San Francisco weirdness just never gets old... May of 2018...
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Sarah, Take #1
Sarah was good enough to come by and shoot last minute after another model flaked. Always good shooting with her... Been working on and off with Sarah since 2010...
Great window light in this new space I found, looking forward to shooting more there in the near future...
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Word On The Street...
It Technicolor... From April and May, some local color from around The City...
Rain Delay with Amber Kourtney
I've known Amber for some years now, and even though I haven't shot with her as much as some other models, regardless of how long it's been since we last collaborated, it usually takes us all of 30 seconds to get into a groove and start making good images. She's fun to work with, energetic, and always brings something to the table...
We decided we were going to attempt to shoot in the rain. How hard could it be, it rains all winter in Northern California right? Queue drought...
The first go round it was literally 68 degrees and sunny. So much for emo weather, but it was a good shoot none the less. We postponed for a bit, mostly due to my talent for breaking bones. After healing up, we gave it another go, this time it rained all day, stopped for the 2 hours that we were shooting, then picked up again later that night and didn't stop for a week.
Third time is a charm apparently. We did this shoot in my backyard late one afternoon. It was absolutely pouring and we had an hour and a half worth of light at best. Things finally seemed to go our way. Then we got drunk and ate stir fry.
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Self Esteem
For whatever reason, while feeling nostalgic I suppose, and sifting through images for the Word On The Street gallery, I started sorting out some of the self portraits I randomly snap from time to time. I've plugged 30 or so of the images into a new gallery, Self Esteem...
#0195_15 - Post Street Studio. San Francisco, 2011.
The gallery goes back about 15 years, I've certainly got a lot less beard (and grey hair) in most of them. See if you can pick out when I got married, my wife started feeding me, and I promptly put on 30 pounds...
#0589_20 - San Francisco, 2017.
#0567_19 - Elevator. Washington, D.C., 2017.
Updates to Portraits, Figures, Etc.
Dumped a bunch of new images in the Portraits, Figures, Et Cetera gallery... a few highlights are posted below. Always looking for new people to shoot, if interested, please reach out...
#0597_06A - Juno, 2018.
#0618_01A - Sarah, 2018.
#0606_07A - Amber, 2018.
"Word On The Street" 2003 - 2018
Started pouring over old work one night serveral weeks ago, ended up completely revamping the gallery of street photographs posted here...
#0001_15 - Mission Street. San Francisco, 2003.
#0511_12A - Amboy, California, 2017.
After sifting through about 15 years worth of scans, I've posted around 120 images comprised of work going back to 2003 in reverse chronological order.
Everything is captioned and numbered, so if anyone is interested in prints, drop me a line with the reference number and I'll knock one out for you...
I'm treating this as a continuous work in progress, I'll be adding more images to it as I go. It's more of a living archive than a coherent piece, so keep an eye on it for new work posted semi-regularly.
#0287_14 - Hornstull Tunnelbana. Stockholm, 2014.
I have to say it's rather satisfying, on a personal level, to see this much work going back 15 years all in one place...
Check out the gallery at http://josephszymanski.com/word-on-the-street/
Rantings of a misanthropic art school instructor...
Teaching can be amazingly satisfying, and incredibly frustrating... I often tell my students that when I began teaching I was, in fact, young and pretty, and that the grizzled, grey-bearded fountain of sarcasm they see before them is a result of past students slowly driving me insane. This is only half true. I've always been sarcastic, abrasive and mildly crazy, just not grey...
Having just wrapped up the spring semester, I'd like to offer some words of wisdom to my students, present and future. Words that I know will most likely never find them, since I'm not posting this to my instagram story.
Nonetheless, in no particular order...
Care about something. Anything, doesn't matter what. Have an opinion, any sort of opinion. Show some passion. It's ok to be wrong, just be something. "I don't know" is not a suitable answer to anything, ever, and I'm tired of hearing it. I would rather see you fail miserably in an epic fiery explosion than watch you eek out a resounding "meh." Put a little heart into it... you've got to care.
Put down your phone. Please. I realize this makes me sound like an old codger (which I am), but for the love of all that is holy, just put it down. I get that there is stuff happening and you have an algorithmically enhanced case of FOMO but for Christ's sake please, just for a minute, pay attention to what's going on around you. Engage with people, have a conversation, try and relate to your peers and your classmates on a personal level. The relationships you build are going to be worth so much more than the likes you acquire. I promise, the algorithm will have plenty of crap for you to look at later. It's also horrifically rude in a class. Seriously. Talk to a real person instead.
Learn to articulate yourself. This isn't about slang. Language changes, words and phrases fall in and out of favor with time, geography, pop culture, etc. Most of the time my own wife can't understand me because of my gratuitous use of mid-western colloquialisms, enhanced (or exacerbated) by my consumption of bourbon... However, I can tell you from experience, nothing is worse than not being able to articulate yourself to those around you. Read, listen, ask questions, learn to use your words, this is important.
Last and certainly not least... Do your homework.
Juno, Take #2
Second take with Juno from February... more of the amazing window light in this space I've been shooting in... everything below was shot entirely with available light.
Check out Juno's work at https://instagram.com/juno_ltk/. More scans coming soon...
Amber, Rooftop Take #2
Second take from a shoot with Amber on a roof at night in the rain... the rain that didn't quite cooperate, but nonetheless made for some interesting (and very cold) shooting...
Check out Amber's work at https://www.instagram.com/anudemuse/
Word On The Street...
As always, a little randomness from the street... and a random frame from my mother's pool in Florida from a little vacation we took last month...
