Bloodbath 2

Kind of a challenging week this week past was: trying to wrap up the tedious production details on the physical portfolios Tidepool needs for going on the road, doing a shoot at a muddy power plant and then dealing with a babysitter who resigned after one day spent with my two boys. The email she sent to us was a keeper and will be memorable, but is disturbing when taken out of context:

At one point Eli went to the kitchen and got a fork and came after me with it and said he was going to kill me. Now I know you said that them talking about killing is something new, but I do not like it.

Whatever!

All of that aside, the week was made better by the arrival of this big and beautiful print, above, as a result of a complex series of trades, from nyc photographer Sarah Small.

Work In Progress 2007-2008

I finally got organized and collected the images from the project I have been working on during the life of this blog HERE. Go see them and see what you think. Mixed emotions when I saw them all together. The thrill of creating the photographs and doing the scans, trying to make sense and order of all of this stuff that comes thru the house and our lives so rapidly seemed to carry the project. Seeing it all together I have to wonder: Is this too limiting? Does this work for anyone? Is it really the same shot and the same emotion over and over? I don't know, but seeing the work together helps to raise these questions. To me it looks like a chapter, but I don't know how to take it further.

Then this morning I got a note that I think is encouraging from a blog reader in response to an older post/image titled "White Glue, Plastic Eyes, White Paper":

I have to agree with another writer: "the photographs are of a child and are indicative of that sporadic and sometimes spastic realm of childhood creativity."

Not only that, but if your child displays questionable behavior, be it autistic or something suggesting such, then the quirkiness and randomness of the photos only adds one more dimension to your project; a puzzle of sorts, and a deeper meaning behind the image. The title of said project is "Weird Pictures of My Kid." And you can't create a project with this title if at least SOME of the pictures aren't weird, or "off", or just a bit out of the ordinary.

Childhood is not linear and concrete by any means. Rather it is randomly abstract, with priceless moments thrown in for good measure, just to keep things from becoming too ordinary. There's plenty of time for that whenever it is we decide to grow up. :) So keep capturing those quirky moments, and random bits of life (and stickers and glue and glitter and eyeballs) and keep sharing.

Optimus Prime

Go ahead, push the button.

I can't find it. Its not doing anything.

It's time to stop Decepticons.

Try it again. I can't get it.

Megatron will be defeated.

Oh.

Can you find Zorg? There is Zorg, they call him Zurg.

Will it say "Prepare to Die." ? Can you make it say " Prepare to Die. "?

We're not buying anything that says that, you know.

I know.

The Photographs Not Taken

Will Steacy approached me sometime in the middle of the summer about writing an essay for a project he is working on titled The Photographs Not Taken. Of course, without a deadline, this stuff never gets done. Got a note from him back in December as my personal and occupational Guernica is at it's peak, with word that we have a deadline...it needs to be done by the year's end. OMG, WTF?

Photog's live by deadlines, so here we go, next thing you know it's done and now gathered.

Artists contributing to this project include Alec Soth , Amy Elkins, Amy Stein, Andrew Moore , Benjamin Donaldson , Brian Ulrich , Chris Jordan , Christian Patterson , Debbie Fleming Caffery , Eirik Johnson, Elinor Carucci , Grant Willing , John Movius , Laura McPhee , Lewis Watts , Lisa Kereszi , Matt Salacuse , Michael Harlan Turkell , Misty Keasler , Nina Berman, Peter Riesett , Rachael Dunville , Rian Dundon , Simon Roberts , Tim Davis, Timothy Archibald , and Todd Deutsch.

Spend some time digging in ...I think you'll be moved by these stories from all these folks below. The site for the project with all of the essays is HERE. Read my essay, circa 1984 HERE, and see below photograph for reference.

Victor Conte & Veronica Conte

This is the future of magazine journalism: shoot the story on a Saturday, see it online layed out like a magazine on Wednesday nite, all jpegs and pixels and ....well, I guess this has been going on for a while now, huh?

This story just came together especially quickly and really ended up with some great design.

Read and see it all HERE.

Foggy Morning With Smiley and Antennae

Still trying to do something with this sheet of paper, obviously.

Don't know if these two pair off, but I think the shot of my son in the street fits the feeling of this project. Don't really think of this as a diptych, as much as a book that will have facing pages or a series of images lined up next to each other...like a sentence.

Bloggy Review

So...

I essentially started this blog to promote my commercial photography career, and kind of disguise all the promotion by showing other curious photographers work that I was discovering, and then sharing new projects I was trying to dabble in and get off the ground. What was the idea. I hoped that photo editors would like to see the photogs I was writing about, they'd like to see my new work, and then they would stomach all the self promotional stuff that I wedged in the middle. Sound fair?

It evolved into an odd combination of all of that, as well as an excuse to share and solidify the new personal project I'm working on, tentatively titled "Weird Pictures of My Kid", which are the photographs and scans done over 2007 that kind of reflect on the journey that we've been on while trying to diagnose our eldest son. The doctors say he is Autistic, we think sometimes he is just mischievous and creative. None the less, that situation is fueling that project and directing the images.

The way it has evolved is that the blog audience seems to like engaging with "WPOMK", and then simply tolerates all the embarrassing self promotion I engage in. Hmmm...I guess magazines have ads that we all tolerate, so...this is like that, huh?

A great blog that I'm way into now and reads like a great photo magazine is Colin Pantall's blog.
Bookmark this thing: http://colinpantall.blogspot.com/. It's what I'd want my blog to be like if I was just more....pure or something. Check it out and engage with the conversation. There is a thread that Pantall's writing is following, from project to project, and its competing with Conscientious for my serious blog time reading. Check it out HERE.

Then...my last commercial plug for a while...here are some shots from the fat Monster.com photoshoot we wedged in after Thanksgiving...in case y'all were curious: