And if next year is representative by the kindness I’ve met in strangers tonight, it will be a very blessed year.

On the way home. The subway series. 2012.

En route to Sewanee.
Self portrait. 2011.

There is nothing quite like returning home.

Mom at Mimi’s House. Memphis, TN. 2011.

Amazing and inspirational. Worth 5 minutes.

"And at once I knew I was not magnificent. And I could see for miles, miles, miles."

From the Sea Series. Costa Rica. 2011. 35mm.

First foray into color film. Starting a new series about the sea.

Passing Storm. Tamarindo, Costa Rica. 2011.

Before my memory card went on its own forever vacation.

On the way to Tamarindo. Costa Rica. 2011.

F train to Manhattan

From the Subway Series. 2011.

When I reopened my eyes, I realized, all along, that I had been in a place that I would never want to leave.

From the Archives. Pradip’s House. Sewanee. 2007.

Platform at Astoria Blvd. From the Subway Series. 2011.

From the Archives.

Aly Bolton. Perpetual Motion. 2007. 35mm.

she sat looking at the night, clutching the blanket tightly around. the city intersected the sweeping sky, sleepless with the endless pinpricks of light. the horns and bustle jarring me from my concentration. isn’t it wonderful, she said, the way the clouds are moving? yes, i replied simply. but it still feels like we are the only ones in the world.

manhattan. 2011. 35mm.

Have posted a similar image before, but this is an image from my latest film roll. Am going to take a stab at 35mm color for the vacation next week :)

Absolutely obsessed with this video right now. The dancing. The music. The cinematography. Gorgeous and captivating.

Guess the pains of a long overdued digital archiving has its perks… found this image in the depths of an old hard drive.

Fond Memories. Gates of Sewanee. Circa 2008.

N/Q to Manhattan. 2011.

“Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.”

He sat watching the planes. The people hugging hello. Hugging goodbye. Feeling the loneliness of the airport with each passing hour. Trying to forget that he had nowhere to go. But to sit. And watch. And listen.

Goodbye summer. Far Rockaway. 2011.

“between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.”

Courtenay. New York. 2011.

October 2011. M86 Crosstown. Subway series.

This is just too funny, I had to screen-shot it. Go figure there a darkroom app for the iPhone that doesn’t work… well… because it’s a PHONE!

Photography and memory

Link: Photography and memory

As one who is fascinated and utterly overwhelmed by the relationship between art and memory, this post by Stephen Alvarez really struck a cord.

I’ve been questioning this for years- do images create memories or do our minds shift those memories over time into what we wish to see? There is a reason family photos and home movies are all the smiling, happy-go-lucky moments and not those of anger, despair, and pain… Which in turn brings me to another question- by evading these dark moments in traditional and average documentation, are we just tricking ourselves and our images into seeing what we want?

Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths.

Eddie Adams

lacymorrison:

Fellow travelers, may the burdens of chronological age never seperate you from the spirit of child within, may the onslaught of responsibility never dull the sense of wonder that pervades, may the world and its adolescent furies find themselves unequal to the task of destroying you, and many years hence, may you be reminded and judge for yourself.

Kudzu, 2011

Summer 2011.

finally beginning to work with film again. i have missed the grain and flaws of art.

coney island. january 2011.

Strangest business meeting ever. (Taken with Instagram at grand central station)

Coming back home. (Taken with Instagram at Lancaster, PA)

One day I will take that roadtrip and document strangers. (Taken with Instagram at Harrisburg, PA)

On the bus. (Taken with instagram)

New 5 song EP (When You And I Shall Marry) For Sale!!! Visit our Bandcamp!

Link: New 5 song EP (When You And I Shall Marry) For Sale!!! Visit our Bandcamp!

I think I will re-blog everything these two do. Included on the EP is a song that Jonathan write for Becca for their wedding (Epithalamium).

Train ride to nowhere. (Taken with instagram)

beautiful:

(via amalia chimera)

reflectance:

The Heroic Chef.

I am absolutely in love with P’s work of his family.

freundevonfreunden:

Polanoid

Checkout the biggest, best and most instant online photo community ever. It’s archives feature tons of Polaroids uploaded by Polaroid addicts all over the planet.

best. thing. ever.

