Treasure Hunting

I found this picture hidden away on my computer one afternoon while I was sorting through my old work to add to my portfolio. Sometimes I just make a picture, work on it until I'm happy with it, and then stash it away somewhere and forget about it only to rediscovered it at a later date. I call this treasure hunting. This would be a good example of such a photo.

I love this picture, which often baffles me because I don't think it's even any good. I think the subject matter is boring, and it doesn't really say anything about anything other than "look at the pretty clouds above my house." Nonetheless, every time I see this picture I always stop and stare at it for a good 30 seconds, and depending on my mood I think about how the clouds look that day.

In art school I learned about a photographer named Minor White who became the spiritual successor to Alfred Stieglitz's concept of "Equivalents." White argued that photography is like a mirror held up to humanity, a meditative object if you will which changes every time you look at it depending on your mood and how you feel about yourself that day. That is to say that White made some really abstract looking shit in the 50's and 60's which all kinda looks the same if you stare it long enough. I had a real disdain for this kind of work back then, and thought it was a sort of copout to leave the interpretation of a work completely open ended and give the viewer no direction whatsoever. To me, this was the artistic equivalent of dropping someone in the desert, kidney punching them, and then telling them to find their way home.

I have been told recently that in life "you kill what you love, and you become what you hate." I tend to really hate this kind of work, but for better or worse, I really really love this photo.

Concert Fail

Since graduating from art school a year ago this month, I have found myself completely unprepared for post graduate world. I have spent much of this past year bouncing from job to job while trying to scrap together some time and money to make more work/figure out this crazy photo business thing. I realize now that I have been going about this the wrong way, and that I should have just jumped first and asked questions later. In leaving the comforts of school, I had forgotten the most important lesson my professors had ever taught me: the road to success is paved with past failures.

When I first started photographing for Foundwaves, I was actively trying to fail. Not that I went out to actively produce shitty work, but rather I was trying to accomplish something I wasn't sure I could do. I applied for a position with Foundwaves despite very minimal experience shooting concert photography, and having next to zero exposure to it. This photo shot while on assignment for them from April, signifies my big "ah hah!" moment with concert photography. I have since then, become much more comfortable shooting shows, and will be preparing a portfolio of this work, along with other updates for my website by the end of the month.

The band featured here is called Dragonette, and this was shot during their performance at Great Scott's in Allston, MA on April 27, 2010. You can view the rest of the pics from the show on Foundwaves: here, and peep Dragonette on their site here.

Chicken and Beer 2010

This year's Chicken and Beer (a bboy jam with all you can eat chicken + all you can drink beer) was this past weekend in New York city. While I felt that this year's jam was a significant improvement over last year in terms of the logistics (bigger venue, better beer, more efficient beer distribution system). I have been told by many of the vets of the jam that the magic from the previous years seems to be gone now that people know about it. Although there were no random international bboys that showed up this year, I still had a lot of fun, both dancing and photographing the event.















My buddy Heat called out Loose Lee, a local NYC bboy. You might remember Heat from such posts as "Rolling with Heat" from my March 4, 2010 post. Heat didn't do so well here, but I tried my best to make it look like he did.