within reach: streaks

rain on the bedroom window © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

i love this photo, #30

© stella kalaw

I love this photo by the photographer Stella Kalaw. I'm a huge fan of Stella's series Family Spaces, and envy her ability to make pictures that are both intimate in subject, and yet graphic and pristinely composed. The photo above is from her blog, where she's been posting photos in a series called Wandering. About the series and photo, she says,

"Wandering is a collection of photographs from my occasional observations of everyday life. It is a means for me to reconnect to what drew me to the medium in the first place. And that's really all it is: my repeated attempts at recapturing that feeling which energizes me to continue taking pictures.

One day, I had an hour to spare before going to work. I wandered around Union Square and I was drawn to the morning light falling between the buildings. I saw this shop window and composed the image. I was about to click the shutter when a stranger entered the frame. It just happened serendipitously. It was after I took the photograph that I noticed the details from that encounter: the lady twirling her hair and the mannequin on the right that mimicked her hairstyle."


[See past 'i love this photo' entries here.]

eighth

© kjm

Today is the eighth anniversary of my first date with Marilu. It was a ridiculously hot summer night in Milwaukee, and we sat much too close to the restaurant's open kitchen, which made it even warmer. But we shared a long night of conversation and white wine, and while a lot of the details are a bit fuzzy (we both have terrible memories), I do remember drawing a horribly rendered picture of my cat on a cocktail napkin. Anyway, the result was: I got the girl, and the girl got the boy.

We have a somewhat unconventional relationship, what with living apart and traveling so much. But not a day goes by that I'm not thrilled to be partnered with such a smart, funny, independent and caring person. Happy anniversary, sweet pea.

relative

Jimena © kjm

I've been really swamped lately. In this economy, I'm incredibly grateful that my phone continues to ring, but I've been feeling overwhelmed, worried about my preparation for an upcoming class I'll be teaching this Fall, and feeling like I'll never be caught up. I haven't been very pleasant, but thankfully, Marilu has been patient with all my stressful whining.

On a day home between trips to Michigan and Missouri, I had my second shoot at Children's Hospital in Milwaukee for Flashes of Hope. The project, which coordinates photo shoots of kids with terminal illness, recently got some great and just exposure on A Photo Editor. If you're so inclined, please seek out your local chapter of the group - you won't be sorry. In short, it's a day full of kids and families, big-hearted volunteers from the hospital and community, giant smiles and proud posing.

And very little complaining. It's nice when things are put so clearly into perspective.

RayKo show

5054B-19617 (bed) © kjm

This photo from Camp Home will be included in a group show, It's Still Life, which opens this Friday at the RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco. I met gallery director Ann Jastrab at Review Santa Fe, and was thrilled when she asked to include a piece in the show. As I've said in the past, it's important to me to show this work on the West Coast, where the story is embedded in the history of the region and it's residents.

I won't be able to make the opening, but if you're in the area, the info is below. If anyone can make a few shots of my work in the gallery setting, let me know, and I'll send you a 38 booklet and print!

It's Still Life, August 6th - September 22, 2009
(Opening: Friday, August 7th, 6-8pm)
RayKo Photo Center
428 Third Street, San Francisco, CA

within reach: timeline

oddly molding banana © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

hanging fast

Telegraph Road Location, #2 © kjm

fast traveling

Telegraph Road Location, #1 © kjm

I've been on the road almost constantly for the past few weeks - and have, as usual, found good fast food material along the way.

as seen: recovery

Tree blossoms near Dad's childhood home in Tacoma © kjm

When I was in Seattle about a year ago, I made a trip to see my dad's childhood home in Tacoma. I was sorry to find it boarded up, with a notice from the city on the door and signs of a recent fire in the attack. As a consolation, there was an old rose bush in the front yard, that I imagine could have been living 60 years ago, and a surprisingly dramatic view of Mt. Rainer. While in Seattle last week, I made an early morning trip again, buoyed by the fact that a Google map view had showed the house with a fresh coat of paint and signs of t.l.c.

within reach: initial

red m on the bathroom window © kjm

A word about Within Reach and light.

Two of the earliest pictures in the series were shot with the help of a strobe/modeling light, but at some point I decided that the light should be natural within the space. Sometimes that means placing objects in better light within my house - in front of one of the frosted glass windows or under the big, soft kitchen light at night.

But ideally the object/light is shot as is. This red M, which was part of the small group of items I saved from the previous owners of the building, sits on the bathroom window. It's a bit hard to explain, but it's an interior window, so the light hitting it is from coming through the larger front window, which I often photograph. I've shot the M several times before, but the light was never so dramatic.

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

photo.opportunity

Camp Home pictures (center) at PCNW © kjm

I made a quick trip to Seattle this past weekend (thanks to some airline airfare credit) for the opening of Photo-Op, the group show at Photographic Center Northwest, curated by Jen Bekman.

I packed in a lot - leading off with dinner at the home of an editor friend Marika, her husband Ben and their charming son Oliver. Also invited were their friends Josh and his wife, the photographer Annie Musselman. The next day began with breakfast at the home of fellow Reduxer John Keatley, then a visit with Crista Dix and a peek into her flat files at wall space. Before Jen B.'s lecture, I broke bread and hung out with dear friends Steve and Jen. At the opening, I caught up with Mary and Dave, still more friends from my Cincinnati days. With never enough time to talk, I briefly had the pleasure of meeting Pete Brook and photographers Mary Ellen Bartley and James Luckett. I realized who Katie Baum was too late in the evening, and never had a chance to say hi. The next day, before heading out of town, I drove down to Tacoma (more on that later), grabbed a tasty local cup o' joe, and got a tour of PCNW by gallery director Ann Pallesen.

piece of the pie

© Kerry Mansfield

Fraction Magazine has launched their latest issue, and I'm very happy to have work from Within Reach included. The Issue 8 Fractionistas are Claire Beckett, John Paul Caponigro, Katrina D'Autremont, Kerry Mansfield, Susana Raab and Ken Rosenthal.

pop

freshly popped cork on NY Times Magazine © kjm

Celebration is in order, as Marilu has just accepted a new job at Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis. It's a wonderful position, and we're excited about the new city and what appears to be a great local art community. Not to mention, we'll be 1497 miles closer...

outside in

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.

fast, break

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...

within reach: cutaway

mold cut from bread slice © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

fast fourth

95th Street Location © kjm

as seen: dial up

horse stable phone (thanks, robby) © kjm

pcnw!

© 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.

i love this photo, #29

© 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.]

within reach: roll

morning sun on toilet paper © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

within reach: fallen

tulip petal on the living room windowsill © kjm

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

father's

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.

food group

© 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.

flak'ed

I'm thrilled to have a photo from Camp Home featured on Flak Photo today, part of a series of daily posts featuring photographers from the just-completed Review Santa Fe. The man behind the Flak curtain is Andy Adams, a new friend and fellow Wisconsinite, who's making all kinds of things happen online. Be sure to bookmark or add Flak to your reader, as there's new and interesting photography to see every day.

as seen: flag day

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.

up north fast

Highway 51 Location, #1 © kjm

Found today while heading through the Wisconsin north woods.

context & community

© 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.

as seen: attraction

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...

tinytinygroupshow, #8

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