WORLD

Quick trip to New York last week that was jammed packed with meetings and friends.
I woke up this day thinking about how much can happen in a day. How the city is so full of possibilities. Then this was the view from one of my meetings. Awe inspiring.

FIANNA

It's been three years since my mom died and I'm still figuring out how to be a whole person. In those three years I met someone, fell in love, fell out of love with photography, fell hard back in love with it, got pregnant and had a son. All without my mother.

She was beautiful as all mothers are. Mine had an earthy grace and it always seemed that everyone had a crush on her. Her friends ran the gamut from hippie environmentalists to CEO's, from senators  to her favorite people of all,  gardeners. She was a storm of knowledge and was always in motion while still being at ease. I joked that if she ever had a spare five minutes she would paint the basement.  She made everywhere we lived beautiful.  She took the hard edges off of everything.

She was strong and powerful and yet feminine at the same time. I remember her speaking to my small business class in junior high and being horrified that I could see boys staring at her legs. But when she starting speaking that all stopped - everyone listened.

Not that she didn't have flaws. She would hide out emotionally and was totally insane when it came to her love life. She loved big and selfishly and maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.  When I was in my twenties I came to her and aired my grievances about the things in my childhood that were suddenly not sitting right. She listened to what I had to say, and then she told me what was happening in HER life during those times, and that she did the best that she could. No apologies, which as it turned out was what I wanted. I think we don't long for apologies as much as explanations.

To say we were close wouldn't describe our relationship. I have three sisters and a brother and they were all close to her. I think she needed my older sister more than anyone. Our relationship was more about a deep mutual recognition. I'd often pick up the phone to call her to find her already on the line. She was my sounding board and I was hers. She was my biggest fan.

I quickly realized when she died how much I needed her to get through even one day. It felt as though I'd actually let part of my brain atrophy because she was always there with the answers. I felt lost without her perspective. Now I talk to my man, my father, my siblings, my friends. I miss her voice but welcome the others.


 Its been three years. three huge years. and I'm finally learning how to be me without her.

WILLIAM TURNBULL

Close friends of one of my closest friends made this about his father the sculptor and painter Wiliam Turnbull. Narrated by Jude Law. Come check it out! 

LAST WEEK

A Place In The Sun: Picturing California

California dreaming in a group show featuring Los Angeles photographers

by Wendy Dembo in Culture on 22 April 2011   

The American Dream is familiar enough territory, but what of the allure of the West? The group show "A Place in the Sun: Picturing California" highlights Los Angeles photographers, some native and others transplants, who explore the Caliifornia dream.

 

Images cast a collective portrait of the Golden State as a place where promises are alternately fulfilled, deferred and denied—a vision that's not too far off from the reality of the U.S. What defines the work of these talents (among them Sam Comen, Emily Shur, Alex Tehrani, Katrina Dickson, J. Wesley Brownand Chad Ress) ;is a shared distinct sensibility. Their approach lies in the beauty and awkwardness of trying to feel at home in a vast region founded on prosperity— not to mention the photographers' commercial gigs.

"Here in L.A., at the locus of the entertainment industry, crisp lighting and saturated colors elevate celebrities to icons," Comen explains. "It's in this context that I apply those same photographic motifs to everyday people in the environments that define them, holding them up, casting them as lead characters."

Comen shares a fascination many artists feel about their personal stomping grounds. "Though I love making work afar in the field, I'm endlessly interested in my hometown of L.A., and feel like this city holds a lifetime of stories for me to tell through pictures."

The show opens today and runs through 6 May 2011 at Hi-Lite Studio and Project Space.

**Due to scheduling conflicts the show will only run through this Friday.

THANKS TO EVERYBODY THAT CAME AND MADE IT SUCH AN INCREDIBLE EVENT!

DAD

My Dad is coming to visit tomorrow. He is the reason I became a photographer. I remember sitting in the darkroom with him when I was a kid and watching all the images appear as if by magic. My job was to stand on the pedal that turned the red light on. Very important stuff. I'm in a show this weekend so I'm excited he's going to be here and we can go together. 

Above are images I found recently. When my sister was about a month old, my dad and mother took a month long road trip in their convertible. They just put her in a basket on the floor by my mothers feet. 

That  kind rocks. 

OLD SCHOOL AT GRAND CENTRAL MARKET

Growing up in Reno, I use to love the old motel signs. A lot them are being  replaced by big casinos but you can still see them here and there. The motels were nondescript but the SIGNS. that's where the personality was. Grand Central Market downtown signs brought me back.

 I'd go just for the signs, but there are also amazing colors, smells and faces, not to mention the siete mares soup.

Man About Town starring Kilian Martin | Autumn/Winter 2010

This is so beautiful. Fred Astaire on a skateboard.