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 Woman Aircraft Worker © 1942 David Bransby Labor Day weekend I will be doing some serious laboring. A good friend is getting married in Washington, DC, on Sunday so I will be making the three and half hour trek down I-85 for the big event. Of course, this means I will miss the opening of The Interactive Landscape at Mt. Tremper Arts. I am happy my friend found true love, but it sucks the wedding and the opening are on the same day. If you go to the show--and you should go!--please send me a recap. Driving that far is always fun over the Labor Day weekend. What's more fun is turning around and driving back home on the same day. That's the plan for Sunday because I have to spend Monday finalizing the syllabus for my first big time photography teaching gig which starts bright and early Tuesday morning at Parsons. (Now you can call me professor Amy!) I feel ready for the semester thanks to the folks at Parsons and the kindly advice of my teaching friends, but I'm still nervous about walking into a classroom for the first time as the teacher. Here's the details on the Mt. Tremper show:Announcing The Interactive Landscape, a group photography exhibition at the Mt. Tremper Arts Center in beautiful Mt. Tremper, New York (in the Catskill Mountains).
Curated by Mathew Pokoik and featuring the work of Ian Baguskas, Aaron Diskin, Emmet Gowin, John Daido Loori, Daido Moriyama, Timothy O’Sullivan, Christian Patterson, Mathew Pokoik, Matthew Porter, Susana Raab, Stephen Shore, Amy Stein, and Mark Wyse.
7:00 p.m. - Dance and physical theater performance
8:30 p.m. - Panel discussion with photographers, Q & A
9:15 p.m. - DJ and dance party
R.S.V.P. IS REQUIRED. Previous events have filled to capacity, so R.S.V.P. now if you plan to attend.
Email: info@mttremperarts.com or Tel: (845) 688-9893
Sunday, September 2, 2007
7:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Mt. Tremper Arts
647 South Plank Road
Mt. Tremper NY 12457
For further information, visit www.mttremperarts.com.
 © Charles Traub One of the joys of my time with the Do You Know What It Means project has been working with Charles Traub. I have known Charlie for a while now, but our relationship has been defined by highly structured situations. First, with me as MFA student and Charlie as department chair at the SVA and next with me as Director of DYKWIM and Charlie as the visionary and leader behind the project. So much of our time together has been spent in roles other than our primary pursuit and passion; photography. Yesterday, we finally got to spend some time in New Orleans just taking pictures and it was a great experience. Two photographers taking advantage of some great light and the luxury of daring and experimentation that digital cameras afford to explore and see and capture together. Charlie is an amazing photographer and the experience definitely challenged me and opened my eyes to different ways of seeing. It got me thinking about how little time I spend with other photographers taking pictures. I go to openings and portfolio reviews and spend way too many nights drinking with my photo friends. We talk about the business of photography, the logistics of process, and the gossip of the photo world, but we never seem to get together to do the thing that brought us together in the first place. How come we photographers don't get together more often to take pictures?
 © Corey Arnold vs.  © Will Rogan
 Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, 1970 Tomorrow I am traveling to New Orleans for my last stint as Director of the Do You Know What It Means project. This week marks the second anniversary of Katrina and I will be there speaking at a press conference as we officially hand off the photo archive and the Web site to the Historic New Orleans Collection. You can read more about the event here. I have been working on DYKWIM for over a year now and have never been so energized by something in my life. The city and people of New Orleans hold a special place in my heart and I'm sad that my involvement with this project has come to an end.
 © Colin Blakely This past Thursday, Shen, Natasha, and I made the journey up to Winchester, MA, for the opening of the 13th Annual Griffin Museum Juried Show. Any time I am covering that much ground on the highways I take along my tripod and the RZ just in case there are some stranded motorists along the way. I am always looking to fill out the series and I was secretly hoping to show off my process to my driving companions. We pulled over twice, but I got a very rare 'no' in the first situation and in the second situation the family had pulled over so their child could pee in a traveling kiddie porta-potty. Oh well. We arrived at the Griffin Museum, which looked like sweet ginger bread house nestled in an upscale Boston suburb, and met the curator, Paula Tognarelli. After the members and the ever dapper juror, Brian Clamp, arrived, four of the photographers in the show gave presentations on their work. I talked about my process, influences, and took the members through the stories behind each of the five images in the show. My presentation generated so much enthusiasm and so many questions about the Domesticated series, I almost felt sorry for sad sucker who had to follow me. Wait, that sad sucker was Shen. No worries, he did a fabulous job with his presentation, too. That night I had many a great conversation with members of the Boston arts community and saw a ton of amazing work. Mr. Clamp did a great job of selecting work from the over 2000 photos submitted for entry. Highlights for me included pieces by Shen Wei (of course), Dylan Chatain, Dina Kantor, Daniel Traub, and a real stunner by Colin Blakely. The whole affair wrapped up around 10 PM and Shen and I made the tactical decision to drive back to New York. We said our goodbyes to Natasha and hit the road. To Boston and back in the same night? Crazy? You bet. But, that's how we roll.
