Jan 29, 2011

Midland School .
Los Olivos, California
I live here '53 - '55.
and

Jan 22, 2011

BillyBlogSong.bblowin in ...
... soon enough
I hear .yelled:
!OK.So whatever!..!OK.So whatever! .!OK.So whatever!
!I get it!. !I get it!.I!I get it!
!I heard you!. !I heard you! .!I heard you!
... I lost my gold ...
... yo yo..not gonna happen ...
... it doesn fuckin matter ...
... cash out thirty five hundred ...
... my battery's dead ...

Jan 19, 2011

Today a woman gets up on me at 6th St. n Mission.
Hammered - get's up into me - grinning - grabs my crotch.
I hold her shoulders - ask her how in the world
I'm supposed to get money out with her lodged into me.
She smiles like crazy... I hold her away at 6 inches.
Get coin while she lifts her shirt and zooms in to minus 1 inch.
Oddest-ever accosting.

Jan 18, 2011

This "Bill Dane on the internet." / billdane.com
Building since '07
It's 'finished'... for today
Thank you Nancy Monet Nick You

Jan 14, 2011

Nick and I spend hours . weeks ..(and since '07).
It's our latest "Bill Dane on the internet." makeover-binge.
He doesn't know the story of me driving boxes full of
negatives and bad prints to the recycling center.
Thrashing around in the dumpster. trashing it all.
I can't deal with the burden of:
Some year I'll be responsible for sorting out this history.
So.. I (over) simplify.
All my pictures are out there.
All the photo postcards I have mailed since 1969.
Nothing is really lost.
Please Forward this
Bill Dane on the internet.
to your friends, et al.Thank You ..Bill

Jan 13, 2011

This picture is the one
that gets views-comments on my flickr.
Crawlers. 'think' .it's porn.
I'd best do a whole Volume
of my Ivar Theater pictures !

Jan 12, 2011

I hear:
... human nature ...
It's OK to be sad.

Jan 8, 2011

Coming Soon:
An original score to accompany Blog.
Composed and performed by Nick Powers.

Jan 7, 2011

I hear:
... they decide for you ...

Jan 5, 2011

Bryan (S.) Bailey ..Photo Services

Dec 25, 2010

I photograph 9 miles along Ventura Blvd
Light rain . Studio City. west to White Oak
The more pissed I am .. the farther I walk

Oct 29, 2010

Reading Leonard Michaels's diaries "Time Out of Mind"
I've given myself a 'Blog' time out.

Oct 10, 2010

Emails
Eat your spamMmmmm.good
These guys know what's best:

A larger body-part
It's more dependable use
+ anxiety reduction all-roun
d

Oct 5, 2010

I hear:
I think we can make it happen.
I hear:
I got you to try one new thing.

Sep 30, 2010

Science I love . again and again
The amazing chemistry of dreams:
I wake up early . just now . slowly . so I remember
I am in a high school art class as an outsider-visitor-helper
It's critique time
The work is carefully put up. to see
I wander out and down the hall to another art classroom
Walk in and move around the edges looking at each piece on three walls
What am I doing ?! .Run back
They're watching a fine art film . I watch . Rembrandt lighting beauty
Lights on
I look at each of their drawings on the wall
The quality is remarkable
Starting to wake up . realizing . somehow .I create
Two complete art shows with unique .wonderful pictures
A poignant film .within
A cast of.engaging teen characters
I get to do it again

Sep 29, 2010

I am in Love:
The Good Fairy made me a Wikipedia page:
Pictures going everywhere
Pictures being seen

"That's what."

Sep 21, 2010

There are trade-offs:
Are your dreams getting better with aging
My sleep-chem-events make up for piles

