This week at Too Much Chocolate, I interview Brooklyn photographer Tim Briner about his Boonville series. It is beautiful and very thoughtful work, and I was happy to get some insight into Tim’s experiences while working on the project. I think you will enjoy reading it as well.

From the series Boonville, by Timothy Briner

Tim recently finished a small edition of hand-bound books for Boonville, and they look amazing. Each book consists of 37 black and white prints—printed, bound, and signed by the author. I am really looking forward to getting my copy.

Tim shared a few photographs from the making of the book, which you can see below.

Tim will also be exhibiting his work at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in January. A bit too early to mark your calendar, perhaps, but keep it on your radar.

Boonville was created with support from Cannery Works, a New York-based non-profit arts organization.

Fire Island, 2009
click image for larger view

I spent a lot of time on this beach over the winter. It wasn’t until June that I discovered that it was clothing optional!

This print is available in two sizes:

8 by 10 inches
Edition of 20
Signed on the back
$25, including shipping to US and Canada (add $5 for shipping elsewhere)

11 by 14 inches
Edition of 10
Signed on the back
$50, including shipping to US and Canada (add $10 for shipping elsewhere)

Also available as in 16×20 & 30×38 editions, please contact me if you are interested.

From the series “Horses on the Backside” by Ellen Rennard

I received a print of the lovely photograph above in the mail this week from Ellen Rennard. I mentioned Ellen’s work recently when she had a piece in Daniel Cooney’s emerging photographer auction, but I thought it would be worthwhile to feature a few more photos from her website. They are so beautiful, and heartfelt.

Ellen’s work can be found at ellenrennard.com, and she has a blog, too.

I’ve been interviewed not once, but twice this week. This is a pretty weird coincidence because I’ve never been interviewed before at all.

The first interview can be found on Too Much Chocolate, thanks to Lisa Scheer.

The second interview is by Marek Wykowski, in the Landscapist group on Flickr.

Both interviews gave me the opportunity to talk about myself for much longer than should be allowed. Please enjoy.

In lieu of maintaining a proper blogroll, every once in a while I like to post links to a few blogs I have been enjoying. In no particular order:

• B - Blake Andrews - Blake and I seem to have similar interests. I loved today’s post on Sternfeld’s Approximately 17 of 41 Sperm Whales That Beached and Subsequently Died, Florence, Oregon, June 1979, as well as his always challenging (impossible, I say) quizzes.
• Kevin Miyazaki - Wonderful personal work from Kevin as well as the previously linked tinytinygroupshow.
• Lenscratch - Aline Smithson - Aline is always showcasing fantastic work. Where she finds the time or energy to maintain her frequently updated site I will never know, but she is a dynamo.
• Too Much Chocolate - Interviews and image galleries from up-and-coming photographers.

Those of you who love photo books (as I do) will enjoy these two sites dedicated to reviews of new and older titles. Beware, reading either one of these is guaranteed to cost you money.

• 5B4 - Jeff Ladd
• The Photo Book - Doug Stockdale

Please let me know what I have been missing in the comments.

There is some great work in this group show curated by Melanie McWharter. I especially liked Jonathan Feinstein’s contribution, as well as the images by Dan Nelken and Cynthia Greg.

And now for something completely different:

I am participating in a global, Internet-based book club this summer, dedicated to reading the novel Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It is a daunting task, at more than a thousand pages, and one I have tried to start more than once. This time around, though, I will have the support of a huge online community in the Infinite Summer project, and a plan: 75 pages a week, plus endnotes, from June 21st through September 22nd.

If you haven’t heard of Infinite Jest before or don’t know why you would want to read it, I recommend Mimi Smartypants’ impassioned essay on her experience with the book. I have been looking for something like this for a long time, and now I’m really looking forward to June 21st!

Print of the month for June, 2008

One of the unexpectedly nice things about doing the Print of the Month every month is that I am actually printing a lot more than I have in the past. Having a deadline to meet, and customers to keep happy, has been a good incentive for shooting as much as possible and really working to improve the quality of my prints. I have been tweaking color profiles, trying different kinds of paper, experimenting with different scanning software and settings, and have noticed a steady improvement each month. I think this image is no different—from a technical perspective it is probably the best color print I have ever made.

The really nice thing is that I sold a couple of 11×14s this month, which gave me an excuse to print even larger than normal. They look really great! I can’t wait to start doing some 16×20s.