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Personal Growth

30. It’s a number you thought to be so far in the future when you were 12 or even 21. “I will have met my prince and travel to far lands by the time I’m 30.”

When people turn 30 they have this retrospective moment. What am I doing? Who have I become? Where will I be going? How did I not accomplish these childhood dreams? The way your life is, isn’t the way you thought it would be when you imagined it as a youngster.

I’ve recently turned 30 and realized it’s not about what I had imagined life would be like for me. It’s about what my life is and how I treat if from a daily, weekly and yearly prospective through experiences, moments and goals. It’s about living each moment and creating experiences. In other words personal growth and leaving your mark.

You do this by creating experiences and sharing the stories. Treating each day as a journey to your next goal and helping others to do the same. This is how you create a legacy. And in the end what life is, is what you created and how you touched others. Being more aware of life as it’s passing.

Recently I just stumbled across Jonathan Harris’s film, Today. He started a project just for this reason. To be more in the moment. To have more memories. To live more richly. Everyday for a full year he took a picture to tell a story about his life and his day. It’s one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a long time. Please this is worth eight minutes and 32 seconds of your day. He expressed brilliantly the feeling most of us go through during phases of our lives.

Thank you Jonathan.

 


Schmap!! Minneapolis

Schmap is a digital travel guide for 200 destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The technology of Schmap Guides lets users: share trip itineraries, place reviews, and is conveniently available as a widget. This website syndicating more than 6 million maps a month with: content and event schedules for travel, sports and concert tours, to a fast-growing network of websites and blogs.

Technology has made this world much closer, making travelers more informed and safer then ever before. I have recently had one of my photos published on Schmap. While gazing from my desk in the Mill City Museum and I was able to capture the awe of an October snowstorm. Thanks Schamp for alwaying me to share, for more images, please view my flickr account.


Blu Dot Catalog

In 2007, Minneapolis based furniture company Blu Dot was looking to perform a face-lift on their catalog design. The result was a narrative, allowing the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions, relying heavily on photography. They also saw a niche, seldom do you see people interacting with the furniture, making the styling seem unrealistic. Blu Dot’s mantra to the new catalog was: be fun, and slightly irreverent; there needed to be a life to it; it’s supposed to make you smile.

To do so they hired a fashion photographer to shoot furniture, Dan Monick. Dan Monick was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. He graduated from Hampshire College with a BA in photography. For several years thereafter, he toured the country as drummer for various low rent rock bands, a lifestyle that afforded him plenty of opportunity to cultivate his love for something out of nothing philosophy. He now lives in Los Angeles and works as a photographer.

His work has been featured in numerous publications including Paper, Dwell, XXL, Rolling Stone, The Journal, Spin, Arkitip, Fader, and Vice. He also has a line of t-shirts produced by Blood Is The New Black.

Dan Monick truly made the catalog and shoot come to life. I was lucky enough to be a part of the 2007 photo—shoot and also making it to the 2009 catalog. It was an amazing experience to work with Blu Dot staff as well as Dan Monick. Dan would be able to have these amazing stream-of-consciousness, creating narratives for the models in order to extract the expression or mood  he wanted. Which, in turn made the furniture poses Blu Dot’s wanted narrative.


Love How, What, Where You Want

When styling your responsible for visually tell the story.

My goal on the ROBOTlove shoot was to make the photographs look as though there wasn’t a stylist involved, to portray familiarity to the consumers – a day in the life. The concept was to glimpse at where ROBOTlove adds just a little “LOVE” to your life.

There was little set design, it more about finding locations and using props on-hand to get the desired impression. We didn’t want anything too contrived. We wanted the consumer to envision their personal spaces not the one we are presenting.

The real secret to this shoot was the mastery of color, composition, style and design. In the ads, for instance, the focus should be on the text and logo, letting the atmosphere amplify the message.


Everything’s All Right

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Not only is “Tout Va Bien” a mantra of mine it’s a brilliant movie. I’m selling these tote bags for $25. – all proceeds go to  student loans. Please contact me if you are interested.

The one color screen print has modern approach to a 70’s fashion aesthetic on an organic cotton tote. They are perfect for going to the market, library, and beach.


Desprately Seeking

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This is a collection of typography found in my everyday life.
Type is all around us: signs, signage, hand-lettered signs, and anything that communicates to you. Some of it is decaying to where it barely communicates, others unintentionally, and most of them beautiful to me. I tried to capture images of signs and type that are even meant for our subconscious. Found type are like instructions to the way we exist, communicate and navigate in out daily life.


Cut Throat

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I made this with two things in mind – the economic times and Sagmeister’s text on the body. We are all trying to make it happen within this period of restraint. In these times I reflect back to the freedom of my childhood and rejoice on the simple pleasures.


Creating Context

On a recent trip to Wisconsin, I stopped at M. Schettl Sales Inc. to experience the affects of pop culture in an alternate context.  Two completely separate worlds: nature and pop culture brought together to form an alternative vision of secondhand materials.

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Thank you to Progressive Media for introducing me to this wonderland.