News x 2

Hi everyone:

Got a couple updates to give y'all during a rare mid-week post.  First, and most importantly, I have a last-minute show coming up here in Washington, DC.  I'm pretty psyched...it's my first show in DC since moving here and I love the space and the other artists in the show.  It's a great little spot called Gallery Plan B; and Paula, David and crew are awesome.   The show is called Photography:  Process and Perspective, and as the title indicates, all of the artists in it use non-traditional photography processes to create their work.

So, those of you around the DC area on Thursday, June 20th, stop by the opening to give some love, and receive some back in the form of drinks, refreshments and undying gratitude from yours truly.  Here's the details:

If you can't make it, don't worry - the show is up for over a month and the gallery plans to carry this body of work on an ongoing basis.  So, now you Washingtonians have no excuse.

In other news, I'm still working on this vintage toy series and shot a new one over the holiday weekend. This one is a little different than the others, but when put next to them, it kinda works.  Tentative title is:  Girl With Her Blaster:

For this one, I wanted the ray gun to be prominent, since the series is about toys and all.  But, I also wanted a constructed scene that showcases playtime...but with an edge.  I'm sure that some folks might feel this was solely meant as an anti-gun statement, but in context with the other images from the group, that really does fade away quite a bit.  I can tell you that my oldest daughter Mia had a great time playing with that ray gun...she's normally not allowed to even touch the collection, much less play with it.

More to come as it happens...

-Marc




     

Still goin'!

Hi everyone:

As I sit here listening to my Futureheads channel on Pandora, I'm thinking how nice it is to share news with you on a more regular basis. Despite having a killer cold and sinus issues, I managed to add another image to my new photo series today.  It definitely took a little more experimentation and trial and error compared to the first two, but I'm pretty pleased with it.

I'm sure people thought I was nuts.  I went out to a field by my house with 2 toys - this one and my Hungarian Holdraketa Rocket.  The rocket is actually a really cool toy - it has this nifty piece of engineering that is activated when the nose of the rocket hits something.  At that moment, it has wheels that come down, pushing the rocket to a vertical position…and then a little ramp with an astronaut opens up.  But after a bunch of images with it, it became clear that object wasn't going to work.   As I'm switching to the Apollo 12 toy you see in the final image, a guy comes up to me asking for directions.  Then a guy comes by and gives me a weird look while walking his dog.  I see cars slow down near the entrance, the drivers looking over and then pulling away with mystified looks on their faces.  Move along people, nothing to see here!

The main issue with this shot was getting the perspective right.  I did a whole bunch very, very close-up…basically macro.  But, they just didn't feel right.  I had some showing sky, but those didn't have the eerie factor I was looking for.  Most of the shoot I was laying in the dirt on my stomach trying to get the light and angle exactly just so.  But soon it became clear that the way to accomplish this was to shoot slightly down on it - getting that rocky moonscape feel all around it.  The horizon line was eliminated on purpose so it gets yanked from its original context and feels like it's somewhere else.  This also allowed me to play with scale a little bit, which is quickly becoming a recurring element in this series.   From there, it was a question of composition, saturation/color, and very minor retouching.

Anyway, I hope you like it.  I have plans for more very soon, so stay tuned!

-Marc