Recent acquisition

At events like the Photographica Show and Sale, I like to spend my time flipping through the old photos, searching for something that catches my attention. Being a history fan and gender studies person, I have the start of a nice collection of effeminate men, strong ladies, and possible non-hetero relationships. Of course there’s no way to really know the stories of the people in the photos, and my interest in them is all based on my own speculation. I’m constantly searching for myself in history, and this has become a fun little hobby of mine.

Here’s one of my most recent (favorite) finds.

Photographer unknown.

Night Walk #1

I was feeling sort of down and uninspired last night, so I took my new camera out for some high-ISO hand-held night photography on a long walk around my neighborhood.  It was a nice way to clear my head and keep practicing the act of looking and deciding.  Here is some of what I shot:

Photographica Scores

These are some of the cool photos I bought at the last Photographica a little over a week ago.  I love them all!

First to Fifty 2009

Yesterday marked the start of a little competition Steph and I dreamed up called “First to Fifty.”  We’ve challenged each other to see who can submit to 50 legitimate calls to entry first (juried competitions, online publications, calls for proposals, grants, residencies, etc)—- winning or losing doesn’t matter; it’s simply the process of applying that counts.  We figure that it will be just the motivation we need to get ourselves out there and it makes the whole process a little less overwhelming.  The winner gets bragging rights and the loser must take the winner out for drinks.  We both finished off our first day with some pretty comprehensive Excel spreadsheets (see my color-coded one below behind which Steph was working) and the initial tally is Caleb 4, Steph 0.  Submitting to things takes a lot of work!

Here are our awesome thermometer graphics to help you visualize our progress.  We’ll keep everyone updated as things develop and will post official updates every month until a winner is announced.

If anyone has any good places for us to submit our work, pass along the info and we’ll add it to our lists!

Moving On

I didn’t think it would be hard to leave my job at BC, but today on my last day I was hit with a strange feeling of sadness and loss.  I know I am moving on to better opportunities, but it feels weird to know you will never do the thing you had grown accustomed to doing again, at least not in the same space or for the same people.  That sounds silly when I type it out.

But the good news is, I am now the Interim Programs Coordinator for the Photographic Resource Center!  If you don’t know about the PRC, you’re really missing out because this is one amazing organization.  I’m excited about the challenge of new work and about working for a place whose mission I truly believe in.

And unrelatedly, I love this section from the book I’m currently reading:

“What is declared obvious and ‘natural’ rarely is so.  Recognition of this should teach us to think that the world is more flexible than it seems, for the established views have frequently emerged not through a process of faultless reasoning, but through centuries of intellectual muddle.  There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are.”  — Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy

New online magazine features my work

A big thank you to Andrew Turner at Reportage Photography Online for featuring my series on Ana and Julio’s family. From the site:

Reportage Photography Online Magazine aims to bring you the very best photography and writing from photojournalists’ working around the world.

The Reportage site showcases great work, submitted by talented photographers working in diverse fields, giving established and emerging photographers an opportunity to publish their projects to a dedicated and passionate audience.

I meant to post this back when I was the first feature and on the front page, but I’ve been so busy I actually forgot. Now there’s additional content that you can also check out. Visit www.reportage.co.uk/.