Laura Miner: San Francisco

Traveling is an excellent way to change your artistic perspective. Normally my photographic comfort zone is in the studio, but in July I went to San Francisco for the first time. For that week in San Fran I had the challenge of doing lots of street, architecture, and nature photography; generally unplanned photo moments. Though, my advantage was that everything was new and incredibly interesting to me.

Living Roof: California Academy of Science (CAS) 2012 © Laura Miner

It was my second trip to the west coast (my first time being Los Angeles). San Francisco is unique in that it's a west coast city that has held onto an majority of historical buildings; not just government buildings, but homes as well. There is a similar breadth of styles and eras as east coast cities contain, but with a focus on the Victorian era and lot more purple in the color palate.

Sea Lion: Nob Hill / Saturday Afternoon: Dolores Park 2012 © Laura Miner

 It was an incredibly busy week hitting all the landmarks possible. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Mission District, Dolores Park, Nob Hill, Twin Peaks, Alcatraz, China Town, and California Academy of Sciences are some of the areas I photographed. San Francisco didn't just give me excellent vacation photos. Unlike other trips, the images I brought back were inspiring to me artistically. It's September and I still get a buzz looking at these photos. Moving in this different direction recharged me, and I am looking forward to getting back to the studio (and taking more photos on-the-go).

Can't Find That In LA: Golden Gate Bridge 2012 © Laura Miner

Cafeteria Floor: Alcatraz / Buddah: China Town, SF 2012 © Laura Miner

Fence: The Mission 2012 © Laura Miner

Frog Back: CAS / Golden Gate Fog 2012 © Laura Miner

Eddy Pula

A man playing guitar through an AMP he built himself. Learned how at the old VFW in Turners Falls. Its pretty awesome; they are making out-of-work carpenters into luthers and makers of the finest Massachusetts hand built wooden music machines. 

Dude playing guitat through a amp at the old VFW

  © 2012 Eddy Pula

This is what it looks like outside; just dudes sipping beer in plastic chairs on the sidewalk. You see, the VFW closed sometime ago, and no one really knows whats going on inside anymore, but the sons and grand kids and neighborhood kids bike around and talk to the older guys guarding the door to the old bar.

Bo Diddley (one of my like top three personal idols) was a luther, made fiddles and such, then made his own kickass cherry red rectangle guitar (he donated it to the hard rock cafe…. the less said about that the better)

 Tunrers (SIC, its actually Turners) Falls Bike Gang in Silver

 © 2012 Eddy Pula

He used to play through a toilet on its side to get echo before he bough Chuck Berry's personal recording studio - with all the Les Paul designed wizardry that they used to make #1 hit singles back in the day. Did you know Bo Diddley only ever had one, and its like his worst novelty track? But it helped invent hip hop so its ok anyways. I digress.

 John Kurtyka's Tools Are From Outer Space

© 2012 Eddy Pula

One theory on why he called himself Bo Diddley: well back in the wilds of the south they used to run a single wire from the roof of the porch to the wooden floor and they would play bump bump… bump bump bump bump… which is basically exactly the Bo Diddley beat. The whole porch would become an instrument.

They called the string a Bo Diddley. Imagine how awesome it must of sounded back in like 1890, you got fiddles and banjo’s and a maybe a beat-to-shit tuba and the whole porch is rocking to the Bo Diddley beat.

Must of been awesome!

Barn People Choir © 2012 Eddy Pula

C.R.I.T. Quarterly: Issue 2 Release Party

Just in time for the end of summer, C.R.I.T. is releasing the second issue of our quarterly book. This summer issue includes the photographic works of artists Kitty Ethridge, Ben Gebo, Beth A. Gilbert, Peter Leavitt, Laura Miner, and Traverse Day Robinette. Also featured are the works of four new, warmly welcomed additions to C.R.I.T.: Hannah Bemelmans, Michael Powers, Eddy Pula, and Dina Shaposhnikova.  

Cover Image: © Michael Powers

Postcard Images © Eddy Pula and Ben Gebo

Featuring a thoughtful and enlightening introduction by photographer Stephen Tourlentes, C.R.I.T. is very proud to release this book to the public and to keep this new tradition going.

In celebration of the release, please join us on Saturday, September 15th at Dowd Properties in Davis Sq., 407 Highland Ave. Somerville, MA from 7:00pm - 10:00pm, for an exhibition of photographs from the publication along with light refreshments. Copies of Issue 2, along with limited copies of Issue 1, will be on sale at the reception. Issue 2 will also be available online beginning the day of the release; so stay tuned for the link!