Welp, I'll start by saying it's been a good couple of months (for the most part). I guess. Well, I mean you know how it is; either it's all meh, or it's chunks of awesome sprinkled with bits of shit. Or I suppose sometimes it's big ol' chunks of shit sprinkled with just enough awesome to sustain you. Whatever. My point is, nothing's ever all awesome or all shit, but these past few months have been more of the former. So, yay for that.
Ok, I made my decision. I'm gonna start with photo stuff.
So, going chronologically within the subject of "photo stuff," I guess the first thing to mention would be the 20-Something Project. A while back, my friend and fellow photographer, Rick, got featured in this project, which is a non-profit mini documentary series that explores the lives of artists in their 20s who are living in New York. There is a promotional aspect to the project, but primarily, it serves as a kind of networking tool for that specific demographic; it's a way for us to meet other creative people, maybe find some work through the connections we make within the group, or just to make some new friends. I gotta hand it to Heather, the gal behind the 20-Something Project--she's worked tirelessly for months on this thing and has interviewed scores of people and put all the footage together herself, pretty much for the benefit of other people. She's planning on turning it into a full documentary that she would submit to film festivals and so forth, and she'll need some sponsorship for that, but so far everything has been about collaboration; young, like-minded people coming together to help each other out. I think that's beautiful.
Anyway, when I saw Rick's interview, I reached out to Heather to see if she was looking for more people to feature. She was, so we met at a coffee shop for a little preliminary interview, and I sent her some of my work along with some bio pictures. Soon after that, I went to her apartment where she interviewed me on camera, and a few weeks after that, the videos were up online.
Those can be seen here:
http://vimeo.com/109694631
http://vimeo.com/110492376
http://vimeo.com/110367405
http://vimeo.com/110586607
The interviewing process was very laid back. I was a little nervous about it because I feel like I don't always come up with intelligent answers on the spot like that, and adding a camera into the mix throws any remaining self-confidence out the window (I prefer to be on the other side of the lens thankyouverymuch), but I think it went pretty smoothly. And the times I did stumble were edited out, because Heather is awesome. There was also a meetup that I attended last month that she put together, and that was a lot of fun. Met some really interesting people (mostly musicians), who I definitely hope to see again. (here's some photos of that, because pix or it didn't happen, amirite? https://www.storehouse.co/stories/o6nld-the-20-something-project-november-meet-up)
OOH! I just realized--it's been SO long since I last wrote, I haven't even posted the last editorial that I got published! And that was back in September! Yikes.
Well, so, here's that:
Ok, so next thing I guess, is that I had some competition success recently. I entered Professional Photographer's "Photographer of the Year" contest a while ago, and had one of my images chosen by a sponsor as their favorite image submitted. I did also have two images shortlisted for the grand prize, but I didn't wind up placing for that. Ultimately I didn't actually win anything except bragging rights, but hey--sponsor's choice and two finalists ain't bad, especially given that they got nearly 6,000 entries.
 |
| The one on the right is mine, with a little write-up... and below are the two finalists. |
I also recently won a Popular Photography challenge; the theme was "portrait with interesting shadows," so I submitted one of the images from the Form & Shadow editorial I just attached (the 4th picture; the one with the finger shadows). I got $100 from that, plus I'll have a little feature in their next print issue, so that's pretty cool.
Potentially my biggest photographic news is that I just did a shoot which may turn out to be my first big ad campaign. Don't get too excited, because I really have no idea how likely it is that the company will actually use it, but either way it's been a really good learning experience so far. Basically, the editor from the magazine that published my paper dress shoot back in February reached out to me a couple of months ago to see if I'd be interested in working on this project with him. The magazine is Japanese-based, and so is the clothing company, so he wants to bring them on as a sponsor for the magazine (I'm not sure I can divulge who I'm talking about just yet, so I'm gonna have to keep it generic). So he sent along a sketch of a 4-panel idea that he had, which involved a model in various recognizable New York locations. The way it'll work is that once I've done the editing and submitted the images to him (the editor), he will submit them to the company, who will then either decide to use them as campaign material (in which case there'd be a pretty hefty budget involved and we'd all get paid), or they might pass (in which case, there will be no pay--but even in that worst case scenario, I'd still have the photos published as an editorial in the magazine). The concept that the editor put together is not entirely in line with the company's past campaigns and I'm not sure my work will be up to par for their expectations... but the editor does apparently know some corporate folks at the company, so at least the pitch won't be coming completely out of the blue.
