Damon DAmato

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<p>Ray, my photography timeline mirrors yours. Very active in seventies and early eighties. Majored in photojournalism in college. Once out of school, I slowed down somewhat because I didn't have a darkroom and was limited to rental darkrooms-- there were several here in Los Angeles back then. Eventually slowed down to just vacation and similar event stuff through the the nineties. <br /><br />Then in the mid-2000s, my wife had become ill and she couldn't attend protests and other events, so I'd go and bring home photos. <br /><br />Photo sharing sites like yahoo photos (which later merged with flickr) started popping up, and shooting to share started to take on a life of its own. I started to just have film developed and transferred to CDs without prints. I eventually bought a used D-70 because even just the film and processing were killing me. <br /><br />Peak years for me were 2009 through 2014, especially after 2011 while I played at what I called an "embedded street photographer" in Occupy LA, which despite what you may have heard, was very active for several years-- just not camped out at City Hall. Sometimes I'd rack up a 2 or 3 thousand photos a month, there was so much going on. That started really winding down in 2014, and so did I. <br /><br />Now, I'd say my camera gets more of a workout shooting ebay ad photos than street photography, but I do still take the camera with me most of the time when out.</p>

<p>One of the biggest regrets, if that's the word, is somehow losing every negative from high school and college. I always had a camera with me. Hundreds of photos of friends and family, school paper stuff, my photo/photojournalism class assignments, etc. Last seen around 1980, in several glassine books. Just a couple of prints remain.<br /><br /><br /></p>

<p>Probably not what you're talking about, but in film production, the grips will say they're "shaking up" the reflector 'shiny boards' to correct the lighting when the sun has moved.</p>

<p>To echo some of the sentiment above, there's photojournalists and photoessayists, advertising, glamour, weddings, nature, fine art, landscape, portrait, street, macro, sports, and likely a dozen more, each of which there could be a long discussion about what constitutes good, let alone great or greatest.</p>

<p>On a side note, Sandy Vongries' post is probably the first time I've ever seen the word 'meme' used correctly outside of a textbook.</p>

<p><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2121/2462957315_022540b415_z.jpg" alt="" /><br> <em>Leimert Park, California</em></p>

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<p>Not photography, but another visual art--<br />Disney Studios has, for decades, evoked emotions by creating certain characters with large heads and "doe eyes," which are known to produce sympathetic, protective, loving, caring feelings.</p>

<p>Why would anyone want to shoot super 8, except hipsters and other posers, as nostalgia for a horrible format with a horrible aspect ratio, loud cameras that get picked up on mics, low resolution and small size, high cost, short loads that are cumbersome to change and carry, the likely necessity and cost of transfer to video, and junk lenses.<br /><br /><br /></p>

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<p>Is there a theme?</p>

<p>The second to the last photo (captioned "Hamburg, 1999") looks like it was shot blurry/out of focus in camera, and then the head was distorted using what looks like Photoshop's Smudge Tool. In fact, it's pretty easy to duplicate the effect on other parts of the photo using that tool. <br /><br /><br /></p>

<p>I don't think anyone's putting these photos is competition with Atget, or arguing whether or not either portrays the total "reality" of the scene. We all know, or should, that reality is not necessarily found in photographs.<br /><br />I love old color photos. My love for them, and the regard others often have for them, is one of many reasons I have for not converting perfectly good color photos into black and white. Call it what you want, but my reality is in color.</p>

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<p>The car's window tint isn't likely polarized, because if a person in the car was wearing polarized sunglasses, the window would go black when tilting his/her head to one side. Seems like it would be extremely dangerous on a car window. And, I've worn polarized sunglasses for decades, and have never seen that happen with a tinted window.</p>

<p>Sitting here, I can see no less than 18 or 20 LEDs-- some blinking-- on and around my desk. Modem, router, computer and media reader, 2 monitors, speakers, external usb sound 'card," TV and cable box, power strips. <br />My printer has LEDs and an LCD panel. A couple more inside my computer that shine out when it's dark in here. Then there's a clock with green led numbers. <br /><br />The ones on the monitors are no more distracting than the rest of them.</p>

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<p>I've been to his Hollywood warehouse/studio, and have seen him at work. He apparently makes a lot of money, judging by the square footage of that place. <br /><br />I have to say "not my taste" is an understatement.</p>

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