IPA Honorable Mention 2012

CAW Slaughter Lawn Care

Staten Island Ferry

Sienna with her Whippet 

This image has garnered some other awards this year.  One being ASMP 12.

Another Good Traveler

This image is a continuation of a series that was honorably mentioned at IPA 2011

CAW Slaughter - Main Man

I've been knowing him for years now and we've known Nashville like few have.  His family owned land, worked the land way back all around where I grew up. His mother was the house keeper(maid as we called the help then), nanny and constant of my neighbor's home.   My sister taught his cousins, nieces and nephews.  I first met him while he was laying a stone wall at the entrance to a driveway I'd pass by on my running route in the hollows of West Meade.  He told me then his ancestors had been laying stone walls all over those hills.  I found those walls, as I like to imagine are his family's, running along the ridges of the hills that surround my neighborhood.  He etched himself into my mind that day and once our paths crossed again, we entered into an agreement that he'd take care of my yard.   He has a way about him that feels like family and I have found myself looking forward to grass cutting days.

This post is his crew. 

Granny Squirrel Mt. View Baptist Church

My ventures to the Nantahala River Gorge this time found me at Valley Town Cemetery Chapel where I was accepted into their congregation with open arms.  I even sang "Amazing Grace" at the podium with 4 other congregates.  Hubert then ushered me over to the Granny Squirrel to enjoy dinner at the Mt. View Baptist Church.  There was a spread before me that was a sight to behold 

and all home cooked. 

Reverend Hubert believes that in heaven there will be watermelon as big as boxcars and he is going to eat the whole thing.  Because he loves watermelon.  

Critcal Mass 2012

Southern Route has made the Critical Mass Finalist List.  Congratulations to all who made the cut.  I am quite sure there were many worthy photographers who didn't and I am in very good company with the ones who did.  

Thank you to the jurors.  And good luck on the following reviews.  We are fortunate to have made it this year for the roster of judges is huge and impressive.

Southern Route

Along the road, everyday scenes, marvel at the things we see.  We come so accustom to our own surroundings we forget to breath in and appreciate the unique, to be amazed at life.  Much can be worthy of an investigation.

Summertime

I love these guys.

Living Rich on the Road

                                                           

 It is all about the light.

Southern Route

Summer wanderings have taken me across the south.  This past week I ended up in Clarksdale, MS.  Like other southern towns there is evidence of the Old South "hanging on".  Isn't nostalgia the slow summer days in a small southern town? One might find it on the back streets.  

  

And Another Good Traveler

Matt Mahurin and Kenny Shopsin

"I Like Killing Flies" by Matt Mahurin

"The first duty of everybody in life is to realize that they're a piece of shit. Selfish and self-centered and not very good. You're willing to sacrifice 20 thousand people in another country just so you can go to a Wings concert. You sacrifice the lives of a hundred thousand Chinese female babies just so you can rent this f'ing camera and do your stupid art project. No problem! You're a piece of shit. Once you realize you're a piece of shit it's not so hard to take. Because then you don't have this feeling that you're a good person all the time. And let me tell you something, feeling that you're a good person all the time is like having a brand new car with no scratches on it. It's a real responsibility which is almost impossible to live up to. Being a piece of shit and then occasionally doing something that's good and true is a much easier place to be. I think that's really important and I always try to raise my kids to understand that they're not that terrific. And that not being that terrific, that's okay 'cause most people who say that they're terrific, Bill Clinton, Cardinal Egan, anybody you want to talk about, they're not so terrific. Martha Stewart, they're not so beeping terrific either. And there's nothing wrong with being not-so-terrific. In fact, it's what the whole ballgame is about, being not-so-terrific... and accepting it."

Thank you Emilie for taking the time to type this out.  It is words to live by.  
One day I will meet this man or rather both men.  

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman Retrospective is at the MoMA and to see the work as a whole was powerful to say the least. She is incredibly prolific. The growth of her work and the consistency of the message was humbling and enlightening. Never have I seen such a big voice, a big message said with such fun and with such power. I embarrassed myself laughing loudly as the other museum goers shuffled by. Her sense of humor floors me. Her ability to conjure such emotion in each portrait left me wanting to know her. Never have I felt that so acutely.

I came to photography just as she had come in to the art world. I even toyed with the idea of using myself as a subject of expression. One semester I tried. But I didn't have the stamina nor the ability to think up such topics to explore. The questions she has put to us in the psychological, emotional and ethical realms is exciting, titillating, unnerving and uncomfortable. She is an actor, a painter, a stylist, a magician, a comedian. She is a photographer only to record her make believe world, our make believe world.

I came away looking forward to how she will deal with her old age, our old age. And I came away wanting to know who this woman really is.

Who is the Real Cindy Sherman. The Real Cindy Sherman.

St. Patty's Day Parade-NYC

"We all are Irish, b' gosh and begorrah."

Leap Day

What is it all for if I don't do what I desire?

Oh yeah, building character.

Childhood is so very important. It is where foundation of character is begun.

Momma

Peacefully sleeping.

You are so beautiful to me.

Summer Boredom

Why is it that the grass is greener, the sky is bluer, the sun is brighter when I get a job? Summer is tough every year and every year I think this is it. They have found me out. I will never get another job.

I prepared this year and enrolled in a class at Watkins in Final Cut Pro (which is all too late according to this). It was an Intro class so I can't say I learned a lot of things but it served it's purpose for me in some ways. It got me out of the house for one, but not away from this "life suck" computer. I met people, learned the proper way to save projects, and saw that I have a fun time even in a FCP class. In all it was a success. I did not have Wednesdays to obsess. I was busy in my new venture of being a student.

Over at a private group of women photographers blog I got busy submitting imagery for an exhibit and much needed connection. We met or rather they met and included me at Foto Fest in Houston. To round this post back to photography, here are images I sent in to them for a meeting we had in Chicago this past weekend. Hopefully I will be seeing them again or rather for the first time in some cases at 2012 Foto Fest Session 3.

Featured on PDN

I am featured on PDN this month. Here is the link and another look at Stinkbug Project.

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/photoserve/The-Power-of-One-Tra-2115.shtml

For more on Stinkbug Project please go here and maybe buy a dog biscuit

Readers Digest - Power of One - The Stinkbug Project

Happy New Year and Hoping for Non - Extinction

Started my year off silently and effortlessly. No resolutions for me. Let's just all live life lightly. Who knows we may all be extinct shortly.

According to the scientist at Antarctica, man is surely not long for this earth. I really am not being a pessimist today. I only finished watching Werner Herzog's documentary Encounter at the End of the World. Go deeper and explore here.

The documentary put me in mind of a one I watched a while back by Philip Groning called Into Great Silence.

Some beautifully arranged words said early on by one of the characters interviewed that I'd like to use for myself sometime was "dreams......land of our mind; a world of ideas...."

The documentary is listed in the adventure, travel documentary section, but I'd say it was more than that. It is a film on human study with a little antarctic history lesson. All of it shot with a tone of science fiction and a touch of spiritual influences.

A thought provoking way to end the first day of the first year of a new decade.

Finding Vivian Maier

1979- 1982 Imagery

These images are from college. 2 of the images are from my final senior show.

No spot toning. These are straight from the scanner. It was good to see the hair and dust again. Reminded me of the snap, crackling and pop of an old LP. Why I chose to post these was to see how little my approach to my subject have changed. I'd love to revisit this series to see what more it could tell me. I remember Jim Norton, my college professor, asking what I had learned from the work/series I spent doing for over a year and i was nearly clueless. When I have time maybe I'll post the whole show. I'd love to see what has come through after all these years.