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 © Jeongmee Yoon Yesterday I came home to find two packages at my front door. Inside the first package was a signed copy of Jeongmee Yoon's new Pink & Blue Project monograph. The book is published by the Geonhi Art Foundation and includes an essay by Art in America editor, Richard Vine. It's simply stunning. Jeongmee is a dear friend and a fellow SVA MFA grad and I couldn't be more proud of her continued success. If you would like to order a copy of her monograph, you can contact Jeongmee directly.
 © Jason Polan The second package contained another great gift from the talented, Jason Polan. Jason was very kind to send me a copy of his The Every Piece of Art in the Museum of Modern Art Book. The book is an amusingly exhaustive inventory of every piece of art in MOMA drawn in Jason's unique and lively style. If you want to order a copy of this, or any of Jason's fabulous work, just give him a shout.
 © Jonathan Gitelson The fabulously creative and altogether wonderful human being that is Jonathan Gitelson just launched his latest masterwork, The Garbage Can Project. You have probably seen Jon's previous work like the brilliant The Car Project or his clever posters. The Garbage Can Project was born from his need to explore the mysterious motivations behind the continued theft of garbage cans outside his home. Says the Git: The project began because of the frequent theft of the garbage carts in front of my apartment building. In December 2005 I began to keep a daily photo diary of the carts and of any unusual material left on or around them. In October 2006, I began filming the garbage carts twenty-four hours a day.
Each morning I view the footage from the previous day, creating digital video clips of any instances of people interacting with the carts. It has turned out to be surprisingly compelling seeing what can happen in a day in the life of a garbage cart.
The site has all of the data that I have collected since December of 2005 and it will be updated every day with new videos and photographs.
I still have no idea why people keep stealing our garbage carts, or what possible uses they have for them. I hope to uncover this mystery as The Garbage Can Project continues. Keep checking back to his site for updates. And, if you are the one currently stealing Jonathan's garbage cans, keep it up you beautifully trashy muse.
 Mike © Amy Stein (not me) If you know Brian Ulrich then you know he performs smooth jazz the way you like it. Perhaps you know about Brian's ministry that serves up the word with sweet and easy saxophone music. Oh, wait. Did you think I was talking about Brian Ulrich, the godless photographer from Chicago who beatifies his dark photo lord with an evil ritual of BMX, anti-consumerism, and gut wrenching guitar salvos? It's an easy mistake if you are like every other person in the world and use Google as your entry point for any and all information. Brian Ulrich meet Brian Ulrich. You are brethren in name and in search results. You are Googlegangers. I have my own Googlegangers. For many years when you searched my name there was a good chance that the first results would be for Santa Fe based artist and healer, Amy Stein. Or, maybe you would find Amy Stein, the Chairman of Manatee County Board of Commissioners. (Commissioner Amy Stein is currently embroiled in a messy landfill debate.) Still another Amy Stein, the teenage poet, could haunt your Google searches with her lovelorn prose of teenage despondency. Luckily, my husband is a bit of a online marketing genius and he's managed to push me, the real Amy Stein, to the top of the Google search results. On occasion, I still cross online paths with my Googlegangers in RSS feeds, but my attention of late has been focused on the Internet twins of some of my fellow photographers. So, let me reintroduce you to Shen Wei, the dancer. Or, how about Nathan Baker, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis. How about the ace work of Alison Brady? I'm curious about your Googlegangers. Have you every reached out through the tubes and introduced yourself?
 © Bruce Davidson Hey New Yorkers and fans of civil liberties. You know the situation, so sign the petition already.
 Map of the Internet By now many of you have heard of the apparent double suicide of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. I really wasn't aware of their lives before they decided to end them, but because Theresa lived such a public life through her blog I have come to appreciate her work and thoughts since her passing. I mention all of this because unbeknownst to me Theresa once mentioned my work on her blog and I have been getting a lot of traffic over the past week from her site. It would appear that a lot of people are like me and are only coming to her writing after reading of her death. Much of the talk of the Web relates to the ephemeral nature of the medium. Buzz is created and crowds form only to move on to the next cultural phenomenon after our interest wanes. This pattern satisfies my ADD-addled brain with a constant supply of stimulation, but I am growing more and more fascinated with the idea of the Web as an ongoing permanent index of every thought and every image ever committed to the network. It's crazy to think that we are contributing to an exhaustive informational phylogency that is mapping and holding the products of our impermanence in a perpetual place. I know this is the centerpiece of Google's business model, but in a very real sense we are also creating a kind of immortality. The recent visitors form Theresa's blog brought this home to me in a very real way. I should mention that I debated whether or not to post this missive. Again, I didn't know these people and I certainly have no interest in using their death to draw attention to myself. The recent traffic from Theresa's site struck a reflective chord and I felt the need to share. Good idea or bad idea it is now committed to the Internet forever.
