Spinning

Went to a spinning class with Kat today at a place in Manhattan called Flywheel. I have not worked that hard since doing the New York Marathon before Ollie was born. I felt lightheaded and nauseous in the shower. Eggs benedict and lots of coffee afterwards cured my shaking. I can see why people go to classes to work out, it really ups the ante.

Ollie comes home tomorrow afternoon, and I hope to get some shooting done before that. I've been experimenting with some different website hosting services, and I think I found one that will work for showcasing my final work. I will also probably migrate this blog to the new web address as well, but I'll be sure to let you all know in advance. This is another final image that I'll be showing on the new website.

Take My Hand

I've finally got some final or close to final scans done of some of the images I have managed to finalize over the past few years, and I am checking out different options for a website to host them on, so you all can have a look. One is above. I remembered that I am a person who knows how to make realized images on film. It really has been exciting to see these high resolution film images all sharp and tough looking. No sweet and fuzzy Polaroids here.

Ollie is away for the week so I've been literally working solid for three days, what an amazing luxury. It feels like a residency, only I'm in Brooklyn and no one is bringing me lunch in a basket.

Sunday February 19th, 2012

Today was a day totally dedicated to art. After my run I spent the morning sketching, setting up and prepping props. Sometimes it is a challenge just thinking through how to actually make these images happen in real space. All this extra careful prep was needed because I had a model coming over, my old artist friend Kelly. She was a most patient model. She levitated, she put foreign objects in her mouth, she reached for the moon, and she never complained. Above is a test from one of the shots.

It was so great to have Kelly over--not only did I get to work hard on shooting, but we caught up on art.. Kelly is brilliant and her comments about my work are still in my mind.

Shannon Taggart and Sam Comen

So happy to announce that out of three recent awards for excellency in photography, two of them went to some of my favorite photographers, Shannon Taggart and Sam Comen. This also includes me, as the photo editor, in the Photography/Single Photos contest from Society for News Design (SND).

This is a great affirmation, as I love these two and consider them some of my best collaborators. It is really nice to see the work acknowledged. Above are the photos that won-- Shannon's image (bottom) is of a magician, Mark Setteducati. Both were done for the Creating section of the WSJ weekend edition.

If you can't trumpet your achievements on your own blog, where can you?

Powerhouse Review 2012

Maciej Markowicz, a young Polish photographer, was my hands-down favorite from the review. I was impressed by the way his projects combined disciplined consistency and clear, engaging ideas. The projects reflect a kind of humanistic inquiry. Often work that is idea-driven, or dominated by technique can be one dimensional and boring. That was not the case here.

The above image is from his recent ongoing series Families. The images are super-impositions of family members. The photos are laid over each other digitally, after the images are made--these are not double exposures made in real time. In some cases, as in the image here, "Son, age 13 and Father, age 49", a third face seems to emerge from the blending of the two.

Another Beauty from Caleb Charland and Friend

This image is from "Artifacts & Particles," an exhibition that is the result of a collaboration by Caleb Charland + Peter Gruner Schellenberger. I don't know how this was made, but apparently Schellengerger likes to expose his images using uranium (how does one get the stuff?). From what I can gather, Charland and Schellenberger started images individually and then traded them with the other to finish them..

Reviewed at the Powerhouse portfolio review today. It was a relatively short day as these things go, and I saw a few things I liked. Post about my favorite work from today to come. I also saw some stuff that was all gimmick and cliche...Which wouldn't be so bad by itself. What makes it aggravating is that some of these folks are making money selling the cliches--and they DO NOT want to hear that they can do better. They want you to know how successful they are already, doing exactly what they are doing, and they only want to hear praise or see if you can make a connection for them.

In the Gloaming

I've outsourced the cleaning of my house, after picking up some extra freelance work. Between the cleaning lady, and ordering groceries online I've been able to reclaim some time for my studio. However, so far the results have been mixed. Last weekend I was shooting something involving a mirror. Things were already not going well when suddenly the mirror exploded into shards under the pressure of the plastic clamp after an hour of shooting.. I gave up and went on a date.

Today I spent pretty much the entire day except for my morning run and eating lunch trying to make a good picture. It just didn't happen.. As the light was fading, I managed something more interesting. A test from that set above. (This post has been updated with an image from the contact sheet)

In other news, my first video interview for The Wall Street Journal is online. Taking the interview on set during our photo shoot was tremendous fun, relinquishing final creative control to the WSJ video team was not.