Three New Pieces and a new Buffer
10-25-2005
I made three new Daguerreotypes this weekend at the expense of ignoring everyone and everything else important to me. Saturday morning started out poorly with a trip to the local power tool store to buy a buffer that won’t stop turning its wheels when someone sneezes nearby. $250 and two hours later, I’m back in business buffing the most shiny plates yet. Thanks, JET! I managed to make one image (tentatively titled “Information Age Roadway Excavation) on Saturday intending to demonstrate the our archaeological legacy by showing an empty, littered Interstate. The second image of the weekend is the first in a survey of the great buildings of Big Tobacco in Durham, NC. I photographed the husk of the dying monster that is the Liggett Myers complex. Daguerreotype three is another image following the lines of our future legacy. Whereas in the Interstate image, I used camera tricks to turn a VERY busy highway into an empty, isolated wasteland, I sought out an existing building that had already been neglected and forgotten. An old, abandoned elementary school is the subject of the third Daguerreotype of the weekend. In that image, I’m showing the short-lived nature of our structures and how quickly nature reclaims them (and us).
You’ll notice that I’ve added a section on the home page called Shows & Events. I’m participating in a really cool art event in Durham next month called Art Walk. There are a whole bunch of venues participating and hosting local artists that have no other place to display their work. Come by Through This Lens and pick up a spiffy new Daguerreotype for a holiday gift! Better yet, commission one! I will also be showing my Daguerreotypes and selected silver gelatin prints at a show at Through This Lens starting on January 20th. I’ll post more information about that when I have it.
My house closing is on Thursday which starts in motion a cycle of unfounded confusion and occupation for the next five weeks or so as I try to move in and situate myself in new surroundings.
-Jonathan
