slc re/visioned

The site is live!

2008-07-26T09:39:00.002-07:00

The CEJ website is live now! Appropriately enough (what with the ties to the pioneers and all), it went up on July 24.

Salt Lake City Re/Visioned

I hope you all enjoy it, it was/is a lot of work but it was a pleasure as well. Let me know what you think!

nearly there

2008-07-17T10:56:00.001-07:00

well, the website is nearly complete, then I just need to write the summary and have the defense. Probably have to be September, as we'll be gone for a little while, and the first 2 weeks of the semester most likely aren't the best time to get a committee together!

more soon!

24 Hours of LeMons

2008-05-21T09:21:00.003-07:00

Our first race.

Car can't be worth more than $500 plus safety gear (brakes, rollcage, tires). Then there's the NASCAR rated racing suit, gloves, shoes, helmet. Need a trailer to get the car to Altamont, need a place to stay, gotta have sustenance. Gas is good, too, to get around the track.

flickr pics here.

24 Hours of LeMons

Vote for Chessie!

2008-01-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

He had a hard night partying, apparently, while mom and dad were out...

moar funny pictures

Click on his pic and give him a cheezburger!

What a difference...

2007-08-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

a day makes. Or in this case, a few. The first image was made Aug. 14, the second, today.

BOOM!

2007-08-18T15:27:00.001-07:00

Got up way too early to watch the implosion of the Key Bank building, gotta make way for the City Creek Center, you know....

What a nice quiet morning, until the booms:

Whoa, dust's a-comin'!

Nice angle, if I say so myself.

Published!

2007-08-13T18:30:00.000-07:00

I've got my article and images of San Michele on World Photo Adventure now:

Secret Venice

Check it out!

2007-07-25T14:47:00.001-07:00

I really haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just got busy. More tales to come!

Historic photo research

2007-02-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

For the doc photo class, I will be writing a lot of the background info that will relate to the larger rephotography project. Craig wants me to explain how I will choose the images/locations to use, as well as a bit on the care and feeding of historic photographs. There are thousands of CEJ's images available, in several locations (that I know of!), plus our collection. I would like to limit my images to what we own now, perhaps at some future date, I can venture into the other collections.

I need to turn in an outline of this by Tuesday, a sort of writing/shooting script, if you will...

Safety Cow

2007-01-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

This is my current favorite part of the U of U campus, safety cow!

Do Not Cross Trax!

Documentary photography

2007-01-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

Did I mention I'm taking a documentary photography class this semester? It should help with my rephotography project, plus the professor is on my committee, and he's always mentioned that it would be nice if I took a class from him... previously, his most advanced class was a Photoshop class, which he know I wouldn't get much out of, with my experience with the software....

First assignment is a "flexing" one, to get us back into the idea of making pics. Need to shoot an action...think I'll see if P will do a bit of welding or grinding, get those nice sprays of sparks.

Next shooting assignment is to photograph a stranger, then return in a couple of weeks and show them work prints. Did I mention I don't photograph people? Did enough of that in a previous life...ah well, be good for me I suppose. Think I'll use one of the ELI students...

New Year, let's do it right!

2007-01-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

After surviving the flu over the break, it's time to forge ahead (as they say). Got a generous grade on the lit review, now I need to rework it into the project proposal. I know what I want to do, I just need to put the idea into "academic" terminology...

This upcoming semester, I'm taking a documentary photography class, that should be fun (and more familiar too). Get to use my new digital SLR too!

turned it in

2006-11-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Just turned in the paper to turnitin.com...whew! We'll see what happens now, eh?

Lit review con't

2006-11-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Gee, who would have thought I'd be doing homework on Thanksgiving?

I believe that one of the hardest things about conducting a lit review is knowing when to stop collecting literature! Each new lead looks interesting, something more to add to the bookshelf...but I have to stop and finish writing the review at some point...I sure hope it's what the dept. is looking for - since I've not written one of these before, I suppose I'll have to write it the way I'd like to read it (most likely, not the "proper" way of doing this...sigh).

List of books

2006-11-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

So, here's a prelim list of literature:

"Utah : Then & Now", Tom Till
"J. E. J., Trail To Sundown, Casadaga To Casa Grande, 1817-1882: The Story Of A Pioneer: Joseph Ellis Johnson", Rufus Johnson
"Second View : the Rephotographic Survey Project", Mark Klett
"After The Ruins, 1906 And 2006 : Rephotographing The San Francisco Earthquake And Fire" Mark Klett
"On Photography", Susan Sontag
"Set In Stone, Fixed In Glass : The Mormons, The West, And Their Photographers", Nelson Wadsworth

plus a stack of theory books too... not as much fun! ;-)

Book list

2006-11-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've begun assembling the list of publications for the Lit Review and Bibliography. Just got my copy of Tom Till's "Utah Then and Now", out of print but the publisher had one to sell me. From the photographic/subject point of view, that book is most likely the closest to what I'm doing. There are many "then and now" books out there, so exploring those should be interesting!

If anyone has favorites, send 'em along!

here we go...

2006-11-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

So we have an experiment here, not sure that I'm so comfortable in expressing "out loud" what I'm thinking, but here goes...

I've created this blog in conjunction with my Masters project, I'm proposing to rephotograph views of Salt Lake City that my great-grandfather shot, back in the late 1800's/early 1900's. His name was Charles Ellis Johnson, son of Joseph Ellis Johnson and Joseph's 3rd wife (yep, polygamy), Eliza Saunders (or Dean, but that's another shaggy dog story relating back to her stepfather and some unpleasantness with his business in London).

Anyway, Charlie was born in St. Louis in 1857 but spent his early years in Nebraska. Of course, Papa Joseph wasn't around a lot, due to the fact that it was known he had other family elsewhere...so it could have appeared that Charlie's mother was, in fact, an unmarried mother (!). FInally, in 1860, word came that Eliza and Charlie should emigrate to SLC., arriving in Oct. of that year.

There shall be more history to come, I'm sure. Suffice it to say, at this point, that Charlie eventually grew up, became interested in photography, opened a studio in SLC and made zillions of images, from studio portraits of LDS church officials to actresses performing at the Salt Lake Theater, landscapes and journalistic events. Even choosing what images to rephotograph will be a challenge, as there are so many to decide amongst...

stay tuned!