Since I last posted a couple of things have happened. Most excitingly, I earned a nice pair of bachelor's degrees.
One in Computer Science, and one in German. Of course, "Hello, World!" is the traditional output of the first program, and I believe it's a simple way of saying hello to a new beginning. That doesn't mean an end to photography, just the addition of other facets of my life.
You don't get to be a renaissance man by keeping to one field.

    December to July is much too long to go without updating anything on my website, and I am right ashamed of myself.
    Well, what have I been doing you ask? Schooling, Gardening, Traveling, Reading (Did you know every plant native to Australia is a member of the eucalyptus family? (The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (It's really good))).
    I've been photographing plenty too. I've been to Berlin, and Virginia, and even had work in two shows so far this year. If any of that sounds remotely interesting I would love to dive into it, but until then I would simply like to offer a photographic smorgasbord of my recent exploits....

    I have a bad habit of stumbling over my words. The other day I attempted to sum up my feelings about photography. I started talking about just one of the facets of photography I appreciate, the ability to find beauty in the everyday. (It's important to note I love a simple and succinct summation, and will try to put things into as few words as possible (not as much as I love parentheses and alliteration of course. I also love the literary spikes that show where an entire essay could start from, ( A nod to other ideas while accepting that they will need to wait))).

    I Simplified away all the other facets of photography, and then concluded that without beauty in everyday life we would all just kill ourselves. Upon finishing that sentence I realized I completely disagreed with whatever the hell I had just said.
Ever have moments like that? When the train of thought leaves the station without a known destination?  That's not where I wanted to end up at all. What this told me is that I haven't given the subject enough thought.

    I do believe that beauty in the everyday makes like more meaningful, and more worth living, but I don't think the absence of it would negate the point of life. I can't dive into every facet of photography today, since I'll never finish writing this, but I do want to think about sight. As a necessary trait for survival, and as an overwhelming sense it is easy to take for granted, but I truly do cherish it.

    Vision is the most dominant sense for almost everyone (with some really amazing exceptions,  for a good time look up "people using echo location"). Vision is so powerful it even follows us into out sleep. (I don't know about you, but I don't dream much in scent, taste, or touch). It is so universal that it is easy to forget.
It's just like this joke. There are these two goldfish hanging out.
The first goldfish looks to the other and asks "How's the water today?" to which the second goldfish replies "What the heck is water?"
When something is so constant, it is easy to forget about.
But like most people, I had to realize what I was missing before I appreciated what I had (Humans are kind of dumb that way). I did not realize how much I loved simply looking until I got my first pair of glasses.(Another example is breathing. I once had a terrible asthma attack sent me to the hospital. I remember not being able to walk to the bathroom without being completely winded. I mean sit down and take 5 minutes to catch my breath kind of winded. Since then I sometimes take time just to enjoy breathing).

    I got my first pair of glasses in the 4th grade. Oval frames, with turtle shell coloring on the ear pieces.  I remember wearing them in the car and seeing the twigs and leaves up in the canopies flying by. Every little thing was incredible, not because I couldn't see it before, but because now I could see it from further away than 5 feet. Because suddenly I could sit still, and the entire world around me was real and in focus. The world was so sharp and defined I couldn’t help but look and look and look.

For anyone with really good vision, having bad vision is not like being blind, it's just like looking at an out of focus photo (which in my opinion are not really worth looking at). But it wasn't just trees and morning dew on grass that I was missing. I was missing was faces. (I was a pretty shy child, so I wasn't so inclined to get super close to people's faces). Can you imagine not being able to see faces? Sure I could tell if someone had a head on their shoulders, but the true image of that person eluded me. Plus, How much of communication is body language, and how much of feeling comes from seeing facial expressions? (a lot). Poor vision was robbing me of so much more than I knew.

     When I got my glasses, suddenly everyone had a face. I could look around the classroom and see what people were feeling. I could see the confusion and furrowed brow of someone trying to understand math  (It was a few years ago that I got new lenses and looked around my calculus class to see these kinds of faces. In fifth grade I was a little preoccupied with day dreaming. I remember my daydreams completely over powering my actual vision, which only returned when I would get called on by my teacher)).

    The more I have gotten the ability to see, the more I have found there is worth looking at. It makes vision hard to take for granted. And that's what photography is to me. It is vision, not just by  working with similar properties as the eyes, but by extending the universe of things we have to see. It is a way to not only cherish our vision, but a way to share it.

