grandpa

came across another photo...


this is my grandfather. he moved from korea to florida to live with an uncle after my grandmother passed away. he passed away last month on october 14th. this was a visit i made b/c i felt like i needed to document him before he died. i don't really know what i accomplished photographically, but i'm thankful for the time i was there. with him, it's really less about the conversation, but more about being around him. the things i'd remember about him were really quirky - like sneaking candy and actifed into his pockets and keeping a stash in his room, breaking out into old korean folk songs in the car, and the ability to fall asleep anywhere (which i gladly inherited from him).

he lived a pretty extraordinary life. this is the obituary my mom wrote.

Hyun-Joon Shin

1915 – 2007

General Hyun-Joon Shin, age 92, of Niceville, Fla., passed away on October 14, 2007. After his beloved wife passed away in September 2001 he spent the last six years of his life under the loving care of his son and daughter-in-law. *edited*

General Shin was the founder and first Commandant of the Korean Marine Corps and served his country for 25 years leading the Korean Marine Corps before, during and after the Korean War. After retiring from the military, he dedicated 15 years to the Korean Foreign Service, serving his last post as the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Vatican.

General Shin is survived by two sons, four daughters and fourteen grandchildren. *edited*

General Shin will be flown to South Korea for a state funeral and burial at the National Cemetery in Daejeon, South Korea, together with the ashes of his beloved wife.

a photojournalist's scrap book

so, for many reasons, i'm digging through old hard drives and dvds and feeling pretty productive today as things have somewhat slowed down with work.

it's funny, i was thinking...
on average most photojournalists must meet about 10,000 new people a year. you can trust this number. it was a very scientific calculation :)

i think i told a friend a while back that i couldn't have chosen a more rewarding profession to start out with for many reasons - being invited into people's lives, the great responsibilities of storytelling, and one personal reason: overcoming a natural shyness. although, i have to admit, the shyness didn't really develop until after middle school. i think two years at wagner was a life-scarring enough experience that took some time to recover from. i distinctly remember walking right into a gang war behind our school, being tackled and shoved onto icy sidewalks, getting mugged, having a steel door kicked into my head.....oh the memories...

anyway, looking through your photographic work is kind of what it's like to look through a scrap book for most people. they're memories of places, people, experiences, stories. i think these photos were a bit more introspective for me. i remembered things going through my mind, the mistakes i made, seeing myself in my mind's eye...if that makes any sense. some of these pictures were part of my application into grad school.






speaking of grad school, i know a few of you will remember stan alost's design class. i think most of us lost about 2 years of our natural lives (a la "the machine" in the princess bride) with the amount of sleep deprivation we experienced. i remember obsessing over picas, kerning, and font sizes trying to replicate a hartford courant page word for word, element for element. i remember flipping through pages, "where's the grid???" "this paper doesn't run on a grid!!!"....despite it all, a few of us were convinced we wanted to be designers.


promotional poster

telescope tri-fold

with the given text and diagrams, our assignment was to fit all the information on the page as a brochure in a logical format...oh the sleeplessness

the magazine class

yummy

rodney smith had a pretty stunning cover on the nyt magazine today. i'm still fawning over it...

porkers

i know. i could have worked this better...i was trying to channel rubenstein.

a new site & a new book

another one of my favorite photographers has started a new site.

the raw file

i had the pleasure of meeting brenda kenneally and her son (who she said she'd take on assignments, which sounded like an amazing experience for a young person) at poy two years ago, and was just blown away. not by her photos, i mean, her photos blew me away before i ever met her. but she gave such an impassioned talk about the people she documented and i was so inspired.

i feel like people become photographers for such a diverse amount of reasons. even photojournalists have such a different idea of what they do for a living, and the purpose of what they do. brenda's really a sociologist, or anthropologist - she really gets into the implications of the "why," and what leads to a culture of perpetuity. her tool just isn't a pen or keyboard. she's an extremely gifted and brilliant visual communicator. she reminded me a lot of an old professor i had at nyu who i traveled with to mexico for a "global sweatshop" seminar and i eventually ended up going back with an ngo. it was such a fascinating study of globalization, seeing it with my own eyes, the effects of change, and how quickly lives are changed....sadly this was all pre-photography.

