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dkt-1.bsky.social
Staff photographer at cultural heritage institution, interest in folklife documentation and history. Opinions my own.
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Pro tip- if you use view cameras get yourself a lens wrench or a spanner wrench. Toyo made a good one. May need to remove a rear element to use

submitted 22 hours ago • 0 comments

A few murals I photographed on a trip down to Sanford NC a couple years ago around this time. Three of these are by muralist Scott Nurkin, who also does the NC Musician Murals project across the state.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Last Memorial Day I found myself visiting the National Cemetery in Raleigh NC. A program was going on in commemoration of the day and I noticed wreaths being placed on certain graves. One of them was for Millie Dunn Veasey who I have had to photograph for work before, including her uniform here.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

close enough to today, from two years ago--Graffiti off W. Hargett Street, near the Boylan Street Bridge, Raleigh NC, May 24, 2023. Photo © DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The theme of #LightAndShadow for the #BlueSkyArtShow is right up my alley for the day job as staff photog in a museum. When I can get away with it, I will employ hard light to either cast shadows or form them to liven up a shot. It can be done to illustrate form and texture, or here as visual style

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

gotta run by the museum today. the move out of the bldg is underway and every time I drop in the bldg is more desolate. a block away the Bath bldg here is being torn down, go another block and same is true of the Dept. of Admin. lotta change in the complex.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

one of the original "pocket cameras", the Vest Pocket Kodak. came out just in time for WWI and changed the way war was seen on the frontlines by soldiers carrying them, circumventing the ban on uncensored photography. Similar to the Houghton Ensignette, used 127 "autographic" film.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

this time couple of years ago, I documented this mosaic tile tag by the itinerant street artist "SLUTO" in downtown Raleigh NC. the tag had originally been more vibrant, made of scrap ceramic tiles, but it was painted, aka "buffed", by the city. Unseen from street view, it is located in a drain.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

May 20 1861--NC secedes from the Union. There was no official state flag until the Civil War. The design used for many of the company flags based off the CSA 1st Nat'l, would ultimately become the state flag after the war with some variation. the dates coincide with two others. 4x5 chrome, polaroid

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

studio tip of the day comes from May 19 2017. whether using a copy stand, easel or the wall--this is how you photograph flat art behind glass. you put the camera (and you and everything in angle of view) in a shadow. no light = no reflection.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

One of my personal projects--longterm--is to document the NC Musician Murals by Scott Nurkin. The Ben E. King mural is on the side of an old warehouse in Henderson, this time back on May 18 2023. along the way I made stops at both a CSA monument and a bit of creative advertising.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

The evening sun provides a raking backlight bringing out the #Texture in the bricks forming the sidewalk around the Governor's Mansion, Raleigh NC. Inmates at Central Prison would craft both bricks and home, with many names found on the bricks around the block bordering the mansion. #BlueShyArtShow

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

a pair of May 16 protests showcasing the short & the long in lenses. first up is the 16mm Nikkor fisheye, always rattling around in the bottom of my bag during an event, a little goes a long way. next up is the venerable 300/2.8 Nikkor, a beast to carry, but great lens to work with. D3S & D500.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

couple snaps from packing up office for move. graphics from old exhibits. some are optical (analog photo) prints, others were done using the Lightjet (hybrid RA4) or inkjet. the pano Cirkut prints show how we used to do them, printing in sections and then stripping together.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Sad news yesterday, the passing of Barry Poss, founder of the Bluegrass/Americana label Sugar Hill Records, Durham NC. Barry was instrumental (no pun intended) in introducing many artists that now dominate that genre. Did some work for the label years ago, and these portraits as well.

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

I saw the news over the weekend that Joseph "Jo Jo" Wallace, of the Sensational Nightingales had passed away. Wallace at age 98 was the last surviving member of the longtime gospel quartet, playing with them for over 70 years. I had the opportunity to photograph them for work a few years ago.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

speaking of SLUTO, here are two of his mosaics within a block of each other in Raleigh NC, that I photographed this day back in 2023. By August, someone had chipped both off, leaving a rusty railroad spike at the scene of one. Photos © DK Thompson Collection/Southern Folklife Collection/UNC-CH

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Here's a "SLUTO" graffiti tag done by the itinerant street artist for this week's #BlueSkyArtShow #Lines theme, done by two strokes of a spray can. There are a number of SLUTO tags around Raleigh NC, from basic chalk tags, funky ones like this, to more involved pieces using mosaic tiles.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

mood

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

done with the film files- 33 boxes later. we didn’t have a large photo dept just one that had been around for a few decades. this is why film has gotten expensive is because nobody shoots it like we did before digital. there was an old saying “film is cheap” and it was true

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

this makes me feel funny, like when I ran across a waxer, then a Kroy Typer. other day I got rid of an E6 Control Strip densitometer that used a landline. Dead tech. Funny thing to have your career span so much change

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

packing for the museum move, hope to be done with the film files today. so far I've packed up nearly 30 bankers boxes of files, from slides to 4x5 chrome and b/w, contact sheets, digital media and work prints from exhibits. not seen here are four more filing cabinets. MOH photo dept. files

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

should be an artifact

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

packing for museum move. doesn’t look like much but this is the 4x5 film for the Thomas Day book project

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments