It’s definitely a good news/bad news thing: I’ve had virtually nothing to say here in the ‘blog for quite a while now, which means I’m totally occupied with my art – as well as happy with the results I’m getting. Not that I ever complain about my creative situation here, but I do use this blog to explain my process to myself [and anyone else who cares to read this thing]. Basically I’ve just been too busy doing the work to talk about it…which is about as cool a reason for writers’ block as I can think of.
Most of my work has been on the road the last several months. Discovering the Dearborn/Detroit/Toledo corridor has been a boon – it’s an inexpensive and easy trip and opens me to a lot of new and interesting people who are cool with my work and relatively issue-free. It also gives me lots of options regarding shooting spaces – far more than I have here in Pittsburgh [where I really only have one place I can count on anymore]. Shooting in Toledo is especially exciting, because I’m working at the Collingwood Arts Center right on the Toledo/Detroit border. It’s a big old gorgeous building that used to be a catholic school and now serves as a school for performing arts as well as an active artists’ residence. I can’t speak to how other “shoot outs” are run, but this one is totally cool. For a flat $20 fee I have access to the whole building for a day and as many people as I can set up shoots with. As I write this, I’m scheduled to work with 10 different people at the April 21st shoot. And all it took to find most of them was a couple of posts on the ModelMayhem message board. Really it’s at the the point where I can let them find me, which people seem to do with increasing frequency.
Probably the coolest thing about my growing “rep” in the MI/OH confluence is the fact that I’ve built my buzz by doing just what I’ve always done. I have yet to alter my work, my approach to people or the way I conduct myself. I really think my “no-nonsense” approach is something that models in the area are finding attractive. I’m my usual personable self, but I don’t go overboard trying to be “friends” with models. I get the feeling that a lot of the photographers who do these shoot outs try a bit too hard to come off as “nice guys” and end up coming off as a bit neurotic [if harmless]. I’m probably tying to cover up my neurosis more than most, so I keep a bit of objective distance between myself and most of the people I work with there. Like I said, I’m still perfectly nice, but I don’t overdo it.
Oddly enough, my new forays into the MI/OH corridor seem to have sparked a resurgence of shooting opportunities here in Pittsburgh as well. I’ve had several very successful shoots here in town over the past few months, with various people, both new to my circle and familiar friends. I’ve got lots of really intense and interesting stuff, including a few conceptual firsts. In addition to all this new work, I’m experimenting with new ways of presenting images to you as well – diptychs, mosaics and the like. This has caused me to dig into my archives much farther than usual to find images to work into the new methodology. It’s fun, but time consuming and with that added on to my usual editing pace for the new stuff…
Well you get the idea. I just haven’t had time to write about my work much…Mostly because I’ve been doing too much work!
So here’s my compromise: instead of spending days and weeks pondering “big” questions about my work and my motivations, I propose to show you a different piece every few days and give you some quick thoughts about how the image happened and what I hope it means in the grand scheme of my work. It won’t be the deep thinking I originally planned to fill this blog with, but it will make me feel more like I’m staying in touch with the folks who are kind enough to stick with me and read this thing.
TOMORROW: diptychs.
