This is Not Optimal

It's amazing what boredom can turn into. Sometimes I feel like I need to get bored in order to be productive. As I was agonizing over what to post up this month, I started playing around with an image I shot this past week. Initially I started with something like this:



I wasn't really all that crazy about it, but I felt the idea was good but it just needed a little something. I looked at it again and thought to myself "that snow should be white," and when it was, it immediately it made me feel logically better. The city never really looks like this in real life (or not at night anyway), but for some reason this is how my mind wants it to be. When I look at this image the way that it is now, I can actually remember the kind of cold it felt like. It felt like a good day, to be inside.

Meditations on this Passing Life

Sometimes you have to take pictures you think no one will care about. Though it seems like I actually have some readers now, and many a friend have commented kindly on the surrealism inspired work that you will find on this blog. What many don't seem to know is that these are more recent developments in my work. Much of techniques and inspiration for that work actually comes from straight photography (photographs that attempt to depict the world as the eye sees it). In fact if you look back to the earliest posts in this blog, you will find that my background is firmly rooted in straight photography, and mostly a bunch of pictures of my stuff.

This is a theme that I periodically return to, and for several reasons. I once had a class with a professor in undergrad, who challenge us to make interesting photographs of our homes. This is much easier said than done, because it requires you to look at the mundane things that you take for granted, and estrange them, making them interesting again. In short, this forces one stop, slow down, and take the time to notice the simple beauty that can be found all around us.

These two mattresses have been sitting in my hallway since I moved into this apartment in June of last year. As I walk by them everyday, I think to myself "we really need to do something about those mattresses" and then naturally I will do nothing. But on one such occasion, as I was walking by yesterday. I noticed how elegantly the light coming in from the window was hitting these mattresses, and felt compelled to stop and capture the moment. As I have learned by now, in life, if you do not stop to appreciate the little things when they are put before you, the opportunity may be lost forever.

My Camera is Broken

My camera broke earlier this month and I haven't been able to make any new work. I was however, able to get some stuff shot for my senzaburu project around thanksgiving, thanks to my friend Billy the Kim Strong Ill. This is one of the test shots from that shoot.

It's been a while since I have been photographing portraits of other people, but I think this is probably one of my best. Most of the time you work really hard to find that one picture, out of thousands, that works the way you want it to work. Then sometimes it just drops into your lap in a single shot, making you feel kinda stupid for working so hard. This would be closer to the latter.

Seeing as it has finally snowed in Boston, I will be focusing on completing my senbazuru project for the next few months. Because of the seasonal nature of that project, if I do not finish it this winter I would have to wait another year to complete it. So if you don't see much new work from me in the next month or so, be patient, it'll come, and it'll be filled with awesome.