Last month I got the first copies of my photo book. It would not exist without kickstarter, and for that I am very grateful. It all began when I put some 20 year old mall pictures on-line. They went viral so I quickly threw together a kickstarter to make a book. I kept it simple, just using a music video...
Banksy is an artist of some acclaim. Yet this morning on the radio I heard the New York mag art critic dismiss his work completely stating that it’s “so obvious”. The metallic tones of classism rolled off his tongue like silver dollars sliding into a gilded slot machine. The truth is, I don’t particularly love Banksy’s work, but to argue...
I don’t particularly like nature photography. Even as a kid, when I looked through National Geographic I flipped past the pictures of rhinos and elephants and marveled at the people who lived in huts, villages, and cities. I grew up in a Bucolic setting but escaped to New York City as soon as I was able. For the past two...
I went for a walk in the meadow with my kids today. They did not go willingly. It is difficult to convince them to do almost anything, but once they got out there they had a good time. My older daughter brought her lomo camera with a fish eye lens. It was interesting for me to view the meadow through...
Over the last 3 months I have walked in the meadow behind my house almost daily. I usually go in the early morning or the late afternoon, mostly because of the light. Today I went a little bit late, after the sun had set for the most part. After having been in the city for nearly 30 years it's interesting...
We recently moved from Brooklyn, where I have been frantically photographing people for the last year, to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I have less opportunities to photograph people. We moved to take a breather from the energy and intensity of the big city, and to focus on finishing some films. However, even though we have moved to a secluded...
I read an article today about a UK study concerning rumination, or self-blame, and its relationship to anxiety and depression. While I think we all understand that depressed and anxious people tend to ruminate on the problems in their lives, I don't think that we usually consider that this kind of circular thinking might be causative. The study states; "We found that people who...
whirlpool take 2 from rumur on Vimeo.******* see note below **** I am like my daughter, or she is like me, in that I am less inclined to want to learn how to do things from others. Instead I want to figure it out for myself. Sometimes this is a good thing, because I can develop unique ways of looking...
The greatest conundrum for me in regards to coming to the understanding that stress (a very broad definition of stress) plays a profoundly more important role in our health than the vast majority of doctors (and thereby patients) acknowledge, is that armed with this knowledge I am still struggling mightily to get over my own problems with stress induced pain....
Yesterday I wrote a piece about stress and illness. In this article I focused on the role that stress plays in all areas of health. When my mother read it she astutely responded, “Some issues I would want to discuss -- the need to be careful not to go so far to one side that the complexity of mind-body gets...
For years we have been working on a film about the connection between stress and pain. Recently it has expanded to include the connection between stress and overall health. While the film is about the science of healthcare, it’s also about social science - how ideas move through the world - and it’s about framing. When a carpenter looks at...