“And the early dawn cracks out a carpet of diamond
Across a cash crop car lot filled with twilight Coupe Devilles
Leaving the town in a-keeping of the one who is sweeping
Up the ghost of Saturday night”
Tom Waits, The Ghosts of Saturday Night
GG girl and BB
The Chew Year
Sometimes I just have too much work. Not school work, but i create so much I cant catch up with myself. I some ways it is an amazing problem to have and in other ways it feels debilitating, although I realize its always better to have too much rather than too little. The thing about me is, I never had to choose a creative lifestyle, I never had to choose to be a maker, it was a necessity. I lived in a town that was forty five minutes from the closest movie theater, hour from the closest mall, surrounded by soy bean fields, no internet until 2005, most of my peers could be found every night of the week playing drunken stick ball in the Mcdonald’s parking lot because literally they had nothing better to do. As much as I hated it in high school, Centreville very quietly shaped my core. Creation was a nature cure for boredom and in Centreville, if you dont drive a truck and act like a racist, then there is no “scene”. I did not even think about the terms art or “artist” relating to me, until I started filling out college applications junior year. Everything i had made before then (photographs, video, sculpture, paintings, music) existed for no one, but myself and my best friends. It was pure interest and influence. I can remember being twelve and spending hours lashing sticks together in the middle of the woods with vines, creating sculptures that Andy Goldsworthy could appreciate, the fifteen foot figure we erected and then named Mr. Precarious knowing well that it would disappear in the night without a trace. I created because I enjoyed doing. I was alive and exercising my creativity and imagination was the only affirmation of my vitality that I had. It seems so different now and yet it should be the same. This year I am examining myself and documents I left behind, in hope of recapturing my youthful spirit of creativity. Here is a tribute to the ingenuis of adolescence.
For those of you who don’t know what goes on inside RIT photo department. Here is a little taste. Matt Kelley talking about the development of his project and a class mastication session.
Congratulations to everyone involved and all of our authors who were involved in the show that opened in the Trust Gallery this weekend. A special congratulation to David Ohl, man of the hour, his dedication and execution of this event was truly inspiring. I had an amazing and adventurous weekend in Philadelphia. I will put more footage from the opening onsite soon, but i leave you with two teasers for now.
Mastication Nation
Do you masticate in public?
These are short clips from a video installation. I am doing this project because I am fascinated with documenting human behavior. Everyday we have to eat. ? I feel that with the pace and demands of life, no one can stop to think and understand exactly what they are doing. The necessity of eating and its embodiment of the contradictory roles of public and private life in America drew me to this project. I have never met anyone that refuses to eat in public. Are there any documented cases of chewing phobia? I find chewing to be an animalistic behavior that is indulgent and linked directly to the idea of instant gratification and consumerism. Food tastes pleasant to us and it provides us with calories essential to existence, yet when does this pleasure become offense or hard to watch? What about this behavior becomes a unique indicator of our culture and our sense of national identity? How would this activity be viewed differently in other parts of the world?
I hope to create an experience and an accompanying body of work that forces an audience re-examine their everyday behavior. I want to confront them with visuals, forcing them to respond through a number of emotions. Shock, confusion, humor, disgust, uncomfortable; I aim for this work to eventually frame mastication in an introspective representation. This understanding will be informed by the necessity of scale, rather than cultural expectations or normalcy. I picture this body of work existing in an interactive exhibition comprised of video, installations, and participation. Creating a body of work to exist in a space is a new way of working for me. I have a vision of walking into a gallery space and being overwhelmed by a pluralist representation of mastication and consumption, supplemented with a low humdrum of conversation and a sound installation. I want to confront people with the reality of their own behaviors, nothing idealized or opinionated, just the instinctual, factual, ephemeral truth.
Feeding in the context of public display fascinates me and I wish to explore the etiquette and taboos that inform its idiosyncratic and individual practices here in the United States. The processed nature of our food and how we choose to consume it, says a lot about our culture and our country. I feel the need to examine its means of production, and the infrastructure established to support our consumption (which I know to be an overwhelming huge topic). I am going to continue to make more mastication video portraits that include a greater diversity of age and ethnicity. If you are in Rochester, NY and want to chew a donut for me email aje9795@rit.edu.
As I move foreword, I don’t want to focus on the mouth or the food in the mouth, but I would like to look at the effect or outcomes of mastication by creating visual of conceptual metaphors. I am going to made more complex videos because I haven’t done that in awhile, and I am excited to get back into the editing end of the video workflow. This project feels like a complete surrender to all my contemptuous and resentful notions of what fine art is or can be and its ability to communicate with an audience.
Even though I would like to subtlety relate our behavior to that of animals; I don’t want this connection to be too obvious. I have thought of feeding animals as well as feeding people. I think of the watering hole as a foundation of social interaction, informing our ideas pertaining to the significance of breaking bread. People eat because they’re hungry. Some hungry people get together for conversation, people talk and eat, how is it that this is comfortable?. The disposable nature and portion size of our food is also interesting, the paper cups, plates, and utensils made to be used and disposed. Many people in the world do not have a chance to eat, but here we are now on the world wide web; so alike, yet so different.
