Half A Cookie Is Still A Cookie Zine

 

If you've been following this blog, then you know that I like using the Pentax 17, a half-frame 35mm camera that was introduced in 2024.  I've put together a zine that has my insights on using the Pentax 17 and other half-frame cameras.  It's 6x9 inches, with 40 pages, including the covers.  Full-color and black and white photographs showcase my results from this great compact camera from Pentax.

You can purchase it from my Etsy store for $7.50 + postage.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/4459033552

The French Broad River: Before Helene

The French Broad River, late May, 2025. Minolta X7A, RETO Amber T800

It's been almost exactly a year since Western North Carolina was battered by days of rain and then Hurricane Helene. That anniversary is this coming Saturday, Sept. 27.  The amount of destruction has been told by many, and still, it touched everyone differently. Some lost everything, including family members.  Others lost a job, their business, their home, a few trees, a lot of trees, their car, and a sense of security that they once had.  Many people, myself included, didn't suffer much damage, but we were impacted by no running water for nearly a month, and several weeks of no electricity, no internet, no cell service, and we were the lucky ones.  But beyond the comforts that we lost, the natural world was also torn asunder with flooding, landslides, widespread tree blow-downs and changes to watersheds from the walls of water that swept so much away.

Near Reems Creek

Barnardsville, along Ivy Creek

River Arts District

Since moving to Weaverville NC in 2019, I enjoyed photographing along the French Broad River, which is just about 2 miles from where I live.  Riversides can be many things, and the curves of the French Broad River created some beautiful scenes.  The lovely overhanging trees, stretches of River Cane, whitewater sections, and picturesque rocks and water were a creative tonic that drew me to the shores of the river. I had planned a lengthy time period to photograph along the French Broad and the tributaries that feed into it.  However, that all changed a year ago, and those plans were literally swept away.  

at my house

My little bit of recovery therapy from the storm was to do what I know - photograph my personal view of the aftermath, while also staying away from areas that were so destroyed that anyone there not involved in cleanup and rebuilding would be a hindrance. So I stayed away from Marshall, and certainly did not visit the areas near the Swannanoa River which looked like a post-apocalyptic scene.  I had been to Chimney Rock a week before the storm, and a lot of it, and the road to it were destroyed by the storm.  If you want to see something about that area, I highly recommend Peter Santenello's YouTube episode where he visited Bat Cave and Chimney Rock in May of this year.  It's very sobering - and that was 8 months after Helene.

River Arts District, November 2024

Water distribution point, October, 2024. Holga 135

Verizon mobile access, downtown Asheville, Oct. 2024
Holga 135

Riverside Drive, October 2024. Nikon FE, Acros 100

Lyman Street, River Arts District, October, 2024. Horizon 202

Most of the places that I liked to visit and photograph are forever changed, and while nature does heal, it often takes a different timeline than what humans experience.  So, knowing that my long-term project was kaput, I decided to make a zine showing my experiences with the French Broad River before Helene.  My zine measures 6x9 inches, is 52 pages including covers, and is perfect bound.  It shows my interpretation of the river, and in black and white.  It's a testament to what was lost, and hopefully may be again, long after I'm not around.  

You can purchase it at my Etsy store for $10 + postage (US only). - https://www.etsy.com/shop/mfophotos

A few sample pages

In some good news, the Blue Ridge Parkway opened up new sections, so a few days ago I visited the Craggy Gardens area. It felt good to be able to drive there once again from my house, which is 9 miles from the Parkway.  More businesses along the French Broad have reopened, including some breweries, such as Hi-Wire and Zillicoah. 

Ledges Whitewater Park, July, 2025. So much damage.

I see more work being done in the River Arts District to remove rubble and restore/rebuild what was there a year ago.  I'd prefer that some properties get let go to become greenspace and natural areas.  

Riverlink Office in the RAD

Hi-Wire is open again

Many places are still in need of restoration, Sept. 2025

That half-buried SUV is still there. Sept. 2025

Wilma Dykeman Greenway, Sept. 2025

Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, 09/17/25

Things can change in the blink of an eye, and it will take some time before the region gets back to whatever is considered normal.  If we have learned anything from Helene is we are in this together, and compassion, cooperation, and community are important.  

It's been over a year since I have had this view. So nice to experience it again.

Producing Home and Farm News

8.5 x 11, 64 pages + covers.

