Wednesday, December 2, 2009

One Thousand Days!


This is post number one thousand! I never really thought about this when I began this blog. It was just something I wanted to do, and so I started the blog, and never really thought about the future. My first post was February 3, 2007, and it was a series of 14 photographs from my trip to San Angelo, Texas. I was still working at the time, and wanted the discipline of looking for another kind of photograph, besides my images for the paper. Little did I know that 13 months later I would no longer be working for the paper. Once I left, I discovered that this blog was SO important to me, in making me feel like I was still a photographer. It is about the looking. Every day, day after day after day, I am looking, all the time. Everywhere I go, I am looking for photographs, knowing that at the end of the day, I NEED a photograph for the blog. It has been such an incredibly rich experience. I am so glad I began this project, and I will continue, because it is so important to me. About this photograph: I thought to celebrate the milestone, I would post one of my favorite photographs from a self-assigned project which had a working title of "The Architecture of Despair." It was about abandoned mental hospitals on Long Island. I shot the photo essay with 4x5 black and white film, and I have some wonderful photos from the project. This was the lead photo for the story, and it was the opening spread in the magazine, running across two pages. I will tell you one thing about how this came about. I was walking around the empty building, and found this curving hall with all the peeling paint, and thought that maybe there was a shot here, but I couldn't seem to find it. I walked to the end of the hall, and hadn't found "the" shot, so I turned around to walk back, and stopped in my tracks! My feet had kicked up dust from the floor, and the dust in the air made these wonderful beams of sunlight visible. It knocked my socks off!

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Ken. 1,000 photographs that have enriched the lives of all those who know about your blog and enjoy your daily postings--a real accomplishment. Thank you for staying with it, for the effort you put into it and for giving us something cool to look at and think about every day. This blog is a joy for all of your fans.

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  2. I also wish to extend my congratulations on your milestone of posting 1,000 wonderful photographs. Your family, friends and photo enthusiasts everywhere look forward to the next 1,000 blog shots! What makes the photo adventure particularly interesting is the daily text, which often provide new bits of information that expand our minds as well as yours during the journey. I love today's post! There is something very special about black and white photography.

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  3. Congratulations on 1000 photos. I look forward to what each new day will bring.
    Joan

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  4. Thank you all for your congratulations and kind words! It really means a lot. OK, I will continue with the next 1000. Seriously... :-)

    Jasper: Believe it or not I had to fight tooth and nail to shoot the photo essay in black & white! I had an editor who just didn't understand the significance of black and white for architectural subjects like this. The compromise, was that I had to shoot color too. That is easy, of course, with 4x5 - I just put another holder in after I did the BW. The end result was that the main story was BW inside the magazine, but the editor insisted on using color on the cover. sigh...

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  5. Congratulations on your accomplishment - 1,000 photos and all the wonderful stories that really make your blog so enriching. I look forward to the next 1,000 plus...bsk

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  6. Ken - Congratulations!!!! I just love your blog, I have it bookmarked and visit often to enjoy the view from your world. You inspire me! Julia

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  7. Wow, 1,000. Please keep it up! I just love the light in this. Photo editors, ack.... B/W is the only way this would go. Ok, now THIS is my fav.

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