Vanilla Ice goes Indie Rock. Too good.
This is a bad mama jama album cover.
From my “Detroit Portraits” project. Another portrait of Dave Kwiatkowski, owner of the Sugar House. It’s only been open for 3 months in Detroit’s Corktown area but it’s already a major destination and has been featured in many national publications. Sugar House specializes in craft and artisan cocktails. They make everything with the freshest ingredients to be found in the area.
In regard to my “Detroit Portraits” project, I’m particularly interested in the people that are in some way creating culture in Detroit. I was really impressed by Dave’s attitude and passion for bringing the best possible product he can to his customers. Check out this video…you will be impressed with Dave too.
See my other portrait of Dave here.
It’s Always Been Photography’s Democratic Era
Julia Dolan, the Portland Art Museum’s photography curator, says digital technology may have many more people taking pictures but that doesn’t change what constitutes a photographer or a good photograph.
“It’s an issue of intention,” says Dolan. “That’s what separates us from Robert Frank. I can make a grocery list, for example, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem.”
Dolan also thinks it’s a tad grandiose to assume this is photography’s democratic era.
“Photography has always been available to the masses,” she says. “That was true way back even in the 19th century. Digital technology has just amplified that perception and added new abilities for us.”
Intention, as Dolan meant it, suggests a few things: a knowledge of photographic technique and composition, and also photographic history. That means the best pictures have a larger design behind them, a skill that often eludes amateurs.
From my “Detroit Portraits” project. This is Reverend Deborah Jones, the director of Genesis House II, a transitional housing facility exclusively for women and their children in Detroit. It’s a safe place where women who have suffered abuse, homelessness, addiction or other major trials in their lives can get a fresh start, educational training and the space needed to transition back into the mainstream…most importantly they still have their children with them during this critical juncture in their lives.
Reverend Jones is the first person most women meet with when they are accepted at Genesis House. Reverend Jones told me that these first meetings with her inside her office are many times very emotional as broken women share their stories with her and realize that they’ve arrived at a place where they’ll be loved and restored.
During this first meeting, Reverend Jones often drapes the women with the blanket she is holding in the photographs above. The blanket is embroidered with the many names for God (or a higher power) so that each woman may feel the symbolic warmth of their spiritual caretaker. It’s a very powerful experience for many of them.
A note about the photographs: I photographed Reverend Jones last week, but had first met her the week prior when she gave me a tour of the facility that is part of Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries. After seeing the facility I had intended to only photograph her inside the very modest chapel there. But when we arrived to take her portrait I noticed her office was filled with warm, raking afternoon light…a rarity in January…so we quickly set-up the first shot there before continuing to the chapel as planned. I’m very glad it worked out that way!
From my “Detroit Portraits” project, this is Dr. Chad Audi, President of the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (DRMM), a non-profit organization with an $18,000,000 annual budget.
I photographed Dr. Audi inside one of their emergency shelters. This particular room shelters 78 men. But on any given day DRMM serves roughly 1500 of Detroit’s homeless and attempts to get their lives back on a positive track.
Dr. Audi is originally from Lebanon and gained respect in the community by forming strategic partnerships and finding innovative and cost-effective solutions to meet the needs of homeless Detroiters, as well as those overcoming addictions in a spiritually supportive environment that inspires people around possibility-oriented outcomes.
DRMM is an inspiring, if not overwhelming, place to visit. It’s an organization battling on the front lines of Detroit’s economic collapse and addresses the collateral damage that has occurred in the lives of many Detroiters that have found themselves for a variety of reasons off the rails and off the grid. DRMM has been incredibly successful in transforming lives and giving their clients the technical skills and training to become employable and highly productive.
From my “Detroit Portraits” project. This is Dave Kwiatkowski, owner of the Sugar House. It’s only been open for 3 months in Detroit’s Corktown area but it’s already a major destination and has been featured in many national publications. Sugar House specializes in craft and artisan cocktails. They make everything with the freshest ingredients to be found in the area.
In regard to my “Detroit Portraits” project, I’m particularly interested in the people that are in some way creating culture in Detroit. I was really impressed by Dave’s attitude and passion for bringing the best possible product he can to his customers. Check out this video…you will be impressed with Dave too.
This is the first photo that I’ve actually liked that was shot on Impossible Project polaroid film…the rest have always looked off somehow or strange to me. I don’t know what all the buzz is all about except that they must supply some photographers w/large social networks to use and then tweet about it.
CHARLIE
BIG SUR WITH RODARTE
I spent most of the day on Thursday at The Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (DRMM). I didn’t actually take many portraits. My assistant Josh and I toured 4 shelter facilities in various areas of the city and met many people with successful stories of recovery from homelessness, lives of abuse, addiction or crime. One man we met that successfully turned his life around and is now a facilities manager for one of the larger DRMM buildings, said that DRMM assists in the “reconstruction of men, women and families.” I really like that word “reconstruction”…it’s a perfect metaphor for what’s happening at DRMM and in Detroit.
DRMM is an inspiring, if not overwhelming, place to visit. It’s an organization battling on the front lines of Detroit’s economic collapse and addresses the collateral damage that has occurred in the lives of many Detroiters that have found themselves for a variety of reasons off the rails and off the grid. DRMM has been incredibly successful in transforming lives and giving their clients the technical skills and training to become employable and highly productive.
Brian PS - Here’s a link to more Detroit Portraits in the “Personal Projects” gallery of my website. There is also caption information about each person there. Just click the “caption” button underneath the photo.
A couple of weeks ago I headed down to Benton Harbor, Michigan to Whirlpool World Headquarters to take a portrait for The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Edition that reaches 2 million or so print subscribers. The WSJ is a publication I’ve always wanted to shoot for, but to get to take portraits for such a high profile section of the paper is a dream come true.
The subject was Patrick Schiavone; Whirlpool’s new-ish chief of design who is really “thinking outside the ice box” (as they titled the story). He’s a guy who had designed cars in Detroit for many years and is now charged with leading the global appliance powerhouse to rethink everything.
Patrick turned out to be a fantastic subject willing to try almost anything. I love shooting designers because they understand the process of composition and generally are happy to participate. I had a blast. Above are some of my favorite outtakes as well as the story as it ran this weekend in the WSJ…nearly a full-page!
Credits:
Photo editor: Rebecca Horne of The Wall Street Journal
Photo assistant: Josh Tyron
Not retouched at all…
So in exchange for a pledge of $1500, you will receive your choice of one of these 30”x40” color portraits that recently exhibited at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. I was so pleased with how well these large C-prints came out…honestly, they’re finest large color prints I’ve ever made.
Yes, this is a fair chunk of change! But $1500 is much less than what I’ve typically sold prints of this size for in the past. So in exchange for a great deal on a large portrait that hung in a museum you’ll be helping the “Detroit Portraits” project to continue.
There’s lots more info here on my Kickstarter page…only 2 days left to get funded. Thank you for considering pledging your support. You don’t have to pledge $1500….we’re getting lots of backers in the $10-100 range too. Every pledge is so important and EVERYONE who pledges receives a print back from the project.
Thank you!
Faith makes corn muffins that look like Saturn.
Donna - age 20 - his friends call him “Angel”. Donna wants to be an evangelist and attend college in the U.S.
Donna lives at the Have Faith Haiti Mission in Port-au-Prince which is run by best-selling author Mitch Albom. Donna has lived at the orphanage since he was 8 years old.
