Belated Change Update

I changed the place of my blog to here.

And my website works now.

Thanks,

Matt

Ireland

Hey again everyone, it's been awhile since I've posted anything at all. The Ireland trip was great, and now that I'm back into the full speed of school, it's very difficult to find time to work on the photographs I made in Ireland. I'm going to try and make this post mostly just images, since I don't have a lot of time to work on it.




The Ireland trip was a photography workshop led by these two guys,

Brad Temkin and Peter Zoeller.

And the trip mates consisted of Trev and I, Mike Meyer, Aidan Fitzpatrick, Katrina Flores, and Taylor McNeely. It was awesome.

Mike was my roommate when we stayed in Glengarriff.



The days would consist of us getting up and going to photograph just after the sun came up, or in some cases, when it was on its way up.



We'd photograph a location that Brad and Peter had planned out or would base us going on the weather at the time. Then we'd make it back before 10 for breakfast with everyone.




After, we'd either get our equipment, regroup, and head out





or it would be naptime, then head out.

Then we photographed, stayed the first 2 days in Glengarriff, then stayed in Dingle, and then in Clare. Here's some pictures...
































There's many more pictures from Ireland, however I don't have time to work on them or upload them now. I hope you enjoyed these.



Thanks to Brad and Peter, and the 5 photographers that joined me to make this trip amazing.

I apologize for the brevity of the post, but I've moved on to newer work that I'm focussing on now, I'll be posting some of that and other photos and thoughts at a new blog: http://mattaustin.wordpress.com/

Take care guys,



Matt

Flight 256, 6:40pm

Peace
,

Sup

passport

so, one of the most recent troubles that i have had was dealing with my passport. i applied for it a month ago almost to the day. purchased expedited service and submitted it to the united states postal service. a few weeks go by and i call to check on it. it is still in its processing stage. ok that is acceptable it has only been like two weeks. i allow another week to go by and then it becomes the 'within 14 days of travel' period. the person i spoke to this time said that it is still in the processing stage and that they will put an 'urgent' tag on it (which means absolutely nothing) and that i should make an appointment to go the the passport office downtown. so i do that and make an appointment at 9 a.m. on august 20th. the 20th rolls around and i wake up early call the passport agency again just to see if maybe it has shipped. of course it has not and the person i talk to informs me that if i went to the passport office downtown it would be totally pointless and that i should call later on in the day because it will 'probably' ship. so i cancel. go pick up my father from the train station and we hang out for a bit. then i give them a call around 4pm central standard time and the person i talk to doesn't tell me anything new and tells me to call at midnight or in the morning because it looks like it is about to ship. so i call in the morning and the customer service rep i talk to doesn't say anything i haven't heard except to call again in a few hours. i then proceed to ask if there is anything i can do in chicago or if there is anyone that i can call to speed up this process. negative. this ends up happening for 2 more days with the exact same answer and then last night i decided that it was futile to talk to them anymore so i made another appointment with the passport agency in chicago. luckily i schedule one for the morning of the 22nd [today] in the morning. at this point i am extremely upset with all of this because if i dont have a passport i cant go to ireland. bad news. cant reschedule and nothing i purchased for the trip is refundable. including the fee for the passport i might not get. so then i wake up this morning and with one last attempt i call the passport agency and get the same exact response ive been getting. 'we promise not to promise you anything' god i love this country. after that i leave my house in somewhat of a panicked fury with my state id, social security, student id any other form of citizenship (except my birth certificate because it is M.I.A. in washington with my passport application) and my travel itinerary and march down to the federal building at 230 s dearborn in chicago IL. get there at 9:23 and i am greeted with armed guards and a metal detector. pretty standard for a state government building. i proceed through that to the elevators and begin my ascent to the 18th floor where i am then greeted [rudely] by four armed [doormen] guards treating everyone and anyone that walks by them as if they were a potential terrorist...what? for the sake of speeding things up i waited in line explained my situation to someone through 1/2 an inch of bullet proof glass. they told me to fill out another application and to get back in line. get back through the line and am then handed a numbered ticket DMV style and i am told to go sit in a seated area and to wait for my number. about 45 minutes go by and my number finally gets called, i go up to window 5 and talk to a very nice lady who informs me that all i need now are passport photos...shit, i already took care of that with my last application though. it doesn't matter we need new ones. so i run downstairs to the nearest Walgreen's get my passport photos taken run back through the metal detectors joke with the security guard about america and get back to the passport office (the lady i was with said to skip the line and just come straight back to her =]) after she processes everything she hands me a receipt that instructs me to return the the building at 330 that same day to pickup my passport. i thought to myself 'way to good to be true' so i asked if this would be for a temporary passport and she informed me with a laugh that it would be temporary for 10 years. so i leave slightly relieve but still skeptical of everything and return to the 18th floor at 330. confront the armed doormen about what to do. they take my slip and tell me to sit down. about 3o minutes later they call my name and a woman hands me a blue envelope and behold its contents are a brand new navy blue with gold text PASSPORT TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. god bless chicago. 'what the fuck?' is the only phrase that comes to my mind. the chicago passport agency did in 3 HOURS what washington d.c. couldn't do in a month...? once again 'what the fuck?'. and even further the six people that i talked to in washington told me that it was impossible to do anything about it and i would have to just sit and wait for my passport to come from them... 'what the fuck?' i am now very much in relief of this because it was the final step towards the travels to ireland...whew. in other news the fuji S3 pro rules.

