my today

Spot the difference: a day of printing at the ICP

2011-03-27T16:18:00.003-04:00

PDN's The Curator

2011-03-25T19:08:00.003-04:00

Yes, I did it, threw my hat (at $50) into the ring for PDN's latest competition, "The Curator." I submitted a series of four Polaroids called, "Red", which can almost be seen as a response to or riff on Saul Leiter's, "Red Umbrella, 1957." Wish me luck!

December, 2010. Mom.

2010-12-19T19:31:00.004-05:00

December, NYC. 2010

2010-12-10T12:27:00.003-05:00

Red Bicycle, 2010.

2010-12-09T23:25:00.003-05:00

I miss posting photos on my today...

2010-12-02T23:00:00.006-05:00

Last week I was too rough on my camera when taking it out of my bag and it popped open and exposed my film. It happens, I know--even with digital: press the wrong key in photoshop and POOF!, there goes your picture file--but I think I'm still kind of reeling from the loss of it.

Digging through my childhood stuff at home in Providence over the Thanksgiving weekend I found 4 rolls of undeveloped film from my Photo I class back in high school. Ten year old film. As soon as I have some extra cash I'm going to have it developed.

I've more or less given up digital photography entirely- I've been loaning out my Rebel to friends who seem to need it more than I do-- and am still getting acquainted with my Minolta X-700. Is it crazy to be poo-poo-ing digital? How important is it to keep up with the times? Very, I'm guessing, but I'm not so sure I'm all that crazy about our photographic times.

Did anyone read Vince Aletti's pitch-perfect review of MOMA's New Photography show in the New Yorker? It was rough, for certain, but not mean. Not Sarah Palin mean. It's aptly titled "Cool Hunters" and in less than 300 or so words, got right to the core of the question, "what's wrong with contemporary photography [and all contemporary art for that matter?]" Lots of style, little substance, the article laments. What's with this distance? Aletti calls one photographer's body of work a series of "truly random juxtapositions." Ouch.

I saw the show and, like the reviewer, felt completely unmoved. Some of the images were stylish, sure, throwbacks to Cindy Sherman (accompanied by a glossy short film starring Bryce Dallas Howard), but I left thinking, where's the soul here? Why aren't I stirred?

"If this is where contemporary photography is headed," Aletti concluded (and I might be paraphrasing here), "I'm taking the off ramp." eep!

More soon. New Pictures to follow, too. I'm planning to wake up early in the coming weeks to catch the City on film in a different light. I just wanted to warm up the ole' blogging muscles again...Happy Holidays!

Bridal Basket, 2010.

2010-10-23T21:31:00.003-04:00

Meeting Saul.

2010-10-18T23:09:00.008-04:00

I took this one of musician McGowan Southworth a couple of years ago before I knew of Saul Leiter's work (it's a screenshot so pay no mind to the "file is missing message.") I'd never taken a picture like it before and never have since.

I discovered this picture, taken by Leiter in the 1950s, just the other day. I'm not sure if I'll ever meet him in person although sometimes I feel as though "meeting" him through shared imagery.**

Kathy, Early Fifties

**for a pretty comprehensive suvery of american photography and the various great image makers who "met" each other in the sense that I'm talking about, pick up Geoff Dyer's, The Ongoing Moment

Suit Jacket, 2010.

2010-10-15T23:22:00.001-04:00

The Beatty Rides the Subway. October Visit, 2010.

2010-10-15T16:39:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure if this is a successful picture. It seems somewhat "off" compositionally but I'm hoping it will grow on me...

update: october 15, 04:49PM. it's grown on me.

The Beatty Arrives, Bearing Goods.

2010-10-14T22:56:00.000-04:00

Abes Penny. Volume 2.8. 2/4.

2010-10-14T22:37:00.001-04:00

Abe's Penny Has Arrived. Volume 2.8. 1/4.

2010-10-14T22:15:00.012-04:00

My ten complimentary issues of the fabulous October Issue of Abe's Penny, to which I am the photographer contributor, have arrived! The text accompanying my photographs is by the phenomenally talented Kimberly Faith Waid.

What is Abe's Penny? It's a "micro-magzine." Each issue consists of four postcards that together, tell a story: photograph on front, text inspired by the photo on back, mailed to subscribers doors, one per week. In these days of emails, it's nice to get something through the real mail. In these days of digital photography, flickr and facebook albums, it feels good to hold an image in your hand. In these days of instant gratification, when the idea of waiting for almost anything seems to have gone out of style, it's neat to have to have no access to the next part of the story until one week after you've received the first. For these reasons and more, I'm proud to be a contributor to Abe's Penny.

"Open 7 Days" is the first photograph of the issue's four parts. I'll be posting the other postcards to the blog at about they same time they arrive in mailboxes.

Barbershop Chairs, 2010.

2010-10-02T18:08:00.002-04:00

Abe's Penny.

2010-09-30T22:24:00.009-04:00

click above for more information. I'm thrilled to be a part of this collaboration! stay tuned to the blog to see the issue in full- I'll be scanning each installment as they arrive in my mailbox.

Train Station Bench. Princeton, NJ, 2010.

2010-09-29T22:24:00.003-04:00

Canopy, 1958.

2010-09-29T21:35:00.003-04:00

This is a new favorite of mine from the great Mr. Saul Leiter:

Canopy, 1958

Push for Coin. Chincoteague, Virginia, 2010.

2010-09-29T21:33:00.005-04:00

Ferry Boat, 2010.

2010-09-29T21:30:00.003-04:00

and we're back...!

2010-09-29T21:14:00.005-04:00

Dear faithful readers of my today,

I know that I took a bit of an un-announced hiatus from the blog this Summer but I recently re-realize that posting work to my today has been one of the most important and enjoyable parts of my photographic process. I've often said this blog is a bit like my laboratory--I still feel that way. I'll be making some updates to the main website as I prepare it for what I hope will be lots of hits from my images' upcoming appearances in the October Issue of Brooklyn-based micro-magazine, Abe's Penny but in the meantime, will be sharing some of my favorite 35mm images from what turned out to be a fairly low-key season of shooting. Thanks for sticking with me!

Jordana

hat, 2010

The Beatty and the Rajah. Florida. August, 2010.

