Throwback Thursday

As we get closer to the Academy Award ® ceremonies this weekend, I am reminded of my own brush with award greatness.

In the photo below I am standing with a real Oscar ®! This is the closest I would ever get to any type of award, big or small. I might have moved in closer, but the two especially menacing uniformed gentlemen on either side of me warned me several times that it would not be wise. I had no reason to doubt them.

In a time where seemingly everyone gets a trophy just for showing up, the badge of honor I wear is the fact that I have never won anything. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, I am the only member of the Professional Photographers of America to score a 0 in a competition. Yes, that’s right, zero. No applause necessary. Thank you.

This photo was taken sometime back in the mid-nineties (?) at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo. For several years, prior to my move south, I photographed many performances and special events. It was a grand time.

One of the great things about being a photographer (among many!) is it gave me permission to go places. Even if not always being invited. I was able to go places, meet people and see things I would never have had the opportunity to in any other profession. I am extremely lucky and blessed. You may feel free to remind me of this if you ever have the occasion to catch me bitching about something…

Throwback Thursday

Still accounting for 2023. Except for all the instant film I shot last year, I really didn’t make much new work. Mostly because I was busy, but also because I was having too much fun being instantly gratified…


Throwback Thursday

I hope everyone is having a terrific 2024!

I’ve been known to celebrate the new year (occasionally too much!) but honestly, it doesn’t mean that much to me. When we celebrate January 1st as the new year, we’re really celebrating an accounting principal. If we’re marking time we have to start somewhere and so here we are.

Personally, I think, if we’re really being true to the idea of new beginnings and starting fresh, we would celebrate our birthdays as the start of a new year; or, as many cultures do, celebrate the first day of Spring. I believe this, although I readily concede that I can understand how difficult the logistics would be for monthly billing cycles and when one’s taxes would be due.

In any case, I will share here a few of the images I really enjoyed from the accounting of the year 2023…

Throwback Thursday

Reflections Pt. 2

It’s kind of a convoluted story how I came to be included in this years edition of Eyes on Main Street. But in the Readers Digest version, I had applied to the portfolio reviews as part of the Month of Photography put on by the Colorado Photographic Center. One of the reviewers I had requested was Carol Johnson, who happened to be one of the curators for the EOMS.

After being assigned to her, Carol reviewed my website and digging deeply into it, discovered Kids at Play.

Who knew?

Speaking about my work. Image courtesy Fran DeRespinis (c) 2023

The lesson here, if there is a lesson, is you never know what the actions you take today will lead to tomorrow, or next month, next year, or 10 years from now. That’s why it’s not always as important what you do, it’s that you DO IT.

Get out there. Make work. Share your work. Damn the torpedos. Damn the critics.

Find a way to say “YES!” Embrace serendipity.

To be sure, the road is often full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and potholes too, but as the wise man Yogi Berra once said: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”

Throwback Thursday

Everything old is new again!

I’m thrilled to announce that my image Kids at Play is part of this years Eyes on Main Street outdoor exhibition in Wilson, NC. It’s somewhat convoluted how it all came about but the image was found on my website by one of the exhibit organizers and I was invited to submit it for exhibition. How cool is that!

There I am, second from the left!

The story behind my making the image was covered here in July, 2019. Perhaps I’ll go into more detail on how the image came to be included, but in the meantime if you’d like to see it in person, just come to Wilson, NC and take a look!

I guess I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are also 99 other images you can view as well!

Close up…

To learn more about Eyes on Main Street, check out their website here.

Throwback Thursday

Feeling nostalgic Pt. 2…

Riverside High School

The above image is of Riverside High School. I am a proud member of the class of 1975. This image was also made as part of my “Driving Home” project.

I do like it even though technically, it’s not very good. The exposure isn’t great, there’s lens flare, the shadows on the right are too deep, and so on. I suppose I could attempt to use current technology and try to fix it, but I doubt it would be worth the effort. I think I’ll just try again the next time I’m in the neighborhood.

Despite the flaws, I think it’s an important image and I’m glad I made it. Like the image of my childhood home, there are dozens and dozens of memories that return every time I view it.

Walking the halls taking pictures; yearbook meetings; school plays; cast parties; Travesty; the lunch ladies; Table 91; falling asleep in Mr. Rothenberg’s American history class; getting kicked out of Mr. Cowie’s math class; friendships I miss; friendships that have only deepened over time. The list goes on…

But mostly what it reminds me is how my experiences during the four years I was there shaped who I am today. Not being clairvoyant, I would never have known or understood, but my life’s path was paved by my experiences from those four years. With the clarity of hindsight, for any important aspect of my life, I can draw a line back to Riverside. It might not be straight, but the connections are there all the same.

So many times I marvel. How so many things can be tucked inside a single image. It might not look big, but it holds a lot…

Throwback Thursday

Feeling nostalgic…

My House

The above photo is of the house I grew up in, on Niagara Street in the Riverside neighborhood in Buffalo, NY. It was made just before the pandemic for my “Driving Home” project. It looks pretty much as it did in my youth, and although I’ve not lived there on over 40 years, memories of those years come flooding back every time I view it.

Standing on the front porch in my Sunday Easter best; pretending to be a fireman, saving the neighborhood with my best friend Johnny who lived 2 doors down (partially seen on the left); playing touch football in the street (partially seen on the right); looking out over the Niagara River and across to Canada from our attic windows (this is another story unto itself..). All these memories as vivid as if they had occurred yesterday.

Such is the power of photography.

While books and entire college courses have been created to explore that power, as I contemplate this image today, I think about the importance of not just creating the work, but of preserving it. It makes little sense to me to create work without some thought as to how one plans to keep it. Or. put another way: I’ve created this image, “now what?”

For me, the artifact has always been the thing. The print, the negative, if you can’t hold it, it ain’t real. 0’s and 1”s are just abstract concepts. You can’t see them, touch them, or feel them. They are only representations of something. Hence the only way to view a digital file is on a screen. And when the screen goes dark, the image is gone.

This is not an attempt to bash digital photography. I use digital capture devices practically every day. I love them. I bought a brand new iphone 13 not because I needed a better phone but because I wanted a better camera.

No, what I’m saying is, it’s not just enough to make the image capture. That’s only the first step. The most important step is to preserve it. After all, when we’re gone, that’s the only tangible part of our collective memory that will remain…

Throwback Thursday

Well. not too far back. In celebration of Polaroid Week I present some old and some new…

Throwback Thursday

Still digging…

One thing about saving everything is it’s very hard to remember where to look for something. I spent hours yesterday looking for an image and couldn’t find it anywhere. However, I did find these which brought back fond memories of days I spent wandering with my camera…

Throwback Thursday

Been working on a deep dive into the archives for another project that’s been percolating in the background for some time now. That’s what I like about having several projects going on at the same time, I can work on whatever my moody self feels like doing.

Of course, it might be nice to actually finish one, but I don’t worry about that either.

After all, it’s the journey, not the destination…

Until I decide what to share from that stuff, here’s a few instant souvenirs from last year.