Just Ask!

Great opportunities start with very simple conversations.

"Hey man, is that a film camera you're using? I used to print in the darkroom all the time!" was the observational introduction volleyed by Robert Romano as I motored past him while out shooting with my rangefinder a bunch of month's ago. After some follow up in the form of meetings, chats, and collaborations we finally teamed up to do some fun headshots for a company earlier this week. And that's how opportunities come to fruition.

Multiple Exposure Portrait of Rob, taken by me

Multiple Exposure Portrait of me, taken by Rob

The past couple weeks have also seen the start of another set of personal projects that are of great importance to me and my work as a Washington DC photographer. The successive launch of three to four projects while hustling to make rent might explain the recent inactivity on my blog and I hate to shamelessly advertise the start of projects (better to just show them when they're done!), but I feel that if I announce my intentions I will feel more pressured to actually follow through on them.

Each project has it's own indefinite timeline and are being pursued with a digital/analog hybrid set of tools. My dated yet still very much kicking ass D700 will do much of the heavy lifting while my new (old, used) Bronica ETRSi 645 Medium Format camera will be employed for the penultimate portraits of each participating subject.

The projects are basically vehicles for me to learn more about the ideas, themes & stories of people in this town that are all personal interests to me. The concepts of each project have all been done before in some capacity and that matters very little to me. Just because someone else has done a certain look or story doesn't mean I experienced it, so these are my own pursuits for my own reasons.

ArtistSpaces is going to be a meandering look at the creative spaces of visual artists that call DC home. This project will most likely never end and be an on-going study of how and where creatives carve out a bit of working space in this perpetually more expensive city.

Yaroslav Koporulin working through some concepts in his Mt. Pleasant Studio

Chef Faves is a portrait series of DC chefs and their personal favorite dish that they like to prepare at home (or outside of a professional kitchen) for friends and families. These aren't menu items, but rather something a chef makes for themselves, either for reasons that relate to family and heritage or personal memories, tastes and simple personal interest. What are chefs cooking at home? Each installment will include a few photos of their prep process, a foodie shot of the completed dish as well as a formal portrait of the chef.

Michal Matejczuk preps a sour pickle soup

Finally, I am teaming up with local journalist Jeffery Anderson to delve deeper into the DC workers comp mess that Jeff broke in the early months of 2014. We will be working with people that have been directly impacted by the failed state of the workers compensation process and we had our first interview this week. The victim, a hardworking and devoted mother is completely flummoxed by the process of restitution that she has been forced to deal with. Her story, combined with those of many more, should provide viewers with a patchwork view of the state of administrative disrepair throughout the District and hopefully spur on improvements and restitution. 

Test Shot before deploying the ETRSi

Each of these projects serve their own purposes and are being undertaken for their own reasons, but all represent my interests and how the camera can open doors to the people around me. I just hope I keep at 'em.