Past life. self portrait. 2007.

On the bus ride home. New York. 2011.

In sixty years I will have forgotten the moment that sparked this photo. But I will remember the face in front of the lens. This is why I document.

Self portrait. 2011. New York.

forestmountainhymnal:

Look forward to way more posts from us, tumblr fans. Jonathan’s new job is to record music and pursue this full time. 

Two dear friends just moved to Nantes for a year, living their first year of marriage making music and enjoying life. This is absolutely beautiful, J+R!

Thinking of home. Christmas 2010.

One of the most breathtaking videos by one of the most beautiful musicians.

Bon Iver- Holocene

This is what I do, This is all I know

A few weeks ago, i had the honor and privilege of attending NYT photog Joao Silva’s first public talk since his injuries in the Middle East. It was the most awe inspiring and utterly overwhelming thing I have ever heard, and really got me thinking about documentary and bearing witness as a photographer. Always on the forefront of my mind, I asked Joao a question being the “human behind the camera.” Here is his response taken from the transcript… 

The Human Being Behind the Camera

The camera buys you access to people’s most intimate moments. It’s very interesting that people for the most part will not allow a stranger into their lives.

Sometimes you’re going into a conflict that flares up somewhere and lasts a couple of weeks, and you might never speak to people again. I can’t speak on behalf of anybody else, but it’s not as if I make lifelong friendships wherever I go. That would be a lie, if I did tell you that. I’m a human being. I’m out there to do a job.

But there are bonds. You do make friendships and you do stay in touch with people. It’s inevitable. You spend a lot of time with people. You hire a driver, a translator — you might spend months on end with the same person. You’re two guys who are just human beings. You talk about family, you talk about whatever. You talk about life.

People often ask me, “How can you stand there and watch people hack each other and take pictures?” You have to have clarity as to what your role is. If you want to help people, then you should not become a photographer. Having said that, we do help people. We help people all the time. Sometimes you help people with just the smallest of things. I’ve put people in the back of my vehicle and rushed them to the hospital.

But unfortunately, the images are so stark sometimes that people tend to think that there’s a machine behind the camera, and that’s not the case. We are all human beings. The things that we see go through the eye straight into the brain. Some of those scenes never go away.

A very good friend of mine, Kevin Carter, eventually took his own life. He made the famous picture in Sudan. There’s this child lying face down in the dirt and there’s a vulture stalking the child. He was highly criticized for that picture. People who had no place in criticizing him — people who had no understanding of the dynamics that it took to make that picture — criticized him to the point that he got all conflicted. He took his life a month after winning the Pulitzer.

People always assume that this heartless photographer just walked past and shot the image of the child, and that wasn’t the case. For one, the child was a few hundred yards from a feeding center. That child was not abandoned. But that’s the power of photography. You isolate something, you transmit your image through that isolation, and it was the most powerful image. Ultimately that image was such a strong message of famine. Suddenly there was this influx of money that came out of nowhere. He saved more lives by taking that picture than he would have by not taking the picture.

At the other side of the camera, there is a human being, and that human being is trying to stay alive, trying to capture, trying to get the message out to the world, and trying to stay safe.

Legality. June 2011. New York.

dear-photograph:

Dear Photograph,
Over 25 years later, the house is still blue and my mother is still looking over me.
Alexandra

"Don’t you hear it? She asked & I shook my head no & then she started to dance & suddenly there was music everywhere & it went on for a very long time & when I finally found words all I could say was thank you. "

-Brian Andreas

Dear photograph

Here is a great article by the New Yorker about an amazing project, Dear Photograph. Interestingly, I did a similar project in the beginning stages of the whispering well where I stumbled upon eerie similarities of old photographs of myself as a child and current ones.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/09/dear-photograph.html

Framed and for sale. Anybody want it?

"In the morning when I left my camp, I turned neither left nor right on the dirt logging road, but rather started climbing straight up the mountain."
-John Frances

Phone Friday: see how things change

Link: Phone Friday: see how things change

as always, interesting blurb from Stephen about cell phone photography.