The humidity is starting to make the air thick round these parts. Time to hit the water and cool off!
Speaking of which.... I'm flying to California on Friday and will be out of the blog loop until the 7th of July.
Have a good 4th! And if you get some good photos of the festivities that you think might work on the blog... please send them my way.

cheers!

Shane Lavalette, Cambridge, MA
Swimmer, Aspen, CO, 2007

Stephen DiRado, Warcester, MA.
August 12th: Friends from the series Bell Pond,
Bell Pond, Worcester, MA, 1983

Ken Shung, New York, NY
Untitled

With all the severe thunderstorms that have been bursting all over lately, keeping me indoors, I have been reminded of how I enjoy quiescence. These photographs hold that quiet tension for me.

Carmen Winant, Los Angeles, CA.

Kaitlin Wilson-Bryant, Rochester, NY
From the project 'Home Series | Rochester'

Justin Visnesky, Saint Louis, Missouri
Dad's Room, Armagh, PA. 2007

ob·ses·sive:
1. being, pertaining to, or resembling an obsession.
2. causing an obsession.
3. excessive, esp. extremely so.
–noun
4. someone who has an obsession or obsessions; a person who thinks or behaves in an obsessive manner.

I think by default most photographers, artists and other creative types (writers, filmmakers, etc) tend to be obsessive about something. It's what makes their work what it is. If the obsession wasn't there perhaps the work's strength would fall apart. Today I am posting a few things that I find engaging, telling, unique and well.. obsessive. Today I didn't rely on my inbox, rather sought out people who intrigued me. I have a daily project I have been working on since Jan 27, 2006 that mutates on an annual basis but never ceases to unravel. I can't stop regardless of how I feel from day to day. The reasoning behind daily routine image making varies from artist to artist. Sometimes its extremely simple in nature. Sometimes loaded. Diaristic. Scientific. Documentary. But for most, it becomes such an obsessive routine that goes on for years, sometimes decades, sometimes until death.

I've been looking a lot at Jamie Livingston's daily photographs since they surfaced across the Internet on various blogs. He took a polaroid every day from 1979 until his death in 1997. The photographs are playful upon first glance but seem both haunting, loving and oozing with emotion upon looking at them as a whole. The vouyer comes out. I can't turn away. His story is here.

Jamie Livingston
Selected polaroids from:
PHOTO OF THE DAY: 1979-1997, 6,697 Polaroids, dated in sequence.
Starting while attending Bard University and ending with Livingston's death.

Noah Kalina, New York, NY.
Selected sequence from Noah's daily self portraits:
dated January 11, 2000 - Present day (a work in progress)

Same Time 7:15
Daily photographs taken at 7:15pm by:

Michael Lease, Richmond, Virginia
Kate Macdonnell, Washington DC
Bryan Martin, Cumberland, MD
Jesse Sommerlatt, MD
Brad Walker, Baltimore, MD
Soung Wiser, Washington DC

Family as found on thesaurus.reference.com/ ancestry, brood, category, children, clan, class, cognomen, descendants, domesticity, dynasty, extended family, family tree, genealogy, generation, group, household, kin, kindred, kinsmen, line, lineage, menage, nuclear family, offspring, paternity, pedigree, progeny, relatives, tribe, birth, blood, bloodline, descent, extraction, genealogy, line, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, seed, stock, kindred, kinfolk

Perhaps I'm homesick. I know my bi-annual ventures to my home state (3000 miles away) always involve me opening up my past or taking a closer look at what should feel familiar; those closest to me and their environments. These photographers turn to family to make their work. I enjoy the ways in which they investigate and find meaning through the camera, perhaps seeking their own definitions of the word or concept: family.

Jessamyn Lovell, San Francisco Bay Area, CA.
Mommy and AJ, 1999, as part of a larger series of work titled "Catastrophe, Crisis and Other Family Traditions".

Gilda Davidian, Los Angeles, CA
Me and Mom from the project "You and Me"

Natasha Kaser, New York, NY.
From the project "The Customs of the Country"