great leap backwards

© stretch

It's a Leap Year day today, and the anniversary of a legendary swansong performance by the band, The Rawls. The year was 2000, and they had what it took: guts, fierce determination, and most importantly, a quality ink jet printer. The band got some good press on the strength of their debut, Fictitious, but in the end - dropped by their label, Wink Wink, and unpopular with most audiences - they faded to black. The final (some would argue their first) performance, the band's Last Waltz as it were, was at The Comet, a sleepy Cincinnati bar best known for raucous Kiwanis Club meetings. If you were there that night, and were one of the lucky ones to get a copy of Fictitious, hang onto it - I've seen signed copies on eBay going for small fortunes.

back of the fridge

Lunar Surface or Mold on Vegetarian Chili - You Be The Judge © kjm

above and below

© kjm

A while ago, trying to figure out if there were pictures to be made while waiting to catch planes, I started shooting detail photos of bad airport carpet beneath my feet. I'm not quite sure in what manner I'd present these pictures - maybe in some kind of quilt-like pattern, or morphed together to create a travelogue pattern. The bad carpet is much easier to find in the U.S., as the European airports seem to have lots of granite or tile. In the Mexico City airport, the carpet was quite gorgeous, as were the walls and ceilings, all round porthole-style shapes (above, reflected in a pane of glass), allowing beautiful light into the space.

as seen: nine

Nine Bugs In (About) Nine Minutes © kjm

It's been a good few days here in Mexico City - shooting food of all types, from street vendor tacos to high end restaurant fare. Not too many personal pictures made, though, so I spent a few minutes shooting on the street in the Zona Rosa neighborhood this morning.

comida rápida

Paseo de La Reforma Location © kjm

I'm in Mexico City this week, shooting a food and travel story for a European magazine, Saisonkuche. While walking to the metro this morning, I came across an abandoned Kentucky Fried Chicken. Ironically, it's the first KFC I've shot for my series, but I'm not sure if this qualifies for inclusion, since it's abroad. On the authentic Mexican fast food side, I had a delicious, hot shrimp empanada today, with avacado, onions and salsa - for breakfast, no less.

don't miss it: their take

© brown cannon III

Deb Pang Davis and Mike Davis have started a new blog of photographer interviews called Raw Take. Between the two of them, they're connected to some of the best photographers working, so this promises to be a good site to bookmark. One of the nice things about an archive-type site (like The Photographs Not Taken) is that it's easy to revisit when time permits.

I shot a story in France for Deb when she was at Virtuoso Life, and she writes the blog Coco Ink. When I was in Portland this past fall, I had the chance to meet up with the two for a quick coffee.

The first interview posted is with Brown Cannon III. I'm particularly excited, since Cannon has been a mainstay in my Rock Stars bookmarks folder for quite a while. I'm not as interested in his fine art water images, but his editorial travel work is among the best there is, and it always inspires me.

within reach: morning

© kjm

The days are starting to get noticeably longer.

happy...

© kjm

valentines day.

his and hers

Highway 66 Location, #1 and #2 © kjm

Marilu and I traveled to Winslow, Arizona on Saturday, where we resisted the urge to photograph each other standing on a corner, and spent the night at the La Posada hotel. It's a charming old railroad hotel, designed by the architect Mary Colter, and recently refurbished. On the way to the hotel, though, we had two great finds - one for her and one for me. For her (being from a family of geologists), a big hole in the ground - in the form of a 4,000 ft. wide meteor crater. And for me, a nearly equally dramatic closed-down Burger King (this one was fantastic!) on the outskirts of town.

don't miss it: why walk?

© margarita cabrera

Marilu's Car Culture show opened this weekend, one of the last she curated for SMoCA before leaving for her new job. The show is fantastic, of course, with photography by Robert Frank and photos from Amy Stein's Stranded series, as well this life-size soft sculpture of a Hummer (so very Phoenix) by Margarita Cabrera.

within reach: white

© kjm

We had 17 inches of snow in 24 hours yesterday - a real spectacle, and enough to even make Wisconsinites a bit nervous. What looks like grade school theatrical snow, above, is actually morning snow piling up on my front window ledge. Aside from venturing out to shovel (4 times), I watched from a warm, dry seat at my desk most of the day.

local

Richard, Jason, Courtney, Juliet, Colin and Rory © kjm

After a month of travel, I've enjoyed settling in back home and working on several local projects. I've been designing a small booklet of personal work, which will be available, along with a print, on the blog soon (stay tuned). And I've been photographing participants in the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network's mentor program (a few, above) for an upcoming catalog. I'm a fan of the program, and am also lucky to be the mentor to Mel Trittin of Cigarettes and Purity fame.

within reach: lemony

decaying lemon © kjm

When I started photographing around my house and studio, it was an exercise to look closer at my immediate surroundings and to try to see the new - as opposed to the old and familiar, which is what I look for in the Early Places pictures. The growing subset series of details of mold and neglect will now be called, In Defense of Bad Housekeeping. The rule: Just be my sloppy self and see what appears under the swipe of a white glove (if I had a white glove). Unfortunately or fortunately, there's lots of material to work with.

i love this photo, #17

© michael nye

I love this photo by the photographer Michael Nye. It comes from his project, Fine Line, a series "voices, stories and portraits" that addresses mental illness through large format black and white photographs and audio interviews. In the exhibit of the work, Nye presented 55 portraits, accompanied by their own audio player, allowing viewers to listen to a 4-6 minute recording of each subject's voice. Nye's projects are humanistic, and he appropriately travels his them widely. Two of his other projects are Children of Children and About Hunger.