Reading List Update

Finished-
The Prairie- James Fenimore Cooper
This book completed the Leatherstocking Tales by Cooper, a five book series chronicling the adventures of Natty Bumppo. In this series; The Deerslayer; The Last of the Mohicans; The Pathfinder; The Pioneers and The Prairie. A solid adventure series set in the early part of American history beginning at the outset of the French and Indian Wars through the beginning of the settling of the west. If you are looking for some good old fashioned American adventure then this series is a must.

Reading-
The Rough Riders- Theodore Roosevelt
A true story account of the war between Spain and the United States in Cuba told from the perspective of Teddy Roosevelt.

On deck-
The Jungle Books- Rudyard Kipling
King Solomons Mines- H. Rider Haggard

Artistic Frustration

If you are artistically inclined in any way I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about. It is the dreaded creative blockade; you don't know what to do or where to go next. You loose concentration and direction in your work and nothing seems to go smoothly (as if they ever did). I understand that the only way to get through it is to keep on working and just struggle to keep up the good fight. Easier said than done. These images represent a struggle to keep it going. I do not feel inspired by much right now and I certainly don't feel inspired by these but here they are none the less. If I have to suffer, so do you. These are from the ongoing project documenting construction or the lack of it.... more to come.

Reading list;

Reading now-

The Prairie- James Fenimore Cooper

Coming up-

The Rough Riders- Theodore Roosevelt

King Solomon's Mines- H. Rider Haggard

The Jungle Books- Rudyard Kipling

Finished-
The Four Feathers- A.E.W. Mason

Old Ideas Rehashed... Lets See if it Works

In college I worked on two projects about development. At the time there were about a million subdivisions popping up all over the Chicago land area. The first project was dubbed 'The Edge of Development'; it dealt with new housing developments that were overtaking farmland and expanding the ever growing suburbs of Chicago. These images were created with a 4x5 view camera and offered a 360 degree view of the landscape. The other project was titled 'Replaced'; it was concerned with the redevelopment of the existing suburbs. Homes that were built in the aftermath of WWII were being torn down and replaced with new homes of intense magnitude and opulence. 'Replaced' questioned the aspects of our society that are wasteful and over the top using the symbol of the emerging modern American home.

Now things have changed. We are five years removed from those times but it might as well have been ten or fifteen. Because of the current economy which has been ravaged by two wars and the bust of the housing market and all that went with it; the production of new homes has all but ground to a halt. Sites of future development five years ago have now become symbols of failure and over extension. What once promised to be the next new neighborhood now stand all but vacant.

Reading List;

Finished-
The Pioneers- James Fennimore Cooper
The Pathfinder- James Fennimore Cooper

Waiting for-
The Prairie- James Fennimore Cooper

Picked up-
The Old Farmers Almanac 2010
Great American Short Stories- From Hawthorne to Hemmingway


More to come.

To receive you must first give.

Eagles Weekend at Starved Rock

My niece and nephew, Chloe and Evan at Starved Rock for the Eagles Weekend. We didn't see any eagles because it was too foggy but we had fun and I got some good pics of the kids. There are more but these are two of my favorites.

More Polaroids/Abstracts.... Again

Still doing it and still havin fun... probably won't last much longer. It is about time to move on to something else.

Reading list;

Reading now-

The Pioneers- James Fenimore Cooper

Finished reading-

The Deerslayer- James Fenimore Cooper

On deck-

The Pathfinder- James Fenimore Cooper

The Prairie- James Fenimore Cooper

The Four Feathers- A.E.W. Mason

New Drawing- Trees

Colored Pencil and Conte Crayon on recycled cardboard

More Polaroids/Abstracts

There is something to be said about making art for arts sake. I have had fun making these images. I am using a Polaroid 340 packfilm camera and a copy stand that was made for Polaroid packfilm cameras. These are also kind of an exercise in composition.... maybe like doing a crossword puzzle keeps your mind sharp and teaches you new words and how to use them. This exercise keeps the photographers eye sharp and creates new ways of seeing/visualizing/creating composition.

Reading list;

finished-

The Last of the Mohicans- James Fenimore Cooper. Really exciting.. worth the read.

reading-

The Deerslayer- James Fenimore Cooper

Polaroids / Abstracts

I haven't worked with Polaroids in a while. Completely forgot how much fun it is. For that matter I haven't worked in abstract for a while either. Its a New Years miracle... More at www.flickr.com/photos/tbemister

Reading List:

Finished;

Moby Dick...... Wow.

Reading;

The Last of the Mohicans- James Fenimore Cooper

Found;

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

A really cool website that contains just about any classic book you can think of and then some... all available for free download to your computer or mobile device. Check it out.

Resisting Laziness, Drawing, Printing and The White Whale

Sneak peek at a work in progress.

I have not made a photograph in 2 months. If you know me.... that is a long time.

Printing a lot of stuff. I needed to. I have not printed anything all year.

I have been working though, doing some drawing.

Trees.

Reading List Update:

Reading Now;

Moby Dick- Herman Melville

On Deck;

The Deerslayer- James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans- James Fenimore Cooper

Night Photography

Some old stuff revisited. Probably going out to do more night photos soon.

Enjoy...

Short and sweet...

... New work

There is more on the way.

Reading list;
Finished-
Main Street- Sinclair Lewis
Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad
The Time Machine and The Invisible Man- H.G. Wells

Unfinished-
Republic- Plato
The Communist Manifesto- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Not Started-
Paradise Lost- John Milton
Moby Dick- Herman Melville

Reading-
A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens

Jim

Jim 10-10-09

Jim 10-10-09



One of the real people.

Katie, Jim, Autumn and Jimmy

Katie 10-10-09

Jim 10-10-09

Autumn 10-10-09

Jimmy 10-10-09

Brooklyn and Emily

Brooklyn and Emily 10-8-09

Brooklyn and Emily 10-8-09

Brooklyn and Emily 10-8-09

Brooklyn 10-8-09

Brooklyn and Emily

Brooklyn 10-8-09

Brooklyn and Emily 10-8-09

Brooklyn 10-8-09

Brooklyn

I can't decide which I like better; this one or the one where she is looking at the TV.

Brooklyn 10-8-09

Brooklyn and Emily

Brooklyn 10-8-09

Brooklyn and Emily 10-8-09

Brooklyn 10-8-09

Brooklyn 10-8-09

First of three rolls taken on 10-8. More to come

New Reading List

Just picked up....

Heart of Darkness and Other Short Fiction- Joseph Conrad
The Time Machine and The Invisible Man- H.G. Wells
Paradise Lost by John Milton

On its way in.....

Grimm's Fairy Tales- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Main Street- Sinclair Lewis
The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings-Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles

I am interested in who we are rather than why we are.

...

Doug and Dianna

09-17-09

9-17-09

9-17-09