Personal

Tear Sheet | Internationally Published

Internationally Published in Granta
Last year I shot some editorial photos for one of Columbia College Chicago’s departmental magazines called Fictionary. The story was called Five Years of Ink, about the magazine’s fifth year of publication.

When the editor told me the name of the article, he mentioned an idea he had involving a tattoo. I took the idea a little further and worked the metaphor a bit. What I ended up with was a play on ink for tattoos and ink from the pen. Since it was for the writing program and all.

Not long after that article ran, the fiction writing department contacted me and asked if they could use the image in an ad for their fiction writing program. It would appear in an internationally published writing magazine/journal called Granta. We worked out the details, and like that, my work is internationally published.

The Self-Portrait Project | January 2010

Self Portrait, January 2010
The monthly self portrait project originated from Sarah Rhoads. Here’s the post that started it.

Sarah Rhoads has inspired me to share 12 self portraits—one for each month of 2010. Her recent post on the importance of self portraits resonated with me because from time to time I go through my image catalogs and find photos of myself that I had forgotten about. Inevitably I think, boy I’m glad I took that. Not because it’s necessarily a great photo, but because it’s documentation of the younger me in a different place in life. A different place creatively, spiritually, financially, educationally, relationally, socially, and on and on.

And the key thing about self portraits is they are inherently historical. They’re always of the younger you. I love the idea of looking back 20 years and sharing these images with my son. We’ll laugh at my ever-changing facial hairstyles. Giggle at my hats. And probably wonder what I was thinking with my earrings.

The self portrait isn’t new. Sarah reminded readers that its importance is not lost on great artists the world over.

On her blog she says, “Since the fifteenth century, artists have created self portraits of themselves. In every creative medium it seems a common practice that throughout the course of the artists’ career they create a variety of self portraits over the course of time.”

So this post marks the first of my 12 self portraits. Some of them might be from my point-n-shoot, or maybe even from my iPhone. The quality doesn’t matter. The record does.

I encourage others join in this project. Make record of your younger self. We spend too much of our time behind the camera. Let’s get out in front of it for once.

Thanks for the inspiration, Sarah.

Personal Project | I’m a Lumberjack

Sushi?
Sometimes personal projects start with a seed of something I saw or overheard that needs time to germinate. Sometimes they hit like a Mack truck and explode in my mind in full frames. That’s what happened with the lumberjack.

When I saw Matt, a friend I hadn’t seen for at least 12 years (thanks Facebook), all kinds of lumberjack frames flashed through my head. Luckily Matt didn’t take offense to my likening him to a lumberjack and agreed to model for my project.

This is the first of a series of lumberjack shoots. Thanks for modeling Lumberjack Matt!