bd Artists’ Books: Photography 📷, performance 🎹, painting 🎨, and beyond!

The bd Library is growing! Following our earlier releases by Michael Tice and Michael Harren, the most recent title in our line of Artists’ Books is Just One More by Jonathan David Smyth.

Below is an excerpt from a BBC Radio Ulster interview with Jonathan about Just One More.

Michael Bradley: It’s just a normal phone camera, isn’t it? Or do you use any special filters or equipment or anything?

Jonathan David Smyth: No, it’s just my smartphone. I use the camera within the phone itself. And it’s important that you’re asking if there are any filters because I think sometimes people may think I do use a filter. For me, coming out of this idea of using apps to make things look ”better” was actually an inspiration for me to take these photographs. I wanted to show that you don’t actually have to use filters in order to make a good photograph.

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Building a better future for Cambodian children

It’s high time I bring you an update about my work to support Cambodian Children’s Destiny. As you may recall, last year when my Angkor Wat project came out I launched a fundraiser to raise money for the NGO school. Between the online fundraiser and additional in-person donations, I was able to raise about $1,500. This was enough money to construct walls for two classrooms and still have some left over for other needed supplies!

I also donated several gently used laptops for use at the school. These machines were old and clunky by our standards… but a precious thing for these Cambodians. It took a lot of love (and muscle) to lug those all the way around the world. But airport security didn’t bat an eye. I was prepared for all sorts of, “Why are you traveling with so many laptops?” questions. Luckily, it was no problem!

To give you a better sense of everything I’m talking about, here are a few photos from my visit to the school this past October…

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A Decade and a Half of Poetry: New book! New music!

These new releases have been a long time coming! Over fifteen years in the making! Finally here, the immeasurable fold: selected poems 2000-2015 is out now! Get a preview of the original drawings from the book above!

As a bonus, obscure mechanics, my first full-length album which I originally released on my website in 2008, has been remastered with bonus tracks and is available wherever you like to get your music (including embedded below)!

Only the Beginning

In my Angkor Wat book, I wrote in the “ancient hall” poem, “this is only the beginning.” When I wrote that line, I had no idea just how prophetic a statement it was. Not only did I end up writing the entire book and album as they exist now, but I also traveled back to Cambodia a second time to do so. And now I am here for the third time. This time it wasn’t my book that brought me here, but my charity work for Cambodian Children’s Destiny. Today I visited the school in person for the first time. I have to admit that I haven’t been able to put the experience into words just yet. It’s so hard to describe what life is like in Cambodia. You have to see it for yourself. And, even then, the more I see, the more I realize that I never really understood it at all. The truth is that I probably never will understand it. That’s how different things are here. What I can say with certainty, though, is that I–and all of you back home reading this–are incredibly privileged. I know it’s hard for you to see that sitting where you are. It was hard for me to see it too. But from where I’m at right now, it’s perfectly clear.

“This is only the beginning,” indeed. I don’t know where I’m headed. I don’t know what will come next. But I know the things I have experienced have changed me. I will never be able to look at life and the world the same way again. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

Back in Cambodia!

Dear friends,

I decided I would make posts here to keep you in the loop in “real time” about my work in Cambodia. I just arrived in Siem Reap a few hours ago. After a more than 24 hour journey, I am, of course, beat. So at the moment I’m just relaxing for a bit and trying to adjust to the new time, new place, new… everything! But I’ve got to break through the jet lag so while I may have a brief nap, I have to make myself stay awake until a reasonable hour. You fellow travelers know what that’s like!

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electric wire video single out now

I’m so happy to share with you electric wire, the first video single from my Angkor Wat book and album. electric wire represents the genesis of the entire project, it being the first poem I wrote during my first visit to Siem Reap. It’s based on my experience of exploring the town and the things I experienced and saw there. The video is a visual interpretation of the poem (and the experiences it describes). There’s also an electric wire zine and even tote bag you can get as gifts over at my fundraiser for Cambodian children. Check it out and enjoy.

Read luke kurtis’s new book and support children in Cambodia


Dear Friends,

I’m writing to tell you about my latest project. Angkor Wat is a poetry/photography book and spoken word album based on my travels in Cambodia. If you follow me online, you may have seen some of my photos from those trips last year as they happened. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. My book is a major project and is what sparked my second pilgrimage to the Far East, which I did by myself in December of 2016. In that sense, this is the biggest project I have ever undertaken. And even though the book and accompanying album are out now—and I hope you will read and listen to them—I am not done.

