Sukachi liquor store

In a liquor and food store converted from an old trailer in Sukachi village, Ukraine, employees restock shelves in the evening, as seen through the trailer windows.

I've been on a shooting-through-windows kick recently. Partly I've been playing with layering, and partly it gets dark so damn early now (sunset about 3:45 pm) that much of my street photography has been in the night.

Or maybe it says something deep about my feelings of being an outsider, peering in from the outside.

Centre Dovira

If you read Ukrainian, you can read a nice little blurb about my After Chernobyl project on the homepage of the Centre Dovira in Ivankiv, Ukraine: http://ivankiv.cspr.info/

If you, like me, don't read Ukrainian, here it is in translation.

Hope

Hope, 2008.

I am feeling a lot of hope for the future this past week. Since I'm currently free from the constraints of shooting news stories, I've been pushing myself to make some more metaphorical images. Photos that capture an idea rather than a literal truth. So I went looking for some photos to express my newfound optimism.

I seldom bother to shoot from a moving vehicle. The rate of success is too low to make it feel worthwhile. On this morning, however, the fog was so dense and mysterious that I was coaxed into pulling out my camera. When we stopped beside a dirt road in the middle of nowhere I was ready.

What, you want a real caption? Okay, fine: A passenger disembarks from a bus on the road from Kyiv to Slavutich, Ukraine, as seen out the bus window on a foggy fall morning.

Slavutich

Slavutich is the new city built in Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident to house evacuees from the abandoned Exclusion Zone. Today nearly 4,000 of the 25,000 inhabitants still work at Chernobyl, commuting on 3 special electric trains that depart early each morning and get home after dark. In the evening, the workers walk home from the train station past the main supermarket in town.

benefit show tomorrow

For those of you in Wisconsin who missed my show last summer, you have another chance, tomorrow starting at 7 p.m. I'm supporting a benefit for FOCCUS (Friends of Chernobyl Centers, US), and my photos will be on display and on sale.


Thursday October 30, 2008
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Oakwood Village West, in the Village Inn
6205 Mineral Point Road - Madison, Wisconsin

There is a cover charge, but if you want to go as my guest, send me an email.

The evening will also include a short film about Chernobyl by Irene Zabytko and some Ukrainian musicians. More details about FOCCUS here.

earthquake in Kyrgyzstan

In light of yesterday's earthquake in Kyrgyzstan, I thought I'd post a photo from the region.

An earthquake in the Tien Shan mountains of southern Kyrgyzstan leveled the village of Nura and killed at least 70 residents on October 5, 2008. In this file photo from nearby, Kyrgyz horsemen herd cattle in a remote valley below 9,400-foot Kyzyl-Bel pass, along the road linking Naryn to the Chinese border at Torugart pass.

It's really a remarkably remote region. I'm not surprised they've had a hard time getting in and getting the injured out.

Ben and Abha's wedding

Their big fat Gujarati wedding.


I don't shoot a lot of weddings, but I always enjoy it when I do. Abha Thakkar and Ben Schumaker were married at Paradise Park, a lovely wooded site in Cottage Grove, Wis., with a massive crowd of friends and family in attendance.

1,000 travelers

Mike Osborn, traveling from Charleston, SC, to Denver, had just met Soni Haag, traveling from Orlando to Milwaukee, at a bar in the O'Hare airport.

I recently returned from a trip to NYC to meet with photo editors and book publishers. On my way home I started playing with a project I've often imagined but never had time to pursue.

I want to photograph 1,000 travelers. Eventually. Not sure where the project will end up, but it makes for an interesting self-assignment while I'm sitting in airports.

This need not be a solo project. If other photographers want to join me, let me know.

Name: Dan (surname withheld)
Origin: Budapest, Hungary
Destination: Denver, Colorado
Dan was calling his wife just after getting off his international flight.

Name: (names withheld)
Origin: Washington, DC (Dulles)
Destination: Kalamazoo, Michigan

Name: Stuffed Monkey and Ken Soliva
Origin: Zurich, Switzerland
Destination: Madison, Wisconsin

Name: Fred Deiter
Origin: Phoenix, Arizona
Destination: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Name: Thomas Hall
Origin: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Destination: Billings, Montana

Name: Catalina (surname withheld)
Origin: Rome, Italy
Destination: San Antonio, Texas
Thomas and Catalina had not met until I took their picture.

Name: Machaela Brassell and Travis Whitlow
Origin: Brussels, Belgium
Destination: Nashville, Tennessee
Machaela and Travis were returning from a 3 week People to People exchange program.


Name: 1-year-old girl and her father (names withheld)
Origin: Richmond, Virginia
Destination: Austin, Texas

Name: Chris Ly and his son Full Ly, age 11
Origin: Saigon, Vietnam
Destination: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Chris and his two sons had been traveling for 22 hours and had missed their last connecting flight.

Name: Nicole Skovgard
Origin: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Destination: Columbus, Ohio

burying the lede

I've been accused of burying the big news in my last post. It is true. I failed to broadly announce my news. So here it is:

I am happy to have received a Fulbright fellowship. I will spend 10 months in Ukraine, photographing around Chernobyl and interviewing Chernobyl survivors. We will leave Madison in late August and I'll be in Kyiv starting mid-September.

You can read more about my After the Nukes project here and see photos from last year here.

seeing the wide wide (very wide) world

360 degree panorama of a waterfront house on Lake Koshkonong.

360 degree panorama of a dining room and kitchen in Madison.

Lately I've been shooting some architectural panoramas such as these. These photos are made from 12 separate wide-angle photos pieced together. I've been shooting panos for a long time, but I've always done them freehand. The images were so laborious to stitch together in Photoshop that I shot more of them than I ever finished. This year I bought a pano head for my tripod from Kaidan including their very cool QuickTilt Leveler, and software which makes the stitching very easy. Look for more panos coming soon.

You can see a virtual tour of the above houses here and here.

These real estate jobs don't pay much but it's good experience -- I plan to shoot a lot more of this type of panorama when I go back to Chernobyl in the fall.

expecting

Danielle Berman and Mike Horgan are expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks.

I am totally honored when people invite me into their homes to witness and document a piece of their lives. Sharing this intimacy and trying to capture it visually is one of my favorite parts of being a photographer.


But of course, as a father who watched one pregnancy progress, I can say that I'd be in no rush to spend all day walking around carrying a big old bowling ball in my belly.

After Chernobyl: exhibit and events

Photo Exhibit
June 12 to July 8, 2008
Fireside Gallery, Bethel Lutheran Church
312 Wisconsin Avenue, Madison

Opening Reception
June 22, 10 am to 12 pm
Fireside Gallery, Bethel Lutheran Church
312 Wisconsin Avenue, Madison
Meet the photographer and visiting Ukrainian delegation.

Chernobyl Town Meeting
June 27, 7:30 pm
UW Lowell Hall, 610 Langdon Street
Hear from a panel of Ukrainian experts
working in the contaminated zones.

Photo Exhibit
July 9 to August 6, 2008
UW Health Sciences Learning Center atrium
750 Highland Avenue, Madison

Exhibit Sponsors
FOCCUS, Open World Program,
Madison Arts Commission, CREECA

See more Chernobyl photos.
Read more about the project.

Leap of faith

To celebrate the end of the semester in early May, UW-Madison students living in the Lakeshore dorms jump in the chilly waters of Lake Mendota.

And eight seconds later...

they come running for their towels.

(Client: UW Division of Housing)

one man's museum

(that old collage try)

Zebra Dog Studios creates “miniature museums” and other three-dimensional exhibits that blend branding, marketing and history. Founder Mark Schmitz, Zebra Dog's top dog, stands in his office in downtown Madison, which is like a one-man museum filled with decades of graphic design materials he’s collected.

When I was doing this portrait of Mark Schmitz, I knew I wanted the photo to be about his office as much as him. This man's passion is taking small personal histories and reproducing them large. His office speaks volumes about his own history.

I've loved doing photocollages ever since I was introduced to David Hockney's work. But they are so labor-intensive to assemble that I've shot many more than I've ever had time to finish. I recently bought a pan head for my tripod and some specialized stitching software, so maybe you'll see more of them soon.

I shot this for today's Wisconsin State Journal story.

Good news can't wait

Don't congratulate me yet, because nothing is definite. But I can't keep my big fingers off the keyboard. I want to share this tentative good news:

Last night, the Madison Arts Commission approved an arts grant for me and FOCCUS. We applied for funding to do a show of my Chernobyl photos this summer. The exhibit will run June-July at the UW Health Sciences Learning Center and July-August at Bethel Lutheran Church.

However, the city council has to approve all the grants before they are definite.

In other news, I have been notified that I am a finalist for a Fulbright fellowship. If I get it, the Fulbright will fund me to go back to Chernobyl for a year, to continue my After the Nukes documentary project.

I expect to have final notice about both grants in May.