I'll be posting photographs soon enough.. but for now I'm doing a friend a favor. My photo buddy, Shane Lavalette, has been running an amazing photo blog for a while now and he has gotten quite a bit of traffic on it. So much that he was nominated for the 2007 Blogging Scholarship as one of twenty finalists. This is great news and could mean a great amount of money for a cool, talented and creative person, such as Lavalette. Head to this link to VOTE.
Best of luck to him.

First and foremost... sorry for my absence and lack of updates on Wanderlustagraphy in the past few weeks. It's amazing how NYC can take you in it's grips and suddenly weeks fly by unnoticed. Things have been busy.

That said.. enough of my babbling and apologies. Let's move on to some photographs of youth. I've been feeling far too adult these days and felt the need to look into these photographs to remind me of younger days. Enjoy.

Brea Souders, New York, NY.
Reed, 2007. Des Allemands, LA. from the series "Living Water"

Amanda Tetrault, Montreal, CANADA
From "Glimpses" in Brighton Beach

Armando Bellmas, Charlotte, NC
Just Deserts

What exactly makes a good portrait? I posted these three images as a play off of contemporary portraiture. A seemingly natural portrait, staged portrait and representation of a portrait (ala television). Does one tell a stronger story than another? It seems unfair to make broad generalizations as it seems a strong image just speaks for itself..
but curiosity does strike..

Simon Ingall, Rochester, now New York, NY.
Shaun, Pine Beach NJ

Richard Friedman, Oakland CA
The War, At Home from the series "At Home"

Erika Jacobs, Toronto, Canada.
From the series "Secrets"

On a portrait kick. Simply stated. Enjoy and send in work! I'm running low on supplies!

Andrew DeFrancesco org Texas, currently NYC
Portraits

Will Steacy, Philly, NYC
Liz, Philadelphia, 2007 from the series:
All My Life I Have Had the Same Dream.
(click on image to read text)

Melanie Bailey, Detroit
(melanie-bailey@hotmail.com) (no website)
Nikki, Diptych

"Humans are tuned for relationship. The eyes, the skin, the tongue, ears, and nostrils- are all gates where our body receives the nourishment of otherness. This landscape of shadowed voices, these feathered bodies and antlers and tumbling streams- these breathing shapes are our family, the beings with whom we are engaged, with whom we struggle and suffer and celebrate."
-David Abram Ph.D., ecologist, philosopher, & sleight of hand magician

I have been thinking a lot lately about anniversaries of big, life altering events like a lot of people this time of year... seeing that Katrina's 2nd year mark just passed and 911's 6th year mark is right around the corner. I guess it might seem funny to reference Katrina and 911 without seeking out photographers who created work during those times for this update... I guess I, like many others, have seen those images enough. I moved to NYC from New Orleans less than a year before Katrina hit and I guess I just have a bit of hard time looking over those images again and again. I'm sure most feel a similar way towards Sept 11th photos though I'm not in any way trying to shrink the magnitude of such events. Perhaps, if anything, I'm trying to sympathize with those who were a little too close to these events for comfort.

Well all those thoughts got me to thinking about people who always shoot in places that have big, life altering events surrounding them. The following photographers work with some heavy material, though as you can see the images are quite stunning.

(Sleep deprivation might seem apparent in this post. My brain's not all here.)

Wyatt Gallery, NYC
From the project- Remnants: After the Tsunami
Family Portrait on their Home #1, Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

Barbara Davidson, A native of Montreal, Canada. Currently in the US.
Agatha Anene, Eziowelle, Nigeria.

Simon C. Roberts, Brighton, UK
From the series: The Forgotten- Chechen IDPs in Ingushetia
Excerpt from the statement:

April 2005-
Largely ignored by the international community, the war in Chechnya is now Europe's longest-running and bloodiest conflict. No one knows exactly how many civilians have died since 1994 but the number runs into the tens of thousands. The city of Grozny, the republic's only urban and professional centre, still lies in ruins more than a decade after the fighting started. In 2003, the Russian authorities began a campaign to repatriate 180,000 Chechen Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in Ingushetia, a neighbouring republic. (for more head to his site)

Polaroids have always had a soft spot in my photo-geekish heart.
I love the way they smell and the way they always have imperfections.
The following photographers work with polaroids on various projects.
There is something about the immediate, original, non-reproducible (for the most part) images they create and how all mistakes, coincidences and moments unrepeated are caught. These very things keep me from tossing away polaroid cameras even though I fail to ever buy the instant film they need.

I-Nan Kuo, Taiwan
Love

Scott Hammond, Columbus, OH
Lucas, Kansas, 2005.

Lars Garten, Berlin/Germany.
From the series "Welcome at Grandma's Place"

It's Sunday night and I've just made it back from only trip I've made to Coney Island this summer. For those who aren't in the greater NY area or those who perhaps aren't tuned into the fact that this summer is the last summer that Coney Island will fully be intact before bulldozers and sledgehammers and construction zones cover the area to make way for condos, a new boardwalk and a more seasonal amusement park. Coney Island is one of the most, if not the most, historical amusement parks in the United States. It's very sad that the history there means less than the condos that will rise to the sky in it's place. On that sad note.. summer is coming to a screeching halt. This too makes me incredibly sad as I've been a bit too busy to travel further than an hours flight.. and travel makes me happier than anything.

