“Golden Arches – Fog”

© christian harkness, from the 19/98 portfolio

"Screen Door"

Road Trip on US19/98 – Tallahassee – Cedar Key, Florida

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Since the mid 80’s I have been driving back and forth between Cedar Key and Tallahassee, on highways 19 and 98, a lot. I always wanted to photograph the funky buildings and scenes along that rather deserted stretch of four lane highway. It seems to be ’stuck in time.’

Well, so far I have not gotten around to it, so I started photographing with my digital camera as I was driving or riding along. With dirty windshield, motion blurs and tilts all part of the ’scene.’ Not at all the kind of work I had been doing. At first I did not care for it at all, and then it grew on me, and I became obsessed with it. Thanks to Alexandria’s encouragement and editing, I managed to layout a ‘blurb’ book and get it printed. These are screen shots from the book.

19/98

By christian harkness

Book Preview

Cedar Key WaterWomen

A tribute to female clam farmers in Cedar Key, Florida

Jeanine Beckham learned her left hand from her right by building crab traps. She still recalls one of the first lessons of the skill. “You have to start twisting the wire from the left, or the trap will buckle and become deformed.” Such are the secrets of the women who were raised crabbing and fishing the waters of Cedar Key, a small island community on the west coast of Florida. People have fished there for generations, but when commercial gillnetting was banned in 1994, they turned to clam farming, learning to read the bottom with their feet, and heaving huge bags of clams onto boats. I had the privilege of watching these women race their boats in and out of obscure channel markers to make a new kind of living from the water. Strong and unassuming, they are an exceptional window into a proud way of life.

“The pace here is real slow. I figure, why wear a watch when you live by the tide? Watching the water go in and out is much more appealing than looking at my wrist.” —Diana Topping

“I helped my father with shark fishing and crabbing when I was young. After the net ban, he taught me clamming, then dropped me off out in the water on a lease. It was tough, but I wanted it.” —April Reynolds

“My father died while harvesting oysters on Corrigan’s Reef when I was ten months old. My mother set a great example by being a strong water woman. She taught us how to help shuck oysters and build crab traps.” —Jeanine Beckham

Camera Work

This is insane, amazon is selling this Taschen book for only $10.19.  It contains the complete photographs of “Camera Work” published by Stieglitz. While I am not an ‘unreconstructed’ pictorialist, much of work presented resonates greatly with me.  Of course for those who are dyed in the wool f-64 or digital HD photography devotees, these photos may seem “…gloomy, brown, soft and derivative of the gloomy soft Victorian style of the painters of the time…” as one amazon reviewer put it.  Approaching the work that way seems nonsense to me.  The book’s dimensions are only 7.7 x 5.6 x 1.8 inches, and it is about 1.75 inches thick.  So it is a little awkward to handle, but at that price, I don’t care.  If this type of photography interests you, run and buy your copy

Eva Pietzcker @ the ‘druckstelle.’

Eva Pietzcker is a print maker who runs the ‘druckstelle’ – a studio for printmaking techniques, in Berlin. A few years ago I spent a wonderful 10 days in Berlin, attending a workshop at the ‘druckstelle’ and exploring the city.  I think it was just a few moments before the city was ‘rediscovered’ by artists from all over the work.  Now I find frequent articles in newspapers and magazines extolling the fantastic art scene in Berlin, and how artists from major U.S. art centers are ‘decamping’ to Berlin, both for the vibrant atmosphere and the cheaper studio and living spaces.

When Eva sent me the image of one of her  hand colored intaglio prints, I was reminded that she has a show coming up in Seattle.  Although for the last two years I have made it to Seattle that time of the year, I won’t be able to make it this years. I do hope some of you will be in the area then, and I urge you to stop by and see the exhibit.

Cullom Gallery

February 5 – March 28, 2009
313 Occidental Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104 USA
www.cullomgallery.com

Here is a ‘Wordle – World Cloud” of my post: