Photograms and Painting

Last week I began experimenting with incorporating/mixing painting into the photograms that I have been doing. So far I don't really have much to show other than a canvas painted with just one color. The plan was (and maybe still is) to take the photogram, and make a painting of it, but I'm not sure how enthused about it I am now. Maybe I just need to stick with it and complete the painting before I make a final decision. After all, I have put only one hour of work into the painting so far.
I also have been making a few more color photographs than I usually do. I've really been trying to push myself and try to get some more diversity into my photography. I love black and white, but I want and need to become more proficient in working with color.

New Project and More Photograms

In April this year, my photo teacher from college, Darren Clark, and two friends Jon Long and Theo Hatch and I all went to a stretch of the North Fork of the Snake River near St. Anthony, Idaho. I had no idea what I was going to photograph or how I was going to do it. As Darren parked his car, a fire pit in the middle of the road caught my eye. I had to make a photograph. After that, an idea for a new project occured to me: fire pits. Since then, I have been photographing various fire pits and fire rings made by campers and partiers where ever I find them. Locations range from established fire rings in state funded and maintained campgrounds to rings made out in the middle of nowhere.
The image below (although not the first) was made during our trip to the North Fork.

And, here are more photograms that I have finally tweaked in photoshop. The two on the top were very short exposures: 4 minutes for the top, and 30 seconds for the bottom. Then the third was about an 8 hour exposure (these things really try my patience).



Parks Project in Color

These photographs are some that I made in Portland this March when I was there for this years' Society for Photographic Education National Conference. I have been trying to incorporate color into my current project of photographing public parks (click here to see the current body of work). I am still debating whether or not the project needs color photographs. I guess more color images are needed to really make the decision though.

New Work

For the past five months, I have been experimenting with alternative ways of making photographs and art. These alternative methods include pinhole photographs, historical processes, and cameraless imagery, such as photograms. I have also been contemplating incorporating other media into my images, which can include painting, digital manipulation, collage, etc...