Everything Ends

All that I have ben doing is personal (obviously), and has revolved around exploring and engaging all of the aspects of my life that I don't normally focus on. I find myself drawn to places/objects/functions of my life are all very present from day to day, so much so that they are usually over looked. Where I live, the car I drive, where I work and what I watch on tv.

More than just documenting my life, however, these things that I've been shooting are all somehow pillars in my life. The things that hold it up, and they have begun to crumble. Making photographs of these things that are personal and somehow conveying that has been most challenging. Everything from my house to my car, and even the tv set have been very present in my life for the past six years, and each, in its own right, is dying slowly.

Now I'm thinking about how I want to present them in June, and which ones I want to make larger prints of. I have made test prints of everything worth keeping, and will also bring those, but will only actually be presenting a handful in a much larger format.

That's What You Get

So, another month has passed, and the clock is ticking away. June is not far enough away to do all that I want to, but I have been fervently continuing both series of images.

I know at some point these two series are going to find a way to merge into one, but I think that's still a ways off yet. My work has been evolving and changing more and more lately. I have almost completely phased out shooting film and have gone all digital, and I have stopped doing black and white as well. I feel that the work I am making is only being accurately expressed, in part, through my use of color.

More on this later...

Another paper is up as well...

Birth and Death and Rebirth

Blogging is difficult without the internet. Anyway, I have been shooting alot, and have been continuing both projects that I have been working on. I've included images from Both. One is a set of images taken off my TV screen, and it is growing in interesting ways. There is just something compelling to me about taking high resolution digital images of my screen that is so low quality. It's old, and not even that good when it was new. They are both abstract and strangely familiar at the same time.

I've been thinking about what drives us these days, and how technology has become a sort of religion. People gathered like the flock, listening to the television gods to instruct them on how to live, what to buy, where to eat and what cholestorol medicine will help them most. I just read a novel by Neil Gaimen called American Gods that deals with concepts similar to that. The old Gods of Earth and sky have died, only to be supplanted by the new Gods made of wire and silicon, and this has influenced my thinking quite a bit.

The other series is dealing with more directly personal subject matter, and I am using mostly film to shoot it. In the last week or so, I have branched out into some digital imaging as well, however. I am exploring my everyday world, and the things that surround me on a more regular basis. These images are starting to become more abstract, and I feel are getting closer to what I am trying to say.

It started when I was still shooting at the beach, and I realized that I had become more interested in what I encountered on my way there, rather than on what I found once I arrived. The journey was what was really engaging me. Taking this into consideration, I took many of the images while commuting, and often from behind the wheel of my car. Both projects are shaping up, and I feel like they're heading in a direction that will eventually cause them to somehow merge.

Also I posted my latest paper (does anyone actually read them?...)

Fare the Well

Took another trip down to New York to meet with my Mentor, and it went quite well. I left feeling pretty good about what I'm doing, and completely ok with shifting gears as much as I have. So long for now, Winthrop Beach.

So my new direction is a little more stripped down, and a little less conceptual. The meaning is there, but I'm going to have to sift awhile longer to fully understand it. I hesitate to say too much before I am where I want to be, but these are a couple examples that I actually took on my trip out.

I stayed with a super cool friend who lives not too far outside the city, and got these while wondering around where she lives. Until next time all...

Time is Running Out

There aren't enough hours in the day it seems, lately. I have been doing stuff nonstop, and going and going and going, but I don't really feel I have all that much to show for it. I'll be meeting with Dan in another couple weeks, and am very worried that I haven't done enough.

These days are just too packed lately, and I still don't feel like I have ironed out all the wrinkles in my time management strategy (mostly because I don't really have a time management strategy, but whatever).

I have deviated far from course lately, and haven't even been to the beach in a month. Instead I have been experimenting with a bunch of different ideas, and trying all of the random stuff that has been popping into my head. Random, I know.

One of the things that caught my mind was taking pictures of the images on my television screen. This has led to some interesting images and ideas, and has evolved in a few different ways already. I think its kind of interesting to use my high resolution digital camera to create these really strange low-fi images from my old CRT television.

I have also been shooting alot of film, and scanning it into my computer. Then I have been blowing them up on my screen, and reshooting it with my digital (sort of like artistic copy work). Often times I am leaving the pointer or other icons in the images, and I'm finding it adds an interesting dimension. I still plan on shooting more at the beach, however. I hope it's a good thing that I'm a little all over the place at the moment.

Also, I posted my second paper, just click the link to the right if you would like to check it out.

Darkened Wood

I met with my mentor for the first time yesterday. It went well. It was my first trip ever down to NYC, and all in all, it was pretty amazing. I'm left with a whole lot of questions though, and after meeting with Dan I think that I am seeing things a little differently.

Lately I've been drowning a little bit, and feeling in over my head. So much so, that I am stalling. I've been getting too caught up in all the other stuff that goes along with doing what we're doing, and forgetting where to start. I think that I've been so worried about having huge ideas, and conceptual motivations that I've gotten ahead of myself. I need to strip down and pull back a little bit.

Meeting with Dan reminded me where it all comes from: within. My solution is to relax a little bit and just let myself do what feels right. I'm going to be less concerned with feeling so much pressure to create a particular type of something, and just create. I need to go out and shoot as much as I can, and then worry about some of the other stuff. That's just how I function, and I know that's the only way that I'm going to create anything worth anything.

I guess the real trouble I am having is bridging the gap. I get self expression. I get Larger concepts. Reconciling the two is where I seem to have problems. Turning these vehicles of self into something that actually has a greater meaning or importance. It's funny, because I know how to do it, I've done it before, but thinking about it too much before hand has ground my gears to a shuddering halt.

I've got to get out there and just do what feels right.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I have finished my Residency Summary, and will be posting it just as soon as I figure out how.

Also, I believe that I have figured out who my mentor is going to be. JOY!

That is all for now. Please go away.

Thank You and Good Night