#Pentax Spotmatic

[technological-existentialism]

[opera-ghost]

the majestic theatre, december 2022

[thatrickmcginnis]

PHILIP GLASS, Toronto 1989

I couldn't tell you why Philip Glass was giving a press conference in the backroom of the Rivoli on Queen West back in February of 1989, but he had a lot going on at the time and since memory fails me you'll just have to guess. Born in Baltimore in 1937, Glass is easily among the most famous composers alive today - a great accomplishment since his music, when it was first performed in the '60s, was considered hopelessly avant-garde. He accomplished this mostly by making himself ubiquitous - composing and performing his works everywhere he could, and taking on commissions like movie soundtracks to help make his distinctive version of minimalism less forbidding and more mainstream. I was part of that generation who came of age as Glass' music went from loft to music festival to opera house to movie theatre, so when I heard he was in town I tried to get a few minutes of his time for a portrait - and failed.

An invitation to a press conference with Philip Glass in the back of a club was my consolation prize when I couldn't arrange a portrait sitting. Normally I wouldn't have bothered, but I wanted to get some kind of portrait with Glass, and if an unposed, "undirected" portrait was all that was available, I'd take it. (I still debate whether this is a portrait at all, but a lot of people say it is, so I'll go with the crowd.) The late '80s were a crucial time for Glass: besides the soundtrack to Powaqqatsi (the sequel to Koyaanisqatsi, one of the great rep cinema stoner films of all time) he had provided one for Errol Morris' acclaimed documentary The Thin Blue Line, and he was working in more conventional classical idioms, like the string quartet and symphonic compositions. He could have been promoting any of these things when he sat down to talk to the press that morning in the Rivoli backroom.

When I pulled out my camera to photograph Philip Glass during a morning press conference in the back of a downtown club, the first thing I noticed was that there wasn't much in the way of light. I had come prepared, loading my Pentax Spotmatic with high speed Kodak film, but once I was able to judge that I had a decent exposure I was actually grateful. While I couldn't demand his attention like I could with a real portrait session, the single spotlight in that room with its black walls picked him out starkly; without any distractions in my composition, I was practically forced to take a minimalist portrait of a minimalist composer. In pursuit of this, I've pared down the pictures even more - taking out reflections and microphones, isolating Glass' face in each frame, tightening how the light hits his face with some digital assists. (I've even rendered one shot in colour, just to see what it would have looked like if I'd put colour film in my camera.) In the end I consider these more graphics than portraits, but they'll have to do until the (probably slim) chance I get to get Glass to sit down for a real portrait.

[38100103104]

[tokyo-camera-style]

Ueno Park, Tokyo

Asahi Pentax Spotmatic F

[manuelrdsg]

stroll. (Trinidad. August22. Gold 200. Pentax SpotmaticF)

[iamcanerarifcevik]

“Demirlenmiş vapurların akşam uykusu”-

Pentax Spotmatic, Kodak Gold 200

[dusk-blue-stormclouds]

[mcafe-photo]

お宝発見⁈

最近、高齢の両親に頼まれて

実家の断捨離の手伝いに行ってます。

(ムスメも引き連れて…)

これはその時に出てきたもので

思わず、欲しいー！もらって帰るー！

って叫んだものです笑

たまたまレンズの付いてないカメラが出てきたのを見て

父が他のカメラやレンズが入ってるカメラバッグの存在を思い出して出してきてもらったら！

いやぁ欲しいでしょう

使いたいな、と思ってたカメラだったし。

これは伯父のものだったんだけど

亡くなった時にもらったみたいで。

レンズも広角標準望遠と定番のが揃ってるし

レンズケースも渋いなぁ。。

他にもカメラ関連の小物もいろいろ入ってたんで、ちゃんとカメラを楽しまれてたんだろうなって感じです。

そして何より綺麗なので使えそうだな、ってのが一番期待できるところ。

ただ試し撮りしたいのだけどフィルムが高いので、カメラ屋さんで一度みてもらおうか悩むところではあります。

-----------------------------------------✈︎

[disposaltype]

[rosybean]

“waiting.”

Governor’s Island, New York. 2024.

Kodak Gold 200 on Asahi Pentax Spotmatic.

[agiraffewithacamera]

Basking time

[joeiannandrea]

[thatrickmcginnis]

SAM RIVERS, Toronto 1989

That Sam Rivers was born just over a hundred years ago is a reminder that the avant-garde tradition in jazz is an old one. The son of a gospel singer, the Oklahoma-born Rivers moved to Boston where he studied at the Conservatory, which helped build his command of music theory and composition that would make him stand out in his career. Briefly a member of Miles' Davis legendary quintet, he recorded his first album for Blue Note Records in 1964, working as a sideman on albums by Blue Note artists such as Tony Williams, Andrew Hill and Larry Young. His work would often straddle bebop and free jazz, and he would perform and record with influential artists such as Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland and Cecil Taylor. In the '70s he and his wife Beatrice opened their NYC loft to performances, and Studio Rivbea became the most famous of the venues in the city's "loft scene".

I met and photographed saxophonist and flautist Sam Rivers when he came through town with Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band - the trumpeter hadn't been part of the jazz avant-garde for many years, but he frequently hired musicians like Rivers for his band. (Latin jazz trumpet star Arturo Sandoval was also in Gillespie's band when I saw them at Berlin, a club in midtown Toronto.) The perk with playing with Gillespie is that touring conditions were more than decent, and after I talked Rivers into doing a shoot with me, he told me to meet him at the old Sutton Place, a luxury hotel downtown where I did a lot of shooting, as it was the home of the film festival and frequently used to put up big stars by the movie and record companies.

I found a decent spot for my shoot with Sam Rivers in the mezzanine lobby of the Sutton Place, where an antique couch had been placed in front of a big tapestry. (The spot would become a favorite one for shoots.) The light wasn't brilliant but I put high speed Kodak film in my camera and managed to elicit a good range of expressions from Rivers as I coaxed him through our brief but - in hindsight - very productive portrait session. My live photos of Rivers playing in Dizzy Gillespie's band weren't as successful, as the spotlights were mostly on Dizzy and Rivers stuck to his spot downstage from the bebop star. Rivers and his wife moved their Studio Rivbea performing space to Florida in the '90s, where he was able to put together a larger band, and his private recordings have been mined to produce a series of records documenting his work at Studio Rivbea. Sam Rivers died of pneumonia in Florida in December of 2011.

[38100103104]

[tokyo-camera-style]

Nezu, Tokyo

Him: @akirashady with a Pentax SPF with a Super Takumar 28mm F3.5 lens Her: @mizho_yone with a Pentax MX with a 50mm f2 lens.