focusing
A BUTCHER'S #47
A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
The moment has arrived…..earlier this year, I found that I need specs! At least it’s all clear now.
aberration
It took me a while to figure out this photo below. I have about six 35mm slides from 1982 where something obviously happened and I just rewound the film in the camera and carried on. The result is that these six shots are half overlapping double exposures. I’ve never really looked at them until recently.
This appears to be a double accidental shot - on the left, a street scene, following a pair of cops on the beat (one has his nightstick behind his back) on an average looking East Village St. (I’ll figure out where later). The other, a misfire sideways, features one of my Docs, edge of coat and road surface as I’m walking.
That’s actual ‘street furniture’ - hang out seating. That term now is applied to bike racks, free newspaper boxes, charging spots, anything cluttering the sidewalk up!
eye to eye
Half close your eyes, or squint a bit at a very brief collection focusing on the incredible variety and levels of mosaic work from a recent museum visit in Rome - all are accomplished and effective in their purpose. Actually the tesserae in the micro mosaics were so minute (tweezers time) I couldn’t get a decent photo, so they’re not included. Next time
This prompted me to wonder if the Romans wore glasses. Well, did they? Not as such, but they did use magnifying glass, eye-drops and reading stands. Glassblowers were hired to make glass spheres that could be used on text to make it clearer to read. The technology for making lens came later - a thousand years later.
The best bit comes from the records of Pliny the Elder, who states that Emperor Nero, who was near-sighted, viewed the spectacle (yes, I know) of gladiatorial fights in the bright sunlit arena, through a concave emerald - the first sunglasses in history. Nero!
stepping back, getting in Close
Always keeping an eye on what’s underfoot, these cobbles with worn paint marking reminded me of work by Chuck Close in a show I saw in 2017. A real eye opener, as it demonstrated his process of how he worked by filling in his grid with set color dots, not in one color as in a paint-by-numbers, but two. OCD?
seeing things
I’m positive I saw a funky red car in this scene.
I did. Back tracking on two postcards from the same photo of this Vermont scene. Just goes to show that I might have too many postcards!
Just a note here - I recommend installing the Substack app (free) on your phone. It’s easier, works well and looks better! Or online here - browse away!
OCD An artist commented how 'improved' Close painting got after his accident when it became 'impressionism'. Tessereye & double exposure film co-pilot a broken chipped road map #47 focus is a ledger requiring the viewer to consider what is to the eye to scale or nts. 47 gave purpose, too, to scrolling
No such thing as too many postcards. 😻