Friday, March 20, 2009

sunday, 22 february: eddie

oh, hey, look how that works out! happy birthday eddie and fingers crossed on your news of the day...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

wednesday, 20 february: bobbin

there are heavy hints as to what i'm doing today in these photos....


Friday, March 13, 2009

life's short

wednesday, 18 february 2009 first tattoo
it was his first tattoo. his girlfriend sat by for support. he didn't flinch. i'm happy not to be a man who feels he shouldn't flinch when in pain. scratch that--if i were a man, i'd still flinch. it doesn't really matter that i can't remember his name, he simply represents the excitement, nerves and awkward energy you feel when you get your first tattoo.


we pick up marks as we move through life. some are imposed by others: our names. some are imposed by fate, some by ourselves. each tells a story, serves to remind us of our circumstances, our desires, our visions of ourselves, our accomplishments, our struggles, and sometimes our accidents, as in the case of scars. sometimes we bare our scars as badges of courage. maybe something appears to have been an accident, but for whatever reason, we put ourselves in the position to carry that scar away, and we are reminded of it. so, lucho, to you, i say: life's short, don't worry too much about the permanence of ink versus our fickle natures. you make a decision to ski down that hill, you live with the scar. you make the decision to get inked and you will definitely change from the person who sat and cringed in pain, but no matter the transformation, there will be a part of your skin not shed that is elementally you. as it should be. tattoo.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

at the chat n chew

tuesday, 17 february 2009 kathleen


you know, i spend so much time bitching about how difficult it is to maintain friendships within the fast stream of new york life, and then i go and tell you about mieke and haley and these lovely people who often defy the conventions of this crazy town. for this, kathleen takes the cake. she tirelessly calls me on a whim, "kitty, i have an hour in union square, are you just getting out of class?" 80% of the time--no, more--i'm working or something, but sometimes it's, why yes, i am! and for this reason, and thanks to kathleen, our friendship trumps the statistics and we're able to meet up casually and often. well, often for me. kathleen is as sweet as the new york city day is long. we are never without conversation. the first we hung out (had met at work on her first day), i only noticed as i walked home that the sun was rising! it's good stuff.

now, the particular "problem" i have when photographing kathleen is that she is not only an actor, but she is also married to a stellar headshot photographer, and so, in most every photo she is absolutely camera perfect, headshot perfect. she knows how to pose, she knows how to look perfect. which is why the above is my favorite, because finally i caught her looking like the kathleen that i usually see....


i took some other, perfect photos of her on valentines day, but i decided to save her for later when i saw the 'mystery girl' shot i already shared with you.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

connotations

monday, 16 february 2009, apache
it could be said about me that i am not a 'grab shooter'. if something amazing is going on that should be photographed, you can be sure i'll miss it. i'm just not fast or comfortable enough to be ready to get a good photo. this has presented itself as a challenge throughout this project, especially when i am photographing strangers, or even people i know who are not super familiar to me. i tend to be internally flustered, and unable to get a good capture given the brief window of time i'm generally dealing with here. i'm working on it. below, evidence. really good subject matter squandered on crappy snapshots. apache is all about connotations to me. there is no dog burdened with more negative connotations than the pit bull. not being of the uber-dog loving persuasion in the first place, and being raised with mini-dogs, apache makes me nervous. this is unfortunate for apache because apache loves me. he wants me to pet him, he wants to drink out of my water bottle, he wants to be near me. slowly, he's winning me over.
apache's papa is of the same nature. fearsome, overbuff and sweet. the first time i met the boss he was tattooing apache's owner, who happens to train the boss at the gym. he has dispelled the preconceived notions which accompany his appearance, swinging by the shop to say hello, discuss improvements to his apartment, and the special diet he keeps apache on because of his allergies. it's just like sesame street around here. getting to know the dark figures emerging from the alley.

Monday, March 9, 2009

STILL sister

sunday, 15 february 2009 haleythey say you can't choose your family. i have been lucky enough to forge true friendships with my two sisters--we're all so different that perhaps we never would have met within a group of strangers. yet we share something very special.

additionally, you can't choose your "in-laws", even though you usually choose your partner. luckily for me, the partner i chose has an adorably sweet little brother who i've adopted as my own puppy, and he chose my dear haley.

so to review: you can't choose your family. you can choose your partner. but you can't choose your partners family or the partners they choose. so you're lucky if you like them. wow, i'm truly on the road to philosophy, no?

born from all of these limitations is my friendship with haley. she has become my little sister in the most organic, non-forced way--through preparing for a quick wedding, through sharing stories and rolling our eyes at our turkish brothers, through enduring conflicts from crazy people, through fallling asleep on each other's couches (okay, so that's mostly my habit). all of this, i appreciate.

today she is 25. just a little kitten. and what a fine model!

the title to this post is an inside joke. i apologize for publishing inside jokes. they are annoying. but that's the power of an inside joke. it takes over.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

kinda like noon thirty?

i never tire of laughing at this sign. no one else seems to think 7:30 o'clock is nearly as funny as i do. it's a sophisticated world up here in my sense of humor.....

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

totally safe driving

but who could resist the juxtaposition of such lovely landmarks and reflections?

for those non-new yorkers of you, behold the flatiron building ahead, and the reflection of the empire state building on the right of the car ahead of me. click to enlarge. it's betta.

Monday, March 2, 2009

snow day

in case you're wondering what's going on around here...

this morning emre dragged himself out of bed after a couple of snoozes. monday morning. my iphone told me that the entire school was shut down due to the snow. i got to break the news to emre who yelped with pleasure. but what about me, who is working from home? where's my snow day? wah.