Snippets

We went to Elizabeth Lord's wedding today. I don't know how to spell her new name so I'm using the old for now. Here it is: Schaufelberger. You can see pictures at my flickr site over there ---> Also check out pictures from the parade on Thursday.

Tiffany and I are moving, slowly, to Shelburne Falls. I'll try to update as we make major moves.

another stab at flickr

hello, if you're interested check out pictures posted on flickr from Frank and Vivian's party a couple weeks ago. I don't remember everyone's name so please feel free to comment. check them out here or on the sidebar.

collaborators wanted

A few months ago I posted a want-ad for a friend. I received only one brave applicant who saw through my thin veneer of exclusivity. So, I am re-posting the position in more people-friendly terms:

ISO human for long-term/short-term artistic collaboration. Human must have skills and sensitivity. Communication welcome through USPS or email welcome. Collaborators must not be deterred by large gaps in response(we all have important things that take time, right?) Themes may include, but are not limited to, disappointment, isolation, death of loved one, loss, vision, gender, cartography, stratification(economic and geologic), chess, road kill, romanticism, formalism, scataphilia, cameras, exercise, box building, cooking.

Send your notions to:
Clayton Salem
6 Main St
Greenfield, Ma
01301

or email me

This posting can also be found on the Western Mass craigslist > community > artists

big prints

For a while I've had in my head this way of pushing my epson 4800 to print large format pictures. It's pretty obvious, but I'm cutting images in half and in thirds and printing out "panels" of those images. I'm definitely pushing the print quality to the edge and maybe a little beyond. I'm also unsure of the final format; I have a few ideas I'll share later. The two forest pictures are from 4x5 negatives, the deer is from a 6x7 negative.

Here's a picture illustration of my process. A couple of issues: cutting glass was a new idea in order to speed up the proofing of pictures. You don't see it, but the glass fits into the scanner and hold an 8x10" sheet of negatives flat to the scanner, much like you would in the darkroom. The other thing you don't see is the film development, but it's much like in any darkroom except I'm squatting over the shower basin. The third thing you don't see here is the larger proofs I print out to fine-tune the image and the splitting of the image in photoshop. I guess some things you'll have to just imagine.

Developing in the shower


The clean-up


Cutting glass for contact sheet scanning


Good cut/bad cut


Scanning negatives


Printing out contact sheet


Looking at contact sheet


In process


A couple other larger format prints


The almost-finished picture

pictures from the late spring

Here are some things that remembered to take pictures of this spring:

Hanging out at Katie's
she claims to be androgynous, but she's sooooooooo cute!

Sonya was there
ohmagaimsoexcied!
battering chicken and my fingers
student work - i should've given out more A's
I rode out to the Eunice Williams' bridge

allergies!

then i treated myself to a sandwich at Bart's
Yesterday Chris Zinn and I hung out here's the result.... click.

wavering

yes yes yes and no. i want to talk about atheism, anarchy, authority, but each time i sit down to write it comes out all wrong. this format - a public journal, is not for me. to much exposure, not enough thought. i haven't posted for a month because of my discomfort. i've finished teaching for the term and so the only things i can post about, things that might have some interest are my personal inner thoughts, and the picture work that i'm making. i can't very well talk about job because of the hipaa law i've spoke about earlier, and my inner thoughts i'm saving for myself. so all that's left is my picture work. okay, that's the direction i'll take for the next few posts.

but first,

here's some video still captures from iran:

the dark disc in the sky

Yesterday my team went out to the Ashfield Lake for a goodbye group for the grads. This is a group of students that have been with me my entire time at Swift River. They swam, we ate food from the Ashfield Lakehouse, we played Frisbee. Then, last night, I woke up with a terrifying image in my head -- it was from the frisbee game: a long floating pass into the endzone, the boys gather around looking into the bright white sky. The frisbee hangs in the sky vibrating and growing larger. I squint and feel the shuffle of bodies around me. We are caught for a moment staring at the growing disc, darkening the sky, blotting out the sun, the sky the trees. I freeze, unsure of what to do, I know I need to jump, but the shuffle around me, the pain in my eyes and the growing disc threaten immenent doom.

I didn't catch the firsbee, in fact, I got knocked in the head by somebody's elbow, but that moment is haunting me, worrying me. To leap would be an act of desperation, as if the frisbee is a black hole and to leap, to bend my knees and leap, I might throw myself into the abyss. Fear of loosing myself, and at once the desire, nagging, burning desire to loose myself into that leap, to reach for the sky, for the black hole, to reach,to stretch towards the thing, the shimmering, shaking thing, growing darker, bigger, vibrating, swallowing the sky. I know, and yet, I cannot act. I can only pray that with practice I may learn to leap up into the dark disc.