Damn. This thing has had 78200 visitors . Yeah. So Phlogiston. It's a name for an outdated debunked theory of chemistry. Kind of a flat-earth thing. Funny thing was, if you conformed to all the mistaken assumptions, the conclusions based off those assumptions were correct. God is love. Love is blind. Ray Charles is blind, therefore Ray Charles is God. That kind of thing. And so it is with my work. I shoot film. Pretty much just film. I have a digital, but I don't like it. Someday, people will look back at film like they look back at Phlogiston and ask themselves, "Why the blue hell did anyone think this was a good idea?" Let them. In the meantime, I've got photos to make.
Things I like and use: Macs. Tri-X. Hasselblad. Zeiss lenses. Foma triple-weight paper. Old rangefinders like Yashica GSN's and Canonets and Kiev 4's. I like Portra and Ektar and T400BN. I love Kodachrome and Velvia and E100T. Pan F+ and Rodinal, Neopan in DDX, I love ambient light and a well placed strobe, sometimes in the same shot. I like a good camera bag.
Shooters I like and whose photos I look at a lot: Alec Soth, Elliot Erwitt, Ramon Muxter, Katie West, Bryan Adams (yes, that Bryan Adams), Weston and Cunningham and Ansel and all those oldschool tablet-carving motherfuckers whom without we wouldn't be taking fuckin' pictures today now, would we? Duane Michals and Annie and William Coupon and all those crazy sons of a bitches who got on the covers of Life and Rolling Stone and made us all think, "Sheeeeit. I can do that, too." Helmut and Chip Willis and Don Nelson and everyone who ever took a photo of a naked woman because damn, if there's anything more beautiful than the female body, I'd like to buy a dozen, please.
I vascillate a lot with equipment. So if you have any experience with the Format Wars (trying to decide between 35mm, Medium format and Large format, ping me will you? I need the advice). Have I mentioned who I am yet? Is it at all important? I'm guessing not. So nevermind. I'd rather it be about the photos anyway.
I'm lucky to live in a great art city. I have fantastic models, a great photography infrastructure and 7 days a week there's an opening somewhere so I can drink box wine and eat cheese cubes on toothpicks.
Ok, maybe there is. I must say, I wouldn't be a shooter, or much of a human being without the love and support of my wife Angie. She's a fantastic model, a great wife and when she puts her mind to it she plays a mean game of Scrabble. I think she mostly lets me win.