Grandpa’s Tools
Just spent a fun weekend with master light painter Harold Ross. He’s been making this magic for twenty some years and his techniques, tools and teaching methods are brilliant. Using little flashlights with diffusing tubes, we painted each tool and surface in a darkened studio and then composited the 20+ exposures in Photoshop. I’ve never made friends with Photoshop so learning the language of layers and masks was challenging. But I can see so many applications to landscape work..
The tools are heirlooms passed down from my Grandfather, Harry Logiodice. By trade a carpenter, plumber and mechanic, his multicolored approach was more than a way to identify his tools at a job site — it was his art. And combined with the patina of use from his large, callused hands, they’ve become wonderful keepsakes.
London haiku
Late afternoon light, busy street, conversations stopped.
The OWS epicenter — it’s older than we think
Visited the original OWS in NYC yesterday. I was in town for a trade show that had lost its appeal so headed south to Zuccotti Park to get a first hand look at the epicenter. I was surprised by many things including the level of organization, cleanliness and degree of fairness the group aspired to — but most of all by the number of engaged older folks. I’m sure the late Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers and one of my mentors, would have been delighted. On her 80th birthday she aspired to “do something outrageous” once a week. She upped the ante to daily acts as she approached 90. With that in mind, I didn’t hesitate to put down my camera, take the drumsticks someone handed me and join the tribal drum circle beating out the rhythms of a fairer future.
Sweet Review
ASMP Bulletin
1 Oct 2011
BY ADRIAN HIGGINS, PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROB CARDILLO When the intimate oasis of Chanticleer opened to the public in Pennsylvania in 1993, a history of passionate tending was evident. The authors of a new book about the Rosengarten Estate garden—originally…read more…
Mapleleaf Rag
Oh, Acer palmatum and japonicum! Can any tree show more fall beauty? And Oh, OG! What a bold and brilliant cover design! No wonder you took the Gold GWA Media Award this year…
Good Design
This outtake from the container book was surprisingly easy to put together. Ray Rogers rustled up the myrtle topiaries from Ken Selody’s sizable collection at Atlock Farm and we staged the group against a weathered nursery door. We’ve shot a lot of strong images here and I’m always surprised by the depth of plant material Ken has on hand as well as the photogenic corners of his nursery. The composition did lend itself to a cover – simple shapes, quiet background, lots of head room – qualities the designer of Green Scene, Laurie Baxendell, picked up right away.
Three Silver Awards
A letter arrived today notifying me that this eight page spread in the spring 2010 issue of Country Gardens took a Silver Award of Achievement for Magazine Photography in the Garden Writers Association Media Awards program.
A second letter announced that The Encyclopedia of Container Plants also took a Silver Award for Technical Book Photography.
And a third letter let me know that my website, Rob Cardillo Photography took a Silver for Electronic Media Photography.
All three are eligible for a Gold Award which will be announced on August 29th at GWA’s Annual Symposium in Indianapolis, IN.
Look Ma! I’m in Popular Photography!
Pop Photo May 2011 on newsstands now
I like this image but didn’t love it enough to include in my recent gallery show but someone at PopPhoto did. And they weren’t the only ones — both Sue and Ray and were taken with it but I didn’t give much heed to their opinions. Shows you what I know! It’s in the new Chanticleer book which is now available through the publisher, Amazon and even ebay (??) .
Top Seeded in the Basement
Beet sprouts at the gym
There’s a earthy smell in my basement and it isn’t from the cat. I’m starting nearly forty kinds of seeds for a new book project and the warm, moist fragrance arises from trays of seedlings perched on rubber heat mats. Feeling the pull of this forced summer, the vegetables, herbs and annual seeds are swelling and stirring into green sprouts that reach up toward the false fluorescent sun. I haven’t done this in years and it’s lots more fun than I expected.
Cabbage seeds up close
Before planting, the seeds were subjected to a closeup lens to reveal their rich patterns, colors and geometry. These images require long exposures and a solid camera mount to avoid camera shake — greatly magnified at this level. The rig is secure but perched on wooden floors which vibrate madly when the dogs as much as scratch themselves. So I wait for their nap time to slowly push the tiny gems into interesting pools and piles. But then the mailman arrives and all hell breaks loose in both the macro and the micro world.
A New York Moment — the AIPAD show
Untitled, Robert Bergman 1990
My reward for finishing the taxes was a day trip to NYC to see the AIPAD show. The Association of International Photography Art Dealers annual show brings together dealers, collectors and just plain lovers of fine photography at the romantic (and slightly dilapidated) Armory at 67th and Park. Seventy galleries display hundreds of gorgeous prints from all the masters — Kertesz, Adams, Cartier Bresson, Weston, Avedon, Mapplethorpe – I came to pay homage and to be stimulated. I was especially taken by the Robert Bergman series from his trips out west in the late 80′s. Armed only with a 35mm film camera, a fast lens and an enviable ability to get very close to his subjects, he created these emotionally charged portraits of some of life’s less fortunate travelers.
Roseville Cottages, Truro, Joel Meterowitz 1976
I studied with Joel Meyerowitz last spring and admire both his street and landscape work (two very opposite disciplines that I also embrace) but I’ve never seen one of his prints at this scale. I think it’s from his seminal Cape Light book which I remember pouring over in a store unable to buy it as a college student. Working with a view camera and available light, his landscapes from this period are brilliantly profound and artfully nuanced — masterpieces that still yield a salty air of serenity even 35 years later.
Kafue National Park, Zambia, (Elephant), Sebastiao Salgado 2010
Salgado is mostly known for his haunting social documentaries of third world workers and displaced populations. His powerful images pull back the veneer of a world economy that often depends on exploited peoples in hard surroundings. His more recent work focuses on endangered wildlife and ecosystems. This timeless elephant portrait (only $14,000!) leaves me breathless.
Several works from Broken Manual, Alec Soth
Finally, Alec Soth, an artist who finds rich narratives in the everyday. Every picture asks a dozen questions and his style is fluid and unpretentious. His Sleeping by the Mississippi portraits from a decade ago were so powerful and unnerving that I never thought he could go much further or deeper. But he has. The show runs through this Sunday and is the best $25 ticket you’ll ever spend.
