Documentary Screening and Lecture: 10/22

This Friday evening, October 22nd, at 7:30 pm, the San Diego City College Photo Club will be hosting a free screening of the Christian Frei documentary about photojournalist James Nachtwey entitled War Photographer, followed by a lecture by San Diego photojournalist Hayne Palmour of the North County Times. To rsvp, email us your name and the number of people in your party to sdcityfoto (at) gmail.com. Seating is limited, so respond early and guarantee yourself a spot!

-Jason Reimer

Samples of Hayne Palmour's work:

And some by James Nachtwey:

And finally, a clip from the documentary:

Chiaroscuro: Diver & Aguilar after Caravaggio

This afternoon I stumbled upon these photographic remakes of some classic Caravaggio paintings, by Diver & Aguilar. I've always been a big fan of the simple yet dramatic "Rembrandt"-style lighting, and these photographs have it in spades.

- Jason Reimer

(Via Behance Network. Thanks Josh Boston!)

New Stuff

As I mentioned in the previous post, and as pretty much all of you in San Diego who have any connection with the City College photo department know, this summer we moved into a ridiculously amazing new facility, which very soon will be the envy of photographic educators the world over. On September 24th at 6pm, we will be hosting an opening reception for the first exhibit in our new gallery, Luxe. This exhibit will feature the work of the faculty and staff of the City photography department; there are some great pieces (some of which will be for sale), so come take a look!

- Jason Reimer

Here are some photos from moving day:

Jeremy & Claire Weiss: Polaroid Portfolio

Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted here, but this summer was a busy one working on getting the brand new City College photography building up and running. It's now mostly done, classes are in full-swing, and there's a lot of cool stuff on the horizon for the photography department (more on that later). In the meantime, I thought I'd share some raw portraiture work by Jeremy and Claire Weiss.

- Jason Reimer

(Via Oh, Snap!)

Lens Blog: Autochrome's Enduring Allure

Via the New York Times' Lens blog, a cool little story about the turn-of-the-century color process known as autochrome:


Looking through a loupe at the grain that makes up the gossamer colors of an autochrome is like looking at a pointillist painting, a miniature Georges Seurat.

Autochrome is a process developed in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in which glass plates were coated with a layer of potato starch mixed with color dyes that filtered light before it reached the emulsion. It yielded a grainy, positive image of muted pastels on a glass plate: a stained-glass window of the recent past. 

Read the rest here, and check out the entire National Geographic autochrome exhibit's website at the Steven Kasher gallery in New York.

-Jason Reimer

The Green Book Materials: Phos Pictures

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything here, but you can thank a crazy couple of weeks of final exams and portfolio-making for that. I'll try to make up for it with some good stuff, though.

Today I ran across this short film on the New York Times' Lens Blog, and really enjoyed the work these guys produced, part of a new wave of creative stuff being unleashed by the new video dslr's. My one quibble is that they lean a little too heavily on the shallow depth of field stuff sometimes, but that's minor, because the film is beautiful, moving, and full of empathy. (Phos Pictures is Jason Wood and Eliot Rausch doing the producing, directing and editing, with camera work by Luke Torver and Matt Taylor.) I've embedded it below, take a look.


The Green Book Materials from phos pictures on Vimeo.

I also enjoyed this one on their Vimeo page, about Phos producer Jason Wood telling the story of his dog that he's having to have put to sleep after a long battle with cancer. Again, some powerful storytelling..


Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

-Jason Reimer

Joey Lawrence (no, not that one): Transcendent Environmental Portraits

A friend recently forwarded me this link from Graphic Exchange. Lawrence does some stunning work with available light and some strategically placed strobes, with amazing results. His work totally floored me, take a look.

-Jason Reimer