The Key

The Key©David Sorcher 2013

I've been kicking this idea around in my own skull for a while and finally got around to manifesting it yesterday. I may work with this idea more and see if i can tweak it into something even more satisfying, but i wanted to put this one out there for sharing and comment. I have approached this subject from a more documentary perspective for many years as many of you know, but recently have begun adding a more still-life approach to the project. You will probably see more of this direction once i set up a good space for shooting still-life (my wife might start complaining about using the dining room table) as i have quite a good bone collection gathered from years in the field. 

A Walk in the Woods

©David Sorcher 2013

Honestly, i don't know what i am doing anymore. It seems everyday another newspaper is laying off it's photographic staff. My teaching gig dried up two terms ago due to low enrollment (who can blame them for looking for other career options) and i don't know when or even if i will teach again. My freelance gigs are steady for now, but the market is lean and growing slimmer and i find myself questioning whether i can still find enough work in journalism to even get by. Trouble is i'm not sure if there is much else i really want to do with my life, let alone can do. 

©David Sorcher 2013

So lately i find myself with all this extra time on my hands and one would think, great, i can apply myself to all kinds of creative, personal projects, things i've never had time to do before. Instead i find myself frozen, blocked, stifled and suffocating. Some days i can't even seem to get out of the house. I have to force myself just to take a walk in the woods. And when i get there i find myself at a loss to understand what i am looking for, what i am shooting, what my creative vision is. 

©David Sorcher 2013

And so i present these to photographic offerings to you today, not because i am so awfully proud of the work, but because it is just what has come out of me recently. I guess we simply need to keep working through the doldrums praying that some creative wind will soon fill our sails and send us on our way. Hopefully something will break soon. But for now i'm afraid it's just a walk in the woods.   

A Walk to the Polls

So Tuesday was Election Day and here in Cincinnati a whopping 28% of eligible voters turned out at the polls. In retrospect queried non-voters had a rather varied list of bad excuses for staying home ranging from "i only vote in presidential elections" to "i didn't understand the issues", "there were just too many choices for City Council" and "no one told me it was election day'. I've been pretty bad about getting out to shoot personal projects, but i did make the short walk to the polls to vote and i did bring my camera. :-)

©David Sorcher 2013

Well no, i actually had to run back home to get my camera for this shot since it wasn't my first inclination to bring it along to the polls. The light was actually more spectacular before this and i missed it running home after taking a quick snap with my wife's cell phone. As much as i tease my wife about it i am not yet prepared to join the instagram crowd, but i do still want that perfect little point & shoot that i always carry for just these moments. I just don't know what camera that is yet.

This is a portrait of our recently closed Save-A-Lot. While i was loathe to actually shop here for most items the missus was quite fond of the place and unfortunately there is no longer a walkable supermarket in the neighborhood for the carless. Maybe our new mayor can get on this one as soon as he finishes killing off our streetcar program.

©David Sorcher 2013

The deep saturated colors of the final rays of the day drew my eye here as well as the brilliant spot color of the red house.

©David Sorcher 2013

And one more shot before voting. Seems such a shame that there was so much apathy around this election. I'm not a big flag waver, but if it represents nothing else that is good, it stands for that right, well fought for, to cast our vote for what we believe to be the best choices for moving our communities forward. This is most important on the local level, where perhaps our votes still count for something and actually can effect change. So sorry you missed the boat Cincinnati. 

The Day After the Day of the Dead...

Is my procrastination showing? So yes, i had intended this post for yesterday, but the day just got away from me, first with an artist's talk i needed to participate in since my work is in the show, then a 10 year anniversary party of the old CiN Weekly staff (still the best job i've ever had even if it did end 4 years ago with the sudden shutdown of the entire publication) followed by movie night with the neighbors (Cloud Atlas, which i highly recommend).
So, in honor of Day of the Dead, belated, here are some images from my Future Fossils project. If you have been following me for any period of time you may have seen some of these before in color, but i have made the editorial/artistic decision to present these particular images in black & white for the first time. I never make these choices lightly and certainly the entire project will not receive this treatment, but these were images that just made more sense to me in monochrome. Color should add to the story and deepen our appreciation of the image, but sometimes it distracts from or even hides the compositional structure in the photograph. Certainly this is not the issue with this photo in the series where i believe color plays an intrinsic part in the over all impact of the piece, nor with this one, where the red spot color is an important part of the storytelling aspect of the image. But i think the skeletal structure of the images below call for a B&W approach, to simplify them down to the bare bones.

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

©David Sorcher 2013

Recently a past student of mine directed me to the work of a Mexican photographer i was already familiar with, Enrique Metinides, who spent years capturing crime scene photos that are both brilliant and horrific and often feature dead people and rather macabre poses. It was presented to me almost in a challenging way, but i think my friend has missed what i am trying to explore and accomplish with this particular body of work. It is not my intention to shock or horrify, but rather to document and honor the cycle of life and death and the process of decay which replenishes and enriches the earth so the new life might spring forth from it. I suppose that some may find me strange that i find beauty in this process, but then i guess that all of my work will never satisfy all of the people all of the time (didn't Lincoln say something like that once ;-) ). I hope you find this project as interesting as i do, but if not i am sure i will be presenting something soon that you might find more to your liking. :-)