I-75 Location, #1 © kjm
...and this was a nice find on Saturday. A photographer asked recently about the interior shots in the series - I've never been inside any of the restaurants I've shot, but rather have a quick, little routine for shooting with my camera pressed flush against the thick, darkly tinted glass.
Calumet Avenue Location, #1 and #2 © kjm
I'm in the middle of a really busy week of shooting in the lovely state of Michigan - hence the lack of posting. But I did find this Taco Bell on the way out of Wisconsin on Tuesday...
mold cut from bread slice © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
© kjm
I'm really happy to be part of Photo-Op, the upcoming annual group show at Photographic Center Northwest. The show includes work by 20 photographers (links below), and was juried by Jen Bekman. It's been a goal of mine to show work from the Camp Home series in the West and Northwest - and this is particularly special, since my father was living in Tacoma, Washington, when he was sent to Tule Lake.
Photo-Op, Photographic Center Northwest
Opening Friday, July 17, following a 7:00pm lecture by Jen Bekman, Curating & Collecting Contemporary Photography, at the Seattle Art Museum.
Artists: Jowhara Alsaud, Andrea Bakacs, Mary Ellen Bartley, Katie Baum, Magda Biernat, Colin Blakely, Tim Carpenter, Onejoon Che, Thomas Holton, Stephanie Kirk, Brian Knappenberger, Alex Leme, James Luckett, Liz Obert, Colleen Plumb, Shawn Records, Tom Reese, Andy Reynolds, Rebecca Sittler, Lacey Terrell, and Ian Whitmore.
© Leilani Wertens
I love this photo by the Chicago photographer Leilani Wertens, from her series, Forget Me Not. There's an interesting statement about the project on Leilani's website, and she had this to say about the image, above:
"People often ask me if the woman in the portrait is my grandmother or my mother. No, we're not related, but we do share the same dark, wavy hair and large brown eyes. This is her story, or what I've managed to piece together of it:
She lived for over forty years in a brick, 2-story townhouse in Hyde Park, an affluent neighborhood near the University of Chicago. Several of her neighbors that stopped by the estate sale mentioned a connection with Marshall Field's, once the city's premiere luxury department store. The stories differed, one said she was a worker there and loved going to a special employees-only merchandise boutique to stock up on the store's goods, another said she was just an avid shopper. Either way, she was definitely a hoarder - three closets of the house were crammed full of dresses, a majority with the tags still attached. The clothes spanned several decades, from the 1940's to the 1970's and ranged from silky cocktail dresses to sturdy cotton house dresses. She had multiples of everything - five of the same dress, backup pairs of her favorite style of shoes still wrapped in tissue paper in their original boxes. The basement held shelves of obscure kitchen implements and the kind of gadgets you'd see advertised in the back of a catalogue. Despite the eccentricities, her habits were not all that different from others of the same generation that had struggled through the Great Depression.
A shopper at the sale had dug the framed glamour shot out of a dusty box in the basement; she agreed to let me borrow it before making her purchase. I hung it among a row of empty picture hooks in what once was the master bedroom, where she seemed to belong."
[See past 'i love this photo' entries here.]
morning sun on toilet paper © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
tulip petal on the living room windowsill © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
Dad's Dresser © kjm
Wishing a great day to Zenya's dad, Kurt; Kale's dad, Mark; Eli and Elena's dad, Andy; Molly, Addison and Piper's dad, Ace; Jason, Lauren and Kevin's dad, Dave; Winnie and Stacia's dad, Patrick; Molly and Emma's dad, Duane, Caitlin's dad, Craig; and Kieran and Nani's dad, Christopher.
© kjm, left, Susana Raab, right
The first time I chatted with Susana Raab was in an email hello, raising of the idea that we show our fast food images together somewhere. We brainstormed a bit and nothing resulted, but we became email pals. While at Review Santa Fe, Crista Dix from wall space had the same exact idea, so I think we really were on to something (any curators listening?).
I'm happy to report that both of our work is included in The Un-Natural Nature of Food, a group show curated by Melanie McWhorter at Fraction Magazine. There are 30 photographers in the show, including Paho Mann, Brian Ulrich, Melissa Kaseman, Jon Feinstein, Mark Menjivar, and Erika Larsen.
storm blowing in, bayfield, wi © kjm
Yesterday I photographed a young girl eating an apple cider doughnut, a (delicious) specialty of her grandparents' apple orchard and shop. When I was done, she pulled a small American flag from her pocket and handed it to me. Later in the day, I found myself staring at a larger version on the edge of Lake Superior, feeling the wind picking up and wondering if my day would be ending sooner than planned.
