Faces of Literacy, Voices of Courage

I haven't been updating this nearly enough as I should be, but there's so much I want

to share! I've been looking back through some old stuff so I'm gonna make a whole bunch of new posts with older stuff that maybe you haven't seen!

By now this photograph is about two years old! I kind of forgot about it, but it really was part of something very special. During my semester in Maine at MECA, a group of photo majors including myself worked with the Literacy Volunteers of Maine on a project called Faces of Literacy, Voices of Courage. The Literacy Volunteers are an organization that help adults throughout Maine overcome illiteracy. With personal tutors and group classes they assist them in areas ranging from basic reading skills to accomplishments such as earning a G.E.D.

For the Faces of Literacy, Voices of Courage project we traveled throughout the state of Maine, meeting the people that the Literacy Volunteers have helped and took portraits of them. Along with a video documentary and each individual's success story, our photographs became part of a traveling exhibition around Maine in efforts to raise awareness about illiteracy and to encourage those who struggle to seek assistance.

I traveled to Rockland, ME, and had the privilege to meet George who through the Literacy Volunteers was able to successfully apply for and obtain a commercial driver's license and a hazardous materials endorsement. With these qualifications George was able to get a job working for a private construction company and support his family. My portrait of George was used heavily for the promotion for the exhibition, and appeared on numerous web and print media.

George

Doug, George's tutor

On the day of the shoot I had some extra time to photograph Doug, because George ended up being about 45 minutes late. George was so excited about the shoot he took a detour to his work to ask his boss if he could borrow his HUGE truck for the photograph! Although he tried to hide it it was quite obvious how proud George was of what he accomplished, but he did explain how important it was to him that others who struggle with literacy to seek help. Meeting George and being a part of this project was truly an amazing and humbling experience.

Unfortunately the exhibition went underway after I had already left Maine, and I was unable to attend any of the museums it stopped at. for more information on the Faces of Literacy, Voices of Courage project and the Literacy Volunteers of Maine, check this out.

RIPSTICK

These dudes make up the band Ripstick. They didn't have any promo shots so I took this for them after they tore up Friendship Fortress. Check out their jams here.

Third Time's a Charm

Long time no post! But I did recently shoot some promos for Third Time's a Charm, here are a couple of them:

I've known TTAC's drummer Matt since high school and I have to say this is the coolest band he's been in. Matt asked me to come out and shoot some pics for them, so with extremely limited resources (a flash and two lamps) this is some of what we came up with. At the start of the shoot I was having a hard time with the limited lighting, but as it went on I began to really enjoy the challenge of lighting them down in a dark basement. It really helped that the guys were down to do whatever I asked and we tried out a whole bunch of ideas, its really awesome when bands are just as excited as me to take pictures!

You need to check out Third Time's a Charm on their myspace page, and also check out this video of them playing at the Chicago stop of the 2010 Van's Warped Tour beacuse, well they played Warped Tour! ... which is seriously rad.

So there you go for now, I'm planning to get off my butt and start making more work on a consistent basis again so stay tuned...

2.20.10

Promo pic for DK&S (kinda old now)

every day at least one bird will poop on my van

Another project from my humor class in the spring! This project was kinda strange for me- as weather was warming up this spring I started to notice the birds coming back up north, or more specifically I was noticing that they were pooping all over my van! Every time I would climb into my van there would be a new 'surprise' left on my windshield and every time I would clean it off, there would be a new one right away! I had my camera in the van and I don't really know why, but one day I decided to photograph one of the 'presents' from above. From then on I made it a habit to park under trees whenever I could and after a couple weeks had compiled a rather large collection of photographs!



When it comes down to it this series is about, well, poop. So to sort of 'elevate' the presentation of the photographs I decided to put them into a book in an ironic sort of juxtaposition as a way to make the viewer's experience with the images a more intimate one. Mandie was awesome and bound a book for my critique.



A lot of people really enjoyed the one book, so Mandie and I decided to make an edition of 20! Here are some blurry pictures from my phone of one of the nights spent assembling all of the books:



We have sold quite a few books and we have about 8 of them left. if you would like a copy of the book they are $10, and I would be more than happy to get one to you!

Stalking Jon Horvath: A Prop to Fulfill my Assignment for FA381

A series of photographs documenting the spaces to which I was led within the pursuit of my Humor in Contemporary Practice instructor. Chance, a number of internet searches, and help from Tara Bogart, Naomi Shersty, and Lara Ohland led me to Jon Horvath's door. This imagery results from the 36 hours that followed.



This series was for my final assignment for my Humor class, and is a parody of my teacher Jon Horvath's series, Stalking Michael Stipe that can be seen here. I tailed Jon to his home after class on a Wednesday night and continued to stalk him through the following Friday afternoon, all without his knowledge. These are photographs that were made along the way in his neighborhood, his office, and on his lunch break at Alterra. I thought he almost caught me outside Alterra, but turns out he was unaware the whole time and thought the project was quite funny!

GET PUMPED!

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of shooting some press pics for the dudes and dudette in Direct Hit! I shot them quite a bit for my thesis project and they are pretty boss, you should definitely check out their jams here.





Nick told me the that the second photograph might be included in a write-up about Direct Hit in AMP magazine, so that would be pretty rad.