sweet home

© kjm

I had a great architecture day in Chicago today.

First off, from a conference room before a portrait shoot, I had a sweeping view of downtown and Lake Michigan. Due to a few unfortunately placed construction cranes, I was left to snap the picture above, looking down on a neighboring building. After the shoot I saw the Building Pictures show at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. My favorite work was by Dionisio González, who makes smart use of digital tools to combine photographs of Brazilian shanty town buildings with sleek, modern architecture. And lastly, I stopped by Prairie Avenue Bookshop, which I'd passed before, but never had a chance to visit. It's an architectural bookstore, with an amazingly large selection. I just brushed the surface, but found some texts relevant to my Camp Home series.

One

© kjm

Today, the blog is one year old.

To celebrate, a few numbers:
12, 571 Total number of visits to the blog
4,970 Individual visitors
1:58 Average time per visit
81 Number of countries that readers have visited from
8,370 Distance to my farthest-flung reader (hello, Lower Hutt, New Zealand!).

glad, not bad

© kjm

A had a nice, brief visit with my nephew Kale while in Minneapolis for an assignment. Having just visited South Dakota (a few weeks before this uncle), Kale came home, and with the help of his artist mom, recreated the Badlands on his bedroom walls. Only in Kale's 5-year-old, upbeat head, the name didn't seem to match such a beautiful landscape.

So he's taken to calling it the Gladlands. South Dakota Tourism Board: Your thoughts?

free flak

(thumbnail details from the Flak Photo gallery)

Andy Adams at Flak Photo has given me a nice, gratis promotion for the booklet. If for some reason you haven't yet seen Flak Photo, it's a great site, with lots of content, a focused vision, and a beautiful design. Be sure to add it to your Reader list, as Andy posts a new main photo per day (and check out the submission guidelines while you're at it). Thanks, Andy!

earth day

hawaiian rainforest © kjm

I try my best, but my air travel makes me Mr. Evil Carbon Footprint.

as seen: lone

tree near wall, south dakota © kjm

don't miss it: promised land

Left:"...planting seeds of God's love."
Right: "...Praise God for Paintball." © mel trittin

Tonight the MARN Mentors show opens at Hotcakes, and I'll be showing some new work from the Fast Food series. And I'm thrilled to say that Mel Trittin (my mentee in the program and my mentor on all things blog) will be showing work from her project Promised Land, a fantastic set of photographs taken at a Christian paintball park.

running, not walking

© kjm

Last week I photographed a brilliant embryonic stem cell pioneer one day, and a neuroanatomist holding a real human brain a few days later. Today I photographed at the site of 25,000 year-old mammoth remains in South Dakota. Next week I'm shooting travel stories in Scottsdale and Chicago and starting a series of portraits on a Native American reservation in northern Wisconsin. Whew.

I love my job.

four times fast

Kingshighway Blvd., S. Grand Ave., and Jefferson Ave. Locations
© kjm

After shooting an assignment in Indiana, I made a side trip for an incredibly productive pit stop in St. Louis. I was able to shoot 4 abandoned restaurants (tally: 2 Burger Kings, 1 Wendy's and 1 McDonalds), all frighteningly close to each other.

slices

Michigan cherry pie © kjm

Driving through southern Indiana yesterday, I was listening to the Patty Griffin song Making Pies, and thought of my friend Lali. I've known Lali since my Cincinnati days, and her wedding to her husband Doug was in a beautiful, rural southern Indiana setting. The ceremony was special and uniquely their own, but one thing sticks in my memory. Rather than a wedding cake, there was this enormous table of homemade pies. So many so, that someone had constructed a tiered structure to lay them all out on the table. 

So the scenery and the song reminded me of an old friend - one I haven't been in touch with for quite a while.  Time to pick up the phone.

within reach: routine

Ring on the bathroom sink © kjm

as seen: a museum

© kjm

When I was a kid, Liberace, a Milwaukee native, attempted to buy an old mansion not far from my house, in order to open a museum. The neighbors protested, I think, for fear of big buses and big hair - or possibly there was a law on the town's books outlawing the public display sequined hotpants. Anyway, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin lost out to Las Vegas, Nevada.

