Personal Work
New Project: 1976-77 A Family Story, documentary
In 1976 when I was not yet 3 years old my family had the opportunity to experience the culture of the middle east first hand when my father accepted a job offer that took my family to Iran to live for a year.
The experience occured at a time when the Iranian government was at the peak of positive relations with the US. Shortly after our return the government in Iran would shift and experience a revolution ending a period of western influence that lasted for almost 25 years.
This is an introduction to the documentary I started filming last year…
You can also view the trailer on my website under Multimedia: Project Trailers
2011 Review Santa Fe 100
I was recently selected to participate in the Review Santa Fe 100, a juried portfolio review sponsored by CENTER in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Center is a nonprofit organization that supports and provides opportunities to photographers with developed bodies of work.
The event took place in early June where 100 selected photographers presented their featured projects at the four day event. The reviewers who attended were made up of museum curators, gallery owners, book publishers and editorial publications. The event consisted of one-on-one portfolio review sessions, an review open to the public and several panel discussions.
My project that was featured at Review Santa Fe is currently still in progress. I am choosing not to present it on my website at this time. Although I wanted to show a few images here since it was presented at the event. Review Santa Fe was a really good experience for me since my project is at an early stage and I received a lot of feedback on how to move forward with development of the project.
The Friday evening ‘open-review’ (pictured below) received a lot of traffic as it is open for public viewing and is an annual event with the the local art community in Santa Fe. There was an amazing group of photographers showing work over the course of the weekend and I feel honored to have been chosen to be a part of the event.
more ‘Stills of Imagined Films’ coming soon…
This summer I will be working on new productions for my series “Stills of Imagined Films”…
Stills of Imagined Films – trailer from Mark Peterman on Vimeo.
Thanks to my friends Lovers In Transit (Jeremiah, Ryan, Mychael and Bronson) for allowing me to use a snippet of their song ‘Cities’ for this piece. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time.
It’s 2:30 on a Monday
It’s 2:30pm on a Monday. I am not at work… Mondays are my day at home. My wife goes to work on Mondays, we alternate days that we stay home to be parents. it’s a strange way to start the week. But I set my own hours being self-employed or my clients set my hours, either way things are always in flux.
My wife and I became parents in February 2009 when our daughter Maisy was born. Incorporating her life into our life has been a huge challenge for us both. In many ways she has forced both my wife and i to change and grow in new and unexpected ways.
The impact that my daughter has had on my life has been immeasurable. She has a tazmanian devil-like energy that I can only try to keep up with and clean up after. It takes a lot of energy to keep it all together and maintain both our careers. These photos are about Maisy’s exploration of her new world, the toys I pick up after she goes to bed and about my time with Maisy…
I had previewed this project on the blog a few weeks ago here and since this is an ongoing project it will change before it takes a final form on the website.
New Project: Interacting with My Past
Last fall I started a new project photographing portraits of friends and the places I grew up around the midwest. At the time I had a clear idea of what/who I wanted to photograph although I hadn’t refined the direction for the project. In January I spent a week in Kansas City working on the project and after editing the material the project has become a bit more focused. This is part one of the series that I intend to keep adding to and refining called: “Interacting with My Past”.
Premise behind the project:
How you perceive your past is relative to where you are in the present and your memories change over time. This project is an exploration of memories of my past. The photographs are of people I know and the places I grew up in the midwestern United States. As I go back to visit the people and places that I left when I moved away, my relationship to the people and places changes and evolves with time. In the years that have passed since I left the midwest, I often wonder what would have happened if I had stayed.
New Project: It’s 2:30 on a Monday
Here is a sneak peak at a new project that I have been working on for about nine months…
The project is still in progress and the work hasn’t been published on my website yet in fact the title will probably change too. I will explain the concept for the project on future news posts so keep an eye out for updates.
The St. Francis Hotel in Santa Fe
A few shots from a recent stay at the St. Francis Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I loved the minimal rustic modern theme to the hotel that sits right on the square in downtown Santa Fe.
The Omnia in Zermatt, my favorite hotel in Europe
The Omnia Hotel in Zermatt, Switzerland is my favorite hotel in Europe. Why have I singled it out? Well it’s the experience of staying at the hotel that I remember, but I can’t forget the place because of their amazing promotional pieces that keep showing up year after year.
My experience with The Omnia began in 2007 when my wife and I spent 2 weeks traveling throughout Switzerland via train. We stayed in Zermatt and at The Omnia over a weekend in October. It was definitely one of my favorite places that we stayed on the trip.
The hotel is a modern mountain lodge built into the foothills of The Matterhorn in Zermatt. The village of Zermatt is only accessible by train and cars are prohibited in the village. Visitors get around on foot, horse-drawn carriages or electric carts.
You enter the hotel from a cave/tunnel in the village and take an elevator 4 floors up through the rock to the lobby where the view overlooks the village. An added touch to the intimate feel and personal experience of the place is the fact that the rooms are lettered A-Z and not numbered.
As a past guest of the hotel, each year I receive a promotional piece from the hotel. The esthetic of the pieces are amazing with the design, photography and illustration completely planned down to the smallest detail.
I’ve included a few samples of their promo pieces from photos I created as well a photo collage from their site (above). I also included a few of my own shots, first photo is a view of the town from the hotel and below is a self-portrait from the balcony overlooking the mountains. Check out The Omnia website.
Journal Series
For years I have kept journals and notebooks as documentation of my life. They range from sketch books to more deliberate collage work and I use them to experiment and they often serve as a way for me to remember things that I have done. So in an effort to show something different than the commercial work I often post here, this is a new series on the blog showing some of my favorite journal pages both recent and not-so recent.
Some of my inspiration in this area comes from completely different influences. For years I appreciated Frank Ockenfels photographic work and especially his journals. I did a Santa Fe workshop with Frank in 2007, which only made me appreciate his work more and I learned a lot from him and grew from the experience.
Another influence in this area is Rob Gretton. It’s strange because he not a visual artist at all. He was the manager for New Order and Joy Division and an avid collector of all things pertaining to his life with the band. I’ve been a fan of both bands for years and I recently picked up a collection of notebooks and journals published by his wife in 2008, 8 years after his death. Check it out, it’s an amazing book called One Top Class Manager.
There are a few of my journals scans featured on my website in the personal work section. Look for a follow up to this series soon…
