Path to the Sedona Chapel

DSC_2511
Originally uploaded by zanalee

I'm back in NYC. My ears are finally starting to unclog. I cannot wait to get out of town again! I loved how otherworldly Sedona was. And even in Glendale, despite the blazing heat, the skies were like a picture book. It was breathtaking. And being with my mom and Aunt was wonderful. I felt like a daughter again. It's good to be loved.

Dana Mik

Dana Mik
Originally uploaded by zanalee

Went to the MOMA with Dana after work this Friday. We had the best time! She is so awesome. I mean she has an entire itinerary of free things to do for the entire summer! She's all about fun and pleasure and art and eating and just feeling good!

There were some amazing exhibits. I really need to go back again.

This photograph is a direct result of out combined hedonistic insanity. She gets really excited about food and I love to eat! I mean I have given up the gym officially! F that! I like to feel good and eat good food and do things that inject me with inspiration and excitement and creativity and explode my imagination! I can get a good work out in just as easily doing something I actually care about! I'm exhausted with not feeling good enough! It's just not often that I meet people who feel the same way who actually do something about it!

Incidentally, Dana is also born the same day as me. Is that narcissistic? Well, I've never met a Gemini I liked this much. In fact, besides my mom, I have no close Gemini friends at all so it can't be narcissistic. It is an amusing coincidence though.

Yellow lilies in a bag3

Yellow lilies in a bag3
Originally uploaded by zanalee

In the rain I can smell the lilies in my bag wafting alongside me. I can smell the incense and oils from the vendor on the corner where I live and the hidden joint on the guy I just passed on my way home.
They all smell really fucking good.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue 50th Anniversary

He saw the brilliant connection between seemingly stark differences.

Saturday in Central Park

I got up early this Saturday morning, ran some errands on Union Square and then took the green line to 86th and walked to Central Park. It was a gorgeous day and being broke lately, I just wanted to remind myself that money is not the only path to happiness. I am totally content walking through the park, snapping hundreds of pictures and just enjoying nature. This is what I wish I could do every day! When I'm here I can't believe I have to put on a costume and go to work the next day.

I walked across the park to 59th Columbus Circle which ended up being quite a work out. I had to meet a friend there though so in the end I was kind of in a hurry. I hate hurrying through the park. There was just so much to see and hear and smell and touch. I have to go on one of those boats rides before the summer is over. We should all go! So get ready! And don't let me forget!

Also I'm realizing finally that taking a picture of something and experiencing it are two completely separate events. I mean there are so many technical things that divide the subject from the viewer aesthetically, eg., colors, light and shadow are never reflected in a picture the way they are seen with the human eye. A photograph is a total recreation or rendition of real life in a square or rectangle box. We may understand this intellectually but for me, taking as many pictures as I do every week, it really does start to feel like living in two different worlds simultaneously: behind the camera and not behind the camera. This suits me just fine. I get bored very easily and duality is my favorite drug. I thrive on multiplicity. There's really just no other way for me.

When I look at the sunlight streaming through the leaves of a tree, what I'm seeing is a combination of things, both material and spiritual, projected through a collection of things that make up whoever I am at the moment. A photograph is a way of trying to capture that moment as a reminder of those things, of the feeling that is evoked in that moment, but it is not that moment. The moment itself cannot be captured. So a picture is like the shadow of a memory. Memories, which live inside us change as we change. Pictures remain the same.

But what I love about pictures, which is what I love about art in general, is that every person sees something different in every picture. No single person sees a picture in exactly the same way that another person does. Because they are viewing the picture with the collective perception of their own personal experiences, regardless of whatever perceived objectivity they believe is within their means,the resulting experience is always unique in some way depending on whomever is viewing it.

Images have the power to inform our own personal stories in different ways and so we tend to ascribe autonomous influences to some photos or pieces of art more than others. But the most affecting influence is always the one we carry around inside ourselves. And I believe that art is just a wonderful way of manifesting material evidence of that. But above all, it is a way of sharing each others thoughts and memories in hopes of feeling less isolated, staying connected and striving to create something evermore transforming and informative about the nature of existence.

We Laugh to Keep From Crying

Minutes from our last bi-weekly staff meeting.

Regarding Intimacy/ICP Summer

So I just got the receipt for the my ICP(International Center of Photography) class yesterday evening in the mail along with a cool yellow ICP student ID card which I believe gives me access the Digital/Media Lab, the library (I could be in there for hours!!) and the darkrooms. I wonder if I also get a discount at the ICP Museum gift shop?

It also came with a letter of course description from the instructor, Saul Robbins. I am so excited!!! It sounds sooo good, just exactly what I want. I wish I could post the entire letter but since there is no online version I will type a small excerpt below.

This course will introduce a wide range of approaches to investigating our most intimate relationships. Whether looking at explicit physical intimacy or more implied psychological dynamics, the investigation of relationships between others and to the self has been increasingly important and influential theme in contemporary photography. Discussions, short readings, shooting assignments, critiques, and writing exercises will direct our attention towards private and societal notions of intimacy, allowing you to begin or expand upon a new body of work in either film or digital formats.

The rest of the letter is a description of some really amazing sounding assignments which include bringing in 1-2 things that reflect your own notion of intimacy.
*SIGH*

How many people will bring in pictures of porn?