This is a project that I’m really excited to be a part of. I remember in 2007 when I was just dreaming about being a freelance photographer I once emailed Kevin Miyazaki out of the blue just to ask him about his work because I was so drawn to it. He responded graciously. Since then I’ve been following his work and even spoke to his class at MIAD via Skype recently. In 2009 he started a website that lets photographers sell prints with the sole intent of making money for a charity or non-profit of their choice. After 50 editions have been put up for sale and over $28,000 total raised there is now a book out. It was designed by the talented Heidi Romano working out of Australia.

Yesterday the project also got a mention over on Time Magazine’s photography blog LightBox.

So far this Collect.Give has allowed me to donate $760 to Bryan House and I have one print left that, if sold, would bump it up to a solid $800. After spending so much time photographing at Bryan House I had hoped to raise money for it and this effort allowed me to do so while reaching a new audience.

The book is a beautiful thing (I’ve seen the proofs) and it features photographs by: Jane Fulton Alt, Malu Alvarez, Jonathan Blaustein, Mark Brautigam, Jesse Burke, Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman, Katrina d’Autremont, Amy Eckert, Matt Eich, Jon Feinstein, Sarina Finkelstein, Elizabeth Fleming, Max. S. Gerber, Meggan Gould, Andrew Hetherington, Geoffrey Hiller, Peter Hoffman, Jon Horvath, Ben Huff, Dave Jordano, Stella Kalaw, Melissa Kaseman, Liz Kuball, Shane Lavalette, David Leventi, John Loomis, S. Billie Mandle, Kerry Mansfield, Mark Menjivar, Kevin J. Miyazaki, Annie Marie Musselman, Colleen Plumb, Susana Raab, Shawn Records, Ellen Rennard, Dalton Rooney, Jonathan Saunders, Manjari Sharma, Daniel Shea, Kelly Shimoda, Emily Shur, Allison V. Smith, Aline Smithson, Brea Souders, Sarah Sudhoff, Jake Stangel, Lacey Terrell, Sonja Thomsen, Susan Worsham and David Wright.

Essays by: Crista Dix, Darius Himes, Lisa Hostetler, Rachel Hulin, Miki Johnson, Larissa Leclair, Wally Mason, George Slade, Amy Stein and Alison Zavos.

128 pages

Softcover, perfect bound

Costs a meager $22

To Benefit The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Heidi’s Pledge 100% of publication profits: $2.05 per book, after a discounted production cost from MagCloud

Buy it here

It’s been a good few months in terms of opportunities to share my work more. Another one of my favorites sites at Urbanautica recently put up some work from my Post-Landfill Landscapes series. This is a different edit than on my site and includes some images I’ve never shared before. Urbanautica editor Steve Bisson is to thank for this new interpretation of the work and I have to say that it has me thinking more about the project, sorta itching to shoot more of it (like I’m not working on enough already). Chicago centric web publication Gaper’s Block also spread the word, so thanks for that folks.

I guess they got around to their notification letters a little early this year, but I’m excited to see I got a few images from my recent, as of yet not quite finished personal project involving landfill landscapes into Project Basho’s February 2010 show in Philadelphia. The opening is Feb. 13, so this might be the perfect time to head out to Philly, see the city and piggy back my next trip to NYC on afterwards, and ring in a birthday out East. NYC friends let me know if you’ve got a couch.

A recent scan from my ongoing landscape/nature essay on ex-landills.

Lately I’ve had a chance or two to get out into the public spaces built on and around landfills. It’s a solitary project that I’m really enjoying, not unlike the one I worked on last year in Athens…but this will look a bit different. Some spaces allow nearly complete isolation, others, you can’t quite get away from suburbia. Green Valley, which is one of the largest landfills, is surrounded by trails that offer some of the most “cover” from where you actually are.

Montrose Beach – July 2009

It’s been a busy week, one where I didn’t make a whole lot of photographs. Here’s an image I’ve been sitting on. Hopefully this week will yield a few more shoots for myself.

I had the chance to take some film to the lab this week. Had a few different shoots to scan but here’s a frame from Settler’s Hill golf course in Batavia, Ill. It was an impressive course with probably the most diverse topography that you can get in the suburbs. The adjacent landfill is 900 ft. above sea level. That’s a mountain out here in these parts.

This is part of my series on reclaimed landfills. I’m still exploring and figuring out things about this project but this was my fifth shoot I think so some ideas are starting to become more clear, like the fact that this will probably be the most minimalistic project I’ve ever worked on…which I’m a bit excited about actually. I’m pretty sure many images might be pretty mundane but I hope still pleasing, and once I get a good body of work I hope that as a group they speak more effectively.

I’ve recently started exploring spaces that were, at one point in time, landfill. Garbage. Refuse.

It’s become a trend in urban and park planning to foresee the life of a space after it can’t take anymore garbage. This project is just beginning and I’m still exploring the possibilities or lack thereof photographically, but here’s an initial frame.

Blackwell Forest Preserve, Winfield, IL around sunrise. This post could be the first of many treasure from trash images.