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Personal Photographic History

·2951 words·14 mins

From Childhood Camera to Master’s Degree
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  • First Grade, Ashland OR, get my first camera, cartridge point and shoot. Take "action" shots of my friend and I doing wheelies on our bicycles. Ride my bicycle about a 1/2 mile away to drop off the film and pick it up- it never comes back from the lab fast enough.
  • Third Grade, Austin TX, my half-sister Bridgette shows me some black and white contact sheets of 35mm self-portraits, the first I'd ever seen. They look beautiful and mysterious.
  • Sixth Grade, Honolulu HA, take a lot of pictures of my friend Nashringa. Some action shots where it's supposed to look like he's being attacked by a man-eating bush. Start experimenting with applying bleach to the surface of the prints which causes them to fade to yellow and then bleach to white. A lot of images where everyone's head is replaced by a glowing bleached-out ball
  • Eighth Grade, Highlands NC, meet up with my sister Bridgette again, see the photo work she'd been doing over the last couple years— i'm impressed. Remember an image she had of bubbles floating in the air. I start a series of photos where i put the camera on the ground in tall grass and weeds, trying to make them look like tall trees in a strange forest— most are out of focus— little "tip" stickers from the photolab advise me to not get so close.
  • Twelfth Grade (1990), North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem NC, during my second year I get an A in Art History and qualify, along with a few others, to take a two month photo class. Already awakened artisticaly after a year and a half at NCSA, this class comes along at the perfect time. Although I had enjoyed my other classes, this was the first time I felt completely involved. I roamed the streets and paths of Winston-Salem looking for material. Many portraits of friends, and innumerable self-portraits. An image from my first roll of film, a high-contrast wet leaf I found on the floor of an abandoned garage, won a competition prize among area high school students. My Senior Thesis incorporates self-portraits, and I start looking for schools with little structure and a good photography and film department.
  • Summer 1990, Lenoir NC, spending the night at Rachel, Liza, and Jesse's house in Happy Valley the day before Rachel and I drive up to Boston to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. That evening I use their darkroom for the first time.
  • 1990—1992, SMFA Boston MA, taking a mix of film and photography classes. Spend most of my time experimenting with different techniques, not on creating any specific body of work. Take color classes my 2nd year, don't fall for it. Work study job at the photo stockroom, which I really enjoy.
  • Summer 1992—Fall 1993,Boston MA drop out of the Museum School (too expensive) and after a circuitous series of events wind up working at the Museum School as the Weekend Stockroom Manager. The job is only 3 days a week, 19hrs total, paying $8.50 an hour. My good friend Jyl Kelley is the manager and we have a great year together. During the slow hours, particularly Saturday mornings, I teach myself about all of the equipment and read all of the technical books I can get my hands on. I learn more about photography during this year than I had the previous two. Start using an old wooden 8x10 Ansco camera that no one else ever used. Couldn't afford 8x10 film, so I use photopaper as a negative instead, later printing through it to make a positive image. Jim Dow, photo faculty, lends me one of his 8x10 Deardorff cameras for the summer so that I can copy the design to build my own. I fall in love with the Deardorff.
  • Fall 1993, Boston MA, Carl Sesto, photo and offset printing faculty, tells me he has an old aquaintence who's starting up a new business using computers to print fine-art photographs on water color paper. They need someone to scan negatives and make prints and he recommended me.
  • October 1993, Medford MA, after two interviews I have the job. Company is called New American Platinotype Company, NAPC. Founded by Robert J. Steinberg, photographer and co-founder with his wife Sura of Palladio makers of machine coated Platinum/Palladium photo paper. The territory is new, there are only 2 or 3 other people trying to use these large IRIS inkjet printers to produce quality prints on nice paper. We have to make up all of the rules ourselves through hours of experimentation. We work 6 and sometimes 7 days a week, 14 and 16hr days. During this time I fine tune my printing eye for contrast, tone, color, etc... After a year we are in good shape, the images look great, but unfortunately the process is just too expensive for anyone to pay for, the company changes focus to selling our knowledge of the computers and the printers. But before we stopped doing the prints I had the opportunity to work on many great images, including work by Sally Mann and Cindy Sherman, Time Covers by Gregory Heisler, and many others.
  • October 1993 — October 1997, one of the main benefits of working at NAPC is access to the printer, ink, and paper for personal work. Often after an 80 hour week I'd come in on Sunday to print my own work all day. crazy. This was a great period for me creatively, and I developed my person style/aesthetic during these years. Everyone at NAPC and Palladio was a great influence as well. Rob and Sura's house is a gallery and library combined, with Rob's prints everywhere and a plethora of good photo books to browse. During our trips to New York we'd meet up with Rob's friends and see some great work. One highlight was drinking Sake with Mary Ellen Mark, Greg Heisler, and Rob over dinner in SoHo.
