Trees outside a Cider Mill in Connecticut.
Daily Pics October 24th, 2014 /
Glowing Jesus was found in my friends antique store. It came from a Funeral Home in Rhode Island. What a strange state. At least it's not made out of Chocolate.
Glowing Jesus
Daily Pics October 23th, 2014 /
My wife sells candles on here site Ooh La La Petite Boutique, and for the last few weeks we have been going to Greenpoint a lot to buy supplies but also to sell to a few stores there. I saw this place one night and fell in love with the old signs. Their is something I love about taking photos of Laundromats.
Wash and Dry
Why I Take Photos /
Me after working full-time and shooting until 2am for a week.
"Nearly everyone has fallen down, been the target of condescension (the stereotypical image of a photographer being that of a mildly contemptible, self-indulgent dilettante), been harassed by security guards, and dropped expensive equipment. Almost all photographers have incurred large expenses in the pursuit of tiny audiences, finding that the wonder they'd hoped to share is something few want to receive. Nothing is so clarifying, for instance, as to stand through the opening of an exhibition to which only officials have come."
Colleagues
Robert Adams
I think this can pretty much sum up how just about every photographer feels. In college, I had a professor tear my work off the wall through it on the floor and tell me “if you ever bring in work like this again, I will fail you.” Unfortunately I deserved that one. Since then, I have spent many countless days and nights working. I have sacrificed personal relationships, money and time in the pursuit of something that is often derided or not taken seriously. It is a field that is under appreciated and very low paying. In order to continue creating the work I do, I have to work a full time job as a designer in order to make buy the supplies I need.
So many times I put my own life in risk by using toxic chemicals and walking into some of the world’s worst neighborhoods. I am most likely buying a house in the most crime ridden place in Brooklyn just to have something bigger than a 500 square foot apartment to live and work in. I am practically sleeping on my 8x10 camera. One time in Buenos Aries, I was walking down the street taking photos. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see a policeman telling me to go in the opposite direction. It turns out that I was in the worst area of Buenos Aires, La Boca.
So many times I have fought with pompous security guards over where I can take photos from. Or police officers questioning me and telling me to move on because I don’t shoot with a “tourist” camera. All the people on the street that give me dirty looks as if I am doing something evil like stealing their souls. The stigma I often hear about photographers being GWC’s or Guys with Cameras, a term to mean that the only reason the guys take photos is to get pretty girls naked and photography them. Or read articles about people like Terry Richardson who abuse their power to take advantage of young girls trying to make a legitimate career.
I receive emails every month about some new scheme to help promote my artwork or send me the photo and I will wire you a check fraud. The people who want to use my photo and promise to make me famous with the magazine with a circulation of 100. Professional businesses that offer to give me credit in their publication and how the jobs will start rolling in with all the exposure I will get. This is not the 1980’s anymore. Nobody is impressed with your photo in a magazine anymore.
All the exhibitions I have shown at only to see a few friends attend. I was recently at an exhibition that featured some photos my wife took. A friend walked up and asked whether my wife had taken them or if it was really me who took them. Needless to say she was a little upset by that question.
Eni's photo from the Selfless Selfies Exhibit
So why do we do it?
I originally went to school for painting and after a few years I took my first photography class while living in London. I can still remember how magical it was to me at the time when I put the first print into the developer. It was like magic. I used to spend hours and hours drawing and painting to get a realistic look in my paintings and after seeing an image develop it made me rethink things. Ever since then I had been addicted. Photography is worse than a drug and costs more too. I never really took many classes in school for photography, but when I did I had access to huge studios and great equipment, 4x5 cameras, Hasselblads and Nikons, all the latest. Strobes and space big enough to photograph a truck. Then school ends and it was a struggle to buy my own equipment while paying off school and making minimum wage. It wasn’t until digital cameras became more readily available that I was able to afford one. I bought a Nikon D70. Now I have a growing collection of digital and vintage cameras. A lot of my photos on this site were shot with a 8x10 Deardorff.
"Everything Collapsed" for the "Where the Ocean Meets the Shore" series.
A lot of the work I shot has some social, economic or political message behind it. I recently shot Willets Point, Queens. While photographing the place and people, I was reminded why I do this. I do this to tell stories and share my world. I often see things that leave a huge weight on my soul and by sharing the photos; it helps to lift some of that weight off. After taking these photos, it can be hard to let it go and often stays with me and keeps me up at night working harder and harder. I never feel completely fulfilled with the photos or the prints, I never feel like I really do justice to the subjects I photograph or the topics I cover and so I work harder and harder and dig deeper and deeper into a hole until I can’t take it anymore. It’s like a stain I can’t get off my hands, a habit I can’t kick and so all those inconveniences I mentioned before seem trivial.
Eni with the guys from Willets Point
Daily Pics October 22th, 2014 /
Some antique saws in Mystic, Connecticut.
Rusty Saws
Daily Pics October 21th, 2014 /
An Old Schoolhouse in Connecticut. Ever since I started making Platinum Prints, I have really learned a lot about tones and subtlety. I used to crank things up to 11, but now I have more of an appreciation for a full and subtle tonal range.
Connecticut Schoolhouse
Daily Pics October 20th, 2014 /
I don't remember when I took this, but it must have been a long time ago because I took it with the Digital Medium Format Camera I used to use. Obviously it is not a Blockbuster with only two people there. I believe this is in the Bronx
Blockbuster Video
Daily Pics October 19th, 2014 /
A small little shack next to a really cool antique store where I bought a old dynamite box, without the dynamite of course in Mystic, Connecticut.
Antique Shack necxt to the sotre Mine in Mystic Connecticut
Daily Pics October 18th, 2014 /
Ok ok so I have been negligent on posting new pictures, but I was away for a short trip to Mystic Connecticut with my wife. We like Antiques a lot and so we went looking for new stuff. We also visited my friend in Rhode Island who owns an antique store and we also went to Boston. It was the first time for Eni and she loved it.
As a photographer and an artist, my work often tends to be about political or heavy topics which brings me to my next point. Sometimes while traveling I allow myself to take photos that do not always fit into that style. I think as an artist sometimes it is good to let the art world, which can be pretentious, fade back and allow yourself to take travel photos. Ones that are not always about some deep topics. That is not to say they cannot be great or serious. One just needs to look at Robert Franks "The Americans", but one that allows you to see things that you may not ordinarily see if I was thinking of photos that are more socially or politically based. That is what these blog posts have really been about. Sometimes doing the more heavy topics can take a lot out of you and you may need to recharge your batteries on something more basic. Sometimes these little side projects can lead to bigger and better ideas.
A country road in Connecticut
Daily Pics October 12th, 2014 /
HSE 11 FL 5, Greenpoint Brooklyn