Occupy Boston.

I decided to go to Occupy Boston today out of a curiosity of what the group was really doing, and a desire to document it. I'm glad I went. After being a little upset to see how the press photographers were treating the group I decided to take a little more human approach and show the people themselves instead of random snaps of peoples signs taken with a 200mm lens.





This is Maria. She is an RN and one of the people responsible for caring for the citizens of the tent city set up outside the Federal Reserve building. She is going through a divorce right now, and was staying at Occupy to help foster change and because it was a positive thing for her to do.




Her feet had a ton of blisters, she had to go barefoot. On her hospital discharge papers it said "do not attend occupy boston for 3-4 days". She didn't follow orders.




Below are some of the portraits I took throughout the day.














And now candids and sign pictures:



Obviously needed one establishing shot with the mask and the location.

Examining Darkness.

I've been driving around exploring the post-industrial wasteland at night and briefly stopping to brace my camera on the doorsill.

I think I now know what I am doing.

So I've decided what I'm doing with all this black and white "grit" business...


An experiment in classical reportage aesthetic (with a personal twist) before I go abroad. This will become a personal book cut and spliced in with images from students and professors working in Traina when I'm done with it. I already have nearly 300 frames shot in Traina center on a mixture of film and digital, and should hopefully have enough visual range in the images to find ones that I can pair effectively with these Worcester photographs. I'm exploring the contrasts I see in the city and the emotions I have about them versus how I feel about my immediate enviroment in the sheltered University. This is a contrast that I deal with often, especially immediately after returning to Worcester from San Diego. I hope to explore this discomfort and juxtaposition to gain a better understanding of it through photo-bookmaking before I travel for all of next semester. The selection will be eclectic; this idea is too young for me to edit it down yet, and I feel that the work will organically take shape over the next few weeks.


Maywood Street. Clark University. Worcester, MA.




Main Street. Worcester, MA.




Intersection of Florence Street and Downing Street. Worcester, MA.




Florence Street Playground. Worcester, MA.

New project?

I am currently deciding if I want to do a short "gritty" project here in Worcester (possibly focusing on occupied vs. unoccupied buildings?) before the semesters end. I was out shooting yesterday and was drawn to the grit of the city, which I think I may focus in on for the rest of my time here.

For the rest of my time here I am adopting a "documentary" reportage aesthetic and will be shooting to serve that style, with my own twist on it.

Concord Farm.

This is a building a found off the freeway on the way to West Concord;









Once I was in Concord, I saw this home that just particularly struck me while I was filling up my car with gas:

Snow Macro.

I went out and shot some macro photos after the storm that explored the differences in color between the bright folliage and the white snow or slick slush it had come to rest on. They are below: