New Work

I am looking forward to some solid studio time hopefully soon. I have been photographing for the past few weeks, I now need to look at this new project before I make some decisions. I have been photographing the trash in the dumpsters and the alley behind my house. For a time I focused on why we keep our possessions and I am still intrigued by how people make those choices why inanimate objects carry such importance. However, since moving to Denver I have been amazed that particularly the alley behind my block is filled with furniture and mountains of trash every week. A few things play into that, there is a mix of socioeconomic backgrounds in the neighborhood, as well as I believe people come from the next town over and dump illegally into our dumpsters creating more trash than what could possibly come from this small block radius.
I hope to set up a time lapse camera in the next month to capture even more changes. In the meantime I have been photographing everyday till about a week ago. Looking and observing for what as changed from one day to the next.

I was intrigued when I watched the film Waste Land by the artist Vik Muniz, http://www.wastelandmovie.com/ his project documents the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho located outside of Rio de Janeiro. He collaborates with the pickers to recreate photographic images of themselves out of the garbage/recyclable materials they collect. A very powerful film and the images are beautiful. It was interesting to see how another artist who I admire dealt with trash in a completely different way.

Show!

I got one of my cell phone images in a show that opens in July. Can You See Me Now: Photos Made on Phones, http://www.artspaceatuntitled.org/exhibitions/index.cfm?page=upcoming

The show will be at Artspace at Untitled in Oklahoma City, OK. Pretty excited to be part of this show, as I have been working an experimenting with the iPhone as another tool for my photography, images taken from my phone can be found on my Tumblr blog http://myexposure.tumblr.com/

Looking forward to more photographing this summer and more to come. Above is the image that is in the show.

The Sketchbook Tour continues and more..

I participated in The Sketchbook Project: 2011 through Art House Co-op. My book is still currently on tour around the country with around 10,000 other sketchbooks check out the dates, http://www.arthousecoop.com/sketchbookproject2011

Meanwhile I continue to think about my own work and how I need to be photographing more. The spring has been busy with other parts of life and I want to be making more time for my photography. The project I embarked on this year documenting the differences between Boston and Denver has been an important part of my transition, however, now I feel it's relevance is not as important. The project was a good leap for me to make new work but it did not have a voice. While I could push the project further to gain that voice I don't feel that the work is there. Instead I need to push myself further. What can I do next that will translate my own voice but still be a meaningful and contemporary project? So I have been considering the enormous question of excites me and what do I want to be photographing?

My MFA focused around the objects we possess and why we keep and attach meaning to them. While I needed take a break from that work, I still find myself intrigued by our possessions what we keep what we throw away. Especially as I made this large move across the country and my fiancee and I made choices about what would not fit in the POD to be moved. Again I considered what we discard from what we keep. Behind my house is a shared alley with large dumpsters, I am continually amazed at the amount of objects, possessions, and trash that fill and overfill the dumpsters each week. I know it's not the same all over the city and yet I can't stop looking at the piles of furniture, TVs and other discarded possessions.

So I am intrigued by our current consumption of everything. I found this website while I researched for my thesis, The Story of Stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com/ upon doing a quick search I found another blog Consumption and Consumerism http://www.globalissues.org/issue/235/consumption-and-consumerism there will be more research and images to come. I look forward to seeing where this will take me.

In a funk

As I work on this new body of work exploring the changes and differences between Boston and Denver, I feel as though I have hit a wall. I was feeling so inspired after SPE and I have been doing more research which has helped and frustrated me.

My voice needs to come through more in the work which is something I have heard before. So what is my voice is what I'm working on now. My focus has been around my change in environment and space, naturally I moved to a totally different part of the country than where I had been. But as I read more and consider landscape photography, I have to also acknowledge changes within photography and how much the landscape has already been documented. How do I make the work my own?

I consider changes in our technology, iPhone, Tumblr, Facebook, the list goes on. I considered this more after reading the article On (Digital) Photography: Sontag, 34 Years Later http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/magazine/mag-08Riff-t.html
I recently purchased an iPhone and I find myself documenting with that a lot and posting images to Tumblr, I think about it as another way to be thinking about the space that I occupy. However, it also makes me consider that I need to change the focus of my project? More to consider but the research and reading has been great!

Gallery at Open Press Ltd.

I had the great opportunity to get into a juried photography show that was part of Denver's Month of Photography in March http://monthofphotography.blogspot.com/. The show was at Open Press http://www.openpressltd.com/ in Denver and was part of the show Weekend in Prints. I was pretty excited because Mark the owner decided to keep the show up for the whole month. My photographs are the two on the far right.

Recently I have been doing research for my new body of work. I need to shoot more for this project. As I mentioned in an earlier post I started a tumblr account and I have been taking photographs with my iPhone and posting an image everyday to my tumblr account. I find it's another way to push myself to be looking constantly. As well as thinking about new areas to photograph in Denver.

SPE and spring break

Went to the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) national conference in Atlanta this year. It was a great opportunity to see talks, panels, etc. To also get my new body of work reviewed. It was great to meet with people and have a dialogue about my work. Still have shooting to do and some things to tweak with the new project. But I am excited for a new body of work. I have lots of notes I need to spend some time reviewing and think about where I need to make more changes with this new body of work.

This week I have been in Southern California on break. Just decided to take advantage of another blog feature. I'm started an account with tumblr and I hope to post pictures everyday another way to keep me shooting. Now that I have an iPhone I am pushing how I can make images and use technology in another way.

More soon...

New Tumblr site:
www.myexposure.tumblr.com

The AIB MFA alumni show is traveling

MFAconnects@POSTAIB.edu
March 29 - April 30, 2011
Hargate Gallery at St. Paul's School
Concord, NH
Opening Reception: Friday, April 1, 2011 6-8 pm

The Sketchbook Project 2011 tour

This year I participated in the Sketchbook Project through Art House co-op. I had the opportunity to choose a theme and then was sent a small moleskin sketchbook. My theme was Down Your Street, I used this as an opportunity to further explore my new home as I photographed new work focusing on the changes in the landscape from Boston to Denver.

Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums on a tour across the country. After the tour the sketchbooks will enter the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library. The tour began in February, 2011 above are some pictures taken by my Mom.
Check out this link http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/exhibitions with dates for the following cities:
Brooklyn, NY
Portland, ME
Austin, TX
Atlanta, GA
Washington, DC
Seattle, WA
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
Winter Park, FL

New Work coming together

So I have two pieces in a show this week. I have been working to edit and get my new body of work ready to bring to SPE. It's still a work in progress but it's exciting to have something new. I am working on updating my website and just getting things together which feels really good.

Sketchbook Project opens soon...

So I have been busy working on new work, I need to get my portfolio in order to go to SPE. Also I want to update my website lots of studio goals.

I participated in the sketchbook project and that show opens soon in NYC so exciting check out the tour dates http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/exhibitions

Other than that loving Colorado living!

2011 Here we go!

Exciting things to look forward to this spring! I had a snow day today from work which was fantastic. I was able to finish my sketchbook project which was a ton of fun to work on just wish I hadn't left it till the last minute.
I am so excited I will be able to attend the SPE National Conference this year in Atlanta. It's a good push to work on my portfolio so I have work to be critiqued at the conference! Then I want to spend the spring sending my work to galleries in Denver. Lot's do and meanwhile getting in some time in the mountains. Really loving living in Colorado.