Commissioned work

My lovely friends Zeta and Justjon commissioned me to do some early morning portraits of them after they checked out my Tiny Gods work. They asked for the Tiny Gods portraits, but I was also able to shoot some of their regular morning routine as they woke and got around. One of my favorite books is of early morning female portraits called Women Before 10 A.M. and getting to shoot Zeta stretch and yawn and kiss Justjon and get good morning hugs from her daughter reminded me of some of those intimate portraits.

The above shot is one of my favorites. I really love that Z is so comfortable with her skin, and dresses it up in what she is comfortable in as opposed to what is only fashionable. She's a girl who could just as easily pull off the itty bitty thong or g string but she looks so much sexier and natural in these cute brief panties. Even J said they were his favorite on her, so I hope they like this picture.

Urban Landscapes

These images are from the second series I was showing at the Celebration of the Arts on Oct. 30th. They were shot over a period of 8 months in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area and are some of my favorites to date.

Everywhere I've lived has invoked a strong feeling of one sort or another from me. Whether it was awe of my surroundings in the Mid-West, a sense of urgency while living in the larger East coast cities or relaxed when I lived in the mountain towns of W. Virginia. No place has quite roused the same feeling in me that W.N.Y. does. At times, it seems like rather large, once booming areas have become ghost towns. Other times it is so vibrant and rich with culture, but what I find most beautiful about the areas are the abandoned buildings, defunct factories, grafitti on the walls and finding items that were set down to be picked up later but never were.

Some of the shots for the series felt very lonely to me, so I took a lot of time considering the post production work I put into them.

The first and last image posted here seemed to get the most response in the show, and I have decided to only release 10 16x24 prints to be sold. They are each numbered and signed and can be framed.

Prints of all the images are available for sale, and if you are interested in pricing information and seeing the entire collection, please leave me a comment with your contact info.

Inaugural Post take two

So Friday the 30th was the Celebration of Arts I was asked to exhibit in by local band, Busted Stuff. The show was pretty small, just three artists including myself, and it was held at a restaurant slash bar. I arrived to find one of the other artists had taken over my space, and I was left with the shitty lighting. But I was directly across from the entrance, so mine was the first work you saw when entering.



I decided to show a series called Tiny Gods, a project I've had in mind for years and executed in about 3 weeks. The other series I showed was a grouping of urban landscapes. Both were pretty well received. A few people have commissioned me to turn them into Tiny Gods for some unique portraits, one person asked me to photograph her daughter's wedding, I was happy that one of the band members wants a limited edition print of one of the landscapes and I got to see some awesome new people while hanging out with the friends who came out in support.



The most common question I got all night was "Now, do you go in and add all that stuff to their faces after you take the picture?" The answer is no, I do all drawing, painting, what have you before I even set up the first frame. It is time consuming and a pain in the ass, but I actually rather enjoy doing it. The second most common question was "Who wrote all that stuff on your pictures?" The answer is moi. I knew early on I wanted to be a writer and photographer, and this was a great opportunity for me to combine both.



The name of the series, Tiny Gods, comes from the idea that we idolize our partner(s). Often times, it appears from the outside looking in that we worship our romantic interests and lovers, thus making them miniature deities. Each piece of writing on each image is about one of my previous loves or another and was written at the time I felt such notions. So each one of those good lookin' individuals I photographed for the series took on the task of conveying what was written on their finished image. Only they didn't know it so I hope everyone was pleased with the result. And if not, they can go ahead and file a grievance. I love what they each did for each piece.



So that's it, the first complete post. I hope you like what you see. This is only a handful of the pieces in the series and prints are available if you're interested. I hope you continue to make it back time and again to see what else is new in Bossy Land. Peace be with you.