Since when did context and relevance matter? Enough about me, more about An Ambitious Project Collapsing

Hasselblad 500C/M+Kodak Portra 160VC


Hasselblads are demanding cameras. Since using one for the first time I feel that either you get the photograph perfectly, or you don't get the photograph at all, They are, for this reason...all the more beautiful and brilliant. Natalie lent me her 500c/M for this half sunny/half rainy Sunday afternoon indoors, and we were lucky enough to have grace of the natural light before it became too grey outside to continue. It's hard to imagine making photographs without one now! I am hoping to hunt one of my own down come May.

I feel prepared for the looming Ace Hotel Seattle sessions now that I have practiced further indoor studies. I am hoping for the second week of April to make this happen.

My photo making friends are total gems.

I am also almost one year older.

++++

Taylor, and the contemplations.

Mamiya+ Fujicolor

Bro's

So, whatsup with my bro's wearing teal polo shirts all of a sudden?! This happened TWICE this week.

Plans for the trip- the...voyage. to California, and my ever spiritual returns to the deserts have been set, and so- in short, I am preparing my sleepy eyes months in advance for an 18 hour trudge down the coast...

Something tells me I am not the only one studying maps with a pen for adventures along along the way...for now I have Arrow and Arrow to provide me with inspiration.

Keep It Light

Keep It Light, a photo by frank correa on Flickr.

Really into this shot by friend-of-friend Frank Correa.

Inspiration for the looming Ace Hotel shoot.

Nothing is off limits.

The Sun is back in Seattle, Washington. Here's Lauren Colton.

"Like my mum always says, never answer the door."- Richard Ayoade

New photo inspiration: Take two of your greatest influences and set them in perfectly diffused lit room with a ratty old couch.

Richard Ayoade and Alex Turner for the film Submarine.

here.

++++

A close friend and myself left Seattle, WA at 5:15 in the morning to drive the Oregon Coast through Astoria, Cannon Beach and the Sunset Highway. Positively...bohemian. I'm not entirely sure what to say about this trip to be honest, driving the coast and stopping in Astoria to make roadside coffee, before arriving in Gearhartt to meet a friend was without question the greatest part of the travel. But having never been to Portland, let alone Oregon, I have come back feeling- comprehensive of the Pacific Northwest after living here for nearly two decades. It was very surprising how great it felt to reach Seattle, and that is not to say I loved the trip and all of the misadventures along the way but- I have now a newly added sense of what "adventure" means. Call it a ritual.

But that also comes from the folks I travel with.

Lets just say, as I mentioned below, the looming nature of the return to Los Angeles is crafting itself a nest in my soul...it feels- absolutely necessary to happen. Retrospect on Portland without question makes this possible to realize. Before the trip I hope to have enough funds to both support my wanderings and to feel qualified to make some really great photographs...Luckily I have so many great folks to help out.

I honestly can't wait.

Calle Zapatos Perdidos from Opening Ceremony on Vimeo.

Folks I am currently planning a trip wayfaring back to the desert in tow with Huy Nyugen, Natalie Friedman, Haiyang Zhang and perhaps sister Courtney Fortune in May of 2011.

Oregon was amazing. But this notion is...brilliant.

It would be a 4 day trip one stop along the coast in either Portland or San Francisco before reaching Los Angeles and connecting with Haiyang, and then off to the desert to perhaps stay at the Ace Hotel as in the video by Opening Ceremony above, if not camping in Joshua Tree.

I have yet to figure out this magnetism to the California Desert, but each time I return it is alongside more and more people I consider very close to me.

Perhaps it is just such a haunt that I have to share in order fathom where I am...I consider where I have been and then realize my life back in Seattle and its- surreal.

-mfortune