Serious about not being serious.

Elliott Erwitt is one of my favorite photographers. He said this about his fellow photographer Marc Riboud but it works for him also. Both of these guys took a lot of photographs that were very serious indeed but they didn't take themselves very seriously. Erwitt also said that "You can't take funny photographs if you don't live in a funny world.

A few days ago my son in law was bemoaning the effort it takes to make all the software that worked with previous versions (some two or three generations old) coexist with Windows 11. That reminded me of this negative.

I thought of titling it "Windows 22" (twice 11) but decided on "Windows 23" (when I took it) but a friend noted that if you count all the bits of windows there are 24.

It's been a slow month for new photographs for me. As predicted I've spent a lot of time preparing the 45 prints for my upcoming show at the Federal Way Event Center. Their gallery is a roughly 75 foot long wall with spectacular lighting adjacent to their nearly new performance space.

Rounding up frames and window mats, cleaning acrylic, assembling the lot. ("It's always more work than you expect even when you expect it to be more work than you expect.") It's ready to go now with the hanging order numbers in pencil on the reverse. Here is my statement about the work:

Performers, professional or otherwise — actors, musicians, dancers, acrobats — understand the rush, the magic that comes with a live performance. A singer just off the stage, eyes shining, said to me “Was that me!” As a photographer, my rush comes from freezing these magical moments and saving them in silver prints. The enforced isolation of the COVID pandemic gave me the time to revisit and reprint a selection of these magical moments in a consistent format. This show is part of them.

Alas, they do not do an opening event and I have yet to receive information about when the facility is open for public viewing. When I find out, I'll post a message.

Considering that Federal Way is not exactly convenient to many of us, I'm also preparing a virtual gallery of the 45 prints (the silver prints are prettier) and I'll also post the URL where you can see it.