A Transient Rumination

Student Work

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:26:45 +0000

I’m going to start posting some of my student’s work, so that they can see how fantastic they are. I’m teaching an Alternative Processes class and the students just completed their Cyanotype project. The Cyanotype process was invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, and practiced early by Anna Atkins, one of the first female photographers. Take a look at the work from Michele Ryan, Christa Betts, Victoria Miller, and Briana Burke. More to come later.

The Great Return

admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:34:27 +0000

It’s been some time since I’ve last visited my beloved blog. I’ve had good reason. My family has grown by two, and while I have been photographing the process of becoming a larger and more well rounded family unit, precious little has been presented in public. I’m also starting a new experiment with visual bloggin using Tumblr and would like to point to that site NOW

I’ll have some more thoughtful posts soon.

Interview

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:46:42 +0000

Back in May of this year, Dean Brierly, a freelance writer for B&W Magazine, as well as a number of other magazines through the years, interviewed me for his blog. You can find the full interview here. Enjoy.

Color As Emotion

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:39:33 +0000

From an academic perspective I’ve always thought that dissecting color, even organizing it in wheels only goes so far. Fundamentally, color is an emotional response-you do indeed have to feel it-it is primal, and visceral. It can make you shudder in horror, or it can make you giddy as a school girl in June, but we all need to realize that our response to color is fundamentally emotional. The way that a photographer uses color is as manipulative as it can get in our medium. Our interpretation of color is rooted in our psyche’s is therefore hard to control-it is a response on a primal level, and we are hard pressed to actually control our response to specific colors. Just consciously realizing these things changes how we choose to use color in our photography and changes how we control our color palettes in post production.

Color

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:04:35 +0000

Without a doubt, color is important-but for me the question has always been how much color needs to be in a photograph to make the image more evocative? Does it need to yell at the rafters that IT has arrived? Or can it be the smallest whisper, tickling that quiet place in the back of your mind? For me, color has never been about bold graphic statements or striking color fields, it’s been much more emotionally potent for me if color was used as a quiet wash throughout the image, a mellowing ingredient rather than an amplifying one. Much of my work has been described as black and white, because the color palettes are sometimes so subtle as to be misinterpreted as simply toned gelatin silver. Indeed some of my work is simply toned, but for me the quietness of a muted palette is surpassed by nothing at all-it is the best of both worlds. I don’t need color to fight for dominance in my own work because my work is not about color, it is about something intangible and introspective-therefore to me, color provides a connection to a certain mental state that the graphic and narrative qualities in my work support. Nothing more, nothing less.

Periphery

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:28:59 +0000

I’ve updated my site with some images that never made it into the final body of work for the Transience of Self series. I call it Periphery mainly because they always were on the edge of the main body of work and additionally because these were mostly exterior images created while I was trying to find my way back to the foundation of why I do what I do. They were necessary for bringing my work to the place it is now.

B&W Magazine June 2009 (Issue 67)

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:13:08 +0000

My Spotlight was just published and should be in stores now. I’m pretty stoked. It’s a four page deal with 1 page interview and 3 page portfolio. It starts on page 98!

The Necessity of Words

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:16:50 +0000

All visual artists need words. The word, whether written or spoken is the conduit that brings understanding in a deeper, more conscious way. We put photographs on the crit rail and what do we do? We talk about them. Occasionally we write about our work, in stumbling, jumbled prose we attempt to convey to others what our work means to us. Shouldn’t it be enough to let the photograph speak for itself? Do we not believe that our work has a voice of it’s own without adding ‘traditional’ language to the mix? I cannot deny that words do indeed help us clarify our own intention, but I still wonder why the photograph isn’t enough. Part of me wants to believe that there is work out there that does not require words to validate it’s existence. Some may point out the work of the great masters-that those works stand on their own, but our understanding of these works come from what has been written by others, so the question remains; is there intrinsic power inside a photograph that can negate the need for words?

MFA Spring Show

admin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:45:41 +0000

Here is some work that was in the 2008 Spring Show at the Academy of Art University.

News Update

admin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:47:11 +0000

I’ve been busy spreading around my most recent work. Here is a breakdown of the work that will be either in galleries or publications.

The Art In Nature Exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography
Award: Directors Selection
Juror: George Lepp

Issue 67 of BW Magazine: 4 page portfolio with 1 page bio
Award: Spotlight Winner

Idea of Self Exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography
Juror: Susan A Zadeh, editor in chief and artistic director of Eyemazing magazine

Artists Showcase Portfolio, Second Edition. Published in March 2009. 12 image portfolio.
Juror: Rixon Reed, founder of Photo-eye

I’m working on producing a substantial body of work in the palladium process as well that I intend to show in a regional gallery. We’ll see how it progresses over the next few months. Overall I’m stoked about the direction and recognition that has come my way after all these long years of working.