Tonight's post includes photographs from three photographers out of the states. The photographs resonate for me as they have that strong impermanent feel that only travel and the road laid out before you can create.

Also.. wanted to apologize for my lack of wanderlustagraphy updates. Summer is meant for leisure and I've been too busy with work to enjoy that.

Jérôme Icardo, France
3 of 21 from the series "Nice Place to Dream About" a series shot between Scandinavia and the Balkans with an instant camera.

Chrischa Oswald, Austria/Germany
From the series "Being"

Andrew Phelps, Raised in Arizona, currently in Salzburg/Austria
From the project: Nature de Luxe

Storytelling..
It's quite amazing that a near complete story can be built by placing one photographer's work next to another. I enjoy the narrative that is built within these three images. The color palette and mood works quite well. The idea that photography allows us all to be voyeurs and photographs allow us to study the lives of others in order to relate to one another is pretty fascinating. Before delving any deeper into that, I'll leave you on that note to ask what part of that might be true for you with your image making? In addition.. what draws you to look at anothers work?

Patti Hallock, Brooklyn, NY.
Evergreen

Nelson Chan, NJ, RI, Hong Kong.
Unofficial title: Judy at a cancer walk in NJ.

Tristan Zamula, Brooklyn, NY.
Bed

Todays images are brought to you by the words:
Wan·der·lust
Pronunciation: \ˈwän-dər-ˌləst\
Function: noun
Etymology: German, from wandern to wander + Lust desire, pleasure


Mo·tion
Pronunciation: \ˈmō-shən\
Function: noun
1 a: an act, process, or instance of changing place : movement b: an active or functioning state or condition
2: an impulse or inclination of the mind or will

Elizabeth Weinberg, Brooklyn, NY.

Richard Friedman, Oakland, California
Liverpool Station, London - September 1972

Ed Fladung, Mexico
Goats with Sweaters, Varanasi India

Interesting that none of these women are being photographed to be made sexy. None of them have tons of make-up on. None of them are seducing the lens or holding themselves in ways that tell how they feel about being a woman. They all feel fairly natural. Simply.. they are women being photographed.

J.M. Giordano, Baltimore
From a new series called Stripped Down, portraits of dancers without make-up or stripper accesories.

Jennifer Loeber, Brooklyn, NY
Greta in a minivan, 2007

Armando Bellmas,Charlotte, NC.
Elizabeth from the Home Series

Seems most have moved away from black and white photography, so I figured to post these three that recently landed in my inbox.

David Hlynsky, Toronto, Canada
"Vincent Trasov aka Mr Peanut"
for cover of vol. 1, no. 1, FILE magazine, 1972

Nathan Pask, London, UK.
"Despair"

Liza de Rijk, Amsterdam
From a series portraying those commuting on the ferry in Amsterdam

Finally back in the city and getting back into the grind of NYC living.

Last night I went to see the photo show "Easy Rider: Road Trips Through America", a group show over at Yancey Richardson. It's up July 11 - August 10, 2007. It's got some really amazing folks in it. I went to go hang out and support my friend William Lamson who's got a piece in the show. Others included are Jeff Brouws, Tim Davis, William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Gohlke, Ernst Haas, Todd Hido, Jodie Vicenta Jacobson, Lisa Kereszi, Justine Kurland, Dorothea Lange, Danny Lyon, Nathan Lyons, Christian Patterson, Mike Smith, Ed Ruscha, Lise Sarfati, Vicki Sambunaris, Stephen Shore, Rosalind Solomon, Alec Soth, Mark Steinmetz, Joel Sternfeld, and Garry Winogrand and others.

Most of the images gave me an immediate and strong case of wanderlust. Images that resonated with me longest were the familiar ones that I had never seen in person such as Garry Winogrand's Apollo 11 Moon Shot and Mitch Epstein's Cocoa Beach I, Florida. Justine Kurland's Baby Pictures (sleeping in a van) image wasn't familiar to me before last night but I found it beautiful and haunting.


A snippet from the press release (this one in particular because I'm a big Kerouac and Ginsberg fan):
"The open road as a symbol of freedom is exemplified in Allen Ginsberg's 1964 shot of Neal Cassady at the wheel of Ken Kesey's Merry Prankster bus; Cassady's incessant cross-country journeys were a primary inspiration for Jack Kerouac's definitive Beat generation novel On the Road. Having spent four years riding with the motorcycle gang the Outlaws, Danny Lyons produced the book The Bikeriders, which emblazoned motorcycle counterculture onto the American psyche and inspired the film Easy Rider."

And now onward..
to our own wanderlustagraphy images of the open road, the abandoned fast food chains and the eerie nightscapes of America.

Ben Huff, Alaska
"Somewhere North"
Part of a larger, ongoing, series entitled An Impossible Road that
explores the people and landscapes of Alaska's Dalton Highway.

Kevin J. Miyazaki, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
From the "Fast Food Series"

Kurney Ramsey Jr., Swansboro, NC
New Cars, Jacksonville, NC from a
series I'm working on called Night Life.