Q: What relation do you find between photography and reality?
A: It's always less and less. I grew up with the paradigm that photography was reality. But very quickly I realized that they're very different things, although photography, because of its nature, has the possibility of capturing a certain substratum of reality [...] Nowadays it's possible to develop other possibilities of photography, but always, as much as they might try to deny it, that substratum of reality will always be there, it's the ore of photography, it's one of its most attractive characteristics and I believe that the success of this non-representational photography of recent years wouldn't have been the same without this touch [gota] of the preexisting.

Armando Cristeto in Conversaciones con fotógrafos mexicanos (Conversations With Mexican Photographers), pub. Gustavo Gili 2007.

Supersampler

The Supersampler (pictured above) is a simple device for recording four images on a single frame of film, over a two- or one half-second length of time. It has no viewfinder; as an afterthought, the designers included a rubber piece that would approximate one, but it falls off very easily and in any case it useless. The film is advanced by pulling a cord, at left. This builds up the tension that is released when the shutter is pressed, exposing the film sequentially.

Alcatraz

The Supersampler may be one of the most advanced Lomographic tools, as it explicitly incorporates elements of chance into the production of its images. In the span of two seconds an unexpected result can appear, whether it's because it's because of something happening in front of the camera or a surprising revelation due to the movement of the camera itself.

Building, Mission SF

I'm enjoying using the XA in bright light with black and white film. I haven't shot any color with it so far, and I don't plan to either. The batteries died while I was in Guadalajara, otherwise I would have taken a few street shots.

Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara

An evening at a Chivas game.

I don't really like using flash in very public places, as it draws attention, but I think being so easily spotted as a foreigner actually made it easier for me to be somewhat brazen with my camera this night. (Of course he would take pictures!) For purposes of discreteness, it helped that I was using the Golden Half, which is small enough to be slipped into a pocket, and also that my companions for the night had given me a Chivas jersey to throw on.

Estadio Jalisco is fairly old, but as Miguel, one of my hosts, told me, "es un templo de futbol" - it's a temple of football. Pele and Maradona both played there in their prime. I like the old-fashioned feel of these luxury boxes. This guy craning his neck to watch a replay on a TV above was the rowdiest fan in our area, at one point he was banging on the ledge with a metallic object of some sort.

say hi to KOREA

One link can send you down a rabbit hole. From the blog of globetrotting Korean model DAULMONSTER I found a few photography-related websites. Behold:

• Her photographer friend
  • Note: he photoblogs outfits, much like The Sartorialist and this London-based guy on Flickr
• An American photographer in Seoul, who was photographed by DAUL's friend
• Another photo-friend who's not quite as interesting as guy #1

Daul's blog is a great read by the way. If fashion is like a kind of storm that swallows up trends and brings them in to its center, she writes from a position that's close to the eye of this storm. She still retains the perspective of an outsider, which is valuable.

Events might need photography to become historical, but fashion needs it even more. Photography is the medium of fashion. There must be a detectable shift in fashion corresponding to the development of the camera as a popular tool. I enjoy these conceptually simple photoblogs like The Sartorialist, and the first guy I linked to above. They practice an accidental form of photography that starts to make good on the promise of popular photography. "Starts," in this case, because fashion is always a beginning.