Sep 19, 2010

I email Nick a new picture of me to use at the top of .A FOLK TALE:
Me: . Potential pirate ..medicatedNick:. LOVE this picture
it doesn’t look like you – but it’s very cool… very intense and not unflattering.Me: .It fuckin' looks exactly like what I see in a mirror.
Is this not curious ?!
Nick:
Me: .No wonder no one sees my pictures.
I don't even know what they look like !
Nick and I work on the Website. since '07
We sit side by side - we email back n forth
PirateLife. is a must:Me: .Afterall . Nick . these are some Pirate-possibilities:
corsair, filibuster, freebooter, marauder, picaroon, privateer, raider, rover, sea rover, buccaneer, charlatan, daredevil, entrepreneur, explorer, fortune-hunter, gambler, globetrotter, hero, heroine, madcap, mercenary, opportunist, pioneer, romantic, speculator, stunt person, swashbuckler, traveler, venturer, voyager, wanderer, brigand, criminal, crook, desperado, forager, gangster, gunperson, highwayperson, hijacker, holdup person, hooligan, marauder, mobster, outlaw, pillager, plunderer, racketeer, raider, ravager, robber, villain, act like, ape, burlesque, do, do a take-off, do like, echo, embody, emulate, epitomize, fake, follow, follow example, follow suit, go like, illustrate, incarnate, knock off, make like, mimic, mirror, mock, model, parody, parrot, personify, phony, play a role, prefigure, repeat, sham, simulate, steal, take leaf out of book, take off, travesty, typify, Hollywood, affected, assumed, bent, bogus*, brummagem, copied, crock, deceptive, delusive, delusory, ersatz, faked, false, feigned, fictitious, fishy, forged, framed, fraudulent, imitation, misleading, mock, not genuine, not kosher, phony*, plant*, pretended, pretentious, pseudo, put-on, queer, sham, snide, soft shell, spurious, suppositious, two-faced, won't fly, wrong
It's not our sea .Nick
Nick:
.Bill .have you ever considered that you're an image pirate?
have you taken that thought down the rabbit hole before?Me: .Strollin' the Rollin' Sidewalks ..Land and See
I may be .THE ImagePirate among millions:
corsair, filibuster, freebooter, marauder, picaroon, privateer, raider, rover, sea rover, buccaneer, charlatan, daredevil, entrepreneur, explorer, fortune-hunter, gambler, globetrotter, hero, heroine, madcap, mercenary, opportunist, pioneer, romantic, speculator, stunt person, swashbuckler, traveler, venturer, voyager, wanderer, brigand, criminal, crook, desperado, forager, gangster, gunperson, highwayperson, hijacker, holdup person, hooligan, marauder, mobster, outlaw, pillager, plunderer, racketeer, raider, ravager, robber, villain, act like, ape, burlesque, do, do a take-off, do like, echo, embody, emulate, epitomize, fake, follow, follow example, follow suit, go like, illustrate, incarnate, knock off, make like, mimic, mirror, mock, model, parody, parrot, personify, phony, play a role, prefigure, repeat, sham, simulate, steal, take leaf out of book, take off, travesty, typify, Hollywood, affected, assumed, bent, bogus*, brummagem, copied, crock, deceptive, delusive, delusory, ersatz, faked, false, feigned, fictitious, fishy, forged, framed, fraudulent, imitation, misleading, mock, not genuine, not kosher, phony*, plant*, pretended, pretentious, pseudo, put-on, queer, sham, snide, soft shell, spurious, suppositious, two-faced, won't fly, wrong
Thanks for keepin' me 'grounded' o NickoSwashBucklin'Pyro
Just takin' pictures...it's me job ...me work
Love Bill

Sep 15, 2010

Joel Selvin..Chronicle-Music-Man."SMARTASS"
Good luck with it all . Joel.
What an .epoch-epic .gift for us.
Thank the spirits for 'dropouts' !
You have surely worked your smartass off.
And guys like us maybe won't stop - a little pacing .. maybe.

Sep 10, 2010

Patrick Walter Siler's Eight Foot High Ceramic Columns
Click here for Pat's Pipes

Today they are at the Ceramics Annual of America
Along with a real bad-ass-beauty Voulkos plate
And a gorgeous Melchert wall-piece
Etc!

Sep 8, 2010

Childhood Story:
5 years old - July 4th 1943 Rose Bowl
A treatMom takes me to the 4th of July ExtravaganzaIt's packed and dark .. Blacked out where kids play football on the grassFlash.Twitch.Terror
Fireworks explode all over Japanese village huts people
Huge noise.. fighting ..fire..smoke..running .Soldiers ..rifles.. tanks ..figures ..cannons ..carnage
Screaming fighter planes..bomb .
Bodies collect
Lights on.
Trash everywhere.
Let's go home

The Lives of Millions..since forever
'News' videos....
movie 'Trailers'....video 'Games'
Jaw-droppers
Hearts and souls
...
We are home
Childhood Story:
South Central 1946. In my face...gut
My father takes me too see the Harlem Globtrotters
His pure-self: "see-the-jungle-bunnies-with-watermelon"
Luckily .I have no idea
It is the most amazing . thrilling..unforgettable
He must know . I am lost to his world

Sep 4, 2010

Shadeless 97 degree sidewalk
East 14th is one of my routes
Two serious prostitutes .walking towards me ..pass by
Go in a shop ....come out . go by me
WhiteTshirt guy follows them sayin's"Come here" .
One of the women does stop and talk
The defiant woman walks on a block .. stops.
I pass her .....I look back .... flash

WhiteT and a woman squeal up in an old hoopty
Jump out..start beating on her.. trying to drag her in
This woman will not be put into the car.. 5 minutes
10 people are close .watching

Cool red car pulls up ..calm driver-dude gets out .Takes her hand ..leads her . puts her in ..drives off
'beaters' .standing ..talkin' shit . makin' signs .....
End public part ... I'm. full ........and wondering how race matters

Aug 31, 2010

Amazed again:
I Do Not Control This Head
Two days ago I write the migraine story below
Yesterday I have a real nice classic migraine
First one in way over a year

Aug 28, 2010

Childhood Story:
Small ones start when I'm 12
Only 1-2 a year - lucky
When I'm 41 . I find out what they're called
1953 - my first .'real-big' .Classic Migraine
Midland School ..hot May . oaks n brown hills .
Weekend work ..clearing brush around the swimming hole
My vision starts to go ..zig zag aura ..I gotta go lie down .fast
In fifteen minutes I can't see much
Speech and memory leaving ..to arrive soon at close to zero
I make it down to the horse barn and find a pile of hay
Damn! ...Right now ...Far from what ...I'm gonna die

Nether head .... It's still magic here .
Darker . cooler ..barn smells. ..horse sounds
Breathing
.
The Old Photo Album
Thank You. James Danziger.
Note to a Professor:
Thank you .J . (for the appreciated invite to do a guest visit)
I wonder if we met on the old Lone Mountain ...
I go into classrooms a lot as a K-5 Sub in Albany
Curious change after 33 years at Berkeley HS
Anxious every day
Luckily for you, Professor, .you have electric stuff
You can 'project' my . billdane.com .on a used wall
Turn yourselves loose. fa sho ... Let 'em scream
Tear this fucka up .. Shit everywhere ..Sticks n stones ...
I'm cool ..Not a bit anxious ..Here .sippin' high mtn Pu-erh
I mean . .out .finding pictures
AND!. I love this .billdane.com
We're still tweakin' it ..with Bombay Sapphire assistance
Let me know if you find a way to .'use it' .with your students
Best for you .J .. Bill
I dream:
I'm in a desert ..dirt dust brush ..

Graffiti all over a roofless three sided stucco dilapidation
An empty two lane highway
Naked .beside the road .. waiting .. I'm sitting in a toilet bowl

Aug 26, 2010

Hers is hidden. 'by chance'.
I talk with Diane Arbus for a week at the swimming pond in '71.
She makes pictures
with people.People who cannot .and-or .will not .hide their. 'difference'.
They trust Diane.
They know she is one of them - us.

Aug 24, 2010

Childhood Story:
Edie is twice "Person-of-the-Year"
in West Pasadena's .Black Community Newspaper.
She tells me these are her most happy honors.
Mom creates and works with "Head Start" for years.She is Chair of the San Gabriel Valley's

"Economic Opportunity Program".
She tells me these are her most meaningful 'contributions'.
MR. NICK POWERS
It is impossible for most of us to know
how difficult it is to construct a website.
The 'under-world' of .billdane.com .is a maze.
'Behind' every ingredient that is visible to us
there is a complex 'field-of-code' which must
be known, understood and manipulated by
Nick Powers, aka "thesleepingcobra".
That's Not All, Folks !
Nick's seminal imagination lives here
Partner in creating this .billdane.com.
I am one grateful and exhilarated comrade.
I am one lucky second-chair father-in-law ! .
And there's the Monet and Romy right there !Love Bill

Aug 21, 2010

I hear:
... I'm gonna have a good ass son ...

Aug 15, 2010

Nora Fanshel"The Migrating Snowgoose" Series
I hear:
... Sam, .I donno where ta hover ...
Giancarlo Alberto Mori
Photography Man
Fine Fellow

Aug 13, 2010

Childhood-Story:
One night, .unnoticed, .X and I .discover her mother 'compromised'.How could she ? In a car ? .A mother, with husband and kids.

