Family Portrait

My son Eli turns 8 this week. He is the kid that Echolilia is all about.
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My sister hired him to shoot the family portrait this year using the digital camera's auto timer function...he chose the backround, set up the shot, ran around and jumped into the shot before the timer went off. As we've said before...there really is nothing like taking direction from a child to kinda make everyone look good. Of course he's got a blog. See it HERE.

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Hayden's Ferry Review #45

D. Bryon Darby, arts editor of ASU's Hayden's Ferry Review approached me a few months back about featuring Echolilia in their Fall/Winter edition. Amidst the process I asked him why he was interested in the project and he brought up the concept of "Memory" that was a theme of the edition. He writes:

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I was particularly struck by the way you described Emmet Gowin's family photographs in the 100 eyes interview. You said, "It just had this sense of hauntedness that made it seem like a childhood memory." I feel this is the same way I respond to your Echolilia project, and in particular to the four images I've selected. There is something so strange yet so incredibly familiar about them - like my own distant and fleeting memory hiding in my subconscious.

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Of course when an editor says something that kind and perceptive, you will then do anything he says, right? Pretty much...m
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The issue arrived yesterday with a fascinating piece by Hong Hao stretching over the front and back cover titled "My Things No. 1, 2001- 2002" and other great collections by Beth Dow and Mark Klett. The favorite spread from my chunk of the book is above.

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Buy/Subscribe to HFR HERE.

Hayden Ferry Review #45, cover detail from "My Things #1" by Hong Hao

Artists In Residence / 1911.

How do I apply for the TA Artist In Residency program?
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Well just stop by...um...better call first...I have kids and stuff and you never know when they may be freaking out.
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And then come over over and hang out and help solve the issues of contemporary photography. It is as simple as that. Above and below it's Ken Graves and Eva Lipman, busting out the 16 x 20 fiber prints from their current project.



And Justin Wilson and Brian Holliday stop by to do some heavy lifting of a SEAL 200 and also put a little time into solving the issues of contemporary photography.

Atomic Age

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Atomic Age by Martin Benjamin is a great book I've been living with for the past few weeks, trying to figure out what to say about it. A press release describes it minimally:

Atomic Age contains images from 1978 to 2007. The series is a lyrical set of pictures that include locations such as Alamogordo, NM; Three Mile Island, PA; Hiroshima, Japan; Oak Ridge, TN, as well as other photographs from around the world. The body of work is about life in the atomic age - from people to locations to lyrical photographs about love and life.

I can describe it as a meditation on life in the Atomic Age. That all sounds scary, but there is a sense of harmony and wonder in these photographs. The tone of the book is hopeful even though the viewer never forgets the threat is there. By the time one finishes Atomic Age, the vibe coming from these photographs is optimistic and empowering...it kinda feels like love and humanity win in the end.
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With a preface by Michael Hochanadel and designed by Nina Witschonke.
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See more of it HERE. Buy it HERE.
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Lazy Anthropology : Office Space

I cleaned my office last week and wanted to document it just as it was.
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Amidst a frustrating day of computer networking glitches I posted a note to Facebook with a camera phone shot of my office, asking for others to entertain me with shot of theirs. Borrowing heavily from really well done projects found on The Selby and WTJ, mine was a fast food attempt that resulted in a form of lazy anthropology. But it did feel like Xmas as everyone was sending forth their shots for me to see. A voyeuristic Xmas.

In this CraigsList times of ours, sometimes you can just ask and then receive...it can be that easy. The results....? Oh...they suffer. I don't know if these images are boring or just matter-of-fact documents. But here ya go, dig into it, all of you curious folk out there...I have to share.

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Thomas Broening



Lisa Mitchell


Melanie Skrzek


John-Paul Mountford



Rob Prideux



Shane O'Neill



Tony Fouhse




Erich Morton





Jeff Singer




Jackie Alpers




Shannon Amos

Home Made Cell Phone Part 2

Apple iPhone with Facebook Application, Camera Phone and AT&T Service, 2009

American Photography 25 Party

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Of course I was otherwise occupied trying to photograph someone on that green rug I bought...and was on another coast that evening....and kinda had to do something mundane like make dinner with pancake mix and egg beaters because my wife went to the gym or something....but I was there in spirit!
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Wha?
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The American Photography 25 party, held at the Angel Orensanz Foundation last Thursday. Looks like others were not so easily distracted, huh?
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Thanks to thoughtful folk Moya McAllister and James Worrell who hooked me up with these great snaps of my work from the party. Looks like they lay out pages of the book on the wall...also looks to me like they layed the book out alphabetically.....I never really understood the motivation there....oh, whatever...its kewl in a random kind of way.
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Last Night / Tonight

Last night was the opening for the show above.
Tonight is the party for the show below.
But today we try to get someone to pose with that green rug.

I Hope The Client Doesn't Freak Out

This is this great backdrop I found yesterday for a forthcoming shoot....

The Family Portrait

We shot this ad for Don Sebastiani And Sons a few months back and had to keep it quiet until the season arrived....and now 'tis the season. We blogged about the shoot back in July here
as we shot the campaign with creatives Dave Knox and Patrick Nistler of Duncan Channon in SF.
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Got to shine a light on the inspired post production on this project...it was way too late to get those sweaters made... courtesy of Adam Moore of Sugar Digital. And of course we have the sad "bank xmas tree" delivered to us by stylist Shannon Amos.

Home Made Cell Phone

Cell Phone With Touchscreen, 10/09

Electricity / New Dynamic Inn

Up at the Russian River region today and a day last week shooting landscapes for Scientific American....a great project and a real change of pace in a very nice way. I found this hotel and loved it and was repulsed by it. I shot it with my cameraphone while getting gas. I went home and looked it up online. It read : The New Dynamic Inn, Where Cosmic Energies Unite Within You ®
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I laughed at that slogan, because the place looked so un blissfull....so not cosmic. But that idea...cosmic energies uniting within me....oh, that I like. There has been lots of fun stuff going on these past few weeks work and art wise. A while back we discussed The Silence. The opposite of The Silence is The Electricity. The Electricity feels like....oh...electrical currents, magnetic currents aligning themselves with you and drawing people to you, drawing projects to you....options are presented, life seems full of opportunity. Exhibitions seek you out....stock sales go thru effortlessly....it just feels like you are in the current. You blow a job and easily make the changes to resolve it....the flow, the current...you are with it, not against it. That's the feeling of The Electricity....it really does feel like cosmic energies uniting within me.
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But as you know, you gotta enjoy it when it hits...because its not gonna last forever.