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Prime Integer Topology: A Mountain from the Sea by Multiple Exposures (in the Darkroom),
Using 1 and Increasing Primes 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, & 67, 2018 -
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Rainbow Ice Cube, Melting, 2020.
My four-year-old daughter asked me to make a rainbow ice cube. So this piece is our first collaboration...
I've long loved rainbows and cubes. And the phase shifts. So the idea of the deposition of a rainbow into a solid, the shift of that arch into a cube, it was all so brilliant and poetic to me.
We mixed food coloring and froze the ice cubes layer by layer. We made six of them in all. These odd and delicate little sculptures.
Then we found different ways to melt them. This is documentation of the melting of one of those cubes.
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Vanishing Points (after Rothko), 2013-2014.
One day I flipped on the lights in a darkroom that no one had used in years. Everything was covered in dust, but there on the table I discovered a half open 4x5 film holder with a sheet of unprocessed film still in it, half exposed while the other half was covered. Picking it up, I noticed a beautiful color shift between the two halves. So, I took the film out and I scanned it. Then I set the film on my windowsill. As I watched the difference fade as both sides saw light, I scanned the film again and again, until it was a sheet was a single solid tone.
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Four Seasons from Green to Pink and Positive to Negative, 2018.
This grid of photographs shows a gradient from four corners of opposing versions of the same scene:
Upper Left: A positive image on Kodak Portra 160.
Lower Left: A negative of that Kodak Portra image.
Upper Right: A positive on Kodak Aerochrome.
Lower Right: A negative of the Aerochrome image.
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Measuring Half-lives on the Horizon
“But I always found myself returning to the outside and always found myself wanting to see more and more space, to be able to orchestrate larger and larger volumes of space.”
Frank Gohlke said that. I admire his ambition, but also find something troubling and strange about this idea of controlling such a big part of the landscape. It scares me that I crave this too. To capture big chunks of the world in my little camera.
Left and right. Right and wrong. These simple dichotomies we use to think about the world are tied to our biology and our bilateral symmetry. We categorize the world breaks it down into oversimplified chunks that we can digest. We need them because we can’t grasp the bigness of the horizon. So we’re stuck, between the imperfect breakdown of the world in order to understand it and the aspiration to experience it all.
Oftentimes these simple systems work so well: night and day. Every day the sun rises and the sun sets. But there are several very rare natural phenomena that some people spend years and lifetimes looking for, even chasing. The green flash, flash spectrum, lunar eclipses, solar eclipses, the northern lights, and the Brocken spectre, to name a few. These events are much rarer than rainbows, in part because it requires specific planetary alignments as well as ideal atmospheric conditions to observe them properly. They create a paradox for me that’ I’ve been trying to recreate in my photographs. Because somehow, in these moments I feel connected to the world’s bigness at the same time I understand the concepts that cause them to occur.
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Snow Screen, 2018.
In March of 2018, a freak snowstorm blanketed my neighborhood. The think wet snow stuck to everything, transforming the landscape. Including the edge of the forest alongside a small city park. These photos are of that edge.
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Afterwards Comes Oblivion, 2015.
John McKee first showed me Walker Evan's photographs. We looked carefully at one landscape: Rocks, scrub, and bushes with a lone tree on the horizon. John talked about it in his soft and understated way, “consider the difference between looking and seeing.” John was always searched for the bones of the landscape, and this image showed those bones. We talked about the architecture that held the photograph together. It was subtle, John explained, “Easy to break.” So I scanned and printed it, and scanned the print, over and over again. The landscape faded, the tree became a mushroom cloud. It was abstracted more and more, until I’d squeezed everything out of the picture and there was nothing left.
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Micro Revolutions (121 Beers), 2020
In 1979, at the climax of the Sandinista’s revolution in Nicaragua,
Susan Meiselas photographed Pablo de Jesus “Bareta” Araúz
Throwing a Molotov cocktail, made from a Pepsi bottle. The image,
known as Molotov Man, is iconic of revolution.In 2020, as I dropped off my ballet for the next president of the USA,
I found myself reflecting on how little choice I have in politics:
It’s no more than “Coke or Pepsi?” at least in my humble opinion.
Yet this has led to incredibly deep division in the United States.I don’t drink either Coke or Pepsi, nor am I a Democrat or Republican
(though I certainly think there is a lesser of two evils in this election!),
I’m more of a beer guy, and here there is such variety to choose from:
Lagers, pilsners, pale ales, porters, stouts, sours, ryes, browns, wheats.As I pondered the divisions in America on the eve of this election,
And the uncertainty of where this election would lead my country,
I wished our politics could take a lesson from our microbreweries.
