I am going to try something new here again, I have added some insights into the pictures to accompany the titles. I have also created a playlist, per usual. This is another one of those posts that feels quite vulnerable. Eeh, you all like it, and it may help my work come across (insert shrugging emoji here).
Reading -
The October Country - Ray Bradbury
The Beauty Of Photography - Robert Adams
Films -
Videodrome
Night and Fog
Lynch/Oz
Peggy Sue Got Married
The American Friend
The Brood
Couple On Bench, Montreal 2018 - My wife and I had stopped walking the city to break for a bit of water and to decide on a dinner venue for our first night in Montreal. I looked around and noticed this couple sitting on the bench in the distance. In my head, I probably thought this was the best Paris shot I could make outside of Paris, but I also loved the simplicity of thinking about us still doing this when we reached the couple's age. A lot of this image is me daydreaming of a romantic future with my wife.
Forest Ave, Portland, ME 2018 - I have always had a soft spot for this picture. It's taken from the back steps of my apartment in Portland, ME, about six months before moving to Vermont. It represents my feelings towards the city at that time. I love the warm glow of the windows to contrast the snow and empty trees of January. I also love the eerie dumpster to the left side of the frame. There is a clear divide between a desolate, cold foreground and a warm, inviting background, with a barrier of unfriendly trees separating the two. I felt at home in Portland and loved so much about the city, but I also had an MR. Bagel and drug addicts lurk outside to contrast the beauty and warmth of the town. I capture this in a very subtle way with this image.
Horizon Of Power, Vermont 2022 - This picture was a by-product of a project I was shooting in the Northeast Kingdom. The Power lines and Wind Turbines meeting at the horizon is something wonderful. I really love the challenge this image presents. It's going to be an image for some. However, I was quite pleased with it. I want to print it on the larger side and see what that is like someday.
Baker St, Gardner, Massachusetts 2023 - In this recent picture I made in October, I love that the street is deserted, besides burned rubber tire tracks from the past and a person getting into their vehicle in the distance. I love the hung American flag amongst a building falling into disrepair with boarded-up windows in the left foreground of the image. Further down, we see a box of abandoned children's clothing next to the sign for the public park down to the left. Across the frame from that, even more trash and a deserted couch rest in front of the house facing us in the background of the right side of the frame. It feels like a memory of hope, a forgotten dream, and the downfall abandonment of the working class. I see signs of Crewdson influence mixed with Walker Evans.
On The Couch, Massachusetts 2023 - I saw this couch while I was out on a photo drive. I pulled over immediately and had to photograph it. The image works as a giant ball of metaphors, the apparent therapy pun of being on the couch. It was a way of being on the couch with the people that look at my work. It's about myself using nature to try and heal, It's about abandonment, and it's partly about being used roughly and then discarded as nothing more than trash. It has much to unpack; we will leave it in a profoundly reflective and personal image. Fun fact: I am excited to auction a print of this off at this year's Photo A-GoGo to raise money for The Bakery Photo Collective in Portland, ME.
I Know That Its Delicate, Massachusetts 2023 -I gravitate towards making pictures of dead flowers. It’s a subconscious act. Only once has it been a planned event. I have researched the symbolism of dead flowers, and from what I found, they represent loss, negative energy, sadness, and decay. I have been dealing with quite a lot of those things over the last six years, so it’s all starting to fall into place as to why I’ve been unconsciously picking dead flowers as a subject, maybe not even picking them. It’s more of a magnetic pull.
The Apple Tree, Massachusetts 2023 - This picture of the young apple tree almost accompanies the image above. The Apple is considered one of the most sacred trees and symbolizes good health and future happiness. I am not myself a religious person. However, given the track of my life over the last year, I can find the irony in being compelled to make this picture. The photograph is ripe with religious symbolism, which always interested me.
Futile Devices, Massachusetts 2023 - This image is the third installment in this series of images, clearly displaying religious symbolism. The cross emerges from the flora (this time alive, not symbolizing joy, love, and beauty. Interestingly, Raspberry bushes, which in art raspberries, even though not shown, represent creativity, maternity, love, and kindness, all things I have surrounded myself with over the last year and a half.
Dreamscapes, Massachusetts 2023 - An image of a recurring dream i’ve been having. Dreams of tire tracks represent that you are going somewhere with your life and you are on track to leave your mark. Tire tracks in dreams in front of you are said to represent that you may feel left behind or abandoned. If the tire tracks are behind you in your dreams, that is said to represent that you may be leaving a situation behind you, a job, or possibly a relationship. I will leave it there; you can interpret your feelings based on their meaning.