2010-08-07T22:57:00.000-04:00

Polaroid: A New Frontier.

2010-08-07T20:49:00.002-04:00

via James Danzieger's "The Year in Pictures."

Another from North Carolina.

2010-07-14T19:04:00.002-04:00

Outer Banks Landscape with Panties.

The Beatty at the Carlyle.

2010-07-14T19:00:00.003-04:00

Does she inspire you as she does me?

Thank You KiptonART!

2010-07-01T14:33:00.002-04:00

I ♥ KiptonART!

Me. © 2010 Greg Scaffidi

2010-06-30T22:49:00.006-04:00

today photographer friend Greg Scaffidi took my portrait.

Surrealist Beatty.

2010-06-30T20:22:00.003-04:00

18 Years is Headed Out West!

2010-06-27T20:00:00.006-04:00

This is just a quick posting to let you know that my recent photograph, 18 Years was selected by the Museum of Contemporary Photography's Associate Director and Curator, Natasha Egan, for inclusion in the Art of Photography Show in San Diego, opening August 8th and running through November 7th. The odds were against every entrant: photographers from 67 countries submitted 13,692 images for consideration. 113 were chosen. I am extremely excited and honored to be a part of the show.

This marks my first show outside NYC and the first time I'll be packing up a print and sending it off without me by its side, holding on tight in some speeding cab winding through the City streets. I don't think I'll be able to make the show but if any of you are in the area sometime between August and November and want to stop by, please get in touch to tell me about it. Thank you for your continued support!

at first sight. october 2009 and july 2010.

2010-06-26T23:14:00.002-04:00

I've been working here and there on a documentary project on my mom (aka "the beatty") whenever she comes to town. Last october I snuck up on her sitting on the stoop of our upper west side apartment sublet and snapped a polaroid of her at the first moment she saw me. I did the same this time around on wednesday evening of this past week. Check back for more images from the visit. In the meantime, here is a roughly patched together diptych of both "sightings."

inside. out.

2010-06-16T20:38:00.001-04:00

another from north carolina.

2010-06-16T18:16:00.001-04:00

frisco, north carolina. may, 2010.

2010-06-04T13:55:00.001-04:00

may 23. exmore, virginia.

2010-06-04T13:49:00.000-04:00

18.

2010-06-04T11:51:00.002-04:00

Thanks, KiptonART!

2010-06-02T16:17:00.008-04:00

click here to view my KiptonART Profile

Window. May 28, 2010.

2010-05-28T21:19:00.000-04:00

On the Line. May 27, 2010.

2010-05-27T09:39:00.001-04:00

The Outer Banks. May 26, 2010.

2010-05-26T20:50:00.001-04:00

new work on film.

2010-05-17T10:14:00.004-04:00

Film Takes Center Stage Over at jordanazeldin.com

2010-05-14T17:39:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

More photos to come soon (I'll be picking up some film from the lab in a few hours) but in the meantime, head on over to www.jordanazeldin.com to check out the new homepage: it's a small collection of some of the "best of" my recent film work, tentatively titled "...on my way..." You'll probably be familiar with some of the images from the blog but it's interesting to see that even though most of these photos were taken at different times and places, they kind of "work" together.

Also, I attended Michael Wolf's NY Photo Fest talk last night. I'll be posting the recording I made this weekend.

Cheers! Jordana

Rediscovered: Harrowing work from High School.

2010-05-01T21:36:00.005-04:00

I shot these photos of my grandmother and her sister in the late 90s, a few years before they both passed away. watching my grandmother getting old wasn't pretty. Unflinching stuff, eh? I think I was barely 17...

April 22-30. Seekonk, MA to Chelsea, NY.

2010-05-01T21:14:00.008-04:00

I've noticed that I'll sometimes pick up a roll of film from the lab only to discover a totally unintentional theme running through the 36 frames. Sometimes it's color and shape. Other times, subject matter. That was the case with this latest roll. Who knew I had a thing for bathrooms?

happy belated 2nd birthday my today!

2010-04-25T12:15:00.005-04:00

how time flies....

© Garry Winogrand

in the meantime...

2010-04-25T11:57:00.006-04:00

I took a quick two day road trip this weekend and hope to post a few of the pictures I took en route as soon as I get them developed but in the meantime, here's another one from last week's roll. Long Island City.

a homage to the great mr. saul leiter.

2010-04-23T14:00:00.009-04:00

i had saul leiter on the brain when i snapped this with my minolta x-700 in long island city the other day....

Open 7 Days, Long Island City
© me

© Saul Leiter

time to vote! i've thrown my hat into the PDN Faces Contest ring.

2010-03-30T22:22:00.009-04:00

You may remember the photo below of The Beatty (aka Mom) from an iPhone snap of a print I posted to the blog back in February. Why is the photo making a reappearance on my today? Because I've thrown my hat into the ring into PDN's Faces Competition and need your help in order to secure the "People's Choice Award." My days of dreaming of Oscar are far behind me but who wouldn't be thrilled to add a PDN accolade to her cap? If you like what you see below, click HERE, HERE, or HERE and vote away. One vote per person, I believe. Thank you for your support!

Ripples...

2010-03-30T11:39:00.008-04:00

this little gorgeous collage of my flea images was put together by stylist Raina Kattelson for a blog posting about her experience stumbling across "everything you want, everything you need" at the Brooklyn Flea this weekend. Thanks, Raina!

Alas, the show has closed (thank you to all who stopped by- and to those who wanted to but couldn't make it because life in NYC is crazy), but I'm happy to see the first of what I hope will be several ripples in the the blogosphere and news media waters. A post-show wrap up entry to follow in the coming days. I'm still digesting it all...

-Jordana

ADIEU!: everything you want, everything you need, runs through Sunday March 28. Don't miss it!

2010-03-26T16:46:00.008-04:00

How times flies. We're already in the home stretch: the final weekend of "everything you want, everything you need." I have some plans to take this baby on the road but if you want to see this project–about the Brooklyn Flea at the Flea– and don't want to hop on a plane, train or automobile to do so, this is the time!

WHEN: THIS Saturday and Sunday, March 27-28
10AM-5PM
WHERE: The Flea at One Hanson in the room with the gorgeous "Special Services" sign above it in gold (?) brass (?). If you can't find it, just ask the folks up front and they'll point you in the right direction.

