Notes From The Road

#0463_02A - Somewhere in Oregon. August of 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford HP5 400.

We finally made the trek up to Eugene, Oregon, by way of Ashland to see a family friend, and to visit Cougar Hot Springs, which is quite possibly my favorite place on earth...

It was the first time I'd ventured anywhere without crutches or a cane since breaking my leg in May, but soaking in hot water for 5 days took the edge off. Felt good to be on the road for a while, seems like the summer just sort of melted away this year...

Safe to say this may have been the last long haul for our beat up old Honda... what with a bad front end and no air conditioning, I think it's about time to put her down.

#0464_08A - Joanna, Oregon. August of 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

#0462_14A - Highway 5 North, August of 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0470_25A - Yosemite Valley, October of 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford HP5 400.

Randomly ended up in Yosemite Valley in October with some old friends for a day... Hadn't been through there in years, and I completely forgot what a circus it is during the high season. Additionally, the last time I was out that way, selfie sticks weren't yet a thing... Strange to take a step back and see just what's become of this great American Landscape.

#0470_18A - Yosemite Valley, October of 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford HP5 400.

#0470_15A - Yosemite Valley, October of 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

Alison, Take Two...

#0459_35A - Alison, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

Through editing the last couple rolls from a shoot with Alison in May (see the first set here)... mostly with the 35 and 21mm. I've always found wide lenses kind of interesting in a studio setting, gives a sense of depth that's often lost with long glass.

Still really bummed that I've got no studio access, though it's forced me to try new things and new locations. Necessity is the mother of invention after all. Have a few shoots in the queue on location that I'll be posting over the next month.

Also watch for a new print release in the next week or two... been slaving away in the darkroom working on some old and new material. Head over to Patreon if you want to get in on early, discounted prints...

 

#0460_03A - Alison, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford FP4 125.

#0460_03A - Alison, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford FP4 125.

#0460_20A - Alison, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford FP4 125.

#0460_36A - Alison, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford FP4 125.

#0460_31A - Alison, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford FP4 125.

The Emperor Has No Balls

I'm going to stand on a soap box for a minute, because I just want to put a few things in writing, for the record, for my own piece of mind, just for the sake of saying it.

"The Emperor Has No Balls" Statue by Las Vegas based horror artist Ginger. Castro District, San Francisco, California 2016.

I'm tired of the false equivalency. Donald Trump is a privileged white man who inherited a metric fuck ton of money from his father, ran a bunch of companies into the ground, gamed the system, stiffed his employees, paid no taxes, and made a reality TV show where he fires people, who now says the system is rigged against him while whining that a Supreme Court Justice was mean to him. Cry me a river...

He brags about sexually assaulting women, then belittles the appearance of those women who have accused him of such acts. Who knew that G.O.P. stood for Grab Our Pussy...

He is alleged to have purposefully walked in on minors in a state of undress at a pageant he operates.

Just let that sink in...

He is openly undermining the integrity of the election process with absolutely no evidence what so ever that there is any fraud taking place.

News organizations are now hiring security for their correspondents while attending Trump rallies because of the violence he promotes against the press and the danger his supporters present.

He is racist, sexist, xenophobic, and quite frankly, a pig. All this aside, I am appalled at an educational system that produces voters that seem to think any of this is ok, and I am appalled at the Republican leadership that says nothing in the face of such disgusting, dangerous rhetoric. I'm looking at you Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell...

Hilary Clinton is quite possibly the most qualified person ever to seek the presidency of the United States. You might not agree with all of her policies, I certainly don't. But to compare her to Donald Trump is absolutely, in no uncertain terms, completely and entirely ludicrous.

Donald Trump is a joke, and it's not funny anymore. Get out and vote.

New Prints, October 2016

Slowly getting everything migrated over to the new platform... working on getting some new prints listed in the shop. Will hopefully be adding more as I go through some past negatives that I've been meaning to print. For now have a look at the print shop for the most recent additions... and as always, stay tuned for more... 

 No. 0363_23A - Castro Street Station. San Francisco, California. June of 2015.

 No. 0363_23A - Castro Street Station. San Francisco, California. June of 2015.

No. 0369_07 - Rodeo Beach, Marin County, CA. July of 2015.

No. 0369_07 - Rodeo Beach, Marin County, CA. July of 2015.

No. 0419_28A - Dogs, Ocean Beach. San Francisco, CA.

No. 0419_28A - Dogs, Ocean Beach. San Francisco, CA.

