Muddy Mess

Well, the shooting began this weekend in Snyder. I started the weekend by going to the Invenergy office. Really nice people & pretty helpful as far as getting into one of these huge windmills. The downside was none of the windmills around were being worked on at the time, so i'm still lacking some action in these photos! On Saturday, I did a little exploring on my own around town and shooting a few random things I
came across. Sunday, our family friend Jack took me out onto a property where they were drilling. The 5 or so inches of snow Snyder got a few days ago has turned intoa huge muddy mess! I was a little surprised the truck we were in didnt get stuck a few times. Its dirty work out there, exactly what I was hoping to capture! I got to go to some great locations that had the potential for some cool shots, but I wasnt given much access to the work. Safety restrictions are forcing me to stay in the truck and shoot from the window so its a little tough to get the shots I want. Im working on making the connections to more access, but nothing for sure yet. Its all in the works, hopefully by my next trip out that way it will be all worked out!

recent inspirations

I've been browsing around online and in books thinking about my thesis project. As of now, I am going to work on a couple different projects and see which starts developing in the direction I am looking for.

•First, a study on the changing lifestyle in my home area, the transformation from an outdated oil community to a growing wind energy community. This will be somewhat of a continuation of my first thesis, but I will be looking for the things that have changed in the area as well as the things that remain timeless.

•Second, I will be looking into the irony of tourist attractions and family trips. I'm looking for a mix of the things that are actually interesting as well as those things that just seem ridiculous to be driving to see. I will be shooting at locations around Texas and comparing them with my own family photos from my childhood. I'm excited about this project because I will get to do some traveling myself. So, anyone interested in seeing some random sights with me? Sounds like some fun weekend trips!

With both of these ideas I want to experiment with the combination of digital prints and alternative processes(I'm hoping to work with gum bichromates). I cant wait to get some great images to work with & start experimenting!

So on to the inspirations... Surprise, most of them are traditional and documentary photographs. Garry Winogrand

Esther Bubely

Henry Wolf

These next few were feeding into my ideas of combinging processes/photos...

Mark Tardito, I believe these are found images he combined

Miranda Lichenstein