Mole, Thomas, Goldbeck, and More...

I began my Google image search with the intention of finding some images of old photographs of artists in their studios, and then this image popped up in my search results... it looks like an old silver gelatin print of some army insignia...and then you look at the full-size image and it is hundreds of soldiers standing in formation!! AH-MAZING!!!

These are called "living photographs," and are described as an attempt to recover national identity through imaging.

You've just got to see them for yourself. WOW.
(This one is my favorite. I need a print of this!)
Photographer Unknown, Grenzhausen, Germany "1st Field Artillery Brigade, 1st Division" 1919
Vintage Silver Gelatin Print

Newman Photo "Animated Crest 34th Division" Camp Cody, New Mexico, 1918
Vintage Silver Gelatin Print


Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas,
"The Human U.S. Shield" 1918
Vintage Silver Gelatin Photo Print


All images and information came from this site (it didn't have a name!).

Through the Sparks Photo Shoot

Last night I had the pleasure of taking some new promo shots of Through the Sparks, featuring their newest lineup and in anticipation of their new release, Worm Moon Waning. With Duquette Johnston as my assistant, we threw the six guys in the back of a pickup truck, beer and cigarettes in hand, and head towards a hidden baseball field. Jumping the padlocked fence and racing the golden light, here are a few of my favorite shots!

You can see the rest of the shots here...

And be sure to check out Through the Sparks--you can download their new album FREE right here.

What I will be doing today...

Hey there, friends. I am heavy in the throes of photo editing. As I mentioned yesterday, the husband and I went to see Mogwai. And it was FANTASTIC! One of the best shows I have ever seen! I ended up getting a photo pass--thanks Brian!! I had such a blast shooting them. The lights were ALL over the place. Quite the challenge. I've got about 600 shots to go through, which I will throw up on Flickr as soon as I'm finished.

Until then, why don't you stop by my Flickr page and check out some of the other bands and people and things and places I've photographed?


Just click...Morgan Jones Johnston's Flickr.

See you guys in a bit. And I hope you're enjoying this BEAUTIFUL day!

Quelle bore...

Today is just one of those days. One of those days where the laundry pile is bigger than me and the dog hair blows across the kitchen floor like a tumbleweed and you half expect John Wayne to turn the corner with a pistol in hand. I must clean my house today. I've been so busy it has kind of fallen to the wayside. I can't live in this disheveled state!!!

Here are a few photos from over the weekend and that's it for me today...

This last photo I took at a children's Easter egg hunt over the weekend...this is my favorite. How stylish can 15 month olds be? This is it, people.

A dreary day.

I always say how much I love the Spring, how its my favorite season, and I romanticize about the reblooming of all the beautiful flowers and trees and picnicking in green meadows...and the Spring actually comes and I remember that Alabama Springs are defined by tornadoes, flooding, and the constant yellow dusting of pollen.

Anyway, I just really wish I was somewhere far away. Like Italy or Istanbul or France or...

Here are some photographs from an incredible young photographer, Glynnis Ritchie. We went to the same performing and visual arts school as teenagers, though she was a few years younger than me. I know that she's currently a student at the American University of Paris and has the dreamiest life of traveling around Europe with her camera.

You can check out her Flickr photostream here. All of the images I post are copyrighted to Glynnis Ritchie and come from her Flickr page.

from Provence...


from the Loire Valley...



I always love to see what Glynnis updates from her travels.

Here are some other photographs of hers...

SXSW--Live from Dallas

(Jonathan Purvis, David Swatzell, and Duquette Johnston synchronizing watches)


It's 12 am and we just pulled into Dallas for the night. We're picking up bass player Greg Slamen at the DFW airport in eight hours. We braved the ten hour drive today like true road warriors!

We hit the road at 9.30am after meeting up with Valerie McLean, Trak Shak lady extraordinaire!! She jumped into last minute action upon realizing that the Trak Shak trailer (so graciously loaned to the Birmingham SXSW effort) had an expired tag. We piled the gear in, piled the passengers in the truck, and met up with a car load of BHAM people to hit the road.


