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

'free' time.

well, it has been a while. |long| . i almost feel like I'm not apart of this anymore. but I've been swamped with working and haven't had the 'free' time. which now means time that is not devoted to doing something for someone else. it's crazy. but it is for a good cause. as is already apparent all of this struggling is for a week and a half long photographic workshop around southern Ireland. in my eyes it is worth it. anyway. i had found some 'free' time to edit some of the massive amount of scans that i have just sitting, waiting, in hopes to reconnect myself with this again.

these kids were getting yelled at for riding their scooter under the bean

hm

i don't even know.

of course. a portrait of matt.

lake forest IL, we woke up at 4:30 and photographed the beach at sunrise. one of the most peaceful things i've done in a long time.

lake forest IL

lake forest IL

lake forest IL

lake forest IL

lake forest IL

my bathroom in the morning.

.chiara.

.matt.

Victor and i driving to devils lake WI

julia and i reflecting [haha] on the devils lake trip

gotcha!

more reflecting.

moving day for mom.

moving day. L to R mom, dustin, ruby.

brother .miles.

van packed up.

.scott.

abandoned.

i'll be back with more soon. i promise. this is just a start to what ive been photographing this summer.

Plans for new travels.

Thankfully, we're going to be able to pay for the Ireland trip after all. Which means we'll be flying out August 23 or 24th and returning from Ireland September 2nd.


Other than that, only a few minor updates.

1. Our next door neighbor's apartment is getting gutted and revamped. The workers doing the destruction have been throwing the large pieces of wood and concrete out the window, across this sidewalk (where people walk by) and into one of those big metal dump containers (most of the time, missing their target.)
Our plan is to hide in the alley on the side of our house, and when a 2x4 is thrown out the window, dive into its line of path and not move until the ambulance delivers us to the hospital and some lawyers deliver us a lot of money. What do you think?

2. We're driving to Milwaukee tonight to drop off mine and Nadine Reinke's pieces for the CoPA exhibition tomorrow morning. We're going to stay with Tucker Schwinn's parents or friends or something. It should be a nice "breather" from the Chicago atmosphere.
(Jessica and Tucker)

I found some photos from awhile back that I never did anything with, so I decided to throw some of those in here for the hell of it. It seems like so long ago, but it was only the first week after school got out. Granted, I was in a different home with not really any job, and now I'm in a new apartment with many more jobs. A different place in my mind I believe, too.







Some random portraits...
Brian.

Brad.

Chiara.

Hilary and Mike.

A couple weeks ago or a month ago, or some point before I lost track of all time. At some point in my life, I went to Lake Forest with Brian, Trev, and Victor where we photographed the sunrise. I have a lot of 35mm shots from this that I know I scanned, yet they're not on my computer. So here's what I do have from that short adventure.

A good opportunity for a "Kodak moment"?


And album-cover-looking pictures?




(Victor)

(Victor and Trev)

(Balloon in the bushes)

(Sunrise through a barrel)

I wanted to update all my photos I've taken of the people at "Cloud Gate," yet I just realized that would double this post. So I'm going to save it for another time.



So until then, take good care.



I almost forgot,


Happy Birthday baby bro!

Happy Birthday Uncle Sam!

Wow, I didn't get anything for Uncle Sam on his birthday this year, but crazy enough, he got me something!

Man, I REALLY appreciate it!
I wonder if that seems like a good thing to start off a 4th of July for most enforcement officers. 8:36 in the morning on the 4th, anyone update their stickers on their plates in the past 3 days? Nope! TICKET TIME! My roommates said basically the whole block was ticketed. Happy Independence Day!

Why don't we move on then...

