2026 07 15
Hitting the road today for a week. Wisconsin and UP Michigan. Excited but hoping I don’t take a ton of photos. I want to, but am still so buried in photos. The list of things I want to do before the year is out is long. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it. Happy summer, everyone.
2026 07 09
It’s been too long, blog friends!
The infinite weight of summer has me trapped in its grip. There’s a lot going on, so this here blog has been firmly neglected. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.
We were on the road last week and it was glorious. Many images made. Some good, perhaps? If I’m being honest, I’m quite down on myself these days about the work I’m making. Too many mid photos and not enough direction. I’m flailing a bit while I search for my new voice. The hard understanding is that I believe I’m on the right path, but much more hard work and rejection is needed before I can maybe get to where I’m trying to go. This is all vague and harsh sounding, I realize. It might not even be accurate. It’s just one of these things you go through as an artist in search of his big defining project. My standards are high; the art needs to be meaningful and that’s not an easy thing to accomplish.
Currently, I’m working on my third printed zine project. The good news is, it’s happening. The bad news is my enthusiasm has waned as I’m culling the images. Likely, I will expand my archival reach in an attempt to make the book stronger. This is, I think, the exact takeaway I should be having as I strive to learn and grow as a photographic artist.
Another compromise I’ve reached with myself is to write and post about the trips I am making in search of images. I’ve been getting down on myself that nothing is coming from these trips. I go out, shoot a bunch, get home and then the images mostly sit around on hard drives while I remain too busy to give them the time the require to go somewhere. Writing about, and sharing some of the images as I make them, will hopefully help me justify the time I’m dedicated to the process — and perhaps convince me to dedicate even more time (because much more is needed!) to finally give them an outlet in the world.
Lastly, today Realm is opening a small shared storefront space here in Chicago. It’s exciting! While a modest step towards hopefully achieving the larger space of our own we are dreaming about, the fact that we now have two stores in Chicago with photobooks available to purchase just after one year of operation is no small feat, I think.
This post feels like the above image. I’m here — I’m over there. I’m bright, I’m dim. I don’t like apologizing but I do so here in this frantic attempt at getting a post up without the required time to properly digest my thoughts. Anyway, off to get some yard work done and then open a damn shop! We’re at 2949 W Armitage Ave and will be open tonight (Friday, July 9th) from 5:30pm-7:30pm. Then, every Friday & Saturday from 1pm-6pm.
2026 06 02
Very much looking forward to some downtime here this summer. Even after (sadly) cutting this here blog out of my daily routine, I’m severely short on time to do all of the things I need to do. On the positive side, there are likely some exciting new developments happening soon. Until then, I keep on keeping on.
2026 05 09
Today, I’m hosting a photo zine show at See You Soon that I’m really excited about. I met Nathan Pearce a few years back at a different show I also hosted at my space, and since then, he’s been a big inspiration for me when it comes to the need to print my images and get them out into the world in physical form. He’ll be bringing 50 of his zines, which is what I find so impressive. The fact that he’s been able to so consistently put out projects as a photographer, while also working a job outside of photography, has me feeling like I need to play catch up in this area of my practice that I’ve so thoroughly neglected.
Obviously, success is relative. The simple fact that you have released a bunch of zines doesn’t automatically make you great at what you do. But what I’m finding (all too late in my career) is that the two small book projects I have so far released, while not perfect, are more fulfilling to me than most anything else I’ve done to this point in my photo career. In large part, I think, it’s the process you need to go through to get to the end product. Round after round of further distilling your output and ideas until it reaches a point that it becomes essentially frozen — printed — for other people to digest and interpret. It’s all very cool, and likely what I’m going to spend much of the next decade focused on myself, despite the difficulty associated with such work (honestly, the challenge is in part what attracts me to book making).
Anyway, off the the studio to get set up. If you happen to be reading this today, come join us! We’ll be looking at and discussing photozines (and snacking and drinking, of course) from 4pm-10pm at my space in the Kimball Arts Center.
2026 04 21
Yet another image that could use a human… While walking this trail a few days back, I got very excited by the idea of hosting photography workshop/retreats to this property sometime in the future. A lot to consider, as I’m already plenty busy with a hundred other projects, however, I love to keep a big backlog of ideas floating around in the ole brain to help keep me going. If you happen to be reading this and like the idea — let me know!
2026 02 23: In Search of Myself
In search of higher ground; in search of my next wave; in search of myself.
I wanted to take a moment to attempt to roughly and quickly capture some of the struggle I’m currently going through as a creative in 2026. This won’t be a polished thought piece, but instead likely a jumbled mess of thoughts with the main aim of being helpful to perhaps get me to better understand what I even think about the subject. We write so we can learn how we think, and these days I’m thinking far too many thoughts to even come close to comprehending where my head is at.
I’m doing way too many things and I’m well aware of this. The justifications are: