The theme is...Diptych.

This month's SPC theme is diptych and beyond. I'm really excited about this one. There are so many possibilities. I immediately thought of David Hilliard when it was announced. He is one of my favorites and I set off to make a David Hilliard inspired triptych. He is a master at this style of photography and his images make it look much easier than it is. My first entry is okay. Nowhere near as good as a Hilliard, but I'm working on it.

SPC Low Key/High Key

Joel Sternfeld

Joel Sternfeld - McLean, Virginia, December 1978


I had the privilege of listening to Joel Sternfeld give a lecture at the Akron Art Museum tonight. I had never seen a picture of him before and in walks this man with this fantastically curly, dark, bushy hair. At first glance, he reminded me of Bob from That 70's Show. He has great character. He was funny, passionate, and very quirky. He talked about his work and inspirations such as Helen Levitt and Walker Evans. He was friends with Helen and he mentioned that she had passed away a few weeks ago. I had not heard. She was 95 years old. Amazing! Anyway, he said that Helen, who was friends with Walker, did not like to answer questions about him. Despite this, one day when he was out with her he decided to ask her what Walker was like. He said that she paused and said simply, "He was a genius".

At one point I was sitting there thinking that there is no other place I would rather be than right here, right now. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to see several famous photographers speak, because of the Akron Art Museum and the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art. For that, I am forever grateful.

Curtain

The theme for March over at the Self Portrait Challenge is, "headless".

Random Fact #17

There came a point, during my senior year of high school, when it was time to apply for college and pick a career. I ran through the list of possibilities. A veterinarian? No, that's eight years of school. A puppeteer or a clown, perhaps? They have clown school in Florida; that would be awesome! Maybe I could be a marine biologist with a minor in sharks...no, I would never make it through the math classes. It was during all of this life determining decision making, that I was taking my first photography class. I loved it! Can someone actually major in photography? Yes! It was decided. I was going to be a photographer when I grew up.

In the beginning I thought that I was going to be a photojournalist or a commercial photographer, but I was never really able to envision myself in either one of those roles. Then one day I was watching some sort of A&E or Court TV crime show where they were talking about forensic photography, and it clicked. This is it! This is what I want to do.

It's nine years later and I'm finally in that role. I am currently working an internship at a job that I have wanted to do for a very long time. It feels right. It fits. I still don't know if I will get to make a career out of it, but I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to do it, if only for a little while.

SPC

Random Fact #26

I have a blue and a partially green eye. I'm not really sure when this happened. I remember sitting in French class one day and a friend looked at me and said, "Dude, you have two different color eyes". I never noticed it. They were both bright blue when I was little. That was 19 years ago and the older I get, the more pronounced it becomes.

I'm finally back in the game! The Self Portrait Challenge is now over at flickr.

Nicknames, I has them

Andrea has declared this week to be The Week of Lists. So many lists, where to begin? I got the idea for this one over at listography.
No one that I know has more nicknames than my cat. Oh yeah! How rude of me.

Meet Russia.


She is the Cat in the Everything and a ...
Anyway, as I was saying, she has been given a lot of nicknames over her 10 years. Most of them are utterly ridiculous. No, I am not responsible for all of them. This is what I can recall:

• Rush
• Russia Ann
• Rush Ann
• Wuss
• Wussia Woo (my mom reserves this one)
• Mouse
• Moose
• Boo Cat
• Smoo
• Smoof
• Smoofy
• Liddo
• Lil' Bits
• Pee Wheat
• Foobitlits
• White Breasted Grey Smoof
• Baby Cat
• Baby C
• What are you doing Crazy Ass?