Summer 2014

Although I had much bigger plans for the summer which involved two workshops and several screenings. I am happy with the course of events so far. I have had three visitors to ANYEYE and one ongoing project.
In July, Doug Urbank came up to bucket process some Tri-x he had double exposed. Doug is a Boston-based film maker and has been making camera-less films for some time. I had wanted him to come visit and work here. The results were not great for this particular roll. Very much over exposure and washing out of the images. This is not the usual look of his images. His intentions are to shoot again. He did leave me with a roll of already exposed images from his light box. I was to expose a second time and develop the result. I made my images yesterday in two different cameras allowing for the double and triple exposures. We will see what results.
Former student Zack Goldstein who is an alternatively driven photographer came by for a week to work on a proposal to resurrect the Cabot Cinema here in Beverly. This 19th century vaudeville style theater closed recently after a 20 year run as a traditional magic show and second run movie theater. His group was interested in purchasing and developing the theater into a movie house, restaurant, performance space. No word yet on the success of their proposal.
While he was between meetings, Zack made a super -8 film. processed and transferred here at ANYEYE. He shot  lot at night with the Nizo on Tri-x and also developed some decades old plus x that he had been given. The digitized result will be up soon.
Anna Gruca stopped by to digitize a film she shot of her thesis show last spring. She had also made a wonderful and surreal animated short that was part of that show. Both of these films feature Markie Remien. Together they have made a number of short, semi-surrealist films. I would like to see Anna make more of these.

Anna Gruca

Zack Goldstein

Pennsylvania Weather

It seems as if the valley below Bowers Junction has a way of generating dramatic weather.
the whole place is called the Lehigh Valley but this was a very local squall. Unlike the coast, the weather moves pretty fast. The sky seemed so big and expressive.

Across the Bridge

It was an exciting and rare opportunity this semester to team teach a course  with Rebecca Bourgault and Dawn Paul. We presented an interdisciplinary course that was focused on the closing of the Salem Harbor Station power plant, and the stories the workers had to tell about their experiences there. We were ambitious and inventive in developing the course. We  accomplished a lot and it is hard to believe that it has all come together in a show at the plant.
It was all made possible with the generous support of the Footprint Power company led by Peter Furniss. It was also possible because the plant workers were generous and trusting with the students. they gave their time and effort to making the project work right up until the show. Even now, the workers are serving an tour guides for visitors to the show.
The students also built trust and trusted the workers in exchanging their ideas and responding creatively to what they heard from the workers.
In the end we all moved across our own thresholds and stepped out of our comfort zone and . The institutions, the students, the workers all moved into uncharted territory in working on this project. Nothing like this has ever been done by any of us.
It has been a rare opportunity to have worked on this project.