Lately, due to the work schedule taking over my life, I've been limited to a certain degree with photography. In order to photograph, I basically need to be bringing a camera to work and home from work and then to another job, and back from that, etc., which allows for time only in between non-photograph-able situations. I think it sounds bad, but I'm learning to deal with it and care less about the outcome of an image (which I am enjoying). I was talking with my friend Victor last night about giving people what they want when you photograph, and he put it as "sometimes I'll give them what they want and keep what I want for me." He was speaking in terms of printing style, however I think it can be applied in both situations. And lately, due to the limiting time to photograph, I barely have time to make that decision of constructing something likeable for someone else, and the image ends up being really only a quick decision for my own eye. I guess I'm training myself to care less about the image and photograph more or less on instinct and interest. It may not result in anything beneficial besides a self-satisfying image, but I'm okay with that. It's fun. Victor's been doing something of the same recently with his polaroids, take some time to check them out, they're glorious. He refers to them as "just breathing," an accurate description, I think. I feel like this is a way of learning or practicing for the more serious things I'll do later on. I'm just photographing in different situations now, to use what I learn from them to make a more cohesive, formulated body of work in the future.

To save two dollars for the train, and get exercise?.. Trevor and I have been walking to school a lot lately which proves to be a prime time for easygoing photography.

^Nice posture!

The evening skies this summer have been fastastic.^Someone left their shirt at Lake Michigan.

Arriving at work at the studio.
On the way home from the studio.

A visit with my dad and brother in the suburbs, I think we were talking about money."Whatever, dad."

Caitlin at Pizza Hut (TMax3200 expiring in 1998 = not really 3200 speed film and very thin negatives.)

Elise on the table in the darkroom.

Girls making plans to go to Europe. On the bus, going to Victor's.

Trev figuring out how to use Windows XP, Mac OSX, and Linux on the same laptop.

John next to the window at his cousin's birthday party.

Rachel in the grass.

Gina in the mirror.

Me in the elevator.

Happy 4th!

Oh hey!

I guess it's been a full month without posting. It seems longer than that. So I guess I'll take this time to explain what I've been up to in that time. I'm working a lot to hopefully make it to Europe by the end of the summer. I'm pretty positive I'll have no trouble making it to Ireland for the workshop with Brad Temkin, however I'm doing my best to save up so me and Trev can travel from Vienna, to Prague, to Paris, to London, to Dublin, to Shannon and make it in time for the workshop. That's the part that's difficult right now, but 5 jobs are working their way toward it. So that sums up the past month basically. Working.

Haha Trev and I have been assisting Anna Shteynshleyger and she took a test portrait of us for one of her shots:

Probably one of the best photos of us ever taken, and kind of looks like a Wedding or Christmas Party invitation we would make.

Although the new schedule has given me really limited time to get personal work done, it's given me a lot of time to think about my work. Also, being without a view camera has forced me to fall back in love with my Mamiya, which I've been using as much as I can. Hand-holding it doesn't seem as ridiculous as it used to. I'm actually starting to really enjoy photographing with the tank that way. Here's some new ones, I'll hopefully get some time to update more when I scan more this week.


I think I went on a little black and white portrait binge for awhile. Neopan 400 @ 1600 in xtol, what do you think? Kind of strange tones in my opinion.

This one from the same roll ^.


Then I tried some Acros 100 in xtol, and overprocessed it a bit by mistake, but..I like:




A couple weeks ago my friend Kristen from New York and my friend Kristy from Freeport came back for a few days, it was good to see them again.




I think I've come to the conclusion that I like Kodak 160NC more than 160ProS, a big step for me. So long, friend...



I've also been attempting a form of street photography with my Mamiya, a little difficult with it's weight and needing to lock the mirror up, but I'm getting quicker. Here are a few, I'm pretty sure all shot on HP5+ at 1600 in xtol.


You can see me in there if you look real close^.




This one's from awhile ago though.
And then there's some color.



I've also been trying to figure out how to get this "Bean" project going. I tried bringing this mamiya street style to "the Bean" to see what I could do with it.




In other surprising news, two pieces of mine were accepted into the CoPA Exhibition in Milwaukee.

It's from July 27th-August 31st at Walker's Point Center for the Arts. It'd be awesome if you could make it out. The opening is on the 27th from 4-9pm. Take care guys!