contact sport

downpour © Laura Kicey

Chinese New Year this year was filling and fulfilling. Dim Sum. Pork Buns. Baby Bok Choy. Joy. Joy. Oh yeah, the photowalk action was good too. A lot of sad people looking at the rainy sky and exploding veg. And firecracker shrapnel in my ass.


heart of gold © Laura Kicey

Another visit to the asbestos factory in my town with Dustin took me to some previously unexplored areas. Though rotten wooden floors and my own gnawing anxiety prevented unfettered access.


quarrying © Laura Kicey

The day was capped with an unexpected break into a nearby quarry.... to which I came dressed to shoot in a nice, clean studio with lights and, y'know, facilities. Down I went. Nightblindness and falling rock are awesome together.


the last pew © Laura Kicey

The weekend wrapped with a show in Philly, Deerfhoof at the Unitarian Church, which could be heard but not seen. The ceiling was colorful. The unkempt fro of the 6'3" someteen-year-old kid in front of me, who came in his plaid pajama pants, was rich and intricate as the strings of noisy pop melodies. The threat of being mauled by the moshing teens I am old enough to have birthed myself, was diffused by the reassuring presence of giant man hands, but sometimes it ain't enough. Am I getting too old or too angry?



utata schwag © Laura Kicey

Lastly, I am having dinner tonight with the intriguing Ms. Audrey Gray (yes it's the right link), an editor at Picture Business magazine (which goes to camera retailers nationally). She wants to interview me for an article on how positive feedback on flickr is positively affecting camera retail and compelling people to upgrade their equipment.

I've also been asked to show at a café in Selinsgrove. Business cards are on the press now... hot and in hand by week's end.

Outta control.

shock value

shock values © Laura Kicey

So I got a show. Nothing elaborate. But it is my first. And it is mine.

Also of interest, I got confirmation that some of my work will be in a book that is to be published in April. And I am about 80% certain I will be in another Girls on Film in Philly this March, showing opposite Dustin and a third unknown photog.


shine © Laura Kicey

I just got back from a weekend in Manhattan on Sunday night, so I am backtracking a bit here. Most excellent surprise meeting: Eddy Joaquim


hot and cool © Laura Kicey

...a long time e-friend from flickr I had yet to meet.

Our posse painted the town... blue, it seems.


pelt © Laura Kicey

Every turn reminded me how much I do not miss New York. I really don't like shooting there, it all seems so homogenized and tidied, nothing is overlooked or gets anywear near a point of decay. No sense of humor, and devoid of character. I could just be bitter from the two years I suffered working there. Possibly.

I will say, it is excellent for on-the-sly shots such as these, but I hate the guilt in the pit of my stomach. I feel nothing for the subject.


hipshot © Laura Kicey

Knowing that there are three Chinese guys in front of me, spouting insults at me for shooting a photo of their bok choy in the market, and I have to pretend I am none the wiser and they hate me all the more for it. It was a crap photo anway.

tumble dry

So yesterday, when I should have been posting this, I was wasting away (back of hand to forehead, holding lacy hanky) in bed, staying home sick. Replete with man voice, whiskey laugh, and long dramatic tubercular coughing fits punctuating impassioned sentences.


unsharp mask © Laura Kicey

Then I watched some bad daytime television (as if there are other kinds) while working out. Today, I am bouncing off the walls with preposterous amounts of energy and not expending a bit of it.

I had to post part of this comment I received because I laughed so hard I went into a coughing fit, which is okay, as long as no one else is there to appreciate it except my barbaric upstairs neighbors who routinely scream at their telelvision.

I remember when you ran a tiny little booth out of Ambler, PA and only took pictures of frozen stuff and yourself crying.

I don't do that so much anymore. Mostly because, even though it is January, it isn't cold enough to freeze and I've had less clumsy encounters leading to tumbles and weeping.


tumble © Dustin Fenstermacher

And he is really good at picking me up and dusting me off when I do. The above is by Dustin.


gift horse © Laura Kicey

Reasons to smile. That and the sensation is returning to the left side of my face and tongue. Boy is my jaw stiff.

tossing and turning

where the twain meet © Laura Kicey

This morning, my friend Phil left for Iraq. He will be in combat, probably until at least Febraury. They extended his tour even before he left.

We never met. In the past few months, has encouraged me to take some different routes in photography, opening my eyes to different experiences and processes. He had worked on a series of digital pinholes, manifestations of his fears. This photo, a digital pinhole, I dedicate to him.

Take care, soldier.

turnover

It seems an appropriate time to do a year in review sort of song and dance. I've made a sort of resolution, but it started months ago, and it wasn't so much resolution as conscious decision I am acting on and I haven't spoke of it. New Year's resolutions are a load of bollocks, I prefer to be decisive any way.


out with the old and in with the new © Laura Kicey

I met hordes of people this year. More than I've met in all the years since college combined....which is going on six years now.


cheese © Laura Kicey

I've lost and found, learned and forgotten. No shortage of dramas I could have done without. The friends I had, I drew closer, the new ones have left a indelible impression.


shivers © Laura Kicey

I've explored a state I always thought had little to offer... I couldn't have asked for a better navigator.


fluids © Laura Kicey

When I went to Vancouver, back in August, I discovered more than just a city... something in me opened all the way.


amphibious © Laura Kicey

Everyday I had my eyes open. I never knew what that was like, really, until this year.


won't soon forget © Laura Kicey

Right now, my heat isn't on for some reason, I'm freezing. My upstairs neighbors are screaming at the top of their lungs at a football game. I don't feel terribly different, aside from the goosebumps.


the meese © Laura Kicey