Things I Love to See #8

A reluctant (gorgeous! We dubbed her Chrysanthamum) drag queen...


Some unreluctant drag queens...


And myself with an excuse to wear a feather boa.

Night Falls

on another summer season in Provincetown.

I Knew There Was a Reason I Kept Those White Go-go Boots

Carnival 2009: Peace, Love, and Go-go Boots.

If you know me, you know that I love Provincetown. And Carnival in Provincetown is one of my favorite days of the year. The glamour. The characters. The attention to fun. The fact that everyone is throwing beads and candy and blowing kisses and hugging strangers. The fact that everyone wants their picture taken all day long. And this year, the fact that I got to wear my white go-go boots and hot pink halter dress with the silver threads. Scratchy...but worth it!

This float blasted "Let the Sun Shine In."

I should mention that it was about 95 degrees. It was a good day to be wearing as little as possible.


Julia hurls herself upon the boob float.



Excuse me officer, are you cruising my wife?









And afterwards, we happily wait in line for sandwiches at Farlands.

Carnival 2008: Wild Wild West

As if anyone in Provincetown needed an excuse to wear chaps.

My Summer Garden

Obsessive gardening + obsession with macro lens =

Connie Imboden Happened to Me

I like free things. A very nice free thing happened to me recently. The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown needed to fill a seat in a week-long photography workshop, and due to my powerful connections at the Work Center (thanks Dorothy and Salvatore!) I was offered the $700 slot free of charge. I'd never taken an art photography course or had my worked critiqued in any sort of formal, art-oriented manner. Really, I still very much benefit from basic practical criticism, like "you need to pull out the highlights more" or "next time you shoot in bright sunlight, try ISO 100 instead of 640, dumbass" or "why is it blurry?"

The course was taught by Connie Imboden. I hadn't heard of her. Have you heard of Connie Imboden? You should hear of her.

One of Connie's main bodies of work is a series of nudes shot partially submerged in water. She initially used surface reflections, and then began placing a mirror at the bottom of a shallow pool. The result is a sort of triple image: unless you have someone there to explain what's what in the photograph, it's almost impossible to tell what's above the surface, what's reflected on the water, and what's reflected in the mirror. You can stare at what you might later find out is a man's chin popping out above a thin line of his neck, and, even knowing how Connie works, and that it's a body part, have absolutely no idea what you're looking at.


(That's a foot.)

Google her and read about how Connie was afraid of water as a child and she faced her fear through art...or how the water is like amniotic fluid...or the parallels between going underwater and the inward psychological journey. Yes, yes, yes. I love that it's mainly about form. The photograph is a puzzle. It's about dismantling the geometry of a familiar object and rearranging our associations.

Sometimes it's about being creepy. Me? Fond of creepy, mostly.




The model for this one is Cindy Sherman's dentist.

Guest of Cindy Sherman

(I did not take this picture of Cindy Sherman. Cindy Sherman did.)

Last week I volunteered as an assistant theater manager at the Provincetown International Film Festival. Oh, how I love this town.

For one thing, crazy is everywhere. Also, during film fest, famous people are everywhere. I got playfully elbow-ribbed by John Waters and served chorizo-stuffed mushrooms to Gael Garcia Bernal. Jane Lynch came to my theater twice. Word on the street was that Quentin Tarantino got wasted at the Old Colony Tap and Governor Bradford's, though I myself didn't catch a glimpse (damn!).

In addition to star-f*ing, I actually got to see a lot of great films, including Paul H-O's documentary, Guest of Cindy Sherman.

I have always liked Cindy Sherman fine, but this film made me fall in love with her. Her self-portraits are so dark and serious - and the Cindy in this film was totally giggly and shy. The film editor, Tom Donohue, who spoke before the screening, said he knew much more about Cindy from her work than he ever did from her personally. It was amazing to see her process - there's some really amazing stuff that happens before the shutter release.

Also, she had a long relationship with the filmmaker, Paul H-O, who is well-meaning but definitely annoying, and that whole story line is fascinating.

See Guest of Cindy Sherman!

Every Good Story

Every good story begins in one of two ways: a stranger comes to town, or someone leaves home to have an adventure.

I decided to get serious about digital photography when I found out I'd been hired to teach on Semester at Sea, the "floating university campus" that goes around the world in 100 days. (You can read all about my trip here if you're so inclined.) We were visiting 10 countries in that time. No way did I want to carry fourteen thousand canisters of film around 3 continents, and it was coming to that time when I was really feeling the heat to move away from film anyway. After a brief - well, actually, pretty drawn-out - mourning period, I bought an ass-kick, over-my-head digital camera. Took a class. Proceeded to take a lot of bad pictures. Took some I thought were good, too.