(If you hear Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson reading this to you in your head, don’t be surprised.)
Nearly one year ago, I, a dedicated film photographer, did something unthinkable: I bought a digital camera. No, I hadn’t eaten one too many happy pills. No, I hadn’t drank my fixer one too many times. (Mmm, fixer!) No, …
G9: One Year Later
Biting the hand that “frills” you
From my cold dead hands, Mr. Bingham.
Opening up today’s Oregonian is quite an education sometimes. In today’s paper, staff writer Larry Bingham outlines an in and out list, of “how life in the Northwest is shaking out in lean times.” The title is “The Frill is Gone.”
And the list? The list of outs include microbrews, …
The Seattle Bus Challenge
It began with, as usual, a Monday lunch. Dan, Portland blogger, avowed transit geek, and ideas guy, had a question: were transit systems in the northwest well developed enough that a person could ride from Portland to Seattle, purely by using local busses? No Greyhound, Gray line, Amtrak, or charter systems. True, public busses.
For a …
Coming back around
Even when you try and stay away, you just can’t.
The last time I shot film in any serious way was in the middle of 2008. At the time, I was in the middle of a number of simultaneous changes in my life, professional, academic, and personal. The end result of that was that I had …
2008: Ten Favorite Images
Some of you may remember last year about this time there was a flurry of “ten favorite shots” posts on various rail themed blogs. So far, this year has been a bit less busy. Probably a lot of things are contributing to that; I know in my case some big changes in my life had …
Review: Wild Beauty
Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957
By Terry Toedtemeier and John Laursen, Eds. Oregon State University Press, 121 The Valley Library, Corvallis, OR 97331; http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press/; 12.4 x 12 x 1.5 in; hardbound; 360 pages, 9 color, 9 hand-tinted, and 116 b/w photos, 2 maps; $75.00
One of the last things the world likely needs …
Review: Beauty of the City: A. E. Doyle, Portland’s Architect
Beauty of the City: A. E. Doyle, Portland’s Architect
By Phillip Niles. Oregon State University Press, 121 The Valley Library, Corvallis, OR 97331-4501; http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press; 7 x 10 in; trade paperback; 296 pages, 72 b/w photos, 23 illustrations, 1 map; $29.95
Portland has seen numerous shining towers rise in the past half-century. Beginning with Pietro Belluschi’s stylish and …
Review: Approaching Nowhere
Approaching Nowhere
Photography by Jeff Brouws with essays by William L. Fox and Jeff Brouws. W.W. Norton, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110; http://www.wwnorton.com/; 12.3 x 11.6 x 0.8 in; hardbound; 160 pages, 112 color photos, 1 illustration; $50.00
It is one of the fundamental facts of the 20th century that Americans came to live in …
Review: The Call of Trains: Railroad Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy
The Call of Trains: Railroad Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy
Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy with text by Jeff Brouws. W. W. Norton, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110; http://www.wwnorton.com/; 12.1 x 10.9 x 1 in; hardbound; 224 pages, 323 duotone b/w photos, 1 illustration; $65.00
Sequels are always challenging projects to undertake. 2004 saw Jeff Brouws, erudite …
Review: Here There Nowhere
Here There Nowhere
Paintings by Michael Brophy with essays by Jonathan Raban and William L. Lang. OSU Press, 121 The Valley Library, Corvallis, OR 97331-4501; http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press; 12.0 x 12.0 x 0.25 in; paperbound; 60 pages, 20 color images; $25.00
The landscape of the Pacific Northwest is an ever-changing one, and so it should be no surprise that …