I've had the pleasure to share working space with Alabama Sawyer for the last year or so and they make some beautiful work with wood that, without them, would likely end up as waste. Wonderfully character-rich, old trees turned into all manner of furniture.
Anyway, I while back I grabbed a few shots of them working around the shop.
I've also had the chance to document their work along the way, which you can see at their site.
I've been going non-stop since basically November and I've managed to fit in a lot in that time. Plenty of work stuff, some holiday stuff (including a trip to Japan, which I'm eager to share work from soon), and we slipped in a few tintypes, too.
Just before the holidays, Jared and I made a series of commissioned tintypes, including portraits of the family of Bruce Lanier. From those portraits comes this image of his daughter Avary.
I still haven't figured out why I'm so drawn to this portrait. Obviously her hair and freckles and jacket are perfect, but there's something in her eyeballs or presence that makes this one of my favorite portraits we have made (as part of Gusdugger).
Happy New Year from Japan. We have been visiting our friend / beek Jillian in Japan over the holidays, but I wanted to make a post to start the new year out right.
I recently photographed Birmingham's new Mayor, Randall Woodfin, and am excited about the shots, and further excited about the promise he brings to our city.
See ya later, 2017.
Recent outtake of Winslow.
A while back I had the chance to hang with Robby Melvin for a while and watch him work at the Time Inc test kitchens for THOM Magazine (Fall/Winter 2017 Issue). I tend to see him either out in the community making food or at Seasick Records where he's tracking down another great record, so it was fun to see him in his element testing a bunch of recipes. Here are some of the photographs from my time with Robby.
Hell of a day here in Alabama. Last night Doug Jones was elected to the US Senate as the first Democrat to represent us in 25 years. It seemed like such an obvious choice for me, but the race was a nail-biter nonetheless. I'm proud of the voter turnout and excited to see what he's able to do in Washington.
Michele Kong
I had the distinct pleasure to photograph the honorees of Birmingham Magazine's Women Who Shape The State this year. Do visit the story online to see all the remarkable work these women are doing.
Tanveer Patel
Amanda Keller
Kathy V. Lovell
Whitney Wright
Rebecca Kelly
Dorothy McDaniel
Catherine Coleman Flowers
Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith
Carol Madry Bell
Ginger Harper
Liz Huntley
I took my Widelux out on one of our shooting days for Where You Come From Is Gone and finally go around to scanning the film. All of these photos are at locations near Socapatoy, Alabama.
Widelux shot from the eclipse in Nashville. This is a few minutes before totality.
Every time I run across this photo I am reminded of how much I love it and how much I enjoy shooting at waist-level. Gotta get my Rollei fixed (though this was shot on an RZ). At the Cumberland River Compact in February of 2008 for Regions Bank. Art direction by Marion Powers and Mandy Meredith.
This is an outtake from Where You Come From Is Gone, a body of work Jared and I made as part of our collaborative tintype project called Gusdugger. This plate was shot in Cherokee County, Alabama at the former site of Turkeytown, which was one of the most important Cherokee cities in our region circa 250 years ago. The project focuses on sites of Native American habitation and removal in Alabama and there is much more information at the project page.
Site of Turkeytown, Cherokee County, Alabama, 2017
Established some time prior to 1770, Turkeytown was one of the most important Cherokee cities in the region. Following his victory over the Muscogee Creek, General Andrew Jackson visited his Cherokee allies at Turkeytown in 1816 for a Council of the Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw to negotiate boundaries and ratify a peace treaty as Alabama opened to white settlers. At the council the Cherokee ceded a large portion of their ancestral lands in north-central Alabama to the US government and agreed to the building of roads throughout their domain, including construction of the Alabama Road over the ancient hunting and trading paths that once ran east to Rome, Georgia. Soon after the treaty the Eastern Woodland native Americans were forced west on the Trail of Tears.
Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio, Moulton, Ala.
(My favorite part of this one is the pop up flash on the kid's camera)
There's something about Pictures of People Taking Pictures of People that still gets me every time. While we were camping at Mt Cheaha, I couldn't help but grab a few when we took a stroll down to Bald Rock.
The view of the vista on their phone in this selfie is probably the best view they got the whole time they were there. They stayed on the phone the whole time, which boggles my mind.
John Dolan and Holger Thoss, men who have helped shape the way I think about making photographs and my work in general. Love these guys.
Not pictured is Philippe Cheng, who also was a huge influencer of my brainwaves.
Happy to call them friends. This photo is about a year ago at John and Michele's home in upstate New York. I was there (with my wife and sister) to talk shop and talk to John about the wet plate collodion process and Holger happened to come by (at this point I forget why). So glad to see them both.
Man, Mt. Cheaha is just a magical place. Steph and I went camping last weekend, along with my sister and Steph's parents, and had an incredible time. Campfire cooking, time outdoors, beautiful everything, s'more-making, swimming hole visiting. Must do it again soon. Also, can't wait to get my film back.
Human (mostly) wind break, so I could actually cook on the propane stove. The campfire itself proved very helpful with some of the meals.
Nicole brought, among other delicious meats, Benton's Bacon. I'm drooling just thinking about it.
We met a pup called Benihana at the swimming hole.
We had to do some investigating for an air mattress hole and the whole thing was hilarious to watch.
Nosferatu meets S'mores.
Last night was Jones Valley Teaching Farm's Twilight Supper was last night and, per usual, it was a blast. I'm looking forward to going through the images but thought I'd put up a couple while it's fresh on my mind.
Stephanie and I, along with Winslow and Jill (in from Japan) made the trek up to Nashville with a million other idiots to watch the eclipse. We had cloud cover during totality but the experience was still incredible. I'm eager to get my film back from the day.
We gathered with a couple of hundred people at an airfield. Here, at the very beginning of totality, two artists pause while painting to take in the moment.
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