REAWAKENING TO LIFE

Shadow. (Washington, DC) - Found this block of wood walking home from the metro. Canon 5D Mk2, Leica 90mm f/2.

Still/life. (State College, PA) - Opened up a box from moving, and low-and-behold…this composition was sitting there. Could I have come up with something like this on purpose? Probably not, but it was the first good use of this huge, glass mannequin head I bought at Goodwill a while back. Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 50mm 1.4.

Un/seen (Washington, DC) - Part of me never wants to publish another color photograph ever again. Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 50mm 1.4.

Hope all is well out the ‘blogosphere.’ Lots of weekend traveling (NJ two weekends in a row!), covering a PSU Printmaking class, cycling, photo shows, and spending time with the One-and-Only… what can I say? Life is very, very good.

Desire (National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC) - Two ironically placed statues in a classical sculpture section of the museum. You can feel the tension in the air. Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 50mm f/1.4.

Signal/Response (Washington, DC) - I am intrigued by museum/gallery layouts and how art is cased against white walls, other art present, and lighting. In other words, I want this photograph to inaccurately represent what the curators intended to be seen in the museum. Taken with one of my favorite cameras (yet frustratingly light-leaking and broken), the Rollei Magic II, on Kodak 400V film.

Let Go. (Collage, 2007) - Self-explanatory. I love doing spur-of-the-moment collages, as I feel my mood, the strength of the elements, the available pieces, and a train of thought all mesh together to form a composition. Part artistic endeavor, part therapy, and part giving up the drivers seat for chance and experimentation to take control all play together.

Meditation (Assisi, Italy) - Leica R5, Leica 35mm f/2.

Found this old image from my trip to Italy. It was a simple Franciscan crucifix in a meditation room for monks to lay prostrate before. Sometimes this served as penitence for sin, which sometimes this lasted for days. The simpleness of his sacrifice, his love, for days…

Yashica GSN with crossprocessed 100VS Ektachrome.

I had something to say, but I think that I just better listen right now. I have always talked about my plans and goals (going back to Rwanda, moving to NYC, grad school, family, house, etc, etc), and never just only listened to God about them.

In a reflective time a week ago, he specifically said to not be afraid to set my heart on something/someone/somewhere… I am just not sure what those things are. The overtly Christian response is to set my mind on the things above, to seek the Kingdom first and these things will be added to you. I just know he has brought me this far, and in no way am I out of his arm’s reach.

One of the many images from the recent trip to DC. Yashica crossprocessed 100VS Ektachrome. Played with the color balance and kept the grain.

I knew the change would not come without consequence - to move ahead, I must leave things behind.

Giacometti is one of my favorite sculptors. Later in his career, he freaked out when his figures became smaller and smaller until his drawings contained no figure forms at all. He shreiked in terror when he realized that he had finally completed his work as an artist. A little too dramatic for my taste, but he hovered on the ledge of insanity for quite a while and to cross over was to place the capstone on his career.

Me? I just took a picture, wanting to blur the foreground and background, giving a sense of depth to the crude miniatures he created.