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Ten Things About 7simon
Daily Ink
Stored in: Ten Things About ...
Posted On: September 30 2006
By: Brittney Bush
Archival Photo
7simon - who goes by Don Simon in the "real world" - is generally found hanging about the Utata threads looking for a chance to be clever and silly. As such, it is perhaps easy to write him off as the Utata court jester. However, before you attempt any such dismissal, I offer two important facts for your consideration: one, court jesters were not as frivolous as they seemed, and two, he gives a very good interview. So, for your edification and enjoyment, I present: Ten Things About 7simon.
The Utata Five
What is the camera and setup you use most often?
Olympus C8080 RAW format
Describe your photographic style in one word.
Oblique.
If you could only leave one photograph on Flickr, which would it be?
Name another Utatan whose work you really admire.
Lú seems to be riding a pretty potent current!
Your house is burning down. In the kitchen are an otter, a goose, and a cake. You only have time to save one of them. Which do you choose?
Animals follow me everywhere, so I grab the cake and the three of us eat it while watching the fire.
The 7simon Five
You're mostly known around Utata as the [kills self] guy -- or, more broadly, for your excellent sense of humor. What else should we know about you?
Well that’s just nuts, I’ve never done such a horrible thing. There is nothing bracketed or random about my thinking [facial tic] at all. I may be the most logical person I know. (a little self knowledge is a dangerous thing)
Oh geez…..well I’m extraordinarily handsome, if I do say so myself and sometimes just swoon at the thought of my own beauty. [gags] I’m 29 (lie), 6’3” (exaggeration), I have a full head of flaxen curls (complete fabrication), and I love to take long walks on the beach. [chokes] I wish all people everywhere would just get along and for the talent portion of this contest I’d like to sing an arrangement of Ave Maria as interpreted by the Sex Pistols. [falls off the stage]
Despite my goofiness, I take imagemaking and artmaking in general very seriously. Hopefully the resulting work isn’t all ponderous and heavy, but the discipline of making the work on a regular basis I’m uncompromising about. I get all twitchy and unhappy if I go too long without making something.
I live in a little hollow in rural Pennsylvania….the whole rustic fantasy; complete with a dirt road, babbling brook, woods all around, flora and fauna of all sorts, and thankfully, an internet connection. Although I grew up on the prairie, this place is pretty close to my internal landscape, except for the lack of flying cows, bilingual chickens, hopelessly complicated/illogical architecture, and alternate rules of physics. But hey it’s pretty close.
When I look through your photostream, I'm stunned by the textures and the detail you capture. Where do you find your subjects? What compels you to photograph something?
Photography is literally and figuratively about being outside. Mostly I wander around in a daze until I see something that looks good. Then I get real focused and figure out how to see the thing and make a shot that doesn’t so much show the thing but shows the curiousness of the thing.
Lately I’m fascinated with moisture and stuff caught in spider webs. I love the odd poetry of taking pix of webs and then posting them on the web….somehow it seems like my pix are caught in a much larger abstracted web, just like the stuff that is the subject matter of these recent shots. In the little garden in front of my house is the web du jour, but there’s several others elsewhere in the yard that are showing promise.
I started this year by driving to places specifically to photograph, and then gas prices went crazy, so I decided to stay home. I still have to drive places, since I live in the country, but for now most everything I shoot is in the yard.
Why don't you [generally] give your photos "conventional" titles?
The current titles contain date/frame number stamps so they always seemed logical…….but damn it’s a very good question! More to the point, I’m a little thick about how words and images go together. I’m always concerned that whatever words I might attach to an image will influence and determine how that image is seen. If I were clever, I’d make that work for me and figure out how to broaden the possibilities and direct the experience of an image with carefully crafted words. I’m working on that, but right now I still sorta suck at it.
Tell me more about your "Drive-By Shooting" set. Do you literally take these photos while you're driving? Isn't that dangerous?
I love shooting these!……. Yup, It’s me driving with that lens pointed out or through the window……. The best part of these shots is that you can’t think!!!…… It’s an immediate, uninhibited thing……Just reaction…..’oo oo, that’s cool…..click!’ The thing is that maybe one in 20 is worth working…..Its kind of a zen thing since one’s brain has to be on the road and can’t be concerned with the ‘shot’. The setup is to drive and not wreck, take the shot, with 7 barking at the windshield wipers, the radio blasting, and not kill the lunatic roadwalker guy who you can never see until the last possible second ……..O yea love the whole deal…..And when it’s raining…….[drools]……..it’s just tooooooooo good! O sure its dangerous, driving is inherently dangerous, but hey it’s not like I’m driving while talking on a cell phone.
Who are the other six Simons?
Seven, as some of you know, is my dog…..or more accurately I’m his human. My first name is Don, but lots of my friends call me Simon, that’s my last name ….. I tell people that Seven is called Seven because ‘Lucky’ was too obvious (he was rescued from euthanasia)……but the real reason is that I just liked the way it sounded. I considered ‘sparkplug’ or ‘rotor’ but they just didn’t stick…… 7simon has come to represent who we are now…We’re a tiny family, but enough. I do wish he’d get a job though, or at least do a little housekeeping, slacker!
PS My previous dog was not named Six.
1 comments on this Ink
On December 04, 2006, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan said ...
You know, for a long time, and still do, I considered myself the bumbling fool and court jester. Now, Simon's giving me competition. Hmmmm
Otherwise, in Ten Things About ...:
Utata Ink is a daily publication edited by Bryan Partington (striatic). Photos used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and obtained via the flickr API unless otherwise noted. To make a contribution to Ink, please visit Ink Me.
