Excited to share the news about the release of my new zine. It is the result of a whirlwind week in Paris. I took to the streets, with a camera in one hand, and a “secret weapon” in the other. Voilà! Here is a teaser video to get you excited. You can order the new zine now via my BigCartel shop, click on the button below.
PLEASE NOTE: These will not ship in time for Christmas arrival, but consider it instead for
a New Year / 2024 gift for yourself or someone you know who loves Paris.
I took part in another film swap, this time with troch, a great, experimental photographer based in BC. We had to improvise and sandwich two rolls together, but still really pleased with the unexpected complexity and fun to be found in this process.
Here are the results:
I like to tell myself that I’d never join a cult, although the matching outfits does have some appeal. The closest I’ve come to this kind groupthink is in improv, and of course, in my passion for film photography. We film heads are niche dwellers, for sure, and there is a particular sect that I’ve grown extra fond of, the good folks who populate the world of Lomography. I’ve been posting my film-based work on my “LomoHome” for quite some time now, and I genuinely appreciate the audience there. In fact, it’s much more than an audience, it really feels like a community.
A few months ago I answered a call for Lomographers interested in taking part in a film swap. The idea is that one person shoots a roll of film, then sends it on to another person to run the same roll through their camera. After processing, magical, serendipitous double exposures are revealed. Of course, the chances of crystal clear, sensical images are next to nil. Instead, the overlapping images create their own unique look. And when you compound this randomness with the fact that the images are from two very different locations…well, that’s when wonders appear.
I was sent a roll of black and white film with a fellow Lomographer from Germany. Their location was a nice foil for the urban desert shots of my southwest US environs. I am pleasantly surprised by the number of “winners” we achieved on this shared roll. But even more satisfying was the opportunity to collaborate with a another like-minded film shooter, especially since our shared roll is part of a larger group of over fifty film shooters.
Enjoy the gallery below and keep an eye out for more to come.
work in progress…more coming soon
This series of photographs is the result of my reaction to the stay at home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. I found myself experiencing a wide range of reactions to the situation. in order to help ease my mind, I started taking sunrise walks in my neighborhood here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. i would put in my earbuds and listen to a wonderful album i had stumbled upon, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s “Music For Nine Postcards.” The music is very much in the ambient style and dates from 1982. I found that the music had a calming effect on me, and it also helped me to relax my eyes as I surveyed the morning light, the flora just coming to life, the shadows cast and the brightness of the rising sun. The final set of images in the series are the result of these morning walks. I hope you can find the album on the streaming platform of your choice, and I would also suggest searching on youtube, as someone has posted the entire album there as well. I wish you good health and a still mind as we navigate this new reality.
Shifting into high gear on my next self-publishing project. I’ve been keep my cards close to the vest on this project. It will be a departure for me in number of ways. I plan on hand binding the main book, but I am also working on two additional versions of the release. The proofing and dummying up process has consumed me this week, and with so much hand work ahead of me, there is only a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Persistence. So much persistence needed.
I was also struck with a small hint of spring fever this past week, as the temperatures in New Mexico have been hovering around 60 degrees most days. I took my monthly walk through the bosque to work on my year long, half frame project. The Kyocera Samurai is transforming my creative approach to this project, in a really good way. I also popped off a roll of black and white last weekend, playing around with architectural details and shadow play. Always be looking.
Shooting film. I just can’t stop. I had a roll of black and white film that I had exposed during a series of drives up to Santa Fe earlier this autumn, and it had been sitting on my desk for at least a month since I finished it. In a moment of impulsive thinking, I decided that the photos on it were probably unremarkable. I though maybe I would throw caution to the wind and do a bit of double exposure experimentation. So I threw the exposed roll into my changing bag and pulled out the film leader tab, the resealed the roll into a new canister. All ready for another run through my Ricoh GR1. Since I was heading down to the bosque with my half-frame camera anyway, I decided a quick burst of a roll in the Ricoh was doable. No thinking, just shooting. Thankfully, I have a dependable local film lab that runs black and white film a couple of times a week. (Shout out to Picture Perfect.) So I didn’t have to wait long to see the results. I ended up doing the scanning myself, since I didn’t want to have the lab struggle with a lack of clearly defined image frames. Turns out my alignment wasn’t too far off, and the double exposures created some interesting looks. Nothing stupendous, but a fun exercise nonetheless. It can feel liberating to shoot a roll with such abandon. Knowing that things would most likely end up as a series of visual chaos can be a fun escape from the pressure and preciousness imparted on every shot I usually take. Plus there are moments of pure serendipity, where two images combine to create something completely new and unique. Might not be a regular approach for me, but every once in a while it will certainly shake things up for me.
Every year for the past 4 or 5 years, on Good Friday, I’ve made a sunrise climb to the top of Tomé Hill, outside of Los Lunas, New Mexico. This is one of two main Catholic pilgrimage sites in the state, a much smaller, more intimate kind of experience than one would have up north in Chimayó. I like it because it is low-key. is a fairy challenging, yet short hike to the top of the Hill, and it always rewards my waking up at a criminally early hour with a glorious sunrise over the surrounding valley.
Though I’ve shot here numerous times, I tried to take a different approach this year and devote myself primarily to shooting on film. Those resulting images will have to wait for developing and scanning. I did take a few shots with my iPhone as well, but restricted myself to capturing in high contrast, black and white.
Though I am pretty much by this point an agnostic, there is still something about the Catholic exercise of faith that draws me in creatively. And spending a sunrise morning on top of a hill above the beautiful New Mexico desert is not a bad way to start a day.
