ROSS EVERTSON, PHOTO (BLOG, INFO)

Initially when I started at the paper I wanted to jump in and redesign the whole thing. I’d still like to, but in the time I’ve been there with the new editor (who started as the same time as I did) we have just been working on the back end…Capacity building, getting the schedule to a more reasonable place, trying to figure out how to be autonomous money wise…

Of all the collateral documents that were floating around, the one that should be the most useful and informative is the shipping list, and the one that we were using was neither. It was adopted from another publication at some point. Put together in Excel it was small and hard to read. The first month I was there the issue got rearranged and it took us 2 weeks to realize we were short two pages.

I wanted to put something together that was more accessible, but would still retain all of the relevant information. I ended up making a more visual document, that illustrated spreads, basic layout, word count as well as communicating the names of the writers and artists for each article, and the due dates and acceptance of submissions.

You can see the grey blocks inside of each page which represents the space allocated for each article, and a slightly newer version also includes the word count for each space. Everybody working on the paper gets an updated copy weekly, and everyone has their own way of using the document. I need to keep track of the progress of layouts, and as I get things finished I get to cross spreads out with a sharpie so I have a very obvious read of what is done, and what needs attention. The editor uses it as a way to manage versions and locations throughout the editing process.

It hasn’t been as glamorous as redesigning the paper, but considering we are all dealing with this document all day everyday I wanted to make sure it was as pleasant and useful as possible.

Denver, Colo. 2007

Pasadena, Calif. 2006

Pasadena, Calif. 2006

I would tell my 22 year old self, a freshman at Art Center, to stop being an idiot. I would tell him that in about a year and a half, you will figure out what all of this photography shit actually means to you, and while you won’t give up on complaining, you will at least start making work. I could explain that the frustration with a school and a town was irrelevant to what you wanted to do, so you might as well just make photographs.

For a year I couldn’t take pictures in Pasadena. It felt completely unphotographable to me, partially because it was just too convenient and partially because that early frustration just made it all look like utter crap to me. Then I moved and really only saw the place because I had to just kiss the ass end of it to get to my favorite sushi restaurant.

About two years later I found myself working on a project for the school, and for the City of Pasadena. I was to shoot a survey of architecture in the city, as some visual component to a lecture that was going to be given by Richard Koshalek. I believe it was meant to open a dialogue about the cheapening of the beauty of the existing building by making a entire city block an eight story brick of stucco.

Regardless, I found myself in that unphotographable city, making countless images. I would drive somewhere and park under an oak, and then walk and shoot until I was out of film. It was the kind of ‘collecting’ that I was doing prior to my Art Center beat down and that will hopefully always be a component of my practice.

There was nothing cerebral about the project, but it was enlightening for me. The photographs are always there. I would tell the 22 year old me to just stop complaining long enough to take them.