Studies in Movement: The Art of Sleeping

Six photographs of me sleeping. Started off as observations of my sleeping behaviors but turned into more of an abstract representation of that. These were taken in three different apartments over the span of two years. The exposures range from 2 to 8 hours.

Two Images of Plymouth County Hospital in Hanson, MA 2005

These two images were taken in 2005 inside Plymouth County Hospital, which use to be a tuberculosis hospital in Hanson, MA. It has been closed since 1992 and since then as been vandalized and photographed by many people. While photographing abandoned buildings is not my forte, I still find these two images to speak great depths of this place, haunting and yet peaceful.

Polaroids: Cambridge & Somerville 2005

Select images from early 2005 taken in Cambridge and Somerville.

Polaroids: Niagara Falls 2005

Four Polaroids taken during a bone chilling winter at Niagara Falls in 2005.

Short Film: A Drive Home

This is a short movie made by Filip Radazowski, Tony Jaramillo and myself. It was shot in December of 2006 all in one night and one early afternoon. I picked the soundtrack and Filip did an amazing job with the edit, though looking back we all agree it could be shortened up a bit. Maybe I can talk Filip into a shortened remix :)

drive

High School Portraits: Keep in Touch and Stay Cool.

I recently came across a "Senior Year" book that was optional to buy near the end of senior year high school. It basically ask a lot of questions about us and our friends, so that we can remember part of who we were and what was going on then. There is also a lot of room for decorating it with photos, and empty slots in the back for the nicer photos that you may not want to cut up or glue.

When looking through my Senior Book, I came across a lot of individual portraits that most of us all bought our senior year (and some junior year) to give out to family and friends. A number of them had something written on the back of them. I read a good portion of them before looking at the picture or the name signed at the bottom, to see if I could remember who may of wrote that. I only knew two of them and only because of particular things they mentioned, like the college they were going to or other people we both knew.

I became fascinated with these writings and how they basically become meaningless in the end. And maybe meaningless is a harsh word, cause I know at the time they were written they meant something. But from the past 12 years I have only remained in contact with one of them, and have recently got in contact with a few more through the convenience of Facebook.

These are 10 scans of some of those writings. I erased the signed names at the bottom, along with college names and phone numbers, to make them become less about the individual writings and more about these ideas of memory being lost, friendships and contacts becoming broken, and the question of what all of that might mean to us now.

Polaroids: Three People leaving Los Angeles

Three people arrive in Los Angeles on three different days in December 2006. They then all leave at three different times in January 2007. Ariele leaves first. The next day Trevor attempts to leave but misses his flight, he then catches an even longer flight home later that afternoon. I leave later that evening. These are our goodbyes.

This is Life: Older Images

Older Images from the This is Life series. some of these images helped start this project idea, while others are images from a few years back that just happened to fit in with the new work.

Unique c-Print Triptych

Unique c-Prints

A few images from my Unique c-Print Series. These images lean a little more on the abstract side, which is the direction the project is taking.

Learning Something New: A project on memory and disconnection

In the harsh winter of 2008, I visited the city where I was born. The city of Chicago. I use to bring my camera with me to Chicago when I would visit, but only for the first year after I moved away. The last several years I would leave it in Boston, knowing that It would just sit in my bag if I brought it.

I knew there were reasons I never brought my camera with, but never had the strength to wrestle with those demons. I knew though that it was time to not let myself be discouraged. I needed to allow myself to answer those questions. What was this fear of shooting the places and people I call home?

The night before my flight, I made decided to pack up my Yashica Mat 2 1/4 camera. I figured it was the best camera that would allow me to avoid bringing a tripod. I also thought it would be best to shoot handheld the whole time, since it would force me to make quicker decision and wouldn't allow me to over analyze my shots.

When I got there I started shooting with my initial responses and with a simple idea in mind. That simple idea came into place very quickly as I started to realize that it wasn’t so much a fear that was holding me back before, but was more of a disconnection with my past.

After this realization and two rolls of film, I decided to approach photographing Chicago with the idea of rediscovering the things that I had disconnected from since my departure five years ago. Not only did I want to explore the disconnect I felt with my past, but also with things that were simply not here before, or maybe were things I had just missed: the family members who have always seemed to be distant, the windy city’s politics, the unfamiliar laws, and the transition from urban to modern sprawl.

I knew that just this one visit to Chicago wouldn't even begin to scratch the surface of this idea and approach, but it was a start. The images below are an edit from that December. Some of them may not fall into this idea of rediscovery, but they got me to thinking about it, and feeling it out. Like any project we shoot and shoot and then learn from the mistakes or wrong approaches we take through experience. I don't know yet where this project will end up, and it still drains me to think about it, but these images will guide me when I photograph during my next visit home.

Governor Blagojevich had just been caught the week before I came home and was being pressured to resign. I got to hear a lot about it on NPR during my visit.

The Christkindlmarket in Down Town Chicago. A German holiday market held every year. My grandmother took me here when I was younger and I always remembered the smell of German foods and candies. I had wanted to go back so many times but always forgot about it. It was exactly as I remembered it. Almost too exact, but nonetheless, it was amazing. I bought a German shoulder toy that walks on its own if you give it a slight push.

The Cloud Gate, or often called "The Bean" done by Anish Kapoor at Millennium Park.

Rosa's is my moms favorite bar/karaoke place in the Burbank IL area. I absolutely hate going there, but she always insists on having small gatherings there when I visit. I got to see some cousins whom I have not seen in a while, along with meeting my mothers fiance. Weird.

Millennium Park was finished after I moved away. I had only seen it once before this visit but never during the winter. It was just as beautiful as it was in the summer. It also makes me proud of my city for how open it has always been with modern architecture, art and culture.

These next five images are taken from the Red Line Train going inbound from up north. All five are taken from the same spot on the train car I was in at five different train stops.