I’ve been really fortunate in that, throughout all the coming and going in my life, I’ve maintained a pretty close-knit group of friends that dates back to the middle of high school. With two of them getting married in the coming month we all headed up to a lake house in Michigan for a recent weekend. Bachelor party jokes aside (we’re a pretty low-key bunch), it was a good reminder of what’s important in life, on many different levels. To have 11 people in one place that you’ve known for years, well, I’m happy that I’m lucky enough to have that.

As for tomorrow – another shoot for a great international client. (I won’t name who until the shoot is in the bag – it’s my bit of superstition). I’m really thankful for that as well.

Josh in Athens, Ohio

My grandfather died 10 years ago this Memorial Day. He was a Captain in WW2. The family went back to visit the grave in Fremont Center, Ill. As soon as the mass had ended and the grave visit finished the heavens opened up.

The cultivation of what we are not is often a strange task. The grass was growing at an absurd pace. Then it all died.

January was a pretty good month and a decent start to the new decade in this little corner of the world. Some of the images I shot won’t be published for a bit though, so I’m going back to a cold night in the middle of the month. I’m lucky enough to live with my brother at the moment and this probably won’t last for a very long time. In preparation for an eventual move and in an attempt to clean ourselves of the endless nonsense that piles up over the years we had a little bonfire. What was best about this was that we both have this desire to be mostly free of our material possessions, and while neither of us can truly realize this at the moment with our respective career paths (there’s no way I’m getting rid of my photography equipment!), shrinking down the necessary storage space was a nice feeling. Striking the balance between what you want and what you need is a continuous challenge, but the evaluation of it alone can sometimes help to clarify what’s important.

I hope everyone had a good chow down this weekend in some way shape or form. On another note, I just realized my sister’s name, Karoline Elizabeth Hoffman contains the same initials that name my favorite place to order used camera equipment (KEH.com). It must be a sign, sis. What the sign means, I don’t know … perhaps you are pondering it here in this picture.

When I was younger my dad built an epic tree house in our modest backyard. It was bright blue with white trim and really complemented our bold pink house at the time. I’m sure it seemed out of place in the winter time but our bright colored digs would have fit in perfectly in Ft. Lauderdale come the warm season. Now I’m back to that yard for a short but ultimately unknown period of time, and I’m finding it hard to make those personal pictures I was cranking out so consistently before. But they are there, I just need to look a little harder and stop watching Seinfeld reruns. My parents’ home is actually a very dynamic place for being on a cul-de-sac on a square block with a homeowners’ association in a subdivision in an unincorporated suburban township. I mean, just look at all that stuff on the dresser. It’s because the bathroom is getting remodeled.

The man behind our house has a nice little house for his kids to play in now. They moved here from California. They seem to be happy here, from what I hear. I get so sad to leave the ocean, I can’t imagine having years to get attached to it. But it is quiet here and the fall colors have been mind-blowing this year. It’s really not so bad if you can get past a few things…

My humble, now semi boxed up living space for the past year.

It’s a weird time, I’ve finished graduate school, officially finished. I completed my coursework, defended my master’s project, I’m on my way out to pay my parking ticket so as to leave no debt here and get my diploma mailed to me. I opted to go to the Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, VA instead of walking for graduation. It was a hard decision but one that overall I feel was the right one.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me recently what I thought of going to grad school. Everyone who’s a photographer knows your academic credentials mean next to nothing in this industry, unless you want to teach (which I may at some point considering how much I’ve enjoyed teaching at OU the past year). So, degree notwithstanding, why would you want to take time out of your life to come here? Well, everyone has a different story, and some are more satisfied than others, but I honestly feel that coming to Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication has really given me a chance to find out alot about who I am as a photographer.

Being in grad school has helped me discover, why, on a very basic level, I am doing what I am doing, how I can do it better, and what the purpose is. Feeling some sense of purpose is very satisfying, even if everyone hates the work you produce from your sense of purpose. This “answer” I found here is attributed to the support of the faculty but also really to my classmates who I feel are about the best group of kids I could have had next to me in this journey. I was really given a chance to almost completely focus my life on my passion without worrying about getting work, paying bills (thanks scholarships and teaching jobs). I’ll never have a chance like this again and I’m glad I got out of it what I did. It’s a fantastic break from the real world here.

It’s a photojournalism sequence, sure, but I don’t think I am, nor will I ever be the completely typical photojournalist. It’s just so much more complex than that. Photography has become ingrained in everything I think about and it’s actually very liberating as strange as that may seem. I’ve always thought the obvious world was a strange place and I’m convinced I’ve found the best way to try and understand all of this.

Anyways, if any readers wants to chat with me about my experience here I am more than happy to tell you everything I think about this place. Just don’t be surprised if you want to apply after you talk to me.

As for now, I’m moving out of this strange, overly drunk Appalachian town and back to Naperville, IL where I grew up with plans to be in downtown Chicago within a year or so. I’ll be freelancing, and working on projects…I’ve already got a few things in mind and I’m pretty excited. If there’s one other thing I discovered here, it’s that I’m addicted to the freedom of working on my own.

Here’s to everyone in Athens that helped me along the way, I wish you all complete success in this absurdly tough industry. The battle’s just beginning. Don’t give up. I know I won’t.

Some people can escape every time they sit down to read.

Bex Sandys is one of those people you meet and never forget. When I lived in New Zealand she was my (and my friends) key to getting out of the American bubble. We met Bex when we were looking for a place to live … we ended up in a small pub in this beach town and apparently she was excited to hear American “accents” and proceeded to chat us up and then try to sell us her van, which we never purchased. We moved into the little beach town of Sumner after that, with her our dearest neighbor. It’s been almost exactly five years since I’ve seen Bex, or most of the folks I lived with there for that matter. I’ve been absurdly fortunate to see the old roommates this weekend in Seattle as we all made the trip from wherever we were at (Oregon, Chicago, Ohio, New Zealand) to gather for our old roommate Nate’s wedding day. Maybe I’ll post a photo or two of that later, but for now, it’s Bex. Thanks Bex just for being awesome, and for coming across the world to see us and eat as much “yellow” food as you can stomach while you’re in the land of artificial colors and flavo(u)rs.