nine monhs later

This is the very first photo I took for my self portraits project, the one that I now call Falling Into Place. Yesterday, March 11, marked the nine month anniversary of the start of that project. A full term pregnancy. Time for the birth of something new.

I've never worked on a photograph project for this long. Back when I was a visual artist I remember staying with one project--Phantasy Rooms--for over a year, but my photo essays have generally been completed within 2-3 months. The strange thing is that I've been working on not one but TWO photo essays for the past nine months. The other is what I call "Active Elders." It is composed of photos I've taken of mostly African-American elders who take classes at the Hannan Center for Senor Learning in downtown Detroit. You can see a tight edit of this essay on my website.

Both projects are coming into their fullness. Forty of the the Active Elders photos will be shown in a solo exhibition at the Ellen Kayrod Gallery in Detroit, March 27-May 8. There is an opening reception from 12:30-2:30 p.m. on Friday, March 27. My women's chorus--the Gaia Women of the Great Lakes Basin--will be singing and there will be a free buffet lunch served. Join us if you can!

Falling Into Place is in its final months of shooting. By June I plan to have a self-published Blurb photobook ready to show art book publishers at LOOK3: the Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia, June 11-13.

Ah yes, the birth is imminent...