Introduction

Hello all! My name is Caleb and I love making art.

I graduated from NESOP in June with a hazy plan: do whatever odd assortment of work I could to make money (hopefully most of that work would be related to photography in some way) and keep making art, both for Interim and new projects. I wanted to take this summer and spend it trying new things to further figure out what I like, what makes me feel good and proud and full. I’ve also been trying to enter contests, apply for grants, and do all the things a good little emerging artist is supposed to do to jumpstart his career. So far, here is a selection of the things I’ve been doing, even the things that aren’t cool or helpful to my art career:

- started interning for the Photographic Resource Center— fortunately this is both cool and helpful to my art career. I was a TA for the Second Sight program and had the pleasure of working with 14 and 15-year-olds on weekly photo projects. I’m now working with younger children at the PRC’s Summer Photo Camp and after that will be doing more traditional intern stuff for them leading up to their Annual Auction.
- shot a college graduation, which was challenging and made me question whether I wanted to continue to shoot event work
- then shot at an eye clinic, which turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience that including shooting children undergoing eye-related therapies
- started training to be a wedding DJ (why? I have no idea); started talking about also doing videography and second-shooting for this person
- have been doing web work and post-production for a portrait photographer who both values my work for her as well as encourages me to continue making art
- have been talking to a photo rep who believes in me, lets me shoot in her rubber corset and her daughter’s clothes, and hooks me up with meetings with gallery owners and curators and other fantastic people. I bake for her and assist her when she goes to show her photographers’ portfolios at agencies. She’s also a super nice and super fun person. It’s a beautiful symbiotic relationship.
- in August I’ll start working for NESOP (both in the digital lab and the stock room) and TAing a class there
- I have a solo show or two in the works, as well as a feature in a museum’s online gallery coming this fall — more details to follow.

Where do I go from here? I have no idea, but I do know I’m willing to try just about anything and will need to keep pushing myself to work hard and take risks and put myself out there. That’s part of what this blog is about for me. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.