This project, while exciting, has had its fair share of challenges. First of all, getting a model turned out to be kind of complicated. Agencies only send out models on two types of gigs: either it's a 1. official campaign or some other project with an agreed-upon budget, or 2. an unpaid test shoot, which may be used for personal/promotional/editorial purposes, but may NOT be used for advertising because it is unpaid. This situation is not entirely in violation of that, but it doesn't fit neatly into either of those categories either, since it has the potential to be an ad campaign, but there is not (and cannot yet be) an agreed-upon budget. So the booker at the agency told me that I needed to draft up a contract in order for this to go forward... which I understood from her standpoint, but I wasn't (and still am not) quite sure why that legal responsibility fell to me, since I'm only the photographer here and it's not even my project. I was also wary of putting together something like that for multiple reasons, ranging from the silly (I have no mind for legal jargon and was intimidated at the prospect of having to write a professional-sounding agreement) to the serious (being the author of the contract essentially puts me at the highest risk, should things go south). I also really had no idea how I might word such a complicated if/then situation, so finally the booker suggested that we make it a two-parter; first I would draft an agreement that was basically a standard model release, and would treat the shoot as an unpaid test which may not be used for advertising purposes unless and until a budget is agreed upon. Then, if/when we cross that bridge, I would draft another separate contract for usage rights. That made sense to all of us and seemed like a much simpler solution, so I did that.
Then came the scouting challenges. Since the editor wanted iconic New York locations, I did some brainstorming and came up with as many spots that I could think of that might work for an attractive backdrop. Then, slowly, I began to cross them off one at a time because... YOU CAN'T SHOOT GODDAMN ANYWHERE IN NEW YORK WITHOUT A PERMIT. Some of my best ideas (New York Public Library, Grand Central, Rockefeller Center, Central Park...) had to be scrapped because they all required permits and I didn't have time to get them before the shoot. That was kind of a stupid mistake on my part, and one that could have been avoided if I'd started that research earlier... but like I said: it's been a learning experience. I'll know what to do for next time. Ultimately, I settled on my friend's restaurant (the editor wanted a cafe scene), a subway car, the Flatiron building, outside Radio City, and Times Square.
The next challenge lay in the fact that it is winter in New York... which means it's cold and nasty outside, and there aren't very many hours of sunlight. After doing multiple scouting trips to time approximately how long we'd need at each location (which is much less fun when it's freezing and blustery out), I settled on an 8am call time. I figured if we could get out the door by 10, do the subway shoot on the way, get to the restaurant by 10:45ish, shoot until noon and then do Flatiron at 12:30, Radio City at 2:00, and be in Times Square by 3:30, we'd have just enough time for everything before the sun set around 5. Well, first the model didn't show until 9am, so we weren't ready to leave until 11. The subway shoot and the restaurant were relatively uncomplicated because they were inside, although the shoot on the train was kind of hectic because the car wasn't as empty as I'd hoped and I only had a window of like 3 minutes while the train was going over the bridge to get the shot. The Flatiron building turned out to be a challenge too, partly because of traffic (we set up on a little island across the street from the building by the famous clock, and I had her leap across the street, so we had to stop every time the light turned green), but also partly because the sun was ALREADY beginning to sink... and in exactly the wrong direction. If everything had been flipped and the sun was behind us, the lighting would have been perfect, but the sun was in front of us and behind the building, which meant that we got some nice golden hour lighting and some lens flares (which I'm still not sure whether I love or hate), but it wasn't really the kind of light that I had in mind, and it was difficult to get good details on her. Radio City was a bust because not five minutes into shooting, we got a whole gang of rickshaws that decided to park themselves directly in front of us. I tried to be polite but they didn't give a shit, so we had to resort to some good old fashioned New Yorker "EYY I'M SHOOTIN' HEEYAH" and some fist-shaking, and we finally convinced them that if they just moved like 5 yards up the street, we could all be happy. But literally the moment they left, a big ice cream truck came in and took their place. So we said screw it, and moved on to Times Square.
