Mark Bellis

Sunday, March 8, 2026

Rockwood Conservation Area, 1990s

p. 877a - BW negs 27/02/2026 - TMAX 100 35mm

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Pothole, Rockwood Conservation Area

I think this is a pothole in the Rockwood Conservation Area, Ontario, 1990s

p. 877a - BW negs 27/02/2026 - TMAX 100 35mm. Rockwood has caves in it. I met a couple who crawled into a tiny entrance at the base of a cliff. I asked them if they wanted me to stick around since they didn't have anyone on the surface but they didn't say anything to me. Maybe they were C.H.U.D.s.

Aztec Camera?

Roddy Frame, co-founder of the 80s pop band Aztec Camera, said in a Top of the Pops X post "It was in one of my deep thinking, psychedelic periods when I was about 15… because the bands we were listening to had names like The 13th Floor Elevators and all that ridiculous crap, we came up with the name Aztec Camera.".

Leica released an "Aztec" limited edition presentation case and attache case for its R-3 and R-3 MOT cameras in 1979, which would have been around when Frame was 15. The only thing particularly Aztec about them were they were made from amatl wood, the bark of which the Aztec used to make paper.

Leica ad via eBay

Friday, March 6, 2026

Steve Hibbert

Sad to hear Steve Hibbert died suddenly. He's best known as the Gimp in Pulp Fiction - he friended me after our mutual friend Krystal died and I enjoyed reading his posts. He liked posting art by painters who lived in California where he had lived, like this painting by, as Steve put it, "Laguna Beach's own Edgar Payne" :

(Edgar Alwin Payne (1883 - 1947), Red Mesa, Monument Valley, Utah, 1935, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches, purchased with funds from the Phyllis C. Wattis Endowment for Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum #2008.14.1)