This is my dear from Roscoe, who is a painter, dad, chef, and generally wonderful human being. This is him touching up a painting that is part of a commissioned series for an upcoming record by The Green Seed. The only point to this post is to recognize his excellence, if only in a small way.
Birmingham's own Will Lochamy
I recently made some portraits of Will Lochamy, whom I feel like is connected to basically everything that happens in Birmingham. Appropriately, he's got a new column in Birmingham Magazine in which he weighs in what's going right and going wrong in town.
Anyway, here's my favorite from our time together.
Ray Isle for Food & Wine
Back in the April issue of Food & Wine I made some photos of Ray Isle, their executive wine editor, for an article about shopping for wine. This is an outtake of him but the article in print had really fun illustrations from the incredibly talented Graham Roumieu (whom I know his series of Bigfoot books). Do check out the story.
Thanks to Mackenzie for the assignment and Winslow for the art direction!
James Beard awards for Highlands Bar and Grill AND Dolester Miles!
Outstanding! After nine consecutive near-misses, Highlands Bar and Grill has finally won the James Beard award for Outstanding Restaurant! As an incredible bonus, Pastry chef Dolester Miles also won for Outstanding Pastry Chef. I've photographed Frank and Pardis Stitt over the years and have always been impressed with not only Highlands, but Bottega and Chez Fon Fon.
Congratulations to the whole crew at Highlands!
Above is Chef Stitt in a portrait I made for Billy Reid, and below is a portrait of Dolester Miles recently made for the restaurant.
John Archibald wins the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
John Archibald of the Birmingham News / al.com has won the 2018 Pulitzer Price for Commentary. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to work with him and his family several times over the years.
Congratulations John!
Snake eat snake (eat bird) world
In the Spring issue of Audubon Magazine you'll find a story about how the Eastern Indigo snake is being reintroduced throughout its native habitat after all but disappearing back in the 50s. I had the pleasure of accompanying Dr. David Steen to long leaf pine forests in Alabama and Florida to document the work being done with these snakes. In the Apalachicola National Forest of Florida, we also spent time with graduate student Sara Piccolomini who tracks Indigos which have been surgically implanted with a small radio transmitter.
You may be wondering why a bird-focused magazine is talking about snakes and the answer is pretty straight forward—these snakes eat other snakes which in turn eat birds.
I encourage you to see the whole story online (which I've excerpted below) for a much better explanation.
David Steen slams the brakes of his black Chevy, bringing the truck to an abrupt stop on a sandy road in the Conecuh National Forest in southern Alabama. “That’s an indigo!” he says before throwing the truck into park, flinging the door open, and running out into the dappled November sunlight in hot pursuit of his quarry.
Dr. Steen identifying the snake by its passive transmitter.
Sara using a radio tracker to find snakes equipped with radio trackers.
The tracking system is very simple, which also means it's not exactly precise. We ended up tracking one Indigo down into a ravine and all the way back up the other side. It hadn't moved, there was just no way to pinpoint the location. This is Sara at the bottom of the ravine, on the search.
If you look closely, you can see the scar leftover from the radio transmitter surgery.
David and Sara place the snake is bag to they can weigh it.
Dale's Seasoning
I had the chance to work with Dale's at the start of the year and realized I hadn't shared anything yet. Check out their site for these recipes and more!
Camping redux
Stephanie and I have really taken to camping since our friends Ashley and Sam taught us the basics a couple of years ago, and a couple of weeks ago we had the chance to revisit Cheaha with them. It was a weird day but beautiful. The day that started with us waking up in a cloud also included a flash thunderstorm, five minutes of perfect weather followed by being in a cloud again, and ended with a trek to Pulpit Rock for the sunset.
While at Pulpit Rock we met another photographer up there photographing the area with his family. I couldn't not photograph him making photos. Poptpops are second nature at this point.
I also couldn't help but shoot him shooting Sam on Pulpit Rock.
Alabama Sawyer
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.
Avary Lanier
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
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.
Winslow + ollie - skateboard
Recent outtake of Winslow.
Robby Melvin of the Time Inc test kitchens
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.
Doug Jones wins Alabama Senate seat
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
Women Who Shape The State 2017
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
Making tintypes in the field, behind the scenes a bit
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.
Eclipse revisisted
Widelux shot from the eclipse in Nashville. This is a few minutes before totality.
Cumberland River Compact
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.
Turkeytown outtake
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 in Moulton, Ala.
Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio, Moulton, Ala.