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My mental health has been absolute trash since the time change (I know I’m not alone in this). I thought we were getting rid of that?
Going to my studio when I can has helped, though. I’m slowly making it into a little haven for myself to burrow within as it gets colder and drearier.
A couple of other bright spots:
I saw beautiful work at two shows—if you are in Pittsburgh, definitely check them out before they close:
Buttery Spread at Brew House Arts, curated by Emma Honcharski and Chas Wagner, featuring a number of friends.
Secret Garden at Bottom Feeder Books, a solo show by friend Kelly Lanzendorfer (aka the beauty and brains behind Eastern Standard Photo).
I spoke at Sean Carroll’s Black & White Photo I class at Carnegie Mellon University for the second time last week. Thank you, Sean, for inviting me again. The first time I spoke in Spring 2023 validated a lot of things for me. In the past, I’ve gotten stuck on not having a fine arts degree or an academic background in photography—most of it coming from myself, but some of it from unpleasant experiences with other artists making me feel less-than. But I am becoming more comfortable letting my work and my existence speak for themselves.
I found used flat files from a guy out in Blairsville, PA. I rented a U-Haul pick-up and made Sam drive us out there (thank you <3), and now my 1,000,000 prints dating from 2017 have a place to sleep.
Some Recent Photos
In October, Sam and I took our very belated honeymoon in Porto, Lisbon, and Seville. The photos I made don’t necessarily belong anywhere in particular, so I’m including some of my favorite 35mm shots here:
What I’m Looking At
Before flying out to Portugal, Sam and I spent 2 days in NYC so we could go to the Yves Tumor concert. I saw an edition of Book Book by Yuchen Chang and Myungah Hyon at Printed Matter and ordered the fourth edition (currently sold out) off of their website to ship home so I wouldn’t have to carry the physical thing around with me for my trip.
As someone who has only ever made zines but is really curious about delving into more bookmaking, this is a super useful resource. It’s an intro to different methods of bookbinding and comes with a hole-punching cradle.
I have yet to actually try any of these out, but I have it on good authority from artist friend and bookbinding expert Brent Nakamoto that this is a great guide.
What I’m Listening To
Probably like most people, I strongly associate songs with seasons and certain periods of time in my life. I threw together a playlist last week that reminds me of autumn-into-winter during my high school era (2007-2011). Most of the songs included came out anywhere from the early aughts-2010. I think most of them would be classified as “indie,” but I steered away from the more Brit-pop/rock things I listened to at the time (The Kooks, Arctic Monkeys) since I think that warrants a different playlist altogether. Take a listen if you’re curious:
That was long, so if you made it this far, thank you for reading! I’m planning on including these types of sections moving forward - let me know if they are interesting or if there are other types of things you’d rather hear about.
xx