And so, I put 121 of my favorite beers into Pablo’s capable hands. -
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Micro Revolutions (Thirty-six Beers), 2020
In 1979, at the climax of the Sandinista’s revolution in Nicaragua,
Susan Meiselas photographed Pablo de Jesus “Bareta” Araúz
Throwing a Molotov cocktail, made from a Pepsi bottle. The image,
known as Molotov Man, is iconic of revolution.In 2020, as I dropped off my ballet for the next president of the USA,
I found myself reflecting on how little choice I have in politics:
It’s no more than “Coke or Pepsi?” at least in my humble opinion.
Yet this has led to incredibly deep division in the United States.I don’t drink either Coke or Pepsi, nor am I a Democrat or Republican
(though I certainly think there is a lesser of two evils in this election!),
I’m more of a beer guy, and here there is such variety to choose from:
Lagers, pilsners, pale ales, porters, stouts, sours, ryes, browns, wheats.As I pondered the divisions in America on the eve of this election,
And the uncertainty of where this election would lead my country,
I wished our politics could take a lesson from our microbreweries.
And so, I put 121 of my favorite beers into Pablo’s capable hands. -
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Micro Revolutions (Nine Beers), 2020
In 1979, at the climax of the Sandinista’s revolution in Nicaragua,
Susan Meiselas photographed Pablo de Jesus “Bareta” Araúz
Throwing a Molotov cocktail, made from a Pepsi bottle. The image,
known as Molotov Man, is iconic of revolution.In 2020, as I dropped off my ballet for the next president of the USA,
I found myself reflecting on how little choice I have in politics:
It’s no more than “Coke or Pepsi?” at least in my humble opinion.
Yet this has led to incredibly deep division in the United States.I don’t drink either Coke or Pepsi, nor am I a Democrat or Republican
(though I certainly think there is a lesser of two evils in this election!),
I’m more of a beer guy, and here there is such variety to choose from:
Lagers, pilsners, pale ales, porters, stouts, sours, ryes, browns, wheats.As I pondered the divisions in America on the eve of this election,
And the uncertainty of where this election would lead my country,
I wished our politics could take a lesson from our microbreweries.
And so, I put 121 of my favorite beers into Pablo’s capable hands. -
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Micro Revolutions (New Belgium Fat Tire), 2020
In 1979, at the climax of the Sandinista’s revolution in Nicaragua,
Susan Meiselas photographed Pablo de Jesus “Bareta” Araúz
Throwing a Molotov cocktail, made from a Pepsi bottle. The image,
known as Molotov Man, is iconic of revolution.In 2020, as I dropped off my ballet for the next president of the USA,
I found myself reflecting on how little choice I have in politics:
It’s no more than “Coke or Pepsi?” at least in my humble opinion.
Yet this has led to incredibly deep division in the United States.I don’t drink either Coke or Pepsi, nor am I a Democrat or Republican
(though I certainly think there is a lesser of two evils in this election!),
I’m more of a beer guy, and here there is such variety to choose from:
Lagers, pilsners, pale ales, porters, stouts, sours, ryes, browns, wheats.As I pondered the divisions in America on the eve of this election,
And the uncertainty of where this election would lead my country,
I wished our politics could take a lesson from our microbreweries.
And so, I put 121 of my favorite beers into Pablo’s capable hands. -
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Micro Revolutions (Elysian Space Dust), 2020
In 1979, at the climax of the Sandinista’s revolution in Nicaragua,
Susan Meiselas photographed Pablo de Jesus “Bareta” Araúz
Throwing a Molotov cocktail, made from a Pepsi bottle. The image,
known as Molotov Man, is iconic of revolution.In 2020, as I dropped off my ballet for the next president of the USA,
I found myself reflecting on how little choice I have in politics:
It’s no more than “Coke or Pepsi?” at least in my humble opinion.
Yet this has led to incredibly deep division in the United States.I don’t drink either Coke or Pepsi, nor am I a Democrat or Republican
(though I certainly think there is a lesser of two evils in this election!),
I’m more of a beer guy, and here there is such variety to choose from:
Lagers, pilsners, pale ales, porters, stouts, sours, ryes, browns, wheats.As I pondered the divisions in America on the eve of this election,
And the uncertainty of where this election would lead my country,
I wished our politics could take a lesson from our microbreweries.
And so, I put 121 of my favorite beers into Pablo’s capable hands. -
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Channel Surfing, Storm Chasing, Media Fatigue, zoetrope, 2013.
