Secret Still

Ok, photographers, you win. I officially retire my camera and give up on any image capturing I might try to do in the future. My kid’s milestones will go unrecorded; my wedding won’t be documented by me; and whenever I see a sunset I won’t reach for a camera to try and capture that magical moment. Tim Simmons is the one to blame or celebrate, depending on your opinion of any pictures I’ve taken. The man can do things with a photograph that literally make my mind spin, as in a full 360 degree rotation in my skull. He shoots the world in a manner that makes it seem so alien and new, and that, for me anyway, is the ultimate photographic skill. I certainly have never been able to master it, or even beginner it, but here is Tim Simmons doing it better than anyone ever like he was just taking a walk in the park. You know what? It’s ok. I didn’t want to lug around my camera and extra lenses and whatnot to all my kid’s school events, or my friend’s parties, or anywhere for that matter. I just wish I had smoked less pot in the past so I could remember these things without having to photograph them.

Tim Simmons

If you read this site on the regular, then you know I’m stingy about posting photographers, and maybe you even know why. I’m not gonna bother to explain it again, but I can provide an example of why I do post some photographers in the form of Tim MacPherson. Without getting overly artastic with processing and whathaveyou, MacPherson still manages to have a portfolio jammed to the gills with images that don’t bore me. Not a single one. Every shot has some nuance of composition that makes me actually want to look at it. I especially enjoy the clever concepts behind the shots themselves, which is what I usually find lacking in the plethora of photographers out there. You enjoy that shit, Readers, enjoy it heartily.

Tim MacPherson

Fuck a foggy Tuesday. Enjoy some Polaroids of the times I wish I was having.  Images like junk-fed needle dreams of my kodachrome childhood. Prosetic license is in full effect today.

Franck Juery’s Polaroids

In other amazing skate photographer news, Cliche Skateboards has posted photos from Mike O’Meally’s photography show, Far From Home, that opened at Dactyl Gallery in NYC. O’Meally captures the random beauty of a life on and off the road, traveling to places that every skater wishes they could go. I guess I need to get myself a job at Transworld or somewhere similar and I’ll be ready for adventures. Um, anyone out there want to hire a writer/web designer/skater/skilled weaponsmaster? I made that last one up, so tack on /amazing liar to the list. Anyone? No takers? Fine. O’Meally’s show looks great anyway, and I wish I could see it in person. I’ll just have to settle for the glossy pages. Not a terrible substitute at that.

Mike O’Meally

If you skate, then you’ve almost definitely heard of Michael Burnett. You have absolutely seen one of his photos, more likely several hundred of them. He’s all over the skate world with camera in hand. He’s got one of the main ingredients for being a great skate photographer: access. He’s got access to be where he needs to be to get the shot. In Burnett’s case that is pretty much secondary to the fact that his scope, tone, composition and overall sense of wonder at the visual world are all better than everyone else’s. Access or not, he takes incredible photos of whatever he shoots. If he had been skiing instead of skating then right now I’d be looking at some awe inspiring ski photos. Lucky for me I don’t have to stare at some pole jockeys doing a k5 (is that a thing?); instead I get to be dragged into the dirty, heartbreaking, physics-defying, almost religious world of skateboarding by Burnett’s images. When I’m sweating out every last ounce of water in my body trying to land a trick, bruised, broken and ready to destroy my board forever, it’s work like this that keeps me going. Burnett’s got a book coming out soon called <em>The Outskirts of Awesome</em>, and you bet your ass I’m gonna do my best to scrape together enough change to get a copy. If Portland wasn’t so far North I’d bike it up for his release party. As it stands I’ve got to keep living vicariously through the internet. That’s ok, I’ve got a board and some inspiration, the only thing left is time.

Michael Burnett

Little is known about the mysterious creature that is Hannah Whitaker. I do know that she lives in New York, because I’m smart enough to know that the 917 area code is around there. I’m full of useless trivia. Just the opposite of Hannah’s work, in fact. Each of her photographs seems like it captures some important and beautiful moment. Each photo is stylistically simple, but complex in color. The fact that she has a picture of lightning striking is enough to sell me on her talents, but the beauty of her other shots pushes her into the realm of potential mastery. Now if only I knew anything about her.

Hannah Whitaker

Nashville, Tennessee, which I’ve always enjoyed visiting, has just moved a little higher in my US cities standing thanks to it being the home of draftsman and photographer Chris Scarborough. He makes drawings like he’s an apocalypse survivor in Neo-Tokyo, even though he’s a dude from the American South. Mechanized clouds full of bombs, big eyed girls and boys, all feature in Scarborough’s work, which is something like the madness coming out of the Japanese Superflat movement. A key difference is that Scarborough’s drawings are black and white. I might also consider that a limitation though. His work is so damn interesting that I would punch a baby just to see what he would do with color. No joke, I’d punch your cute little tyke right in the ol’ milksucker.

Chris Scarborough

A long, long time ago, or maybe not that long. One long. I came across the work of Jean Jullien. It’s innovative and makes me think of Michel Gondry movies. Is it a requirement that if you’re French then you’re a talented designer? Let’s throw Philippe Starck in as exhibit C. Just don’t be mean and smoke cigarettes at me, French People. That’s all I ask. That, and don’t ever quit designing and having fun, Jean Jullien. I’m really bad at maintaining a stream of context today. Did I ever tell you how much I like clouds?

Jean Jullien

Did you ever want to compare the size of things in the universe, including the known universe itself? Even if you didn’t now you can thanks to Nikon and their Universcale site. It’s a flash project that allows you to scroll through a scale map of objects in the universe starting with the outer limits of the universe itself and going all the way down to the smallest objects measurable by science. Treat yourself to an ego-shattering look at just how unimportant you are.

Nikon: Universcale Project