Brooklyn Doorbells

© 2008 harlan erskine

Recently, one cold night I found my doorbell had frozen over. I guess the night before it was raining or melting and then it all froze over. I took this pic to remember the freeze of that night and the nights to come. Its been a cold winter up here more like the winters of high school. One year I remember all of central park froze over is this amazing sheet of ice several inches thick. Several teachers were hurt trying to enter the park to bust students for smoking. After school we would steel cafeteria trays and ride them on the hills.

New York based photographer, Kai McBride, hauled an 8x10 view camera around brooklyn in 2005 photographing Brooklyn Doorbell much like my frozen doorbell above. I wonder what a 8x10 image of a surface like this looks like in a proper print. I quite enjoy Kai's latest project Facing Tampa which riffs on the real estate advertising so ubiquitous around Florida.

©Kai McBride Facing Tampa, 16x16 inches, silver gelatin print

Make Me a Real Man

nice clip on Current tv from by filmmaker Stuart Kershaw.
from the pod info:

What makes a man? How do we come of age in the 21st century? In a world where you can still be a boy at thirty, One young-ish filmmaker sets out on a belated quest for manhood.

With a little internet digging I noticed this history of this quote. Originally written by Wilhelm Stekel who was then quoted in J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as saying, "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one" (p.188). This quote is also used in the anime Ghost in the Shell.

I also enjoy the pod's discussion of the roll of war, the warrior and how the military can act as a coming of age. As these topics relate to my final project in school and I am still working them out for myself. Holden Caulfield's musings of what the world means are not that far off from this film maker's. As society moves further away from Caulfield's era will we develop new rites of passage into maturity? Or are these very rites passe and the sequence itself flawed?

Opening tomorrow, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood: Abracadabra: Second Annual Fundraising Art Exhibition and Raffle

Tomorrow is the opening of Abracadabra: Second Annual Fundraising Art Exhibition and Raffle at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, FL. I have donated the image below at a special artist proof size - 6" wider then the final series size. This size print will not be editioned so this Artist Proof will be the only image at this larger size..

Unlike many other donations this raffle will be at the end of a longer exhibition of the collection of works. I hope to come down to FL soon to shoot on some images for my final Thesis project at school and hopefully I will be there in time for the show.

from the press release:
Opening reception: Thu., Jan. 22, 6 - 9 pm
Exhibition runs through Feb. 13, 2009
Raffle event: Fri., Feb. 13, 6 - 9 pm

Approximately 100 works in all media by outstanding South Florida artists and others are displayed for three weeks prior to being raffled off to ticket buyers at a wonderful soiree in the Center’s main gallery! Make plans now to preview these great artworks and attend this “fun” fund-raiser, where all raffle purchasers go home with a fantastic piece of art that might be worth thousands of dollars!

Art and Culture Center of Hollywood
1650 Harrison St.
Hollywood, FL 33020

‘#10535,’ 24"x36", Artist Proof, © 2004 Harlan Erskine all rights reserved.