Detail of Stacy Kranitz photograph.
Okay, so this is the official email that we’re starting back up again with regularity. I like to state things loudly so I have to commit. Back to Tuesday mornings (besides this email), back to photographing, walking, and avoiding marathon work months. Or seasons.
Between writing 3/4ths of a book and programming a map this winter, I think my main motivation for working so hard was just to get rid of all the damn open tabs on my laptop. And the existential angst of the moment. But mostly the tabs, I can’t explain how many have been open since Thanksgiving. I’ve cut them by 75% with only a quarter of a book to go. I need freedom from tabs. And tyranny of course.
(Click to view, try to break it, and then reply to tell me what you think!)
The map is finished, take a look again. The page has been refined, designed, debugged—It’s all the little edge details you need to fix that are the killer, but which make the experience.
Even if you’re not in or traveling to NY, the map itself is a gallery, a show, a way to research photographers or give yourself quick access to see what’s going on.
Detail of Chrise Verene photograph.
It comes with a PDF creator, where you can collect shows you want to see, It adds a custom map, show info, descriptions, and clickable links. I even built a way to import the show list easily into these newsletters in a more beautiful way (see below). What previously took an hour now takes 30 seconds.
While AI has plagiarized and been overhyped by annoying people (Not sure I believe in AGI as they’re hyping it), while it’s biased, while it’s being maliciously used for layoffs instead of cutting worker hours, frankly, the type of work it speeds up is all the annoying shit.
Stacey Kranitz
It’s cut 70% of my editing time for jobs that I make my living off of. I can take more of the better jobs and cut the tougher ones. Half the reason I have any time to put energy into the writing and these crazy programming side quests is because of how much more productivity and time I have.
It’s allowed the creation of a community resource which never would have been built otherwise. It’s maybe even giving us tools to level the playing field with these oligarchic tech companies that have been abusing us for decades.
I don’t want to talk about AI anymore because it’s being abused and abusing people in the worst and most annoying ways, but it opens many options for scrappy artists (like many of you who read this).
Chris Verene.
I also did a second interview for this new Session Press YouTube series. The series can be seen on the show page under the list, on this channel page, or by subscribing. This short was with photographers Stacy Kranitz and Chris Verene (IG links) at their show The Social Safety Net. If you’re around the LES, make sure to check out this show focused intimately on American communities that are dependent on the U.S. social safety net. The photographs are primarily from Galesburg, Illinois (Chris’ hometown), and Appalachia.
I was blown away during the research, and I have to strongly recommend Kranitz’s book, As it as Give(n) to Me (low on stock). Kranitz mixes tenderness, understanding, deep research, and personal stories, giving readers an intimate and nuanced understanding of the region and its people.
There is a huge history of poverty photography in Appalachia, arriving hand in hand with extraction industries abusing the region. Stacy acknowledges this past, and her dedication to doing better, to making sure her photography is an asset for these communities, is a breath of fresh air. Her work shows how far the field of photography has come over the last few decades.
Anyway, more soon. And please attend and photograph some protests if you can!
NYC Photographs Shows List
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