sweet avenue

princeton

2011-07-14T21:49:00.000-04:00

this place used to serve rabbit stew and fried rattlesnake.

dirty laundry

2011-06-27T21:37:00.000-04:00

today i did a shoot with a wonderful artist and friend. her recent body of work has been based of stereotypical housewives and the many duties associated with them. i had this idea for a shoot incorporating her work (silk screened tea cloths and silk screened panties), with her playing the role of the anti-housewife, still performing household "duties" but in a bitter and non glamorous way.

2011-06-22T13:55:00.000-04:00

as i begin to go through me edit pool of images for my duo exhibit coming up soon, i'm starting to see my work in a whole new light. right now i feel that my work has no particular "theme" mostly i'm shooting what i find interesting and hope the camera finds it just as interesting as i do. i haven't been shooting as much as i probably should, but i feel like the exhibit will come together nicely with a combination of holga images and some digital images (portraits kind of reflecting wesley's style of painting).

this particular image just came to me when i was looking at my work. both the composition and color of the two images work so well together... not to mention the vines in the window resemebling that of the nest the baby bird is in. i also particularly like the contrast of geometric and organic shapes between the two images. it's a very serene balance.

thoughts? critiques?

church of christ

2011-06-10T14:52:00.000-04:00

i'm still trying to decide if i actually like this image. what i find most interesting about has nothing to do with the original reason for why i took the image. i was driving past this church and felt the urge to shoot this because of the starch white with the big "Church of Christ" text, but what i enjoy more about the image is the use of negative space with the church, trees and sky. the simplicity of the colors i really love as well.

south of the border

2011-05-31T09:14:00.000-04:00

i'm currently reading tom robbins' book another roadside attraction. it seems obvious that i should make a post about one of my personal favorite roadside attractions in the south east (on I-95, just south of the NC state line), which is "south of the border." my first visit there was with friends on our way to richmond, va. i didn't understand their enthusiasm about it at first and honestly i was still confused when we made it there and it was just this huge weird place with roller coaster rides and cheap memorabilia. but driving back by it this past weekend i was excited and amused with how awesome the place was, in that weird, roadside attraction kind of way.

on a side note: this was taken with my iPhone. for the longest time i sort of hated people that used the instagram app and that kind of stuff. i still feel like it's over used, but i'm also in love with the app. it's not the app that makes the photo, it's knowing how to take the photo right in the first place and knowing how to apply the right filter, etc to get the desired image. this may go up in my art show in september.

"i like nonsense, it wakes up the braincells"

2011-05-16T20:05:00.000-04:00

man i'm slack. i just realized i haven't posted since the vagina pepper. i'm shooting, trust me. mostly commercially. i have had 2 weddings and a couple of portraits.

i've been on the road a lot. driving to atlanta and back a bit. every time i go there, i take a different route. driving is (usually) very therapeutic for me. the last drive ended with me blowing a tire on the highway and spending a good bit of my day finding a tire... but there were positive things that came out of that day, so i'm happy. i'm heading back that way friday and visiting some small towns i drove through a while back and wanted to photograph.

summer session has started. it's weird how being in school automatically sparks my creativity. it's like my brain goes into hibernation when i'm done with classes. i've had ideas i wanted to work with, but no motivation to start it. i have 4 months until my and wesley's exhibit at the arts center, so i need to get to work.

so i guess i should follow up on the baby birds i photographed a while back. maybe i posted this... i don't remember. one morning i came outside and buffy was playing with a couple of the baby birds that had fallen out of the nest. i was grateful that the other birds had made it to safety. i was getting ready to dispose of the birds when i saw how beautiful they were there together. it was kind of serene and kind and soft... just dead. i spent about 10 minutes photographing the (dead) birds. it's not often that you get to be so close to them to see the beauties of the feathers and the birds themselves.

red bell

2011-04-27T17:06:00.000-04:00

so today i got this great idea for a new body of work... and it involves the female reproductive system, sexuality and the history of vibrators. i haven't fully put together an idea about it. i'm still in research and brainstorm mode... but LO AND BEHOLD when i was prepping my lunch, my bell pepper assured me i was on the right track with this new body of work.

2011-04-26T18:59:00.000-04:00

i think the reason i love this triptych so much is because i have a hilarious dialog going on in my head every time i look at this. i really need to explore color holga portraits more.

rest

2011-04-16T09:50:00.000-04:00

nurture nature

2011-04-15T20:15:00.000-04:00

man, these baby birds make me want to go out and photograph them every day. they aren't even a week old and i'm amazed at how fast they are growing. thankfully the mama was out getting food earlier this evening when i walked by the nest. all the babies were sleeping. it was so peaceful.

2011-04-13T20:53:00.000-04:00

there's a bird's nest in my back yard, literally on my fence. i've been looking into the nest daily to see of these beautiful blue eggs have hatched yet, and today i discovered three little hatchlings in the nest. they are so creepy looking but so beautiful.

passing memory

2011-03-25T08:56:00.001-04:00

i used this image the other day as an opener for my presentation on my body of work "nostalgia." there's such a uneasy feeling about this image and it's a timeless photograph. even though this photograph was taken in 2010, it could almost fit any time era of the past century.

working with my holga is great. while i feel a lot of times that it's a "fad" kind of thing for many people, for me, it's what fits my style best. i love crisp, beautiful photographs for my commercial work, but with my art, i'm drawn to the imperfections and "accidents" that come from the holga.

walk

2011-03-17T20:50:00.000-04:00

man i love this.

things left unchanged

2011-03-11T09:28:00.001-05:00

this house amazed me. whoever lived here before just put layers and layers of wall paper all over the house. my guess is maybe it was used for insulation. we even found receipts (in layers) nailed to the wall dated 1963. my guess is that year was the last time that home was inhabited.

i'm pretty sure this image will be in my and wesley's upcoming exhibit "create.destroy.create."

quick shop

2011-03-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

i'm still working on the layout. i photographed this the other day on my way home from atlanta. i really loved the textures and patterns in the insulation. and, naturally, i love the hand painted shop name on the building. i need to find my photographs from this spot that i took in 2005ish. time changes everything

hmm. i'm sensing a pattern.

