Category Archives: Archive

From the archive...I'm digging through old photos working on a book and ran across this little gem.

I sometimes forget that I lived in Iraq for a while...it seems so far away now—and to be fair it's been since 2003 since I've been there. The whole experience seems so much like a dream now...we're still there...stuff still sucks over there (how much is up for debate)...all the world has changed in a million ways. I was just milling about at work while future/present world leaders were shooting the shit. What? So strange. Above is Jalal Talabani casually talking at the (now-defunct) Bob Hope DFAC during the 2003 where the President visited for Thanksgiving (side note: his visit sort of blew everyone's mind, but it was pretty obvious...they had massive comm-tanks outside the DFAC for DAYS before he showed up).

I was curious if I could find any video of it still, and thanks to C-SPAN, I found the whole ordeal (video embedded below). If you look up near the podium, you'll see an early-20's Cary with a company hat turned backwards photographing the shenanigans with my Lomo LC-A and a Holga (and borrowed digital camera...long story). I worked for the company that built the dining facility and, for some reason, that meant I almost unfettered access to the place...so you better believe I got as close to the action as I could. If you actually watch the video, you'll notice after he's done talking that he says hello to Mr. Talibani and Ahmed Chalabi. I grabbed a couple of crappy shots of that...also below.

Shortly thereafter, then-Senator Clinton dropped by and gave myself the challenge to photograph her WHILE meeting her. Here's that shot, as well as a photo one of her aids took.

Still surreal to think about. The important part to me is that after all this time I'm still proud of the photographs I made while I was there.

I was digging around my archive over the holidays looking for potential stock images for a company and ran across these bad boys. Garrett, in the studio, back when he day-traded out of our office. I miss this man!

Please notice how amazingly ghetto the seamless is, not to mention my budget framing. So crooked. (Sort of frustrating images to look at in some ways but Garrett's face overcomes all technical problems. Sweet sweet Garrett.)

Another shot from the vault, around the same time as the last one. This is from a commercial shoot a couple of years. Looking back on it (which I do far too often, I think), I really learned a ton on that job and made a lot of work I'm proud of, most of which never saw the light of day. Makes me want to remind myself to take seriously ridiculous risks on important jobs. I'm trying to remember the last major job I shot Lomo on. Maybe I'll slip it in the bag for my next couple of jobs. We shall see.

Also, I updated the photo wall that lives at my house. I can't decide what to do when the wall is full. Maybe I'll give the prints away and start again.

And the wall as seen in the last three updates (reverse order):

This is a hallway from a building I used to live in. It was pretty much this creepy all the time. It didn't help that the place was so busted you had to break into the basement if you blew a fuse (yes, a fuse, not a break) since the sketchy-ass landlord kept all that stuff locked up and more or less refused to come out if he wasn't really close.

Jason got in touch with me about an old photo of mine from something like 2006. There is an area in Birmingham called Gate City and it is not a place I'd like to find myself after dark, or really near dark. The area is known to me as a place that is not only a set a of Projects, but one with only one way in and out. Anyway...this was nearby said projects and, in fact, it is still around today and just as impacting. So since I dug out the negative and rescanned it I figured I'd post it too.

I still have no idea what the sign is in reference to. I will never ask.

It reads (for the sake of it being text on the page instead of just an image):

WE BEG YOU WITH TEARS IN OUR EYES TO PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE