Once more in Willimantic

As we usually do, we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in Columbia, CT at my mother-in-law’s. There was more family participation this Christmas than last or than at Thanksgiving, so it was nice to see the brother and sisters who hadn’t made it the last couple of times. The Christmas eve drive over was really nasty with sleet and freezing rain and rain. Cars in ditches and the windshield washer squirting constantly. Traffic from Danbury on very heavy. Crazy drivers. What is it with people on the interstate these days running twenty miles an hour over the speed limit and passing in every lane like lunatics? They scare the crap out of me some times. What ever happened to patience? What happened to leave early and enjoy the ride? These people are nuts.

I rose early on the holidays and drove into Willimantic. I’m not sure why I love photographing this town so much. But on the holidays and Sundays when I usually do, the streets are almost deserted and I feel like it’s a big stage set there just for my camera. And all the details are authentic.

I paused to shoot a house for my “Ornamental America” series and the woman who lived there came out to talk. She told me the story of the metal peacocks on her wall. It was enchanting. I love these ornamented yards and porches. How every object has a story to tell.

Willimantic has always exhibited that old mill town, depressed economy, aging and surviving look about it. The ethnic mix, the varied businesses just hanging on, the common working class American streets and houses, the old and run down, the restored history, the proud and the struggling. It’s all there in a fairly compact area and very visually stimulating.

Like larger cities, Willimantic has its homeless walking the streets, lonely on these cold holiday mornings. Graffitti on the walls painted by youth who dislike the police and need to exhibit their presence. The wind blew empty cups and cans across the quiet streets as I wandered through the city. It alomst has the feel of a ghost town.

The alley ways, the clutter, the detritus of city life. I momentarily imagine myself like Wil Smith in a city where I’m the only survivor.

It’s a pallet of color and human existence. It’s age, and wear, and struggle, and survival in an America that has outgrown its industry. And it’s beautiful in its own right.

I wish everyone a prosperous and happy new year.

Looking back at 2008 – a year of great images – vol.2

As usual, 2008 began cold in New York and here we are back in the cold again. As I get older, I dislike the cold weather more and more and I begin to understand why people retire to Florida and Arizona and warm places. I tend to take fewer pictures when it’s really cold. Maybe that’s why I dislike the cold so much. But it still has it’s moments.

In the winter the lake is low and the shore is exposed. The steam rises from the power station. And when the weather is clear, the sky can be as blue as a summer day.

I was called for jury duty this year. Oddly enough, it’s the first time I’ve ever had to actually report. I wasn’t picked and was dismissed, but it gave me a chance to take some time shooting on the streets of Waterloo, NY.

In April I took some time to go down to Florida to work on promoting my photography there. I love shooting there and have produced a whole line of postcards from along Route 30A. I love the architecture there. It is so fresh and clean and precise, and the landscape is beautifully planned out and tended in these resort communities. There are artworks at every turn.

I drove back along my usual route but took the time in a way I have always wanted to, but haven’t because I’m usually not traveling alone, to get off the interstate and drive a while on the foggy back roads of Virginia in the early morning. This image felt so Eliot Porter – ish.

In May I had the good fortune to courier a piece of artwork back from the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. It was my first venture to Europe and, although hectic traveling, I had time to explore Bilbao for a couple of days. It was glorious.

I made my way back through New York City and had a morning to walk through Central Park before the FedEx truck arrived for the painting I was escorting.

In July I was back in Florida for our regular vacation time there. I always come home with images I love from Florida.

Summer in upstate New York is prime time. The lakes, the wineries, the gorges and waterfalls and trails. It’s what makes this area so special and what keeps people here in the winter, the thoughts that summer will be back.

I was back in Florida at the end of August. A slide show of my work was included in Digital Graffiti, an outdoor multi-media exhibit at Alys Beach. So once again I had the opportunity to shoot my favorite beaches and landscape.

In mid September I spent a little time in Atlanta, my boyhood home area, and had a chance to visit the Georgia Aquarium and some other areas of downtown. Atlanta is a great city and filled with a lot of memories for me.

New York this fall was a showplace. I can’t remember a more perfect seasonal show than what nature gave us this year. That’s the other reason to withstand the cold here, the change of seasons is so dramatic. In the south, fall was not the showy colorful display it is in the northeast. And the area around Atlanta, and even in Florida, doesn’t have the amazing roadside color of the farm fields and sumac and blackberry and maple trees. It was a grand display this year.

And Ithaca, small town, city streets provided some images. I took the time to wander a bit in my own small town area as I do every year at the holidays when we are in Connecticut and I wander the streets of Willimantic. I love the cityscape and urabn landscape. The places where we really live and the mark we make there.