 Do your urban landscapes suffer from 'contemporitis?' Does the glut of taupe Geo Metros and silver Honda Civics that dot our modern malls, liquor stores, and gas stations thwart your attempts to produce insta-classic color photos? Are your efforts to explore 'the American identity' missing that critical old car nostalgia that immediately places your work in the rarefied company of Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld? Well, Shore Thing Cars for Photographers is the place for you. We have a fleet of over 120 cars from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s ready to rent and tow to any location. Our cars will lend your work the wistful prosaicness necessary to transform any photo into a timeless classic of Americana. Shore Thing cars come in all the familiar colors of the past including Suntan Copper, Surf Green, and Twilight Turquoise. Call us today and start making all your photos Shore Things. Shore Thing Cars for Photographers is a division of Grandma's Attic Inc., makers of old lady wallpaper, vintage family portraits, and brick-a-brack interior props for the discriminating fine art photographer.
 2003 © Amy Stein
 © Kathleen Flynn I once viewed this administration as merely incompetent. Now, in their every scandal, I see the calculating and pathological actions of a criminal. From the Washington Post: FEMA Knew Of Toxic Gas In Trailers
The Federal Emergency Management Agency since early 2006 has suppressed warnings from its own field workers about health problems experienced by hurricane victims living in government-provided trailers with levels of a toxic chemical 75 times the recommended maximum for U.S. workers, congressional lawmakers said yesterday.
A trail of e-mails obtained by investigators shows that the agency's lawyers rejected a proposal for systematic testing of the levels of potentially cancer-causing formaldehyde gas in the trailers, out of concern that the agency would be legally liable for any hazards or health problems. As many as 120,000 families displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita lived in the suspect trailers, and hundreds have complained of ill effects.
On June 16, 2006, three months after reports of the hazards surfaced and a month after a trailer resident sued the agency, a FEMA logistics expert wrote that the agency's Office of General Counsel "has advised that we do not do testing, which would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue." A FEMA lawyer, Patrick Preston, wrote on June 15: "Do not initiate any testing until we give the OK. . . . Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them."
FEMA tested no occupied trailers after March 2006, when it initially discovered formaldehyde levels at 75 times the U.S.-recommended workplace safety threshold and relocated a south Mississippi couple expecting their second child, the documents indicate. Formaldehyde, a common wood preservative used in construction materials such as particle board, can cause vision and respiratory problems; long-term exposure has been linked to cancer and higher rates of asthma, bronchitis and allergies in children.
One man in Slidell, La., was found dead in his trailer on June 27, 2006, after complaining about the formaldehyde fumes. In a conference call about the death, 28 officials from six agencies recommended that the circumstances be investigated and trailer air quality be subjected to independent testing. But FEMA lawyers rejected the suggestions, with one, Adrian Sevier, cautioning that further investigation not approved by lawyers "could seriously undermine the Agency's position" in litigation.
 Every once in a while the shuffle setting on my iPod will play a string of songs that lead me to believe there is an intelligence involved. I am not talking about mere similarities of BPMs or genres. That wouldn't be worthy of mention. I am talking about the juxtaposition of ironic song content or similarly themed song subjects that would seem to require an acuity not possessed by most of your flesh-and-blood DJs. While driving back from the shoot in Matamoras, PA, this weekend my little white pal played a photography themed three-fer. Here we were fresh from a photo shoot and the iPod randomly plays three photography related songs in a row. By chance? Not bloody likely. The answer must be more sinister and probably involves some kind of nefarious contextual marketing conspiracy between the Illuminati, Steve Jobs, and Sony BMG. Did I mention that I was wearing my tin foil top hat during this whole episode? The event got me thinking about my favorite photography themed songs. A lot of songs immediately came to mind-- Photograph by Def Leppard, Girls on Film by Duran Duran, Kodachrome by Paul Simon, Centerfold by the J. Geils Band--but they don't exactly qualify as favorites in my book. So, here's my quick top 8 photography songs: Pictures of Lily -- Who I Turn My Camera On -- Spoon Pictures of Me -- Elliot Smith Camera Shy -- Lucksmiths All the Photos -- Sea and Cake Kamera -- Wilco Photographic -- Depeche Mode People Take Pictures Of Each Other -- Kinks What's missing from my list? What are your favorite photo songs or your favorite songs to play while you're taking photos?
