In a few days I’ll be back home. It’s going to be tough. Last time I was in New Zealand I was here for nearly six months, and this time just 10 weeks. Still, this visit has been much more immersive. Instead of surfing and going to university I’ve been meeting with lifelong residents and talking to them for hours. While it’s been a great trip it hasn’t been a vacation in the least. The last week or two that I had hoped to spend backpacking was spent shooting more and tying up any loose ends I could think of for this project, which was probably a better way to spend the time.

It’s funny, but I was probably ready to come home more three or four weeks ago than I am now. I’m at that point where I’m starting to feel like this is my life…just in time to get ripped out of it and jetlagged all over again. The picture above – my flatmate Bex, and her partner Quentin, an awesome professional snowboarder, have been great hosts and  gave me a place that feels like home. I also have to give a shout out to Crossfit Christchurch who’s awesome coaches and members provided a great place to blow off steam after some of the rougher days of working. They even offered to drive me to the airport.

I will miss NZ but I feel more than ever that I will be back, and it won’t be an eight year gap next time.

Red-Stickered Home in Sumner

I’ve been here over a month now and have been working pretty steadily almost since I touched the ground here. I could write a whole lot about the experience at this point but it’s still a bit too fresh. People have been very gracious in sharing their stories with me, unexpectedly so. It’s only making me love this place more, as damaged as it now is. Being in a city that you used to know that has been so transformed has been a bit disorienting as well. It’s hard to describe, but the central area of the city is effectively gone. What’s not gone is inaccessible and will likely be gone before long. Points of reference are no longer there. What was a bustling urban street is now a vacant lot, etc. etc. I think what’s the most difficult for many is their situation regarding their homes. Many have been forced out, many who have not are in a state of limbo where they are living in a home that may or may not be repairable and are still waiting for answers from the authorities and their insurers.

When you get past the obvious earthquake drama though (not to belittle it), it’s the little things here that you notice. The roads aren’t as straight or as flat as they used to be. Houses that look okay never turn their lights on at night anymore. The restaurant down the street that you are just googling and decide to go to has been forced to close. The traffic is backed up because some city roads are no longer accessible. I think perhaps, most importantly though, not many people seem to care about things anymore. I don’t know how many people have told me that material possessions are no longer of importance. The ones who haven’t fled, who aren’t thinking about fleeing, they’re the ones who will rebuild this place I think. They seem to present themselves with no other option other than rebuilding or moving forward because they love the place and it’s part of who they are. I am encouraged by hearing this. That’s the reality the majority of the people here have to live with.

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.

If you asked me what my priorities were, I might struggle to figure out if running or photography would take precedence. Even though only one of these activities feeds me, they both constantly occupy my mind. For the past 18 months or so I’ve been taking pictures with my cell phone while I’m out running. I don’t photograph every time I’m out and I don’t tend to make any groundbreaking pictures when doing this, seeing as I’m usually running through forested areas, prairielands or the monotonous suburban sprawl, but still, it’s a good way to consider my surroundings, which is something I never want to take for granted. I’m thankful for the health that allows me to go every time I go, and the picture is a reminder of each opportunity that I’ve been able to do so.

Running, for me, is like meditation. Some years ago I got past that point where it was a struggle to get out and now I’m more relaxed on the trail than I am in front of the television. Running often tends to offer the closest thing to a transcendental experience that I can find. The biggest challenge with self-discipline is deciding when not to go.  Now that I’ve been doing this for awhile I just wanted to post a few of my favorite mundane images I’ve seen from the trail.

I post new running pictures, as well as other stuff on my Ordinary Pictures tumblr.

I’m not the type to make a list of all my best 2011 pictures, or moments, or whatever. Maybe I’ll care about that stuff a bit more when I’m near my death bed but I’d rather spend more time focusing on what’s ahead, which to me should always include experimentation. If you’re a photographer you can’t ignore the past, you’re constantly reminded of it in every image you’ve made, but I don’t think that means you need to always be looking to it. That said, I’ve had great opportunities in 2011 (including the pretty cool and serendipitous fact that me and my old grad school roommate Marcus Yam had both of the pictures on today’s New York Times front page) and 2012 is going to be dedicated to experimenting and developing more as a freelance photographer and as an artist.

If the project in New Zealand takes the total form that I envision it should be something different from my past work, which is a pretty exciting prospect for me. And, in the spirit of experimenting and being curious I urge you to watch the wind blow and the light bounce on an autumn day for thirty seconds. Sometimes the best things are just outside your window. I was cleaning out my hard drive and forgot that on this day I just dropped what I was doing and started filming out the window.

Wishing all the best to everyone in 2012.

The past two summers I’ve been teaching a high school photography course through a program called Upward Bound. We get the luxury of meeting during the hottest weeks of the year and my class is dependent on getting outside to make photographs of the city of Chicago. Both years we made it to Millenium Park to make pictures and this year everyone finished their work early. (Ok, some might have skimped on the assignment a bit due to the heat).  On this July day I didn’t feel like being much of an enforcer since the fact that we were outside was already a good enough push. I decided to hold on to my students’ cameras for a minute while I let them…well, just be kids. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit bummed I couldn’t partake.

These are the kinds of things I get reminded of when I’m combing through and organizing my archives, trying to take inventory of what happened this year before I head off to New Zealand early next year.

One of my favorite images from the past year will be in the upcoming issue of Romka Magazine – a photo magazine out of Germany that celebrates personal work. The magazine is a collection of work by students, hobbyists, amateurs and a few professionals as well, but your job doesn’t matter to the publisher – just the pictures. I go through fits and spurts photographing my own life (I struggle to find the magic in the coffee shop I sit in so often, even though I know it’s there) but ultimately these end up being some of the most important images to me. I think living in the suburbs is pretty funny, lovely, confusing and terrible all at once…sorta like this new Rihanna album I’m currently sampling. This picture is about something along those lines. It was just taken at a backyard BBQ at a friend’s house and it teeters on bizarre just enough to make it work for me.

Also, it happens to be the only place in the U.S. you can check out the print version of this magazine is at ? Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago IL – Take that NYC!

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

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 usually stick to downtown Chicago when I’m photographing on the streets, as I have a long term goal for that work (whether it looks like a project or not, it is). It’s a whole different thing photographing in Naperville…the bubble of a suburb that I’m from and live in. There’s an annual Labor Day fair that happens here and while I was on my way to some free hospitality I passed through the fair for about 15 minutes and wanted to see how it would be to photograph at home, trying to elicit the same curiosity more easily summoned in places unfamiliar to me.