Anxiety-anger-confusion ... we track her for days.
We tell X's father.
He seems to act.
We tire of it all .real fast !
Turns out .X's father is a 'womanizer'.
We love them both.
It's not easy to be a teenager .or 'adult'.

Aug 12, 2010

Thanks Again ..Jin Zhu,. "killeryellow.com" !
Weston Naef emailed me today.
I have pictures in 2 shows at The Getty, today.
It's news to me.

Aug 9, 2010

I hear:... compromises ... I don't think she remembers ...
... I wanna be rational about it ... meeting ... racist ...
I hear:... you know the white ones no longer fit in the big one ...
... 21st century ... only one completely dilapidated tree ...

Aug 8, 2010

Childhood-Story:
Wee-1950s-Teens Applied to,. Put-Down-Received .or Purge-Requested
As in, .I got .or. I need :

A ream..steam. n a .dry clean
My Ground-Up-Caveman-Diet?

Jul 30, 2010

Pleasure !?
I got 3 emails from folks who found Pictures of mine in London.
Tate Gallery, "Exposed". .Show is up now through 10/3/10.
It's news to me.

Jul 27, 2010

Leonard Michaels
"The Collected Stories" !
And now, back to Heinrich Boll..
I hear:... that should answer the question,
'You don't know what you're talking about'.
Tell them I'll be there.
Sorry
I drag along similar defects
Like.. tremors
Like . anxiety
Like . mouth out front
Like . thinking is so hard
It will be noted:They died in their sleep
Like they lived
Happy Birthday Nancy
Thank You !
"The sanest one of all ", MDD
The SUV pulls into the bottom of my big-window-view on the Pacific
Obliterating a 1/16" x 3/8" piece of my 'transcending'
I'm annoyed and anxious for some minutes
Soon enough - this truck is my just-fine-anchor

Jul 7, 2010

I hear:
Even in the short term you have to make value judgements ...
I hear:
I've been all over the place, ya know ...
There's change to be done everywhere ...
I hear:
Get over here !
I hear:
Everything I do is wrong... Everything I do is wrong....Everything ... right ?!

Jun 26, 2010

Self-Worth #1s
Freedom to Sex
Sexual Control
Sexual Know
Able To Partner
Childhood-Story:
From age 3 - at bedtime - I tell Monet stories from my childhood.
I ask her what age she wants me to be in the story - then I remember.
"5". .1943, .OK. .
Mom has the measles. She has red spots all over her body.
The Doctor comes; she must stay in the dark, be taken care of, and
she will be fine.
I bring Edie grapefruit for 3 days.

I hear:
I like it when it's clean over here too.
Childhood-Story:
Best-Sleep-Walking .1950
Our rooms are separated from the house and separated by a bathroom.
Frankie wakes me up, "What are you doing ?!"
I'm standing in his closet peeing into his shoes.
I hear:
Well, your psychiatrist called and asked questions.
Well, she wants to know if you're still hearing voices.
I told ...

Jun 19, 2010

? Phillip Glass and his Baroqueness, 1600-1750 ?
Phillip Glass' AncestorsLiving in the Venetian Ghetto, someway

Assimilating Vivaldi-Corelli-Albinoni-et al.
Perhaps finding Handel somewhere in
Germany or Italy or England.
Certainly. someway. cohabiting with JS Bach.
Magic all around.

Jun 15, 2010

Walked and Looked for 3 hours today.
Not one picture.
Losing it ?!
Edie lived and carried on 'til 89 years.

Moses would say, "Ha ha ha, Dad. You'll be 72 soon enough !".

Jun 14, 2010

Growing up in Ojai at Thacher, Mom and her cousins do
horse-camping over the mountains into The Sespe.
Looking for warm a Diamondback shows up in Edie's bag.
Edie is in it.
No coil .. No strike !
Last night a slug moves into our inlaw-rental.. dust-panned !

