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

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March 16th 2011


Capitol Hill is really finding a place in my heart, especially on days the sun shows up. I look forward to hopefully calling it home come April/May, and may be working for my long-time friends Blackbird/The Field House if things go well, but am continuing applications at the moment. The time I most enjoy black and white film is when it is way expired, when the tonality is a little more varied and difficult to read. When it just feels older. But I really have yet to figure it out for myself, I need to live with it for a while. As with color? Neutrality will become much more prominent.

Thank you for the photographs, Emily.

(Mamiya+HP5)

One Trip Pass is...so great. Being an outdoorsman naturally inspires the inkling for wayfaring, so I am definitely looking forward to trudging down to Portland this coming Friday.

Time for a folky road trip.

a photo by Crista Leonard on Flickr.

Makes me so look forward to spring hiking...

++++++

At times, I'm finding that coming back to photo means going off of instinct to allow the whole conscious/unconscious thing to happen is best- if anything, to get back into a momentum of practicing. This past weekend was marked by trying new film, returning to the waistfinder rather than the prism, and leaving the tripod at home.

Just- daunting.

But, this is a start! A new start! And I feel, if anything- good- about these. I am recognizing that I able to evaluate light and direction fairly subconsciously and now I am able to start concerning composition, and considering the task of taking photographs that others may not think of, looking for spaces, processes, concept- (concept!)

Because I certainly respond to that the most, and admire greatly those who are proficient at it.

But, in all, shooting with these three folks has been great. Really good souls. Huy and I have been working together for a while, he just bleeds process and concept and so its always just the pure joy of taking photos and completely abandoning worry about technicality. Lauren was one the first photographers whose work I immediately responded to after moving to Seattle, and that family has only grown by now but she continues to stand out and hold her own among us. And Natalie is one of those immediate friends I have to come to really appreciate, and she totally tears it up- her Hasselblad makes the most brilliant noise. I can't wait to work with her again. Or just talk about food and music. Which I am always ready to do.

Thanks, guys. It was a great start to March.

In other news, April may bring a new home (living space..) for me in Seattle, so I am really looking forward to having it mark the beginning of the sun seasons.

Takk,

-mfortune

(Mamiya Kodak Portra 400 & 800)

I felt compelled to share this because it is a truly remarkable and completely unique story of photo documentation.

via the bengal stripe