January is usually one of those months where if you’re not careful the weight of winter can start to get to you, but that hasn’t been the case this year. After having springlike conditions unusually late into the year we’ve just recently been getting the snow I was hoping for, and even though I haven’t quite had my fill of it, chances are it’s the last I’ll see this winter. Aside from the weather this January has seemed uncharacteristically light. The winter doldrums of assignment work have stayed at bay and I’ve had the great opportunity to keep shooting with assignments from the New York Times, The Financial Times and The Guardian to name a few. London has really been decent to me lately, so I must pay a visit at some point. Pics will come at some point.

All that aside, I’m off to New Zealand (Christchurch) come Tuesday, and I’ll be down there for awhile, till about April. If you need me down there try me at my email peter@peterhoffmanphoto.com, skype @peter.g.hoffman and last my NZ cell (only if necessary) at 011 64 2 2010 8045

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite images from the time spent wandering Chicago this summer.

Well, again – probably one of the most interesting people I’ve met this year is Theaster Gates. Art in America magazine requested to use an image I had from a previous shoot with him for their interview that covered his work and process, which I’d recommend you check out.

Some work of mine will be in the “Street Stories” group show at the Kiernan Gallery in Lexington, VA next month. The show runs from Nov. 8 through Dec. 3.

I’ve been working on a few new pieces for my Loop Derivatives series. Sketch from Derivative #21 above.

The last few times I’ve been downtown I’ve left the Leica at home and have used my Rollei. It’s been good to throw it into the mix. I’m still not where I’m want to be with this body of work but it is making progress, which is all one can really ask for most of the time.

Summer’s here and I’m burning through rolls again downtown in the loop. Now that I have a decent sized body of street images from the past year it’s interesting to see what I’m drawn to. If there’s anything I know it’s that I’m pretty interested in stepping back as much as possible without having the picture fall apart. Not sure where that threshold is yet but that’s what I want to play around with more this year. And, as always, for me it’s gestures and body language that I find more interesting than pretty much anything else.

Some recent shoots that I’ve been excited about to be shared within the coming weeks.

So, for those of you who haven’t checked out Flattr, I recommend you give it a shot. It’s a website that lets you give just a little bit (some change, a few dollars, etc) to work that speaks to you, and not just photography. The site is about spreading and supporting ideas. In return you can also make your own content and ideas eligible for micro donations. I’ve had a few Flattr buttons up for a few months, I haven’t really put them out there because I’m having a better time randomly Flattr’ing other work, and I’m still trying to figure out how to best embrace social media without becoming my own advertising machine, but I was pretty excited when Luceo decided to throw a nice chunk of change towards my Loop Derivatives series. Them buying me a few rolls of film aside, it’s good to see this group consistently finding ways to support industry peers. Let’s just say that I’ll give them a big thumbs up for community building. Their student project award is another good example of this.

Thanks folks.

I’ll be in San Francisco until May 7.