As far as online publications go – Guernica is one of my favorites. This month they decided to publish an excerpt of my Bryan House project and I’m happy that the story will get out there even more. It’s been a minute since I last photographed the organization but they are doing well and have even acquired another building.

In January I headed to R.S. Owens in Chicago (where they manufacture the Oscar trophies) for the Financial Times Magazine. The piece can be seen online here and is an interesting expose looking what’s left of U.S. manufacturing using R.S. Owens as one example. I hope that the gracious and diligent people I met there have their jobs for a good while but there’s no telling how things will go.

In January I was able to work again with The Guardian’s Weekend Magazine. Every time I shoot for them I love the design work they do. This time afforded me the opportunity to meet the lovely Margaret Overton, a newly minted author on top of being an anesthesiologist. She’s been through hell but had the courage to take humanizing and humorous approach in her memoir Good in a Crisis.

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.

Sumner, New Zealand - 2004

I’m just over three weeks into the fundraising for this project and I’m really excited to see how far it’s come. I’ve still got just over $800 to raise, but we’re getting close. Thanks everyone who has helped out so far, whether it was with a few dollars or just spreading the word. If you haven’t heard about the project yet click the image to see the video and the pitch, and if you like the idea I’d love to send you a print from NZ if you contribute – and if not I’d love for you to share it with anyone that might be curious about it.

Christchurch, A Year after the Earthquake on Kickstarter

So, I’m trying something new, and this new thing is Kickstarter. Ever since my time living in NZ got me in to photography in 2004 I’ve wanted to go back terribly, but when the earthquakes over the past 18 month began it changed things, and now I feel like I need to go back to tell a story. Take a look at my project and please spread the word if you’re in to the idea. I’d love to make this thing happen, and I’d love to send some people prints from New Zealand in exchange for the help.

I won’t go long on the plea, but this is a big deal to me to see if I can make this happen, so any help, really just putting it out there is totally appreciated.

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.

This summer I got the chance to spend some time in the Wilco loft photographing Jeff Tweedy for Nylon Guys. He was a great guy and let us try a few different things but ultimately the best location ended up being a little corner where they actually lay down their tracks. We talked about touring, kids playing video games and my favorite place in the world – New Zealand. Also, this has nothing to do with the shoot, but man I love this clip where he says “I think John Bon Jovi ruined music.”

This was probably one of my favorite assignments yet, probably due in part to the fact that while I’ve always been a casual listener of Wilco, for some reason the album “A Ghost is Born” became part of my spring soundtrack this year and one of my favorite new older albums (this before the shoot).

One recent assignment that I enjoyed was getting to meet and photograph Chicago artist Theaster Gates. To call him an artist is possibly a bit limiting when describing his work. Check out the story about him and his ladder, and check out his site to learn a bit more about him.

On a side note:

Sometimes I get comments from friends like “every time I go to your website it’s different.” Unfortunately I always feel like it is static for too long. I mean – I am making new photographs every week … whether or not I’m on commission it doesn’t really matter. I feel like if your website isn’t changing at least a few times a year then something must be amiss. How are you growing? What direction is your work going in? I mean, I hope that I’m not making the same images I was a year ago, even if it’s a small change I think one needs to constantly evolve. If you’re working on a big project that can’t see the light of day I understand that, but otherwise…staying still is just….meh. This page is called “Keep Moving” after all…..

Maybe things change once you are a bit older and you’ve settled on your aesthetic and on your vision for good, and you want your site just to be the 40 best images you’ve ever made, but that’s just not how I think right now, and so that’s not what my site reflects. I tend to think in photographic stories and short stories, so to me an image is only as good and as interesting as the ones that surround it. This is how I organize work for the time being…maybe it’s too much imagery or changes too often. But – at least I feel like the website is more accurate to my current work and mindset than a slick advertisement with no substance. I hate slick advertisements with no substance.