Camping at McGrath State Beach, Ventura

One can camp on the beach in California. San and I drove up from LAX, where we had deposited her sister so that she could return to Singapore. We stopped at every campground and were turned away until we reached Ventura. It was better that way, everyone else came from Valencie. We ended up being 6, I was the only American. Despite how much we Americans seem to take pleasure in contemplating, envisioning, and media-masturbating over our demise as the dominant culture, the rest of the world is still traveling here to find something they can't get at home. I feel simultaneously proud and concerned about that.

The campers were from Colombia, Mexico, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore — all first year MFA students at CalArts.


new project. © 2012 bridget batch


San. © 2012 bridget batch


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© 2012 bridget batch


© 2012 bridget batch


© 2012 bridget batch

Instagram

I now have a tumblr with my instagram feed. I guess I had best figure out how to combine. Tumblr is much more attractive.

http://bridgetbatch.tumblr.com/

Lottie Davies

She won the Taylor-Wessing Prize a couple years ago and her Memories and Nightmares series is amazing. I was lucky to be able to spend some time with her and shoot her portrait in her garden.


© 2011 bridget batch


© 2011 bridget batch


© 2011 bridget batch

Friday Night City Lights

© 2011 bridget batch


I guess most people probably don't consider hanging out by a sluiceway of the L.A. River their ideal Friday night. I've already worked through the "going out" jones. Not many more surprises could wait for me in the bars of the world. A hidden gate and entryway into a forbidden place is far more engaging. Kevin and I photograph beside each other, on our own pieces or helping the other with one. One of his thoughts leads to mine, one of mine leads to his, the feedback loop goes from quivering to straight and strong, and loud.

The Los Angeles River, I didn't even know such a thing existed before I came here -- I hadn't seen Chinatown. I wonder if many Angelenos are unaware of its existence. About a month ago, some musicians from Manitoba were fished out of it. They were illegally "sailing" down its banks in order to make some sort of music video. Apparently the waters, which lie completely encased in concrete in a monument to more ancient urban blight, can be quite dangerous.

More about the LA River.
http://www.rocktheboatfilm.com/
The River Project



© 2011 bridget batch

A Hike in Rustic Canyon, Pacific Palisades

Yes, this is my blog, and I will show you personal imagery.

Rustic Canyon in the Pacific Palisades: its dark history.



© 2011 bridget batch


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and in Santa Monica...


© 2011 bridget batch

Superdude!


© 2011 bridget batch


© 2011 bridget batch Lisa and John


© 2011 bridget batch Some Cooleys


© 2011 bridget batch

Really Digging In

Something nice about hanging out in one place... you get to concentrate and focus more on your work. I shot a lot last year, and disappointingly little in the last month. But I've hardly had a chance to really look at and consider what I've been doing, so I think it is good that I am sedating the shutter clicking mechanism for the moment.

For the first time ever, I signed up for a portfolio review on Sunday, at powerHouse Books -- what an experience! I met with five people, including three gallerists, and although much of the critique was a more little vague than I would like, some of it contradictory and a little of it frustrating, there were also amazing moments and statements of encouragement. I honestly felt the reviewers were gracious and sincere, genuinely interested in offering honest and intelligent commentary on my work. The general consensus, at least among the art dealers, was that the Spirit series needs something more, which is precisely where I am at. But everyone seemed very into at least some of the images, and I received especially positive feedback from one of the photo editors at The New Yorker -- Jessie Wender. This feels like I scored a coup, like I am leaping into something higher and more elevated than my previous world. That feels amazing. Yeah, I am excited about this.

The reviewers I was privileged to meet:

Jessie Wender, from The New Yorker

Rachel Been, independent photographer and editor

Caroline Wall, Director of Robert Mann Gallery

Sasha Wolf, Sasha Wolf Gallery

Michael Foley, Michael Foley Gallery


The review was expensive, something that has prohibited me from doing it previously. In perfect Capitalist tradition, however, money needs to go where your mouth is. I needed to make that extra commitment (and I am privileged). I needed to also "finalize" the work for it to really gain from the feedback. Emotionally, bringing that sense of engagement into my work, and making decent prints of some of the new photographs for the first time, made the expense worth it.

Well, sort of. I am dying for results too.

I am truly grateful to all of them for the experience and the feedback. I am really happy with it. I probably should write powerHouse a note, eh?

Thinking about L.A.

