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More iPhone

2011-01-27T19:39:00.001-06:00

iPhone Images

2011-01-21T21:40:00.000-06:00

Minneapolis

2010-08-16T22:08:00.002-05:00

Prehistoric

2010-08-16T05:30:00.000-05:00

Came across this old fella on a run this past Saturday.

2010-08-10T01:36:00.000-05:00

Tornado

2010-07-21T21:09:00.003-05:00

After the storm.
During the storm.

And the Moon Be Still as Bright.

2010-05-28T20:28:00.003-05:00

Full Waabigwani-giizis moon rising. Shot with 5d iso 1600 70-200 2.8 at 200mm, no tripod.

Washington D.C.

2010-05-23T10:30:00.004-05:00

Ronald Reagan National [shot with phone] at 4:30am while Quentin and I waited for our 6:30am flight back to Minneapolis.

Morning

2010-05-09T23:21:00.001-05:00

Bella Koshka at the Bedlam

2010-05-09T17:51:00.009-05:00

Backstage with Nico Muhly and Sam Amidon

2010-04-15T20:35:00.007-05:00

03.20.2010

2010-03-22T21:02:00.003-05:00

03/17/10

2010-03-18T02:57:00.002-05:00

13/16/10

2010-03-18T02:53:00.001-05:00

03/15/10

2010-03-16T00:38:00.002-05:00

03/14/2010

2010-03-15T00:27:00.002-05:00

03/13/2010

2010-03-14T16:28:00.003-05:00

2009-12-03T13:02:00.039-06:00

So three days after I returned from Bangkok I came down with an insufferable case of H1N1. Subsequently it passed and then came along pneumonia.

Around the corner

2009-10-27T20:06:00.002-05:00

Final

2009-09-22T02:59:00.005-05:00

Receive

2009-09-21T02:36:00.002-05:00

Good night.

2009-09-14T22:13:00.008-05:00

Quentin Collodoro

2009-09-13T19:46:00.001-05:00

House on W. 26th Street

2009-08-30T03:14:00.005-05:00

Yet another Bat photo

2009-08-07T02:22:00.001-05:00

Alright, I'm not sure how it was edited out. Here is the last Austin Bat photo.

More from Austin

2009-07-26T23:29:00.008-05:00

Austin, Texas

2009-07-24T14:04:00.016-05:00

Spent the day in Austin, Texas last weekend. Just needed a quick getaway and I really love the heat. Well, Texas did not let me down in the heat department, as it was 97 degrees at 8am and 110 in the afternoon.
I had heard a couple stories about a place in Texas where all these bats fly out from under a bridge at sunset, but I never knew exactly where this place was. Well, it's Austin. And, I missed my 5:30pm flight. Turns out missing my flight allowed me to be just in time to get over to the Congress Avenue Bridge and see around 1.5 million bats fly out at sunset. Read more about the the Austin bats here. Note: Bat poop feels like rain and doesn't stink (at least Texas bat dung doesn't

Work in transit...

2009-06-15T22:11:00.003-05:00

So here I am not posting any "new" work since the last week in May. Never fear as I am working on a couple projects. One of the projects I have signed a disclaimer stating I wouldn't disclose any information or post any of the photographs until the job is completed (we're talking the beginning of September here people). So, expect a huge photo dump of the top secret work around the time the leaves start to change.

Next. I have been working on putting together the guerrilla photo shoot with Jason Braun. This will be a Chase Jarvis style shootout with rented equipment, models, and a killer location. More info on this coming soon.

Chow for now.

Memorial day

2009-05-26T20:39:00.002-05:00

Some random images from the weekend.

2009-05-26T20:26:00.007-05:00

Tom Robbins is dead...tired.

2009-05-26T20:23:00.002-05:00

Author Tom Robbins was drop dead tired after an evening of book signing and reading from "B is for beer", his latest novel.

Good Morning from Jakson Square

2008-10-04T16:06:00.004-05:00

This morning Amanda, Anthony, Audrey, and myself wandered down to Jackson Square to photograph and have a beignet. We didn't stay too long, but I thought I'd share..

PBS response

2008-08-26T14:20:00.002-05:00

In response to the PBS special on New Orleans, the first words that come to mind are community, music, food, history, culture, and life. I am writing a response to Chapter 7, the chapter about Dooky Chase’s restaurant. First of all I think the restaurants beginnings are a key component. There was no place for African Americans to go out and eat until this place opened. Not only were they not aloud to eat with whites, there was no place for them to go at all. The cook, and owner, explains how back in 1941 since African Americans and Whites couldn't eat together, that that even included famous. People like Duke Ellington, Thurgood Mar-shall, and Big Daddy King. They all had to go to Dooky Chase’s.
The owner said the reason they have to rebuild after Katrina destroyed the restaurant is that she has to “build a community again”. That statement right there is what New Orleans is all about. It’s about life. Food is something in New Orleans that people turn to for celebration, for comfort, for community. Now one might find that in other American cities people behave similarly when it comes to food, but in my experience having traveled all over the United States, no other city holds such deeply rooted cultural and historical ties to food, and music for that matter.
This chapter reminded me of the comments I heard some people say after the storm. Some were saying, “Why don’t they just move?” Someone else said to me, “Why would anyone want to go back there after how devastating that storm was?” and lastly “Why rebuild?” After spending just a week in post-Katrina New Orleans I could never imagine how we could allow this city, this jewel of American historical culture, to fall and be abandoned.

