25 December 2008

I get by with a little help. . .

Eva's blog of me at work. Yay. Eva I heart you, you don't even know.

14 December 2008

A Birthday Surprise. . .

For my birthday surprise my friend Eva decided to take me to a burnt down house out in the "countryside". Beautiful. I decided to go traisping around in it in a vintage cashmere sweater.


I started near what must have used to be a closet under the stairs.

Looking through the wall.


I like all the texture in this one. And I feel like I'm glowing, like maybe I'm a ghost.



I like this overall composition.


This frame is pretty popular. People like the curls, someone (Eva?) mentioned that the boards echo the form of my back. . . so some nice compositional elements. I'm also liking when I am engaged with the environment. In the preceding two photographs I am exploring the environment, and I like these compositionally. . . but conceptually I feel that it is stronger if I am interacting with the environment, having some kind of moment, not just passing through.


Eva took pictures of me taking pictures of me for her photojourn blog. Hopefully we'll get to see them soon! And thanks Eva for the best birthday surprise ever!

01 December 2008

Squatter's Paradise

This weekend I had friends come in from out of town to visit for the long weekend. Folks came all the way from Seattle! While showing a few friends my blog, my friend Zana told me about a super-cool abandoned house in Grants Pass. . .
Ignoring the convention of hiding the photograph.

When Stef and I drove Zana back to GP she showed us the house. Of course I had brought my trusty camera. Stef thought that someone had been squatting there and tried to make repairs but eventually gave up and left the house abandoned. . . again. We found a newspaper from the 70's.


The house was great, with water stains all over. The room I was particularly obsessed with was the bedroom, which had a single window with a plain curtain covering it. I took a few shots of me standing next to the window but they didn't really turn out, the dark interior coupled with bright light coming in threw off my light meter. But, this photo did turn out nicely.



I feel very influenced by Francessca Woodman in this frame.

By the front door. . . I loved the wallpaper.



Looking out my back door.

Towards the end I also noticed an amazing shaft of light coming in through the window. Intended to use myself as the model but I had Stef pose to help me frame the photo. . . the rest is chromogenically recorded history.





I think these are my favorite.

I had alot of fun on this location, I made two rolls of color film and even started a roll of black and white. Hopefully someday I will re-teach myself the black and white darkroom and get those printed (only kidding, I haven't forgotten). Have you noticed that my last two locations were both reccomended to me by friends? And look how great they turned out! Thanks again to Zana for showing me this house, and Stef for being so great helping me. Everyone keep your eyes out for creepy/cool things. I could sure use them!


Just for Stef. . .