© 2010 bridget batch

My baby wants to move to L.A.

This isn't exactly news, he's wanted this for a long time. He finds L.A. beautiful (he is right), and inspiring. But now that we've been here for two months, the desire has matured. I just happen to have a life in New York, with many, many friends, that I treasure. Of course he does too, but it is different for him. I guess that he likes driving more than I do.

I've been enjoying the experience in L.A., perhaps more than I thought I would. We have friends here and I had a great shoot in Las Vegas (although I would have had that were I in NYC as well). On the art front, I've been shooting nearly every day, at least a little bit. The range of plants foreign to me, and the incredibly lush rapaciousness of them has delighted me. The driving has bothered me a little less than I thought it would, and the immediate availability of hiking really is wonderful. But I miss my New York people. My feelings on this matter are incredibly complex.

I do not look forward to returning to an apartment in New York that, due to various construction issues, has never become home. The very real circumstances of the apartment, the endless construction fixes, the motley parade of engineers, technicians and insurance adjusters in and out of it is depressing. When we returned to New York after our summer travels, we found the front yard completely unkept -- a situation that Kevin and a neighbor took upon themselves to remedy. I guess our management company doesn't do lawn care.

At this point, I would say I have lived without a true sense of home for years. A friend of mine once suggested I do a project about this. This is partly because I am not very domestic. It's also because Kevin and I are so nomadic, we have traveled so much (wow, have we been fortunate, insert gratitude here). Sometimes I feel like I am floating, a tumbleweed, without roots and, perhaps, purpose. But I also feel a sense of freedom. I am not sure that I really want to be tied to a home. It's no secret that purchasing an apartment was not my first choice. However, I always knew that we could easily rent it and fortunately I was correct.

But not being tied to a place has its disadvantages. I observe a closeness, the bonding of shared experiences, amidst groups of friends that awakens deep pain within me, certainly a longing for that and a jealousy that I am outside of that. But it's my own fault, there is no possibility of me being part of it without my physical presence!

Interesting how, when you think of a place, it's the experiences with the people there that comes first to mind. The energy of New York is amazing, but that all comes from the people.

Calling All Caves

I need to find the right cave. I don't think I want to join a spelunking society, and I don't think they'd have me either. Bats inspire a terror of rabies. I am afraid of heights and had a nervous breakdown the one time I went rock-climbing when I was 19. Fortunately, I was with some fantastically patient and compassionate people. But rappeling into immense darkness appeals to me even less than doing it blinding daylight.

Then why on earth have I been searching the world for the proper cave?

I have a photograph in my head and I need to make it in a cave. Other requirements complicate it, but the first is finding the cave. And I am not particularly looking to have it be a so-called "show" cave, all decked out in colored lights.

New York is not a cave wonderland although there are a few. I started to look Upstate a year ago, but my friends who have a house in the Catskills reminded me that in the fall, other creatures actively look for caves as well. Kevin and I drove all over the southeast Catskills asking about one hole in the ground, finally finding it. It was intensely dark inside although I did kind of like it.

In the Philippines a year ago, I actually managed to obtain my delicate and expensive props, for cheap because it's the Philippines! Four of us, Kevin, our friend, her friend who was a professional guide and myself set out on scooters in Bohol to see a cave that this friend promised was stunning. It seemed perfect and I was very excited. Then Kevin and I had a little motorbike accident and I spent three hours at the private hospital desperately hoping the needle was clean as the doctor gave me a tetanus shot and stitches.

Several months later, the friend, Scott, died in a caving accident. He was 31 and a sweet, lovely guy. He had lived in the Philippines for some time and was very good to us. His death is a tragedy.

At the Grand Canyon residency last March, I thought that for sure I could shoot something in a cave there. The only problem was obtaining my delicate, and expensive, props which were not available in the national park. Upon arrival, I also learned that the park forbids entry to any and all caves in the Canyon. The residency coordinator (Rene god bless you, your're amazing) told me that her electrician husband had installed many video cameras at cave entrances in order to keep people out.

You think that's a waste of taxpayer money? I bet it's cheaper than a search and rescue mission, or prosecuting grave robbers. Yep, to this day, disgusting excuses for humans steal Native American artifacts and even more disgusting people pay a lot of money for those artifacts.

So, no caves in the Canyon. I didn't think I could handle the fine.

