postcardsfromamerica:

Paolo Pellegrin. Two members of a Karen family are seen in their backyard in North Rochester. The family had escaped the fighting in Burma and lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for years before moving to the US through the help of a Catholic relief organization.

I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with Paolo Pellegrin as part of Magnum’s Postcards from America project. As a student volunteer who jumped on the boat fairly late, I understood, but never took the time to comprehend the full scale of these ten photographers scouring the streets of Rochester for two weeks. Only now is it hitting me.

They were a long five days for me of missed dinners and sleepless nights post-processing two batches of images. I might’ve preferred to get offed in a moment or two of stress, but it was worth it - every second.

2:55 am  •  12 May 2012  •  32 notes

I finally got published for the first time in The Aquarian Weekly.

(granted they printed camera raw captures)

2:39 am  •  12 May 2012

It’s here.

Catch the film at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC as part of the New Filmmakers screening series. Saturday, April 14th at 8:30PM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E81EOAAaYVw

11:32 pm  •  12 April 2012  •  1 note

michaeltarantelli asked: use tumblr more!

The last three times I tried to update this page I ended up with long essays about nonsense that I don’t have motivation to finish.. last one being about Bradley Cooper, the idea of success as unattainable, time constantly fleeting and how success and time are stories that are processed the same way as any other story, factual or fictional.

I basically haven’t had anything relevant to put up.

5:03 pm  •  27 March 2012  •  1 note

seaburial:

(by ryanjenq)

A random internet person likes my photograph enough to blog it on tumblr? That’s a first and I’m incredibly flattered for some reason. Here’s hoping I make more like this.

(via wisnian)

1:40 pm  •  28 February 2012  •  3 notes

carpeinfinitus-deactivated20120 asked: Have you seen Peach Plumb Pear? and - if so - would you recommend it?

I’ve never heard of it until today; I thought you were talking about the Joanna Newsom song for moment. Trailer was pretty good except the way it started out, but I am definitely interested in seeing it. Looks like it’s doing a festival run now so chances are it’ll be a while.

12:20 am  •  23 December 2011  •  1 note

Film is truth.

In a single viewing, the viewer surrenders him or herself to the filmmaker and their world. This world consists of a set of rules and ideas of what is true that is reserved for a particular film. If what is presented is not accepted as truth, then the film is ultimately ineffective and meaningless, for the audience is meant to set their ideas aside and adopt the direction of the film itself, regardless whether or not it is making a statement of the so-called real world or is attempting to be highly representative of such.

When you write about your beliefs and worldview, to simply start with “I believe that…” restricts you to a hesitant character with no definition. You must say that “this” is how the world is and “this” is why it is.

A filmmaker can attempt to make the audience believe how fast a car is. A good filmmaker will show us how fast the car is and how far it can go. Attempting to persuade and present a series of beliefs and ideals of what truth is, constitutes a lifeless film.  

I heard dir. James Gray talk about how actors should not perform a certain way in front of the camera while winking at the audience - that is a sign of an actor who is unwilling to accept his character and instead chooses to cast judgement on whom he is meant to represent. Like he said, no matter the film, the audience believes what the actor believes. If an actor believes he is flying a bicycle over the moon, then the audience will believe that he is flying a bike over the moon.

This is essential to the establishment of truth in a film. Actors in live-action narrative film provide a pivotal link to the rules of this filmmakers world. Actors are everything.

A good film does not end in both it’s sense of reality and idea of truth. Film triggers a realization of truth through the sharing of a filmmaker’s perception of it. It provides us with a continuously organic understanding and pondering of such.

Truth defines us as human beings, as said by Werner Herzog. Film as truth, challenges us to personally explore the possibility of a reality with a gained interpretation.

12:56 am  •  22 December 2011  •  1 note

Watching Drive, I found myself in a rare occasion where I found myself completely surrendered to the film. I related to the idea of memory and it’s context, something so specific and so personal that I was sure I pulled it out of my own head.

After viewing this interview, all I have to say is…. Nicolas Winding Refn, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Bravo.

http://youtu.be/5Vv0E_-Fi5g?t=38m43s

12:50 am  •  14 December 2011

After a year of constant embarrassment, I finally took a my first foray into the work of Michelangelo Antonioni with Red Desert; it wouldn’t have been ideal to start from the beginning of his filmography, but a brand new 35mm restoration was playing at the George Eastman House.

I can’t write anything comprehensive about the film. Sure, the colors are gorgeous, I mean, these reds and blues with strong, vivid values - completely saturated yet disguised by the barren landscapes of industrialization that have in fact muted them. Godard’s Pierre le Fou is one of the few films I have found to share the range of value, but compared to Red Desert the pop-art sensibility is one sided. Yet the industrial holds a distinct beauty in it’s own such as the green fog constantly hovering over Monica Vitti. It truly is one of the most visually stunning films I have seen, and don’t get me started on the clarity of the print.

It’s an entrancing film at that one that discusses the desire to resist change, even to go to great lengths to recreate the past. The fact of the matter is that the world is dynamic and you must adjust to it, whether you like it or not. Of the recent films I’ve seen, Farewell my Concubine deals with this a bit, but only as a background for character relationships.

I would go further, but my focus was distracted by a couple of things in the theatre. A skinny old man behind me kept rubbing himself. Rubbing his arms, rubbing his legs - he just kept rubbing through the whole movie. Another old man a few rows down kept falling asleep and snoring obnoxiously. Because of that, I missed a few crucial details that would allow me to write a more comprehensive list of thoughts and warrants the film a required second viewing.

Perhaps the idea that struck me most was when the son of Monica Vitti’s character asks her, “what’s 1 + 1?”

Only one lesson from Bible-private-high-school was relevant for me. The world is clean, there are no humans. A bird flies by and drops a rock. A second bird flies by and drops a rock. Even though there are no human beings, or values or beliefs or anything to a further extent, there are still two rocks, are they not? 

I was always under the impression that despite the world being a chaotic place where absolutely nothing is certain, numbers are the only truth out there. They are infinite, and because of that, time is infinite and the universe is infinite. Two rocks are two rocks, no matter what. 

It took a single line of dialogue from a child to change a perception I have held for years. 

12:13 pm  •  14 November 2011

I shot six rolls for a basic street photography assignment, which I assumed was time sensitive at the time and ended up taking a thirty minute drive downtown and back several times to get them processed during a tight breaks between classes. Shot with a Nikon FM10 and Minolta X-700, the X-700 auto-priority mode ended up with four overexposed rolls. 

I don’t know what happened, as I had never had this issue before and several color rolls from recent times seemed to come out properly. I did switch the batteries for the meter between the two cameras however, which may have messed something up. Seems weird, as the X-700 seems to be coming up with the proper exposures when compared to my light meter.

This is one of the few “decent” shots of the remaining batch. Tonal range isn’t exactly there, but the Hahnemuhle print itself looks great. The attached thumbnail itself doesn’t do it any justice, all the grain and contrast is gone because of the size.

4:25 pm  •  8 November 2011