colin.

toll booth, albany.

routes 86 and 9w

model homes, newburgh ny.

i've been shooting upstate (new images! exciting!) for a few days and, while at a michael's with my dad looking for embroidery thread for a performance piece i'm working on (it sounds so cliche in writing but it's not i swear), i stumbled across all these paint by numbers kits. it's interesting because so many of them are really ideallic farm scenes in these over the top country settings. i realize they have alot of kitshcy connotations, that they run serious risk of being too much, but i kind of like them in the context of the plots of land and strip malls. i'm making one at the moment, since the rain is hindering my ability to photograph, and am seriously considering how they might work alongside these images. i can't help but wonder if they're inclusion will feel too much like a gimmick, and if re-photographing the finished paintings will remove some of that. i mean, i don't mind a little hint of irony, but do these take it too far? what gives something subtlety, and what makes something feel like slap-stick?

i'm thinking of combining some of my old work with this current project in a book i'm working on, but am unsure if they're related enough outside of my own thought process. i feel like the images make sense together, but are stylistically different, and are dealing with correlated issues without being redundant. if, for example, i was curating a solo show of my work, i would want the two bodies shown together, perhaps on different walls of the gallery. is it too confusing to place them next to each other in the context of a book? is it too much of a stretch?

stewart airport diner

Winter

i've been unable to get upstate to photograph for the past week since i've been working on a grant application on my days off, so instead i've been making nicer scans of my negatives after work. this is an image i took back in february this past year. it was definately in the low 10's when i took this, and i forgot to wear a coat or bring gloves. i can't wait for winter.