Amber, Rooftop Take #1
Yes, it seemed entirely normal when Amber said to me "we should totally shoot in the rain at night on this rooftop that I have access to." Because that's the way she rolls. Rain didn't exactly cooperate, though it was still colder than a well digger's ass up there...
Check out Amber's work at https://www.instagram.com/anudemuse/
March For Our Lives
The March For Our Lives, March 24th, 2018, in San Francisco. What a sad and tragic thing to have to stage, but nonetheless amazing that so many people, and so many young students, came out to voice their opinion, in grief and anger, we're fed up, we're tired of guns, this must stop.
Juno, Take #1
First take on film with Juno from February... amazing window light in this space I've been shooting in recently. Everything below was shot on Ilford HP5 400 film with available light only. Check out Juno's work at https://instagram.com/juno_ltk/. More scans coming soon...
Sonia, Portraits
So for a few years now we've had these little get togethers, some models and photographers and creative types, it was all started by Sonia on her birthday a while back and it's been a thing ever since. Things tend to get weird. Thought I'd share a few portraits I shot last time around of Sonia, just for giggles. You can see more of her work at https://www.instagram.com/googlymonstor/
That's Cat, who jumped in there randomly in the last couple frames... you can see Cat's work at https://www.instagram.com/catalinacruise/
Juno, Polaroids
Still working through a giant pile of films scans, but was able to clean up the Polaroids from my February shoot with Juno. My stash is now down to 5 boxes of color and 11 boxes of black and white polaroid pack film, and then that's it... gone, no more, forever. Such a shame...
Word On The Street...
Buried in scans and grades and students and other stuff, not much time for wandering the streets these days, and the rain definitely puts a damper on things... For now a few frames from the past couple months. Got a lot on deck, more scans and Polaroids and what not to come...
Juno, Digital Tests...
Shot with Juno, a new(ish) model a few weeks back. Yes her name is actually Juno, which is rad. The model I was supposed to shoot with before her flaked 12 hours earlier, Juno was good enough to come in early...
Word of advice, if you're going to flake on a photographer, or flake on a model for that matter, writing to them 12 hours before shoot time saying "hey yeah I'm sick so not gonna make it 2morrow, u free next weekend? lol" is not the way to go about it.
Juno on the other hand is a great communicator and wonderful to work with. Check out more of her work here: https://www.instagram.com/juno_ltk/. Polaroid and film scans to come shortly...
Notes From The Desert
There's something about the desert, I don't know what. It's amazing how much nothing is out there...
Hwy. 101 South
Ridgecrest, CA
Ridgecrest, CA
I highly recommend these rad "Eco Pods" we found outside Ridgecrest. There are 2 sleeping pods and a bathroom pod with a huge open shower, all solar powered. A kitchen pod is currently under construction...
Panamint Valley, CA
Panamint Valley, CA
Panamint Valley, CA
Heading east toward Death Valley things get empty. Who are the people that put weird stuff on the side of the road in these places? I've never once in my life thought "hey, I should put a big ass cross on the side of this desert road, that would be awesome."
Death Valley, CA
The signage amazes me... it's a road literally in the middle of nowhere. It goes to the left, and to the right. It gets a sign, so nobody goes straight? By accident? I'm confused...
Badwater Basin, Death Valley, CA
Death Valley, CA
Hwy 5, CA
Anyway it makes for great road tripping...
Education Is The Silver Bullet
The President of the United States wants to arm teachers and pay them more money because “I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected...”
Let that sink in for a minute.
I grew up around guns, Michigan loves their firearms. I learned how to fire a weapon long before I could drive a car or vote or buy a beer. We'd burn through a thousand rounds of ammunition in a weekend like it was nothing.
I'm also a teacher. I've taught university level photography courses in San Francisco for almost ten years now. I've taught one of the most diverse student bodies around, about half of which are international students. I've had good students, I've had bad students, I've had very strange students, I've had students that I honestly believe needed professional psychiatric help.
Don't ask me to put a bullet in any one of them.
We have such staggering wealth in this country, wealth that seems almost immeasurable at times. Schools should be temples, filled with knowledge, books, facts and figures. Our schools should made of solid gold. Our educational budget should be double that of the Pentagon.
Education is the silver bullet. Not firearms.
People claim mental health is the issue... if the shooter is white. Muslims are terrorists, black people are criminals, white kids are "disturbed" or "sick." You want to stop school shootings? Stop giving kids guns. A 10 day waiting period before an 18 year old can get an Uzi is not a sensible solution, mental illness notwithstanding.
Access to weapons and ammunition is not a mental health issue.
To drive a car I must be of proper age, trained, tested, licensed and insured. I must renew that license on a regular basis. If I hit something with my car or act stupid with my car or drink and drive a car they take that license away.
Why should it be any different for a firearm?
People want to talk about freedom. Guns aren't freedom, they are weapons. People talk about protecting their families. Guns are for killing, not protecting. People like to say that criminals don't obey the law, so why ban guns for law abiding citizens? Locks only keep out the honest people, but we still lock our doors don't we. People like to talk about keeping the government in check, that the people have a right to fight back. If you think your personal arsenal is going to hold back the largest military force on earth, I have a bridge to sell you...
Guns aren't a check against tyranny, the rule of law is.
Schools aren't banks, that's why we don't protect them as such, the toddler in the White House should know that. Banks have money in them, people rob them for the money. People don't come to schools with weapons to steal things. They come to schools with weapons to kill people, because that's what weapons are for.
If you put weapons in schools, get ready for a body count.
Education is the silver bullet. Not firearms. I am an educator. Don't ask me to put a bullet in anyone...