A few weeks ago I found myself in Philadelphia, PA for a magazine photo shoot. With about 8-hours of down time between scouting and the shoot, I set out with my camera, a desire to explore, some helpful advice from visitphilly.com, and an empty stomach. After a full afternoon/evening I come to know why people refer to this as the “City of Brotherly Love” (aside from the fact that Philadelphia is actually Greek for brotherly love which is derived from philos, “love” or “friendship”, and adelphos, “brother”. Sadly 8-hours was barely enough to scratch the surface of what this great city has to offer. If you find yourself in Philly, here are a few things that I learned to help you along your way.
The Washington Monument Fountain, situated just inside the northwest edge of Eakins Oval, in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art stairs, is shilouetted against a backdrop of scattered clouds.
Just wanted to share a quick screenshot from the USA Today iPhone App. The image below is from the recent Gullah-Geechee project that I worked on with writer Larry Copeland. It was originally published on April 21, 2011.
I guess the iApp is the new equivalent to going to the paper box in the morning to see your clips for the day. It’s amazing to think about how the industry has changed over the past 12 years.
If you don’t have the USA Today app already, I would recommend heading over to the iTunes App store, and downloading it today. It has become one of my daily GoTo news apps.
P.S. This post was published from my iPhone. Yes the world has changed!
Yesterday afternoon, I was fortunate enough to be the only photographer for a civilian media outlet on hand for a closed demonstration of the U.S. Army’s newly revised fitness tests for soldiers. Back in the days of print, I would wake up and head to the news stand to get a copy of whatever publication I shot for. These days all I have to do is open my Google Alerts, and I’m instantly notified of every publication in the world who used my images online. After more than a decade of seeing my images in print its still a pretty good rush when you open up your alerts and see double digits in the results.
I am completely humbled that I have been selected as the Columbia Regional Visitors Center “Artist of the Month” for November 2010. Photographic prints will be on display and available for purchase throughout the entire month of November at the Visitors Center located inside the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center (1101 Lincoln Street).
We are kicking things off with a happy hour drop-in on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010. Please join us for beer, wine and light hors d’oeuvres from 5:30-7:30pm at the Visitors Center in the Vista.
If you can’t make it to the happy hour, I will be at the Visitors Center all day, so feel free to stop by when you have a moment. These photographic prints make unique Christmas gifts. To help you get started with your holiday shopping all prints will be discounted 10-25% from 8:30am-7:30pm on the 4th.
Looking back on my email box, I found the first correspondence letting me know that I had been selected to participate in fourth series of the Palmetto Portraits Project a year ago today. Less than five days from now, on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, the exhibit will open to the public with a reception at MUSC’s new James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine, located at 29 Bee St. in Charleston, SC.
My first fine art photography show Symbology, installed in the black box theatre at the Columbia Music Festival association.
As I sat on the porch where I currently live, listening to the water fall in the Koi pond, and trying to catch up on growing email inbox this morning, I ran across a facebook message from a few weeks ago that new friend and fellow artist Anastasia Chernoff sent, after visiting my photo show, the subject of that message was “The after-show glow…” In her message she equated the emotions of putting your first show together, to giving birth to a baby (something I’ll never know about), and went on to say “…the opening night was all so beautifully surreal. An incredible high that, to this day, STILL resonates within me when I think about it.” That last statement is something I can now completely understand though. Now that I look back on the whole experience of my show which closed at the conclusion of the 2009 Artista Vista three weeks ago, it STILL resonates within me, and I’m sure it will continue to, for the rest of my life. While my entire life has been a complete whirlwind for the past 3 months, filled with the stresses of work, travel, putting on my first show, and trying to buy my first home, I sit here this morning feeling the calmest, and certainly the most content I’ve been in the past 8 months, all thanks to the wonderful friends, and family who now share my life with me.
I believe that our culture is founded on, and formed by symbols that enable us to connect what we can see with those things that can only be understood by our souls. The symbols we use to express our patriotism, faith, love, and even socioeconomic status, are simply an outward expression of the desire we all share as human beings to belong to something larger than ourselves. The representation of these symbols in the images I have created reflects the way I see what my subjects present, as a means of communicating their belonging to the world around them.
A political protester grasps a confederate battle flag, outside of town hall meeting at Seawell's, in Columbia, S.C., for Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.
The proceeding statement was the founding basis for my first fine art photography show titled “Symbology,” which contains 15 16×20 format silver halide prints, from editorial images which I have created over the past decade as a freelance photojournalist.
Symbology will open with a free reception on Art Night, Thursday, April 23, 2009 from 4-9pm.
The show will continue on Friday, April 24, 2009, with gallery hours from 11am-3pm, followed by a special performance from local rock band, All Walks of Life from 7pm-Until. Tickets for the show are $5, and can be purchased at CMFA in advance or at the door.
Gallery hours will continue on Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 11am-3pm, and will conclude with a special talk, and question and answer session from 2-3pm.
As tradition, during the first or second week of every new year I spend a day going back through all of the images I have created during the previous year to prepare for annual contest submissions. For me this is an opportunity to look back on what I have learned over the year, re-evaluate what I might do differently next year, and see my growth both as a photographer and a person. This year was a little different. In a few months I will celebrate being a photographer, and a small business owner for a decade. A small milestone in the greater scheme of things, but a pretty big one for a 28-year-old.
While last year was tough for me personally, and professionally (we are all dealing with this down economy). The year of 2009 has started off for me with a great deal of opportunity and promise, with several great adventures already in the books that I can’t wait to share with you, and others that are out there which I don’t even know about yet. I am going through a period of tremendous growth again, after being somewhat stagnant creatively for some time, and I am very excited for what the future holds.
The gallery of images contained in this post is never usually seen outside of contest judging rooms, where they may only get a brief glimpse of time on a projector screen. With that in mind, I would like to have the opportunity to share some of my favorite images of the year with those of you who read this blog. I sincerely hope you enjoy, and feel free to share your own stories, comments and critiques.
I wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2009!