I am in Southern California now. Holla if you think you can help me with an attractive, accessible (a hike is fine), cave with a fair amount of entrance space.


entrance to an underground river near Ellenville, NY
© 2009 bridget batch

Welcome to Los Angeles - It's not smog, it's a 'marine layer'

© 2010 bridget batch

You can't take an American road trip much further from New York than Los Angeles. We arrived here last week and I conveniently became ill with some sort of flu/cold. Kevin insists that, "it's not smog, it's a marine layer."


© 2010 bridget batch


Los Angeles is known for smog, and helicopters. I am obsessing over the helicopters and need to make a video about them. It's paranoid, of course, to think they are surveilling me. But they hover over our little guesthouse and I can't put the smell of napalm in the morning out of my mind. (which reminds me, I am interested in this show now, but since i"ve barely been in New York, I was unaware of it: Dinh Q. Le at MoMA. I never think this in New York. But days go by in NYC without hearing the ghetto birds.


© 2010 bridget batch


One of the best things about LA is the architecture. One more cliche -- driving in LA is torture. You could probably get some info out of the guys at Guantanamo by forcing them to drive between Santa Monica and Hollywood over and over, and over, and over again. But there are really so many interesting things to look at. Would that violate the Geneva Accords?

© 2010 bridget batch


Yes, they do sometimes ride bikes here.

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For now, I feel welcomed, excited and intrigued.

© 2010 bridget batch

Except, for maybe by this New Yorker.

© 2010 bridget batch

When does a place become sacred?

© 2010 bridget batch

We found a magical place. Actually, it was more Kevin who found it. I sat in the passenger seat desperately working on my laptop, working on what I call the "real" work -- as if making art were actually always fun. We commonly look this way, me hunched over, squinting at an lcd screen I can barely see; him driving along, never finding a place that is actually good enough. Today I made up a version of Goldilocks to describe him -- "this forest is too dark," "this forest is just right." Two days ago, he drove his Subaru, "Adele" up and down several tortured forest service roads in the wilds of Idaho. He had made up his own song, "it's too thick for any use" to complain about the forest.

I found these thick, musty woods seductive, an enchanted fairy world. Our experience began in the Yaak -- in the far northwest of Montana where the elevation is low and the constant rain inspires too many things to grow. We were socked in for the entire 5 days that we stayed there for the job. But I was trying to be a good assistant, and to stay up and finish my other tasks, and I didn't take advantage of the enchanted misty woods as I should have. The terrain changes daily, you cannot ever let the opportunities slip away,

Kevin was looking for a vantage point, some vista that revealed something other than endless reams of light-sucking conifer velvet. We didn't see this fire tower at all until we were right under it. We had just enough water and food. But it was amazing and we spent two days there in complete solitude.

Road Trip

© 2010 bridget batch

Spirit in an apartment

I've been shooting interiors for an architect named Carolyn DiCarlo. She designs and constructs interior spaces using the principles of sacred geometry. Her attention to detail is riveting. In many of the apartments, her creative immersion extends beyond reconfiguring the space, or making a nice kitchen, she has even designed the furniture, the linens and the rugs. I have been enjoying the task.

We decided to do a spirit photograph in one space.



© 2010 bridget batch

I would love to end up making photographs that are as artistically beautiful as those by Julius Shulman — the great architectural photographer of the California mid-20th century International Style.

About to leap off into the great unknown.



© 2010 bridget batch

Spirit in the Canyon

This may be my favorite so far....



© 2010 bridget batch

Summertime is Brooklyn Rooftops

Kevin and I have just returned to New York.

I know, big news, call all of the papers. We were away for two months, with a couple slight interruptions. I flew back to New York to shoot a wedding. Because we had people staying at our place, I stayed with my friends. It felt like a vacation in my hometown. Then, I returned to the West. I had left from Colorado and ended up in El Paso. For the first time in years, I actually flew without checking my bags. I forgot to pack the toiletries in the ziploc bag. Being such an experienced traveler, I felt embarrassed by the error.

I wrote an account of the entire adventure, but I am still editing it. The posting will come. For now, I post another Spirit picture, created last night with the help of my friend Jenn -- looking cuter in my dress than i do, of course. Oh well, it's not a fashion shot.



© 2010 bridget batch

© 2010 bridget batch

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New Spirit Photograph

First one in Brooklyn
© 2010 bridget batch

Oregon

Lovely, ubiquitous Dutch Brothers Coffee stands, in the Willamette Valley
© 2010 bridget batch