Off to install at One Hanson...
I look forward to seeing many of you there this weekend!

jz

ze artist statement

2010-03-23T23:06:00.003-04:00

for your reading pleasure, below is the text from the artist statement for "everything you want, everything you need" that I talked about on my podcast last week.

When I began to photograph the Fort Greene Brooklyn Flea in late Fall of 2008, I was most interested by what I saw as a giant collision of the past and present taking place there, by the idea of purchasing memories that once belonged to other people and through that transaction, making them our own, by our insatiable desire to possess objects of the past, by nostalgia.

And then there was the color, the light, the “stuff” of the market: the items for sale, the food, the clothes (and I’m not just talking about what was being sold, but what was being worn- it truly is a place to see and be seen). And what about those incredible accidental juxtapositions and arrangements? (think Jesus looking up to a socket plug like it’s his God, a $10 sticker slapped onto the forehead of a woman in a painting- she looks so surprised-!¬– a wood clamp placed just so over the…ehem…derrière of a vintage Hustler Magazine pinup girl. SQUEEZE!)

The Flea Market, especially the Brooklyn Flea, is an overwhelmingly tactile experience. Slip it on, turn it over, take a bite, fold, clasp, buckle, wind it up. With “everything you want, everything you need,” my hope is that you, the viewer, the visitor, will interact with my images from the Flea in a similar way. The act of looking at a photograph is all-to rarely an experience that fully engages the senses. Here, please do look at them but also put them together, shuffle them, try them on (and yes, buy them-!).

I’ve also endeavored to bring my own kind of temporal collision into this room you’re standing in right now; my images might be new but the View-Masters I sourced from all over the country aren’t. When was the last time you put together a puzzle? The playing cards might be freshly printed but don’t they remind you of those old ones grandpa might have had stashed away in his cigar box?

Enjoy…!

everything you want, everything you need: from installation to exhibition

2010-03-23T22:38:00.027-04:00

that there's the awesome jason voegele of REPUBLIC worldwide

typical. what photographer likes to have her picture taken? not me!

© Robert Wright

"everything you want, everything you need" pops up again at the Flea at One Hanson this Saturday, March 27 and closes Sunday the 28th at 5PM. Hope to see you there!

Mission Accomplished! View-Master Madness!

2010-03-21T20:55:00.009-04:00

This weekend's opening of "everything you want, everything you need" was a success! Thanks to those of you who came out (or rather in) on this beautiful weekend. For those of you who missed it this time around, it would be great to see you next week. I'll post Installation pics in the coming days but in the meantime, here's some photo proof of the serious View-Master fun had by all!

The Word Is Spreading!

2010-03-18T17:02:00.010-04:00

Thank you two my friends at the Brooklyn Flea, to the lovely and talented Andrew Hetherington (of What's the Jackanory? fame), and to the folks at Griffin Editions (my amazing printers- not to mention William Eggleston's and other greats!) for the shout outs about "everything you want, everything you need" on their websites. I hope you'll join me on Saturday for opening day!

The text from the uber-long entry below. Spoken. My First Podcast. :)

2010-03-13T16:54:00.005-05:00

Behind the Scenes of "everything you want, everything you need."

2010-03-13T13:06:00.019-05:00

The Artist Statement: for some it's a painful afterthought (or maybe "afterACT"- who doesn't think about writing it fairly early on in the game as you're readying a project for exhibition only to put it off and off until it's too late not to act?) I'm definitely one of those put-er-off-ers but once I actually sit down to write the thing, I really get into it. It's kind of a neat challenge to take something, an idea or theme, that you clearly felt was best captured by the still image, and attempt to translate that into an entirely different form altogether: words.

I'm mid artist-statement writing for "everything you want, everything you need" (yes, it's next week- I've "afterACTed" for sure) and am having a ball with it. It feels so free and loose.

And when I think about it, the process of putting together this show can be seen as a gradual loosening of...well, of just about everything. When I was offered the show I immediately saw it so clearly, so tightly (and ehem....so unimaginatively): images, hung side by side, 60" high, in a neat line and on a wall. Maybe some wall text. Track Lights. "Let's bring the Chelsea Experience to Brooklyn-!" I thought. But I found myself running into some problems. Lining up the images on my cork board mock up of the space (and later, a fully fledged cardboard nearly-to-scale diorama), something felt...wrong. Sequencing, the edit, is so vital to putting together something engaging but I couldn't figure out why these images: from the same space, from the same project, captured with the same ideas in mind, didn't lend themselves to being lined up in a row in a nice narrative sequence. In a panic I invited my artist friend Kellam Clark over for a "consultation." Maybe I wasn't seeing something. We had a few beers and the verdict was in: underwhelm. "I really expected more from you. Better portraits, better still lives. I'm just not seeing it. Later, babe." Ouch.

I'd had my doubts about the project throughout (as I do midway through every project) but wanted to see it through to completion (which for me usually means exhibition). Crap. I call Robert Wright- photographer friend- who shot the Flea several times last year while on assignment for the New York Times. "Well," he said (roughly), "you might have given yourself a more difficult task than you realize," he told me. "There's really not much drama to be found at a Flea Market. People are shopping. You're unlikely to find 'the unexpected' very often. There's just not going to be that much drama there." Robert worked on a project on malls of America years ago and found that out first hand. Crap. These pictures lack drama. If they had drama, then they'd make sense side by side and in a line on the wall.

Ring, Ring. On the phone to Christophe Agou. "Christophe, I need your help. I have my show coming up and I thought I'd picked the final pictures but I can't get the sequence to work. Can you take a look? No one seems to like what I've come up with." As a side note, Christophe has been in my court from day one. When I received an out-of-the-blue email from him in December telling me he liked my photos, I ran through my parents house, laptop held high, screaming "Christophe Agoooouuuu! I just got an email from Christophe Agoooouuuuuu!" My parents were puzzled. I was elated. I've since calmed down.