Mika was channel surfing while I was reading the news online. Everywhere we looked we heard about the tornado that had ripped through America's heartland, tearing the landscape apart as it spun round-and-round. On the BBC I found a beautiful image of this twister, it looked a bit like a Turner painting. Screen Shot: Command + Shift + 4.
People all around the world were thinking about Oklahoma that night. I thought about a hill in Oklahoma called "Rainy Mountain." I'd seen John's pictures of it: a small mound of dirt and grass with a single vulture circling overhead on a sunny and still day. The Kiowas think of that mountain as sacred, and so does John.
I'm certain that Rainy Mountain had survived the storm. But soon it faded again in global memory… Until the next disaster strikes, Rainy Mountain will be just another small mound of dirt and grass to everyone. Well, except to John. And the Kiowa. For them it will always be a sacred place.
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Discovering Icebergs with my Daughter, 2016.
In January 2016, a record breaking blizzard hit the Mid-Atlantic. By late February, the snow had finally melted, well, mostly... It had melted enough so that I could push my six-month old daughter in her stroller. We went for a long walk through the neighborhood.
All that was left of that record breaking blizzard were a few dirty and melting piles of snow, left where plows had violently pushed it. It was piled up in the margins and pushed aside into the corners, little icebergs on the edge of the landscape.
As we walked, I reflected on these little icebergs and on this world that I had brought my darling daughter into... The dirty snow looked amazingly beautiful and complicated. I began to wonder what icebergs would remain for her to see.
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My Body Projected Over the City
On a mountaintop, just south of Ulaanbaatar in November of 2008, I saw my shadow projected over the city, surrounded by a rainbow-colored halo. It’s a rare phenomenon call a Brocken spectre.
This was the day before I left the Mongolia, after almost a year in the country. Down in the city the air was full of the dense pollution that hangs above Ulaanbaatar for the cold months. It’s a valley where 1.5 million people live, and are trying to stay warm as temperatures regularly reach -40° (the only temperature where Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same) by burning coal and wood and dung. But there is a clear line on that mountain, an elevation where the smog stops; so I was standing above the pollution, in fresh mountain air.
The sun was setting behind me, and the mountain’s shadow was looming over Ulaanbaatar. Just as I was about to step back down into that layer of smog, the Brocken spectre appeared for just a moment… my shadow seemed to be cast over the city, larger than the mountain. There I was, huge and surrounded by a halo shaped rainbow. Divine? The whole event lasted no longer than a few seconds. By the time, I thought to pull my camera up in front of my face, the vision was gone. But for one moment I felt like I was part of this amazing planetary alignment. I felt enormous.
The world is a very very large place compared to any one man, but there are billions of us. Humanity’s ability to impact and change the planet and its ecosystems is undeniable. It’s for this reason that scientists are not referring to the world today as “modern” or “post-modern” or “post-post-modern” or “contemporary”; instead the consensus is that we have entered a new geographic epoch that they refer to as the Anthropocene. For our effect is great on this planet.
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Rose Window, 2015.
In collaboration with Matthew Moore. This piece consists of a curated selection of over 1000 slides from a college art department's slide library. -
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Seventeen Failed Attempts at Photographing Lightning, and Four Partial Success, 2017.
During the most incredible lightning storm I ever saw I was armed with only my iPhone. Plus, I was in a bit of a rush to get inside and out of the rain. So, I quickly pointed my iPhone up and took twenty short snaps, hoping to catch one of the amazing bolts of lightning branching across the sky. Most of these photos were complete failures. But you can see a bit of lightning in the corner of one of them, and the sky illuminated from flashes off frame in two others. Somewhere, in the space between these twenty pictures, the lightning flashed in front of my camera, and it was glorious.
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Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right Black White White Black Select Start or Four Sides of the Washington Monument (Divided America), 2016.
I was contemplating the complete and utter absurdity of the 2016 election when I found myself wandering around the National Mall in Washington DC. I started circling the Washington Monument, staring at it from all sides and considering the very different directions people want to take America...
Each side looked different. From one side it looked white, gleaming and pure against the sky, The second side looked like a knife, gleaming as it cut the clouds. From the next it was a tall dark stranger, handsome and mysterious, On the fourth side, also in shadow, it was shrouded and dangerous.
Walking away from this tallest of obelisks, our most phallic of monuments, I turned and looked back from the far end of the reflecting pool... The monument appeared doubled and I felt more disoriented than ever. For a moment, I didn't know which way was up and which way was down.
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