In late October, Christina (my wife) and I were driving through the worn down mountains and coal towns of southern Pennsylvania, and it hit me that just a few miles back, we’d passed through a perfect metaphor for the year: Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. It was almost foreign from our perspective, a little rough around the edges, and – being only 15 miles wide at the point we drove through – passed by in the blink of an eye.
Black and white, blurry, grainy images have been on my mind for the past year. The imperfection of it makes it feel like action is happening, and the camera just barely caught it. Perfection is overrated.
Janelle King is a staple of all things Wichita. President of the Douglas Design District, owner of The Workroom, and one of the pioneers of reigniting civic pride here where the rivers meet. Photographing her for VIP Wichita Magazine was an honor – getting to know her while doing so is why I love my work.
Whenever someone asks me about the cover of this month’s VIP Wichita Magazine, I have to be honest with them: I take very little credit for how well it turned out.
This Friday, September 29 from 6-9 p.m., my personal project “Shapes” will be shown at Vanya Designs at 520 S. Commerce!
I’ve been working on this project since 2012 and have created 5846 images for it in the process. It’s evolved over these past 5 years, sometimes slowly, and sometimes all at once. See the Artist Statement below for more info on how the project came to be. Huge thank you to Alicia at Vanya Designs for hosting my work, and to DJ Carbon for providing the backbeat for the opening!