as i mentioned above dad came to town this weeked.
he gets confused about the city ^^



i photographed him awkwardly talking on the phone



and seriously talking to me.



and eating like an idiot =p



and then him peacing. we had a good time.
we even killed it at the bean.



since dad was in town i decided to become a tourist.
i've never really looked at chicago from the perspective of a tourist.
but since im about to be one i figured i would try it out.



it rained a lot this week.



as casual as it gets



im not always as sneaky as i think. =D



millers pub yo.



the self



im not explaining myself



fancy



passport suprise for matt!



she was nervous about something




and he was upset about something...



i like finding these things



bean-tography



i swear it was really elvis.
he drives a black mercedes now.
i think hes mafia now too.



by the end of it this guy had me wondering what life was all about.
good thing his shirt told me step by step everything.


.end.

Irelan-ventory, Booze, and Bean.

To prolong the countdown, we now have 6 days until Ireland. Pretty exciting, the government let me know that my passport is on its way so the days of worry and pant-wetting are finally over. We still have to deal with airport film hand-checking though, we're keeping our fingers crossed.

In light of our close departure, it was obviously time for Irelan-ventory.


Trev: 107 rolls of 120 film, 38 rolls of 35mm film, 16 gigs of cf cards.
Matt: 90 rolls of 120, 45 rolls of 35mm film, 40 sheets of pack polaroid.



Central Camera made some extra bucks off of us this month.
Yikes.


I processed two rolls of slides from the Bessa, they look beautiful.

That lens is so sharp.

The crazy thing about having a rangefinder is I guess I shoot a lot more, I've had the camera for a week and I've put 19 rolls through so far.



While I was waiting for the Bessa to get here, and my other camera had broken, I went out to the suburbs to visit some friends and only had the digital. So here's what came from that fun night:









Aside from that, I decided it would probably be a good idea to show some images from a place I've spent some time at over this summer, behold...
"the Bean."

At the beginning, I thought this was a project idea waiting to happen. However, I think this might just be a fun and enjoyable experience every now and then.



I simply enjoy watching the interaction with this piece of art and how the normal self-conscious hesitations we have as people seem to disappear around this object. I'm fully aware the images easily appear condescending, however I'm looking at the situation with a plain curiosity: what makes this massive difference between the apprehension of the way people act under and around this artwork and the apprehension of the way people act when they are far away from it? I'm impressed by the artist, Anish Kapoor, and his achievement of creating a piece of work that changes the way people act. I don't think I could imagine accomplishing that with a photograph, let alone any other type of art.














