My Year In Pictures
Reflections on photography and New York City living in 2019
I bought a camera for Christmas last year. Yes, I reviewed the options, prices, and functionality of many brands and models like any closet-obsessive, and in the end, I chose an Olympus OM-D Mark III. It looks like a classic 35mm film camera, but much smaller. The OM-D feels good in your hand, and it has remarkable motion stabilization. I bought it because I thought I was going to make videos, but instead, I just have been taking still photos. I figured I’d make better photos of my family (and I have) but I didn’t have a plan or a vision. Maybe I was just bored.
I’m not a professional but I’m not exactly an amateur
I received a BFA in photography back in the 90s but stopped using cameras in the decade after graduation. When I did use a camera it was usually large-format (4x5, 5x7, or some experimental massive self-made ones) which meant that I had to lug around a camera and a tripod. I liked the static look and Andreas Gusky and Jeff Wall were my idols.
I had also been an art critic at the Atlanta Journal Journal-Constitution, the biggest newspaper in the southeast, back in the late 90s and my beat was photography and video-art. This is all to say that, I have a decent knowledge and understanding of photography.
But I have this one memory that I return to often. It was a slide presentation by my photography professor, Phil Moody, on the first day of class. The 8 or 9 of us met in the darkroom, sitting on uncomfortable chairs, he walked us through a series of slides presented on a stained piece of matte-board. He showed off his influences; images of meaning and power. Photographs demonstrating composition, color, juxtaposition, and concept. It’s probably the moment that I reflect on the most from my entire college education. In that darkened, uncomfortable space, my teacher transferred his passion to me. The images in that one session etched into memory. The ghostly, saturated slide projections regularly reentering my life like welcome friends with challenging opinions.
I realize now that this is actually the 3rd time I’ve written about this moment in the past 2 years. My first post on Medium actually frames the rest of my unusual artistic life by comparing the equally unlikely artistic trajectory of the master of color photography, William Eggleston, and I also discussed Gary Winogrand’s vague explanation of creative flow. And there it is — a pattern if you can see it. All the artists from that presentation, Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston along with Lee Friedlander, and Helen Levitt, were so-called Street Photographers.
These artists used the camera to show the world as it was the instant that they witnessed it. They shot fast, casual, and literally from the hip. Their irregularly framed images were windows into real life, telling as much about the culture around them as they did the photographer that snapped its shutter.
A year in photos
A few weeks ago I told more of my story, with a recap of my year in writing. Now, this is a recap of a year in photos — which is significantly different. While the last article was about my sense of personal meaning, these photos review the many places I was fortunate enough to witness and the way they looked exactly when I pressed the button.
January
Just bumping around NYC and getting used to my new camera. The way the camera records color is new for me, and you can see I’m still figuring it out.
February
New York City is as cold as the cross-town wind that blows the errant Chinese New Year decorations. Commodities of the near future — orange trees and budding branches — are sold in grimy bodegas at luxury prices and I feel bad for the spoils from warmer climates that are shipped to the city for consumption.
My son and I went to Washington DC for Winter break. He’s really into airplanes so we went to the Air and Space Museum.
Back in NYC, Legos are a big thing this year for him.
I travel to Atlanta quite a lot for work and I always stay at the Atlanta Hyatt Regency (which you can also see in the Gursky photo at the top of the article).
March
The sky is a special color of blue in Long Island City, Queens. The sun wants to get warm but the sky is too cold. Lots of schoolwork and New York City is slowly being rebuilt again.
April
NYC: We moved into Manhattan and traded our relationship with the East River for Central Park and the Met. It’s springtime and the city starts to flower.
May
We visited family in Myrtle Beach.
My buddy Greg was in NYC as it started to get warm. Going to the Met at night is one of the reasons why I endure the day-to-day.
June
EYEO festival in Minneapolis, starring down at the Missippii river or out at a plane wing. I start going to libraries a lot more again.
July
South Carolina in July. I argue with my wife about keeping the windows rolled down because I like the heat that feels like a hair drier in your face.
August
We were very fortunate to go to Europe to hang with our friends in Berlin which included a visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg (you just have to go). Then we were able to spend a week outside of Toulouse in an ancient villa and think about how old Europe is. It was a dream.
We had the opportunity to go to Lourdes to witness the surreal merger of Capitalism and Catholicism.
September
Working in NYC means you are afforded luxurious views down and up at the city both apart of it and ultimately beneath it.
I had the great fortune to go to the University of Reading to Visit the Isotype Archive, then meet my friend Chirs Mullen in Brighton. His library is probably one of the great design treasures in the world.
October
I had never been to Long Island but seeing luscious apples grow so close to the sea was perplexing. New York City begins to cool and you just want to get out on the streets and walk around to see what is possible.
November
I had the great fortune to go to Japan for work and visited Kobe & Osaka. I used to say that visiting Japan was visiting the near-future but now I think it’s like visiting a parallel dimension.
December
What seems like a fast year draws to a close. I went to the Alps for less than 24 hours and then London for even less than that. Christmas was great fun and New Year's Eve is not my favorite holiday anymore, but seeing it in Central Park is still novel and the photos turned out great.
So that’s my year in photos. Maybe I’ll do this again next year and we can compare and see if I’m getting better as a photographer. It’s certainly all interesting.
