Unwound

Took a walk in a sculpture park today as I've done a few times in the past and have usually walked away with a few good images. The light was great today for B&W nice soft and really diffused. I really like the relationship between the foreground to the background, there is a really nice energy going on between the two. This is a series that hopefully I can keep on developing more in time......

Love

All we need is love right? This one morning I was down at the "New New Maxwell Street" flea market in Chicago a few weeks back. Seeing that white teddy bear wrapped in cellophane with the word "love" stitched on the bottom of its paw just jumped out at me. Its one of those things that when you see and you go, "how can I make an interesting photograph of that?" I made a few different versions, but this one works that best. It gives perspective, those people hanging out talking to each other, the guy with his hand on the woman's shoulder....Yet the bear is just sitting there waiting to be picked up and shown the love that we all need....

Chicago EL

I for some reason like to create chaos in my images and this one is no exception. What drew to me making this image were those crazy abstract magenta shadows that are happening on the train tracks. Everything else seemed to fall into place from all the lines in the building in the background to all the lines and colors going on in the train entrance. It almost feels like some sort of a action movie, the calm chaos before the real action starts happening.....

Imagine

One Sunday about a month or so ago my friend Brendan and I decided to check out a new flea market that we had never been to. This is the Swap-O-Rama flea market in Alsip, IL. I've always been interested in flea markets, Maxwell Street being the one that I've photographed the most. The thing with these markets is you just never know what you are going to discover these places are full of people and stuff and its always a good time no matter if I buy anything or not.....the possibilities are endless photographically......

Red Alert

This image is one of the reasons why color photography is so exciting to me. The combination of light, shadow, and color makes for a very dynamic image. When I saw this image scanned it made me smile, its one of those times that an image came out better than I originally thought it would...

Beer

Fundamentally photography is about light and if you don't have it, you don't have a photograph. One morning a few weeks ago, I had just stepped out of my apartment and this was the first thing that caught my eye. Not so much the mundane subject matter, but that light and how it was dancing though the trees and landing on the subject. The light makes everything just comes to life. Without out this interesting light the image would be rather boring and uninteresting....

Dog World

This is one of those times when I was interested in one thing in the frame and that was that dog on the dashboard. When I made the image I was looking at any of the crazy reflections going on, and now when I look at the image it like wow, there was just so much more going on in the frame than I thought about at the time. That's exciting to me, seeing something after the fact and how it fits into what I was originally looking at...Funny how things just seem to some together that way. All those reflections create this 3D world around this dog almost like a dream in a way....

Driveway

I was going though a bunch of images that I had made within the last few months. I kinda forgot about this image I made while I was in NYC this past February. I remember when I first came I across it thinking how surreal. It certainly does have a surrealist feel to it with a graphic edge which is an interesting dynamic.

Picks

I got these guitar picks from a co worker of mine, her ex-boyfriend was a roadie for the Foo Fighters. I always love collecting little odds and ends of music memorabilia. I thought is was really cool that these picks were personalized with their nicknames on the back, adds a nice little touch. I really like the shallow depth of field when you get to the last pick it almost feels like its vibrating off a string on a guitar....

Flower Girl

This is another image from Serbia that I made last year which I liked, but I didn't like that actual scan of the transparency. It just didn't work for whatever reason. So yesterday I was doing some more Polaroid transfers and decided to try this image, and guess what, it was magic! It works on so many levels, the paper has a slightly warmer tone, and I love the color its as a bit more subdue and the texture of the paper just adds a nice feel...One of my new few Polaroid transfers!

The Stapler

Going back to a bunch of photographs I made earlier this year when I was doing some still life images. I was looking for things around my apartment that would be interesting to photograph. This was my Dad's old stapler that just kinda got past down to me over the years. I'm not sure where he got it, but its certainly very unique. They just don't make things like they used to, this stapler is probably 40 yrs old and still works great! I've always felt its form and design were really interesting, and by photographing its profile really shows it off. Its very elegant, practical, and abstract at the same time which is why its so charming.

Yellow

I've been looking at this space ever since they tore down the building that used to be there, for what reason I have no idea! At one time they were going to develop it to put in another ugly new condo building, didn't happened probably because the developer ran out of money and couldn't get enough idiots to by something that's not even built! On my way home on day after work a few days ago, everything fell into place, light was nice, right angle....that yellow box I have always wondered what was there at one point in time. It must have been covered up by something...The warmth of the light on the buidling with the windows and that plain yellow box they just seem to work off each other.....

