Mike Reinders

exploring

2010-09-12T22:49:00.002-05:00

from 12/31/95

the next thing

2010-05-11T23:00:00.004-05:00

Ed Ruscha, Dare #2, 2001

Well, New Romantics closed this past weekend. It was a good show. My first show. Now on to the next thing. I'm designing a new photo blog with Leilani Wertens that's launching very soon, maybe next week. It'll have interviews with new contemporary photographers, reviews of books and shows, and an events listing for shows and other photo stuff that should not be missed. It'll be Chicago or Midwest-centric instead of NY/east coast-centric. This kind of thing is needed. Today I was designing the home page and somehow subconsciously channeled Ed Ruscha. I've always felt I have a connection with him...

Anyway, look for the site to be up in the near future. It's name is Dorothea & Western. We got the domain with a "-" instead of the ampersand because it's easier to type. I doubt we'll put the meaning of the name on the website so here's the one and only explanation that you'll find on the web. We wanted to name it after a very important and significant photographer to both of us (Leilani and I) and we wanted it to also be about a place or the idea of a place but without it being too local. So, for the photographer we chose Dorothea as in Dorothea Lange. This also helped us decide what the other name was to be. We picked Western not only because it is the place of the West that is meaningful but also the idea of the west; to head west, to be westward bound. That idea has meant so much not only to the history of the U.S. but to many photographers as well. Also, Western is the street that you would take to get to either my or Leilani's house- kinda nifty.

opening tonight

2010-04-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

NEW ROMANTICS
East Bank Studios
1200 W 35th St. (north entrance off Racine)
Chicago, IL
Opening April 24, 5-9 pm

install

2010-04-21T23:30:00.003-05:00

photo by Matt Austin

a bfa can be good for something

2010-04-20T23:00:00.002-05:00

this is happening

2010-04-13T21:00:00.001-05:00

after a day of painting.

nate working hard.

what I did. it is still visible under a coat of paint.

the bluffs and the bench

2010-04-10T10:30:00.001-05:00

New Romantics

2010-03-19T12:00:00.006-05:00

Jessica Bruah, Shamrock Hotel Resort and Suites, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

It is a go.

New Romantics
An exhibition of contemporary photography about landscape that continues to explore the ideas of Romanticism.
April 22-May 9th
Open Thurs-Sun, 12-6pm
1200 W 35th St.

Opening Reception
April 24th, 5-9pm

Closing Reception
May 8th, 5-9pm

Artist Links

Matt Austin
Jessica Bruah
Bill Guy
Nate Mathews
Jason Reblando
Mike Reinders

Hope to see you there.

mmmmmm... donuts.

2010-03-11T00:00:00.006-06:00

Martin Parr will be in Chicago at Stephen Daiter this Friday for an opening of an exhibition that spans 30 years of his work. Parr has no less than 50 monographs to his credit. I have a copy of his Mexico monograph and am hoping he'll do me the honor of signing it. What a pleasure it has been though to have Eggleston and now Parr in a matter of weeks gracing Chicago with their presence and great exhibitions of their work. I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say this but... if you don't like Martin Parr, you might not like making photographs.

Eggleston

2010-02-27T21:00:00.000-06:00

William Eggleston at The Art Institute of Chicago

two rivers

2010-02-23T15:00:00.001-06:00

the missouri and the mississippi

some more gardens

2010-02-19T17:30:00.000-06:00

It took me a while but I am finally scanning all the negs from this winter. These go all the way back to late November when I made the trip to Garden of the Gods near Herod, IL. I'll have more next week. I'm a little disappointed that 4 of the negs got ruined when the processor went down at the lab... I could probably re-shoot them if I could get down to Missouri in the next few weeks. But still, I'm pretty happy with most of what I got, especially the top pic on this post.

on break

2010-01-11T22:07:00.009-06:00

Its been a little quiet lately. Photos I shot at the end of last year are still waiting to be scanned (the lab at school is closed a further 2 weeks) and I'll be working on 2 grants and a job application in the coming weeks. But to keep the blog going, I'll post a little about the new branch of my project that's been on my mind lately.

I've been photographing observatories for the past year in between shooting the views for "The Expected Frontier". While shooting these magnificent pieces of star-gazing architecture I wondered, "is there anything more I could be doing for this part of the project?" And of course, the answer was "yes there is." I've recently become obsessed with the early years of space exploration, the Apollo program and everything after that has been progressing towards the event of exploring new land. If there's ever a mission to Mars in the next 60 years, I want to be the next Timothy O'Sullivan or W.H. Jackson that gets to go and photograph with an 8x10. Most of the work I've made so far I hope, helps make the case for me to go. But in the meantime, I might need something else to keep me occupied. This next part of the project will do that easily.

When I heard that they (I guess the government and NASA together) decided to discontinue the shuttle program, I was a little upset. People had been going into space using the shuttle since I was born and I had watched launches and had been playing with toy shuttles since I could remember. It didn't make sense to me. It was like they were deciding to stop progress. The shuttle program is old and the shuttles themselves have been used way past the time they were supposed to retire. However, there was never any practical idea that surfaced to replace them. I guess they're working on that now but in the meantime, the U.S. has to catch a ride with the Russians on their rockets.

So, that leaves me wondering "well what are we (the U.S.) going to do while we wait for NASA to build the next space shuttles?" Are we still going to make progress in exploring space or are we going to fall back? The next part of my photographic project will look at this question and document the things related to how we are going to get there. This probably won't come out as literal as I'm proposing but I hope it will be more of an exploration of the idea of space as "frontier" and how this idea really is entrenched into the U.S.. Or, maybe not the whole U.S. but me, at least.

That's where I'll leave it for now. I have places to go in mind like Edwards AFB in California and I'd like to get to see one of the last space shuttles launch- the last one will happen sometime in the later half of 2011. But what I'd really like to find is that toy space shuttle that I had when I was kid and got so much use out of that I had to buy another one myself, with my own money.

From the bottom of the 13th page of google results for "toy shuttles"

merry x-mas!

2009-12-25T13:00:00.002-06:00

Cape Girardeau

2009-12-09T20:45:00.004-06:00

The Emerson Bridge

the other garden

2009-12-08T20:15:00.003-06:00

W.H. Jackson
Tower of Babel, Garden of The Gods (Colorado)
No. 1007 After 1880

a different kind of map

2009-12-07T21:05:00.000-06:00

distribution of the name "Reinders" across the U.S.

Mastodon State Park

2009-12-03T10:00:00.002-06:00

I found this guy near Imperial, MO

a garden of pixels

2009-12-02T09:00:00.000-06:00

garden of the gods

2009-11-28T23:30:00.002-06:00

Today, I went to "Garden of the Gods" recreational area in southeastern Illinois. I was shocked to find topography unlike anywhere else in the entire state. These are a few day-of-the-shoot shots that I made with my camera phone. I becoming quite fond of what it does. It's not sharp. The color is wack. It's simultaneously under and over exposed. But it's fast and I can put it directly above my 4x5 lens. something happened to the last shot... looks like the photoshop monster is coming back...

near Herod and Equality, Illinois.

oops.

Globe

2009-11-10T19:45:00.001-06:00

the geology museum, UW-Madison

Madison

2009-11-07T23:15:00.009-06:00

I went to UW Madison with Nate today to shoot some things that have been on my short list for a while. Nate re-shot a few things too. I've been taking cell phone pics straight from the top of my camera after I shoot the 4x5, thus these instant, day-of-the-shoot pics are on my blog tonight. This globe was a happy accident on the way to the bathroom in the geology building.

inside the geology building

the observatory

a medium sized radio telescope

Nate making his picture

Nate Mathews opening!

