Another New Photo

This one is from a suburb pretty far west of Chicago. Don't remember which one, though.

Acres of Wetlands and Walking Trails!

Robert Bruegmann

Just thought I would share this link. I have read a little bit of his writings as it pertains a lot to Chicago and the Suburbs. Here is a link to his website. He is incredibly smart and fairly easy to read. Maybe I'll email him.... hmmmm.......

Robert Bruegmann

Mark Steinmetz

Since school is upon us, I have been thinking a lot about both black and white photography as well as teaching. I was looking through some sites I have in my bookmarks, and came across some of Mark Steinmetz photographs. I am just getting back into looking at B&W stuff since I am currently teaching it at Saint Xavier University.

The first few photos are from his project Greater Atlanta. To me, this work really shows the complexity of Place, something I think a lot about when it comes to my own work. His book of this work was recently released by Nazraeli Press.







This group of photographs is from his 2006 project entitled Cleveland Schoolteachers. I have been thinking about teaching recently and I think these articulate a lot of the different and sometimes difficult interactions between teachers and students.





You can see more of his work at his website: www.marksteinmetz.net. Nazraeli Press info can be found here.

Another New Photo

Here is another new photograph from the series Coming Home Never Felt So Good...

Yet another visual indicator of the problems in the housing market and it's affects on suburban subdivisions. This one was also made in Swanton, Ohio. There are more, it's just a matter of me editing them.

New Work

Here is the first work sample from the many new photographs I have made for my project Coming Home Never Felt So Good... This particular photo was made near Swanton, Ohio; west of Toledo. It was the first time I have actually seen any physical indicators of the effects that the housing market problems have had on the Midwestern suburbs I have visited over the past couple years. This is the only one I have finished working on so far, and as many of you know, it takes a long time to clean and prepare digital images. I will be posting more as I continue to work on the files.

A Long and Eventful Saturday

Today was quite a long day.

In the morning, I taught my class; Darkroom Identity at Marwen. This term, I am working with students between 6th and 8th grade. One of the things I love about teaching different age groups, is that from 6th grade all the way to late college, there are always motivated students who are eager to learn and enjoy the process of making photographs and challenging themselves and the people around them to do the same. These are some photographs from our field trip to Michigan Avenue, where they were asked to keep in mind the question; "How can I make a photograph that is about me without having myself in the picture?"

The second part of my day was to spend about 4 and a half hours at the Merchandise Mart at Art Chicago and NEXT. If anything, I have become completely "arted-out," at least for a couple days. There was a lot of crap, in my opinion, but there were a number of gems that were wonderful. The following photos are a few of those.

The first two are images of an American Flag made from a collage of pornographic images. Absolutely stunning, and although I now don't remember the artist's name, I'm sure it won't be hard to find in the near future. The first is the full piece, and the second is a detail.

The next piece is a detail of an artists images of a strange man crawling out of a female's anus. Again, I don't remember the artist's name. I would had I not written the name on a receipt from coffee, which later I threw out forgetting I had written important info on it.

The last one was my absolute favorite piece of the entire show. This is a beautiful Robert Motherwell painting which I took my time with and had stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Even now!

And finally, a photo of Bill and Nate, tired and ready to go. We all felt the same way.

Congratulation!

I would like to congratulate two colleagues of mine, Brian Ulrich and Anna Shteynshleyger; they were both awarded John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowships in Photography for 2009. Congratulations on becoming Guggenheim Fellows! Here are some of my favorite photographs of theirs.

Anna Shteynshleyger

Brian Ulrich

Tim Davis' Audience

Here is a photograph from Tim Davis' My Audience project. This one is from Columbia College Chicago, he made it during his lecture as a part of Columbia's lecture series. Also, you may notice a rather handsome and ruggedly attractive man in the front row, right in the middle. He is wearing a maroon cap and a black hoodie with a Michael Jackson button. Who is that beautiful man, you ask? You guessed it; it's me.

Peter Goin

I recently attended a lecture at Columbia College Chicago by Photographer/Videographer/Teacher/Environmentalist Peter Goin. Throughout his career, he has focused on the relationship that our contemporary society holds with the land in which and on which we inhabit and interact at several different levels. In an earlier body of work titled Nuclear Landscapes, he asked the viewer to contemplate the very complex and layered tensions between the Beauty and Horror of a completely devastated landscape in Southern Nevada, as well as a few other select nuclear testing sites.

In another body of work titled Changing Mines in America, Goin, along with a landscape historian, visited and photographed a large number of mines throughout the United States. With these photographs, he begins to question our understanding of mines and the evolution of the mines themselves. Some have stayed in working order, while others have become tourist destinations and park systems. These images ask one to question the cultural, historical, and environmental implications that these man-made landscapes will have as they continue to evolve and change.

Finally, in what some consider his most dynamic and thought-provoking body of work, Goin examines the very misunderstood and elaborate relationship that humans have with land and "nature". The intelligently titled Humanature, is a complex combination of photographs, text, and witty yet critical humor. The images force the viewer to confront their understanding of human interaction and alteration of our natural landscape. This in turn, forces one to reexamine the language in which we use in conjunction with the places that Goin photographs. From looking at the photos of controlled burns, human-designed forests, mechanical deer, constructed beaches, and devices disguised as "natural" items, you can begin to understand and question how unrelentingly and deeply humans are involved in the environments surrounding us.

On a final note, aside from being an extremely intelligent and articulate man, and a more-than-competent artist and photographer, Peter is also a very nice man, and one of the hardest working artists that I have had the pleasure of meeting. I look forward to more work from him in the future. If you have a chance to purchase one of his books or see a show of his work, I say, take advantage.

My Website Is Down Temporarily.

Apparently, I forgot to renew my domain name. SHIT! Should be back up in a few days.