Pics or it didn’t happen

Emily – 60 x 80″

In preparation for my extended stay as the Artist-in-Residence at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, I have begun photographing a new body of work.

A Conversão de São Paulo

The Baptist – Middle Panel (60 x 150 inches)

In late May, I was awarded the Stuart Abelson Graduate Research Fellowship for a project that I had proposed in Brazil. By early July I was on a plane, and over the following 12 days created A Conversão de São Paulo, a series that consists of 27 images arranged as triptych altarpieces. Each of the altars is based on a biblical story and features models from an Evangelic church in São Paulo.

The Kiss – Middle Panel (60 x 80 inches)

While the work explores the Evangelic community in Brazil, it also brings in various elements of contemporary Brazilian life.

Being a Generational Role Model Comes with Certain Responsibilities

2012. 42″ x 75″

“The Newest Reason To Love Your Country”

Image from “Under the Influence”, new work begun in 2012. 42 x 80 inches. More to come…

Summer Commission

This summer I was extremely busy. In addition to trying to make new work, I was also on commission for Datalogic, a company based in Bologna, Italy but that has factories and distribution sites around the world. They asked me, for their 40th anniversary, to travel around the world to a number of their factories and photograph their workers, with the end product being a book.

I traveled for 8 weeks and on three continents photographing several hundred of the people that I found most interesting. The book was printed in October and I was back in Bologna for the release. I thought I would share a few of the images from the commission below the fold.

Untitled (I Get Around)

Untitled (I Get Around)

I have been thinking about a new body of work for months now. Actually, it’s been almost a year. Now I am heading back to school, and I will begin to go full steam with this new body of work. Picking up from Technically Intimate, I will be looking further into how youth culture’s learned sexual behaviors have been shaped by popular culture and how the porn industry has played an integral role in that shaping.

I would also like to take a closer look at how feminism has changed over the last 30 years, from a sense of female empowerment to a willingness and want by young women to be seen as a sexual object. I happen to feel there is a difference between female sexual empowerment and simply being in Playboy. They are not one and the same.

I have begun writing (soon to be posted) and currently have 60 images that I want to shoot. That should take me the next three years or so. The imagery will take on many different looks and I am hoping to get a really wide variety. I am still taking a lot of cues from the imagery that I am finding online. I will use those images as a base to jump off of.

Way back in February, I shot this image. This particular image takes a look at the Victoria’s Secret PINK brand, which I find of particular interest.

Right now my head is still spinning with all of the elements that I want to include in this body of work. I am slowly but surely beginning to refine them.

More to come…

Polaroids

There is something about shooting Polaroids in grey weather that I have always liked, and thanks to our wonderful spring weather here in Minnesota, I have been able to take the new camera out. It has been a long time since I have shot with it. It is a slow process, but enjoyable, and so much different that the digital that most shoot with today.

Lighting Tests for Technically Intimate

Sara and Erik

Lauren

Lynn and Stefan

Grace and Josh

Jacob

Carissa

Sarah and Zach

Capturing the Screen

Alex

Abrean

Julie

Nicole

Emily

Helen

Lexi

Megan

Lindsey

Sady

Jenna

Bethany

Heidi and John

Alice and Ryan

These are the lighting tests from every image that was shot for Technically Intimate in the order that they were taken. I finally got around to rounding them all up. I know that people always enjoy seeing images that I shoot before I shoot, so I decided to post them. I had posted some of them before, but decided to take them down and repost all 21 when moving to the new blog.

MN Original Taping

MN Original, which is a new show that will be airing in April. It will focus on artists living and working in Minnesota. It’s not just visual arts either, it’s music, film, and puppetry! My episode will be on sometime in April. They came both to my apartment (which is where I do most of my work) and to the “Emily” shoot for Technically Intimate.

Shooting “Megan”

No, this is not a set

Shot image number seven today. People have already been asking me if I built a set and used it. The answer is “no.” I was lucky enough to happen upon this room and was able to get in and use it. It worked so perfectly, and knowing the model, I think they actually fit together quite well.