2009-11-05T11:15:00.005-06:00

My friend and colleague Nate Mathews has a solo-show opening tonight from 4-7pm at the UIC Student Center. Here's the info and GPS coordinates from Nate himself:

The Address is: Art Lounge, UIC Student Center West, 828 South Wolcott Ave. This is the west end of the UIC campus near Damen so you could take a Damen bus south to Polk and go one block east, or take the pink line to polk and walk two blocks west. There is also plenty of metered parking within a block or two walk. The space is in the south east corner of the building so enter from the south doors (near the center of the block) and turn right. The gallery is next to the bookstore in the corner past the stairs.

an old favorite

2009-11-04T11:30:00.005-06:00

Sesame Street turned 40 today. This clip is from 1973. Watch the kid headbanging @ 0:38 and 4:11. Probably the best moment in children's television, ever.

delayed

2009-11-03T14:45:00.009-06:00

On the way to the Midwest Society for Photographic Education Conference in Minneapolis my flight got a little delayed. 8 hours in all. I arrived at 2am in a deserted airport. As I got off the plane the pilot apologized and a stack of diet coke and peanuts waited for me at the gate. Here's a map of what the plane did. As we approached Minneapolis, the pilot came on and said "they're making us circle the airport until we can land so we're gonna have to go to Milwaukee because we're going to run out of gas." So we flew to Milwaukee, refueled, sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half and then flew an hour back to Minneapolis. A lady got sick at the end. A woman on the plane had to help her and paramedics were called to get her off the plane first. This was hell. And I had to give my first big artist lecture the next day. My friend Heather drove there and beat my plane by over an hour. I decided not to go with her because I wanted to get there early and rest up for my talk. The lecture did go well though. I might of rushed through a few things and I did forget W.H. Jackson's name, but it was pretty good anyway. I showed this map at the beginning of my talk. The second map is all the trips that I've taken so far for my project. It looks like I might be making another one soon. People have told me the coasts look conspicuously empty.

Thomas Ruff

2009-10-22T14:00:00.001-05:00

So today I read this article about Thomas Ruff and his project where he pixelates images. A little ways down the author asks why no one else has made "work dealing with the technological impact of digitisation on photography." Ruff says: "there are so many interesting photographers, but why don't they think about the structure of photography? They're young, they're curious, but they're not interested. So I had to do this work because no one else would."

Well, this inspired me. I've let the "pixel destruction" project get a little dusty and haven't really been working on it for the past 8 months. I think I'll start it back up again. I need to narrow down the scope of the project though, specifically what images I choose to "destroy" or appropriate. I've been using images important to the history of photography so far but I am definitely a landscape photographer and would like to somehow integrate or extend this from my previous bodies of work...

Ruff's images are mostly landscapes. He explains "the jpegs are divided into three or four categories: the one I started with was ‘catastrophes created by man,’ then ‘catastrophes created by nature.’ Then I added another category that included examples of nature coming back or conquering man-made creations."

I've thought about using images from my previous bodies of work and sending them through my machine to see what happens. I think this could be productive or at least put to good use images that would otherwise not be seen. I think the concept could also stem from the previous projects in that the images would have some element of Romance or Exploration- exploring the boundaries of what we've already discovered or alluding to what we might discover next... but then- it just becomes pixel garbage :)

the yield

2009-10-22T00:35:00.005-05:00

Grant Ray, Athens, Ohio: Shadow of its Former Self. Electric Ouija Board for Trees

Here's some new work from an old buddy from skool. Check out the show that he and a few other mates are in @

Heaven Gallery
1550 N. Milwaukee Ave. 2nd floor
Chicago, IL

Opening Reception
Friday, October 23, 7-11pm

Saturday, October 24
Open gallery from 1-5pm

more VLA

2009-10-12T16:10:00.001-05:00

crater

2009-10-12T12:03:00.004-05:00

Meteor Crater, AZ

count the telescopes

2009-09-21T12:25:00.003-05:00

The VLA

Rifle II

2009-09-21T11:15:00.002-05:00

Rifle, CO

meteor crater

2009-09-21T11:11:00.001-05:00

Meteor Crater, AZ

US 66

2009-09-14T17:15:00.001-05:00

Tucumcari, NM

wait and you will receive

2009-09-12T16:40:00.005-05:00

the vla

this one's on the site now. It was a tough 2 weeks that I had to wait to see it but... the rewards of shooting with a 4x5.

