December 2012 by Carl Bean-Larson

Collage

Early Selections

05 06

Index

New & Los Angeles

04 The Six Month Mark

Formats, Process & Honesty

PHOTO GRAPHIC INDEX

DECEMBER 2012

01 Collage

02 Format, Process & Honesty

or something else entirely. Keeping the photographs honest feels like a way of forcing myself to

of a tool’s format being well suited for one’s aesthetic and conceptual motivations.

its effect and meaning.

inherently encouraged what I was shooting.

This last point may be the one that's most important to me. Because the images I shoot tend to be so abstract and the scale change is so dramatic, it’s important to me that the photograph is what I saw through the camera. If it was a small piece of a larger image, then

were color and texture based abstractions, and

decidedly non-narrative. At least on the surface.

By itself, the square doesn’t typically relate

to the narrative structures that photography is

most associated with: portrait and landscape,

cinema and books.

The photographs I was making most intently

rely on a wealth of ingredients or tricks for

wheels to move. Further, I admire most work that is honest in its materials, and that doesn't

restrictions are the components that allow the

and the square appealed to me for many reasons.

apparent that the square format had a form that

viewfinder will force me to slow down and to be

in both art and design, limitations, rules and

shooting with had a selection of aspect ratios,

As I developed a body of work, it became

It’s my hope that manual focus and a return to a

a much different place. I’m a firm believer that

sively in 1:1 format. The camera that I was

these full-frame images fucking huge.

more deliberate. And, I’m going to print some of

format changes and reshapes the feel of my work.

1:1, and am excited to see how a vertical 2:3

process. I will no longer be shooting primarily in

photographs. But now this feeling comes from

I have been making photographs, almost exclu-

2013 by investing in new tools to challenge my

from the practical limitations of early digital

F O R T H E PA S T F E W Y E A R S

cropping photographs, and my reasons first came

With this position staked out, I'm beginning

and process.

period were always shot as a square and never cropped. I’ve never been enthusiastic about

while building integrity into the images

The square photographs I made during this

get continue developing a sharp and distinct eye,

it may as well be a composite of multiple images,

And so it seemed that this was a perfect instance

Early Selections

04 The Six Month Mark

design process. I realized very quickly that designing a page or two every couple of days yielded disjointed results. Now instead of hitting print at the end of the month, I start working. I've tried to develop strong concepts for

tumblr. It would contain many more images than I would post, and it would be a daily design exercise. The idea was to have a file mostly finished at the end of the month and basically hit print; that expectation quickly changed.

editorial publication, while forcing myself to be less rigid in the handling of my own photographs.

would be used throughout, which would change every month. The books were to have strictly typographic covers, page numbers and some sort of indexing of dates and titles.

some images on the internet” really wasn’t

fulfilling. It was and is still a necessary part of

my practice—the constant process of reviewing,

editing, selectively posting, and building a body

sufficient, and I needed something more.

ience, and seeing where it takes me next.

intact. There have been some slight changes here

far, the series feels very cohesive.

photos in color on the colored paper covers. So

for instance, and I’ve experimented with printing

and there, like not putting numbers on every page

of these publications, reflecting on the exper-

Seven issues deep, most of these rules are still

I’m looking forward to completing 12 months

books. I hope to blur the lines between art and

and a simple hand-sewn binding. One typeface

of “published” work—but it was no longer

writing and multiple layout structures into the

paper, a cover printed in black on colored paper,

then to Tumblr for a bit after that, and “putting

every month. The books would be composed of

for my photographic work.

I’d been posting to Flickr for a few years, and

previously done, with somewhat mixed results.

available materials, and would remain constant

June of 2012, because I needed a tangible outlet

At this point, I’m excited to introduce more

to learn from, and react against what I’ve

format would be based on common sizes and

THI S PROJE CT WA S I N IT I ATE D in

8 folded signatures, printed in color on white

month’s assortment of photographs. I’ve tried

I set a number of rules to start the project. The

each month that build off of the direction of that

The factor that has changed the most is my

I imagined the project initially as an analog to my

New & Los Angeles

10 ......... Cash Only / TL .........................12.15 ............ Construction Test / Market .........12.09 ............ White Bubbles / ........................12.16 11-12 ..... 0 2

2 .......... Tail Split / Upper Haight ...........12.03

............ Styro Bubbles / Upper Haight .....12.02

............ Responsible / Downtown, LA ......12.31

............ 0 1

15 ......... Orange Fragment / Frederick ......12.02 16......... Unreal / Corona Heights .............12.09 17 ......... Back Lot / Castro ......................12.09 18......... Bank Runs 01 / Page ..................12.14 19......... Rusty Trees / GGP .....................12.16 20 ........ Blue Shade Drops / GGP ............12.16 21 ......... Partial / Page ............................12.15

6 .......... Truck Turq / Bryant ...................12.16

............ Litter / Cole Valley .....................10.7

............ Hot TV / Near Home .................12.15

7 .......... Truck Rust / Bryant...................12.16

............ Truck Plates / Bryant .................12.16

............ Wall Wrapping / Mission ...........12.16

8........... " / Near Home ..........................12.16

............ Grid / Near Home .....................12.16

............ 02 / Hayes ................................12.16

Index

14......... Divis Dots / Divisadero ...............12.02

............ Untitled / Mission .....................12.08

13......... Overlooked / Frederick ..............12.02

5 .......... llu9 / TL ..................................12.15

............ Wet Green / Near Home .............12.16

29 ........ Cloud Slant / Venice, LA .............12.30

Printed 2/1/13

Print Edition of 2

December 2012

Photo Graphic Index

............

31 ......... S.T.S.S. / Chinatown, LA ...........12.31

30 ........ Green Action / Chinatown, LA .....12.31

28 ........ Shangri LA / Downtown, LA .......12.31 E A R LY S E L E C T I O N S

............ 0 3

27 ........ Polar Packing / Fairfax, LA .........12.28

26 ........ Brick Bubbles / Fairfax, LA .........12.28

NEW & LOS ANGELES

SIX MONTH MARK

............ Zebra / Upper Haight.................12.02

........& HONESTY

........05

23-24 .... 0 4

25 ........ Pink / Page ...............................12.23

22 ........ Exclusive Diversity / Page ...........12.14

............ Lunch / LA ...............................12.28

4 .......... Blue Drops / Upper Haight .........12.01

F O R M AT, P R O C E S S

............ 01 / Hayes ................................12.16

1 .......... Self-Portrait / Bryant .................12.08

C O L LAG E

9 .......... Bank Runs 02 / Page..................12.14

0 .......... White Bubbles / ........................12.16

CARL BEAN-LARSON

PHOTO GRAPHIC INDEX

DECEMBER 2012