A Day at Paquin Towers

I cannot express enough how grateful I am that I came to Missouri for school. Friday was one of the most challenging, invigorating, and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had as a photographer. Danny Wilcox Frazier came to lead an all-day workshop in photojournalism. His work is so impressive and his attitude toward the craft is admirable to say the least. There were eleven photographers in the workshop and I was by far the youngest/least-experienced person there. It was a little intimidating at first, but everyone was so welcoming and helpful to me that I never felt my skill level or age was a factor. Each of the photographers was assigned a resident of Paquin Towers in Columbia, an apartment building that houses the retired and disabled for little rent. The place is full of character and definitely has its high and low points. It was great that we had so many different perspectives in the final edit- some people love Paquin, others seem to be trapped there. I was assigned Karin Davis, a 60-year-old retired Personal Care Attendant originally from Columbia. She was delightful and warm to me and I was so happy to be able to make a personal connection with her. She has been a pagan for over thirty years and says small prayers, performs rituals, and says healing spells throughout the day. She was smoking a tobacco pipe about half of the 6 hours I was there, breaking sometimes to puff from her inhaler. Her fibromyalgia makes it difficult for her to walk and do many things for herself, so she uses a motorized scooter outside and a cane in her apartment. She has a homemaker that does her laundry, cleans her house, and helps her with many other tasks. Despite being ridden to her couch for much of the day, Karin receives phone calls almost constantly. She plays mediator between her friends and seems to solve problems easily with her advice. It was a difficult situation to photograph because the apartment was fairly small and she moved very little, but I am so happy with what I produced and combined with all of the other stories from Paquin the photos are very moving.





























For work from other shooters in the workshop, check out these blogs:

Josh Bickel
Amanda Lucier
John Tully
John Hook
Zach Siebert
Cat Szalkowski
Catalin Abagiu
Elan Colello
Suzy Lafferty
Sheila Johnson

Music

Well, It's about that time for me to start going through all of my archives and finding photos for my portfolio. It's overwhelming to say the least. I found a few shots that I really love from concerts in the past year. I probably won't include any of them in my final portfolio, but they are fun to look at! I'm trying to decide if I should go to Pitchfork this year and I've also decided against going to Lollapalooza even though it was becoming a tradition. Anyway, here are some artists that I like.



This is a band from my hometown area called The Dowry and they are lovely to listen to.



This is Gregg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, who does mash-ups that are too much fun. He came to Mojo's in Columbia, MO a few months back and the entire bar was packed with people.



Even though he doesn't sing a word or play an instrument, he manages to keep the entire audience fixated on him as he sheds articles of clothing and dances with his fans throughout the show.




This is Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley who played at Jesse Auditorium at the beginning of the school year. It was a lot of fun to shoot in such great lighting.



Guitarist Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley.

We Wear Sunglasses in the Spring

I've been super stressed out this week and I'm convinced that the only thing keeping me from blowing up is the beautiful weather. Here's some of my friends that are enjoying the weather too.

Road Trip to Iowa

Will, Stuart and I drove up to Grinnell, IA this weekend to visit my friends from high school that go there. We made lots of stops along the way and drove through a ton of depressing towns in both Missouri and Iowa. Some of these places were so run down, it looked like there had been a flood or tornado like 15 years earlier and no one had ever repaired them.



Every time we saw something a little weird and funny, we stopped to take some snapshots. This sign, for example, was pretty hilarious.






Right as we crossed the Iowa-Missouri border on the way back to Columbia, we saw an abandoned house and decided to explore.














We had a wonderfully unique weekend.


For more event coverage, check out Will and Stuart's Blog

Something I May Never Be Good At...

Sports photography is so hard. It's difficult because I don't know anything about the sports themselves and I am therefore intimidated by shooting something that's cliche or just boring. I had to shoot some sports for my photo class and this is the best I could do in a day:




Zach Kurzejeski of the junior varisity Rock Brigde baseball team prepares to bat during a game against Hickman on April 9, 2008 in Columbia, MO. Hickman won the game 6 to 4.




Hickman high school sophomore Mike Hostetler practices with the track team on Wednesday April 9, 2008. Hostetler participated in also track his freshman year, but this is his first year attempting pole vaulting.

Which Wich?

This is the most elaborate joke I've ever been a part of.



Update: We are featured on the Which Wich? official Blog.

It's Spring!

In case you wanted to see what spring looks like Columbia...













The warm weather makes us so happy!




Photo by Katie Hamlett

A Day at the Skate Park

It is absolutely beautiful outside today! I drove Stuart to Cosmo Skate Park and while he scooted around I took a few pictures for an upcoming sports assignment in photo class.








Stuart was trying really hard to get some skating trick right while we were there. Of course, he failed a lot before he succeeded. I bought him ice cream when he finally landed it.