The ten hour drive passed quickly, thanks to frequent stops awarded to the sole girl in this particular caravan.
.

The highlight of the trip thus far has been the four or five stops we made in search of beer, only to realize that every single town we chose to exit at was in a dry county--in Louisiana and Texas. Too good. However, at one of these dry gas stations in the middle of nowhere, was a casino. Fifty cents were lost in this venture.



Oh, and then there were these birds. Like 500 of them--cackles, I think. They dive bombed us all. It was beyond a Hitchcock moment.

And now we're in Dallas. I'm exhausted and can't hardly think to blog. We've piled in six people in a little hotel room near the airport. Sardines. Comfy sardines.

Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a day--we head into Austin after picking up Slamen at the airport. We go to check in and get our badges. We go to check in to the hotel. We go to load in for Duquette Johnston and the Rebel Kings show, which he will play at 10pm at the Tap Room at Six. Later that night, we will be going to check out the Delta Spirit at the Radio Room at 1.30am.

Good night, people. Or good morning. Or whatever...

Photos from this weekend...

Hey Everyone! We are taking care of last minute preparations before we depart for SXSW 2009!! I can't wait to hit the road. I'm taking several cameras with me: Canon SLR, Yashica T4 film camera, Lumix point and shoot digital (it has a Leica lens and rocks), and maybe my Polaroid. These are some photographs I took over the weekend...

at the Bottletree Cafe...





at the Urban Standard...








from around the house...




We hit the road at 9am tomorrow and are driving straight to Dallas and spending the night there (got to pick up the bass player from the airport) and then heading into Austin Wednesday around noon. I will be posting tomorrow's road trip photos early Wednesday morning!

Snow fell on Alabama...

What a weekend we had here in Alabama!! It seems like when I was a child, my memories of growing up in Alabama were framed by winters of light snows, sledding, snowball fights, and hot chocolate by a fireplace. However, it's been around ten years since we have seen more than an inch or so of that beautiful white fluff. Our meteorologists haven't come off as the brightest people this year, interrupting hours of regular programming over the past few months with the promise of hail, tornado, flood, frost, and snow--and it never ever happens. So when Saturday rolled around and every news station urged people to prepare for a snow storm, I just did not believe them. In the early hours of Sunday morning, as the husband and I caught up with old friends on the patio of the Garage, there was still no snow. I still did not believe. We got home around 2AM and fell asleep, stifling our secret desperate hope for snow just so we wouldn't be disappointed in the morning.

Well, along comes morning...and the most snow that I've seen in years!! We quickly bundled up and took to the neighborhood streets with our dogs, Pagoda and Blue. They played for a bit with the new neighbors' baby Husky. All of a sudden it was white out conditions; the snow was falling so hard and fast and the wind was blowing so fiercely, Pagoda got lost. We found him shortly thereafter, but I was soaked through.

We took a break, warmed up in the comfort of our toasty living room, ate coffee cake, and bundled back up to do it all over again--with leashes on the dogs, of course.

D
N

Everything was fabulous! I even joked to our neighbor about my amazement that our neighborhood (notorious for power loss) still had electricity. And then we walked home...and our power went out!!! Normally, we would brave the loss. But my husband was on his last day of recording an album for NPR's Record Production Month challenge. He had to record 10 songs...and we HAD NO POWER. After breaking down and loading up all the recording gear about ten times, trekking to several different locations to find a quiet, well-powered room, two minor mental breakdowns, and one exploding car (seriously, I saw a car BLOW UP), he finished the record!! It was 1 in the morning, but it was recorded, dumped from the four-track, and mastered (thanks to record producer extraordinaire, Les Nuby).

It was a wild weekend and fabulous just the same. The snow is long gone, and we are sad. But I'm sure we will see it again...in the year 2019.