Highway 51 Location, #1 © kjm
Found today while heading through the Wisconsin north woods.
© left to right: John Mann, Claire Beckett and Emily Shur
A lot to process from Review Santa Fe - I have images and words mingling in my head and a small notebook filled with scribbles of inspiration. The reviews were really helpful in further understanding my motivation and the potential of my project work, in creation, context and presentation. Lots to think about for both Camp Home and Fast Food. What I take away most though, from this experience, is the chance to meet such a diverse group of photographers. In most cases, it was a brief chat and a peek at prints, but there were also longer, interesting conversations. I feel fortunate to have met Claire Beckett, Jonathan Blaustein, Lydia Burkhalter, Cori Chandler-Pepelnjak, Katrina d'Autremont, Amy Eckert, Jeffris Elliott, Elizabeth Fleming, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Meggan Gould, Deborah Hamon, Alexandra Huddleston, Jeff Hutchens, Dave Jordano, Hiroyo Kaneko, Melissa Kaseman, Jimmy Lam, Billie Mandle, Mark Menjivar, John Mann, Graham Miller, Kaycie Roberts, Emily Shur, Aline Smithson, Kurt Tong, and Susan Worsham.
gift shop outside of Petrified Forest National Park © kjm
Don't get me wrong - the 200 million year old crystallized wood was pretty interesting, too.
After a great trip to northeast Arizona with Marilu, I'm now halfway through Review Santa Fe, and enjoying meeting such a fine group of people/photographers. Thoughts and plenty o' website links to come...
Adam Bell
Evan Baden
Céline Clanet
Caleb Cole
Kevin Cooley
Juliane Eirich
Whitney Hubbs
Noah Kalina
Amanda Kirkpatrick
Astrid Kruse Jensen
Marten Lange
Sebastian Lemm
Joshua Lutz
Jonathan Smith
Will Steacy
Sarah Stolfa
Michael Vahrenwald
Hannah Whitaker
Sarah Wilmer
David Wolf
[ tinytinygroupshow is a mini electroexhibit of photographs based around a basic theme. There are no gallery hours, lengthy wall texts, plastic-coated price lists, or attractive gallery attendants. tinytinygroupshow is a 72 dpi place for a brief, and hopefully thought-provoking look at some beautiful photography. View past shows here. ]
Note: you might need to click on your screen a second time to enlarge the show
plastic bag on the pink chair © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
Review Santa Fe is quickly approaching, and I've been scrambling to get ready, in the midst of a bunch of travel. Prints from the lab? Check. Replacement for (oddly) missing portfolio box received? Check. Blurb books printed? Check. Travel reservations confirmed? Check. Breath mints? Check.
The fun part has now started, as the list of 100 participants has been posted. There are so many photographers I wasn't familiar with, which is exciting. And I'm looking forward to meeting people who's work I admire, but have only met through email (above, from top left): Kurt Tong, Jeffris Elliot, Aline Smithson, Dave Jordano, Elizabeth Fleming, Amy Eckert and Meggan Gould.
Representing the great state of Wisconsin will be Sonja Thomsen, reviewer Wally Mason and Flak captain/reviewer Andy Adams.
Will you be there? If so, I'll be the short Asian guy who looks a little nervous and giddy.
uneaten pear © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
© kjm
A few weeks ago, I took down the plastic insulation from my front window. I had been pleased that it had lasted so long (5 years), because it was difficult to install, since the window is so large. Recently, though appearing smooth, the plastic started casting strange textural patterns on the wall. But it got a bit trashy looking from the outside, and it occurred to me one day that the unexplained texture/shadow thing might be some cancer-causing property, and maybe I was being off-gassed slowly to death. So off it came, in just minutes, and the result is quite dramatic (brighter!), even if this particular photo doesn't show it.
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
© kjm
Collective: A little face time with the Redux folks, both in the office and at NYPH. The American Youth book is so gorgeous, and I'm sad that I missed the launch party. But it was great meeting some of the agency photographers for the first time, if for only briefly: Eros Hoagland, Darcy Padilla, Gina LeVay, Brad Swonetz, Michael Rubenstein, Andy Cutraro and Ben Baker.