Canal Street Part 2

2008-04-20T15:22:00.003-05:00

On the morning of our last full day in N.O. the whole group went out on a swamp tour. Though I really wanted to go, it was the only slot of time Kiss had that he could spend walking with me to where the folks living in tents were living, which I talked about in a previous blog. On our walk I talked about Kiss pointing out how the city had changed and how it had effected him. One of the things he was pointing out were the buildings all along Canal that were abandoned, and what businesses had been in them before the storm. It was really surreal to see all these huge structures, hollow and deserted, towering right next to lively, open, and functioning hotels and restaurants. Not to mention this is the heart of the city. This is Canal Street in historic downtown New Orleans. Have I mentioned that Katrina happened at the end of August 2005? The day Kiss and I walked together was the end of March 2008. These buildings aren't tucked away a block or two off the strip. These structures aren't something you have to seek out to see. These forgotten pieces of classic Louisiana architecture are facing Canal, in plain site, and impossible to ignore. Any creature perusing down Canal, be it tourist or native, can not pretend this isn't here.

2008-04-08T15:49:00.003-05:00

I want to talk about a couple people I met my last day of shooting, a woman named Joyce and her daughter Cynthia. The whole class was in the lower 9th ward and I was walking alone when the two pulled up in a truck and asked what I was photographing. I told them I was there documenting people and architecture that were affected by Katrina to show, in pictures, how both were doing two and a half years later. The above photograph was in the background while we were talking. The small gray wall behind the house is where the levy broke.
Joyce started telling me how they were lifetime residents of New Orleans and their home was destroyed during Katrina. Afterward they returned to find that a company had bought the land their house had been on and in order to rebuild they'd need to purchase the land and build from scratch. Since New Orleans was all they had ever known and they couldn't think of living anywhere else, they agreed. Another reason they were quick to agree was they'd also been promised by the federal government there would be substantial financial help. With the promise of a new home and a new start they proceeded with the plans. Now that the house is finished, the government said there were some qualification errors and they would only be getting 12,000 dollars. So here they sit with a 250,000 dollar mortgage and can barely buy groceries. They hadn't had a mortgage before the storm.
Some my say they were simply taken and they should have known better. I myself can't say what I would have done if the home and city I'd grown up in and lived my whole life was suddenly gone and I had nowhere else to go. I do know that hope can be a powerful tool.

2008-03-31T09:09:00.002-05:00

Canal Street

2008-03-30T23:33:00.004-05:00

On Saturday I walked with a guy named Kiss (he didn't want to be photographed). We walked from Bourbon Street and Canal down about nine blocks to where Canal Street runs under the freeway. There, under the overpass, are a group of people living in tents. They weren't there before Katrina. Along the walk he talked about what it was like to have lived through Katrina and how difficult it is to live in the city now. He explained that it was really hard for him to see people who are still displaced, that lost everything, and are still living like this. With tears in his eyes he went on to say that he doesn't want pity... he wants people to step up and take care of each other. Both people in New Orleans and around the country.

Jaw droping

2008-03-29T16:09:00.009-05:00

I guess the title of this blog entry was the reaction I had when I found myself walking around the Lower 9th ward my second day in New Orleans. It seems an appropriate phrase to use. I knew before I came down here that there was huge parts of the city that still hadn't been cleaned up, but i had know idea of the magnitude. My first thought really was 'I can't believe people live in these neighborhoods'. There are houses up and down the blocks that look the same way they did right after the water receded. That was two and a half years ago. There aren't many things that truly shock me, but I had to pause and take it in before I could start making photographs. I had never seen anything like what I was witnessing here. How could this be the same country I live in?

New Orleans Essay

2008-02-24T11:32:00.005-06:00

The trip down the Mississippi. I have to admit that I am quite a news junky. I follow politics, world news, local news, and usually pay special attention to events that are a clear slap in the face to the human condition. Events that show the truth of what we are capable of doing to one another. My thoughts and views on these matters, as far back as childhood, seems to have stayed the same. I remember some of the first times I was exposed to tragedies and thinking "how can people do these kinds of things to one another?". I also remember adults around me discussing it and saying how horrible it is, but then moving on to other subjects. I always wondered why no one did anything. Why weren't they helping. Why weren't they doing something. Anything? I remember my father saying to me, I must have been 10 or 11, "don't worry, they'll be fine, they'll get help." I thought "how, from who?" I felt it was out of my hands.

When I decided to become a photographer I didn't know what direction I was going in. I knew I enjoyed making photographs, but it took a couple years to find my way.

Photojournalism and documentary photography was what I found. It encompasses everything that I am passionate about in life. In going to New Orleans I am planning to shoot my essay on the faces and places of Katrina 2 1/2 years later. What shape the architecture is in, what shape neighborhoods and people are in, how do they feel about the state of their city now. My hope is that my images will touch at least one person, open someones eyes, and hopefully remind someone this kind of thing can and should be avoided in the future.

Canyonlands

2008-01-30T16:02:00.000-06:00

I thought I'd explain how the title of this blog came to be. No need to get too excited, it's not really that interesting.

I used to live in the four corners region of the United States. For those of you who aren't following, it's the point where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet. You can drive out to the exact point and stand in all four states. It's called, creatively, The Four Corners National Monument.

Anyways, I lived in southwestern Colorado which was a four hour drive from Moab, Utah. Now in and around Moab we have some of the most amazing geography in the world. One of the most famous, and perhaps most photographed is Arches National Park. Best known for it's amazing red-rock arch formations. Well just dowm the road is Canyonlands National Park.

I've spent some time in both parks. Camping is allowed, and so the first morning I woke up in Canyonlnds, well, you'll just have to check it out for yourself.

Run Run Run

2008-01-30T01:30:00.000-06:00

All I've been doing the past week.. running. There will be photographs on this blog at some point. I promise.