photogs: james agee on helen levitt

from the always mindblowing photography blog "american suburb x," a reprinting of james agee's beautiful intro to a book of levitt's kickass nyc photos:

"I am nevertheless convinced that the photographs cannot be fully
enjoyed, or adequately discussed, on a purely naturalistic or rational
basis. Many of them prove, rather, that the actual world constantly
brings to the surface its own signals, and mysteries."

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/03/theory-helen-levitt-way-of-seeing.html

gonna tell you a story...

once upon a time (say, a little over two years ago), i made a decision that would change my life, scare the bejeebus out of me, and drain my savings. i quit my well-paying but deathly depressing job to pursue a dream. (i know, what *was* i thinking?!)

now, two years later, i am not in demand, famous, or even making money. however, i have had two glorious years of nobody telling me what to do and when to do it. two glorious years of doing projects that make me proud and put beauty and vision above money and practicality. two years of seeing the best live shows i've ever seen. two years and more than 13,000 clicks of the shutter.

i'm not done taking pictures, but i figured this was a good time to take stock, remember how i got here, and tell the story of the first 13,000.

next time: my history of photography.

the road show @ the visual art exchange in jan 2010

back in january i had a photo in the visual art exchange's first exhibit of the year. called "the road show", it featured works about life on the road -- road signs, maps, cars, roads, or road trip sights. i had shot mine through a rain-spattered car window on a road trip from philly to raleigh.
artists were allowed to submit up to two pieces in any media, and then the juror, meg rader of the uber-classy mahler gallery, selected which submissions would be exhibited. i was highly honored to have my submission included in the show and awarded an honorable mention. the awesomeness of the occasion was palpable.
here's my photo all framed and hanging on the gallery wall:

and here's the original photo:

life, the universe, and everything...

my dad sent me this quote a while ago, and i find myself returning to it time and time again.

"Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day." -- Rainer Maria Rilke

nice local review of the rebus show

Plastic CameraWorks 2: The exploding plastic ephemeral by Amy White, Indyweek.com. My bear gets a shoutout. :-D

the show @ rebus works

plastic cameraworks 2, feb 5-mar 27, raleigh's rebus works.

why do i resist?

i don't know why it's so hard for me to make blog time. i spend so much time inside my head, i forget to come out sometimes. and it's good to get out.

so, lots of water under the bridge since august... went to memphis in september for gonerfest 6, goner records' annual blowout. took lots of pictures. discovered some awesome bands (davila 666! magnetix!), finally saw some whose performances are legendary on the indie garage and punk circuits (jay reatard, who sadly passed away in jan. 2010; nobunny), and learned how to shoot from the midst of a mosh pit without personal or camera injury.


what's it like in a mosh pit? something like this:

once you get over the "AAAAAAAHHH! lemme outta here!", it's kinda fun. as long as you manage to avoid flailing limbs and you're not trying traverse the space. in other words, you have to just go with it. kind of like life. ooo, hey -- new shirt: "Life is a mosh pit. Don't get hit in the face, and you'll be ok." (copyright 2010, me) if you say it with a forrest gump voice, it's even better.

aaaanyway, so -- memphis, good. food was awesome. thanks to my awesome friends, i had a fried chicken experience bordering on the transcendent and got to try, like, five different kinds of BBQ. *nom*!

moving on to october... again, thanks to an awesome friend, i saw one of the best shows of the year, which i wouldn't have gone to otherwise simply because i wasn't that familiar with the bands. st. vincent and andrew bird. awesome.

november brought my favoritest act, the king khan and bbq show, who did not disappoint -- they delivered their special brand of rockabilly do-wop weirdness in costume. yessss. i'll be seeing king khan again in march, this time with his other band, the fabulous shrines. last time i saw them, khan wore a big robot head for part of the show. it rocked.

and, in the spirit of exploration, i took a chance on minus the bear, who rewarded with a great, rockin' show (many, many guitar pedals). i think i was the oldest person there besides the band. i also *finally* finally got to see under-the-radar japanese noisepunks melt banana. they *do* exist! again in a mosh pit.

spent turkey day in philly with my sister, dad, and mom #2. saw "new moon" *twice*. i should probably be embarrassed. but i'm not. we had fun.

in december i got to see brendan benson, whose brilliant powerpop album "lapalco" is one of my favorites of all time, and corey chisel, who i missed at the wxpn non-comm back in may. both worth the wait. show ended with brendan and corey covering tom petty's "american girl". oh yeah.

xmas involved the rambunctious joy of my bro and his fam, plus some fake moustaches and indiana jones. it was a good time.

rang in the new year with the best xmas present ever -- a trip to boston to see amanda palmer and the boston pops. awesome times 10. maybe more. it snowed. it was beautiful. and the city was still able to function. amazing. visited edward gorey's house, which is now a museum. more awesome. and, at the boston museum of science, saw a way cool exhibit of props and costumes from the harry potter films. the details of even the least item were incredible -- care had been put into everything from the contents of student trunks and the Potions lab, to candy boxes and school papers. they even had screaming mandrake root babies you could pull up. hee!

it was extra nice to be able to start the year with an honorable mention award in the visual art exchange's january "road show" exhibit *and* rebus works' february/march "plastic camera works 2" exhibit. my hard work paid off. sweet!