backyard

2009-09-10T17:15:00.003-05:00

Creve Coeur, MO

the view hotel

2009-09-09T11:30:00.001-05:00

The View Hotel, Monument Valley, AZ

rifle

2009-09-08T18:50:00.004-05:00

Rifle, CO

The first of many to come. Made 15 scans today, mostly from the middle of the trip. Will probably do 15 more tomorrow.

arrrggg! and re-shots

2009-08-28T13:35:00.002-05:00

I learned last night that the crate I made to hold my frames had a bit of an accident somewhere on the way to Wyoming. The gallery director called me and said she didn't even know how it held together. This upset me. I built that thing by hand with a good friend who knew what he was doing and we put extra effort into it to make sure nothing would crack or even move. But I guess it must not be that bad because it only cost $80 to repackage. Lessons learned: One: make crate out of light weight, indestructible titanium or carbon-fiber. This way you will just have to spend thousands up front for the crate but there's no way FedEx could deliberately destroy it in transit. Two: have a better than good chance to sell the work and spend nothing for new packaging. I don't know how to do this and I don't think anyone else really has a clue right now either. Anyway, here's some re-shot pics from the trip. I think they're pretty recognizable and I'm glad I got the best shots the first time I went there. I get the first negs back today and should have the rest done next week but I still think it'll be another 10 days or so before I get something scanned.

i'm giving away a secret in this one...

nice ride

2009-08-25T21:10:00.005-05:00

My trip out west was made possible by two close patrons that loaned me the use of their 2007 Subaru Impreza all-wheel-drive wagon. In total I tacked on 4340 miles in 9 days and took the car off-road a number of times where I really grew to appreciate its design and engineering. The Impreza hauled over dust-ridden, pebble-filled roads and flattened mountain climbs that took it to 12,029'. The only problem was when I encountered boulders on an "off-road" course in Arches National Park outside Moab, Utah. I decided it was probably not the best idea to test the undercarriage on a quasi off-road AWD car that wasn't mine and that just got brand new performance tires. All an all though, I highly recommend this car and really want one for myself. It got 30 mpg on average and kept cool; the engine temp gauge didn't rise a hair when I drove it 800 miles in over 100 degree weather.

mom's 2007 impreza after 3 days of dust-road driving

rear view

where I decided to turn around

contact

2009-08-24T21:30:00.006-05:00

VLA Radio Telescope, middle of nowhere, New Mexico

On the third day into my road trip I decided to take a bit of an unplanned detour. I was in Santa Fe and going to head further west when I said, what the hell, mike. you have to see this. it's perfect for your project... and low and behold it was. I got goose bumps when I saw it come into view. It is the Very Large Array Radio Telescope as seen in the movie Contact (which I've been fond of since I was 13). I was surprised to find out that the scientists do not actually listen for whatever it is they're searching for like in the movie. The movie people just made that up for dramatic effect. I spent a little over a day at this site, a bit more than I planned but the 4x5s I snapped of these babies will be spectacular. I can't wait to get them back.

surf's up

2009-08-23T20:02:00.003-05:00

Robert F. Bukaty, AP

I'm interrupting my trip photos for this image from today's news about Hurracaine Bill off the coast of Maine. It'd fit nicely into my project if I could have been there...

monument valley

2009-08-22T11:10:00.003-05:00

the view hotel

denver

2009-08-21T10:32:00.002-05:00

from red rocks

enjoy now!

2009-08-20T12:05:00.003-05:00

canyon kids

2009-08-19T17:45:00.001-05:00

no fence.

sketches from the trip

2009-08-17T10:46:00.003-05:00

I'll be posting the digital shots from my trip out west over the coming weeks. Although all the sketch shots are digital and aren't 4x5, I'm really glad I was able to make these in between shooting with the 4x5. I haven't worked this quickly in quite some time.

uh oh.