2011-03-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

abandoned

2011-02-21T10:15:00.000-05:00

homes once lived in, but now abandoned and left to become one with nature, these houses hold such character, from the many belongings left behind to the peeling layers of wall paper.

shoals junction

2011-02-14T19:08:00.000-05:00

i love adventuring on roads i'm unfamiliar with. i came across this gem when i was taking my daughter to a friend's the other day.

welcome to the family

2011-02-04T23:17:00.000-05:00

my daughter and i got a puppy a week and a half ago. her name is buffy and she's a lab/boxer mix. i'm extremely impressed with her temperament and how great she's doing with house training. i've been too busy with work and school to take many photographs, not to mention most of what i shoot is film and i'm slow to fill a roll and get it developed.

the cats weren't too keen on the new addition, but are slowly getting use to her. jasper (on the roof of the garage) has yet to come in the house to socialize and tonks (the creeper in the last photo) has exiled herself to my bedroom dresser. hopefully we will all live in harmony soon.

good news.

2011-01-23T12:04:00.000-05:00

this week i found out one of my holga images made it into the rayko gallery's annual plastic camera exhibit. i submitted 3 pieces for the juried exhibit, hoping to get in. this exhibit is the biggest one of the san fransisco gallery. thousands of submissions are sent in and only a few are chosen for the actual exhibit. it feels really awesome to have my work chosen for such a big event and if the print sells, it will feel even more awesome to know my print is hanging in a stranger's collection somewhere out west.

playdate

2011-01-19T00:06:00.000-05:00

this is one of the last images taken for my (still in progress) "nostalgia" body of work. with this body of work, i've been working on sorting through my childhood both literally and metaphorically. many of my images are left to interpretation, but have a clear and concise meaning to me.

this doll was actually a loaner doll a friend let me borrow for this shoot. i must have stared at her for weeks before shooting her. i played with barbies a lot when i was a child, but they always ended up naked and discarded. what i love most about this image, though is the asymmetrical balance with the leaf and the figure, both creating an implied triangle. that was not intentional, but it's an awesome thing that happened.

salvation

2011-01-17T12:19:00.000-05:00

and, no, i don't mean langston hughes or the cranberries, but i do mean the salvation army.

i came across this horse a couple of months ago when i went to the salvation army to peruse the books and other random stuff in the store. as i was pulling into the parking lot, i saw a lady drop off this awesome horse. the wind was blowing his mane, the sun was beaming down on him creating a nice back lit silhouette. i almost started kicking myself in the ass for not having my camera on me. i ALWAYS HAVE A CAMERA ON ME. so i went in the store, did my shopping then sat in my car staring at this horse trying to figure out what i could use to photograph him... and if should/was it worth it. i started searching my car and found a fuji quicksnap camera and walked over and snapped a few frames of this guy. he's probably one of my current favorite images right now.

boy and toys

2011-01-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

over the break i baby sat for a friend of mine. if you follow my blog, you will see that her children show up in a lot of my photographs. there is something so unique about their personality, looks, etc that draws me to always want to photograph them.

the above photograph of alex was taken with my holga. he had brought over a small toy rifle that he played with every time we went outside. toy guns freak me out. anyway, when i unloaded the roll from my camera, i realized the film was super loose, so i knew that the roll was going to be light fogged. there was a TON of fogging in the roll, but it worked out great for this image.

hrm

2011-01-15T16:32:00.000-05:00

well, for the longest time i thought this blog was down due to something wrong.. virus? spyware? i don't know. so, i've been rather hesitant to post anything or go to the blog because i didn't know how to fix any of it. there's so much new stuff to post and i don't really know where to begin. i may begin with the new(er) stuff and work backwards.

i feel as though i have become one with my holga. last semester i shot my entire portfolio with my holga. it had its positive and negative points, but for the most part, i put together the most cohesive and strongest pieces of personal work to date. i'm excited about it and can't wait to continue to explore this avenue of nostalgia (more to come on that).

the above image was taken sometime last year or maybe even 2009, i think i took it right before heading to cairo, il. but i found this roll in my desk the other day and scanned it yesterday. i love the color in this. my reasons for avoiding color film lately has mainly been due to the financial aspect of it.... buying it, getting it developed, etc. plus, there is no decent lab in this town that develops 120 film.

cindy sherman on her work

2010-12-03T10:40:00.004-05:00

I was feeling guilty in the beginning; it was frustrating to be successful when a lot of my friends weren't.Also, I was constantly being reminded of that by people in my family making jokes, like "Oh, yes, she's still just dressing up like she did when she was a kid,” or "It doesn't take any brains to be doing what she's doing."So I guess I was thinking, maybe I am still just dressing up, because I don't theorize when I work.I would read theoretical stuff about my work and think, "What? Where did they get that?"The work was so intuitive for me, I didn't know where it was coming from.So I thought I had better not say anything or I'd blow it.

Cindy Sherman

Art Photography Now

Susan Bright, Editor, p. 25