Jun 12, 2010

1959 Mt Meisner, near Eschwege, Germany
We lived as an Army pod in their countryside.
No wonder they went along !
Wonderful New Tenant:
First-'Reported'-Slug-Inside-The-Castle-In-25-Years ! .You da Man, A ! .And da Man, not picky-squeamish, .will receive extra attention! .With a Smile, Dude - You deserve it! .Slugo is poison - don't wanna compromise other aspects of your life. I put some outta your reach - rt of sink, way back & across 'front' door way. .Keep slippers n flip-flops handy - slide feet ? - night light ? - call kinglette! .Singing, "WE SHALL OVER...THIS GET TOGETHER" ! .A, If you get back at a decent hour, 8 - 11pm and are in your usual Socialist-Sci-Guy-Mood : summon me - I bring treasure ! 5 mins ! .(In any event, no offense taken here with 'no summons'! . Another kludgin' time !) Rest up, A.. An eventful night w/o contact-lenes in the offing (of slugs), .Bill

Jun 10, 2010

I log:
Tar-driftwood-stones-seaweed-sand-shells-shorebirds-crabs-starfish-and then in order of find with No Duplications Allowed:."Keep Out" buoy, stingray carcass, dead seal, tennis ball, Bud beer can, chunk of foam, seagull wing, bright green cloth entangled in silver cable, huge crab claw, feather, bamboo stick, rusty pipe in 3' concrete block, crushed plastic coated wire cylinder, 1/2 gal plastic bottle, pink foam flip-flop, 5" x 9' black rubber banding, lizard, pine cone, film canister, 5" pink plastic tube heart, palm branch, 10' rusty 4"diameter pipe with a pointed end, 11' rusty steel girder, 2' diameter stone model of 'Stonehenge', apple core, 3/4 of a Rt. b&w Nike, 17" of motorbike tire, toy tire wheel, 1' scrap of naugahyde boat cover, 2" x 1" x 9" plastic box, fiberglass surfboard fragment, bottom only of a 20" fisherman's boot, 5' x 6' piece of jagged tar paper, 750ml Bacardi bottle, 5' nasty carpet bundle, plaid shirt fragment in wire mesh, red plastic comb w/handle, piece of gray plastic trashcan lid, 7' fragment of black felt, yellow Bic lighter, 6" yellow toy shovel, yellow plastic rope mess, 4' x 5' x 2' crab trap, 3' black rubber hose, left med gray fabric glove, rt leg of blue pants, used napkin, pink plastic bubble blower, pelican carcass, piece of white pom pom, Starbucks big cup, tin foil clump, airless red balloon, green stuff in a 1qt Bell jar, orange peel, rusty linkchain between 4' rusty posts, real big tractor tire, 3' concrete chunk w/embedded rebar, tangle of hemp rope around 2' white plastic pipe, real neatly stacked dog shit, 12' x 12' concrete slab w/3' pipe hole dated 1927, 'rescued' n happy: 3 Great Danes & a huge deaf white Pitbull, tied off green plastic bag w/dogshit?, baby seal seemingly almost dead-just croaked at me-what to do at 11:30AM -nature- 5:30 PM gone after high tide, Dragon graffiti on sea wall (there since at least '79), cartilage, umbrellas, 9 surfers: some old guys-women-Latinos-yes!, diving pelican, orange coral, big conch filled with tar. And folks, I've been on this beach since 1942
, never before: for 5 days - at different times- this, 'back n forth, whirling and twirling, up n down the beach, non stop, amazing dancing woman !' Rincon Point, Carpenteria
Happy Birthday MonetThirty Five Years Gift
For Us !

Jun 9, 2010

Childhood-Story:
1944, I'm 7 - It could be A. Phillip Randolf himself !
Mom takes Frankie and me on the train from LA to Boston.
Black men help us.
Sleeping car sleeping ! White table cloth dining, silverware, water.
Men in military uniform drinking and smoking in special cars - I roam and spy.
He gives me a stick of real Wrigley's Spearmint Gum. I know the War.
Then to Kennebunkport, Maine, to stay at the Dane 'beach house'.
The Atlantic Ocean is chopping-splashing. It will let us swim, "Watch it !"
I am more than free to climb the rocks, find friends, fish , eat hot dogs.
It goes hours without seeing a relative. We smoke coffee in straws.
Pinball machines are big-color-fantasy. We row boats, crawl the sand.
A bandaid does for my palm what 15 stitches should. It still looks nasty-good !

Jun 8, 2010

Jury-Rigged/Jerry-Rigged:You know the game,. a word-phrase starts with a person
and gets whispered around the circle
"jury-rigged" .could become ."jerry-rigged"In his writings the 1616 John Smith uses "jury" (nautical) as "rigged"
Plus! clinging to my family tree - both sides Mayflower -
he marries Pocahontas .
Gifting me Native-Anglo "rigging" !
Don't folks just make this stuff up and send it to Salt Lake City ?
Thank you A,. "kludge" will work just fine - never mind "jerry-rigged"

Jun 5, 2010

BILLDANE.COM - SIDESHOW 'views'I bought this Flickr-view-check service a few months ago.
At SIDESHOW the 1982 picture from the Ivar Theater
has recorded 250 'views'. . All others have 0-15 views !Garry Winogrand pictured - could be relevant ?

