I have a large ongoing project working with the problems of photographing iconic places. Go to Google Earth – this spot in Manhattan has hundreds of blue squares – images uploaded by Google Earth users. Sometimes point of view helps. I have better and worse days – the image a day discipline has its downsides.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A long air travel day. The mushrooms made it home.
HOOD RIVER, ORECON – We had a delightful few hours with the brewmaster at the Full Sail Brewery in Hood River, Oregon. We had the run of the place, but again the pictures of the brewery are not very successful – more stainless steel tanks and hoses and pipes. Here’s a sample:
PORTLAND, OREGON – Portland has a remarkable food culture. There are elaborate “food carts” in various parts of town – generally in clusters. They aren’t actually “carts”. They are really trailers, sometimes elaborate ones, rather than the hand carts that the name suggests. Here’s a link to a site specializing in Portland food carts: Food Carts Our friend and guide to Portland, Ron Paul, claims that the best coffee in Portland, and thus North America, is at Spella Caffe. Here’s Andrea Spella. Sorry Andrea for the harsh back lighting.:
PORTLAND, OREGON – In Portland, Oregon meeting with some people on food-related issues. Sunday is spent visiting a farmers’ market and wineries (A to Z and Ponzi) in the Willamette Valley. The 1999 Ponzi Pinot Noir is one of best Burgundy-style reds that I’ve every had anywhere. In the farmers’ market we bought a variety of mushrooms – hoping to be able to get them back to New York for a dinner that we’re cooking a week later. The photographs from the winemaker tours aren’t very interesting. We had the run of the facilities with no restriction on camera use, but the pictures come off as mazes of stainless steel tanks and hoses. So here’s the farmers’ market:
DRAIN, OREGON – We left the Oregon coast early, driving back up the Umpqua River. The light was beautiful at about 10:00 so I stopped and photographed. Another small town: Drain, Oregon. No kidding on the name. Dale Allyn informed me that his dad was at one point the oldest living resident of Drain; that Drain, Oregon is the only town named Drain in North America; and that it’s named after Charles and Anna Drain, not the lowest point in a bathtub.
This is the Pacific Gateway Medical Clinic.
GOLD BEACH, OREGON – We spent October 23 here in Gold Beach, Oregon. The weather was terrible; the visibility on the beach was near zero. I spent a wet day in town taming infrared images of buildings. This is part of a long-term project that i’m working on: small Western towns photographed in the shadow of Edward Weston; the use of infrared technique creates as sense of abstraction and other worldliness.