Times Square was miserable. I sort of expected that, but there were a lot of variables about this particular location that I did not anticipate. First of all, we were actually ahead of schedule by this point; we arrived at the spot around 3:00... and yet it was already surprisingly dark. I guess 3:00 out in some empty field somewhere would still have been considered daytime, but when you're surrounded by tall buildings, 3:00 is twilight. It was also bitter cold and windy, and the model, who was dressed in heels and a thin sleeveless dress, was rapidly losing patience. But the biggest problem was the goddamn neutral density filter. I had this idea where I wanted to pose the model and have her stand as still as possible while I took a long exposure shot so that everyone around her would be blurred. Given that it was still too light outside to set an 8-second shutter speed without getting an overexposed shot, I bought a neutral density filter, which darkened the scene by 10 stops so that I could compensate for the long shutter setting. While the shutter was open, I had my friend Kelly (who was my assistant that day), pop the lights a couple of times so I could get some nice lighting on the model. My problem was this: when I attached the filter to my lens, the scene was so dark that I literally could not see a thing. Not through the viewfinder, not through the live view... I got nothing. Nada. And how, pray tell, are you supposed to--oh, I dunno--focus the lens on something you can't see? Or frame a shot? You can't, that's how. I tried bumping up the aperture and ISO levels as high as they would go just so I could see enough to set a manual focus, but that didn't work... I tried taking the filter off, focusing, and then very carefully screwing it back on, but of course no matter how careful I was, the act of screwing the filter on would shift the lens back out of focus. There was nothing I could do. I tried as many times as the model could tolerate before finally scrapping it and doing some normal shots without the filter and with a regular shutter speed.
When I got home and looked through the photos, there wasn't really anything usable from the Times Square portion of the shoot, but I decided to try my luck with fusing some pictures together to create the desired effect. That was a challenge too, because I was essentially trying to edit together 4 photos that weren't even taken with the intention of editing them together, so they're all taken at different angles with different lighting... it was a mess. What I came out with (6 hours of editing later) isn't terrible, and actually I kind of like it as a picture... but it does definitely look processed. I sent it to the editor to get his opinion on it, and he seemed to like it too, there were just a few things I did to make it look more "realistic" that he didn't like, so I'll need to dial that back a bit.
So yeah. Hah. That was... an experience. And I'm sure I'll have more to add by the next time I write. In the mean time, here are some behind-the-scenes shots, courtesy of Kelly and Madelyn (the makeup/hair stylist):
 |
| Shooting at Rouge Et Blanc (Kelly's restaurant in Soho) |
 |
| Flatiron shoot |
 |
| Kelly, my frozen test subject in Times Square |
Oof. Ok, so there's some more photo news, kind of, but I'm about as tired of writing about it as you probably are of reading about it, so I'm gonna save that for the next post since I'll probably have more to write about then anyway.
Socially speaking, life's been lively (although not so much at the moment because my closest friends are out of the state and/or country). I've had some epic adventures with Kelly and Ryan in the last few months... went to a jazz club, played some truth-or-dare Jenga at a lounge in Soho, attended a poetry salon, saw a screening of the Botso film (about my first music teacher) at a film house with Ryan, went to the Whitney with Ryan for the Jeff Koons show, went clubbing for Halloween, found an amazing Basquiat-themed underground warehouse bar with live art with a new friend, and danced my face off on multiple occasions. Kelly's in China now, and Ryan's been in Brazil for a little over a month and won't be coming back until the end of January... which is a bummer because we'd just started hanging out a lot more right before he left. But there's a chance I might see him in London when I visit my uncle there next month, so that'd be badass. In any case, technology is awesome, and being in different countries doesn't restrict communication like it used to, so we all still talk frequently through WhatsApp.
On the darker end, October and November saw a lot of death. A girl I was friendly with in high school got hit by a car on her bike... and that happened right in front of her fiancé who she was set to marry in two weeks. I wound up talking to my friend Dylan about it over the phone for a couple of hours because he's been very close with her and her family since they were little. So that was rough. I mean there's really nothing you can even say about a tragedy like that, you know? And I do this stupid thing sometimes where I let stuff like that affect me more than I should. It's good to be an empathetic person, but in the days following Anna's death, I couldn't stop thinking about Jason (the fiancé) and her parents, and the hell they must be going through. How do you move past something that traumatic? How do you begin to rebuild? Is it even possible to ever fully recover from something like that? Humans are remarkably resilient creatures, and we withstand terrible tragedy and pain every day... but as for myself, I'm really not sure I'd have the strength to keep on if that happened to me. There was a service for her shortly before I visited California that I wish I could have been there for. She and I were in choir together, and I guess a lot of the choir kids came together with Mr. Lamprecht (our high school choir director) and sang Children of the Heavenly Father, which, despite being a religious song, is an objectively beautiful piece of music, and was one that Lamprecht taught every year. I can only imagine how emotional that must have been. Anna was actually in New York back in May for a couple of days, and had messaged me to see if we could get together to catch up. I wanted to, but I had work and she was only here for a little bit, and our schedules just didn't line up so it didn't wind up happening. If only I'd known... I wish I'd canceled something or rearranged my days so I could have seen her.