 © Gregory Crewdson Boston.com features a photo and text slide show behind the scenes of a recent Crewdson shoot in Pittsfield, MA. With massive budgets and a crew of over thirty that includes grips, a lighting team, interns, models, firemen, and police it's spooky how similar your typical Crewdson shoot resembles one of my shoots. Smart guy award goes to Pittsfield local, Robert "Skube" Skubel, who Crewdson cast to be in one of the eleven photographs he will be making during his time in the town. "Skube" was savvy enough to ask for a print instead of a model fee.
 Desert Fire #153 (Man with Rifle) © Richard Misrach
While I was visiting Corey Arnold in Portland, I was flipping through his copy of Richard Misrach's Desert Cantos and rediscovered this remarkable photograph. All of Misrach's photos in that book are amazing, but I kept coming back to this one image.
 © Shen Wei I will be on the road again tomorrow traveling all the way to Winchester, MA, for the opening of the Griffin Museum of Photography's 13th Annual Juried Show. My traveling companion this time will be good friend, Shen Wei. I'm hoping he understands when I pull over to photograph stranded motorists along the way. The Griffin show will feature a number of pieces in the Main Gallery and a two person show in the Emerging Artists Gallery. My Domesticated work will be featured in the two person show. All the work presented in both galleries was judged worthy by this year's juror, the inimitable Brian Clamp. Prior to the opening Shen, Nicholas Fedak II, David Wolf, and I will all be participating in a gallery talk with museum members. Here are the details: 13th Annual Griffin Juried Show
August 23 through October 28, 2007
Griffin Museum of Photography
67 Shore Road
Winchester, MA 01890
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 23, 7 PM
Member Gallery Talk: Thursday, August 23, 6:15 PM - 7 PM If you are in the Boston area, please stop by the opening and say hi.
It's strange how one day you find yourself at the apex of mental and spiritual satisfaction stretching out in the vast unspoiled beauty of Mendocino County and the next day your joy is stripped clean to the bone as you fight with your fellow New Yorkers for an extra inch of space on the AirTrain from JFK. New York is all about compression and I realize now more than ever that my future may involve a move to a place where expansion is not only possible, it’s the norm. Speaking of just such a place, my brief time in Portland was fantastic. I met with the very lovely Laura Moya and the board of Photolucida in the stunning new Blue Sky Gallery space to discuss my Domesticated project and the upcoming Critical Mass monograph of the series. They couldn't be more supportive of my work or more enthusiastic about the book. The folks at Photolucida and Blue Sky Gallery share a commitment to emerging photographers and the broader photography community that is truly inspired. I have some additional good news from that meeting, but will fill you in on the details once everything is formal and finalized.
 Another long day of traveling through beautiful country. We only ran into one stranded motorist, but I think the photos will be great. Possibly a triptych. Normally I would be disappointed after driving for an entire day and only shooting one situation, but this trip was just too amazing to complain. We started in Eureka down Highway 101 toward the Avenue of the Giants. Standing in the coastal redwoods of Humboldt County is a religious experience. They are like a cathedral. You just exist in their presence empty of words and in total awe at the power of these trees. After the 31 mile trek through the redwoods we picked up Pacific Coast Highway and drove down the Mendocino coast. This is where we found our stranded couple whose car had broken down next to a stretch of beach. They set up some tents and were camping for a couple of days while they tried to figure out next steps. The Mendocino Coast is just amazing. Every turn reveals something more breathtaking. When you are in this area of the country you understand not to try capture it with pictures. You just look. You try not to talk about the beauty because words will fail. You just listen. This type of natural beauty politely demands you to just absorb it in the moment and promise to come back. Tomorrow is the last day of our trip. The plan is to head inland slightly and start hitting up the wineries of the Anderson Valley and the Russian River Valley and then stay the night in San Francisco. We fly out of SFO early Sunday morning and head back to the grime and grit of New York City.
 5th Street and Broadway, Eureka, CA © Stephen Shore
What a haul. Today we traveled the length of Oregon on Interstate 5, across to Crescent City on Highway 199, and down the Redwood Highway to Eureka. Along the way we photographed five stranded motorists including a one-legged hippie named Josh in Humboldt County. All day long the light was perfect and each situation proved better than the next. Tomorrow we are going to tour Avenue of the Giants and then head to Mendocino County for a final luxurious evening before leaving the west and heading back to New York.
 We rolled into the Rose City yesterday after a hike through Oneonta Gorge and a stop at the Edgefield for a couple of beers. We found a couple of stranded motorist, but the next couple of days are all about exploring Portland and taking a rest from photography. Last night we hung out in the Hawthorne neighborhood with the fabulously talented Corey Arnold and crashed at his home for the night. It's always a unique privilege to talk shop and careers with someone whose work you really respect and who's in a similar place trying to figure out this whole fine art photography thing. It's even better when he is a cool cat and very nice guy.
 Another long drive today, but the stranded business was good. We left Boise and found a couple stuck under an overpass not ten minutes later. The photos from this shoot should be a little different and I am excited to print them. A short while later we saw a woman and her children stuck in the east bound lane of I-84. We were heading west bound. As is often the case with my Stranded trips I have to search for the next exit and travel in the opposite direction to get the picture. Two steps forward and three steps back. This time the turnaround was worth it. There should be some amazing pictures from this stop. The lady kept jumping a barbed wire fence to fill up a water bottle in an farm aqueduct so she could stop her car from overheating. It was quite the scene. Several hundred miles later in Oregon we found a guy off the highway in a narrow pass in Lime, Oregon. The scenery was striking and it should be another strong image. Finally, we hit the Columbia River Gorge and found our final stranded motorist in Rufus, Oregon. He was a long haul trucker trying to deliver his load on time, but hopelessly stuck as his rig was pouring out black smoke. After two states and close to 400 miles of road in a single day we finally decided to have a nice dinner in lovely Hood River, Oregon. It was good to be a little civilized after three straight days of snacks, road side food, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Tomorrow we are going to tool around the Columbia River Gorge and then make our way to Portland for a couple days of Rose City excitement. Until tomorrow...
 Long day yesterday. We drove from Winnemucca, Nevada, to Wells, Nevada, and then up Twin Falls, Idaho, and west to Boise. Many miles and only three stranded motorists. We did stop at the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls and saw the site of Evil Knievel's 1974 jump attempt. There is a lot of beautiful open land out here, but not many stranded motorists. Today we are going to poke around Boise and then head to Portland.
 What a day on the road. Here's a quick recap: Last night we arrived in San Francisco around midnight, rented a car, and headed east toward Sacramento. The plan was to drive for about an hour and then find a hotel. Just outside of Richmond we hit a major traffic jam and only made it to Vallejo. You have to love California. This morning we left Vallejo and made our way through Folsom. Funny, but every prison town seems to have an outlet mall, too. Just outside of Placerville we found our first stranded motorist, Johnny. Johnny was stuck on a blind curve with a flat and didn't have a jack. He did have a wicked angry clown tattoo on his shoulder, though. After taking some photos we continued to Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is simply gorgeous, but we had a lot of ground to cover so it was down the mountain to Carson City and Reno. A few miles out of Carson City we found our second stranded motorists, Billy and Janelle. Billy had just bought his car and it was already dead. It was really sad. They had a cute little dog named, Butch. We tried to help, but his car was shot. Reno is a photo book waiting to happen. It's a ghetto Vegas with so many strange characters there must be a factory pumping them out just outside of town. I am definitely coming back. The road from Reno to Winnemucca is several hundred miles of the most desolate and beautiful terrain you can imagine. We didn't run into any stranded folks during this leg and that was probably a good thing. So, here we are in Winnemucca at the Scott Shady Court Motor Lodge after a quick meal at Winner's Casino. Tomorrow we are off to Elko, NV and Twin Falls, ID.
 If you live or work in New York City, then you know how much fun this morning has been. Severe rains have flooded the subway system and crippled the city. I am currently assisting a class at the ICP, but it looks like I won't be able to make it in. I also have about 5000 other things I need to do in the city before I leave for my Stranded trip this Friday and now I am pretty much stuck at home in Jackson Heights. All this and it's hotter than Satan's crotch after a racquetball tournament. Fun. Fun. Fun. That's the hate part. The love part--and I have to constantly remind myself of this--is all about the wonderful access to art, music, food, and people you can find no place else in the world. Speaking of art, you only have two days left to see the Road Trip show at Mixed Greens. The show has been a wild success in every sense. Also on the good stuff list, limited edition prints from Humble Arts Foundation, including Peri, Route 80, Kentucky, currently on display at Mixed Greens. There are only ten prints available and you can pick one up for a real steal. Plus, you are supporting Humble Arts Foundation. Wins all around. UPDATE: R.C. Baker of the Village Voice recommends the Mixed Greens show and gives a shout out to the Stranded photos.
 Peri, Route 80, Kentucky 2006 © Amy Stein
Starting today Humble Arts Foundation will be offering small editioned, signed prints from three photographers: Corey Arnold, Jessica Roberts, and your's truly. The purchase of the prints will help support Humble's mission of advancing the careers of emerging fine art photographers. The prints are priced to move, so you better grab one (or two) quickly. Seriously, this is a very good deal and a great way to support an exceptional arts organization.
 © Bill Owens
vs.  © Zoe Strauss
 2007 © Amy Stein
Next Saturday I will be heading west for the next leg of my Stranded series. For eight days I will be driving the highways of northern California and Nevada, southern Idaho, and most of Oregon searching for stranded motorists. As I've mentioned before, making pictures for this series is hard work and there is great deal of chance involved. Hopefully, the many miles traveled (almost 2000 for this trip) will produce some quality photos to fill out the series. It's a weird thing to set off hoping you will find someone whose car has broken down. I don't think it technically qualifies as schadenfreude, but it comes close. Beyond traveling the hard miles on hot asphalt with my Mamiya by my side, I am looking forward to experiencing the wide open landscape of the west and visiting the fantastically livable Portland, Oregon. I have been to the Rose City before and loved it, but this time I am excited to spend time with new friends Corey Arnold and Laura Moya of Photolucida. I will be posting periodically from the road, so stay tuned for spirited tales of adventure, mystery, and intrigue from the left coast of America.
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