Quebec Country

St-Tite, Quebec. Country and Western Festival, September 15th, 2011.

Things I (Kind of) Learned in 2010

From a work in progress - Athens, Greece. 2010

2010 was a pretty solid year. Highlights include: being able to work with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer to help bring Vectorial Elevation to light (literally) at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, getting arrested for my forays through a sewer in Toronto, spending 4 ½ months living in Greece, and seeing books released by both my wife and myself.  On a related note, I made a good amount of progress in getting Objects of Consequence closer to being published and now have two people on board to contribute introductory texts.  I also got to know several interesting people, many through Undermontreal.com and the related documentary Under the City.

Things I learned:

• That the publishing industry is slow and how not to get entirely discouraged by this fact
• How to loosen up a bit with the camera, mostly by spending four months shooting with with a Rollei sans tripod
• How to develop a project over the course of several months without having my preconceptions get in the way of things
• How to take candids of people without feeling entirely guilty about it
• That street photography is a bit like fishing: put in enough time and you’ll catch something worth keeping eventually
• That talking in front of a group of people about my photography is easier (or at least less nerve-wracking) than I thought it would be
• That getting in touch with other photographers whose work you like never hurts
• How to look at other photographers’ work as a source of inspiration rather than discouragement
• That Fuji NP100C + a Polaroid EE100 + travel = instant fun
• That upgrading my 10-year old computer is probably something I should have done many years ago

Not quite resolutions, but things I’d like to try and learn in 2011:

• How to take pictures of people without doing it on the sneak
• How to use a view camera for an upcoming project
• How to better edit and sequence my work
• How to shoot a bit more and think a little less

Letting Grain Elevators be Grain Elevators

Buffalo's Standard grain elevator in the First Ward district.

Two articles worth reading were posted on Buffalo Rising last week.  One of them is about Elevator Alley (the book), the other is about the possible demolition of one of Buffalo’s grain elevators- or at least a portion of it. The GLF is an elevator that I never really bothered with it, mostly because it’s in pretty sad shape. It looks as though it was once on fire and its crumbling concrete doesn’t make it appear to be the safest place to be inside. The motion-activated alarm system that’s rigged up on the property it resides on didn’t exactly encourage further examination either. Instead, I spent my time photographing the elevators further down the street, which for the most part, were relatively easy to access at the time and far more intact.

A rather gloomy-looking Street View of Buffalo’s GLF elevator.

The lengthy discussion taking place on the Buffalo Rising page makes for an interesting (and occasionally frustrating) read. While Buffalo isn’t the sort of place where preservationists and developers have a history of getting along too well, the city’s numerous grain elevators have always been a particularly polarizing subject. Part of this is because it’s often difficult to make the case that they’re aesthetically pleasing, especially when they’ve begun to reach states of disrepair. I’m quite fond of them myself, but I’ll be the first to admit that the well-weathered portions of  the GLF complex do make for quite an eyesore. The other problem is that without a good deal of planning, money and ingenuity, grain elevators are difficult to renovate for public use. For a place like Buffalo that’s still struggling with its finances and a constantly diminishing population, mending dormant elevators hasn’t exactly been a high priority. Even the city’s waterfront, despite decades worth of various plans and promises, remains woefully underdeveloped.

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Elevator Alley

The book Elevator Alley which contains my photography alongside text by Michael Cook is now available via our publisher Furnace Press. The book is a study of the assemblage of  (mostly) disused grain elevators situated in Buffalo, NY. Michael and I first ventured into one of these hulking structures during the winter of 2006 and were immediately taken by its charms. Return visits to it and the other buildings on the property revealed much more than we had initially anticipated. Far too much for my photos contained in the book to do justice, but fortunately Michael’s text more than makes up for that.

The official launch takes place next Tuesday with presentations by Michael and myself as well as author Jean Kahler and photographer Jessica Rowe; creators of The End of New York. In addition to these books, West-coast historian/explorer Jonathan Haeber‘s book detailing the former Grossenger’s resort in the Catskills will also be made available.

Decomposition Series Launch
Tuesday, November 27th 7-9 PM (no cover)
3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn NY

Further details: Timeout NY’s listing | Facebook event page