anyhow, it's not surprising that she's launching an idea like this. it really goes with the core of what she does.

also, as i had mentioned jessica dimmock a few posts back, i found out through aphotoaday that she's selling a book on her work the ninth floor.

random bloggings

just some personal stuff over the last two weeks...

went to a boston magazine release party and ran into paula lerner and channing

with my new rock-star-boston-photo-friend diana (i think she's chimping here)

"she's driving me outta my mind...that girl is poison..."
bev's karaoke birthday party in a chinese restaurant in concord

it was awesome

sorry pup, i know how you feel. i hated it when they'd leave me behind with the windows open. at least you're sitting in a nicer car than me...

project east, an asian designer charity fashion show put on by three harvard students

it was really impressive

i93

i proposed "getting lit" and chillaxing with the photographers that worked on the style 25 issue. we went to saccos bowl haven but not everyone could make it.

we still got lit

i was the biggest dork, but it felt like OU all over again

no photo-fun is complete without polaroids

my writer-partner in crime celebrated a birthday with two others

the wall...during a long phone conversation with the parents.
i photographed an architect a short while ago who lived in this amazing house with the most beautiful and intricate subtleties. he described light as the art on his walls. it was alive and moved every moment, decorating his home. it was actually quite beautiful.

corey came to town to have a picture made for his new website. we were supposed to be working on our websites and photos, but he's currently mixing an audio CD for me. i don't think he ever touched his photos and he claims he'll work on it later tonight. dork. :)

oh, the upper east side

this had me laughing out loud and a little wistful.

i literally could have written the first part of this article myself.

from her feelings about the neighborhood, to even some of the same exact streets we've inhabited. this woman could have been my neighbor...although i was just a boy.

it's nice to know there are others who can relate, although the city just continues to be such a different place everytime i go back.

including samuel

as if this man needs any intro....




channing and i headed up to concord (3 times in 2 weeks for me!) to see the premiere of dan habib's documentary including samuel.

for those of you who know me, you know that this man is my hero. he's hands down the best boss i've ever had. energetic, enthusiastic, positive, motivating, incredibly organized, and just so compassionate. little did i know just how much this man juggles in his life (and you'd be shocked after seeing how much he juggles at work!) before i started seeing some rough drafts of this movie.

dan really gives you an intimate look into the life of his family and the life of samuel who has cerebral palsy. he also documents to lives of others with disabilities and the ongoing struggle of inclusion. it asks a lot of questions and gives a really fair account of what is working and what isn't. it was amazing to see some of the people in the documentary come up on stage afterward (almost like celebrities!).

i highly recommend you check the movie out. oh, and if there was ever a doubt, i implore you to apply for an internship at the concord monitor. they take 3 a year, and in my opinion, is one of the best overall newspapers in the country. i've never felt so much purpose in my life reaching an audience of 20-60,000 than when i interned at the monitor. dan makes all the difference.

i've got more to blog but i've been having an exhausting week and i'm dragging...just wanted to help get the word out (not that dan needs it).

photo rush

i wish photographer's sites had rss feeds.

that way i could know when photographers like carolyn drake update her site.


her work is so captivating to me. it's some of the most soulful, and i hate to use the word "poetic," composing i've ever laid eyes on. whenever i look at her work, i just stare for hours. lost in the world she is taking me through. for me, her work is the core of the visual journey, making her one of my favorite essayists today. and just think at one point at OU you had carolyn drake, michael brown, mark mirko, bruce strong, ariana lindquist, jody sugrue, krisanne johnson, david lee, landon nordeman, and probably more amazing photographers that i'm missing, ALL at the same time in the same place in the same year span of two years (some 1st and 2nd years). wow. i'd be so intimidated to take classes with them.

anyhow, kind of side note, but somehow jessica dimmock comes to mind when i think about carolyn drake's work. it's not the style, but i think it's the feeling i get. it's so visceral and raw. it also makes me really miss film and grain.

got style?

the 25 most stylish bostonians

lots of scheduling and planning, but the most fun i've had in a while. dina, wiggs, and essdras rocked it under the leadership of our fearless leader features picture editor mr. lane turner.

check it