1. Abundant: ZOMBIE Part of this project, Abundant, is an inside joke with myself. One of the nice things about being a photographer is that I can control what you see and how you see it. What’s obvious is obscured. I can show you a picture and tell you nothing and hint at everything. There’s some power in that. It’s part of what’s delightful about communicating with your artists - you have these secrets and you get to see who picks them up, who figures you out and who comes along for the ride. I took another set this week, but it didn’t say anything. The photos were cute, but bland. They didn’t speak, so they didn’t get put up. Maybe I’ll post them later. Or not. Eleven

    Abundant: ZOMBIE

    Part of this project, Abundant, is an inside joke with myself. One of the nice things about being a photographer is that I can control what you see and how you see it. What’s obvious is obscured. I can show you a picture and tell you nothing and hint at everything. There’s some power in that. It’s part of what’s delightful about communicating with your artists - you have these secrets and you get to see who picks them up, who figures you out and who comes along for the ride.

    I took another set this week, but it didn’t say anything. The photos were cute, but bland. They didn’t speak, so they didn’t get put up. Maybe I’ll post them later. Or not.

    Eleven

  2. When someone smiles at you from their deathbed, someone you love, it’s becomes a smile that you carry with you for the rest of your life. You never forget it. Abundant: Glowing Ten

    When someone smiles at you from their deathbed, someone you love, it’s becomes a smile that you carry with you for the rest of your life. You never forget it.

    Abundant: Glowing

    Ten

  3. It’s a lie, and we all know it. We all know that what we see in magazines and online, images and video can be manipulated. We know that the people on the cover of magazines are photoshopped. We aren’t stupid. We know. And yet. And yet, even though we know it, we still think “She’s beautiful, he’s let himself go, she’s still got it.”Images can be manipulated, and I don’t just mean photoshop, I mean makeup and choosing where to point the camera, I mean angles. That’s what an artist does. Katie West once pointed out, and I’m paraphrasing, that you only see what she wants you to see. I think about this concept a lot when I’m taking photos. It’s easy to manipulate the eye. That is one of the first things you learn, as a photographer - where to crop, where to look, how to see it. After a while, you can make a healthy, glowing person look ill, and a ill person look healthy. Point the light this way, turn the camera that way and you’ve got your very own reality. All of us know this, but we still are seduced by the illusion. I am not sick. I am the healthiest I’ve ever been. Glowing. But I can show you what I want you to see, how I want you to see it. Next time, I’ll show you something else. From my Portrait Project: Abundant. Ten

    It’s a lie, and we all know it.

    We all know that what we see in magazines and online, images and video can be manipulated. We know that the people on the cover of magazines are photoshopped. We aren’t stupid. We know.

    And yet. And yet, even though we know it, we still think “She’s beautiful, he’s let himself go, she’s still got it.”

    Images can be manipulated, and I don’t just mean photoshop, I mean makeup and choosing where to point the camera, I mean angles. That’s what an artist does.

    Katie West once pointed out, and I’m paraphrasing, that you only see what she wants you to see. I think about this concept a lot when I’m taking photos.

    It’s easy to manipulate the eye. That is one of the first things you learn, as a photographer - where to crop, where to look, how to see it. After a while, you can make a healthy, glowing person look ill, and a ill person look healthy. Point the light this way, turn the camera that way and you’ve got your very own reality.

    All of us know this, but we still are seduced by the illusion.

    I am not sick. I am the healthiest I’ve ever been. Glowing. But I can show you what I want you to see, how I want you to see it. Next time, I’ll show you something else.

    From my Portrait Project: Abundant.

    Ten

  4. Abundant: Delivery

    Abundant: Delivery

  5. Abundant: Delivery I told a friend that I’m doing this project because I have something to say about this period in my life. There is an intense pressure right now to be perfect, untainted, fresh and sterile and untouched out of the box. There is a pressure to be like an action figure that never gets unpacked.  But life isn’t like that. You get colds. You take medicine. You eat processed food. You drink coffee. You have sushi. You don’t get enough sleep. You hug a friend who later tells you that they have the flu. A car nearly rear ends you at a stop light. This world is full of near misses, of infection, of contamination, of toxins. And wonder. To live is to take yourself out of the box. Nine

    Abundant: Delivery

    I told a friend that I’m doing this project because I have something to say about this period in my life. There is an intense pressure right now to be perfect, untainted, fresh and sterile and untouched out of the box. There is a pressure to be like an action figure that never gets unpacked. 

    But life isn’t like that. You get colds. You take medicine. You eat processed food. You drink coffee. You have sushi. You don’t get enough sleep. You hug a friend who later tells you that they have the flu. A car nearly rear ends you at a stop light.

    This world is full of near misses, of infection, of contamination, of toxins. And wonder. To live is to take yourself out of the box.

    Nine

  6. From my Self Portrait project, Abundant. I dreamed this image, and after dreaming it, had to make it real. Eight

    From my Self Portrait project, Abundant.

    I dreamed this image, and after dreaming it, had to make it real.

    Eight

  7. Abundant: Flowering

    Abundant: Flowering

  8. Abundant: Flowering Note: Seven

    Abundant: Flowering

    Note: Seven

  9. Photo by J.R. Blackwell

    Photo by J.R. Blackwell

  10. HUNGER by J.R. Blackwell

    HUNGER by J.R. Blackwell