labor ready

I made a new batch of portraits from around various Los Angeles home depot parking lots. about 14 or 15 in all with the Calumet 4x5, Provia 100 transparency and a  Symmar 210mm. 

La Pearla

A little selection from la Pearla in Puerto Rico. This area is a bit sketchy, there's a lot of drug dealing and other nefarious activities in this zone, but the area is prime real estate being right on the beach and in the old part of San Juan. The cops are routinely going through performing stings and arresting the locals, so they are pretty defensive if you wander through with a camera. I was using my Rollie though, not exactly a stealth camera, so they seemed to tolerate my interest.

lush life

holy shit i have been slack with the blogs, but this is not a reflection of how i have been utilizing the minutes and hours of the day. got a few little surprises coming up. this is a pic of lydia, from champaign trott. circa 06. used hassy with 180mm plus #3 extension ring. gave the shot a little yello or something in ps.

el yunque

we walked around the trails in el yunque.
rollei b/w 120 stitched in PS

santurce pda 15

looking for records on ponce de leon, in san juan, puerto rico.
i heard that la gran discoteca was the spot for vinyl, santurce, parada 15.
all the stars of fania and top hits had appeared there at one time or another. its legendary.
and also history. it had been closed down for a few months, all packed up and gone away.

kaala

returned to la fresqueria for this one. kaala was with jetest in SD.
thankfully i was using my rollie at that moment.
i swear to the gods, what ever you are, i will never go didg. and thats that.

coalesce

family portrait of eric, deborah and their son jonah.

road side tree

some trees by the side of the road in elysian park.

labor ready

mostly undocumented immigrants make themselves available for work on the fringes of big box construction superstore parking lots. outcast from society, predominantly latino and well below the poverty line.

my approach in this set was to describe the undocumented work force in a way that does not explain how they interact with their work environment, but to show their physical appearance, their surface. i refrained from close ups and deviating from the formula of full body shots and spacing in order to describe the topography and subtle continuum.
general communication and contact with this community by the public seems to be avoided.
the irony is that the community is known of and called upon if needed, but otherwise ignored and stigmatized if not.

for this series i used fijifilm provia 100F 4x5 color transparency

hurray !!

I am back online!!!
so fucking stoked!!!
tomorrow i will connect with images.
yes!!!

somewhere down near avalon

mike and cara

I actually had my camera set up to shoot mike and cara a couple of weeks ago. I think this is my favourite of their pictures. they are an awesome couple with such interesting lives and I am always fascinated by their stories.
mike has an incredible history in the music indusrtry and cara leads in frank gehry's studio, the architect responsible for the Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA.
it was a great night except that I had to wait till after using the view camera before i had a drink. one thing is for sure and thats booze and view cameras don't mix.

vonn sumner

vonn had me take photographs at his studio, and surrounding environment.
the photographs are to be used in the catalog for vonn's solo show at The Riverside Art Museum,
from September 9th through November 15th.
thanks vonn.

many thanks to kristen for helping out.


( click on post title to visit vonn's site. )

a golden heart

over the 4th of July I went with my girlfriend kristen and her dog franky and her kitty tulpa to Yosemite.
the picture at top is kristen with her mom nancy.
many thanks to nancy and don for being so wonderful and kind.