I'm back in Brooklyn for a spell after spending the better part of the top third of this year working out West - where the landscapes are wide and the light painterly.
Side note: I just read on a Subway Ad that the average Brooklyn apartment building is separated from its neighbor by 26 inches.
I recently had the too-infrequent pleasure of visiting my Grandma in California. A few minutes before I was due to leave, my Grandma sat down in a pool of light on her floral couch, so I knew I had to try for a portrait. And try I did. Again and again, and then again some more, and, well, some more even after that. And though I still don't think I quite nailed what I was going for (this time), my Grandma sure did get a kick out of my many attempts.
The bright side of the misses: Now when I look at these pics, I can still hear Grandma laughing at me.
A couple weeks ago family gathered at my Grandma's house, and I shared the living room with my nieces and their respective electronic devices. The girls stayed up all night, pulling me back from drifting sleep with periodic giggles and beaming lights. Eventually I hopped off the couch and hovered over them with my camera. They were so engrossed, they paid me no mind.
An unseasonably warm sunny Missouri afternoon in late December:
I've spent the last few weeks on the road for work, and am currently enjoying a hot second in my Brooklyn apartment to reunite with my own bed, try to remember what it is I do at home, and finally sort through photos from the holidays in Missouri.
This one's from early Christmas morning at the Howe House, in the sweet spot of calm before the cousins and grandparents arrived and the unwrapping race began.
Tomorrow I head back out to lose myself in another long but exciting round of work shooting. Soaking up these last hours of quiet before I go.
Flak Photo is currently featuring one of my favorite photographers and inspirations: Matthew Baum.
Check it out, and then head to DUMBO to see Matt's work in the Group Show "The Architecture of Space" at the Klompching Gallery - through March 2.
Baby Dieter recently turned a year old. I took these pictures when he was just three days into making sense of this world, and my incredible friends Mari and Eric - freshly catapulted into their strange new lives as parents - were already expert baby burrito wrappers. Here's to another year of figuring it out as we go. Happy 2012, all!
One from Christmas Day...
Santa's Helper
Welcome to my induction into the publicwebosphere. I feel naked already. But I need to dig out from under tens of drives and multiple thousands of images, and I'm hoping to use this space to help organize some of my work into eventual projects, to inspire and track inspiration, and to give a home to orphan one-offs that might otherwise never see the light of day. Like this self-portrait I took a few days ago. I personally find self-portraiture just about as awkward as talking about one's self in the third person. But sometimes awkward can be nice. Like a shy boy who gives you his comic book and asks for your number. Worth a shot.
