hard to believe it's been 12 years, but my FB memory feed is full of working on Bluegrass exhibits to coincide with the IBMA convention being held in town. In addition to the exhibits, I would cover most of the year's goings on, donating that work to the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC-CH.

Throwback Thursday from the film files. with Halloween coming up, this "fleam" used for bloodletting may be appropriate. I shot this 4x5 chrome back around '95, at a time when I used to peruse the Christie's Auction House catalogs for inspiration. I went to the fabric store and picked up some velvet

I see today is International Coffee Day--here's a 4x5 chrome I shot about 30 years ago, in the days before photoshop. I had to box this coffee pot in with white gator, put the soft box on top and cut a hole for the lens of view camera. sometimes you can "hide" the reflection, not the case here.

this is exactly how I remember it

here's a fun one I was working on in the studio this time back in 2017. Lotta pix here and sets as well. It needed some tricky lighting with the details having metal, glass, foil etc. mixed in with the wood. Likely the first TV used in NC, a pre-war Baird shortwave set built from a kit. see alt text

Marquee on Raleigh NC’s Rialto Theater with memorial message honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sept. 27, 2020. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

Pacific Rim has one of these Exaktas showcased today for sale-the "Vest Pocket" model, which is anything but. it's called that because it used 127 film, Kodak introduced that in 1912 with the original Vest Pocket. That camera would revolutionize snapshot and change the way war was covered during WWI

On #TheRoad with SCOTS, frontman Rick Miller at the wheel, somewhere in SC 1989. used by Moist Records in an ad run in mags like "Monk" ca. 1991. I would print up postcards of it using Kodak postcard stock in the early 90s. #BlueSkyArtShow DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

this was in my FB memory feed this morning--vacation haul from 2014. my own stuff, home darkroom. I ran a one gallon tank line with replenished XTOL developer. I would make the contacts on 8 1/2 x 11 paper with the Printfile sleeves, then resleeve the film with fold lock sleeves for storage.

Throwback Thursday--hard to believe that it's been 28 years since I went to this conference for work. 10 years earlier I had been in college, and an instructor told us film wouldn't be around in 5 years. we'd use film until 2010 at the museum, by then the wheels came off the industry.

here's a fun set from this day back in 2015. a portable TV set that weighed about 80 pounds. I was worried if I put it on a light background it would wash out the wood, so I used black which had its own set of problems. Camera here is D3X w/85mm PC Micro Nikkor. ISO 160 1 sec f11 1/2. lotta hotlight

I see today back in 2022 is that assignment I had to cover the opening of the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice & External Civil Rights, which is probably too "woke" to have survived in the current climate. It was held in Warren County NC, site of the first environmental protest in country.

another snap from the work trip. this facade is about a block or two down the street from the museum I was working at. In the evenings after work I would take a stroll along the waterfront. Elizabeth City NC, Sept. 24, 2023. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

this time back in 2023 I spent the week working in Elizabeth City at a regional museum. most of the time I was holed up in a makeshift studio shooting furniture for an exhibit catalog. In the evenings I was pretty wiped out, but managed a few strolls around the sleepy waterfront town on the ICW.

from the files - Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh NC, 2015. scanned from 120 negative. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

Workers disassembling a scaffold form a silhouette of #Angles against the sky. #BlueSkyArtShow photo - DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

this day back in 2014 - playing tourist at Fort Caswell, near Oak island NC.

Throwback Thursday from the files--fun with fisheyes edition, 1983. scanned from print. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

A studio set from this day back 2020. I came in during the Covid shutdown to work on this for a staff request. A POW uniform issued to a North Carolinian being released during the Vietnam War. the lighting here is pretty simple. softboxes from front, with hard lights aimed at back to keep it white

looking thru my files this evening & came across this infrared photo from a million years ago. shot with Kodak high speed infrared film and a Wratten 25 (red) filter. downtown Charlotte NC, 1984. DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

working in the files again. that’s an oldie. I shot that 28 years ago. 1840s circa US Army officers coat. 4x5 Provia 100. This would have been done with multi pops w/ Speedotron strobes. Turn off lights, open lens & fire strobes multiple times to build exposure at small aperture like 32 or 45.

bit of "local color" from an assignment this week of 2019, to the Society of Stranders, aka "S.O.S" "Fall Migration" beach music festival in N. Myrtle Beach, SC, the epicenter for this regional culture based on R&B oldies at 100-130 bpm for the "shag" dance. This was for an exhibit on the genre.

Link I just posted was to a photo shot by Alexander Rivera, staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier and one of the few black photographers to work in the South during Jim Crow era before the Civil Rights movement of 60s. I printed his work for an exhibit 20 something years ago.

In case you missed it yesterday, Allie Roberts Lopez and I wrote a hopeful story of democracy in action for @madebyhistory. Read if it you need to hear a little good news. Protect the VRA. time.com/7314300/voti... @splcenter.org @baylorhistory.bsky.social @uncpress.bsky.social

here's a shot from this day back in 2017 that will make you feel old if you ever used one of these in school. this is a good Studio 101 example of placing object on background in right place to reflect light back in. my former boss always said "backlight makes everything look better". this is true

some studio work from this day back in 2017. I had a few TV sets to shoot. this is pretty much straight up furniture catalog work, using focusing hotlights shaped to provide highlights on the object, with a "top light" for fill. a lot of black is used to "cut" the reflections into the wood.

popped up in my FB memories, a bit of exhibit work this time back in 2023 for a furniture exhibit. the entry section mural here I shot from an original 5x7 print using the D850 and "cross polarization" - use polarizing filters on both lights & lens to cancel out glare and texture. inkjet on vinyl

from the archives - three Polaroids of musicians at #Home for the #BlueSkyArtShow. From the DK Thompson Collection at the Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH.

