My Best of 2012

POTY: Big Bad Wolf

2012 saw many changes in my artistic life.  The single biggest change, of course, was my admission as a resident artist at the Bakehouse.  Being a resident artist means many things, not the least of which is that I've been vetted by other artists who have found something in my work worthwhile. For someone without the benefit of either a BFA or gallery representation, this is very significant. It has also meant much more exposure as my work has been on exhibit in various parts throughout Miami ever since.  It has also had an unanticipated side-effect: I now shoot much more than I used to.

In 2011 I took about 7,000 photos; in 2012 that number has climbed to over 15,000.  For over ten years now I've always tried to carry a camera wherever I go whenever possible. Only once, though, did I break 10,000 photos in one year.  What's also fascinating is that two-thirds of the photos are in the second half of the year, after I was accepted into the Bakehouse.  The lesson is clear: being in the Bakehouse has meant that I take many more photos because I'm always on the lookout for new material.  At least, well, that's the lesson I've drawn. [read more after the break]



This year I also decided to do a best-of for 2012, something I've never done before.  I initially selected 122 images, or roughly ten per month.  Of these, I chose a top six.  These were the photos that told a story or captured a scene in a way the others didn't.  They each told a story I hadn't told before or at least told it in a different way.  There was no reason for six, it could as easily been five or seven.  I just selected the images that I thought were truly the best.  Of these six, Big Bad Wolf is most definitely the best, IMHO.

Shot on Halloween in Lincoln Road, it has everything I like in a photo.  Red Riding Hood's eyes looking flirtatiously right at the camera and the wolf in tow, snarling but at a distance.  Is he about to pounce or has he been subjugated by her beauty?  The composition is good in that she's neither off-center nor exactly in center while the wolf is nearly but not quite out of scene.  There are others in the scene as well, but these two are the only ones in focus and thus clearly the subjects of the image.  I love it.

Mourner at the 7-7 Memorial

Mourner at the 7-7 Memorial would be my second favorite of the year.  Shot this past October in London, the moment I saw this man stepping toward the monument's headstone I knew there was only one way to photograph him: single-point perspective ala Stanley Kubrick.  It is dignified and affords the mourner a respectful distance while at the same time showing him engulfed in this tragedy. It also shows him at the end of a long-hallway of pillars, each representing a victim of the bombing, England's 9/11.  In that sense, the mourners are the endpoint of terrorism.

Singing in the Rain is memorable, to me, because of noir-like quality of the image. It looks almost like a movie still from a 1950's detective film.

Singing in the Rain

Time & Life, shot in New York this past June,  captures the the guard looking at the young woman off to the left of the scene.  It's an amusing shot on a blisteringly hot summer's day.

Face to Face is interesting because of the lighting but more so because all the faces illuminated by light are turned toward another face.  They run in a C shape, beginning with the man and the young girl near the window, moving to the left for the woman and the other young girl, and finally ending with the woman facing her friend in the center of the image.

Time & Life

And finally, Sunrise Shoot captures a beautiful scene at the Deering Estate.  I was invited to participate in a sunrise shoot and left my Canon mounted on  a tripod facing the sunrise.  I also, pulled out my Leica and started photographing the photographers.  This was my favorite of the bunch.

Are they the best?  Well, to me they are but really who's to say.  The full selection of 122 images are available for viewing in my Flickr feed by clicking here.

Face to Face

Sunrise Shoot