Photolog

One Year for USA

November 20, 2015

I have a photo in the One Year for USA 2016 art photography calendar, produced by Lozen Up, with proceeds to be donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mississippi. Participating photographers include:

Aaron Stern, Alec Soth, Alex Prager, Allie Mount, Alyse Emdur, Andreas Laszlo Konrath, Andrew Bush, Andrew Hetherington, Aya Muto, Beau Grealy, Ben Grieme, Cameron Wittig, Chadwick Tyler, Charlie Engman, Christian Patterson, Daniel Arnold, Daniel Shea, Dalton Rooney, Dru Donovan, Ed Panar, Ethan Levitas, Geordie Wood, Gregory Halpern, Hal Hartley, Hannah Whitaker, Jason John Würm, Jesse Chehak, Jim Goldberg, John Baldessari, John Gossage, Jordan Sullivan, Katherine Wolkoff, Ken Schles, Lele Saveri, Lucas Foglia, Maggie Harrsen, Marcelo Gomes, Margaret Durow, Mark Steinmetz, Matthew Brandt, McNair Evans, Mike Brodie, Nicholas Calcott, Nick Haymes, Peter Sutherland, RJ Shaughnessy, Ron Jude, Sara Cwynar, Saul Leiter, Terri Weifenbach, Todd Cole, Todd Hido, Whitney Hubbs, Ye Rin Mok.

Please take a look and consider purchasing for an outstanding selection of artists and a good cause.

New series: Harper Creek

November 13, 2015

In 2014, I followed a dry creek bed up into the Cuyamaca Mountains. See the rest of the photos here.

After a fire in Marine Park, Brooklyn, 2007

November 13, 2015

Sometime in 2007 I bought a 4×5 large format camera. People were always stealing cars and boats, joyriding with them, and burning them out in the Brooklyn wetlands. This was one of my earliest trips out to the wetlands with the 4×5, which would eventually culminate in the Outer Lands series.

Swans Nest, Marine Park, Brooklyn, 2009

November 8, 2015

This is one of my favorite photos, which hasn’t been on the site for a long time. I discovered this nest in a very out-of-the-way part of Brooklyn, not far from the JFK airport.

I’m going to post other one-off favorite photos from my archive for a little while, until I get out of the house and actually take some pictures.

New photos in Long Way Home and Ponds, Streams, and Swamps

November 6, 2015

I added a few new photos to my Long Way Home series today, and also Ponds, Streams, and Swamps. This isn’t new work, just a few images I found while going through my archives that I overlooked the first time around.

Still no new photos, although I’m starting to think about photography again. Things are a bit hectic at the moment with a newborn at home so I don’t imagine I’ll be going out anytime soon. The ideas are starting to come back, though, I’ve been seeing pictures here and there in the world, which hasn’t happened in a while, and ideas for new series of work have been percolating too.

A few thoughts on the photos above:

1. I really didn’t like Ponds, Streams, and Swamps for a long time. These photos were taken during a very difficult time in my life and I haven’t wanted to look at them. Going through my archive now, I see a lot of good photos, and I’m happy with the series as a whole. It captures a particular quality of light and a landscape that I explored deeply for many years, and have now left behind. I have more potentially good photos in my archives that I could add, but they’re rough scans and I’ve long since sold off my film scanner. Maybe I’ll revisit them again in 20-30 years.

2. There’s a lot of room to keep working on Long Way Home. Some of the photos in the current selection will eventually be removed as the vague idea holding things together changes over time. But this is the one series I think I may continue when I start taking pictures again.

3. I’ve said this before, but the distance of time really does change the perspective on one’s own photographs, and on the photos of others. Photographs that used to have a strong effect on me have faded over time, and photos that I never noticed before stand out. There are probably quite a few images in my archive that I would love to rediscover, given enough time.

New (ish) work

July 9, 2015

I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve lost track of what I have and haven’t posted to this site. In any event, it’s hard to call this “new” work because I haven’t taken a photo in more than 3 months. But I have been assembling a series which I’ve finally published online, called Lost in the Desert.

This work and Long Way Home represent my first 18 months of photography after returning to California as an adult. Things will be quiet around here for quite a while, so let this be my temporary farewell.