I've noticed a strange amount of lone babies...


I tried uploading another abandoned baby, but there was some error...
Oh well.








That's pretty much it I guess,


See you when we get back!

-Matt

I blacked out.

The summer's ending?

WTF?

It's crazy to think that the summer is pretty much over. I feel like I blacked out when school got out, somehow worked 5 different jobs, shot 70 rolls of film, and woke up and had made enough money to get to Ireland. As long as the government doesn't rip us off, Trevor and I will be on a plane to Ireland in 17 days, seeing as they get our passports to us in the "guaranteed" time. It's weird thinking about the amount of this summer I've spent alone. It really has been a good portion of the summer, but I think it has helped with my mental/artistic mindset. I photographed, wrote, and drew all summer knowing that I was not going to be bringing it into class or a critique for approval or discussion. It didn't have to be "good" for anyone but myself, but I quickly realized that it never does, really. I plan on applying that to most everything I do with art, it's much more fun this way.

I think I'll dedicate this post as a tribute to my fallen Canon Elan7e. It fell out of my camera bag at Bennigan's, in the rain, after the Decemberists show. The back won't close anymore because the little hatch inside broke off.

Yatzik, being the handsome, yet also intillectual, man that he is, fixed the broken lens. The focussing gears on it are still tight, but it does work. I tried gaffer's taping the back of my camera together so the film wouldn't pop out, and that worked...for awhile. But at the Gold Coast art fair, I was walking around at which point 90 degree heat melted the tape off the camera and exposed the film, again.

So I got mad and bought a Voigtlander Bessa R3a with a 40mm f/1.4, haha! Don't get me wrong, it's a camera I've been eyeing for awhile, the fall of the Elan7e just gave me enough reason to go for it. It'll be here Wednesday.I'm psyched!

So I think I'm going to do a photo-recap of the summer, if you will. Will you?

Awhile back the July 4th festivities on July 3rd allowed for walking in the middle of the street all the way home due to the total chaos in the South Loop.







But we made sure to not have too much fun.
Well, all of us except maybe Trev.Trev's amount of fun-having was scaring children.

Trev's excess of fun continued on...



And then at some point, Victor and Riley made ribs.
And then discussed their rib-mastering techniques.

Some, skeptical of these techniques of rib-mastering.
The ribs were excellent!
There was nice light in our backyard that night.I'm glad Riley showed Brian how to correctly use a guitar, it's been bothering me.
Haha, and Riley (who still owes us a full bottle of lighter fluid) playing with fire made for a great ending to the night.

Then I think I worked a lot and pretty much didn't see anyone for awhile.^a student from the class I was TAing.

One day after working at the photo studio, I came out of work and everything had flooded, it was strange. I couldn't even leave the parking lot because both exits were deep in water.





So since most of this summer I was at work, I would photograph either before or after, or during, sometimes.(taken during class)

Working in the darkroom with Tucker.
What's up Steve Lang?

I walked to work a lot this summer, always with a camera.














I tried to stay clear of the train as much as possible, but had to sometimes.


A lot of the summer, I resorted to photographing while driving. Scary? Yes. But I did end up liking some of the photographs that came out of it.




(^I got out of my car for this one.)

Then at some point I quit my weekend job so it freed up some nights to go out.




Cheers!

This job stopping also allowed for a night trip out to Milwaukee with my man Tucker to drop off the work for the CoPA show.
Staying at his friends' house made me want to live in Milwaukee at some point. It was fantastic.And hilarious.

When we got back, we helped our friend Kristen with her hair styling business she's trying to start up and took some photographs for her.I could've done better, but we were pressed on time and still had fun, and I got to see my friend Sarah, too. Which was righteous.




