Some photo resources, Web sites, mailing lists, etc., that I've enjoyed or found useful lately (in no particular order, and, frankly, not too well maintained at the moment...):
- First, a self-indulgent link to the Handsome Poets home page. Handsome Poets are a San Francisco Bay Area pop band I play bad guitar for; the self-indulgent part is that I do their web pages (and much of the photography). And yes, the pages are horribly out-of-date, but that's what happens when everyone's busy....
- FiLH:Photographies -- Frederic Goudal's strong, interesting, abstract, and erotic nudes and forms, plus a bunch of other stuff. Check out his "Poly(pola)ptique" and his writing about what he does and why (in French and English). This is one of my all-time my favourite photo web sites -- Frederic seems to have a very similar body-form and texture imagination to me (except that he actually does the work -- me, I just sit back and think about it...), and the site evolves over time. Highly recommended, but not (as witnessed by some endless Usenet debates) for everyone -- it includes some fairly explicit nudity (i.e., Americans beware).
- My more formal portfolio at HamishReid.com (aren't vanity domains wonderful?!), and my nascent business domain, Mistrale. More of the same, I guess...
- The other Pandemonia -- pandemonia.net -- a growing collection of arts and crafts hosted by Joe Cooper Rolfe in Louisiana. It was real pleasure to discover that there's actually a physical place -- Joe's family plantation -- called "Pandemonia"...
- Splendid Sound -- OK, a friend's business, and I help with the graphics, etc., but if you're in Oaktown and need recording, do it with Stephen...
- Mezze -- a great Oakland restaurant run and staffed by a bunch of friends of mine. An endless source of food and photos (see the Mistrale gallery for an example of the latter)!
- The Mountain Gallery -- fellow one-time Berkeleyite (yes, we've met...) Quang-Tuan Luong's mountain photos. Part of his larger Terra Galleria, a site full of beautiful landscape and people photos. To quote Tuan: "The Mountain Gallery shows photographs I made in the mountains of Europe and North America while I was climbing or mountaineering. The Gallery is a portraiture of these activities, as well as of incredibly beautiful places".
- PhotoSig -- a good idea done well (but fraying at the edges...). A lot of very good photographers and images, but way too much (self-serving) ranking and too little critiquing, if you ask me. Yes, I'm a member (but not very active).
- The Large Format Photography site (yes, part of Tuan's empire of web sites -- no I don't get paid for this). "A non-commercial community site of large format photographers, including a repository of primers, how-to articles, user's reviews of equipment, and an active discussion forum." (from the website itself). An excellent starting point for large format (view camera) photography. Should be on every large format photographer's shortlist of useful URLs, and an excellent place to start if you're thinking of going large format. Not at all influenced by the fact that one of my articles is up there...
- Mostly Landscapes -- beautiful landscapes (and other stuff, too...) by a couple of friends of mine in London, Tony and Pam Bamford.
- Tony Spadaro's The Camera-ist's Manifesto -- some good advice on equipment and technique, mostly for 35mm.
- The (self-styled) Web's Top Nature & Landscape Photography Pages! -- examples of, and links to, some excellent photographers and images. A damn good place to start for exploring the world of nature and landscape photogrpahy, despite its overly busy design and somewhat breathless approach.
- Ernest Zarate's "At The Beach" (and more) -- contains a good-looking photo essay on one of California's obsessions. "[A] non-intrusive portrayal of the renowned California beach culture minus the clichés and reminiscent at times of Garry Winogrand's The Animals with a tiny piece of Max Yavno for good measure". Cool stuff.
- photo.net -- Phil Greenspun's photo page. A pleasing mixture of art and text, with a liberal sprinkling of links to other interesting pages and sites, including Travels With Samantha (this photo essay web classic won a Best of The Web award in 1994).
- James Lileks's Gallery Of Regretable Foods. As he says, what were they thinking? Part of the James Lilek empire.
- fragments -- Hiroshi Kamakura's quirky set of fragments, strange textures, strange colours. Someone else with a sensibility I really admire....
- Peter van Beek Photography -- a strong, compelling, and sometimes plain beautiful cross between art and journalism.
- John Jacobsen's various artworks -- a strong set of works on various themes to do with industrial landscapes, decay, etc. As John says, he's a great industrial wasteland / rustic rustiness / etc. fanatic... (as am I, of course).
- Mythopoeia -- The Making of Myths. Beautiful. Wish I could even aspire to this.... (check it out frequently -- this site changes a lot).
- Oleg Volk's home page. Alluring portraits, snippets of writing, still lifes, landscapes, photo essays and stories... Oleg has quite the way with getting people to get in front of the camera for him (unlike me, unfortunately...).
- Ankiewicz Galleries -- Kristen Ankiewicz's gallery of paintings, photos, etc. Check out the paintings and the "The Large-Faced Man and Other Photos" series.
- icontact -- if you can get past the too-earnest self-description and the cutesy seventies-style name, there's a lot of interesting stuff here....
- Lenswork -- as they say, "Essays & Articles on Photography and the Creative Process". Generally well-written essays on what it means to be a photographer, what particular photographers say or said about what they do and why they do it, etc. These guys know how to use the Web, too (well, maybe -- they've gone all Adobe Acrobat-ish lately (May '96), which some of us diehards don't think is kosher).
- The Surrealism Server. Sorry, the sturgeon have been let out of the loch. (Try reloading the page several times).
- Ctein's Online Gallery. If you don't know who Ctein is (or how to pronounce "Ctein"), you probably ought to (hell, he's Daly City's best known photographer!). Maybe not the most humble of people or home pages, but worth a visit. Ctein's stuff is better in the flesh....
- San Francisco's FocalPoint f/8. A design and production group for the development of photographic, interactive, digital and democratic journalism on the World Wide Web. Good photojournalism, and involved photography.
- SITO (nee OTIS) ("Operative Term Is Stimulate"). Definitely not Otis Elevators. Lots of Art and Artists.
- Aregeebee -- "Aregeebee is an art site from Ottawa, Canada, Justin Wonnacott is the host." Some nice photomontages, and a really enjoyable detour through his landlady's kitchen with a digital camera...
- Peter Balazsy -- beautiful image transfer work and glamour photography.
- The Lightroom. Just putting in a free plug here for the people who did the beautiful Cibachromes for my "Don't Miss A Thing" exhibition in Emeryville. Great printing and digital work by Rob Reiter...
- Tight Sainthood -- yet another damn blog linking in to one of my images without asking me. But this one's a cut above the average, and just a little odd...
- Scott Reilly Art -- Oakland artist and friend, maker of beautiful illuminated lightscapes and much more...
- Victoria Skirpa, another Oakland artist and friend...
