NOTE TO SELF: This area is a spot for “rabbit holes.” This is a no pressure zone, where you can try things, re-combine and scrap things as you learn and grow. Experimentation is allowed and encouraged. You aren’t tied to anything, other than doing the work.
“Nightwalks”
In 1942 the surrealist painter Edward Hopper created a painting of a diner scene that leaves viewers feeling voyeuristic and deeply uneasy. Was his aim of the deserted American wasteland to show the loneliness is a big city? What was he saying? This work is shot around CNY on one of my many night walks and is meant to give praise to that painting he made in 1942.
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Double Exposure
This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature! Most digital cameras can recreate the old issue that first popped up with film cameras where you would expose a frame and then forget to advance the film. This problem would create a weird, fun little double exposure.
All of these are done in camera. No photoshop collaging used.
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Rural Mailboxes
Marshall McLuhan said that the medium is the message and in this he meant that the way we receive a message often has a profound effect on us and our society. In this work I am studying the cultural and material artifact of analog communication.
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Thru November
Fall 2022 - I switched jobs and in the process inherited a new 66 mile daily commute. At first I was angry about the fuel cost and the wasted time. I decided to brainstorm how to turn this negative into a positive. My solution was using this non-active time to grow. Use my car camera to build a body of work.
Consumerist Geometry
2021 - I grew up in the 1980’s when consumerism was a physical construct. You went to the mall, or the shopping center to be bathed in the golden arrow of consumption. Today the consumerism comes to you via the smartphone. There are many parallels to the crafted moonscape of a 1980’s mall with the selling machine in your pocket. This project looks nostalgically at the physical space of an outdated way to sell. I am particularly interested in the unseen areas of the physical boxes used to sell.
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North Country
2020 - The Tug hill plateau is the area roughly East of Lake Ontario encompassing Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, and Oswego Counties. The area is known for its brutal cold weather and huge amounts of lake effect snow. This project seeks to take photographs of the material culture of the people of the small towns along the Tug Hill Plateau.
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In Reverence of Snow
As human societies struggle to come to terms with the idea that climate change is a result of our actions, climatologists are saying we have about 6 years before our reliance of fossil fuels harms this planet irreversibly. Syracuse is one of the snowiest places in the US and this project is meant to preserve the feelings, images, and culture surrounding snow and to celebrate it.
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Syracuse
The architecture and people of Syracuse.
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Everyday Items
An everyday excuse to use my iPhone to improve as a photographer. Looking for light and shadow, using only my iPhone and editing on the device as well.
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John Belt
2019 - John educated for 53 years and has impacted us all in profound ways. During his career at SUNY Oswego, John created two masterpieces. The physical design studio that he crafted and his impact on his students. His love and deep understanding of design bettered the world, and this project is a was of documenting that gift.
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