snow bound in Houston

I traveled to Houston last week to run the Houston Marathon with my good friend Curtis. I ended up being stuck there for a week due to weather conditions back in Missouri. But, thanks to the hospitality of Curtis, the conversations with Joye and Chazz's home cooking, I had a great time and felt right at home.

It's funny where life takes us. Curtis and I went to high school together and were roommates after graduation. His father and my father were best friends and he was the best man at my wedding. Even though we live in different states and lead completely different lives now, every time we are together, it feels right. I think sharing your formative years with someone creates a bond that time and distance can't erode. That is something very special to me and I hope I never take it for granted.

Top 10, er 11 of 2010

Well, I'm sorry to the 5 or so poor souls who follow this blog. I am in the process of finalizing my new website, so the blog has been put on the back burner. The new sight should be up by the end of the month.

Here are my favorite pics from 2010, a year that I didn't even notice happening until it was over.

Free Healthcare

Kenneth Fann, 38, of Columbia, MO. waits to see a doctor at MedZou, a student-operated medical clinic that provides free primary healthcare. Fann is an unemployed father of four who suffers from PTSD as a result of being abused as a child.

Middle Missouri

I enjoy photographing mid-westerners. Maybe being surrounded by so much land comforts people and allows them to let their guard down. Here are a few pictures of people I ran into on a camping/canoe trip that Cohen, Tana and I just took on the Niangua river in Eldrdge, MO.

Devoney Looser

Often times I have to photograph stiff uncooperative subjects. MU English professor Devoney Looser was the opposite. She was very generous with her time and good in front of the camera. I am not sure if this image captured her personality, but i liked the quiet moment.

where the wild things are

Somewhere near the Boot heal of Missouri.

Afternoon adventures

Add-Sheet

This is a portrait series I did about Add-Sheet distributors on campus. You can check out audio interviews here, because I am not smart enough to embed the media player on my blog.

fiddle me this

Continuing work on my Missouri Fiddler's project.

smile

It's been a tough one, but you still work hard and smile while doing it. You pray to your creator daily. I'm not sure if he or she listens. I'm not sure if that matters. I listen and I love you. My heart will always roam with yours.

highway blues

Some snaps from my journey back from Barnstorm. I was loosely working on a story about human trafficking, but I was really just letting all the ideas from the weekend bang around in my head. It seems Barnstorm means a lot, to a lot of people. For me, it was the first major photo accomplishment that I ever really gave a damn about achieving. Now that it's over, I'm not sure what it means to me. I am not friends with many photographers. I don't really enjoy talking shop. I think the more you know about other things in life, and the less you know about photography, the better photographer you will be. The whole thing seemed a little elitist, but that's the nature of the beast I guess. If I had to take a lesson away from the weekend, it would be that hard work pays off. You can have all the talent in the world, but if your a lazy bitch, you will get nowhere.

And yes, I did get a ticket.

Dmitry Korkin

Dmitry was a teenage numbers whiz from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan. Korkin not only aced his college entrance exam, but also pointed out errors in the test questions. He is a 31-year-old assistant professor of computer engineering at MU and was nice enough to ride up and down this elevator for about 30 minutes while I made these portraits.

b-ball preview

I photographed Mizzou point guard J.T. Tiller for the basketball preview in our winter issue of Mizzou. We are turning the first image into a poster, so I will post as soon as the design is done.

Baltimore plane break

You come on like gangbusters laying it thick
Arboreal sleestack lost in the sticks
It's warm for a witchtrial, don't you agree
Cold are the hands that would ever touch me

You got the energy of a classic creep
With sex vibe for miles and shark eyes asleep
No intuition, no need to sleuth
Poor is the man who would sully my view

A one minute story is all that you are
A song undeveloped, beyond the first bar
For all of your hustle, what did you win
Woe is the man with the cheshire cat grin

You criticize life
You criticize pain
You criticize situations you’ve never been in
But dawn for the dilletants will come soon enough
Alright

The panic is leaking through every clear pore
Your animus weakened acetylene torch
So root for the crucifix on the skull full of rot
Alright

I’m in love with the people
I’m in love with a saint
I’m in love with a soldier from Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore

-Stephen Malkmus

I could use a new turtleneck

Mike

Some of my most real and intimate moments have been with complete strangers. Within minutes of meeting them, they open up their hearts to me. Why doesn't the bagger at the grocery store do this? Why doesn't my boss come up and poor her heart out on my desk? Doesn't anyone have any guts anymore? doesn't anyone have a heart, or a good story?

Tonight I'm up thinking about the real people. The stern survivors. The unbelievers who do their best at this thing called life. Tonight, I'm thinking of you, Mike.

this time tomorrow

Happy Halloween Eddie

goodbye, for now

I have not used this blog very often to express my personal life. I usually save that content for my journal, which I have not been using much lately. In an effort to increase everyday reflection on my life, my family and all the smiles, tears, adventures and hardships that go along with that, I am going to start posting more personal content.

Today I leave for the Eddie Adams workshop. It's an intensive four day workshop held in Jeffersonville, NY. I am very humbled and excited to be a part of this prestigious experience. I am going to go into this with no inhibitions or preconceptions. I am going to open my heart, my ears and my eyes and internalize everything I can.

Although I am very excited to get the trip under way, I didn't consider how hard it would be leaving Cohen for more than a couple hours. This will be the first time that we will spend more than 12 hours apart. It's and interesting emotional experience, to love something so much it hurts, but I have cherished every second so far. People say that parenting is the greatest thing ever. The jury is still out, but I can see how it could be true.

I snapped this picture before I dropped off Cohen at the sitters and headed to the airport. It's amazing. Cohen really looks at you. He studies everything he sees. I will miss that look.

See you in one week,

-dad-

fly on the wall

When I am working with subjects I try and be a fly on the wall, but lately, I have been feeling like this?