casablanca/

For some reason this image has always reminded me of the film Casablanca. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." haha...you have to admit, a great line.
This was actually shot in a restaurant on the lower east side. Gone long ago and shot even longer ago, but it popped up in my image foraging lately and I keep looking at it. Haven't figured out why yet. nostalgia maybe.

early work/

I received some questions for a Q&A yesterday and it got me to thinking about how I take pictures.  The questions were very thoughtful and really gave me pause. I do consider my work and my process but I've come to find that there is a danger in overanalyzing for me. I need to be completely present in the moment of shooting for everything to work . The voice in my head that analyzes things has to be bound and gagged - silenced unequivocably. Taking photographs is like dancing for me. It is about feeling and listening to what and who draws me to it. It is like falling in love a thousand little times a day.

This image is from a shoot I did early in my career for Surface magazine. It was for their first Avant Guardian issue. But it wasn't a contest then because as I recall they asked me to participate. This shoot was a day for the history books for me. The perfect synthesis of model, location (oh god...the location...I still dream about it), clothes and crew. It just came together seamlessly and I created pictures that were completely in line with who I was at the time. They were all self portraits really. I still love these.

early work/journals

I went to the Francesca Woodman exhibit at SFMOMA one rainy day a couple of weeks ago. I really wasn't ready for the flood of feeling that show brought up for me. I would site Woodman as an early influence of mine, especially when I was in my early terms at Art Center. But instead of my work, it brought up all these feeling of being a young artist and the questioning and lack of acceptance of my own process. There are quite a few parallels within the way we printed and loosely in subject matter (although I was not such a self portraitist as she). I remember getting such grief for printing small. I forgot she printed small as well. It is funny to think of now, when all these things have been figured out to some extent. Or maybe it is just that confidence and sureness in my work and vision is unquestionable now. But those feelings were so easily and unexpectedly excavated at that show. So today I share a couple of pages from my creative journal with you all. All early work of a young unsure artist. My journal was my place to do anything. And for years no one saw them - they were for me alone. I feel like starting one up again. It is invaluable to have a safe place for oneself to just create. What do you do just for yourself that nurtures you creatively?

early work/homage to andrew wyeth

last week there was another lovely review of Handcrafted Modern, this time on the 1stdibs website . One of the nice things that writer Erika Heet said was that the results of my shoots for the book were "painterly photos almost reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth's depictions of austere, haunting rooms." I happen to love Andrew Wyeth so I was well pleased by the comparison. It started me thinking about this image I shot early on in my career. It was completely inspired by an Andrew Wyeth painting. I found this old cutaway jacket in a costume shop in Burbank and it instantly made me think of Wyeth, so I decided to make an homage to him. I love how one object or article of clothing can flood the mind with ideas and memory. Glad I was able to find this image and share it today. I still really like it and it still makes me think of that beautiful Wyeth painting.