I accidentally fell in love with tumblr, and have been giving a lot of my attention to http://thevest.tumblr.com/
As I have been considering how to deal with this website, and this blog, it has all become neglected. In the next few weeks everything should be back in order, while I will continue to keep The Vest running strong, I will also properly maintain this blog, and update the portfolio side of things with new (and newish) work.
I swear.
Michigan, 2009
Kansas, 2008
Although every time I leave for a big drive I feel compelled to pack 6 cameras, I always end up making very few photographs. I have a need to keep moving while I am on the road. This stems from the fact that I typically am driving to get somewhere I actually want to get to, or get back to, rather than to play itinerant photographer.
What this means is that usually, 1,500 miles or so after I start, I have shot 1/2 a roll, almost exclusively at various rest stops.
Michigan, 2009
Another one from the AGO.
In their Galleria Italia, I walked the length of a wood and sap sculpture by Italian artist Guiseppe Penone. Apparently this is one room (for a specifically Italian gallery all of the installations look decidedly Canadian…wood, you know) in the AGO that is specifically “photo approved.” In any gallery I tend to assume every room is photo approved until I get told otherwise, which I did, shortly before leaving. This was a coincidence.
Initially I thought I was going to make a project that would be some funny but small sliver of the Canadian identity. Touque (or toque or tuque) being both one of the first Canadian words that I learned and a very common one at that, I figured it was a good place to start. At the end of every winter day I spent in a touque, I was going to photograph its impact on my hair.
Unfortunately, rather than a clever self-reflective social comment it turned into a question of how long it would take me before I cut my hair.
Lakewood, Colo. 2008
Adam Lerner is the Executive Director of The Lab at Belmar. I spoke with him earlier this month about land use, the civic spirit, and the future of the art museum for an upcoming article in the Denver Voice. I’ll be posting the story and some photographs once the new issue is out in November.
Back when newspapers controlled (and billed for) the word count of classified listings, one had to be extremely frugal. With the advent of the now ubiquitous website craigslist, there is no need for such self-limiting (or censoring, in some cases). Hundreds and hundreds of words replace the twenty, and we’ve all become our own Crazy Eddie, developing our own tactics and tricks in an effort to sell our surplus stuff.
This transition to internet based classifieds, and the “deregulation” of listings has had a rather notable and well covered impact on the newspaper business—mainly that they can barely afford to operate anymore.
Socially, there have been other, less apparent results from this phenomenon, however. Beyond a simple description, often people’s opinions of their possessions are laid bare. Searching for specific keywords can result in an absorbing sociological experiment—and this project is based around just that. By limiting my search term to the word “classy,” we get a cross section—from Mercedes to telescopes—of what people perceive (or want to have be perceived) as classy. While commercial advertising might try to tell us how we should want to appear to the world— self-generated classifieds let us tell everyone how we view ourselves.
Toronto, Ontario 2008
…Kodak, the big gay dragon!
This sign does more than identify a photographable location. It actually tells me that there was a time when I might have thought this sort of branding was cute and/or charming. If this same view was sponsored by a Canon G9 I would be far less amused.
Windsor, Colo. 2008
In the fallout of the tornadoes in Northern Colorado last month, many organizations are collecting donations to assist those in need in the communities of Weld County. Officials have said that the most needed resource following the storm is financial support. Donations can be made to the following organizations:
United Way of Weld County
P.O. Box 1944
Greeley, CO 80632
The Salvation Army
P.O. Box 17607
Denver, CO 80217
Phone: (800)-SAL-ARMY
American Red Cross, Centennial Chapter
120 Saturn Drive
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Phone: (970) 226-5728
Weld Food Bank
www.weldfoodbank.org