you are beauty // 

zeb/ december 27, lake ontario webster ny 

christmas has always been my favorite holiday. theres something mystical about being surrounded by the warmth of family when the other side of the window hosts a snowstorm or blizzard. this year has been a beautiful year, a year of many changes. i am so thankful for everything that has happened and so blessed to be surrounded by such caring and compassionate people. as i get older, i find it increasingly important to step back and reflect on everything thats going on because its so easy to become blinded by the habits and routine that we seem to  fall into. traveling always helps me remember. as i sit here at home in rochester right now i reflect on my life in new york city and i am moved close to tears. i am so abundantly thankful for everything - people ive met, love, places, things, sights, sounds, art, words, images - everything. i love, i love and i am so thankful.

/mitchell, february 14 syracuse ny

// memory, mark weaver

don't go far off, not even for a day
don't go far off, not even for a day, because -
beacuse - i don't know how to say it: a day is long
and i will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
i'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
will you come back? will you leave me here, dying?


//pablo neruda

9

allons! whoever you are come travel with me!

traveling with me you find what never tires.

the earth never tires,

the earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first,

Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd,

i swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.

allons! we must not stop here,

however sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient this dwelling we cannot remain here,

however shelter'd this port and however calm these waters we must not anchor here,

however welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are permitted to receive it but a little while.

// song of the open road, whitman <3

bodycollector linked to my work!

// white horse, twin peaks: fire walk within me, david lynch 1992

// zebadiah, thanksgiving 2009, stratford ct

the sky stems from your beauty

'whoever you are, i fear you are walking the walk of dreams,

i fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands,

even now your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you,

your true soul and body appear before me,

they stand forth out of affairs, out of commerce, shops, work, farms, clothes, the house, buying, selling, eating, drinking, suffering, dying.

whoever you are, now i place my hand upon you, that you be my poem,

i whisper with my lips close to your ear,

i have loved many women and men, but i love none better than you.'

// excerpt from 'to you' by walt whitman, leaves of grass

i think 

about you 

often -

and i 

often think -

and no matter

how hard 

i try 

to imagine

you

not being

able 

to imagine

how beautiful

you are,

i cannot

imagine

it.

// no matter, new york november 2009

i was interviewed by the italian blog noirpink, it can be viewed here (in italian)
thanks pier!


also, a happy 17th birthday to my brother evan

// we both laugh a lot when we are together, times at home webster ny 2008

this is really beautiful.

// letchworth state park, december 2008 & margaret, syracuse ny march 2009

hi december.

oh man, i feel so overwhelmingly blessed today.

thank you universe.

psst.. don't ever forget the beauty of the mystery.

//eva, syracuse ny may 2009 (dress by ayaka matsui)

// lafayette apple festival, fall 2009 lafayette ny

//new project beginning

if you live in the new york city area & would like to be involved in my next photography series project, please shoot me an e-mail and id be happy to tell you more! 

/erin@icanfreezetime.com

'with sight and hearing, we experience things outside of us; with taste and smell only restricted parts of us are affected. but touch we feel inside: when we encounter an object, it resists,  presses back, and thus we learn the world is composed of other bodies.  if it weren't for this, we would move through the world like phantoms. hg wells tells a story of two-dimensional beings who can't enter our world of three dimensional bodies. two-dimensional beings can only witness the spectacle of life; they can't live it.'

// from the book 'they became what they beheld'

this girl is so badass.

im having a really hard time narrowing down photos i like from this shoot, she was so beautiful.

life-changing/everything is cyclical/i am overwrought/rebirth

a man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long

at this moment to be older, or younger, or born

in any other nation, or any other time, or any other place.

they are content to be where they are, talking or not talking.

their breaths together feed someone whom we do not know.

the man sees the way his fingers move;

he sees her hands close around a book she hands to him. 

they obey a third body that they share in common.

they have promised to love that body.

age may come; parting may come; death will come!

a man and a woman sit near each other;

as they breathe they feed someone we do not know,

someone we know of,  whom we have never seen.