Doug Johnson 1942 - 2016

My high school photography teacher passed away last week and I have no idea where I'd be without him. I wasn't what you'd call a good student to say the least. My grade point average freshmen year of high school was 0.79 (yes, you read that right). The general consensus was I wouldn't amount to much. Doug Johnson was the first teacher to treat me like a person instead of just another lost cause. He applauded my photographs in front of the class when most people thought of me as just another burnout.

I'd already been fiddling around with cameras for a while before I enrolled in the photography class at Stevenson High School. I'd been looking forward to it all year, and in the first week, after I made my first print in the darkroom, I was hooked, and from then on I didn't want to do anything else. Doug saw my interest and allowed me to pursue it, pushing me in the right directions, letting me work late after school, showing me things that went well beyond the scope of the class. He took me under his wing and I never looked back. I took every photography course the school offered, eventually moving to independent studies, and by my last semester I was spending 4 out of 5 periods a day in the photo room, working on my own photographs, helping set up the darkrooms every day, loading and developing film for other students...

Those of us that spent enough time in the darkrooms came to know him as DJ instead of Mr. Johnson. One of the art teachers, also named Johnson, liked to refer to him as "The Real Mr. Johnson." He taught at Stevenson for 33 years, oddly enough retiring the same year I graduated. I suppose he'd had enough. He was quick with a joke and always happy to see you. He'll be missed to say the least.

God Speed DJ, we'll keep the lights out down here for you...

http://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/local/plymouth/2016/10/07/teacher-pioneered-photography-program-stevenson/91723856/

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/freep/obituary.aspx?n=douglas-w-johnson&pid=181751009&fhid=15366

Alison, First Frames

#0455_31A - Alison, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

Finally have the first few takes from a shoot with Alison Black in May of 2016. Shooting with a new model is typically hit and miss, we didn't click right away, but quickly found a rhythm and got some really good material.

Still have a couple rolls to run from this session, feels like I'm hoarding undeveloped film sometimes.  Watch for another take with a wider view and harsher light...

Sad to say I'm losing my studio access after almost 5 years. Hoping to do more location shoots going forward, getting a bit bored with the studio to be honest, I suppose this is a good excuse to try some new things.

#0457_33A - Alison, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0456_26 - Alison, 2016. Voigtlader R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0456_30 - Alison, 2016. Voigtlader R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0457_14A - Alison, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125.

#0457_08A - Alison, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125.

San Francisco Isn't Mine

I came to San Francisco almost 18 years ago. Hard to believe really. I was just a kid with a pony tail (seriously, a really long pony tail), with delusions of grandeur, looking for something I couldn't find in the suburban Midwest. I moved to San Francisco to go to college and have never found a compelling reason to leave, plain and simple. I love this town, and I always will. I'll die here.

#0001_15 - Mission Street. San Francisco, CA. 2003

You can't sugar coat it, San Francisco's got problems. A one bedroom apartment in my neighborhood is going for $3,000 a month. The City is being systematically carved up and sold to the highest bidder. Tent encampments are becoming increasingly normal. My old dive bar is now a tech bro rookery. Real issues.

It's easy to blame money, startups and tech bros, but San Francisco is a boom town, always has been. That's not going to change. But money and privilege breeds isolation. What's troubling is how insulated so much of The City's population has become. 

Don't forget how amazing, ridiculous and entertaining this place can be.

Forget Uber, take Muni and sit next to drunk people on a Friday night. Stop using those ridiculous valet services and walk the streets, it's worth it, trust me. Go to the Folsom Street Fair and see just how off the charts it really is. It smells bad and you'll probably be genuinely frightened at least half a dozen times but you're going to see some crazy shit and that's rad.

Don't ignore The City, don't ignore the weirdos and the artists (there's a lot of them), the bike messengers (why so angry?), the armies of lost art students (I know, they're sad) and confused tourists (sorry Europeans, our public transit blows). Don't be a dick and bash this place because it isn't what you thought or hoped or wanted or was promised. Don't ignore the people that are less fortunate than you that have to sleep on the god damn street. They all came here looking for something, just like you did. Don't think for a second that "wealthy working people have earned their right to live in the city."

The first dot com bubble was a disaster, but San Francisco survived. She'll weather this boom and bust just as she's weathered them all, mercilessly, with vengeance and style. Nobody has a right to be here. San Francisco isn't mine, and it certainly isn't yours either. It belongs to itself, you can only be a part of it. 