 This is not the Lusitania Documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris, who directed one of my all time favorite movies, Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control, takes up the debate about photography and truth in a blog article in today's New York Times: The idea that photographs hand us an objective piece of reality, that they by themselves provide us with the truth, is an idea that has been with us since the beginnings of photography. But photographs are neither true nor false in and of themselves. They are only true or false with respect to statements that we make about them or the questions that we might ask of them. I agree with his thesis, but, frankly, I am tired of the conversation and endless debate about what photography is and what photography is not. Truth versus fiction. Staged versus real. Synthetic versus straight. Ay de mi! Can we move past this, people? Can we accept that the only true definition of photography is the process of capturing images using light? Let's stop navel gazing and make some damn pictures already.
 © Daido Moriyama Mathew Pokoik has curated a great photography exhibition for the 3rd Annual Mt Tremper Arts Festival. The show, The Interactive Landscape, opens on September 2 and features an eclectic, but solid lineup of photographers: Aaron Diskin, Amy Stein, Christian Patterson, Daido Moriyama, Ian Baguskas, John Daido Loori, Mark Wyse, Matthew Porter, Stephen Shore, Susana Raab, and Timothy H. O'Sullivan. I will post more about the show and the Mt Tremper Arts Festival as we get a little closer to the opening.
Last night was my first New York gallery opening and what a fabulous opening it was. All the work looked great and the joint was packed. I want to thank the whole Mixed Greens crew for a great show. In true Magic Mirror style I also want to thank John, Andy, Mathilde, Resa, Terry, Shen, Matthew, Bill, Cate, Jeff, Julie, Rachael, Suzanne, Sarah, and, of course, Shai and Marie. It was great to see you all last night and your support is truly appreciated. Tonight we will be making the long drive to Matamoras, PA, to spend the weekend creating the next Domesticated image. All I can say is there will be a bear and groceries involved.
 © Amy Stein For the Road Trip show at Mixed Greens Gallery I have put together a Google Map of my Stranded series. 61 photographs from the series are marked on the map to show the location where the pictures were taken. My hope is that this will lend more geographical context to the photographs and highlight the breadth of the Stranded series. I will continue to add images to the map as I take more road trips across the US.
 © Amy Stein Work from my Stranded series will be featured in a group show at Mixed Greens Gallery opening this Thursday. Here are the details: Mixed Greens presents Road Trip, a group show featuring Luke Barber-Smith, Jinkee Choi, Linda Ganjian, Birgitta Lund, Eric Payson, Don Porcella, Kathryn Refi, Marie Sauvaitre, Joseph Smolinski, Zoë Sonenberg, Amy Stein, Ann Tarantino, and Carlo Vialu. For some, a trip is defined as a physical distance between points, while for others it is a metaphorical space to be traversed or overcome.
Road Trip
Mixed Greens Gallery
531 West 26th Street
July 12 - August 10, 2007
Opening: Thursday, July 12 6-8 PM
If you are in New York this Thursday, please make it out for the opening and please spread the word to 10,000 of your closest friends!
 © Amy Stein "I don't loathe interviews, I'm just one of those people who makes music because I find it difficult to talk."- PJ Harvey This year I have been asked to do several interviews about my work. The most recent interview with UNseeN Magazine was just published on their Web site along with a nifty Flash presentation of my Stranded series. I find being interviewed an awkward exercise because, like Polly Jean, I am more comfortable making work than talking about it. I'm not a shrinking violet, but it challenges my humble tendencies to talk at length about myself. As I have done more interviews I have become more comfortable with the process and grown more sure of my words and more sure of my work. It may seem weird for a visual medium, but the exercise of talking about your images in an interview challenges you to glimpse new layers of meaning and develop new relationships with photos you are all too familiar with. When you live day in, day out, with the same images you can start to get detached and even bored with them--it's probably not unlike Kansas having to play Dust In The Wind every night. I'm starting to realize that having focused conversations about your photography can not only reconnect you to the work and can rekindle that love affair, but may be just as important to the process as printing and editing.
