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.

ketchup and mustard on one of my bike routes

Okay, so I realize that those photographers who are wisened up to self promotional norms like to portray an air of confidence through their online presence. Which of course, is good. You’d probably not want editors / clients to know that you always doubt yourself, or that you feel like you don’t deserve what you got. You can’t. You achieve success by building on previous successes, each step higher hard earned. I’m sure with that comes the confidence to stop doubting yourself so often. I don’t know though.

Since I am still (lucky to be) in grad school and more well-versed in theory than in practice and will undoubtedly encounter many hard knocks once I get back into the “real-world” again I’m going to once again spell it all out on my blog that is supposed to have more pictures than words. A lot of people talk about a consistent vision, or style being important for your portfolio. I’d agree. Being that I’ve only been serious about photography for about three, three and a half years I think I’d be a fool to expect much cohesive vision in my work. I’m still definitely experimenting. The problem comes in that I am finding myself shooting pretty differently for different projects. While I have a great time doing this I wonder how it looks when it’s all from the same photographer? I would like to hope that there is some consistent vision tying it all together, but I’m not so sure. You only need to go look at my recent posts to see what I mean. I have a few large format detail type shots. Some 6×6 portraits, some 6×7 documentary personal pictures, some 35 mm digital documentary photos, raw, crappy natural light and produced, staged and lit portraiture in there too. That’s 4 different cameras and formats right there.  I love it all, it all has it’s place, but I don’t know how it all fits from the same person. Does it even matter? Right now I’m tempted not to care and keep shooting everything that sparks my curiosity in whatever manner I see fit. Anyways, these are only surface issues. The content of the pictures is key I know … it’s hard to get past formalities at times though.

Anyways, here’s a frame from my suburban home life where I get bored and write lengthy blog posts about nothing in particular. My mom is talking to our new-ish neighbor after she got back from a walk. Bill is the neighbor, he moved here from China years ago and is always asking about American cultural rituals, and is, in more ways than us, the American Dream, towering above us all at 6 ft +.

… and I hope all had a very merry Christmas.