Sarah, Half Light

From my last shoot with Sarah, fiddling around with some different light tricks. Shot these with a single bare bulb strobe cranked all the way up, aimed through a 4 inch vertical strip cut into an 8 foot piece of foam core...

#0451_04A - Sarah, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0451_00A - Sarah, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0451_34A - Sarah, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0451_19A - Sarah, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0451_05A - Sarah, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0452_12A - Sarah, 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125

In Motion - Word On The Street

#0433_31A - Jessie Square. San Francisco, CA. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

I'll occasionally wander the city, usually with no destination in mind. I find it comforting on some level, not to have to be anywhere in particular. Seems like everybody is going somewhere, in a hurry, in motion.

If they stop for too long they'll get swept up or run over, or passed by, over looked, lost in the shuffle, maybe just plain forgotten, too wrapped up in their own heads to realize what's happening around them.

Makes me think destinations are terribly over rated...

#0443_09A - Bus Shelter, Mission St. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_13A - Bus Shelter, MIssion St. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0434_35 - Montgomery St. San Francisco, CA. February 2016. Voigtlander R3m, Zeiss 21mm f/4.5, Ilford HP5 400.

#0443_21A - Commuter, Muni Train. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400. 

Mid-Market - Word On The Street

Mid-Market Street seems the epitome of haves and have nots, home to Twitter, staggering poverty, open air drug markets, 5 dollar espresso and Burger King. If you want to see gentrification in motion, take a walk down Market between 5th and Van Ness.

#0435_35A - Street Performer, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_29A - Drinking Man, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_28A - Liquor Store, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March of 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_30A - Drug Deal & Dog, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_34A - Man In Wheelchair, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

The collision of moneyed tech workers with poor neighborhoods in San Francisco continues to change the city in staggering ways. It's easy to blame the industry, but it seems more an accelerant and less a cause. Tent cities are popping up everywhere, people just don't have any place to go. I've lived here for 17 years and I've never seen it this bad.

I take it for granted, every night, I come home to my family, we have a wonderful old house in a good neighborhood that cost a small fortune. Out of reach for the vast majority of residents in this city. Housing has got to be the single biggest issue in San Francisco, hands down, with absolutely no solution in sight.

Freya On Film

Last few takes from a recent shoot with Freya Gallows, March of 2016. San Francisco, California. Looking forward to printing a few of these in the darkroom, watch for a print release soon.

#0439_37 - Freya, 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0438_04A - Freya, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilfrod FP4 125

#0441_05A - Freya, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400

#0441_11A - Freya, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400

#0438_36A - Freya, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0439_27 - Freya, 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125.

Dabblings In Color

#0445_27A - Montgomery Station, San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

I rarely if ever work in color beyond the obligatory digital testing in the studio. However, recently for whatever reason I've just sort of felt the urge run a few rolls of color negative film through the cameras.

It's a stretch to say the least, I have a difficult time seeing in color, I find it a distraction more often than not, difficult to control. My wife makes fun of me, thinks I'm color blind. I'm not, for the record.

#0445_08A - Mid Market Street. San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

Burned a few rolls of color film in the studio as well, have yet to sort through them, but will post a selection once I have the chance. Not sure if the switch is something I'll keep up with or not. May have been a fleeting fancy...

#0445_08A - Market Street. San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

#0445_08A - Mid Market Street. San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

This Thing Called Patreon

patreon.jpg

With my list of preoccupations growing, a few months back I essentially shut down the Patreon page that I was attempting to build up. On top of that, migrating my website to another host and switching platforms unexpectedly broke a bunch of the content I had posted previously on Patreon, which tells me two things...

One, Patreon is not a terribly complete platform as of yet and lacks a great deal of functionality (or, I don't actually know how to use it properly, both answers are equally probable.) I'm sure it will come around, they keeping adding new bells and whistles, it just has a ways to go yet.

Two, I've really been going about posting content on Patreon all wrong thus far (not to suggest I know the right way to go about it now, but I'm going to try something different.) So here's what's happening at the moment...

I've scrapped a great deal of the content that I had posted previously on Patreon; the extended takes, larger galleries from studio shoots, etc., have all been pulled, for a host of reasons, the two most important being most of that content was broken, and it would take me an exorbitant amount of time to fix it all.

A couple months ago I changed the release of paid posts / prints from a per month schedule to a per-release structure, meaning patrons are charged only when I release content. For the time being I'm going to keep things this way, however I may go back to a per month release at some point.

I'm going to continue to release regular updates going forward, process notes, some behind the scenes stuff here and there, etc. Long story short, I'm going to use Patreon predominantly to distribute prints on a regular basis to patrons from here on out. Prints will be released no more than once a month moving forward...