My latest issue of Monochrome Mania, No. 13, is titled Home and Farm News.  Since I started Monochrome Mania, I have been producing three issues a year, until 2024.  I started working on the idea for the issue a few years ago, and kept photographing, and could not come up with a narrative I was happy with until this spring.  Home and Farm News is about my mother-in-law’s farmhouse and the farm, and stories from her about growing up and raising a family.   At first I envisioned a sort of impersonal story where the farm and farmhouse was the “universal” story about sold farms and the farmhouse.  But my initial approach was flawed.  It needed to be relatable and personal.  So, I interviewed Charlotte (my MIL) last year, and finally found a program that would convert the audio interview (90 minutes) into text. Believe me, that was a huge time-saver, and I was able to come up with text that I could weave into a narrative.  The interesting aspect of the program was that it also generated an AI summary of the interview, which was this:

The interview covers the life stories and memories of Charlotte Murphy and her family. Key topics discussed include her father's dairy farming background in New York, her parents' courtship and marriage, her childhood experiences like having pneumonia and visiting Florida, her college years at Middlebury as an English major, her work at the local bank, her marriage to Jim, the family's involvement in dairy farming, the tragic barn fire that impacted their business, her children's careers in nursing and horticulture, her fondness for baseball stemming from listening to Brooklyn Dodgers games with her father, and reflections on life lessons like financial prudence and maintaining good health.

I was actually quite impressed with that!  But worry not, no AI was used in MY writing, nor the images.  The impetus for the Home and Farm News was this, as explained in an excerpt from this issue:

“Over my many years of photography, I regret not making photos of the Murphy farmhouse back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  At that time, being a young man, I didn’t really have the conceptual framework to do documentary photography, let alone photographing to record what might someday be lost.  It wasn’t until 2000 that I started taking photography seriously as a means of expression, exploration, and self-discovery. By that time, any trips back to New York State were infrequent, and hence, more meaningful in terms of documentary work. It wasn’t until 2020 when COVID disrupted our normal ways that an awareness took hold that I SHOULD put something together to at least memorialize the farmhouse.  It’s easiest to do absolutely nothing, but then to regret that nothing was done.  So, while the effort to bring all the photos together is one aspect, so too, is the task to create some sort of narrative. I do believe that while a good photograph does not necessarily need to have any explanation, photographs do not exist in a vacuum, and removing the context from a photograph may reduce or obfuscate its intended purpose. So, creating a narrative for this work is essential in making the images speak with more clarity, even when the image itself may not be sharp or defined.”

 Of course, aside from the text, there have to be many photographs, and choosing the ones to include from the hundreds of images was certainly a task. However, it was made easier by the decision to have the images follow the text, and even when there was no caption for the image, it was obvious in what sequence it belonged.  

This was a personal project for me, as my long-time association with the family and the farm gave me a different viewpoint from the family members that grew up there.  I wanted to be able to tell Charlotte’s story, as well as how I perceived the farm.  Another impetus was wanting to finish the issue and have it printed and available in time for Charlotte’s 98th birthday - which I did.  

My instincts were correct, as I have received many heartfelt responses from the readers who are not family members. Most importantly, Charlotte loved the result.  While I didn’t cover every aspect of her life in the 64 pages — who could?— I believe that readers come away with a better appreciation of farm life, and how a house becomes the container of many memories.  Once the family no longer lives in that house, there will be little to connect it with the past, and I wanted to impart how those memories are intertwined with the physical objects.  

apologies to Wright Morris.

I used a variety of cameras, both film and digital, to make the b&w images used in the issue.  The last photos taken were done with my friend Bill Pivetta’s Hasselblad 503CX that he loaned me in 2023.  My suggestion for anyone doing a project such as this is to use every available tool that you have, as it’s the image that is important, not the camera or film that you used, or type of imaging sensor.  You can tell a story with a 6 megapixel 20 year old digicam, or with large format cameras, and everything in between.  The important thing is to document what you see.  I loved photographing the inside of the farm house early in the morning, before anyone else was up.  The peacefulness and the incoming light was always inspirational.  Also, I often used a tripod, as some exposures were around a second or two.  I never used flash, just ambient light.  

Here are some of my favorite images from the issue, and if you are interested in buying a copy, I am selling them in my Etsy store at $16 + shipping (US only).