Face

a picture I shot a long time ago in Taiwan but changed and rearranged just now

Scanning

I recently scored access to some pretty good scanning equipment so have been busy scanning my film negatives which is turning into a massive project....I shot film for ten years so that's a whole lotta pictures.

It's been really great coming across some of my old images, some that I haven't seen for over a decade. It's kind of like hearing a song that you haven't heard in a long time. One second you're here, and then whoosh! the song takes you back to a time and place that you perhaps haven't thought about in ages. Kinda like a reference point, giving you a perspective on how you've changed and evolved, a different view of the chunk of time between then and now.

Toledo Project

Here are some photos that are beginning of the Toledo project. I'm calling it the Toledo Project for now, but hopefully I can come up with a more appropriate and creative title. I've always been bad with titles so hopefully it will come to me as this body of work progresses. I chose Toledo for now because the images are of Toledo.

This body of work is about issues of loss and change and is really in its nascent form. We'll see where it goes from here.

Long time no see....

I can't believe it's been a year since I posted on my blog. Actually, I can believe it. And I'm not feeling great about it, but what can you do. Life happens, and you go through the motions and all of a sudden you realize that you haven't done the things that you set out to do and blah blah blah. It happens.

Actually, I do have a good excuse for not posting for so long. I had to relocate from New York to Toledo to take care of my mom who-the day after I returned to Toledo- passed away quite quickly and unexpectedly from cancer. The day after she died I found out that the State of Ohio is taking her house-which essentially was supposed to be my house as it's been in my family for 70 years-because her insurance didn't cover everything. Needless to say, it was a bad week. I actually bailed to Southeast Asia for the winter to prevent the onset of a nervous breakdown that I felt was coming down on me, hard, fast, and with no mercy.

It's been a year now-almost a year to the day of my last blog entry, as a matter of fact-and I'm feeling more capable and together. I'm still in Toledo, a bit longer than I thought I would be, but it's good. I need to stay here to settle my mom's estate anyways and it just feels right to be here for a while. Because this is where I grew up, it's good to come to terms with the loss here. Besides some documentary work I did in Taiwan last winter, this year was pretty unproductive. It's recently been all coming back to me and I'm starting to focus on my work again-using recent events to fuel my image making which consequently is making me experience a catharsis of sorts, difficult though it may be.

Even though I always said I'd never live in Toledo again, I'm beginning to realize that no matter how much you try to plan, life is just full of surprises and it's best to let the wrenches turn as they may. Every cloud has a silver lining, right? One good thing about being in Toledo is that I'm free from the exorbitant cost of living that I experienced in New York City, which consequently gives me a lot more time to make work instead of slaving away at some dumb job to pay my $1000 rent.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read. This background information, I feel, is good to keep in mind when viewing my blog as it's what's fueling a lot of the images I'm presently making.

Salon Ciel Show

Last night was the opening of my first show in New York. It was a group show for the staff of Salon Ciel, a monthly exhibition that showcases the work of up and coming artsits.They're great events-you can check them out here-http://saloncielnyc.org/ Last year I was the event photographer for these exhibits.

Having my first show in New York is quite exciting. The other artists' work was great and the show was a success overall.

Here are the pieces that I exhibited. They are different evolutions of the body of work I call "City." I started this body of work in Taiwan when accidently double-exposing a roll of film.

When I moved into the realm of digital photography, the work evolved into a more layered collaging.

When I relocated to New York, I still used the same idea of collaging, but used the environment of New York's subways and streets as this is what I saw everyday.






This is all still a work in progress; the New York stuff is definitely not ready for a show on its own so being in a group show and getting feedback was perfect for the stage the work is in right now.

Meet and Greet

I've been back home in Toledo, Ohio for the past six weeks because of family issues and thought I'd make a crack at getting some photo work while here. The photography industry is much different in Toledo than in New York. It's smaller, but-probably because of this-it's much more accessible. Whereas in New York I can contact a hundred editors and not get a response from one, here in Toledo I've heard back from everyone that I've reached out to for work. That's very refreshing.

Since I got back into town, I've been freelancing for a weekly arts and entertainment mag called City Paper. (http://www.toledocitypaper.com) I've been doing their event photography, which is great, for going to all these events throws me back in the loop after being gone for so long.

Last night there was a great event called "Meet and Greet." Around ten galleries in town opened their doors in the evening. Art, music, soicalizing, and wine was there for the masses and there even was a trolley to take people around to different venues the city. It was a great time, and has made me appreciate being in Toledo for the summer.

Church Project

I just took this great Documentary Photography class at the International Center of Photography-ICP- here in New York. Taught by the super-talented Andre Lambertson (http://www.alambertson.com)it got my photojournalism juices going again and got me started on-what I'm calling now-The Church Project.

Brooklyn-where I live-must be one of the most international places in the world. Along with this diversity comes a whole lot of religion and a whole lot of churches. My block alone has three of them, one being on the first floor of my apartment building. Every Sunday morning, drumming, chanting, and zealous praises are heard coming from the floor below me, but no one else in my building had a clue what was going on down there; just that it was some sort of Hispanic church.

So I decided to find out for myself what exactly was going on down there and kind of just walked in one Sunday. Everyone was quite welcoming and even gave me a pesonal translator as the service was in Spanish. Bongo drums in the corner solved the mystery of the thumping my roommates and I had heard upstairs. One of the members of the congregation started playing them as the others began singing and chanting and hallelujaing to He-zus. It all seemed pretty calm and churchlike in the beginning until people started chanting louder and faster and falling to the floor in relgious ecstasy.Apparentely, this church was of a Baptist faith and the yelling and collapsing and shaking were indications that the members had made a connection with Jesus.

I was quite intrigued as the Greek Orthodox masses that I went to as a kid never managed to get this interesting. The idea for The Church Project was born. Here are just the meagre beginnings, hopefully on future visits and to different churches that will allow me and my camera in, I'll be able to capture more action. This was my first visit to this church so didn't want to snap too much....and, I'm just warming up. More later.