Personal Work
‘Interacting with My Past’ featured on Lenscratch
I’m proud to announce that my project Interacting with My Past is being featured today on Lenscratch.
Lenscratch is a blogzine that explores contemporary photography and offers opportunities for exposure and community. It is considered one of the 10 Photography-Related blogs you should be reading by Source Review, Wired.com, and InStyle Magazine. Founded and Edited by Aline Smithson. Aline had contacted me recently about featuring the project on the blog, It’s very exciting as I have been a follower of the blog for some time and have been exposed to many artists work though the daily Lenscratch updates. Aline’s work is amazing, check it out alinesmithson.com. I am in awe of her dedication to promote new artists work and celebrate photography as a medium. Here are a few more images from the project that I haven’t shown on the blog.
Project Update: Interacting with My Past
Early last year I introduced a new personal project called “Interacting with My Past.” Over the past 18 months I have returned to the midwest four times to continue work on this project. This is an update of where the project is now with a new project statement that focuses more on memory and an underlying restlessness.
Project statement:
I am fascinated by memory. I find it to be simultaneously perfect and imperfect. You remember what you choose to remember and how you view your past is relative to what memories you keep.
This project is an exploration of my memory and how I remember my past. I have gone back to photograph the places and people who had an effect on me growing up in the midwestern United States. Having spent my formative years in Michigan, Missouri, and Kansas, I share a common bond with many other people who grew up between the coasts.
My memories of youth are mostly of an idyllic place in a midwestern setting. The landscapes that composed this land shaped my existence, whether it was the Great Lakes that touch Michigan or the endless wheat fields of Kansas.
While growing up in the Midwest, I also remember struggling with a restlessness. I had a constant desire to get out and pursue “something else.” I felt suffocated by these same midwestern landscapes and an attitude that this was “good enough.” As I got older I realized that many of the people around me felt the same way. Over time I felt I had to leave the Midwest to outgrow those feelings, but it lingers in my mind and has left an indelible mark on my character.
Going back today, I find that many of those same people I grew up with continue to struggle with this restlessness on a daily basis. I have found that when you go back to explore your past, the perfect, idyllic memories fade into a new imperfect reality. Time overtakes memory, as the places and people have evolved with growth and change. These images are part perfect memory, imperfect reality, and portraits of an ongoing restlessness. This is my experience Interacting with My Past.
After a year and a half of shooting, I realize that the project isn’t done yet. I still have some history to explore and places to visit before it will be complete. Since introducing the project on the blog early last year Project debut, March 2011, the project won a Photo District News award for the Faces contest for environmental portraiture PDN contest August 2011.
If you would like to see a more complete edit of the project please view it in the ‘Projects’ section of my website: Interacting With My Past.
Project update: Making Room for Another
In March 2011, I posted a few photos that were the beginning of a personal project called “It’s 2:30 on A Monday”. It was about becoming a father for the first time with the addition of my daughter to our family. I have since renamed the project “Making Room for Another” this is an update to that project with photos taken over the last 12 months.
See previous posts on the project from last year: Project Preview March 2011, Project Debut April 2011. If you would like to see a more complete edit of the project please view it in the ‘Projects’ section of my website: Making Room for Another.
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.