2009-07-24T12:05:00.001-05:00

a sketch for an idea i've had. from here.

40 years ago today

2009-07-20T12:30:00.001-05:00

by Neil Armstrong

the exposure project / Jessica Bruah

2009-07-01T20:30:00.001-05:00

I found a photographer who made Lake Delton the center of her MFA thesis at SVA on a blog that also happened to mention me today. The Exposure project looks to be a pretty great little collective of contemporary up-and-coming photographers and Jessica Bruah's work shows what happened when Mother Nature decides there won't be a lake at the Dells for one summer. I went to the lake last July to shoot and made a few images vowing I would return to take more. I never did. I'm glad Jessica did. The resulting images document a once-in-a-lifetime event that no one in our lifetime will perhaps get to experience again.

Jessica Bruah, "Tourists at Boat Landing, Lake Delton" (From the series No Lake This Summer)

2 megapixel vs 4x5

2009-06-19T13:40:00.004-05:00

you be the judge... I'm really interested in hearing other people's thoughts on this. I just recently found out how to get images off my cell phone (I don't know what took me so long) and have retrieved the images from my Tennessee trip. Here's one that's from the exact same vantage point. I'm going to be doing more experiments with my 2 megapixer in my upcoming trips... I can't wait to see what happens.

2 megapixel from a samsung M610

kodak 160 nc 4x5 scanned at 16bit 2040 dpi (400 mb file).

so cool

2009-06-16T13:01:00.000-05:00

Obama was in town yesterday for a conference and I happened to be biking down the lakefront trail when he arrived... It was f@#!ing awesome! When I got to about soldier field, the trail was blocked off by cops on horses so I turned around. About 30 seconds later, 2 huge black helicopters fly over me and land about 100 yards away. Then marine one comes and flys about 30 feet over my head. My mouth was just hanging open :) I couldn't really see anything up close so I went back to Lake Shore by Balbo, right by my school, and the whole motorcade roles by about 2 minutes later. It was so cool. Easily one of the highlights of summer break so far.

Presidential motorcade on Lake Shore Dr.

parked Marine One by soldier field

Chamberlain, SD #2

2009-06-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

Chamberlain, SD #1

2009-06-08T17:35:00.001-05:00

Hwy 16A near Keystone, SD

2009-06-07T13:27:00.002-05:00

the first national monument

2009-06-06T13:05:00.004-05:00

badlands #1

2009-06-05T15:30:00.002-05:00

this means something. this is important.

2009-05-29T09:14:00.013-05:00

devils tower jr?

badlands, sd

this lady was watching me the whole time.

the profile shot.

a 3,000 ton explosion on crazyhorse (apparently pretty big).

you know where this is.

I think I got pretty close.

the first and the last

2009-05-17T11:41:00.015-05:00

Grad school is now done. The job search has been going ok, nothing officially but the leads are still coming. The graduation yesterday was interesting... I've never seen one quite like it. They awarded a photojournalist an alumni award- he said he came to columbia a fine art photographer and left a photojournalist. It left me feeling really weird and uncomfortable. After all, I made the switch to fine art in the middle of undergrad and not a day goes by that I don't stop and say "I'm so glad I made that decision." I still think it was one of the biggest turning points in my life thus far. And here was this guy, up on stage, thanking columbia for turning him in the other direction of what I had chosen in front of some of the greatest photography teachers around. Awkward does not adequately describe the situation.

Anyway, I have the utmost respect for photojournalism, I really do. I just don't think my photography is suited for it. That being said, the White House photographer, Pete Souza made a pretty good body of work in the first 100 days of BO's presidency. Here's a few really intimate shots that resonate with me. I love the one of them getting on the helicopter by the lake, I bike right across that shot about 3 times a week. If you're a sucker for watching BO and his life like I am, you should totally subscribe to the flickr photostream. It really is amazing how close it lets you get.