It was a very good year for images. I’m satisfied.

Images Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.

Looking back at 2008 – a year of great images – Vol.1

I’ve been very fortunate this year. It’s been a year of wonderful images and I feel so lucky to have collected so many. So many that I had a very hard time choosing and keeping this look back down to a couple of posts. But I do have my favorites, and I’ve pulled a select few out to go back and remind me of why I take pictures, why I love recording those moments and those visions and those places that have made up the past year that I don’t want to forget and that I want to share with anyone that will look, and possibly see the beauty and color and design of the world around us each day the way I do. And of course, those special moments with other lives that are part of the fabric of our own.

My greatest joy, as is no surprise, derives from my daughter. A senior in high school this year, I can’t help feeling that pang parents feel as they begin to realize how their lives will change when there are no children left at home and how close that time is getting. As much as she wears me out with late night transportation and looking at her room that I would love to organize, but dare not touch. Still, hearing her play her piano at night or typing at her keyboard, watching her dance,  hearing her laugh with friends, or singing with her favorite music, having her ask me to help her with ideas for an English essay, or sharing her photos and poetry with me. These are things I will miss so much on a day to day basis.

But this year I have seen her dance, so beautifully. With her dance team at Armstrong School (another year of wonderful performances),in school plays, and with Running to Places, the youth theater group she has been a part of. I’ve become a big fan of these kids, and am dazzled by the talent in their company.

And I’ve begun shooting senior portraits for her and her classmates. These kids are so beautiful, and I love this time in their lives. I hope they know how special it is.

I shot Hannah and Mike’s wedding this year. A fun shoot, though these jobs can be so tiring. But I love the atmosphere of a wedding and the love that exists there among everyone. I also realized this year that it’s the bridesmaids and the kids that make the party.

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my Mother-in-law’s house, as we always do. She has several cats but “Tiger Eye” is the alpha cat in the house.

I love calico cats and this year we unfortunately lost one of ours (we had two sisters). Rea was a roamer and wandered for days sometimes but would always come home eventually. This year, she didn’t come home. I miss her.

So a year of changes (as they all are) and of joys. Of discoveries and losses. Of sharing. Of being an audience. Of memories.

In the next post I’ll look back at travels and home.

All images are Copyright © George Cannon, all rights reserved.

From Image to Abstract

For the last year I’ve had two blogs going. This one, which I have to admit I have not kept up with as frequently as when I began. And my other blog, Artcards, which was to be a once weekly image that had been manipulated to some degree in photoshop to make a photograph into photoart. It’s been almost a year now and the Artcards site has over 160 images up now, so once a week has become more like three times a week. But as an exercise, it has led me to some interesting results and helped expand my knowledge and comfort levels with photoshop, given me a much better understanding of the many nuances of the program, and also shown me how much more there is to learn about this powerful artistic tool.

So over the last few months, as I have worked with more and more of my old and new images, I have also begun to build a collection of abstract art that derives, through many, many layers and multiple steps, from a single (or sometimes multiple) image to evolve into an abstract piece of art. The goal here is to create images that will work on large canvases.

Working in an art museum, I see so many large contemporary paintings, and feel like photography manipulated in photoshop to the point of abstraction, can have the same kind of feel and impact when applied to large canvases through today’s large format inkjet printers. In fact, the detail possible would be very hard and time consuming to obtain if working with brush and paints. So through the technology of computer and camera and high resolution printers, a new world of contemporary art emerges.

All of these images began as standard photographs. I use a variety of actions to apply multiple adjustments in a single stroke. I build layers upon layers, often inverting and changing hue balances, then blending those layers, to create color combinations and textures that achieve a look I like. I will flatten several times, taking snapshots as I go so that I can back up or look at earlier versions. I might crop and only take a small piece. Then I might apply filters and styles to enhance the feel even more, or to refine dimensional qualities. Some of these images might go through a hundred steps before I’m satisfied with the result, or I may save three or four versions of the same image, unable to decide which is my favorite.

This is a sample progression of an image as it takes shape.  Begin with a photograph…

Crop, build several layers and color effects…

Add blur layers…

Build more layers, adjust colors and blend modes…

Add filters to create texture or definition…

and finally overlay an additional color shape with stroke to frame and isolate the center, then blend and adjust opacity.

I stopped here. It just felt right to me and didn’t seem to need anything else…

…except that big canvas and a large blank wall.

All images are Copyright © George Cannon, All Rights Reserved.