I have 100s of 'marginal' Ivar pictures somewhere(some with Garry - Garry has some with me).
Do I owe it to my family to dig 'em out n hustle ?!
Never mind.

Jun 4, 2010

Childhood-Story:
Bad Dreams
From '1941 - '1965 they are usually about war battles and escape.
During the Korean War I actually start jumping out windows - asleep.
This is not good in hotels - in the army - I stack chairs against windows.
That stops around '65 when teaching dreams take over !
I'm always struggling to maintain order.
Don't have the slightest idea what I'm supposed to teach.
Nothing works.
I still have them - Even with Subbing - Anxious every time - Too bad, BillyBoy.
And then there's cuckoldings and my children in danger.

Jun 2, 2010

Another 'imagined-quantum-leap-for-mankind' !?
Yes
We rent an in-law-apartment in our house - Survival!We have a new 2 year Chemistry PhD Guy - good fellow - til 2012.
Getting a new tenant apparently means working for 3 weeks. Fun.
He gets an eccentric place with funkies aplenty ! I work on it.It's that very fine feeling: making-doing-with-head-and-hands.

Keep finding new stuff to improve. Good times.
Childhood-Story:
1950, Jack Hawley
Edie knows people.
The frustrated psychologist and the parents need a home for their boy.
My Single Mother 'relieves' them all.Jack is big, strong, 13 and psychotic.
We shoot baskets together for hours.
Jack stares at himself in the mirror.
I show him how to do our 7th grade at Wilson.
He never bothers me - knows I'm kinda ...
Jack's last minutes in our house:
He's alone with mellow-comfortable brother Frankie, 10.
Jack has Frankie on the floor choking . screaming
'The answer ?! ..What's the answer ?! ..Tell me how you do it !'
The neighbor who never passes through our yard ..does .saves Frankie.
Three years later Jack chops up his mother. Dives into a 60mph-16 wheeler.
FUGITIVE SKETCHES

Jun 1, 2010

Childhood-Story:
1980? The Fraenkel Gallery decides to 'represent' me.
2010? The Fraenkel Gallery decides to 'associate' me.
It's news to me.

May 31, 2010

2007 .A BEGINNING
The Website concept arrived when Monet and Nick
told me the Internet would get my pictures out there.
And I realized, would take me another step beyond
critic - gallery - museum - publisher decisions.

A process I'd started with the photo-postcard mailing in 1969.Yes ! All of the pictures I want you to see will be on the Website,
from 1964 to the present. (I have to 'never-mind' all the 'lost' pictures)Nick Jarvis Powers does computer-form-content-humor-music-spirit
while I sit second chair wondering how he does it, over 'n over again.
We hope you will share the experience.

...Dear Monet and Nick,
...You sure started something !
...Thank you so much.
...Love, BillDad

BILL DANE PHOTOGRAPHS OUTSIDE INSIDE
VOLUME 1 DEDICATION
JOHN SZARKOWSKI
...My VOLUME 1 is dedicated to you John.
These are the pictures you knew and supported.
...You All helped me to understand and made me feel
part of something before I could know what it was:
Edith Thacher Dane, Patrick Siler, Bill Burback,
Bill Mott-Smith, Lea A. Bartneck, Ron Goldstein,
Nora Fanshel, Camille Zulpo, John FitzGibbon,
Joan Rosenbaum, Diana Edkins, Ben Lifson, Henry Wessel,
Tod Papageorge, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander,
and you John.
...Thank you to the above and the following
for validating my explorations: Nancy Dulberg,
Jeffrey Fraenkel, Frish Brandt, Fraenkel Gallery Folks,
Alain Dupuy, Tom Garver, Leo Rubinfien, Ann Swidler,
Elliott Linwood, Carlos Gollonet, Sandra Phillips,
Pamela Bonino, Jack Fischer, Vagn Sparre-Ulrich,
Nick Jarvis Powers, Monet Zulpo-Dane, You,
and so many Others !
...I hope that my sense of this life in the form of
these pictures turns out to be worth sharing.
My Pleasure, Bill
Bill Burback
Coming and going since '67
Drives way faster than I can
And so much more
MoMA '73 Show = B. B.
GAC '08 Show = B. B.
Lucky me = B. D.
Nancy Esther Moses
Being here every day
What a gift
I Love You BillDad
Nancy and I in 1985
Thank You Rabbi Beerman and All.