When I was in Cambodia, I met a monk named Sokhun. Sokhun and I had an immediate connection because he is a poet like me. He’s also into computers and teaches computer skills, as well as English, to several hundred students in a school he founded in the rural area where he grew up. Our common interests of poetry and technology helped things get off to a great start, and I now feel blessed to call him my friend.

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convergence and skillful fear (or, how to find armadillo)

convergence

Understanding the difference between skillful vs unskillful fear is an important Buddhist concept. I’ve been thinking about this in very personal terms. When I did my convergence installation earlier this year, I had to face some fears. The piece is installed in the middle of the woods. To fully experience the piece, you must visit in the dark of night with no lights. That can be a somewhat scary thing, especially with the constant sounds of the forest and all the animals around you. But I pushed myself forward to do this with skillful fear. I remember sitting there under cover of darkness, the convergence orbs glowing nearby, hearing the snaps and cracks of animals and birds all around. I even heard the snorting of deer who dashed away as soon as they detected my presence. My heart raced at these encounters with skillful fear, helping me ultimately get more in touch with my love for these animals and nature at large.

I captured one of the encounters on video when I heard something moving towards me. It turned out to be an armadillo! I had never seen an armadillo in Georgia before. When I showed the footage to my parents, they were amazed as in their almost-70 years of living there, they also had never seen an armadillo. I guess it takes a New York artist working in the woods—and a bit of skillful fear—to bring them out!

No matter what your fears may be, I encourage you to practice skillful fear. Use your fear as a tool to uncover more productive feelings within—not as a weapon in defense.

 

The Language of History in 9/11 Memorial Museum

9/11 is forever etched in my mind. It’s a day that forever changed the course of history. But it’s also a day of intense personal experience for me as a young New Yorker. It was only natural that I would communicate about that experience through my writing and art. In 2014 I collected a tightly curated selection of that work for The Language of History exhibition at NYPL Jefferson Market Library. I also published a book by the same name to expand upon that show. But both the show and the book were tightly curated. My archive contained so much more that remained unseen and unpublished.

In 2015, when the 9/11 Memorial Museum expressed interest in my archive, I decided to prepare something totally unique and original just for the occasion. I designed a special anodized aluminum limited edition box to house original photographic prints from this body of work as well as a copy of The Language of History book. While the original book contained only 26 photographs, this special I’m set expands the total number to 129.

The purpose of the box is archival in nature. Many of these photos are not necessarily aesthetically pleasing or even good photographs in a technical sense. But they do document a very specific time and place and cover an aspect of the 9/11 tragedy—the local experience from Greenwich Village—in a way I’ve never seen done before. It’s hard to remember how back in 2001 we didn’t have cell phone cameras documenting events all around us, so that fact that I created all these photos is more unique than it might sound. My intent is to commit these personal images to the narrative preserved by the 9/11 Memorial Museum so that our larger collective history can remember the quiet stories of those dark days us New Yorkers experienced so many years ago.

Puertas Españolas by Josemaria Mejorada and May Gañán

I’m so excited to announce the newest publication from bd-studios.com. Puertas Españolas is something a little different than anything else you’ll find in the bd Library. It’s a suite of short poems by Josemaria Mejorada and May Gañán paired with a set of photos I took of various doors while traveling in Spain. Doors are a very interesting part of buildings. I encountered so many unique doors wandering around the streets of Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, and Seville. I decided to publish the images as a set of postcards–but I wanted another voice to work with the images as a counterpoint. Josemaria and May’s poetry is the perfect accompaniment. The poems are not about the images, but, rather, they exist as another layer, providing a glimpse into another world. When we pass through doors, we enter new places, new spaces, and new environments. Josemaria and May have helped me transform these Spanish doors into portals to a realm of poetry. I hope that you will open each door to discover the worlds that await you. The set is very limited. Contact us if you are interested to obtain a copy.

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American Aesthetics 🎆 🇺🇸 🎇

NYC Washington Monument Project

Independence Day stirs thoughts in me about the visual aesthetics of the United States and the role artists, architects, and designers play in constructing American visual identity. I’ve always been fascinated at how so much of American architectural style is based on Classical proportions.

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convergence: new installation and video

Last year I made my first major foray into installation art. I created the site-specific work the woods are watching and released a series of videos documenting the process. While that work was part of my larger Crayon Portraiture project, it also marked the beginning of this new earth-based aspect of my practice.

Today I’m proud to debut my newest piece, which is titled convergence. This new piece takes me further down the path of creating art that interacts with the land and the environment.


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