/the third body, by robert bly (for you + us)

i feel very lucky to have had one of my photographs awarded an 'award of excellence' in the illustration photography category by the cpoy (college photographer of the year) organization. my sincerest thanks to everyone for their kind words regarding this award.

freedom/caleb + josh,  syracuse ny spring 2009

'o time! consumer of all things; o envious age! thou dost destroy all things and devour all things with the relentless teeth of years, little by little in a slow death. helen, when she looked in her mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age, wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away. o time! consumer of all things, and o envious age! by which all things are devoured.'

/ excerpt 1163, from MORALS in the notebooks of leonardo da vinci

the fragility of innocence/ shearing festival in syracuse ny, may 2009

'but an artist must have an involvement with everything that is in front of him, whether it's a woman, a man, a cup, a dog, a string, or a tree. if an artist does not have an erotic involvement with everything that he sees, he may as well give up. to be a human being may be a very messy thing, but to be an artist is something else entirely, because art is religion, art is sex, art is society. art is everything.'

/ lucas samaras, from 'the artist observed' 1976

the crescendoing background music that starts around the 1 minute mark on this song blows me away

photographs from my parents honeymoon /may 1980, hawaii

(happy birthday mom!)

dinosaurs!

photographed in may 2008/ syracuse ny

\/ /\ \/

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// havent updated in awhile, proper updates coming shortly w/lots of new stuff in progress.

heres a preview of my shoot with kate this afternoon, brooklyn ny

perfect.

sleep sleep sleepy.

shot the band 'paper route' tonight (10/21) at the hammerstein ballroom in manhattan.

quite the crazy place.

new job starts tomorrow, i sleep now.

my friend, this body is made of camphor and gopherwood. where it goes, we follow, even into the ark. as the light comes in sideways from the west over damp spring buds and winter trash, the body comes out hesitatingly, and we are shaken, we weep, how is it we feel no one has ever loved us? this protective lamplit left hand hovering over its own shadow on the page seems more loved than we are... and when we step into a room where we expect to find someone, we do not believe our eyes, we walk all the way over the floor and feel the bed...

// 'the left hand' by robert bly, from the beautiful poetry prose book, 'this body is made of camphor and gopherwood.' whisper it shrouded in candlelight

language is a skin: i rub my language against the other. it is as if i had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. my language trembles with desire.

// roland barthes, from 'a lover’s discourse' 1977

//eva, may 2009 syracuse ny

it has never been

a matter of

mind over matter

or even matter

over mind,

but rather about

understanding

the space,

the endless expanse,

the beautiful whirlwind

within mind

and what matters.

//

so incredibly moving.

// new old work

ayaka, from underwater/rebirth, may 2009 syracuse ny

i like how time is portrayed as passing in this, my memory feels like that sometimes.

// my godchild jamie, july 2009 webster ny

// kathryn + evan, syracuse ny february 2009

distracted + found this old photograph which i rather like

(computer was out of commission most of this week, a bit behind on my editing all around)

// weekend visitor, sara october 08 brooklyn ny

/beautiful drawing by sam green

allons! the road is before us!
it is safe—i have tried it—my own feet have tried it well.

allons! be not detain’d!
let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!
let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

mon enfant! i give you my hand!
i give you my love, more precious than money,
i give you myself, before preaching or law;
will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

// preview of shoot with keeley, october 09 brooklyn

alexa// 07 october 2009 brooklyn

psst.. palpable change is coming, i can feel it.

char// november 2008, syracuse ny

// kevin, 03 october brooklyn ny

"the words were beginning to make sense. 'this is a dream,' he was saying, 'and you mustn't believe in it. you'll wake into the real world soon and laugh at yourself. he loves you, i tell you. he does, he does! but not here! not now! this is an illusion."

// excerpt from page 128 of isaac asimov's 'i, robot'

// new old work

mahala, from 'underwater/rebirth'

// jes, november 2008

/ found another of dayy naa na

see it in context here!

kill hannah/ webster hall september 23

check out their music here! (shot for paper mag)