He had a look at the images I'd selected for exhibition and told me the pictures were great. That the pictures were not the problem. The problem as he saw it was that the way I had decided to display them. This whole side by side and in a line on the wall business was not serving these pictures. "Of course you're having trouble with the sequence! You took these pictures at a Flea Market- it's a hodgepodge, it's random, messy. If the subject cannot be lined up neatly on a wall, how can the images? Your job is to create that feeling, the feeling you had of being there. Maybe one picture could be high, one low, on different kinds of paper...Oui?"

REVELATION!

What I took away from our talk was this: these pictures must be liberated from the wall!

I kept what he said to myself for a few days and let it simmer. Three nights pass. 3AM. I wake up with a start with this image of a...I wasn't sure what it was called. It's the plastic thing that you put a circle slide-thingy into and click through and see pictures with. It's a nostalgic item, would probably even be sold at The Flea...The laptop opens. I google. slide, pictures, plastic photo toy, click. Within a few minutes I had it: View-Master. What I was wondering was this, how do I get my pictures from this project into a View-Master? And what are the circular things called that hold the transparent picture slides? Google, google google. Results: Reels! Search: "Custom View-Master Reels." I won't reveal the secrets of how I made it happen, the custom View-Master reels, that is, but let's just say it had something to do with google and an amazing man in Oregon who, passionate about stereoscopic technology, knows how to make them.

That started it all. The View-Master is a supremely nostalgic item, it's hip, it's kitsch, and would allow a viewer of the these reels to engage with an entire series of photographs in a way unlike they probably have since they were kids. They could hold it in their hand. With a View-Master pushed up against their face, they would be directly confronting these images (and the images directly confronting them). You can't see anything else but what's on those reels when you're looking at a View-Master. It's a totally focused one-track way of exploring an image. And it's fun. And it reminds you of when you were a kid. The adrenaline pumped steady for days.

Puzzles, racy playing cards, shoes (yes, shoes!), t-shirts, followed shortly thereafter. I still wanted to hang these images on a wall (and will) but I also wanted to find ways to integrate them with the very kinds of objects you might find at the Flea. Nostalgic objects, throwbacks to the past. What started as an "exhibition," has, with the perfect push from my friend, become an "installation." I wrote early on about the "collision of past and present" happening each day at the Flea and in a way, that is the sense that I am trying to bring to this show. New images (of nostalgic things) on old (and nostalgic) objects. And then there's the fact you can try an image on, put it together, click it, shuffle it. The Brooklyn Flea is tactile, and, although perhaps not "dramatic," nevertheless full of action. That, too, is an element I hope comes through loud and clear.

I wanted to write this up to share with you what's gone into the making of what I hope seems like an effortless installation. Behind anything that seems effortless is a ton of panic, fear and the shuffling of 48 decks of playing cards. I hope to see many of you there (March 20, 21, and 27, 28) at the Flea at One Hanson.

St. James Dashboard.

2010-03-12T20:08:00.005-05:00

Night and Day.

2010-03-12T19:50:00.008-05:00

night

and

day

A Shout out in the Brooklyn Flea Newsletter. March 10, 2010.

2010-03-10T23:01:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the folks at the Brooklyn Flea for this kind shout out in their newsletter today.

Photographer Jordana Zeldin has been snapping captivating pictures at the Flea for the past couple of years, and we're proud to host her unique pop-up gallery show the final two weekends at One Hanson: March 20+21 and 27+28. Titled "everything you want, everything you need," the unique exhibition will feature Jordana's series of Flea images presented on the walls of a transformed room inside the historic bank. She has also created custom View-Master reels of the photos, racy playing-card decks, puzzles for kids and adults, even Keds shoes featuring the images. Get the picture!

another of the beatty from that windy day.

2010-03-10T22:47:00.004-05:00

my mom. again. she's my favorite subject. this photo already feels to me like it was taken years and years ago.

One on film.

2010-03-10T22:19:00.010-05:00

I realize that when I started what was then "The Brooklyn Flea Project," I set out to document the entire process here on this blog, from conception, to process, to the actualization of an exhibition. I did alright with the first part or so but but have completely failed to write anything about what has to date, been the largest undertaking in my so-far-baby-new photography career (and quite possibly ever- there's been as much if not more to do to prepare for this four day show than during my theatre directing days). Admittedly, I've given myself all this work, no one's making me do it, and that's why I love it so!

SO, that said, please stay tuned for a substantial posting about the process of putting together the exhibition of what is now, "everything you want, everything you need."

Having spent the last two months thinking about little else than this show, I've decided to take the night off and dust off some of the images from a roll of film I took on a night out shooting with my dear friend, Christophe Agou. We both took a picture of this. He's developing his in Paris now. I wonder how different they are...?

In last month's British Vogue (I think), Jeurgen Teller said this about his experience photographing the same thing at the same moment as his photographer friend William Eggleston:

...The following day, we were sitting on a bench under the Eiffel Tower. We had the same model of camera, with the same lens, slung around our necks. I glanced behind me and saw an orange recycling bag with a red Coca-Cola can in the bottom. “Look,” I said, “that’s an Eggleston picture.” “Sure is,” said William, and we both turned to take the picture. He took one snap, I took five shots – all the time thinking, “I’m going to have an Eggleston picture!” Of course, mine didn’t work, but William’s ended up on the wall of his show at the Fondation Cartier.

SAVE the DATE(s): everything you want, everything you need: photographs and objects by jordana zeldin, MARCH 20-21 and 27-28

2010-03-05T23:58:00.005-05:00

Dear Friends and Supporters,

I'm writing to give you a heads up about my upcoming photography exhibition and "pop-up nostalgia shop," everything you want, everything you need, opening at One Hanson Place (the famous Williamsburg Savings Bank Building) on Saturday March, 20th and running for two weekends. The installation will feature photographs from my project on the Brooklyn Flea market as well as a curated selection of custom-made objects that merge my images with the very kind of things you might find picking through the bric-a-brac at the Flea on a lazy Sunday afternoon (think vintage view-masters with custom view-master reels of images from the show, racy playing cards, puzzles, t-shirts, and...shoes! Yes, shoes).

More information to come. In the meantime:

MARCH 20-21: 10AM-5PM
MARCH 27-28: 10AM-5PM.

Mark it down, write it up, become a facebook fan. I hope to see you there!

Many thanks for your continued support,
Jordana

on film. on the subway.

2010-02-27T19:16:00.002-05:00

tmblr blog.