-Matthew

Printing your photos is one of those  things we don't do enough of any more. It's definitely not as convenient as an LCD, the "hour" in 1 hour photo is more of an estimate, and by my estimates it would costs a few pretty pennies  to print all my photos, but sometimes it is oh so worth it. I couldn't do this earlier, as I don't have the time, energy, or table space to deal with 9000 photos. But 350, clocking in at about 3.8%, seemed a bit more manageable. When I held and flipped through these photos, I felt like I was rediscovering them.
I think this has given my workflow a new edge. It is easier to reorganize, and experiment when they are physical objects sitting on the table. It becomes a puzzle instead of an eye burning experience.

After sorting things in a few different ways, I began to see how certain themes were stacking up (stacks are a necessary part of most sorting processes), and what I might really want to run with.
Work, Poverty, Public Transportation, People with Pets, Tourists, People crossing streets, Daily facts of life, Architecture, Fishing, Arguments. These are all things that have had their own stack at one point or another. Of course a lot of my photos moved between more than a few different piles.
The human spirit and human experience is deeply ingrained in this series. (This is giving me some title ideas. I'll share when I'm sure they don't sound too silly) There are hardly any photos that don't bear the finger print of civilization (which would have been a great challenge and awesome idea now that I think about it).
But due to the broad spectrum of life, it is still difficult to wrap everything into one neat bundle.
I suppose if Rome had been a place with less variety I probably wouldn't have wanted to go there in the first place.

Hopefully I'll make some more order out of this soon.

-Matthew

First, I would like to apologize from my absence. I do find it necessary, although selfish, to take a break from my photos after taking them. I find that a second, more objective look helps me edit and focus. There is also an interesting act of comparing my memory of photos to what they actually look like.  I spent the mean time in the garden, which I quite enjoyed. I guess I'm not that sorry after all. Oh well.

I considered a number of themes while planning and taking my Roman photos.
I thought about focusing on Water, a vital element of life and Rome. I wanted to do a "portrait of Rome" which I imagined would involve more of the physical makeup of Rome, rather than the people (Now I think the opposite is a much better idea). There was even a time, while feeling the absence of my significant other, when I considered un-romanticizing  Rome.  When asked why I responded exasperatedly with "Because I'm stuck here in Rome for five weeks without my girlfriend." My photography professor calmly asked if I realized that I had just said "Stuck in Rome?" Those repeated words were a wake up call. I was being selfish with my emotions, and robing myself of the opportunity at my feet.

I stopped worrying about themes and subjects and lack of girlfriend, and instead, focused on what grabbed my attention.  I've already revealed in previous posts my new found love for street photography. That is what grabbed me, and reminded me of the Mark Twain quote.  People are the same all over the world. It is an odd fact that we need constant reminding not to jump into the sweet conclusive embrace of stereotypical generalization.

A few days after I got home, a friend was asking when I would get around to showing off my photos. She suggested that I post them before people lose interest. If I had gone to Rome to take selfies in front of the Vatican and the Colosseum, I probably would have agreed with her. But the one thing I knew before I left was that I wanted to take photos that would be timeless, not photos that would be boring next week.

I like to think I'm on the right track, but I suppose only time will tell.

-Matthew

Last October I started thinking about what I could do to get to Rome. What I could hope to learn, create, and accomplish here. I wanted to make a portrait of the city itself, but I was not quite sure what that would entail. But now, after spending 5 weeks in this one of a kind city, I think a product I can be proud of is developing.

-Matthew

You may recall that I attempted a Kickstarter to raise money for this trip.  I was (and may still) going to print a book with photos of Rome.  Thank goodness that plan did not pan out. How on earth would I have promised something like that? Don't get me wrong, I would have found a way, but I would have also found some gray hairs.
What I mean to say is, holy moley, there is way too much in this town for one book.
I think any photographer will tell you, taking photos is the easy part, choosing the best is the where the challenge begins.
Also, I would feel obligated to remove silly photos and comments like the ones you will find below.

They were speaking Italian, but I'm pretty sure the conversation was as follows:
"I love you"
"Olive you too"

Guards standing guard to make sure none gets in without paying the  special occasion 1 euro entrance fee  at the Capitoline Museum.

There is always someone fishing in the Tiber. Even at midnight.  So, I don't know, maybe avoid the sushi here.

And this is just in case you have not hit your butt juxtaposition quota for the day.



-Matthew