.m.b.o. on eBay

I put 1/100 up on eBay. dumbo on eBay doesn't sound appetizing but this is a good print. Yeah, there's a reserve - I'm not going to sell it for $25 or whatever but it's still a bargain.



Here's the link to the item on eBay.

SOLD. That went fast. Let me see what else I've still got a number one of.

So is knowing the actual edition number something that makes a difference - or only if it is the 1/100. Let me know. I never went through the trouble of integrating the print number with my cart so that it would bump up after a sale was made. Maybe I should. Maybe it only makes a difference if it is 1/100 or 100/100.

Going to St. Pat's Parade

Going to Parade

Top Twenty Selling Prints

Whether this should be the main entry point to the store with a link to All Prints or not - I don't know, but here are the top 20 on the Beckerman hit parade:

Top 20 Sellers

Fountain, Wall Street

Fountain, Wall Street, 2000

update 5

After raising - more than doubling print prices - orders started coming in again. Go figure.

I have my list of ten A-List galleries and I'm working on a portfolio so that I can visit and probably be rejected by same. In political parlance, rejection isn't a problem - it's a challenge.

Anyway - I've ordered several small portfolio boxes from Light Impressions and my plan is to print about twenty 6 x 9's on the good paper for each portfolio and then hand-deliver them to my A-List.

At the same time - I'm raising prices so that they will eventually be more in line with what gallery prices will be.

My neighbor asked for a print of D.U.M.B.O. (Manhattan Bridge) and he shall get one as he's given me lots and lots of free music.

Just as a bit of trivia - to date the highest priced print I've sold was an 8 x 12 Window of Met. print #1 for $750 at a soho gallery. And I did a show in Connecticut a few years ago where I sold an 16 x 20 print (low number) of Subway Car Empty for $700. That may sound like a lot - but on the Conn. trip I stayed at a hotel, rented a car - and did a lot of framing for prints that didn't sell. All in all - though I sold about six prints - that was a break-even show.

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Anyway - my shooting is picking up again. I just grab the M3 with the 35mm lens and goggles on and just take it with me while I do my errands. And I'm starting to go through film again. I do carry a handheld meter, but I'm using it less and less.

One other point - I was using the M3 with goggles on subway this morning - and I was very out in the open about aiming and taking pictures. People didn't seem to mind at all - and I think it's that the camera looks so ancient that they just see it (and me) as a curiosity rather than a danger.