2010-02-24T23:39:00.003-05:00

hello! I realize I haven't been doing much writing on the blog these days but I've subscribed to a few tumblrs and like what seems to be the basic premise: lots of pictures, few words. I'm trying that on for size for awhile on here and in the midst of preparing for "everything you want, everything you need," will try to check in from time to time with an image or two. thanks for reading!

windlift.

2010-02-24T23:34:00.002-05:00

the beatty at night. fulton street. brooklyn. winter.

2010-02-24T22:45:00.001-05:00

beatty and the wind.

2010-02-24T22:42:00.003-05:00

beatty and the wind.

2010-02-24T22:31:00.003-05:00

the beatty.

2010-02-23T20:50:00.003-05:00

an iphone snap of a new print. the subject? who else? mom.

everything.

2010-02-22T22:10:00.002-05:00

Mark your Calendars!

2010-02-20T00:41:00.006-05:00

The formerly titled "The Brooklyn Flea project is now, "everything you want, everything you need," a pop up nostalgia shop and gallery. More details to come. In the meantime, mark your calendars: March 20, 21, 27 and 28. I look forward to seeing many of you at the show.

everything

2010-02-15T10:16:00.001-05:00

everything

2010-02-13T17:09:00.004-05:00

Coming Soon....

2010-02-06T22:31:00.002-05:00

sequencing for my upcoming show. details to follow...

Easing Back In. January 25, 2009

2010-01-25T23:25:00.001-05:00

Happy Belated Everything! An Old way to Start a New Year.

2010-01-09T12:28:00.004-05:00

This might seem a bit belated one week into the new decade but I want to wish all you my today readers and stumble-upon-ers a very happy New Year!

Things kicked off well for me on this end, with a print sale in the first week of 2010. Sitting here in the bowels of the International Center of Photography (the Digital Media Lab) I've decided to edition my work in the way of old. i.e, if it's an edition of three (as the print I'm making now is and I imagine most of my future prints will be), I'm going to print the full edition right then and there (or in this case, here and now). 3/3 is rolling off the Epson 9800 as I type this and after tinkering around with the file for the better part of three hours, I'm very pleased with the edition. Perhaps all three won't sell out this year (or ever) but my sense now in this age of infinite reproduction (and what seems like totally unpredictable monitor/device calibration), if you're going to bother to edition your prints, the edition needs to mean that it was printed at the same time, by the same person, with the same equipment.

And who doesn't get a thrill from numbering each print with a soft pencil and they roll off the printer...?

In the meantime....

2009-12-22T15:22:00.006-05:00

as I wait for my new 50mm 1.4 Minolta lens to arrive for my X-700, I'm stuck with the iPhone. I'll make due...here's what I captured with it today on 24th Street.

Introducing....

2009-12-20T18:55:00.005-05:00

... my new baby!
My Maxxum 7000 sadly passed on last week but I am thrilled to welcome this addition to the family...! Stay tuned to the blog for more "Works on Film."

Sarasota Polaroid Diptych. Sometime during December 10-14, 2009.

2009-12-16T14:16:00.003-05:00

Two from my recent trip to Sarasta, FL to visit my mom.

Another Work on Film. December 8, 2009.

2009-12-08T15:30:00.001-05:00

Parting Shot. November 21, 2008.

2009-12-05T19:49:00.004-05:00

I'm a bit of overdue in posting this image- once of my last pictures of the Brooklyn Flea for the Season (and who knows? possibly forever!). More todays are on the way...!

Head Over to Robert Wright's Blog to Read About Why There are No Snapshots Anymore.

2009-12-03T23:30:00.005-05:00

Click HERE to read a fabulous post about the death of the Snapshot by friend and inspirator, Robert Wright.

A Few Noteworthy Changes Over at WWW.JORDANAZELDIN.COM

2009-11-21T17:10:00.016-05:00

This is just a quick post to let you know that I've made some small but hopefully fruitful changes to jordanazeldin.com. First off, I've added a Press page (complete with a collage of all the generous blog mentions over the past year and a snazzy multimedia player). Head on over to check it out. Also, I've re-sequenced the Brooklyn Flea Project section of the site, filling it with some of the stronger images familiar to you blog readers that, for one reason or another, didn't make it over to the main site until today. My sense right now is that this is the final edit and sequence of the project: 15 images culled from over 1000(!). Keep your eyes out for a new project title too. Have you ever heard of anything more limiting or mundane as "The Brooklyn Flea Project?"

As I continue to move forward with my 35mm work, I will also be adding a "Works on Film" Collection. Stay tuned. Thank you for your support and as always, I welcome all feedback and suggestions.

Subversions Podcast Interview on the Subway Art Blog!

2009-11-19T13:00:00.010-05:00

Head on over to Jowy Romano's Subway Art Blog to listen to his interview with me on all things Subversions! The podcast will be available at the iTunes store in the coming days along with several mini enhanced podcasts in which we discuss some of my favorite images from the project. Stay tuned here and check back with the Subway Art Blog for those soon -to-be-released sound bites...

** On a technical note, it works and looks best using the Safari Browser.

AMERICANSUBURB X: Where Have You Been All My Life?

2009-11-18T12:24:00.005-05:00

For someone who considers herself to be pretty photo-blog savvy, I was shocked two days ago to find a gaping hole in my knowledge. Have I been living under a rock or has the ridiculously well-designed and content rich "AMERICANSUBURB X" been accidentally left-out of the larger conversation taking place in the photo-blogosphere? If the former is true, I can take it. If it really has been somehow overlooked, head over to AMERICANSUBURB X to discover what just might be the best-kept-secret of the online photo world...

A Little Known Bill Brandt Interview.

2009-11-16T22:51:00.008-05:00

Bill Brandt, would you read me a bedtime story?

Captured on Film (really). Two from last week.

2009-11-16T21:32:00.008-05:00

Hoorah! These are two digital photographs of two favorites images of mine from the roll of 35mm I shot last week.

It feels good to be back on the streets...!

Another Wave of Interest in Subversions!

2009-11-16T12:04:00.006-05:00

I've really been impressed with the way Subversions seems to have taken on a life of its own. It's out there, in the world, and with not much publicity or pushing from me, every now and again someone feels compelled enough by the work to want to devote time to writing about it, interviewing me about it, hell, even just linking to it. I appreciate it all!

