first person

© Brian Widdis, left, Romain Blanquart, right

I had a long stretch of editorial work on the road recently, and was able to carve out little bits of time (one has to eat, right?) to connect with friends in other cities. In Detroit, I met up with Brian Widdis and Romain Blanquart, whose project Can't Forget The Motor City is really wonderful. In Minneapolis, I had a nice dinner with photographers Kristine Heykants and Raoul Benevides, the man behind the curtain at Flashlight Photorental. Amy Eckert, a recent winner of a McKnight fellowship, met up for a coffee and filled me in on the details of her latest show. And in Dallas, I finally met Allison V. Smith in person (after years of being blog buddies) and had a very fun dinner with two of my favorite art directors, Korena Bolding and Melanie Fowler, who design the lovely Virtuoso Life.