Sometimes we spend so much time looking forward and up we forget to look down…

Remember those warm and sunny days?

Polar opposites…

Central Park 2010

If you know me you know I have a softer side….

I also have a softer side if you can believe it…

As you know I’m a pretty serious photojournalist. This genre takes up most of my time and energy. It is also important for an artist to push himself outside his comfort zone from time to time. So while I’m here in Barcelona I’m working on a series of nudes. For me collaborating with a model [...]]]>

As you know I’m a pretty serious photojournalist. This genre takes up most of my time and energy. It is also important for an artist to push himself outside his comfort zone from time to time. So while I’m here in Barcelona I’m working on a series of nudes. For me collaborating with a model who is posing is mental incredibly difficult. We also face the challenge of trying not to repeat all the cliches that have come before when it comes to the human form. This project is less about success than it is about experimentation.

I don’t photograph very much in winter, [...]]]> So last week I mentioned that I would write a little more about some of my thoughts on life and photography. Of course I promptly got distracted and didn’t post much at all. So le’ts see if I can give you a little insight into what makes me tick.

I don’t photograph very much in winter, at least not outside. There are a lot of reasons for this. First, it’s cold and while I grew up with winters like this that doesn’t mean I have to like it, no it does not. Second, it’s really cold, not so much fun when you need to use your fingers for your work.

What’s my problem with the cold? Well it goes back to my sunny childhood. I grew up in subsidized housing where the heat, what there was of it, was free. That meant winters with drafty single-paned windows that seemed to let in as much cold air as they did sunlight. Being poor meant winter was a time of boredom and deprivation. You seem to notice the hunger more when you are cold. Suddenly a hole in a pair of jeans, perhaps your only pair, means they are unusable until you can patch them.

I vividly recall my grandmother boiling enormous pots of water on the stove and leaving the oven door open so that we could get warm. Huddled in the kitchen she would tell me stories I’ve since forgotten. Winter was just another active reminder of how little we had and how unlikely that was to change. Far from fun, winter was a time to be endured and survived.

To this day I still think of the cold months this way…

For some reason I tend to shoot more vertical images with my phone’s camera.

Central Park, NYC

Every winter I forget what the warmth of the August sun feels like on my skin…