Shortly after that, one of my art professors from Poly passed away. That was not unexpected because he'd been diagnosed with brain cancer nearly two years ago (and actually he well out-lived the doctor's expectations), but that doesn't make it any less sad. I'd only had him for one class because he was mainly a studio art professor, but I always liked him. He was a great professor and a kind man, and all the students and faculty loved him, so it must be strange to not have him there anymore. Then the wife of a friend's friend passed away in her sleep, and they had to have an emergency c-section on her to get their baby out, who was 2 months premature so he wound up dying too. Actually that story went somewhat viral on the internet because there's a video of the guy singing Blackbird to the baby before they pulled his life support. I mean, fuck. That's a lot of goddamn sadness to hit in a 3-week time span.
Ok, that got heavy, so I'm gonna end with some lightness. I got to visit California for the first time in nearly a year about a week ago. It was kind of a whirlwind of a trip... I saw a LOT of people and didn't really wind up having time for a lot of things I thought I'd have time for. But that's alright, it was good to reconnect. The first few days were devoted to a couple of house parties that my parents put together for a bunch of family friends. That was fun because I got to see a lot of people who've known me since I was a tyke, and it's always heartwarming and reassuring to know that I've got a big pool of people back home who are rooting for me. I also got to see Sky, who was my department chair back in college, Botso of course, my grandma in LA, a few friends I haven't seen since high school, and a whole slew of ex-flames.
And I saw Barry, which was actually a little weird, but not for the reasons you'd expect. I'd just come from seeing Jenna, who was one of my closest friends in junior high through high school, and that was probably the highlight of the trip for me--I'm not even sure why exactly. It just felt like no time had elapsed since I'd last seen her; she cared to hear about me, I cared to hear about her, and we had a great time revisiting old stomping grounds in Shell Beach and reminiscing over our "hood rat" days (kidding, sort of). Anyway, I didn't really know what to expect from my meeting with Barry. I reached out to him kind of out of a sense of obligation because I felt like it would be weird if I visited without seeing him, but I couldn't guess how it would feel to see him for the first time after breaking up 9 months ago. I thought maybe it'd be a little emotional, maybe I'd miss him, maybe I'd have some resurfacing feelings... I didn't think it'd be a big deal or anything, but I certainly didn't expect to feel nothing. And, well, that's how it went. I wasn't particularly happy to see him, or sad, or even numb or anything... it was just like, welp... there's Barry.
It rained nearly the whole time I was in California, which was a major bummer. I mean, don't get me wrong--they needed it desperately, what with the draught and all. But if it could have just waited one week... ahh, I was so optimistic I even brought a swim suit. Oh well. Now I'm back in New York and it's coldcoldcold, although we haven't really had any real snow yet (which is kind of weird... mid-December and no snow?) but I'm not complaining. Over all it was a great trip though. It was great to reconnect with all those people and to visit the places I used to hang around (Linnaea's will always be my #1 cafe... there's just no other cafe like it in the world, that place is a gem).
Ok, last bit of news, and then I'm signing out because my eyes feel like they're gonna fall out of my head. I mentioned briefly that I'll be in England next month and I don't want to neglect that topic! My uncle teaches at Oxford a couple of times a year, and I've been suffering from a particularly severe case of wanderlust lately, so I asked him if it might be at all possible to visit him out there. He agreed, and my friend who lives in Dublin has been trying to get me to come out and visit him for a while, so I figured as long as I'm in that part of the world anyway, I might as well hop on over to Ireland and see both of them. Taking that time off work is gonna hurt my bank account for sure, but it's worth it, and luckily my parents were generous enough to offer to help me with travel expenses (I'm so crazy lucky to have parents who are supportive of things like art and travel... I don't exactly lead the most practical life). Anyway, I know January in England and Ireland isn't exactly the most pleasant time of year, but I'm insanely excited to go out on a little solo adventure and explore some new turf. Given how long I go in between posts, I'm sure I will have done that already by the next time I write, so I'll have lots to talk about. :D
OOF. I'm done now. Time to rest my eyes.
Lastly, here are some tunes:
- Nara - Alt-J
- Every Other Freckle - Alt-J
- Dangerous - Big Data
- The Mother Lode - Thom Yorke
- This Place Is A Prison - Postal Service
- Swing Tree - Discovery
- The Wheel - Sohn
- Tethered Bones - Talos
- Bloom - Talos
- White Lies - Odesza
- Brain - Banks
- Wrong Or Right - Kwabs
- I Wanna Be Your Man - Willy Moon
- Shakin' - Willy Moon
- Today - Smashing Pumpkins
- Twenty Four Hours - Joy Division
- Needle In The Hay - Elliott Smith
- Constellation - Bird Courage
- Knives - Bird Courage
- You Know Where To Find Me - Imogen Heap
