Below are a few photographs of the three artworks I have on display currently at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Kalamazoo, MI, as part of the West Michigan Area Show. Stop by and check it out if you get a chance! Work will be on display through May 28th, 2017.

​June 1st through June 26th
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA),  2 Fulton St W, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

I am excited to be showing artwork at the UICA again! Two images of mine, Holding Room in Former "Security Prison 21" of the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh, Cambodia (top) and Portrait #11 ​(bottom) will be on display at the UICA from June 1st through June 26th as part of the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts. This is the 47th year of the festival, which includes the juried art show Festival 2016 Regional Arts Exhibition that my entries were selected for by this year's jurors. 

Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts will take place in downtown Grand Rapids from Friday June 3rd through Sunday June 5th with plenty of live music, food, drinks, and fun for all! Here is a link: http://www.festivalgr.org. The Opening Reception for the Festival 2016 Regional Arts Exhibition will be held on Wednesday, June 1, from 5:00 to 8:30 pm. Stop on in between June 1st and 26th to see my work in person.

Last Saturday was a very nasty spring day, but Alyssa and Lady were both great sports as they braved the outdoors for the sake of my camera. Thanks you two!

The farm stalls of South Africa are much like the cider mills of Michigan during the season of fall. The farm stalls attract customers by selling trendy and rustic handmade goods, as well as with offering the ability to purchase one's food fresh from a local farmer, bypassing the grocery store. I had the chance to buy some delicious wild African game jerky and some dried mango slices at one of the farm stalls, and my fiancé purchased some unique home goods. At one particular farm stall that we visited in South Africa, the owners also attract customers with a mini petting zoo that featured a MASSIVE hog, rabbits, chickens, ducks, dogs, turkeys, and other animals commonly found on a farm. The giant black hog was NOT a fan of having people pet him (or her?), and was hardly able to walk up to the water trough. It was quite the sight! The photographs above show some of what we saw at that farm stall, coupled with some photographs of what our group came to refer to as the "bird tree". The "bird tree" was home to hundreds of a species of weaver birds, and was located beside one of the farm stalls that we visited.

Here are some more photographs from my visit to former Security Prison 21 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. There were some very startling exhibits at the prison turned museum, including the torture devices that had been used previously during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The wall of photographs pictured above shows photographs of individuals who died at the former prison, and the skulls pictured in the last photograph belong to victims of the Khmer Rouge and Security Prison 21. I have posted along with these images part two of a documentary on Secret Prison 21, and you can find part one of that documentary on my previous post.

The opening reception for the 2016 Photospiva national juried competition was last night (March 4th, 2016) and included one of my photographs, which is shown above. The exhibition started today, March 5th, and runs through May 1st at the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin, MO. On March 11th this year's competition juror, Sean Kernan, will announce the winners of the 2016 competition. My entry was selected from over 600 other entrants to be on display for the duration of the exhibition in the main gallery. The photograph that I entered is mounted with two inch white matte borders inside a black aluminum frame.

​Entitled, Holding Room in Former "Security Prison 21" of the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, this photograph was taken by myself in Southeast Asia during the winter of 2014/15. I have also had this photograph on display at galleries in Sacramento, CA and NY City, NY. The photograph shows what was used as a holding room in a former security prison in the nation of Cambodia's capitol city, Phnom Penh. The room was in use during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, from 1975-79. Below I have included a link to part one of a four-part documentary that features more information and background on the history of "Security Prison 21". My visit to the former prison turned museum was very eye opening, and I encourage anyone who gets the chance to go and see it. 

Here are some black and white edits of Ryan and Mary's photographs!

I shot these photographs with a Diana Mini 35mm toy film camera. The photographs were taken during a climb up Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as during a kayaking excursion a little further along the coast in Simon's Town, South Africa. Three people from our group of six chose to hike up Table Mountain (I made it up in just over an hour while taking photos!) and the other three went with the cable car option, which wasn't a bad choice seeing as how it was in the mid nineties that day! I made the (foolish) decision to take up my camera backpack that was bursting at the seams with four cameras (35mm film, 120mm film, polaroid land camera, and my Canon 6D) and an exposed camelbak bladder that I had tied to the outside where a tripod is supposed to be strapped, which all added up to an aching back in the end. Everyone made it safely up the steep terrain, and the line for the cable car tickets ended up taking about as long as the hike up to the top. Thankfully we all brought enough water and there was a place to buy ice-cream or beer at the top, because it was a pretty sweaty day! The photographs that were taken in Simon's Town were taken during our sea-kayaking tour (a first for me, I had only done freshwater kayaking prior to this) which was a fun experience. We got to sea some seals up close, some sea birds, and even a few penguins! The wind was pretty fierce paddling out, but paddling back in was a "breeze". Capturing these photographs while out having fun in South Africa with Mary Franks, Ryan Franks, Laura Smith, Max Smith, and my amazing fiancé Alyssa Drew was a blast! I can't wait for the next adventure!!!

Double exposures occur when one exposed frame of a photographic negative overlaps another exposed frame, either completely or partially. These overlapping frames form an area on the negative that has been exposed twice, thus the term "double exposure". Above are some double exposures that I took in South Africa this past holiday season, shot on both 120 b&w film and 35mm color film with a Diana F+ toy camera and a Diana Mini toy camera, respectively.

My double exposures were made by shooting two frames in-camera onto the same area of a negative, but these results from a traditional method can also be accomplished now in Adobe Photoshop or in-camera on Digital SLR camera bodies. Here is a video that details the Adobe Photoshop method, enjoy!