Some polaroids from coney island this summer.
















People talk about communication with models for studio photography... it's really interesting, that shoot I did last week, the guy with the cigar didn't speak english at all. Yet somehow his expressions still look right. I guess he got the gist of what I was trying to get, somehow. I didn't even realize it until now. I wonder how much of my communication as a photographer is not language based.

My costume stuff is at the package center, but I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. I'm psyched that it got here so quick.

I've just somehow rediscovered Stars. I mean, I always listen to them a little bit, but just today I got that gut feeling again that I did when I first heard them live and had to stop what I was doing and listen. I miss that feeling. It's the same feeling that one gets when they touch a lover's hand after a long time not seeing them.

Next quarter I'm taking an existential philosophy course. Months of kafka, nietzsche, sartre, etc. I'm excited.

Meeting tomorrow to plan out some paid work. That's good.

Have to get around to talking to the pedicab guys about a job at some point. I think it's a nice fit.

My computer is running again, I can get back to scanning the piles of negatives I've got sitting around.

WE LOVE PHONE


























































The unretouched rough photos, as I mentioned in the earlier post.
You can view the rest in a photoset on flickr.

New Studio Roughs Soon

Shot a lot in studio today, 8 models, for posters that will be used in Sean Leonard's upcoming film, and to promote it. They're going to be advertisements for cell phone companies, looking like they are directed at mainly developing countries.

Though they will mostly have the kind of sickening kitsch normally seen in such advertisements, there will also be a subtle constructivist style to them, nodding at communist propaganda. I'm pretty excited to see the final versions, especially since the poster for his film is going just be one of these cell phone advertisements, huge, in some foreign language.

I'll be posting the unretouched roughs (I'm not actually doing the graphic design part, thankfully) soon, probably tomorrow. For now, enjoy the last shot of the day, an outtake of me. Oh. I'm also going to be doing an interpretive dance as an inmate from a mental hospital in his film. Look forward to it.

I was up all night etching on plexi for my printmaking class.

It's just like drawing. Except pretend you're blindfolded and have Parkinson's and there is no such thing as an eraser.
My hand really hurts from holding the metal etching needle for so long.

I'm off to the printmaking lab to see if any of these lines will hold ink (a lot of them hardly show up on the scan, especially the verticle ones in the tree)




I don't really know. I can't imagine trying to freehand draw on this thing, I'm glad she recommended we use a reference.

On intimate and important moments

sometime in june, 2007

Recently a girl said to me, "I bet you take a lot of naked pictures of your girlfriends." When I replied that I really didn't, she seemed surprised, almost shocked. People tend to assume that this is what photographers primarily do. Love and sexual relations are very important to me, though, and there tend to be two types of important experiences in my life: The kind that I must rush to find my camera or pen and capture (often private reflective moments [see below] or snippets of everyday life) or the kind that is too important to distract myself from.

The second kind does not often get photographed. When I remember these moments I remember them as if they are dreams, oddly perfect, surreal, romanticized moments. These memories lift me up, though I know they are idealized. I also know that when I was actually experiencing those moments the entirety of life was idealized.

This image is a rare type of image for me. I hardly remember taking it, a playful moment with another person's camera (phone?), a chance framing. But when I received it in an email months afterward, it took my breath away. I understand why people want to take pictures of their intimate moments, they wish to remember them, always. Still, I feel no need to show nudity in my work or photos I take for myself. Between two people connecting on such a level, every moment has the potential for intimacy.


Pardon my ramblings.


Here is an image that I do remember taking. I stared at this light for some time, water running down my back, before I realized that I might perhaps capture it. I was alone in my family's massachusetts home for a few days, where I took that tree image that I posted recently as well. The pictures from this short time are all rather introspective. I wonder if shouldn't live alone in the woods for a bit.

august, 2007

On new glasses

I miss trees that don't have chiggers in them.

So my new prescription glasses came.. not sure how I feel about them now. I wasn't sure when we ordered them, but I had very limited options as covered by my insurance. But I thought they might be a bit better than the glasses I was given after I lost my old pair (oops), which were some (literally) middle school girl frames.

Really awkward mirror pictures behind cut.


old..


new..

Please ignore how my arm seems to have nothing to do with my torso.

Are they any better?

damn my nearsightedness.

I posted this to a graphic design community, but I really could use as much feedback as possible, especially on which fronts to print/continue working on. It's for a gallery show of my photo work, a postcard design.

Anyway, I've got a few versions of the front and I'd like to whittle it down to two. Here is what I've got so far:


1.


2.


3.


4.


5.






Ok, and here's what I've got so far for the back. This is the hard part, really.






Thanks in advance for any and all help and/or feedback.