Prints are done, dropped off at the framer, out of my hands at this point. Two weeks left before the StartUp Art Fair kicks off. I’ll on the top floor of the Hotel Del Sol, room 325. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Opening night is going to be a bit of a party, with music, drinks and food... Friday the 26th, 7-10pm.
#0585_20 - Death Valley,2017
Come by, dig some art, have a drink… Follow the link for more info…
https://www.startupartfair.com/san-francisco/overview/
Another shoot that got lost in the shuffle, this one with Verronica Kirei in September, probably about a week before my son was born in memory serves. Though I’d finally post a few frames and a couple Polaroids. Check out Verronica’s work at https://www.instagram.com/verronica_/
#0676_17
0677_18
#0678_22A
#0680_17A
p20180916_205
p20180916_207
Still pairing down galleries little by little. Just posted a new batch from the street in 2017, here’s a few selects. More on the way, and lot’s of new prints in the works…
Check out the new gallery at https://www.josephszymanski.com/word-on-the-street-2017
#0504_16A
#0532_05A
#0567_31
Way behind on posts, tons happening, taking part in the 5th annual StartUp Art Fair in San Francisco at the end of April. In the mean time, shot with the lovely Eva Luna way the hell back in September, I think? Either way, here’s a few quick picks, may end up printing a few of these in the next couple weeks… Check out Eva’s work at https://www.instagram.com/earthy.eva/
#0686_35A
#0683_01A
#0683_10A
#0686_32A
#0684_17A
#0684_29A
I’ve been accepted into the 2019 StartUp Art Fair at the Hotel Del Sol in San Francisco, running from April 26th to the 28th. The fair will host over 60 contemporary artists from California to Hawaii, New York to Colorado, Missouri, Maine, and as far away as Switzerland.
What this essentially translates to is, I have less than 60 days to edit, print, mat, frame and hang what amounts to a small solo exhibition. Queue nervous breakdown…
I’m putting a small project together, loosely entitled “Unwritten Notes” that draws from photographs during time spent on the road. Comprised of work covering a span of nearly 15 years, the photographs deal with distance, isolation, personal history, the allure of disappearing and the occasional nod to the overly romanticized notion of the American road trip.
#0250_23A - “Unwritten Notes” The Salton Sea, California 2013
This is the first time in a long while I’ll be showing any amount of my own work. It’ll be fun, and a ton of work to be sure. I’ll be posting some process stuff, behind the scenes, works in progress, etc. Tickets are already on sale, go grab some, it should be a great event with a ton of good work…
Friday April 26th, Saturday the 27th, and Sunday the 28th, at the Hotel Del Sol, 3100 Webster Street in San Francisco, stay tune for more info.
#0172_05 “Unwritten Notes” West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California 2010
Too many years ago when I was too young and too stupid and thought I knew everything I found myself in Jerusalem at the tail end of the second Palestinian Intifada. I look back on this work now with mixed emotions, seems like another lifetime, one that hardly resembles where I am now. Maybe one day I’ll make it back and pick up where I left off. Maybe I won’t. Either way, here’s what’s left, for what it’s worth. / View More…
#iwb_m03 / Bab Huttah Neighborhood, The Old City, Jerusalem, 2002
#iwb_a05 / Azza Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, Palestine, 2002
#iwb_m07 / Outside Bethlehem, Palestine, 2002
Been sifting through a bunch of work, both new and old, breaking things up into smaller more manageable pieces… Starting with the Word On The Street gallery I’m breaking it up by year and moving older work to an archive page, where I’ll be posting more galleries from years past. I’ll be rolling out more work shortly, in the meantime, a few highlights from the street in 2018…
#0693_27A
#0689_32A
#0661_07A
#0634_22A
Horrifically behind on literally everything. New posts coming soon, working on some updates to my site as well, new work, old work, bits and pieces… In the mean time, a rather random take from a shoot with Keira Grant way back in August, enjoy…
#0670_06A
#0670_02A
#0670_23A Venus With Fly Trap
#0670_24A Venus With Fly Trap
#0671_27A
#0671_30A
Back home, things have slowed down considerably, or at least my alcohol intake has tapered off considerably. Florida is just plain strange. More on this later.
Been thinking a lot about prints lately, tangible objects, 3 dimensional things you can hold. I haven’t printed nearly enough of my own work save for the occasional one off and the odd digital proof. Contemplating putting a small zine together of recent work, concerning signs, bundled with a darkroom print in a limited run.
Happy 2019... This will be the year of prints…
About eleven years ago I took a part time gig at the Academy of Art University as a lab tech on the night shift. Not the most glamorous of positions to say the least, but I was flat broke and coming off a very long very disastrous and entirely tragic endeavour with a group of photographers that turned out to be a half million dollar con job. Honestly I was just trying to keep from getting evicted at that point.
Final prints submitted by Ian Chen
I lab teched for a few semesters, eventually moved up to full time, supervised the lab at night for a bit, started running the pool of camera equipment and the small studio in the New Media department. The director knew my background was in photography and offered me a class, and things just sort of snow balled from there. I started teaching more, did some workshops, re-wrote the class once or twice, and somehow a decade went by. This past Friday I taught my last class as a full time employee of the Academy of Art University. I am officially unemployed.
Final prints submitted by Ashley Davies
I'll continue to teach and do workshops going forward but only on a part time basis. My days of fixing cameras and lights and projectors and asking people if they turned it off and turned it back on again are over. I'm looking forward to spending less time in front of a screen and more time in a classroom for sure. Teaching was always the part of my time there that I enjoyed the most, and I'd like to do more of it in the future if I can. It's been quite a ride to say the least, I've worked with some amazing people, and seen a lot of folks come and go. If you'd have told me when I started that I'd spend a decade there I'd have said you're crazy, but such is life, and so it goes.
I'm in Florida at the moment, with family for the holidays, enjoying some long awaited down time with my wife and the new baby, looking forward to a quiet Christmas and a low key New Year. Turning the page on one chapter and ready to start another...
Misfit images, in no particular order…
#0688_03A Japan Town
#0688_07A Castro Station
#0688_30A Market Street
#0689_32A 24 Divisadero Bus
#0689_34A 18th and Castro Street
#0669_10A New Montgomery Street
#0689_36A Self Portrait, Muni Elevator
Like most platforms, it was only a matter of time. It lasted longer than most.
Tumblr’s decision to ban all NSFW content on December 17th is not simply ludicrous, it’s the last nail in the coffin. Why it feels strangely synonymous with opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, I can’t really say. Perhaps it was simply the last best place, to borrow a phrase. I do know it’s all we had left.
I wonder Tumblr, will you ban hate and bigotry as not safe for work? Will you ban Terry Richardson for his brand of exploitation? Will ban the Kardashians in various states of undress? How about Miley Cyrus?
As of this evening, they have not.
What I do know is that “fine art nude” currently produces no search results, where as “White Power” returns thousands of posts.
Apparently violence and racial propaganda, among other things, are still safe for work.
Will you erase entirely what so many have created? Will you destroy creative work that you consider morally dubious while condoning the voices of intolerance?
Will you return my personal information and browsing history when you inevitably decide to erase my feed?
Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, was quoted after acquiring Tumblr “We promise not to screw it up.”
You had one job.
We’ve built these 9 headed hydras. We show up, we create our content, we deliver it for free, we publish, we push, we link, we share. They take it all, and give us the “privilege.” It’s the ultimate case of work on spec. Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, we drive these platforms. But let’s be honest, it’s not about the user, it’s about profitability. It’s about ad revenue. It’s about corporate advertisers being more afraid of sex than they are of racism. This is about app stores. This is about stock price.
This is about censorship. This is about legislating taste.
I’ve discovered, followed, met and interacted with some truly talented individuals on Tumblr. I’ve been exposed to creatives of all types, genres and disciplines that I would have never stumbled upon had it not been for this platform. I’ve shared a great deal of my own work in the process, and found it overwhelmingly fulfilling more often than not.
But it was just a matter of time.
God Speed Tumblr, it was fun while it lasted.
First take from a quick shoot with Keira Grant back in August.
Check out her Instagram here… https://www.instagram.com/keiragrantart/
#0668_10A
#0668_12A
#0668_07A
#0667_06
#0667_07
#0667_33
#0667_34
#0668_33A
#0668_35A
Sometimes I’m worried where San Francisco is heading. Sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I’m worried one day all the weirdos will be gone. Sometimes I’m worried we’re just completely failing the ones who are left.
#0664_33 Powell Station
#0663_36 Market Street
#0663_16 Mission Street
#0672_22 Market Street
#0672_06 Mission Street
#0672_01 New Montgomery Street
#0672_19 New Montgomery Street
It was a rough entry. Babies come with hats. Ours was 8 pounds, 8.9 ounces and 22 inches long…. With nice ears, close to the head, as my very Polish Auntie Dorothy used to say…
Joanna, 18th Street, 8 1/2 months pregnant.
Joanna, Cafe Le Morais, 3 days before delivery.
September 26th, Kaiser Hospital, San Francisco.
Kaiser Hospital, September 27th.
Self Portrait as a Father, Sans Child.
Bed time, Eureka Street House.
2am, Eureka Street House.
Sometimes I hate color. Sometimes I can’t decide. My wife likes to tell people I’m color blind. They believe her because she’s a doctor.
Word on the street, in Kodak Portra 400…
#0663_02 Mission Street
#0663_31 Minna Street
#0663_12 2nd Street Office Park
#0664_11 3rd Street
Last take with Adrianna in the studio back in June, with yet another not so thinly veiled homage to Helmut. Still miss that ladder…
#0650_22
#0650_15
#0650_19
0649_08A
#0649_17A
#0652_05
#0652_09
#0652_10
Last of the weirdness with Jessie in the studio, a thinly veiled homage to the late, great Helmut Newton… my contractor ran off with the little old wooden ladder in these photographs and I’m really bummed about it…
Check out Jessi’s work here… https://www.instagram.com/epicallyjessically/
#0643_04
#0643_09
#0643_00
#0643_24
#0644_35
#0644_11
#0644_23
Snapshots from a summer that’s almost gone, at least by San Francisco standards… Hoping to be back to a semi-normal post schedule soon…
#0659_17 - Castro Street
#0659_07 - New Montgomery Street
#0661_04A - Market Street
#0661_07A - Market Street
#0662_00A - O’Farrell Street
#0659_15 - “Happy and Healthy”
#0661_03A - Powell and Market Streets.
#0662_15A - Market Street
So we had a baby about 2 weeks ago, and I’ve been laying pretty low ever since. Hoping to post more work soon, I’ve got quite a bit on deck, but as was expected, I’m a bit busy. Here are a few Polaroids, because sometimes me and the boy get bored at night so we take pictures.
Thomas Eveland Szymanski, born September 26th, 5:21AM, 8 pounds, 8.9 ounces. Nice ears, close to the head, as my Polish grandmother used to say. He’s got my wife’s nose and my perpetually grumpy scowl…