Additional Rest Stop
Michigan, 2009
At Rest Stops
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
Touque Hair
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.
On “Classy”
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 Garbage Update
Toronto, Ontario 2008
Broken, on the 5th anniversary of the release of the 1st Hulk film
Taglines from Hulk (2003)—
Unleash the fury!
The inner beast will be released
Rage. Power. Freedom.
On June 20th Let it All Out
Unleash the hero within
Windsor, Colo.
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
Places that would be easy to break into #34
Littleton, Colo. 2008
80126, super fun Superfund.
The 80216 area code has been called the most polluted zip code in Denver. Residential neighborhoods sit next to (and on top of) smelting plants that have been in operation for over one-hundred years. ASARCO’s smelting facility in Globeville had been operating since 1886. Taken to court in 1983 by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, a settlement was reached in May 1993 and the area was put on the EPA’s National Priorities List that July. Residential clean-up, which included digging up and replacing yards, was completed in 2002.
My interest in the EPA’s Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (aka, CERCLA or more commonly, Superfund) stems from a desire to clarify the nature of these areas in and around Colorado. I have no specific agenda, I do not intend this to be a journalistic exposé, it is more of an attempt to satiate my curiosity surrounding these sites.
The following photographs are from areas around the neighborhood, including the oil refinery a mile or two north in Commerce City. They are from the first visit of the most convenient site…it is hard to speak to the future of the project. I would like to visit every major site in Colo. just to get a well rounded idea of the aesthetic states of these various sites.
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