MFA PHOTO THESIS

2009-05-06T18:06:00.004-05:00

check it out.

some new things

2009-04-27T18:30:00.010-05:00

nashville, 2009, 32x40"

>thesis show: May 14th - June 12th, Glass Curtain Gallery, 1104 s Wabash, Chicago, IL

>opening reception: May 15th @ 5pm till ?

>artist talk I'm really psyched about: Olafur Eliasson, tomorrow 6pm, @ the MCA, sold out

>a map of where I might take a trip the week after I graduate because I'll be unemployed and will have nothing better to do but make more work!

SPE

2009-03-27T13:10:00.004-05:00

Vaughn Wascovich, from the series Tar Creek, Picher Oklahoma

So i'm in Dallas attending the Society for Photographic Education Conference for the weekend. It's been nice so far, the review I had earlier was interesting and insightful. Hopefully I will have a few more... My colleagues are receiving awards later today in a ceremony- Vaughn Wascovich for his Tar Creek work and Kevin Malella for his Constructed Landscapes work. Both are exceptional landscape photographers and are extremely deserving for their hard work and dedication to their subjects. The weather here has been less than awesome. It is warm and everything is very green but I think I've seen the sun for a total of 5 or 10 minutes.
Dallas is weird. Very modern architecture but very sparsely populated in downtown. It seems like the only people in downtown at night are the people at our conference.

New Project in SPE

2009-03-12T17:47:00.007-05:00

This is my new video piece that will be in the Society for Photographic Education video show that will be here. I'm pretty psyched about it. If you're in Dallas on Saturday, the 28th come on down and see it! it runs from 8-9pm and midnight-1am.

a project & a site for it.

2009-02-21T15:08:00.010-06:00

Yes, the website has finally been revamped and the new project is up. There's about 16 photos on there right now. A few more will be put up as I get done editing them. I'll be shooting for another month. The thesis show will be up at the Glass Curtain Gallery in May. It's crunch time.

the smokies

2009-01-28T19:52:00.005-06:00

more to come...

winter trip

2009-01-14T18:40:00.006-06:00

I've been in TN shooting for the past week. I spent the weekend in Nashville and have since been in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The scenery and weather have been great, much warmer than Chicago... I got a great rental car with a mad discount and have discovered the wonders of Sirius satellite radio. New pics will be up asap. Hopefully a new and improved home website will be following...

pixel degradation

2008-11-24T12:54:00.009-06:00

These are from a side project I've been working on in a class I'm taking with Brian Ulrich entitled "The Medium is the Message". The class' focus is really about everything within photography that can't be printed on paper, specifically, working within a digital medium. It may not be a side project for very long though... people seem to like them.

observatory(s)

2008-11-20T14:28:00.012-06:00

williams bay, wi

views from the top

2008-11-06T14:09:00.011-06:00

some views of the show from approximately where our grad lounge is at Columbia College. I think these were actually taken from the Hilton or Blackstone Hotels about a block south. I really wish we could have seen it from here...

and this one is particularly interesting...

photos from the chicago tribune

new show, new president

2008-11-05T18:24:00.008-06:00

Kisumu, Kenya

New Dehli, India

Manila, Philippines

you gotta love these cutouts. from the nytimes. and here's a new show i'm in, opening's 11/6/08, 5-7, in the CCC library 2nd floor.

rain man

2008-10-30T15:44:00.012-05:00

chicago art open

2008-10-03T15:22:00.005-05:00

Jennifer Ray

Starting tonight, Wildcat Canyon is in a show at the Merchandise Mart put on by The Chicago Artist's Coalition. 5 other Columbia photokids are in the show as well including J-Ray whose so thrilling and enigmatic work can be seen above. It looks to be a very well rounded event showcasing up and coming artists working in Chicago. It runs through October 19th.

let the bidding begin

2008-09-24T00:38:00.003-05:00

This stunning and poignant photo of our next President by Tim Davis will be auctioned off on artforobama.net The auction begins October 1. Todd Hido, Richard Misrach, Justine Kurland, and Eirik Johnson are a few of the other many outstanding artists donating their art to the cause.

by the way... in case you haven't seen it yet...
barackobamaisyournewbicycle

wisconsin romance

2008-09-11T16:32:00.010-05:00

shore's journal

2008-08-07T08:39:00.004-05:00

No new photos in this post, the lab at my school is shut down for the entire month of August. I will probably be going on another short road trip to an unsuspecting Midwestern city in the near future.

