I’ve always been back and forth with Black and white I’ll stick a roll of Neopan in the camera and go to town then I develop scan and push it to the side and don’t look at it for a little while. For some reason they end up being my feel good pictures or rather the pictures I take along side of the act of socializing. When learning about photography people always talked about capturing the moment but the way I work has kept me from that feeling of truly grasping a moment that will never happen again, due to the fact that my subject matter is often still, unmoving, and unchanging. However a few weeks ago I was at a Party and I experienced that feeling, the feeling of capturing a moment. I know it’s a pretty insignificant thing, but it felt good
Bryant Hollow
A while ago In my post “Slice of Uncivilization” I introduced my Grandparents trailer. When I looked those Images I felt the need to continue to photograph That place. It’s always been an escape from the busy life for my grandparents, a place where the only thing they really have to worry about is how many cars go down the road each day which you can usually count on one hand. It has also been a place for my uncles and cousins to hunt and go four-wheeling and just enjoy being in the middle of nowhere. Until recently I have only been there a handful of times due to the fact that it’s about five hours away from my home and there is a general discomfort with hunting on my mothers part. However I’ve taken an interest in photographing this place in order to discover what makes it so special to my grandparents. When they are there they seem happy. they walk about completing their little tasks that may or may not actually need to be done but they enjoy filling their time with picking blueberries or tinkering with the tractor or cleaning out the birdhouses etc… last quarter I made a book of Pictures I took while participating in opening day of Rifle season for Deer. I was very happy with how It came out. Alex Broderick helped me layout the book and she completed it by binding it into a beautiful hardcover book. we called it “Bryant Hollow”.
Since completeing the book I decided I want to do more so I’m making the trip down there whenever possible. This image is from the last trip. I’m hoping to create a series of books like volumes of a photo album.
I found this cow as I was hiking around, My guess is it just couldn’t last the winter and the farmer hadn’t found it yet.
My last trip down was my first time there alone. I was the first one to go since the fall when it had been winterized. In the process of turning on the electric and the well pump I flooded the bathroom. It was a half inch deep before I realized there was a cracked waterline.
I don’t know when my grandparents will make it back to the trailer. My grandfather doesn’t seem to be bouncing back from his latest cancer treatment. My grandmother is moving slow after her knee surgery.
As I photograph This place more and more I think I’m connecting with them more by gaining a strong appreciation this place that seems to represent exactly who they are. In many ways these photographs make the trailer look like more than it is but maybe that’s what’s so intruiging about it.
Let me know your thoughts…
New Still Life
Along with other projects I worked on this past quarter I continued working with still life in a bit of a different way than what i had previously been doing. The process has been pretty slow but I’m happy with how these three images are working. When making these still lives I was thinking a lot about the idea of the table as a form of control. The table as the host for the things people control, Animals, nature, plants, etc… 
Black and White
On Thursday, Todd Hido came to speak at RIT and in the morning he held a critique session. I was lucky enough to participate in the critique session and hear him talk about my work as well as other student work. I showed him a series of images I’ve been compiling for a book, he had a lot of constructive things to say and he also made a tight edit of the work and sequenced a few images in a way that i had never thought of before. This was something he did for most all of the work and it was great to see the way he worked with sequencing and was able to create a strong grouping of images from a series of work. Also all those who participated got a sneak peek of his book that will be published in a month or so, he brought with him a mock up of the book it was really amazing to flip through and experience it first hand.
Recently I have been making work that is branching off of what i normally do. I started shooting more black and white which is a way of working that I am not used to, but it has offered me a way to look at things differently and be more involved in the process. Even though I often find myself short on time, my time spent in the darkroom has been rewarding. Here are a few Images taken while driving around to clear my head.
Ice Bath
Here is my most recent video… this series I’m working on is related to the idea of emotional anesthesia or numbness that occurs as an attempt to protect ourselves from feeling suffering on an emotional level.
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Absence
Hello all I’m sorry for my long absence. It’s been a really strange time for me lately. I feel like I have been moving through a thick forest with a pocket knife when what I really needed was a machete. Just last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing the Gallery show I’ve been working on putting together for the last few months finally come together for it’s opening last Friday night at THE TRUST VENUE in Philadelphia. It was hell to get to that point trying to organize everything and make sure that the 6 other photographers involved were able to get everything together and to the gallery on time. The show consisted of work from Alan Charlesworth, Austin Whitney, Greg Gentert, Kath Raisch, Kyle Ferino, Nikki Graziano, and Myself. I felt it turned out well, but I’m glad it’s over because now I have a little less on my mind and can concentrate more on other things. I have a few things to post but I think I’ll space them out but for now I wanted to leave you with the first image of a new direction I’m taking in my still life work. In the back of my head there is still an idea of the relationship of man and nature but I’m trying to take a different approach. One of the other things I’ve been working on is a series of videos that continue the ideas raised in The “42 Degrees” video i posted a little while back(The second video will be posted by the end of the week). also as soon as I get through all of the scans I will be posting a series of photographs I made about a hunting tradition in my family. So there is more to come and again sorry for my absence. Let me know your thoughts.

42 Degrees
Recently I began working with video, it’s been allowing me a way to work through ideas in a different way. It’s has also given me a sense of freedom and a way to explore, unfettered in a way, by the medium in which i most often work. So far i’ve done 3 videos and this one is the one i’m most excited about. In the video I was trying to explore the idea of emotional desensitization. I think it’s something that we all experience (well at least i have) where things happen in our lives that are somewhat damaging and as a response we build emotional barriers to keep those things from effecting us again. when this happens over and over we become emotionally numb in a sense. This video was meant to speak to that concept as well as the idea that someone would need to go to extremes to feel anything at all. Let me know what you think. The Video is Titled 42 degrees Fahrenheit.
[vimeo 7672329 575px 323px]
Watch 42° Fahrenheit in HD @vimeo.com
Whatever Works
As i was answering Nicole’s questions from her earlier post which covered things like, what is a good photograph? why do you photograph? why are photographs important? I started to realize that perhaps the way that I’m approaching these ideas photographically isn’t the best way. Perhaps I’m using a kitchen knife to cut down a tree. At this point i don’t think all is lost but I do believe it may be important at this time for me to explore different approaches and see where that might lead. I have a lot of reading and writing to do to boil things down and figure out what i find to be important and how i might approach it in a new way. I feel like i made a lot of progress in photographing these landscapes and i don’t want to discredit them. I just feel a need for a new direction one that can communicate more freely and become more emotive.






My Landscape
I’ve been working on a project lately that has been an attempt to allow myself to shoot in an exploratory and observational fashion. To allow myself to wander and photograph things as they catch my attention as this is far from the way that i have typically found myself working. Some people may find this to be a freeing and rewarding way to shoot however for me the uncertainty of shooting this way and not having a direction is somewhat terrifying. I’ve found that the images have definitely taken on certain themes as a result of my attempt to find a direction. However I am conflicted about what i want them to say and I’m afraid the themes that they are taking on will lead down a dead end road. Maybe I won’t find out till i get there and have to turn around, or maybe there will be rabbit trails along the way that will take me somewhere new.





Slice of Uncivilization
A few weeks ago I got the chance to go to my grandparents trailer in northern Pennsylvania. It was the first time my grandparent have been able make it up there since my grandfather got sick a while back. It was great to see them there, they really seem to enjoy the quiet where they can roam about simply living and enjoying the nature that surrounds them. It’s a special place and that seems to only exist in memories because i don’t often get a chance to go there. Here are a few images i took while i was there.





Let me know what you think.