We visited the museum recently (Marilu scored with a really good floaty pen - ringed hands moving across keys), and it was well done - with his collections of pianos, cars and, of course, stage outfits. The strip mall location, though, was a bit less than grand. One outside wall of the museum is designed to look like a gigantic page of sheet music for the Beer Barrel Polka.

Which proves, you can take the boy out of Milwaukee, but you can't take the Milwaukee out of the boy. Even if that boy is Liberace.

i love this photo, #19

© kevin german

I love this photo by the photographer Kevin German. German is a young photographer who recently left a newspaper job in California to freelance in Vietnam.

Describing the photo, German says, "I was in my last year of college doing an assignment for the Spokesman-Review about an organic chicken egg farm in Deary, Idaho. I got such a good vibe from the family that I drove the 5 hours back to their farm the next morning to shoot some more photos for myself. I brought only black and white film. This photograph is special to me because it was the first time that I ever shot a photograph solely for myself. I took my time and watched as Olivia chased her favorite chicken, Steve, around the farm. A strange gust of wind blew up and brought the frame together. The funny thing is that I didn't see this frame right away during the editing. I was drawn towards a different frame and couldn't let it go for some time. After a month or two, I came back to the neg sheet and clearly saw this photograph."

I think the story of this single picture says a lot about the photographer. From reading his blog, it's clear that German is passionate and deeply introspective about his photography.  That, along with hard work, enables him to create beautiful things. Lots more to come, I suspect, from farther East.

change

© kjm

Since I do some work for news publications, I'll refrain from any grand political opinions here. I did, however, witness this little transformation on the back of a '98 Honda today, quite near the house.

success

Jones Blvd. Location, #1 © kjm

Taking up the challenge to find me a restaurant for the Fast Food series, my friend Don emailed me about this McDonald's in Las Vegas. Marilu and I jumped at the chance and made a spontaneous trip north to visit he and Mindy. Don had already ordered a booklet and print, but I'll be sending something photo-related his way. The system works! Anyone else?

point, shoot, publish

Last fall, I posted about leaving my Canons behind on a backpacking trip to the Cascades in Oregon. I did, however, admit to making a few pictures of my friend Steve (who was also sans pro gear) with his point and shoot. The photo above was one of four snaps, and appeared in this past Sunday's NY Times travel section. I love Steve's quotes - they capture him, and the moment, perfectly.

as seen: wildless

© kjm

Two recent sightings: Convenience store near Clint's Well, Arizona, left; Mexican circus truck, Las Vegas, Nevada, right.

a book(let)

© kjm

For your consideration, a booklet and print.

This is something new for me, inspired by similar projects by online galleries and other photographers and unique to the wide reach and accessibility of blogs. I think the diminutive term "booklet" fits my offering well - both in the size of the piece and the spirit in which the pictures were created - these are small observations. (Besides, I feel kind of old when I hear myself say "zine.")

The thirty-eight color and b/w pictures are mostly singular images that I made and posted here on the blog, and not work from my larger projects (Camp Home, Early Places, or Fast Food).

Edition: 150 pairs available (54 remaining). Title: 38. Saddle stitched, 6x6". Print title: Cemetery Flowers, Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Digital c-print on Fuji crystal archive matte paper, 7x5.5".

Price: $27.00 (plus shipping)

classified

North Milwaukee Avenue Location, #1 © kjm

Wanted: Help in finding locations of abandoned fast food restaurants.
What: Only the big chains. No Brat Barns, Sub Shanties or Tofu Huts, please.
Where: Anywhere in the U.S. considered! I'm willing to travel if the location can be combined with an assignment or a visit with nearby friends (I'm likely heading to Washington state for a ripe Taco Bell and a recently shuttered Burger King).
Who: Midwestern photographer who should spend a bit more time taking pictures and a bit less time writing his blo
Why: If you tip me off to a location that I end up photographing, I'll send you a copy of my soon-to-be-released booklet of personal photos (although your time is surely worth more).

[The Burger King, above, (graffiti on the windows and yet still one light on inside!) was spotted in Chicago by photographer Michelle Nolan.]

stack

My nightstand is lousy with new photo books. In the stack, to be devoured in no particular order (but listed here clockwise from top):

[Manzanar] Architecture Double by Andrew Freeman
The catalog for FOTO: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945 (photo by Lotte Jacobi)
Allison V. Smith's second zine, An Issue With Lomos
The Castle & The Kingdom by Mikael Kennedy
Driftless: Photographs From Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier
The Polaroids by André Kertész
The catalog for the Archive Fever (photo by Fazal Sheikh)
Dog Days, Bogotá by Alec Soth

Note to self: Schedule time to curl up.

renovation

© kjm

I've been thinking a great deal about my website lately. Without buying too much into corporate-speak, I've started to view the site as my storefront. That's not to say I don't have some actual bricks and mortar that I pay a mortgage on, but the website is my one-stop shop for anyone looking to work with me. Luckily, the lights are always on, hopefully it's easy and fun to browse, and feels a bit like me. This blog is more like a peek in the back storage room, or maybe my thoughts on the daily commute to the day job.

Anyway, I've got new space.
www.kevinmiyazaki.com

within reach: 6:34 pm

bedroom window at dusk sunday © kjm

The days are getting longer.

don't miss it: listen

© david turnley

On the radio today: A really nice interview on The Story about this picture of the photographer Peter Turnley. And a piece about Robert Capa on On The Media.

early places: the rules

Four Square Court, Lincoln Playground, 2007 © kjm

I've been working like an e-dog for the past days - editing old assignments, searching for files and scanning film for possible inclusion on the new website (to be unveiled any day now!). This is an Early Places picture I scanned today showing the painted line of a Four Square court on my elementary school playground.

I remember that when you advanced to the A square in the game, you were able to call your own set of rules. I'm sure nowdays kids yell something slick, like, "Texas Hold 'Em!," but in my day, the default set of rules (unless you were a young dictator) were "Jenny Noble's Rules." Jenny Noble wasn't a student at our school - but likely some Four Square prodigy from days gone by - and for all we knew, she was married with kids by then. But whether she knew it or not, she still called the shots on a small corner of the playground.

wind

349225 © kjm

I'm sticking with the 'someone else wrote this' theme.

I live next door to a hardware store, and the wind brings small bits of garbage from their dumpters to my property. Among these things, (besides lots of small Doritos bags, for some reason), are occasional small handwritten lists. I find them interesting, because they're such a big part of the hardware store experience - and have decided to start photographing them in detail.

thaw

summer camp birding list © kjm

Today, on a drive at dusk from Madison to Milwaukee, I saw two, nearly perfect v-shaped flocks of Canada Geese.

They were flying north.

he is sam

© kjm

I spent two days in Philadelphia catching up with friends Andrea and Colin and their charmer of a son, Sam. Lots of changes and potential and new beginnings in their lives right now, so it was a nice time to visit. And trust me when I say that Sam is every bit as cute and happy as the picture above suggests.

as seen: light

© kjm

A few of the Whitney Biennial installations were held at the Park Avenue Armory, an amazing Upper East Side building constructed in the 1870's. I dare say the building, with details like the hanging lamp above, was more compelling than the art.

as seen: street

Wet Plastic Bag + Metal Door © kjm

don't miss it: in the city

© kjm

In NYC for a few days as Marilu does studio visits and takes in the latest Whitney Biennial. Some highlights:

At MOMA, geek that I am, my first stop was a show called 50 Years of Helvetica. It was very small, though, just a corner of one of the design galleries. In Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today, there were all kinds of good things. John Baldessari's photograph called Common Memory Colors, a beautiful Jennifer Bartlett, David Batchelor's Found Monochromes of London, and Jim Lambie's vinyl tape floor (iPhone self portrait, above.) I've always loved On Kawara's date paintings, but never had the chance to see the corresponding color chart journal, so that was a treat. The link above for the show is a nice online exhibit, where you can see everything I've just mentioned.

The Archive Fever show at ICP had beautiful photographs from Afghanistan by Fazal Sheikh. I'm not sure what I think of Sherrie Levine's straight appropriation of Walker Evans photos, but I'll need to read more about her in the catalog.

In Chelsea, Bruce Yonemoto's pictures at Alexander Gray - portraits of Asian American men dressed in Civil War uniforms; Marcel Dzama at David Zwirner - drawings, along with journal pages of sketches, sculptural dioramas, and even a scratchy film.

Lastly, Thomas Holten's show, The Lams of Ludlow Street at Sasha Wolf. The most memorable photo in the show (the third in the online gallery link) could tell the whole story on its own.

Whew. OK, today, it's on to the Whitney...