This morning on my way to work, just like every other morning, I listened to NPR's most emailed stories podcast. This one was from like 2 days ago though and the second story just so happened to be about the photographer I have come to so greatly admire... Stephen Shore. The topic was not his photographs but the most enigmatic thing about his photographic trips that I've always wondered so much about... his journal. Apparently it is out in limited edition form from Phaidon signed and numbered. You can probably guess what I did next... hopped on to Amazon and bought one for $157.

Like all photo books I consider this an investment. I've saved a few important receipts and things from my trip but have not written a single word about where I was or what was going on when I took the pictures I did. I saved all my maps and have traced the entire trip in black pen. Something about these maps and the randomness of the routes I chose intrigues me. The ramdoness of the locations, the routing of the trip, and the digital editing of the photos to include/exclude pieces of landscape are all parts of my art that I can't exactly pin down into an artist statement yet... but I hope to soon.

get it while it's hot...

even more trip pics

2008-07-24T17:31:00.005-05:00

more trip pics

2008-07-23T17:40:00.005-05:00

the first shots back

2008-07-22T17:28:00.007-05:00

The first few images I got back today from my long, long trip to Wisconsin and beyond. More to come very soon...

old school

2008-06-20T16:14:00.002-05:00

I was browsing art and design websites while at work today and happened across my old undergrad school's graduate program requirements. It sounds all a little too familiar and in some cases sounds tougher than what columbia has already put me through:) The 5 year time limit thing sounds a little problematic to me, I think I knew about that when I went there but had no real sense of what that actually meant. Time in grad school speeds up. But then to be in it for 5 years would- in a lot of ways- actually set you back. Notice the part about the written thesis/defending your thesis in front of the whole faculty for two hours... candidacy summed up more or less.

from the University of Missouri, Columbia MFA program

Student Evaluation

The full graduate faculty of the Art Department reviews every MFA candidate once each year to determine the rate of progress. If the candidate fails to receive a passing evaluation during the review, which must be an average score of seven (7) or higher, the student is placed on probation for one semester and is required to be reviewed the following semester. If two consecutive unsatisfactory reviews occur, the student is dismissed from the MFA program.

During the semester prior to graduation, the student must receive clearance from their MFA graduate committee to write the thesis and to mount the thesis exhibition in order to graduate. A two-part thesis is required, which must include:

A thesis exhibition selected and installed by the MFA candidate to display visual, artistic and professional achievement.
A written thesis that defends the conceptual and philosophical ideas of the visual artwork. Photographic record of the pieces discussed must be included in the written thesis.

Each degree candidate must pass a two-hour oral examination that focuses on the aspects of their academic study related to the thesis and visual work.

The time limit for completion of the MFA degree is five (5) years. Time spent in military service is excluded. For an extension for other reasons the student must petition the Graduate School through his/her primary advisor.

The five-year period will extend from the beginning of the first semester of enrollment in which the student is accepted to the MFA degree program to the date of his/her clearance to graduate.

bloggin

2008-05-22T08:31:00.012-05:00

I don't think I'm addicted to blogging but I got scared today. I read this article from the nytimes magazine about this girl who is my age and has become so immersed in the blogging world that it is her job, her social life, her religion. That led me to examine my own blog to see if I was guilty of any of the same patterns or things she was writing about. That led me to examine my fellow photog's blogs to see if they were doing anything or all of the above. Well, it turns out, we all are. And some of us thrive off of it and others like me, well, I don't care much... yet.

On that note, here's a link to a fellow artist's blog/site/whatever thing that I think is the quintessential style of a certain 90's-html-nightmare design (for art nerds). I was made aware of this style last summer by brian ulrich whom I was so fortunate to have as a web design teacher. I've picked up on it ever since. It's kind of extraordinary and weird. It's so engaging, I looked at everything. I just wonder about making things for and putting things up on the internet (by things I mean fine art).

Being discovered via the internet is not how I ever envisioned becoming famous in the art world... google having a stake in everything you put up, i don't know, it seems fishy. I put a copyright stamp embedded in the metadata of my images but wtf does that mean to google? probably nothing.

colorado II

2008-05-07T12:29:00.015-05:00

Here's the latest images I've been working on from my Colorado trip. I've been a little slow to post them because a lot of them needed, and still need, a lot of work. I had a little light leak that burned the bottom right side of about a 1/3 of the negs. I've worked with them though and I think I've overcome the problem.

The critiques I've had recently with these photos has revolved around where to go next, literally. I'm gonna stay in the midwest for right now (to find some more "puny" landscapes) but I will be taking at least 2 trips this summer. hopefully one to the new york area and one out west again... maybe wyoming- maybe california, i don't know. I know one thing, traveling is the least of my worries for this project.

colorado I

2008-04-17T21:09:00.007-05:00

space

2008-04-02T17:52:00.009-05:00

the final frontier...

-from the nytimes recently.

starved rock

2008-03-29T10:31:00.010-05:00

rocky mountain pics coming soon...

I want one

2008-03-05T14:41:00.009-06:00

I was watching the election coverage on CNN last night and something really amazed me: John King's freakin awesome magical touch screen wall that he used to zoom in and out of states with close votes. They used it famously on super tuesday in february too. When Missouri's race was so close, Hillary had the lead all night but King could tell that Obama was going to take over because of where and how many votes were still coming in, instantly. Not only do I want one of these things, if I had any money and if it were public, I'd buy shares today. here's the demo video from the co. Perceptive Pixel

new landscapes

2008-02-19T18:07:00.011-06:00

capa

2008-01-27T22:38:00.000-06:00

in case you missed it. from the new york times today...

The Capa Cache

“The Falling Soldier” by Robert Capa

The discovery has sent shock waves through the photography world, not least because it is hoped that the negatives could settle once and for all a question that has dogged Capa’s legacy: whether what may be his most famous picture — and one of the most famous war photographs of all time — was staged. Known as “The Falling Soldier,” it shows a Spanish Republican militiaman reeling backward at what appears to be the instant a bullet strikes his chest or head on a hillside near Córdoba in 1936. When the picture was first published in the French magazine Vu, it created a sensation and helped crystallize support for the Republican cause.

Doubts about the photograph have persisted. In part this is because Capa made no pretense of journalistic detachment during the war and was known to photograph staged maneuvers, a common practice at the time. The discovery of a negative, especially in the original sequence showing all the images taken before and after the shot, could end the debate. 

Photo: Robert Capa/I.C.P. Collection

betty

2008-01-08T11:13:00.001-06:00

I recently had the pleasure of seeing six Gerhard Richter paintings in the same room at the St. Louis Art Museum. Anyone who has the chance should go see them. You can get right up to "Betty" without the alarms going off and four of the gray abstraction paintings are up right next to her. The focus on the twist of the shoulder is so tight it really is amazing.

Last semester I wrote a paper for a contemporary painting and sculpture class about "Betty" and Richter's collective body of work. I was really intrigued by the idea of subverting painting or rather saying that painting has become redundant because of what Richter has accomplished.

The bottom image is from Tim Davis' "Permanent Collection" series. I don't know what I think of it.

6 new photos

2007-12-19T14:42:00.000-06:00

men

2007-12-09T13:45:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-20T08:23:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-19T09:09:00.003-06:00

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

2007-11-12T08:48:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-01T23:23:00.001-05:00

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...

2007-09-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-21T00:16:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-07T20:00:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-04T13:07:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-02T21:29:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-01T23:20:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-31T22:25:00.000-05:00

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.