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