I also want to visually explore how the commerce and business of food has removed the consumer from the means of production. Everyone eats chicken, but who would actually take a hatchet to a live bird? (as it turns out my close friend slaughtered 200 chickens a week and a half ago, slit their throats) How does this removed relationship to our food influence our eating habits? How can I confront the viewer with this understanding? How can I appropriately frame this in a culturally relevant, absurd, and dynamic way?
Steel on Steel Intercourse
Aug 1, 2009
12:45pm
Its beautiful day here in the all American city, Buffalo, New York. I start a long awaited return trip to the lovely Amhic lake region of Northern Ontario. Its no small feat, killing six hours of time; completely broke and wandering the desolate and depraved streets of a city that pasted its prime in the early years of the twentieth century. The air is dank with the smell of discarded street meat and I watch the gulls fight the pigeons to feast.
The six hour bore-da-force begins in a small park next to the regional transit center. I lay on top of my luggage, resting next to a fountain that was contemporary in the 1970s and already neglected and in disrepair. I lay down just in time to notice two homeless men sleeping near each other, one passed out in what I assume to be a drug induced comma, with an unlit loosey hanging in his mouth. Everyone in Buffalo seems to wear a tired distant stare, as if perpetually making their way through a dense fog and blindly moving forward.
The Sun is out as the metro snails by with the harrowing screech of steel on steel intercourse. There are seven well dressed passengers on the train, with briefcases and handbags in tow. The metro in Buffalo runs no more than two miles, in a straight line with five stops, its just long enough to entice the lazy core of the America commuter. There is nothing more American than building an electric tram to navigate the inconvenient facade of abandoned architecture.
I just saw my fifth santa clause look-a-like limping with a cane, fat, but not jolly. There is my third seemingly too obese to walk, women in a sun dress accessorizing with hat and handbag. Its a beautiful day here in Buffalo, and the hot dogs serenade “god bless america” from the gutter next to me. I take a deep breath and turn my face to the sky, humble because I have to be, patient as I’ve never known; happiness has never felt so near and far from here.
Canada!!! Lets make, love you sexy beast
Okay, I have a few problems sharing my work. I do not know why I feel this way, but I do know that I love looking at the photographs I took this summer in Canada. I have not really done the internet thing very well lately, but I have felt guilty, as I have visited the site and seen the site booming, with stunning work and enthusiasm. Its exciting to see what new directions and methods collaboration that are starting to be pursued. Now, Here is more work from my trip; I have been spending a lot of time with these images lately, studying and sequencing, enjoying the things I have left behind for myself. But anyway here is a mixed batch of fun. Hope you enjoy, please feel free to provide feedback!
And here is a teaser from a new project i have been developing since the beginning of this quarter at RIT, It was a response to an “Alter Ego Assignment”, more to come…
Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do
Serendipity |ˌserənˈdipitē|
noun
the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way
Tranquillity
(also spelled tranquility[1][2]) is the quality of calm experienced in places with mainly natural features and activities, free from disturbance from man-made areas.
More than ever, I feel privileged to be able to explore the inexhaustible possibilities of verbal and visual communication. However, anyone so privileged, has not only the great responsibility, but the great freedom of sharing, exploring, and relating, the incalculable variety and diversity of the human experience.
The most profound and humbling qualities of the photograph, is it’s universal communicability. It transcends borders and language as an often unappreciated tool of universal communication. Never have I been more inspired, then by the unlikely photographer; for it is his or her unique vision of the world (no degree required), that constantly challenges the easy assumptions and complacency of the masses. An even though, the photograph is an abundant resource in our visually saturated culture, I still see these unlikely voyeurs as the champions of history. By preserving one moment, they become the heros and heroines of individuality, synthesizing communication in light of daily confrontation and cultural confusion. In a gobalized culture, the fact that the individual still has the ability to create an understanding or image that is able to transcend tradition, is a testament to validity of the human potential. With theses efforts easily pigeon-holed as pointless, self-serving, or failed, the inspired comunnicators are not driven by recognition, or notoriety, but by necessity. “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”, Plato.
After sharing what I deem to be impressive, I’d like to share with you what I have actually done in the last month. Here are a few photographs to warm you up to my whole Canada experience. Ive waited three long years to be able to return to this wonderful slice of life. While I was there i wrote, read, drew, painted, photographed, played chess, fished, swam, sang and explored. It was the capstone of a nearly perfect summer. These are a rough few to wet your whistle, there are more to come!
I slept in a tent for 2 weeks on a shitty broken cot and loved every second of it. This was taken on an early morning row.
This is another lake view of the camp, Its on Rhodes’s Island on Ahmic lake in the Magnetawan River Way and its kinda of a
difficult place to photograph
Much much more to come,
Sunday and Wednesday,
I cant feel your pulse,
But dont worry,
Im here with the defibrillator.
O and Cheers to Chris Moore for being the newest author and the only one posting, what a guy!
