i'm hoping that the creation of this blog will bring me back to journaling - which i haven't been doing as often as i'd like. i'm pretty sure that that has something to do with the fact that the vast majority of my most recent work is on the computer, and not in any tangible form. i don't want to be redundant on here and post all the things i've already posted on facebook and flickr... but to introduce my blog i have decided to add my most recent project - an unprecedented collection of self-portraits. it used to be that i refused to be photographed, but with the encouragement of a friend and fellow photographer i decided to give it a go.

[caption id="attachment_27" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="who knows what temperatures these nightmares evenly soften?"][/caption]

it turned out that self-portraiture allowed me a canvas for what i like to call poem-lets... these are created by snipping words from magazines and newspapers, and even other people's poems and letters, and pasted down in the order that expresses what i am thinking at the time. before now i've always just put the poem-lets on collaged pictures from various sources, but this time i've added them to my own images.

[caption id="attachment_28" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="i'm more like a duck"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_31" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="change is melting in the minds of the frustrated"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_32" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="we lost her, and every because and better"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_33" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="you can wash your flaws"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_35" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="from 'la' by francesca lia block"][/caption]

this one was inspired by a short story called 'La' in one of my favorite books, 'Girl Goddess #9,' by the amazing Francesca Lia Block. i have never really found another author to rival her luscious, visual prose-poems. these books carried me through my adolescence when, typically for a fifteen-year-old, nothing about me seemed beautiful, and through a time of my life when it seemed like i would never be happy or free.

[caption id="attachment_36" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="now a band of rebels, again, again"][/caption]

i was reading 'Time' magazine when i made the poem-let on the left; mostly about the war in afghanistan. it's hard for me to hear about places like afghanistan, or really any sad and scary place. it's such a human impulse to hide behind denial, because it's such a great defense mechanism.

but i am reading this really beautifully written book called 'i live here' by Mia Kirshner (one of my favorite actresses from the L word). everyone's heard of afghanistan, but i'd never really known about the horrors in places like chechnya or burma. these places don't seem to filter into our daily knowledge, and yet things are happening in those places daily that deserve just as much attention as afghanistan does. i really admire mia for this deeply touching book.

[caption id="attachment_37" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="on the inside i would be sold for this"][/caption]

well this is the end of my very first blog post! i sent in a few rolls of film to be processed (color, which i've never done before with my twin-lens), so hopefully i'll be able to post those sometime soon.

thanks to anyone who is reading this and comments and constructive criticism is always appreciated - but be nice. <3