Pages: I had my first visit to Dashwood Books, escaping alive and with just one small Jeff Brouws book - but also with some things for the wish list, including Jason Schmidt's Artists and What Still Remains by Jennifer Backhaus.
Old & new friends: It was great to spend time with Phaedra Singelis (of msnbc) and Craig Ruttle, both of whom I've known since our greenest days of newspaper work. Andrew Hetherington was ever-present at the festival and shared some face/beer time. After having a great conversation about art education with Ber Murphy on Saturday night, I was able to see some beautiful prints from his Sleeping Giant/11101 Rezoned project at FXFOWLE. Got to know fellow Midwesterner Greg Ruffing and his girlfriend Jenny - both charming, and who will soon be coming to Milwaukee on vacation (those last 5 words are rarely used in that particular order, so I'm excited). Met up with Doug Adesko too briefly, but with a promise for a rain check.
Say cheese: And lastly, just before heading to the airport, I took Jonathan Saunders up on an invitation to sit (well, stand) for a portrait at 1RN, his photo booth/living space/office/ship's galley that I'd heard so much about. I wasn't disappointed.
© Tim Hetherington, Elaine Duigenan, Kevin Newark
Some highlights from this weekend at NYPH09:
Words: I love Corey Arnold's work, so it was nice to see prints in person at Caption Gallery. But the writing in his wall text was what made the show, for me. Some tidbits: There's an octopus wrapped around the toilet. Crabs for breakfast, crabs for lunch. Sleep. "You've got a piece of gut, or maybe a gill in your eyebrow." Coast Guard instructions on the radio: Place the fingers in a ziploc bag and put them on ice immediately.
Details: Kevin Newark's plastic bags in William A. Ewing's All Over The Place! exhibit, and Elaine Duigenan's hairnets at Klompching.
Presentations: A great talk by Tim Hetherington, the highlights of which were a fascinating/disturbing video of American soldiers, and then photographs of some of the same subjects sleeping in their bunks. A multimedia display of Alessandra Sanguinetti's project, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams.
Surprise: Lorraine Grupe's personal snapshots from WWII - a thoughtful inclusion in Jon Levy's exhibit, Home For Good.
7a. Find out flight is delayed until 3:50pm. Call Redux about an assignment and find out the book launch party is actually Friday night, not Saturday night. Kick self in head for somehow having the wrong night in mind for several weeks, despite repeated chances to discover mistake. Realize that I'll miss the book launch now
9a. Read Roberta Smith's review of the Avedon show at ICP. Coffee replaces ginger ale
12a. Cab replaces shuttle - it's a gorgeous Friday and most people are heading out of town. 25 minute ride in
14a. Kinda snappy - really
16a. Sneak into awards ceremony, already in progress, and sit right next to Lauren Greenfield(!)
18a. As expected, but I would have remembered to thank the little people
19a. Free, watered down vodka tonics
20a. Check in while searching for late night food
21a. Like a baby
(Real time: 21 hours)
1. Wake up, Albert Lea, Minnesota
2. Depart, 5:00am
3. Drive 5 hours to Milwaukee
4. Drop off assistant Michelle
5. Pay mortgage
6. Give mom's cat i.v. fluids
7. Drive to airport
8. Fly direct to LGA, 1;50pm
9. Peanuts & ginger ale
10. Arrive LGA, 4:59pm
11. Call Marilu, tell her I arrived safely
12. Shuttle to bus terminal, 42nd & 8th
13. Cab to Phaedra's, 57th & 10th
14. Change into slightly snappy outfit
15. Head to Dumbo
16. Attend NY Photo Festival awards party
17. Meet up with old and new friends
18. Call Marilu, tell her I didn't win an award
19. Drinks
20. Call Marilu, tell her I love her
21. Sleep, Hell's Kitchen, NYC
(Total estimated time: 19 hours)
I'll be heading to the festival sans laptop, and promise a report early next week!
S. 27th Street Location, #5 © kjm
Imagine my glee, when Marilu and I found not one, but two restaurants to photograph last week - on one southside Milwaukee Street. They seem to be falling from the sky lately.
daffodils, amazingly, from the back yard © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
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