FB memories reminds me this was beginning of a fun assignment for work on the eve before Covid, back in 2019. I was sent with a couple of curators from the museum to a week long Beach Music festival held by the SOS--Society of Stranders--at the epicenter of the music genre, N. Myrtle Beach SC.

this was a fun one I was working with in studio this day back in 2018. I had to empty everything out of the room and used up a roll of paper on the floor, put the camera back in the office door. the overall uses 5 lights, some of the details only one. set ups in comments.

more catalog work from the studio this day back in 2015 using a slant board. the tilt shift lenses are good for this--you do a "rise" which is is really a shift, but borrowed from the days of the view camera. the lens is shifted out over the board to center the image.

always read the fine print

some straight up catalog work from the studio this day back in 2015. I shot these with the D3X, 85mm PC Micro Nikkor and Lowel Rifalight. I remember rummaging thru the collection looking for 8 track tapes and only finding this skimpy assortment. no set up snaps, but a lot of white cards used also

this day back in 2014 I had a brush with history

my FB memory feed is reminding me of this day back in 2018 when I was checking out this 11x14 Deardorrf camera, that had originally been used by the Alderman studio in High Point NC. By the time I had a short stint in High Point as an assistant in the 80s, the studios were using mostly 8x10 & 4x5

A #Summer feature from the film files--back in the news days of going out to look for "enterprise", this scene was at Freedom Park in Charlotte NC, 1987. Those circular highlights come from using a 500mm f8 reflex Nikkor lens. It wasn't intentional, but works well with the bubbles. #BlueSkyArtShow

bit of film from the files. I had been fascinated by this facade about a decade ago and took many views of it using both 4x5 and roll film cameras. I found that the best light was flat, and then I would push +1 - +3 stops to build up the contrast definition. an awning obscures this view now.

Throwback Thursday- before Sleazefest 94 which I shared last week, I was hired to work on a documentary package about the "Wild Man of WV" Hasil Adkins back in 1992. Theill fated project was to be released on Moist Records, which went bankrupt as our work was going to press. In the SFC at UNC-CH now

Week from tonight! Roland Freeman and Burk Uzzle show preview. library.unc.edu/news/paralle... “Parallel Visions” Exhibition Preview Night Get a first look at Wilson Library’s new exhibition chronicling the lives of two renowned photojournalists at an opening event on September 11.

another neg I scanned today from 1993. this produced another fiber based mural for the Folklife exhibit where we took a salvaged truck bed from a junkyard and had this mural printed 1:1, mounted to the wall with the truck bed mounted in place so it came out. The case dealt with a protest movement

scanning from the files today--this is an oldie. 1994, negative on right is Ilford XP1, left is Kodak TMX100. that specular highlight in middle is a house far off, Cherokee NC scene. the XP1 negative was used for a mural in the Folklife Exhibit that opened the "new" MOH in 1994. that was fiber based

here's a fun one I was working with this day back in 2019. The Strong Museum loaned us a rare Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab kit. it had a lot of handling restrictions so I was limited to what I could do with it. my lighting approach here is pretty classic catalog work style with hot lights.

another bit of Labor Day history--Fincastle VA 1965--very first multi-day Bluegrass festival is held at Cantrell's Horse Farm. Like Bill Monroe in 1945 at the Opry, this is another ground zero in the evolution of the genre. I would copy this rare poster back in 2014, on loan from the late Jim Mills

Labor Day special--Ella May Wiggins edition--or how it was I came to do a double take passing by a street sign one day. moral of the story--always carry a ladder in your car, as I did since I had been documenting musician murals at this time.

If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the photographer in the #shiny glasses of a protester at the "No Ban, No Wall, No Fear--A Rally for Peace & Solidarity". Halifax Mall, Raleigh NC. Feb. 4, 2017. #BlueSkyArtShow Photo © DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

working with Viewmasters this day back in 2018. set up snaps below in comments.

Throwback Thursday-Aug. 27-29, 1994 for the inaugural Sleazefest at the Local 506, Chapel Hill NC. Being thoroughly in the Southern Culture on the Skids orbit at this time, I would cover the 3 day event. Photos are now in the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC-CH w/ Craig Zearfoss's video as well.

kind of a wacky shot I was working on this day back in 2021. after I had done a straight record image, I decided to put the car on a mirror and come in at a low angle. but the mirror was too small and I realized then that I could use that as an effect.

scanning for a patron—held up well for a 58 year old Ektachrome slide

Slant boards- not just for flags & quilts. this day back in 2016 it was Montagnard artifact groupings. the camera was clamped to a rolling ladder using a Matthews C-clamp with baby pins, and tripod head. two sets, one 8x8 foot slant board, and a smaller one. one with strobes, one with hots.