Apple Juice
This is my most recent composite from Ad xl. I developed some sort of apple juice ad transforming the set up and concept over three days. I wanted to photograph the essence and magic of apple juice. I always find it easier to photograph something you love, and I Love apple juice. Im never short of amazed by its tasty and wonderful goodness in my mouth. As I approached photographing advertising still lives, Vogel continually steered my away from labels. I finally understood why its so important to approach the product with out a label, and believe that it is responsible for this image’s success. As of late I have been seriously bumming it, living as frugally as possible and creating and producing with little to no budget, which is obviously not the case for most students of advertising, esp. at RIT. But, now that Ive finished my summer courses and had a super sweet Maryland birthday, Ive just been able to bide my time until I goto Canada. A best friend from High School is driving by Rochester on is way to Northeastern Ontario, 9 hours from the border this place is in the middle of no where. It feels so relaxing to drop off the grid and retreat from the pace of modern living and communication. The Cabin that his father built is on an Island in the middle of a lake and only has gas power, no electricity. There is a legit out-house with a crescent moon cut into the door. We usually stay there for a few weeks and needless to say your left to entertain yourself, which is conducive to all forms of artistic expression and frequent trips to the LCBO, as its almost the only way to efficiently pass the time. I hope to do a shit load of photography, writing, get back into painting, and continue my recently insane reading binge. 7 days until I drive out of the country, and they couldnt pass soon enough. Lately Ive been considering hitting the beat downtown as some kind of street performer so i can buy some forties, but maybe redeeming bottles would be easier.
Utensil Me:updated
Hello sun and wed its really been too long, last time I left you, I was in the throws of a five week crash course in advertising and I have to report that I think it went really well. I learned more about advertising and still life in those five weeks than the last 3 years. Im sorry ive been a lil apprehensive about posting my advertising still lives, since i have not been able to give them the photoshop love that they deserve. Ad xl was like five weeks of straight shooting, now i feel like i need five weeks of editing, but i havent been so dedicated. But for now I leave you with more utensils light paintings as per request. I used the hosemaster to light these, that awkward black thing wrapped around me in matt kelley’s post. His picture was taken at the end of xl, obviously i hadnt seen enough of the sun. Since the end of my course I effortlessly shook my serious work ethic to return to Maryland for my 21st birthday on july 2. Ethically trading my work for whiskey, ive been well and drunk ever since. I also made a few amazing images while I was there and sober enough to hold a camera, you ll see those later and I promise to be back this sunday with more complex edited still lifes. Cheers!
_
ps. Okay so this is an updated look at one of the projects I started in the early days of my five week studio course. I like the idea of glorifying the mundane, the everyday, and the over looked. This was an exercise aimed to familiarize me with the lighting technique I would employ for the rest of the class.
This is not a Cup
Ive officially have entered one of the most prolific and sustained photographic undertakings in my personal history. Opening the third week of basically owning my own studio and lighting kit, I ve gone strictly commercial and back again. Honestly I feel like ive used this time to prove to myself that I could endlessly light and capture, ‘things’ whatever those ‘things’ maybe. I love life and light now. I worship the light. I honestly didn’t know how far my dedication for photography could go, never mind over a decade of personal experience and practice from disposable 35mm to large format 4×5. I still had no idea what it would be like to earn a living as a ‘photographer’, even after completing my third year of undergraduate study at RIT, I had no idea of what operating a studio would demand, mentally and practically.
I decided this summer to be a champion of the still life, in order to test my patience. By all accounts still life is considered original photographic tradition and in my opinion, one of the most difficult. Photographing in a white room isolated from the abundance of the surrounding world is a complete contradiction to the principles that first attracted me to photography. I loved walking with a camera, waiting for the world to unfold its story before my eyes, climbing trees. Now, I have to collect the story and bring it to my studio, oh how things have changed, but I realize, as much as my craft changes, my interests remain the same. I’ve never loved anything more than the power of acute observation, the penetrating gaze of my mind’s eye focused. I never have stopped feeling like a modern day alchemist, using the powers of chemicals and magic to create new marvelous views and vitality. Light will never lose its luster for me; the satisfaction of seeing it beaming through the trees or refracting in a spoon, its my mainline. I could only realize the truth in the statement after I have gone to my studio and photographed for fourteen days straight and im not ready to stop.
Sometimes Im an adman with hollow concepts and flashy realism and then sometimes I am a Fine Artist, looking for the essence of an object and its subtlety. Sometimes I am in between no fucking idea what to call it or who I am, but it makes me feel good, so ill call it discovery. I’ve been discovering myself and its bizarre because its always in the least likely of places. Outside of any serious concern for art history or originality. I just like looking and just that’s how it is. At this point Sunday and Wednesday, I really dont know what to show you, i have beverages, utensils, optical tricks, ive painted with light and color. Now im thinking about finding some concrete career direction so I can put together a coherent portfolio, but for the time being Im open to suggestions, sunday and wednesday what would you like to see? Im taking requests, any challenges? maybe people will comment, i know youre reading this…. 
