Dear Students, Don't Do This...

Dear Students,

As the new semester approaches, might I offer some sound advice. Please, don’t do this. We know. We always know. Just please don’t…

My notes in italics…

original message - Sent: Sat, 20:47:53 PST

Hi Jo, (really, Jo?)

I hope you are doing well and having a great weekend (uh huh). I am just curious (curious, are you really?) as to why I received a D grade on the most previous assignment despite that I handed in the assignment prior to the dead line? If you could please get back to me at your earliest convince (spelling, sigh) that would be greatly appreciated thank you (buckle up, I’m gonna tell ya).

Kind regards,

xxxx xxxxxx

And my response…

xxxxxx,

Happy to break things down...

Assignments are due at the beginning of class. The timestamp on your submission is 9:58pm on the 18th, a full 5 hours after class ends. Technically, you're late.

Assignments should be presented during class for discussion, as we've done each week for the last 12 weeks. Participation is 20% of your grade. Additionally, your zoom camera was off for the entirety of class. As per the rules, I should have marked you absent. Students are required to have their cameras on to be marked present for class.

Your submitted images for this assignment are either grossly underexposed, or wildly over edited. Either way they read as quite dark, and not at the technical level that I would expect this late in the course.

The timestamps on your individual images submitted range from 12:51:04pm to 12:52:00pm, which tells me that you spent, quite literally, less than one minute shooting this assignment.

You have checked all the boxes in terms of minimum requirements for the assignment, and that earns you the grade of a C. Given the submission was late and not presented for discussion, you were marked down a full letter grade to a D. The grading criteria is quite clear, and was discussed on the first day of class, as was my policy on late assignments.

If all this seems heavy handed I apologize, I just want to be overwhelmingly clear. I understand you are not a photo major, and that photography may not be your area of interest. And while I keep things quite lax and informal in my class, I can assure you I take this course and the work quite seriously. You can continue to submit the bare minimum for the assignments, and you'll likely pass, but you should not be surprised about your grade.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Respectfully, your instructor, who is completely fed up with your BS…

~Joseph

So it's been a year...

Maybe longer actually. We got rid of the donald (for the moment), I turned 40 years old (only mildly depressing), mailchimp deleted my account, unbeknownst to me (apologies to my 12 email subscribers), and the United States continues to disappoint in terms of covid response (freedom isn’t free, I’m told, sigh…). I’ve viewed most of these events through the lens of their effect on a toddler, which is to say, he doesn’t care and continues to be a complete maniac bent on destruction. Life goes on. I’ve also spent an inordinate amount of time camping in the woods this last year. Not all bad…

Things are oddly looking pretty good in my little bubble. Case loads are way down in the Bay Area. Vaccinations rates are through the roof, especially in The City. Say what you will about San Francisco Department of Public Health, they stepped up and knocked it out of the park in their response to all this madness.

Attempting, slowly, to sift through the bit of work I did create in the last year or so. Hoping to get back to some sort of normal pace of making images again. Time will tell.

Call this a mic check.

Postcards From The City, Vol #1

So I did a little thing, call it a quarantine project, been on the back burner for a while, kept putting it off, but it’s finally done… I’ve put together a limited set of 10 - 4x6 inch postcards from the City, images made between 2015 and 2019. Limited edition of 20 pieces, I currently have 18 left on hand.

$17 bucks… ships free…

Had fun putting this together, think it came out quite well. Printed through 4by6.com, always been happy with their work, no exception this time. Will absolutely be putting more limited sets of postcards together in the future, stay tuned… The ten images from the set are featured below…

Find it in the shop or follow the link: https://www.josephszymanski.com/shop/postcards

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

Pre-pandemic, who knows when, I was working with some folks in a new independent co-working, looking to bring in more creatives, hold workshops and seminars and so forth. Felt like the beginning of something really interesting to be honest, there is such a lack of community at times outside of the virtual world, and frankly I’m sick of instagram and facebook is a cesspool. Long story short we were moving forward with holding some lighting / portraiture / figure workshops and wanted to test the space, as it was kinda funky and not anywhere near what you’d think of as a traditional studio. The results were surprising to say the least. I didn’t have high hopes for the low ceilings, but it worked out, even with a 5’10” model. The available light in the space proved pretty interesting as well.

Unclear whether we’ll ever pick up where we left off, but here’s what we’re left with. A littler diversion if nothing else. Model is Willa Prescott, on location in San Francisco, January of 2020.

I really have no idea what day it is...

When all this started I knew it would be a massive disruption to our way of life for the foreseeable future. As an introvert I felt well prepared. I was wrong. This blows.

‘Stay Home’ - Eureka Street, early days of shelter in place, April 2020.

‘Stay Home’ - Eureka Street, early days of shelter in place, April 2020.

Lack of adult conversation is the biggest issue. The banter of a 2 year old high on goldfish crackers leaves me craving a bit more intellectual stimulation. Running out of projects. Thus far I have put together a set of 10 drawer flat files, built a decent size bookcase and a 5 watt tube amplifier. Also rebuilt an old acoustic guitar adding a spider cone resonator and an electric pickup. Going to build a ukulele for the boy next.

Venturing out, April 2020.

Venturing out, April 2020.

Have sporadically and briefly ventured out to try and work. Currently sifting through a few things to share, as well as some more escapist work to keep us all from falling into the pit of despair. Seems trivial, but feels important. Trying to make sense of it all…

Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Vote. We’re in this together.