All art is Identity Art.
I try to have a lighter author’s hand to empower participants to express their own identity.
Thank you!
Reverse Chronological Order (LIFO)
For the entire life of photography it has been both an index of the true, and a highly mediated experience. Ansel Adams called his darkroom manipulations “fixing god’s mistakes”. Fashion magazine covers often express heteronormative Western values and impossible fantasy bodies. In this series I attempt to twist my not-so-flexible body into the shapes found on a range of fashion magazines. I use Lightroom to dodge & burn and to adjust color & contrast. I do not use any Photoshop magic.
In this collaboration, London-based, Polish artist Lena Janczak and I share an Instagram feed. Ethereal letters. A conversation. An exchange of ideas. Of cities. Of people. Of love.
A Street Photography journal. Urban Planning savant Jane Jacobs never really loved Los Angeles. Our legendary sprawl can make it hard to find a here here. But it also creates possibilities. The LA Metro is “behind” cities like Chicago or NYC, but those cities are physically tiny compared to the vastness that is Los Angeles. By car LA is a series of drop-ins. But it’s too vast to walk all of it. With a Metro Tap Card, a pair of Nike Air Max, and a 35mm f1.8 lens, I’m exploring as much of Los Angeles as I can.
It’s small size and long, 2.35:1 (Cinemascope) aspect ratio make the Merlino Gallery unique among the 5 galleries at the Long Beach State University School of Art. Here I collect a few of the most delicious, and installation-oriented, of the 30 exhibitions/year featured at Merlino Gallery.
Above the men’s room urinals in the Long Beach State University, Student Union are 2 chalkboards that usually feature some spontaneous opinion, vernacular expression, or drawing. This semester I am photographing these chalkboards after my Monday & Wednesday office hours.
Donald Trump’s Star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame” is a touchstone. If you stand there for a few minutes you will see one person express deep contempt for our 45th president, and 21 seconds later another will express love. This signifier is as close as most people can get to expressing themselves to the 45th president. In a series of 52 weekly photography visits, I document the state of the star and whatever people happen to be doing there that day.
Collaboration with Ukrainian artist Irene Prokopets: What if the Terminator movies are actually documentaries? What if “Skynet” becomes sentient? How will it judge humankind? By all the hate speech online? In this project, Prokopets & I invite people to make short video Letters to Skynet explaining to our future AI overlords why humankind is a thing of value & beauty worth saving.
For “Pissed Off” at Tom of Finland Foundation, I made a series of automatic drawing diptychs with artists & guests at the event. For each drawing we meditated either on “Anger & Frustration” or “Joy & Human Fulfillment”.
In 2017 I became the Jane’s Walk City Organizer for Los Angeles. I led walks in New Taipei & Venice.
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