Friday, December 19, 2008

CTWWWTB



TA calling me out on this blog:

"Just reminds me how totally lame it is that you abandoned that potentially rich project just because someone frowned at it at Review Santa Fe.

This was your opportunity to do something great.

What's going on with "Closer To Where We Want To Be?" Are you going to revisit this way of seeing?"


I think Review Santa Fe was an incredibly intense and productive experience for me. I came out with the understanding that the series did not hold together as a coherent body of work and that I needed to start over.

When I tried to explain to the reviewers that I was trying to divorce the imagery from content and make pictures that dealt more indirectly with feelings of alienation and loneliness regardless of what the camera was pointed at -I was met with almost universal confusion.

In addition , after spending many hours looking at the work of my fellow attendees it became clear how far my work had to go before I could even call it a project. It lacked a clear cohesive structure.

I learned a lot while working on CTWWWTB. I learned how I wanted to deal with space within the frame, what kind of light and color I am interested in and the emotion I want to communicate. Now all that is left to decide is what to shoot.

I have been sidetracked by the Florida pictures, making a living, raising a family , the office project and most recently by Sunday Morning. But I have not forgotten about what I learned at Review Santa Fe. Soon I will take out the big camera and sit and wait for that sliver of light and time and will once again try and make something out of nothing.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Sunday Morning #2


Shot another version of this series I am working on . This time with Archibald dream team member Suzy Poling as the model.

Friday, December 12, 2008

APA Party and hiding in plain sight


I went to the Annual APA party last night. I spent most of the night dodging vendors trying to sell me stuff I didn't want to buy. I limped around the cavernous space doing laps among the different rooms.
Earlier in the week I started playing pickup soccer after a 20 year hiatus and was pretty sore.

On the first day I felt like I was going to pass out after 20 minutes and after 30 I thought I might throw up . I stepped off the field and onto the side walk looking for a secluded place between the cars in case I needed it. After a few minutes I felt better and went back in the game.

"You back for good this time?" The leader asked.
"For sure. I haven't played for 20 years and am doing my best."

These same guys played twice a week and I knew if I quit they wouldn't let me play again. But if I kept running at full speed for another 40 minutes I wasn't going to make it.
Gasping , I went up to a big heavy set guy and asked him, "This guys is a maniac. No breaks!"
"You've got to find a place to be on the field where you can catch your breath" he replied.
"Hide me. You"ve got to hide me. I think I'm going to die."
"I usually hide in the goal but you've got to wait your turn."

Eventually I learned the best place to hide was to make sure I was as far away as possible from the ball at all times. That way there was never a foward to be guarded or a ball to be chased down.

The next time I played I only limped for 24 hours

Monday, December 1, 2008

Sunday Morning




Here are couple scans of contact sheets from the other day. I need to pick another image for Archive and am leaning towards the shot with rain gear.