Dear Friends

These are from a trip down to Portland to visit some of my favorite people.

One Look at Parkour

The Carter Family

The Carters are now three generations deep in puppeteering. Some 30 years ago, Stephen (left) and Chris began putting on shows. Their son, and now their son's son have grown up puppeteering, "its just family business" as Stephen pointed out. This picture has them warming up before the show for their Italian gypsy folk accompaniments. The accordion, of course, was a serendipitous find at a thrift shop. And just like good gypsies, the Carters are self-taught musicians, and good ones at that.

Manning the The Wacky Water Race

This is Robbie, who worked at the Wacky Water Race game booth at the county fair. I was amazed at his ability to remain in genuine pleasant (and marketable) spirits that helped him sell games, but also came with a certain nonchalant self-awareness which allowed him to perform and yet transcend his limited role as game-master (BTW, this is a graduated liberal arts mind at work). Self-conscious irony, sarcasm and double-talk, rather then reaching beyond the contingency of one's identity, leave one drooping pitifully, and often nihilistically into the dregs of this contingency (riff on DWF). But this light hearted (yet hearted, indeed) performance managed to do the trick of transcendence for the man at the wacky water race. But maybe its just me. I was mainly observing from behind a viewfinder, and most focal lengths do tend to have at least a little distortion.

Western Washington Football Practice

Dirty Dirty Dirt Bikes

Still Stuck on a Moment

These girls are about to perform a traditional Cambodian dance at the intermission of a youth Thai boxing tournament. This is a few moments before they are announced to the ring. A moment later, the little girls face lights up into an adorable half blushing smile, into the type of something you might see in a local newspaper. What you won’t see, is this slightly more ambiguous moment, for good reason. People don’t read newspapers seeking ambiguity or mystery. But this blog is no newspaper. Rather it’s the place I publish what the newspaper won’t, and shouldn’t. I’m not trying to flatter myself through this picture, it didn’t take a whole lot of craft or artistry, but boy does that little girl draw out my curiosity. I’m not someone who often yearns to inhabit other people’s minds, my own is trouble enough, but in this particular moment I would really like to know what she was thinking and feeling. Was she poised and ready to take the stage, as if dancing in front of others was a part of her makeup? Or, was she nervous and full of little children’s butterflies? I like to think that she was somewhere else, looking beyond this performance with some sort of profound self-assurance of her movements in dance and in the world.
For me, this is one of photography’s great powers: it has the potential to suspend a moment in such a way as to reveal its layers of depth, complexity and meaning; an incision into linear time through which we can get a view of the immeasurable content we normally only experience the edges of. I’m not saying that this picture does that for anyone besides myself, but its my hope that with time and hard work, that my images will begin to tap into this quality.

Standing Guard

This is a blatant shout out to Christopher Morris's project, My America. I don't deliberately emulate other photographers style's. Morris's series presents such a distinct and uncanny vision of the edges of the neo-con legacy, it really leaves a deep impression. So much so, that I now have a sort of unconscious radar for images in this vein.

Nooksack Pow Wow

The Coolest City on the Planet...

Vancouver!
For my weekend (wed. and thur.) I went on an adventure up north. I took only my camera with a 50mm lense, my sleeping bag and a book, with no particular plans in mind, only an openness to what might happen. Nothing "happened," in the eventful sense of the word, nothing you could take a picture of and call news. But a lot of little mundane and yet slightly exotic miniature happenings filled my field of vision for about six hours of layperson anthropology (read as people-watching). At the risk of being anti-climactic, or perhaps methodologically bankrupt, I've already posted the conclusion of my ethnography between the title of this post and its opening. I won't go into great depth, but Vancouver transcends my notions of 'city' (or 'citiness") in these ways: people are nice, helpful, aren't shy eyed (will look you in yours), the streets are easy to navigate, framed by natural splendor, the most diverse city that I've been too, culturally and ethnically, yet it feels the least segregated. Although I have some ethical objections about resorting to stuff like this, I've decided to post mail order groom adds in all the major Vancouver newspapers. I love my country, but not enough to keep me from moving 50 or so kilometers north of it.

In Search of Spartina

I followed these folks around today on the mudlfats of the Nooksack Delta as they taught a workshop on spartina identification and removal. I got my shoes muddy and returned with a sunburn, which made me feel as if I'd put in a hard days work, when in reality I walked through a surreally beautiful landscape all day and took pictures.

From the Pit...

...an area circumscribed by a mud-caked track where people race round-and-round in miniature cars.

Hidden Jewels

Are these not the finest group of abandoned toilettes that you've ever set your eyes on? Man oh man.

Working on my Footwork

Where my feet dearly miss their daily affectionate contact.
Where my feet are very gradually softening up to, and maybe even my heart a little bit too.

So, I'm wondering if you guys could help me out and let me know which you prefer (and why) between this image and the last one I posted. They are both from the same location with roughly the same lighting, but with different elements/arrangements.

The Fairhaven Boardwalk

3on3 Tourney

First Day on the Job

Well, my first day on the job consisted of hovering over other photojournalists shoulders watching them shoot, and process there images. One more day of this and I will most likely achieve mastery. But in all earnestness, my co-workers are great. Work feels as homey as work can feel on the first day. Also, for the last hour and a half of my shift my editor told me to, "go, explore the town." I can do that, I said. And I could. I did. In fact this image came from my exploration--down at the boat yard. This woman, Kelly, was masking lines on her boat in preparation for a new paint job. She had a serious case of what she described as "fivefootitous". Its that terrible malady in which sufferers forever long for boats five feet longer than the ones they have. Poor woman.

Fourth from the Porch!

Its actually a balcony, but I enjoyed the convenience of a mere step through my roommate's open window in my bare feet to view the show.

The New Job

I start work for the Bellingham Herald on thursday, so I should have more assignment work up soon.