  • 1994 Photographica, Boston MA, went with Rob to the Photographica show with money in my pocket and my eye set on buying a nice 4x5 camera. Tired of shooting 35mm, and longing for that larger negative. My dream was to find a Deardorff, but they are rare to find and often very expensive—so I was set to get anything that I could use. Barely had we walked in the door before Rob recognised someone at one of the booths and they had a beautiful 1936 5x7 Deardorff with a 5x7 and 4x5 back. Since they knew Rob, and had met me once before, they sold it to me for $500.00. I found a lens from another associate for $250 and I was on cloud nine. This became my main camera for years. I dragged it all over New England, North Carolina, and even once to the top of the Sigesaulle in Berlin.
  • 1997—2000, Hibernation, After leaving NAPC I went to work for TechSquare, a computer consulting company. Deprived of my dear Iris printer, and the peers of NAPC, my camera gathered dust. It seemed too hard to try and get a darkroom space together. I turned attention more to music.
  • September 2000, Brooklyn NY, moved away from Boston after ten years. Working part-time remotely for TechSquare. Wanted more time for photography and music.
  • November 2000 to November 2001, Brooklyn NY, the pencamProjekt is born. Wanting to help retrain my eye, and get back into the rhythm of taking pictures, I start a semi-daily photo journal using a cheap lo-res digital camera. The project is a huge personal success, generating 2411 images that document a very important year of my life.
  • Summer 2001, Lenoir NC, living in Lenoir with Rachel for the summer. I once again have access to their darkroom, and the time (if not money) to start working with my Deardorff again. It's instant love from the first negatives that are processed. I also fall in love with downtown Lenoir and spend many a hot day walking all over setting up my camera. I become a regular and recognisable site on the old main street. When we leave at the beginning of September I have a nice portfolio of work, dry mounted and ready for presentation, to take with me.
  • October 2001, New York City, in the aftermath of 9/11 the economy is gone in NY. Can't afford to stay. I return to Boston and TechSquare. I find out that my photograph Burns Oil from Lenoir has won 2nd place for B&W photo from Caldwell County Arts Council's "Snapshots of Lenoir" competition and show. $50.00 prize, which I desperately needed at that point in time.
  • February 2002, Boston MA, living in the South End on Tremont Street. Purchased, trays, beakers and chemicals, and converted my bathroom into a place where I can at least process film. In the meantime I've been shooting Poloroid Type 55 film which produces a 4x5 print and negative at the same time. I scan these negatives to have a look a the image before trying to make a print.
  • April 2002, Boston MA, Purchase Pentax Digital Spotmeter at E.P. Levine (where I bought my Gossen Luna Star 10 yrs previous). I love this meter. Purchase new sturdier Bogen Tripod from SBI Sales in Harvard Square.
  • May 2002, Carmel CA, Attend a workshop given by Kim, Gina, and Cole Weston. Primarily as a pilgrimage to where Edward Weston lived. Saw his house, darkroom, held some of his negatives, and won a print by raffle that Kim printed. Bonus: Kim and Gina are wonderful people and excellent hosts. Leave with my photography batteries fully charged.
  • June 2002, eBay, After 8 years with my Deardorff I finally purchase a second lens. Found a 360mm Rodenstock Sironar-N on eBay for only $580.00. It's a true beauty.
  • May 2002 Asheville NC, Bought a great house in Asheville. Moving down there in September. Already have the darkroom planned on paper. My expenses will be very low there, and I plan on concentrating on music and my photography.
  • October 2002 Asheville, NC, Begin construction on the darkroom. Turns out to be a larger project than I initially anticipated. Started with building my own sink out of wood. Many adventures with plumbing under the house, building walls, hanging doors, designing my own safelights, and making the room light tight follow.
  • November 2002 Asheville, NC, Purchase a used enlarger and misc. darkroom equipment from a listing in the IWanna. Now I have a good light source for contact printing, and enlarging my medium format negatives.
  • December 27th 2002 Asheville, NC, Process my first batch of 5x7 negatives in the new darkroom. Negatives taken in Louisiana while visiting my grandfather. They look great. Darkroom is officially open for business.
  • February 1st 2003 Asheville, NC, Made first contact prints of 5x7 negatives in the new darkroom.
  • February 14th 2003 Asheville, NC, Feeling the desire to enlarge my 5x7 negatives, not just make contact prints, I decide to look for a cheap 5x7 enlarger. Luck is with me and there is an old Elwood available on eBay. I get the winning bid for $280. It weighs about 45kg (~100lbs), and the total cost with shipping is $377.
  • Fall 2003 Asheville, NC, Someone emails me out of the blue from having perused this website and tells me they have an Omega E5 Enlarger. This is a newer design than the Elwood and features a cold head. I have concerns about the reliability of the Elwood, so I buy this enlarger too. Unfortunately, I'm having problems getting even light distributed across negative. Many experiments later it now looks like I need higher wattage flourescent bulbs on the two ends. Have not yet found these.