Tonight, Jowy Romano will air the first installment of our more extended interview about the project on his Subway Art Blog. The subject of Jowy's blog and Subversions go hand and hand and I thank him for taking such a strong interest in it.

In case you missed the very-well written article from last week about it in Cambridge University's VARSITY newspaper, have a look HERE.

First Van Gogh, and Now, a Word from Shawn Records and John Szarkowski.

2009-11-14T21:22:00.021-05:00

I forgot to mention, I also found myself corresponding with inspirator Shawn Records about "meaning" and photography after stumbling upon his website through the hey hot shot! website. I wasn't familiar with Shawn's work before that but when I saw it I had a bit of an "aha!" moment. His pictures totally reinforced my dad's sense that it isn't really the artist's job to make meaning of his or her work but rather the viewers' job to take meaning from a visceral and perhaps even subliminal, gut response. The job of the artist is to make the work. Shawn gave me permission to publish our correspondence on the blog. I hope it proves to be thought provoking, at the very least!

© Shawn Records

From Jordana Zeldin
to xx@xxx.com
date Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 9:29 AM
subject A note from a fellow photog
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi Shawn,

My name is jordana zeldin and i found you by way of jen beckmann's hey hot shot! blog. of all the images I've seen on there, and frankly, of all of the images that make up the bulk of contemporary photography today, yours feel among the most revelatory. only last weekend while visiting my folks in providence, rhode island, was I discussing "meaning" in photographs with my dad, how it seems that these days without a heady top-notch artist statement to accompany a body of work that collectively "says something," you, as a photographer, are failing. My heroes have always been eggleston and more recently, saul leiter (do you know his work? in-credible!) and my dad rightly pointed out that neither one of them made any sweeping proclamations about the "meaning" of their images. They made them in that incredible 1/60th of a second where everything comes together, light, composition, a feeling is had, and then they moved on. That can be enough, he reminded me.

Well, I just wanted to write you to say that your images, disparate moments and subjects from different places and times of the day, evoke what my dad was reminding me of and what i've always admired in eggleston and leiter's work. Like you, I've been drawn to the smaller moments that hint at something larger (or perhaps are just right on their own without hinting at anything else) and I am grateful to have stumbled upon your images. I'm attaching two from my trip home. I recently switched back to 35mm from digital.

All the Best,
Jordana

© Shawn Records

Here's Shawn's ultra-thoughtful response:

from shawn records
to Jordana Zeldin
date Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 7:22 PM
subject Re: A note from a fellow photog
mailed-by eigbox.net

Hi Jordana,

Thanks so much for your kind words. I'm glad you liked what you saw.

Yeah, your dad's a smart guy. In fact, for inspiration, look up John Szarkowski's afterward to Lee Friedlander's portraits book. Nevermind, instead, I'll look it up myself. It's exactly the kind of food you need. I'll paste it below.

In any case, I find that sometimes we confuse "content" with what Robert Adam's referred to as "socio-scientific balloon bread." I don't know who your people are, that is, your day to day community of photography geeks, but if you're in school, this can be especially challenging as more often than not, academics (myself included on occasion), tend to push for work that is a reflection of some greater idea than the purely visual. That's not always the best thing to do.

I'd think the best thing any of us can do (again, myself included) is not overthink the meaning that's supposed to frame and/or complete the pictures, and just make pictures that you want to make, without worrying about how/where they'll fit into the world. Sometimes, in the editing process, you'll pin down an idea upon reflection, or note an interest that may be guiding you, without you even being aware of it. For me, even as recently as today, I fight with exactly the same issues. But ultimately, when I'm productive, I schedule time to get out into the world and give myself permission to go fail. Oftentimes that's just what it feels like, but all in all, over time, you find some scraps and piece them together and before you know it, they grow into something.

John Szarkowski:

I once happened to attend a conference, designed to wring from photography its deepest secrets, and later to publish them in five (I think) languages, not including, of course, the language of photography, which is too difficult, ambivalent, ambiguous, or mysterious to be broken to pull in harness with languages that have dictionaries and grammars. In spite of the apparent hopelessness of the problem, the conference was attended by critics, aestheticians, other philosophers, social scientists of various specialties, prophets, and politicians, most of whom seemed dedicated to the proposition that the group might, if it put its common shoulder to the wheel, determine what photography ultimately meant, so that the question could by Sunday morning be declared dead, and never again waste the time of the panelists.

The program might have proceeded smoothly toward its goal if Friedlander had not been invited, but he was. He was also, if my memory serves me correctly, the first speaker on the program. I use the word speaker in the nominal sense, for he began by saying that he had nothing to say about his pictures, but had brought three Carousel trays of slides - three hundred and sixty pictures - to show, and would be happy to try to answer any questions that the audience might have. The pictures were carefully and intelligently chosen, and arranged chronologically, and the slides were beautifully made, so that it would have been possible to lean back and take pleasure in the view that an important twentieth-century artist had formed to describe the evolution of his own career. But this would have been rewarding only to those who believe that pictures have a life, and a life history, of their own. To those (perhaps half of those assembled) who believed that it was the function of pictures to provide ancillary proof to truths that might be formulated by wise blind men, it was deeply distressing to be asked to sit and watch pictures without dialogue or sub-titles for ten minutes, then fifteen minutes, without having been given a text that one could agree with, or disagree with, or agree with in part, with wise, witty, delightful exceptions, citing St. Augustine or Groucho Marx or Walter Benjamin or Jacques Derrida or others who, however innocent of any complicity with or even knowledge of the sins or the provisional triumphs of photography, were called upon to bear witness to its ultimate possibilities. Friedlander (perhaps innocently, or perhaps with some higher Metternichian sophistication) had momentarily foiled the philosophers and the politicians and the social scientists by giving them nothing but pictures, which was not quite the grist their mills needed.

After twenty minutes or so of this embarrassing mismatch, a public-spirited auditor in the back of the room decided to sacrifice himself by asking what was obviously a ludicrously irrelevant question, but that might serve to get the intellectual ball rolling. He asked: "Where did you make that one, Herr Friedlander?" Friedlander, obviously pleased to be asked a question that he could answer without compromising his own standards of precision and concision, promptly responded that the picture in question had been made in Toledo. Friedlander was in fact so pleased with the question (which did not concern his life in bed, or his political commitments, or his insights into the ultimate secrets of life), that he announced to the audience that he would be happy to identify the place at which each of the remaining quarter-thousand pictures were made, and he proceeded to do so: "Memphis ... New City ... Phoenix ... Cambridge ... Jackson Hole ... Syracuse ... etc." As Friedlander continued his recitation of place names a considerable part of his audience seemed to sink into a progressively deeper confusion, perhaps in some cases due to the perception that so many great ancient cities seemed to have sunk so low. Finally another voice, polite but firm, asked whether it was really relevant that he had made this particular picture in Chattanooga. Friedlander considered the question for a moment and, with a respectful seriousness of manner that I have no reason to believe feigned, said yes, he thought it was relevant that the picture had been made in Chattanooga, because if he (Friedlander) had not been in that city he would not have been able to make that picture.

Give 'em hell.

best,
Shawn

© Shawn Records

I can relate to the kind of thing Szarkowski is talking about. I saw Sylvia Plachy speak at Barnes and Noble a few years ago back when it was my dream to shoot the "Goings on About Town" photograph for the New Yorker and I felt similarly frustrated. Where was the exposition? As she flipped through the slideshow of her photos, I remember her saying, "this a monkey." "this is my son." "this is the view from our car." Come on, I thought. Surely there must be more. Someone asked her about what it's like to take a picture. She couldn't explain. Come on, I thought again. But now I kind of get it. Some photographers are into more exposition than others but if the pictures are strong, they can speak for themselves. What happens in the moment a photograph is made is so fast, involves so many components, a split second reaction. It's hard to put into words. If we put it into words we would write about that moment rather than capture it on film.

Now in no way am I advocating that conversation about work doesn't need to take place. In fact, I believe it's absolutely vital to the development of the craft, to ones own personal work, to emerging photographers, to students...I guess what I'm just saying is that we as the photographers don't necessarily have to have full control over the "meaning" of our work.

I think of my days as a theatre director (brief as they were). On the first night of the first production I directed, I found myself curled up in the fetal position on the back row seats, peering out at the stage from between my fingers and through the slats of the chairs in front of me. It was at this point I realized I had "surrendered" the play over to the actors. We had worked on the piece and fine-tuned each moment in rehearsal but now that the play was up and running, it was no longer...gulp...mine. It was there's. And if they failed up there, so did I and there was nothing I could do about it...Scary stuff.

I also remember on that same opening night when the play finished and the lights went down I was the first one to clap. "Don't ever do that," a more experienced director later told me at the pub. I realized right away why he said that. Clapping was my way of controlling something, if only to signal the end of the piece. It wasn't up to me to do that. It was the audience's job to respond, to decide together than the play was over. I was never the first one to clap at the end of one of my productions again. Like it or not, my job was done the moment the actors took the stage on opening night.

So, from here on out, I'm going to endeavor to make the work, edit it, sequence it, and leave it be. Let it breath. I solemnly swear to make lots and lots of pictures and to leave the meaning-making to the viewers...

I've Made it Back Accross the Pond- at Least Newspaper Article-y Speaking!

2009-11-14T19:15:00.011-05:00

Holy Hell! It was quite the pleasant surprise for me to stumble upon this article published in Cambridge University's Independent newspaper, VARISITY tonight (aptly titled, "Empire State of Mind"- come on, who doesn't (maybe secretly) have a weak spot for that New York anthem?). Thanks to the lovely Emma Hogan who interviewed me this summer about Subversions and for writing such a damn good and complimentary article about my work. Once again, I find myself in illustrious company (if only by way of the fact that my name appears side by side with two of the greats: Walker Evans and Helen Levitt). Go on. Have a read.

Amen! Some Widsom from Van Gogh.

2009-11-14T18:35:00.008-05:00

My dad emailed me this yesterday as a continuation of an ongoing discussion we've been having about "meaning" in photographs and Art in general. Some of the questions we've been grappling with remind me of some of the questions posed to me by my undergrad Cinema and Media studies professors at the University of East Anglia in the UK.

With regards to photography, who is the meaning maker? Is it the artist? The viewer? Is it an easy collaboration? A battle? Why does it seem that, more than ever before, artists are having to justify their work with an accompanying artist statement? What if a picture had no intended "meaning" at the time of its capture but subsequently "speaks" later on, carries with it a revelatory weight? I understand the importance of the artist's statement- especially in the context of applying for a fellowship or grant- but if a project itself doesn't successfully convey a fleshed-out idea, if it is just plain old visually interesting on its own terms, emotional, purely by way of composition (the single most important element that I believe is responsible for invoking "feeling" in a viewer- yes, even before subject matter), should it be deemed a "failure?" Must everything be tied up neatly in a bow? Must it connect?

Here, in his last letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh talks about the role of the artist, suggesting that the artist is really just a mediator between the active viewer and the equally active and enduring work of art. My dad called it the "artist statement to end all artist statements."

Painters are fighting more than ever with their backs to the wall. As far as I'm concerned, I apply myself to my canvases with all my mind, I am trying to do as well as certain painters whom I have greatly loved and admired.

Well, the truth is, we can only make our pictures speak. My own work, I am risking my life for it, and my reason is half lost because of it. But I tell you this, at a moment when things are very strained between dealers in pictures of dead artists, and living artists: that through my mediation you have your part in the actual production of some canvases which will retain their calm even in the catastrophe.

Discuss.

Two Photographers I've Been Looking At. You Might Like Them Too.

2009-10-27T15:26:00.021-04:00

Michael Wolf:

Vivian Maier, a street photographer from the 1950s-1970s whose work (30-50,000 negatives!) was only recently discovered at auction in a storage locker in Chicago! Lucky us:

Hot of the Press! Three 35mm Prints. October 27, 2009.

2009-10-27T14:06:00.006-04:00

I found out from the guy who developed my film at Manhattan Color Labs that the film I was using was expired. The negatives were thin and the prints muddy although as photographer Robert Wright pointed out this morning by text message, that was "a look back in the day." I'm all for texture and grain (I pushed the film one and a half stops to 400) but I just wish that these were a little crisper like inspirator Saul Leiter's work (see the last image). I'm also going to check into taking a color darkroom class. I'm sure there's lots I could do to pep these up a bit. Stay tuned for more...

© Saul Leiter

Hello Again 35mm. Hello Again Fixed Lens. Hello Again Black and White Film.

2009-10-20T14:45:00.016-04:00

When I started taking pictures with my first digital camera (a Rebel Xti) in June of 2007, I remember feeling like I'd lost control of my hand, my eye, my instincts, that along with my Minolta Maxxum 7000 (gifted to me by my dad, purchased before I was born), my photographic talents had gone right out the window. It's called adjusting to a new piece of equipment, you say. And you're right. That's all it was. Since I put down the Maxxum two years ago I've shot all of my work on the Rebel. The thought of going back to film almost...scared me (although of course I would always lament that fact that I was using digital and not film when the inevitable question, "so which do you prefer" came up). There was the fact that it cost more, of course, but also this nagging fear that maybe I no longer knew how to shoot film, that I had become so used to digital that I simply wouldn't be able to get the hang of it again, that I wouldn't be able to retrain myself to use the manual focusing ring, wouldn't be quick enough to capture those thrilling "Decisive Moments."

The hell with that, I say! In the face of that fear I've decided to act. I've shelved the digital and recently took to the streets with my Maxxum again. It feels great, the viewfinder is generous and I couldn't wait to head over to Manhattan Color Labs this morning to pick up the roll of B+W film I dropped off last night.

Two of the three pictures below are from over a year ago and the one with the lady and umbrella is from last week. I've included the wood floor in these digital snaps of my prints as a kind of celebratory nod to their "object-ness."

I've already reloaded my camera with some 160 color film, pushed to 400. We'll see what develops. Stay tuned...

The Beatty's Last Night in Town. A Subway Platform. October 7, 2009.

2009-10-07T23:31:00.003-04:00

Central Park. October 6, 2009.

2009-10-06T23:00:00.001-04:00

Mother Elusive.

2009-10-06T22:40:00.008-04:00

My mom (aka "The Beatty") has been in town visiting since Sunday and we've been serenely tucked away in a subletted studio on the Upper West Side. It feels nothing like my day to day NYC and I've welcomed the change of pace.

My mom's visits have always been fruitful for photographing and at the suggestion of a photographer friend of mine, I set out to do a project on the visit, a kind of raw portraiture project of my mom.

Now let me tell you that my mom is the most willing and trusting of subjects. Having long come to terms with her insecurities, she is more at home in her own skin after over 60 years on this earth than at any other time in her life. So at home, in fact, that she quite willingly posed for an impromptu nude polaroid session I spontaneously suggested we put together on her first night in town. The lighting was terrible (one bare bulb- I tried to create a makeshift softbox with a pillowcase to no avail) and hard to control (my poalroid camera, that flash, you know) and the photos only came out so so but what really struck me was her gaze back at the camera. She was there in front of me, completely naked and had the calmest and most loving look on her face. The very act of posing for me, her photographer daughter who is still finding her way, was an act of love.

I'm not going to post those pictures (and I'm sorry to dissapoint those who stumbled upon this blog by googling the words mom, naked and/or gaze) but I will post one from our shopping excursion (or rather browsing excursion) at Saks Fifth Avenue this afternoon. It just about captures how I feel about this attempted project. It's somehow gotten away from me. Hence, the title of this blog entry.

A Gem from Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza's, Reagan Days.

2009-10-04T00:23:00.007-04:00

Is this a gem or what?
© Pete Souza

Isn't it? Isn't it? No wonder they brought this guy back for the Obama Administration.

A MUST See: Classic Photography in Legos!

2009-10-03T21:20:00.011-04:00

I just stumbled upon the most hilarious gallery over at the Daily Beast called Classic Photography in Lego. Thanks to a UK-based photographer named Mike Stimpson, we now have Lego versions of some of the most memorable images in photographic history. See for yourself here!

© Mike Stimpson

© Bentley Archive, Popperfoto / Getty Images

© Mike Stimpson

© Steve McCurry/Magnum

This certainly gives a lift to my nothing-to-write-home-about Saturday evening here in front of my computer in the City that Never Sleeps...!

Influences.

2009-10-03T12:11:00.016-04:00

I've noticed something strange. Whenever I befriend another photographer whose work I deeply admire (or even study the work from afar in books or online) it seems that for a brief period of time, I start to take the kind of pictures they take; for a month or maybe longer, I see the world as they do. That was definitely the case when I first met friend and inspirator Thomas Holton and now I can't help but notice that the same thing is happening with Christophe Agou. My experience of the subway has been transformed as of late. It is no longer simply a site of Subversions. Instead everywhere I look (even when I'm not deliberately trying to look at anything in particular), I see the kinds of images I might find in Christophe's wonderful addition to the conversation in images about the New York City Subway system, Life Below.

© Thomas Holton

© me

© Christophe Agou

© me

© Christophe Agou

© me

See what I mean? It feels a bit like asking someone for directions to a place you've been before. Your new route, maybe only a block or two over from the one you usually take, reveals streets and buildings that you had no idea were even there.

Hello Fall! Williamsbug, Brooklyn. September 26, 2009.

2009-09-26T22:22:00.002-04:00

The Cat's Out of the Bag! My Backstage at Fashion Week Gallery Featured on The Daily Beast!

2009-09-22T10:24:00.014-04:00

For those of you were standing by, clicking on "my today" as much as you do your gmail account and facebook news feed, biting your nails down to the quick in anticipation of finding out just who it was I was on assignment for during Fashion Week, you can rest easy. It was Tina Brown's online arts, culture, and politics zine, The Daily Beast. My images have just been published in a nifty online gallery in the Sexy Beast section of the site. And once again I find myself in illustrious company (if only by chance juxtaposition): the thumbnail for my gallery (poofy skirt, top right corner) appears right next to a larger thumb linking to a gallery of a selection of gritty 1970s photographer Nan Goldin's never-before seen work.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the gallery! Click away and enjoy!

In other news, I've updated my website, www.jordanazeldin.com, to reflect the fashion takeover. Have a look if you fancy!