FlavorPhoto Blog

Tanya has a dope collection of old-school cameras, complete with personal descriptions and sample photos. Check it out and get ready to open your wallet to ebay.

My man Ted has an excellent site that sums up the function and history of cameras without getting too technical. Don’t miss his comprehensive list of important photographers either!

If you’ve never shot this film, then definitely give it a try. It has the most eye-popping color saturation that I’ve ever seen - short of cross-processing. It works absolute magic with a Lomo Minitar or Zeiss lens. Here are some reviews

The B List

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, Madison Ave. at 75th St. (212-570-3676)

Tim Hawkinson, a mid-career retrospective of the California artist’s diverse inventions, including the football-field-size “Überorgan,” an automated bagpipe housed in the sculpture garden at 590 Madison Avenue, at Fifty-seventh Street. Through May 29.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART, 200 Eastern Parkway (718-638-5000)

Basquiat is an important, intensely enjoyable retrospective of the neo-expressionist, who died in 1988, at the age of twenty-seven. Through June 5. (Open Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 to 5, and Saturdays and Sundays, 11 to 6.)

NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Temporarily located in the Chelsea Art Museum, 556 W. 22nd St. (212-219-1222)

Correction, Fiona Tan’s video portraits of inmates and guards were taped in four prisons in Illinois and California.. Through June 4.
Jonah Peretti, leader of the Contagious Media Group at Eyebeam, provides the works-slash-stunts that serve as the core of “Contagious Media,” many of which may have touched down in your in-box in the last few years. “Nike Sweatshop Emails” (2001) details a correspondence with Nike after Peretti attempted (and failed) to order sneakers with the word “sweatshop” emblazoned on them. Other projects include Jim Young and James Hong’s gauge of attractiveness, “Hot or Not” (2000), and the hypnotic, slightly grotesque “Dancing Baby” (1996), by Michael Girard, Robert Lurye, and Ron Lussier. Through June 4. (Open Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon to 6, and Thursday evenings until 8.)

SWISS INSTITUTE, 495 Broadway. 212-925-2035; and GREY ART GALLERY, 100 Washington Sq. E. 212-998-6780.)

OK/OKAY, Conflicting etymologies of the word “O.K.” are printed on the wall of this dual-venue show, with sources ranging from Choctaw to Finnish, ancient Greek to eighteen-thirties slang. The fourteen European artists inside present similarly intriguing takes on history and idiom. Outstanding is Gabriele Di Matteo’s “History Stripped Bare,” a grid of tiny, hilarious canvases that re-create scenes like the murder of Julius Caesar and the funeral of Pope John Paul II, but with all the figures nude. The rest of the work is as winsome and obliging as the show’s title suggests. Through July 16.

COOPER, 534 W. 21st St. 212-255-1105

SOPHIE CALLE, In 1985, Calle’s boyfriend broke her heart with a three-minute 2 A.M. phone call from Paris to her room in a New Delhi hotel. The details of the breakup are furnished through a series of color photographs and black text panels, each paired with another story of suffering solicited by Calle from her friends. Sudden, terrible deaths are the most common tales; the solipsistic repetition of Calle’s disappointment juxtaposed with this shifting, anonymous grief is surprisingly provocative. Through June 30.

Believe me, you’ll be “a-paw-lled” at this gallery of feline surliness. Some of these cats will bite right the hell through your shin bone. Browse at your own risk.

Nobody likes it when their $1000 digital SLR shoots flash shots worthy of a $10 K-mart disposable camera. Step up your game with the technique below. Note - this works for both pop-up and external flash units.

Rather than using Program or Aperture Priority, set your camera to Manual. Dial in a nice setting like 1/60 and f/8. This forces the camera to use the flash output to determine your exposure. Next, select the center focus point. Aim your camera at your subject and be sure to lock focus and exposure onto your subject’s face. After you lock it down, you can always re-compose.

Fire away and check the shot. If you want more ambient light to balance out the flash, just extend your shutter time. If your flash is too weak, then open the aperture a stop or two.

Long live the age of reason! The ban on subway photography in New York has died a righteous death. Read more

Welcome to your true home. Check out this fierce animated short by Tom Eaton. Featuring music by Bob Wiseman, voice by Tom Eaton & indie-rock champ Sufjan Stevens , and blurry nighttime background shots by the Lomo LC-A. I don’t know what he’s doing, but it looks imaginative!

Man, remember the days when it was all about blood on the cobblestones, Western Beef supermarket, and “Mother”? I’m talking way back in 1999 and 2000. Son, those days are long gone and it’s all designer boutiques (like the lovely window pictured), mega-clubs, and French bistros nowadays. I tell you, it doesn’t take much to feel old in Manhattan!

Open your nostrils and let the two-stroke goodness come right on in. Shot with the Lomo LC-A and the ever-colorful Fuji Reala, this is our brand-spanking new gallery of this month’s Brooklyn-based scooter mayhem. Check it out!