Check it out here... https://www.patreon.com/jszymanski

Print Release / Reward Tiers are as follows...

$10 per release: 4.25x5.5 inch digital proof print. Printed with Epson inks on Canson Fiber Rag paper, signed and dated on the back of the print.

$20 per release: 5x7 inch fiberbase proof print, hand made, signed and dated.

$40 per release: 8x10 inch fiberbase proof print, hand made, signed and dated.

$75 per release: 11x14 inch fiberbase master print, hand made, signed, dated and numbered. Selenium toned for permanence.

New Portraits, Spring 2016

Slowly making my way through the back log of film and scans that have been collecting dust for months and decided to pull a couple quick edits of portraits from a few shoots over the spring...

#0436_15A - Freya, March 2016 - Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

Had the chance to work with the infamous Freya Gallows (http://www.modelmayhem.com/533961) in March. She's riot to say the least. Effortlessly comfortable in front of the lens, she was a real pleasure to work with. Great hair too...

 #0438_01A - Freya, March 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.  

#0438_02A - Freya, March 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0443_28A - Freya, March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400 film.

Caught up with Sarah (http://www.modelmayhem.com/sarahkathryn) in April, whom I've worked with here and there for years. Always fun shooting with her. Our sessions typically descend into stupidity and silliness fueled by either old Guns N' Roses albums or David Bowie or both...

#0448_04A - Sarah, April 2016. Voigtlander R3, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0447_34A - Sarah, April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400 film.

#0449_20A - Sarah, April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#449_28A - Sarah, April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

Got to shoot with a new model, Alison Black (http://www.modelmayhem.com/3893322) in May. A sculptor from the Bay Area, it took us a minute to warm up and find a rhythm but once we did we got some great stuff... Also, great hair...

#0456_25 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0456_20 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0454_08 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0454_29 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

South Lake Tahoe...

Finally getting through some scans from way back in February. We took a quick run up to South Lake Tahoe for a long weekend. Ended up at this weird hotel bar in Reno, everyone in the place looked like they were on at least their 3rd marriage.

#0433_06A - Lake Tahoe, CA. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

#0432_15A - Fallen Leaf Lake, CA. February 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0433_18A - Fallen Leaf Lake, CA. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

#0433_01A - Psychic, somewhere near Davis, CA. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

The whole South Lake / Reno scene always struck me as a kind of a violent fusion of people who are way too into skiing, compulsive gamblers, white trash and a truly unique landscape. Not exactly my bag... I don't ski and never make a bet unless I know I can't lose. I've been called white trash, but it's been awhile. Anyway it's still pretty...

On the way up we stopped at this burrito shop in a strip mall off the freeway with a psychic nextdoor... how is this still a thing? And how is this a thing in a strip mall off the freeway outside Davis?

#0433_21A - The Wife. Reno, NV. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

Big Red Reset Button

Some may have noticed (all four of you that actually follow me) that I've been posting very little the last several months. To say I've been overwhelmed would be the understatement of the century...

Last November (2015) we started remodeling the bottom floor of our house. My wife and I moved upstairs with my mother in law while large men with sledge hammers absolutely destroyed my kitchen and dining room. I'm convinced they actually used about a half dozen hand grenades to do the job.

In December my mother in law got sick and had to have several surgeries over the course of the next few months. Around March my wife began the process of changing jobs after working at the same clinic for six years. In April one of the contractors working on the house totally fucked us and set our project back several months in the process. And In May I broke both bones in my right leg playing hockey and had to have 2 plates and 9 screws put in my ankle, spending the next six weeks basically in bed eating Vicodin for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is way less fun when you're actually in pain.

Yes, this is my ankle. No, it doesn't set off metal detectors.

So, let's just say I've been a little preoccupied...

We've recently moved back downstairs, my mother in law is doing well, my wife has started her new job and I've recently stopped using a cane to walk. Things are pretty good these days.

As such I've decided to do a bit of a reset with the way I'm putting things out online. I'm switching to a new web platform that should allow me to worry more about putting out content and less about running a website. I've decided to basically nuke my old web log. It's been running almost non-stop since 2008 or so, and just feels clunky and bloated and a bit like it's just content hoarding gone wrong. I'd like to pare things back considerably and focus more on quality, not quantity. 

It's a process for sure, there will be some hiccups along the way. For now I'm just migrating and editing down content. Stay tuned for new photographs, notes and other updates along the way. Looking forward to getting back to work...