  • February 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Moved back to NYC. Through contacts at Cooper Union I wind up photographing eleven buildings for the 4th edition of the New York City Landmarks book. A project that takes me all over the city to neighborhoods I'd never seen. A bit of a grind since I only have a month to take all the photographs and get prints done, while simultaneously getting used to being back in NYC, a new job, and cold winter weather.
  • March 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Move back to Williamsburg, same building as before. No darkroom access again. Alas. Start shooting Polaroid Type 55 film again to compensate. Enjoying roaming the streets of W'burg.
  • April 28th 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Purchase a Vivitar 285HV Flash. I'd been resisting the use of flash since the beginning. Laura Napier brought home some strobes one evening and made me a believer. Hoping to have some fun with this.
  • May 6th 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Purchase a beautiful Nikkor 120mm f8 SuperWide Copal 0 Lens to use on the Deardorff. One of the few 120mm lenses I found that had coverage for 5x7. My first purchase of a brand new lens. A bargain at Adorama for $989. Reuben Cox provides a nice piece of mahogany that I use to make the lens board.
  • May 15th 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Finally, a darkroom. I found a rental on craigslist for just $100 a month flat fee. Nice little place up in Hell's Kitchen that has been there for a while. I share it with 5 other people, but we each get to use it one at a time—so no sharing. Such a deal. Unfortunately, there is only a 4x5 enlarger. What's a 5x7 guy to do ? I think on my upcoming trip to Berlin I'm going to shoot Type 55. It's just so nice to make enlargements.
  • May 27th 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Felt like I needed a medium format roll film camera (well okay I have the Rolleiflex but it's shutter is on the blink again). I liked the idea of getting a 6x7 or 6x9 format. Found a 1950's era Voigtlander Bessa II at Pacific Rim Camera. It's in the mail to me. Can't wait ! The major advantage of this camera is it's compact size. This is a folding camera, so you can get a 6x9 negative from a camera that fits in your pocket. However, after taking several test rolls and using the camera handheld and on a tripod I determine that they just aren't sharp enough. Return both models I bought. Sigh.
  • June 2004 Berlin, Germany, I travelled for two weeks in Berlin, bringing along my Deardorff camera, 120mm lens, and 80 sheets of 4x5 Polaroid Type55 film. My goal was to shoot all 80 sheets, which I did. I processed the last sheet at 1:02am on the night before I left.
  • June 26th 2004 Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, Visit Bard College during their summer Graduate program. Intrigued by the program. Hear about Stephen Shore's Master Class.
  • July 3rd 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Decided that what I really needed was not a fancier roll film camera, but a 'better' large format camera. something tighter with more movements....and 4x5. Spend a week or two pouring over photo.net and large format articles and finally decide upon a K.B. Canham DLC45. This is an all metal camera which is light and compact. The biggest selling feature was the seemingly unlimited movements.
  • August 31st 2004 Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, Meet with Stephen Shore. Show him prints of my Berlin photographs. He accepts me into his Master Class program. I get to meet with him every 6 weeks or so, or whenever I have new work I'd like him to look at. Extremely excited to be working with him. It also helps inspire me to make more work so that I have something to show.
  • Nov 2004 Brooklyn, NY, Moved into a new loft space with Ben Maloway that has amazing 8 1/2 foot high bank of windows. I start a new still life project revisiting the Suspension series that I had worked on earlier in B&W I start a new Color Suspensions series.
  • April 2005 Istanbul & Safranbolu, Turkey, Fly to Turkey to visit Rachel and see the country for the first time. Blown away. Shoot about 40 sheets of color 4x5 with the new DLC45—its first trip abroad. Definitely want to spend more time there. Barely scratched the surface of Istanbul.
  • May 9th 2005 Brooklyn, NY, Okay, I'm on a buying binge. After a lot of internal debate I decide that I'm ready to get an 8x10 camera; take the plunge. This is the format that Edward Weston used his entire life, to great success. Stephen Shore tells me that it is the format of choice, and that 4x5 is for students. Joel Sternfeld tells me that it will ruin my life. Thus warned I picked up a beautiful 1951 Deardorff at Photo Habitat in Manhattan (same place I bought the 4x5). I plan on shooting B&W with it for now, and contact print on Azo paper.
  • November 10th 2005 Brooklyn, NY, Continuing with the buying spree I bought a beautiful used Hasselblad outfit from KEH. Another camera that I had wanted for a long time and is now significantly cheaper on the used market as the pros go digital. Good for me.
  • March 25th 2006 Brooklyn, NY, Offered one of the four photography slots at the Visual Arts Program of Columbia University School of the Arts MFA program. I'm off to grad school ! Starting this fall and graduating in 2008.
  • September 2006—May 2008 Columbia University, two intensive years of graduate school. Spend 7 days a week, 12 to 16 hours a day on campus. amazing.
  • May 21st 2008 Columbia University, receive my Master of Fine Arts Degree from Columbia University.
  • May 27th 2008 Columbia University, Start teaching Photo I class at Columbia during the summer session. Continue teaching there for the next 11 years.

to be continued…