6 new photos

men

Candidacy happened and my project is changing. I decided to stop doing a few things and start doing others. I'm stopping the cloning, the self portrait thing and the post-apocalyptic theme. Instead, I'm taking it out of complete fiction and putting it closer to reality. It's about masculinity and the rituals that help them escape from everything else. I'm writing my artist statement soon but I think the pictures are so much clearer.

apocalypses

So I kind of made a decision to go back to an idea that I pushed aside last year when things kind of got out of hand. Somehow the word "post-apocalyptic" got attached to my work when I started thinking of a narrative to drive the photographs. I think it's kind of a trendy and clutch word to describe a landscape that isn't right now and that's void of humanity. The photos up in this post are from the southern California fires in October; if my photos were apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, I think they would look a little more like this:




So, when and what is really happening in my photographs? Well, They exist somewhere in the past and are actually more autobiographical than anything else. The figures (myself) are using narratives about exploration, youth, and violence (to a point) in hope of starting to critique certain traits of masculinity that are present in American culture. I'm thinking that by talking about it this way it'll help me get out of this little rut I'm in.

web show

Humble Arts Foundation has a new group show with my work in it (group show no. 20) Check it out at: humbleartsfoundation.org/groupshow/groupshow.html.

Fellow Columbia student Allison Grant is also in the show and the piece they picked is one of my favorites for sure.

Allison Grant

records

I know I'm influenced by certain music to make work, I guess I didn't realize I'm also influenced by the album art. I think I saw this Who cover when I was a kid and it stuck with me for a while:) The other two covers are from Air's 10,000 Hz legend and the Killer's Hot Fuss respectively. I don't know how much they really affect the music but I think they somehow rubbed off on me that I thought of them every time I hear that album... or I hear that music every time I see places like these.

4x5

Haven't posted in a while, candidacy and the new job have kept me busy. But here's what I've been up to... shooting with my brand new 4x5 camera:) These are the first attempts at what I was doing before, I'm happy with the results, although I have some tweaking to do (the color is off, the shadows are a little dark, there's dust all over them, the focus is out in one). Thanks Sonya for your help with these, you did great;)

some new work...

It's been a while since I posted but I got some new work finally! I don't have that much to say about it, yet. It's getting a little more random and a little Hilliard-esque. comments and critiques appreciated. more to come soon.

favs VI

this one is from columbia 07 mfa grad Josh Winegar. I really admire everyone at columbia who takes photography to to its limits, especially those who take it to the point where you can't tell it's photography anymore. The really interesting part about Winegar's images is his technical process which in photography, hasn't changed much, until recently... thanks digital.

favs V

This one is from Chris Schedel. His series Model Homes/Model Lives takes place in the new sprawling suburbs of the midwest. The places he finds are so banal, so uninspired, they bore me and scare me at the same time. But there's also this slight, observant sarcasm that makes shots like this great.

35W

I've been glued to the tv the past few days watching the coverage of the 35w bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It's weird, I used to draw bridges when I was a kid and have always been fascinated by them, especially the ones that go over the Mississippi and Missouri, they're huge. For this one to go down in 4 seconds, something on a massively catostrophic scale had to of failed. The photos that have been coming out are incredible, here are a few that kind of resonate with me.

Keith Bedford, New York Times

Richard Tsong-Tataari, Star Tribune

Heather Munro, Star Tribune

favs IV

Krista Wortendyke has some interesting projects going on... I'm on big fan of artists whose work has a political edge to it, an edge that's a razor...

favs III

this one is from Lily Mayfield. Her series is called Intimate Distance and is mainly self portraits of her and her husband. I like this one too, nice light, glad she chose it for the print exchange!

favs II

Continuing the 07 MFA's from CCC, this one is from Bethany Souza, nice shot that reminds me of Lost in Translation. She has some other shots that I also like that have to do with this traveling/transient concept that I think is so relatable and relevant in our post-modern age.

favs I

so since I'm not doing much lately, I'm gonna put up my faves of the recently graduated class of mfa's from CCC. I thought I'd start out with the guy I feel like my work is closest to (stylisticly) and admire much, Bill Guy. I got one of his prints (this one) at our little grad print exchange the other day and I have to say, I'm glad he chose the one he did cuz i like it, a lot. more to come soon.

i knew it

Wes Anderson, Rushmore, 1998.

Jacques Henri Lartigue , Zissou's bobsled with wheels, after the bend by the gate, Rouzat, August 1908.
I knew Wes Anderson referenced photography from art history! here's the proof, thanks aperture.

drawings

here's some drawrings I made for my site that I didn't use... yet. I don't know. I like them and I like this minimal style I'm doing lately, but I don't really know how it all fits in yet. tell me what ya think...

first one...

so... this is the first post on the new blog. my myspace blog will probably die a slow death because of this one:) This is mainly gonna be a site to put up photo stuff including new things I'm working on and other people's work, but also other art like my drawings and probably some music and films once in a while too.
I feel like my art has never been exclusively photographic. I did a few video pieces and drawings back in undergrad that were kind of a preface to what I'm doing now in grad school. This blog will be the place where I'll try out all those other things I'm working on... but they'll be some photos too.