Black portrait project airs on HBO

American portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (b.1952) is collaborating on a portrait photography/oral history project called Blacklist, Vol 1, with Black film critic Elvis Mitchell interviewing the subjects. The subjects are a wide-ranging variety of Black celebrities (including Toni Morrison, Serena Williams, Sean Coombs, Richard Parsons, Chris Rock, etc.). It airs on HBO on Monday, August 25th.

Interesting that White photographers find themselves drawn to photographing Black portraits. Reminds me of Brian Lanker's project "I Dream a World: portraits of Black Women who Changed America," which I both envied and admired. I envied both the sheer beauty of Lanker's portraits and his audacity for having conceived the project in the first place. Green-field Sanders has produced some awesome results as well.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders seems to favor the unflinching, staring-straight-into-the-camera style of Richard Avedon in his non-commercial non-fashion work in his later years. He also favors Avedon's penchant for very large-format view cameras (11x14). Makes a militantly anachronistic statement in this digital photography age.

Dutch Country Market

The Dutch Country Farmer's Market in Burtonsville, MD has been a landmark for decades. Run by the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish who ply their wares here every Thursday through Saturday, it has been forced to move because a shopping center developer has bought the strip mall with the intention to raze it and build another strip mall in its place (go figure).

It was supposed to close at the end of August 2008 and move to an abandoned furniture store in Laurel, about 5 miles to the east in Prince Georges county.

However, the website (who knew the Amish had websites?) seems to indicate that the move is off indefinitely. I hope so. I like the idea of the market and that people come from all over DC/Maryland/Virginia to shop here, even though, as a veggie, the market is a little too meat-heavy for my tastes. In fact, their is precious little for a veggie, but I'm glad they're staying a while longer anyway.

What do you get when you cross a tire with a pigeon?

This unfortunate bird was too slow to avoid catastrophe in my parking garage at work (no I didn't hit it).

I thought it might be too morbid to post, but everyone I showed it to said I should post it anyway ( there is a certain geometric beauty to the splatter pattern).

(c)2008, Incorrigible Curmudgeon