Garden Motif

Me, 2026 with my garden strawberries

Dad, 2022 with his garden tomato, from our last photo shoot together.

One of those shoots it’s gonna be the last. I knew it, I know it now. Death speaks its inevitability acrossthroughbetweenwithin and from aliveness. Can’t help but photograph the mundane, can’t help but let ideas be wild and alive.

I asked my arthritic father to lay face down on the grass like a kid, like a subject, like an actor in the way I saw him, like a return, like a prophecy, ground bound, a ghost. And now I write from his absence.

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Film Notes

Film Strawberry: Kodak Gold 200 medium format film box rated, no push | Tomato: Portra 160 medium format film

Backdrop: Ultraviolet Backdrops “World Forest” muslin backdrop.

Camera: Strawberry: Pentax 645n with a 75 mm lens | Tomato: Bronica 645

Film Lab, Developing and Scanning: The Find Lab in Salt Lake City

Lemme See with Roma at Home

Home as a creative place with Roma.

Sitting in the overgrowth of fennel, of Pioneer Day heat I agreed when she said, “I needed this.”

For all the digital pollution, content fatigue and ease of the smart phone dopamine seeking strobe-scroll affect of our time: photography is still special and rare.

To create images on film, let alone the black and white expired film used last summer, points to the ineffable, the transient, the chance. Film has boundaries. No, you don’t know what’s going to happen here. No, there’s not enough light for that. Yes, you have 16 frames on a roll. Yes, you’ll have a week to wait, anticipate, forget, and worry while the lab develops and scans your roll.

For all our trying and scheming and light metering chance gets in, creativity thrives in the parameters of its limitation, and how it all works (and doesn’t) is a mystery we don’t have language for. The images I can’t wait to see aren’t what they were in my head for, the pictures we thought

Film notes:

Just 2 film stocks here: Kodak Gold 200 and Expired Delta 3200 shot on the Pentax 645n through a 75 mm lens.
Film developed and scanned by The Find Lab

Rafael San Juan's Primavera in Havana, Cuba

To purchase prints of these images click HERE

I was obsessed with her, craning my neck as we flew by her. This is “Primavera” by Raphael San Juan. It’s 26’ tall and was made of reclaimed found metal as a tribute to the sensuality and strength of Cuban women.

Film Notes:

During my first 2022 visit to Havana with Jon Canlas and The Film School Road Trip Matthew and I shot a lot of film. Having shot digital images almost exclusively whilst being intrigued and intimidated by film, our trip offered a deep dive into film. 3 days of shooting in the rich visual landscape of Havana and Vinales along with Jon’s break-neck shooting pace offered an opportunity in an inspiring, stimulating set and setting to experiment with film, settings, cameras, lenses, etc.

In post-processing I realized my Bronica had a focusing problem leading to many many near-misses where in-camera I’d seen sharp, beautifully composed images. Painful learning costs are the way and actually give these fresh, sharp, beauties of this sculpture a BINGO precious feel.

Film: Kodak Gold box rated pushed 1 stop in developing

Development & scanning: Standard Scans via The Find Lab on the Noritsu scanner