January 21, 2010
Dear clusterflock
On the heels of Sheila’s post, what in your [house/loft/apartment/shoe] piles up first? My studio just seems to grow scarves.
What this says about me…
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comments:
- Joel Bernstein: I know right?
- Rick Neece: Being nice is a dainty way to put it.
- Rick Neece: Hey Cristopher? Who cried “uncle” first, at the end of your ten-year stand-off? To quote my...
- Michael Smith: Ours is the kitchen.
- Amy Mabli: That’s what happens when you give the dogs the bed.
- Deron Bauman: Sweet Jesus.
- Michael Smith: Don’t we all.
- Pam: I have a story coming out soon in a ‘little mag’, Chicago Quarterly Review. An old friend recently...
- Pam: And I thought, somedays, that my work was meaningless…
- Pam: I remember Eggleston at the Art Institute in Chicago a couple years ago. He was elegantly dressed in a dark suit...
- Christopher Walken: Hey Clusterflockers, Realize y’all are hurting. I’ve been a really close friend of my...
- Marco: This works pretty well in mobile, more so in iOS
- Michael Smith: It was not the intent of management to imply all sissies are “namby pamby”. Management was...
- Rick Neece: I take umbrage with the term “namby pamby.” Some sissies are fierce.
- Carole Corlew: Shelia. Happy no big deal day. I would start your very own post but this phone is in semi rebellion.
Coats and Jackets. I think I own more jackets than I do button down shirts.
cameras.
cardboard boxes.
I’m undergoing an ebay-manual-camera-experiment at the moment. I’m maybe half way through.
I hope.
What does an ebay-manual-camera-experiment look like? Would we know one if we saw it?
I’ve been thinking of it as a giant lending library of sorts. You invest a small amount in a certain camera system and or lenses you want to try, then you sell back the ones you’re not interested in or don’t work for you in order to purchase more camera / lens options until you find the bits and pieces that do.
I’m having fun for sure, and the prices on older manual film cameras (and lenses) is generally great and the quality can be fucking extraordinary.
My roommate has taken it upon herself to festoon the light in my room with unneeded men’s ties from her styling and costuming work. There were about a dozen at last count. I can’t remember the last time I wore a tie.
Deron, that’s sounds extraordinary. Be sure to tell us which bits and pieces turn out to be your favorites, yeah? And no wonder your house is piling up with cameras.
you bet.
it’s been fun. if you buy the right stuff it seems to maintain or increase it’s value, as well as being really well built and beautiful in a way.
I was thinking of doing a series of posts.
Oh, my. A strange mix of valuables and detritus, difficult to characterize. From where I sit, I see an assortment of shoes and boots, at least a third of which I should never have bought, as wearing them causes me pain that approaches nausea. The unpaid bills and dunning letters are not within sight, but I know they are nearby, as are numerous faceless and tailless toy mice. (Most of the mice are hiding under the sofa.)
I could go on at considerable length, but I began today by slipping on ice and conking my head and feel as though I have had my daily ration of humiliation.
Shoes. They tend to creep out and congregate around the coffee table. Pairs and pairs of very stylish flat black shoes.
Also, bras. At any given time, there is generally at least one bra on the bottom stairway landing. Sometimes two. And once I found a bra in a sweater pocket.
clothes. shoes. water glasses. books, oh my god, the books. There are piles of books wherever you look, as I open one and read a bit and set it down, open, so I can get at it again.
Deron, quality film cameras hold their price really well and as you are buying second hand the hit was taken by the previous owner. I have to say I have never bought a bad camera on ebay. I guess it’s a matter of looking at reputation etc.
You gonna move on to medium format?
Rolleicords are a nice more affordable alternative to the Rolleiflex – I bought on years ago that I never use now, it take the sweetest of shots. The trouble is, if you wander down the Hasselblad road you’ll be spoilt for life. Although I have about 15 cameras, I only really use 2 all the time and perhaps another two from time to time – the rest sit waiting for me. I ought to get rid of a few really.
Oh, going back to Kelsey’s question – my big problem is developed film. before I shoot it lives in a fridge out of the way. When developed I scan, but, seem unable to file it. I am surrounded by hundreds of sheets of exposed film!
Phil, I’ve tried medium format a couple times but for my style of shooting — at least so far — the 35mm cameras seem to suit me. Hasselblad cameras use Zeiss glass, yes? it’s great stuff. lately I’ve been acquainting myself with a Leica slr.
Truth be known I find it difficult to get rid of things period! Redundant coins, books, cds, shit I pick up on the street – they are all the source of much discussion in this house.
Paper.
Books. And boxes of books.
Scores of notebooks, large and small, filled with notes and musings pertaining to ‘projects’ I’ve not completed nor, in many instances, even undertaken.
Phil, there’s this Scot I know who went native out in the Pacific, and he has loads more cameras than you do.
Deron, for sure the medium format does require a shift in shooting style. I must say, I fell in love with the square format. I bought a Holga in 2006 and I don’t think I have shot a full roll of 35mm since – I have at least 4 35mm cameras that have film in them since 2006 – 2 Nikons, a Leica and a Minox – I just have no desire to shoot anything other than square. The only concession I have made is a Polaroid 600SE I bought. That will take the Fuji instant film which isn’t square and it does take the sweetest shots.
format — and preference for format — is an interesting discussion. I’m drawn to the 2:3 of 35mm film, but like you say, once a format grabs you, that’s the end of it.
Sheila, yes, a bit like a mad cat woman!
you get the format with something like a Mamiya 7ii, Rangefinder, dead portable, giant negative, built in metering.
I’ve thought about that.
Mail. We have no system for dealing with the mail. It just piles up in one place or another. It’s rare that we open a bill, we just pay it online and that’s it so they tend to pile up with the penny savers and other junk we collect.
It that what that paper stuff piling up on my desk is called?
Dee. Vee. Dees.
And books, of course.
And paper ephemera, in general.
nothing of use.