I hear:How could you be so greedy as to think
that someone will love you the way ...
Ben Lifson sent me the following after he received my Website invite.
Luckily he said I could quote him:
Dear Bill
Thank you very much indeed for having sent me this link to your work.
I've had time this morning to look only at the most recent Volume 9.
This is not only excellent work but also among the most important current photography I've seen ...
I can think of nothing better and very little even in the same league...
I can't think of anything this strong, wide-ranging (what a net you're casting over our culture!), surprising (no sensibility more open)...
Of subject matter so various...
Of style so flexible...
Of literacy (w/ respect to photography, painting and popular imagery) so vast and deep...
Of variations on motifs and themes so strenuous and searching...
Of compositions so original but w/ roots so obviously in the great past...
And so on.
Yours is history at its best, committed, passionate, & the kind of making that makes Gibbon and Clarendon also monuments of English imaginative prose. (See Clarendon's famous account of the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham.)
Documentary? Yes, of course. But in the sense of Ezra Pound's statement, when he called poetry (or, perhaps, literature generally) "News that stays news."
It deserves to be universally known.
What plans for exhibitions (here, abroad), books? Keep me posted.
Thank you again. This is strong, significant work and a good jolt on a Sunday morning.
"Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamaling
To keep a drowsy emperor awake..."
William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium
Good to hear from you.
yrs,
Ben

May 29, 2010

What are you up to. down there
What are you down for. up there
The politics of existence - chaos-order-
loss-grief-anger-anxiety-sadness-
sex-love-pleasure-hope-health-death-
histories-circumstances-perspectives
It's about the timely encounter with pieces:
Brecht-Tebaldi-Chomsky-Van Gogh-Warhol-
Godard-Boll-King-Dylan-the Blues-Frank-
Arbus-Friedlander-Winogrand-Evans-Atget
and so many others and so much more !
It's about Context
Framing
Light
Tension between forces-ingredients-opposers
It's about JS's ''The Photographers's Eye'' and
''Looking At Photographs''
Treasure hunting our 'Mirrors and Windows'
Outside Inside
Focus
Intuition
Diffused vision
Walking and Looking and Finding 'It'
Seeing what 'It' looks like photographed
Editing
Me and the Image and You

From Russell Banks' Introduction to his "The Angel on the Roof".
One of the most difficult things to say to another person is, I hope that you will love me for no good reason. But it is what we all want and rarely dare to say to one another - to our children, to our parents and mates, to our friends, and to strangers. Especially to strangers, who have neither good nor bad reasons to love us. And it's why we tell each other stories that we pray will be transformed in the telling by that angel on the roof, made believable and about us all, no matter who we are to one another and who we are not.
I Street Walk to find pictures = Hunt and Release.
I believe I'd be called a "Straight Still Photographer".
(Perhaps, "Bi ....." or "Still Straight .....")
Using a digital Nikon D80 since '07,
I edit, crop and tweak with 'iPhoto8'.
(Moses told me he could get me Photoshop free -
I thanked him and no thanked him)
Pictures then go to Pictopia for "normalizing",
Volume creation, but apparently not
to print for Shows & Sales !
Buy, .Bill ..Sorry!. Bye, .Bill
(Heart and emotions on soiled sleeves)
PHOTO POSTCARDS
Since 1969
I've mailed my pictures as postcards
to ensure an audience beyond
the decisions of others.
Now, we have the Internet and the Website.
Theoretically, this makes my pictures really
accessible to folks everywhere and forever.
I figure the number of photo postcards mailed
must be close to +- 69,000. ... (recycled?!).
I've usually mailed +- 3 of any one image.
There are 1,000 + pictures here at
BILL DANE PHOTOGRAPHS OUTSIDE INSIDE
There are 1000s of other 'lost-to-me' pictures
'edited-out' over the years - gone - no negatives.
The '07-'08 MoMA Show included several.
It's strange fun this way.
Wish I had 'em back ? - some days - but -
they'll show up here n there - perhaps.
Editing is way harder than I think it is.
Bill