Art Drop #7: If M.C. Escher was a Plumber

A photo walk in Hoboken with Colin Czerwinski and acknowledging a visual shift.

Hello everyone, Tom here.

PICKING UP A THREAD

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Threads recently where a thriving community of photographers is developing quite nicely (shades of Flickr during 2008-2011). For better or worse, Diana and I mostly let Instagram pass us by (more on that another time…), so being exposed to a frequent stream of photographers and the wide range of work and thoughts they share hasn’t really happened for me since those golden years of Flickr. It’s been a lot of fun just gradually getting to know certain people and feeling those community feelings again, and it feels like the start of something – which for us here at PB is most welcome.

From spending time on Threads I have gotten to know Colin Czerwinski whose work I knew and admired pre-Threads. Recalling again that era of Flickr when a bumping online community frequently spilled into the real world, Colin and I met up recently in Hoboken, NJ for a photo walk. We chatted about photography and life, and navigated the flat light of an overcast day that eventually gave way to rain. Diana was living in Hoboken when we first met in ‘09, so being back there was a nice trip down memory lane for me – but I was keen to explore a few industrial blocks in the north-west corner of the city as I didn’t remember walking those streets much all those years ago.

Tom by Colin | Colin by Tom

A VISUAL EVOLUTION

From a creative perspective, I’ve observed that Threads has been having an interesting impact on me. I was half-expecting that being exposed to so much new imagery would influence me and that I’d feel an urge to go out and shoot this or that just like [insert photographer] does. I remember experiencing that with Flickr – but that was fifteen years ago and I’ve changed in more ways than I’m probably aware of. It turned out that I was correct in anticipating I’d be influenced by other work on Threads, but in my case that influence has been in the opposite direction to what I expected. I might see a photograph that has some overlap with how I shoot, but strangely I'm finding myself feeling an aversion to the familiar, to the way I would have shot the same subject. For me, it has challenged the way I observe the world through my camera.

I’m mostly digesting this as being a good thing. Perhaps seeing work by others that I feel I could also have made – yet not being drawn to it – is my way of realizing that I need to change things up and bring something new to the table (for my own sake). Maybe I am unconsciously entering a ‘niching down’ phase of my photography (which I welcome), but that presents some challenges to me for future subjects that will be coming my way.

Lastly, there could also be an element here of me unconsciously “figuring out what I’m bad at.” The photographer Travis Huggett writes one of our favorite Substacks, East Side Art Supply in which he recently detailed how he dialed in on the photography he was good at and enjoyed doing through trial and error and ruling things out. That might sound obvious, but when you stop and think about it it really gets the mind turning and raises a lot of questions that anyone could apply to their own work. In particular there’s a freedom that comes with jettisoning what you’re perhaps not so good at and don’t wish to pursue any further.

Whatever is going on with me and my photography, I am at least glad that I noticed it. It feels a bit like when you’re standing outside on a breezy autumnal day and a leaf falls right in front of you – it’s no easy thing to catch that leaf as it drifts by, but if you do it’s highly satisfying.

ART DROP #7

The photograph we are making available for Art Drop #7 is an image that feels somewhat metaphorical for what I’ve been writing about here. Pipe Loop shows a mesmerizing plumbing system (or perhaps refrigeration – are there any experts in the house?) on the exterior of an industrial building on Clinton St. It’s fascinating to look at, and I find myself intrigued to know what this system looks like on the other side of the wall. But take a look at it, follow the pipes. Where does it begin? Where does it end? What flows through these pipes and in which direction? Is it a loop? If I could run my photography through these pipes a few times I’m curious to see where it would emerge.

Pipe Loop by Tom Bland

Pipe Loop
Hoboken, NJ, USA
by Tom Bland

Prints are only available of Pipe Loop until December 7, 2023, with no further production of this work for at least a year after the close.

Pipe Loop, Hoboken, NJ

Thanks to Colin for exploring Hoboken with me, looking forward to our next photo walk! Next week Diana and I will be in touch to share a few more photographs from Hoboken.

Bye for now,

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