WRLD: Steidl Books, Wayne White, Joe’s Junkyard, Black Maps, X-Planes, Black Lung, AAL, Battles, and Electric Wizard

Posted on June 16, 2013 by joe

Auto Detailing — by Joe Reifer

Watching

Gerhard Steidl is one of the most respected photo book publishers of the last 20 years. Watch him work with famous photographers on their photo books. Subtle but fascinating. [Amazon | Netflix]
The wacky world of artist Wayne White. Troy’s review got me to watch this one – “he’s bitter and says fuck a lot.” [Amazon | Netflix]

Reading

Lisa Kereszi’s grandfather was a boxer turned junkyard owner in the 1950′s in Pennsylvania. Joe’s Junk Yard mixes historic photos with Kereszi’s images, and also includes her grandfather’s scrapbook pages. These elements come together to form a deep, multi-generational narrative of a family’s struggles. You’ve never looked at a junkyard this way before. Highly recommended.

Black Maps: American Landscape and the Apocalyptic Sublime is a masterpiece of modern landscape photography. Absolutely astonishing. Over 100 aerial photos that explore open pit mines, clear cut forests, and human sprawl. If Google Earth was 1000 times sharper and more interesting and somehow turned into a painting that was a cross between Diebenkorn and Rothko, that’s what you’d get. This will most likely be my photo book of the year. Get this while it’s $55.

X-Plane Crashes: Exploring Experimental, Rocket Plane & Spycraft Incidents, Accidents & Crash Sites - if you’re an aviation nerd, you’ll definitely enjoy this book. The crash site research from black ops programs at Edwards and Area 51 paints an interesting history of modern aviation. Required reading for Mojave Desert aficionados.

The graphic novel Blacklung is not for the squeamish. A teacher is shanghaied aboard a pirate ship, and much violence ensues. Dark and intense, Blacklung has haunted me for days.

Listening

I’m really impressed by Weightless, the second album from Animals As Leaders. AAL is an instrumental prog rock power trio with a strong jazz sensibility, but also with some heavy, almost Meshuggah-like grooves. Tosin Abasi is a really amazing guitar player without being a noodly show off. Heard this on Pandora.

I can’t stop listening to Gloss Drop by Battles. Proggy polyrhythmic post-rock dance music that’s completely addictive. The track with Gary Numan is fantastic.

Electric Wizard’s Come My Fanatics is a huge, heavy, sludgey, tripped out doom rock masterpiece. Turn your stereo up to 11 and don’t hurt your neck while banging your head.

Doing

I’m working on a few photography projects. I’ve been spending considerably less energy on the presentation layer of photography lately. I’m enjoying shooting more, and not worrying about the constant cycle of dribbling out images on social media. When the time is right, I’ll turn on the presentation layer again. Although it seems like the less I look at a computer screen, the more I’m smiling.

Abandoned Drive-In Theater 360 Night Panorama

Posted on June 4, 2013 by joe

Abandoned Drive-In Theater 360 Panorama -- by Joe Reifer

A full moon 360 panorama of an abandoned drive-in theater in the Nevada desert.

Stand under the screen and under the stars at the abandoned Sage Crest Drive-in theater in Yerington, Nevada. Use your mouse to navigate the interactive 360 below — the button on the bottom right will take you full screen. How many constellations can you identify? Also look for the bird who lives under the movie screen.

Technical details: Four shots around with a Canon 8-15mm fisheye lens at 12mm on an EOS 6D. Each exposure was 90 seconds at f/8, ISO 800. A fifth shot was taken to patch the tripod area and shadow. Really Right Stuff PG-02 panohead on a customized Nodal Ninja rotator and leveling base. Processed in Lightroom and Photoshop, stitched in PTGui Pro, and output using Pano2VR Pro.

Night photography: Tanks and other targets on a Nevada bombing range

Posted on May 30, 2013 by joe

Night photograph of a military tank target on a remote Nevada training range.

This remote training range in Nevada was converted from ranchland by the Navy in the 1980′s. Richard Misrach documented the rise of another Nevada bombing range in his superb book Bravo 20. Live bombs are not used on this range, which is legal to visit. Tanks, trucks, and other electronic targets are scattered throughout the area on dirt roads, and camouflaged in the trees. Some of the old ranch houses are still standing with flowing irrigation.

Enjoy more night photos of tanks and other targets on my portfolio site.

Full Moon 360 Panorama: The Stonehenge of Western Nevada

Posted on May 28, 2013 by joe

: A 360 degree full moon panorama of the Thompson Smelter

: HIstoric photo of the Thompson Smelter

A full moon shines over the Stonehenge of Western Nevada. The Thompson Smelter processed copper ore, and operated on-and-off between 1912-1929. Also known as the Wabuska Smelter, these stone mining ruins are just north of Yerington, Nevada. Use your mouse to navigate the interactive panorama below.

Cultural signifiers are analyzed to determine if photographs still have meaning in the age of the image as social currency

Posted on May 12, 2013 by joe

: The gallery owner told us there were many layers of meaning. This picture is about class war.

: When something tickles my eye, I take a picture. Meaning is assigned later.

: Covered vehicles represent mysteries. A futile attempt to fight entropy. A false sense of security. Did you notice the German Shepherd on the porch?

: Is this covered car photo more idyllic than the last two? Can an apartment complex be idyllic? If I say the words apartment complex again, does that help you feel anything?

: When you’re taking a photo of a pet hospital with the address numbers 666 and red shopping carts go by in a truck in the foreground what does that mean?

: Even a simple one-liner can have layers of meaning applied. This large ad is on the side of a beauty supply store.

: A lowered classic Lincoln in front of a car repair shop. Is it just a cool car, or can you find other signifiers?

: Covered car pictures make me think of Robert Frank. And didn’t he say that no photos have meaning anymore? Or was that Baudrillard?

: But surely there’s something going on in this photo of a stroller on the roof of a car with a broken window across the street from a U-Haul facility?

: In an instant, you’ve intuitively understood that this lamp painted like a mushroom is playing on the idea of man vs. nature.

: Or maybe it’s about video games. Or some sort of Lewis Carroll reference.

: Guardian lions date back to the Han dynasty, even if the door is from Home Depot.

: A color photo of a Bowie album printed on a postcard for an art show and then held in front of a 70′s black and white photo of a Chinese-American holding the same Bowie album. Half of the resulting photo is desaturated to add another layer of meaning.

: The gallery owner said San Francisco’s Chinatown is fake because it was designed by an American architect.

: We went looking for answers at the Buddha Lounge.

: When most people look at this picture, what do they see? Is there a subconscious understanding of a deeper meaning that could be drawn out with the right caption, or are they just cakes?

: If this photo was taken by someone famous in the 70′s on color film and the printed with a special process and put in a museum where someone said it was important would that change how you felt about it? What if I just posted it to Flickr from my phone instead?

: If I told you the chair was on the border of Chinatown and a wealthy white neighborhood, and I tilted the frame, would the photo have a different meaning?

: After Frank, after Eggleston, what can any of us do in the Internet age to make a layered, meaningful picture.

: Maybe layered meanings are only for academia and museums. For the masses, photography is now predominantly about social currency. I mourn this transformation by showing you a photo of discarded bbq coals in the street.