A little later, it was my brother's birthday where we went to an Amrita show. Which was excellent, those kids are really good. Check them out if you have the time.



Then my brother had a party afterwards, which was a lot of fun.

This kid claimed his name was "Dank Man," I don't think anyone disagreed.



I hate cell phones.I've been contemplating throwing mine in the ocean when I get to Ireland.








After that, I think I've spent the majority of my free time in the darkroom, printing. Mostly with Victor.


There's more photos from the summer that were taken after the school facilities closed. I'm psyched about those, Victor let me use his Mamiya 6.It's amazing.

Oh, and I would completely agree with anyone who thinks there's too many images in this post. With that said, I'll end this immediately.



Take care of yourselves!

-Matt

Tennessee Wedding.

A little while ago I made a quick weekend trip to Tennessee with my Dad and Brother for my cousin's Wedding. It was a good trip and a good break from Chicago, which I think every Chicagoan sometimes needs. Did I just say Chicagoan? We ended up leaving to go there a little late because we made a stop at Lazo's for some dinner first. I think we ended up leaving around 9pm. My dad drove for 3 hours and asked me to drive and I told him we'd be in Tennessee when he woke up (at the time I thought I was kidding).

Then I kind of blacked out and ended up in Tennessee at 7am, it seemed like nothing. I think what kept me going was the sunrise through the fog, driving through mountains. It was a sight to see. The bummer was that there was no place you could stop that would be high enough to look over the trees. So the best view you had was on the highway, which was still alright. Sometimes you don't need a camera to fully experience things, sometimes all it takes it some energy drinks and lack of sleep to put you in the same mindset.



As if it would be some surprise, our first stop when we got to Tennessee was breakfast at the Waffle House. I still can't get over how awesome that place is. And the best part: every single restaurant is the exact same, ensuring a great full meal of waffle, eggs, bacon, and coffee for $4.50 no matter what state you're in.

After the filling meal, we did what most people probably do after eating at the Waffle House and took about a 7 hour nap. We woke up around 4pm and my dad gave me and Jeff about 45 minutes to go photograph and explore a little bit of beautiful Johnson City.






Then we went to the rehearsal dinner and after-rehearsal-dinner-after-party...where we had a great time.
^Nice shot Dad!

Then we headed back for the night and got up early for the always necessary pre-family-get-together-awkward-uncomfortable-picture time before we went to the wedding.

Who am I kidding, that time was awesome!
Dad, there is something on your lens.

We went to the wedding and I ended up photographing it because my Uncle asked me that favor. I'd post some of those but I believe they are on two cds, one in Tennessee and one in New York. After the wedding we went to this awesome house further into the country. Very relaxing.

For all the fellow nerds back in the nerdry, ^HP5+ @ 1600 in Xtol 1:1, 9.5 minutes.

Then the next morning it was time to head back home.Don't cry, Jonathan.





So then we were back on the road home, but my Dad wanted to take us to a place called the "Cumberland Gap," which from what I understood a place where you take a road up really high and then you can look out at Tennesee's mountains.


It was pretty awesome.



When I went to get my 35mm slides processed from the trip, I asked Precision to not cut, not mount, and process my slides normally. I got cut, mounted, and what looked like vomited/stepped on slides. My guess is they just knew I deep down wanted that "vintage" look.


A word to fellow travelers:


If you're desperate for food on the road and see a sign for a restaurant that says "Shoney's," and you think, "Oh well that could be kinda good, it kinda looks like a T.G.I. Friday's or a Chili's. I could go for Chili's." DO NOT STOP.

(^This image isn't edited.)

Shoney's is nothing like Chili's. My brother went with the buffet, and as a vegetarian, chose the watery mac and cheese. The rest of us went with the "American Burger," and ordered it to be prepared medium-well. Response: "We only cook it one way here."
The water was good...





Then I took some portraits of my cousin, Andrew.

And then we drove home.





And that was it.



See ya.

-Matt