Hands and Socks

So I was playing around with my iPhone camera since I let my other cameras at home since it was pouring out this morning. I;ve seen some things on the internet using the iPhone camera....I always forget I have a camera on my phone since I usually have one of my regular cameras with me. So I thought I would experiment a bit, made some observations on my EL ride home. I view this camera kinda like a holga, a sketching tool....Brought the images into photoshop and tweaked them a bit nothing too major...Maybe I'll do some more or at least remember if I don't have one of my other cameras that I have the camera on the iPhone I can use to create....

Woman's Best Friend

I was out on lunch break at work last week, I had just gotten a new lens for my camera and it was a nice day out. Normally I don't like to photograph in the middle of the day since the light a usually kinda hash. One this day it was harsh and defused so it can work. I sat around a little park by Marina City for awhile nothing much happening photographically. So on the way back to the office I walked down State Street when I ran across this lady sitting in the back of her mini van with her dog. It just seemed so random! I got as close as I could to make the image which was about 15 ft from her. She never saw me I don't think. I love how her and her dog are both looking in the same direction which really makes the photograph for me.....

Mother Betty

I made this image a few weeks ago when I was at NIU in Dekalb seeing the photographer Dave Jordano speak. After spending the whole day seeing Dave's work and him talking to the students. Myself, my Professor Larry Gregory, Paul Clark(another professor), and Dave had dinner. Feeling inspired I hit the road on my way back home, I decided to take RT 38 which I really hadn't done when I was in school at NIU. I was losing light pretty fast when I ran across this small roadside Cemetary I had to stop. The sun was sitting kinda low and when I came across this image it was that reddish hue that attracted me. It had a really warm and comforting feeling to me. Its as if the tree and grave were just meant to be together. The fact that grave belongs to a Mother made the image complete. There certainly seems to have holy feeling going on. Things just fell into place rather nicely. I knew that it was a keeper as soon as I saw it.....

William Gary, IN

A few minutes after I photographed Mr. Jackson walking down a sidewalk to ran into William, I think that's what his name was. Anyway he was this huge guy that seemed to take up the whole sidewalk, there was no way around him. He seemed kinda suspicious to what I was doing, but after chatting with him for awhile and a few fist bumps later he let me make his photograph. A really nice guy and this photograph is how I remember him he was looking down at me because he was so tall.....

On an Island

This is the photograph and lead me to photographing Mr. Jackson. I will never forget him saying to me that, "Artists don't photograph garbage cans" It always really interesting to me what I see compared to what someone else sees in a scene. Everyone just has different sensibilities based on there surroundings and experiences.....

J. Jackson Part 2

Here is the second photograph I took of mister Jackson. It certainly has a more intimate feel since I was able to get closer with the Hasselblad which had a lens that was more for portraits. I like both as each has there own qualities that makes them interesting...I will be sending Mr. Jackson prints of these 2 images and hopefully when I go back to Gary I might stop by....

J. Jackson

I rarely do many portraits, even more rare that I do a portrait of a stranger. I was on my way back home from a work assignment in Valparaiso, IN, I decided to stop in Gary, IN because I'd always heard cool things about the place, I mean it is the home of the King of Pop....So I got out and walked around one of the main streets making some images. Long story short, I was out by a side of a building making some images when a guy started yelling at me, I turned around and no one was there. Then I looked up and there was this guy on a phone, asking me why I was making a photograph of a dumpster? Well, the photograph that I made wasn't about the dumpster it had more to do with the color....So I get into a conversation with this guy which eventually leeds me to making a few portraits of him.....It might not be my best portrait, but it one that I really had to talk my way into and I'm most proud of being able just to be able to make the image.

Landscapes

One my way home from a friends house one night as I drove past this truck and I knew I had to turn around and make an image. The whole idea of and landscape truck in a cityscape was appealing to me. It was pretty dark out. So I pull my car in back of this truck, and I knew I needed more light so I turned my headlights back on to illuminate the back of the truck, which worked out perfectly. Landscape + Cityscape = a cool image I think....