 2003 © Amy Stein With the impending redevelopment of Coney Island there has been some wistful recollection on the photo blogs of late. I thought I would join the wake and show some photos from my Coney Island series as part of my Photo of the Week feature. Coney Island has been a rite of passage for a lot of New York photographers and back in 2003 I took my turn at trying to capture the curious charm of this faded beach town. The photos you will see over the next few weeks are some of the first pictures I ever took as a photographer.
 © William Lamson "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." -- US Declaration of Independence
 © William Klein Today the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB) issued a statement in an attempt to clarify their proposed new rules governing street photography and filming in New York City. The MOFTBs nonresponse response was no doubt prompted by the flurry of negative blog activity after a New York Times story brought to light the new requirements under consideration. The MOFTB release merely restates the proposed new rules and attempts to reassure us that the occurrence of two people taking pictures in a single location for more than 30 minutes is "RARE for recreational photographers." (Clearly these folks have never spent any time at Rockefeller Center, Grand Central or the Statue of Liberty.) Beyond not addressing the general absurdity of the proposed new rules, the MOFTB also fails to address any of the concerns regarding selective or discriminatory enforcement. They do mention that they anticipate "publishing the final rules at the end of July 2007," so there is still time to kill this silliness before it becomes the real deal. Keep up the pressure on Commissioner Katherine Oliver or as Mr. Colberg suggests, take it straight to the mayor. UPDATE: On Christian Patterson's Speak, See, Remember blog, Adam Bell has provided some insider info for reaching out to reps on this issue: I just talked to a friend from the Mayors office, here is what she said regarding a letter to Katherine Oliver:
“Unfortunately, the Commissioner probably supports the proposal, so your letter may fall on deaf ears. You could also try your local council member, but your best bet is probably the Cultural Affairs Committee. The Chair is Recchia, and other members are Comrie, Dickens, Garodnick, Gentile, Gioia, Vacca, Weprin, White … all council members email addresses are lastname@council.nyc.ny.us”
So people can also try various member of the cultural affairs committee:
recchia@council.nyc.ny.us, comrie@council.nyc.ny.us, gioia@council.nyc.ny.us, vacca@council.nyc.ny.us, weprin@council.nyc.ny.us, white@council.nyc.ny.us
Here is their webpage:
Last Wednesday the world lost a truly wonderful man and one of the great innovators of arts education, Silas H. Rhodes. I knew Silas as the co-founder of the School of Visual Arts, but his accomplishments inspired far beyond the walls of the college he helped create in 1947. He was a visionary, a creative, a champion for social justice, and a tireless supporter of the arts and free expression. Silas has passed, but the imprint left by his considerable life will continue to excite and influence for generations to come.
 (Not actual goat) I offer the following as cautionary tale. Saturday was an absolutely beautiful summer day. It was the perfect excuse to get the hell out of the city and head out to the wineries on the North Fork of Long Island. After a full day in the sun and many glasses of wine we decided to make one more stop for one more glass. It all seemed innocent enough. As we sat on a picnic table admiring the vineyards and the Simpson-esque clouds I caught a glimpse in the distance of an animal pen with a giant pirate ship in the middle. Naturally, I was drawn like moth to flame. My gait went from walk to skip to sprint the moment I saw the tiniest goat I've every seen standing on the deck of the great ship. The goat's slitty eyes met mine and it was magic. I couldn't believe I had lived 36 years and never experienced the pure pertinacious joy that is the pygmy goat. I scratched his head and fed him pieces of my baguette for what seemed like an hour. My husband, John, soon informed me that, yes, it had been an hour and we needed to hit the road back to the city. We were soon on the highway. Sadly, our day was coming to an end, but I was still giddy from the wine and the warm afterglow of my time with my diminutive friend. Suddenly, I was stricken with panic. Where was my purse? Where was my cell phone, my credit cards, my drivers license, my keys, my lip gloss, my bank card, my watch? It was all in my purse and my purse was not in the car. Then it hit me like a ton of shawarma. My purse was 50 miles behind us. It was with the damn goat!! We decided to keep going and call the winery in the morning hoping a kind soul had turned it in. When we got home my pessimism about the goodwill of my fellow man got the best of me and I began canceling all my credit cards and my cell service. There is no anguish like losing all your most important stuff. It is even worse when you lose it all because of a goat. I know. I know. It's a story as old the hills. Who hasn't fallen victim to the siren song of a pygmy goat on a pirate ship? I guess it was just my turn.
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