Justin Borucki

I keep finding this guys work everywhere I look, I going to start to hate him. Yet he is a good photographer, but his work had a feel that I thought seemed familiar. It did, but first let me tell you a little about "this guy". Started shooting at 16, began documenting the whole Staten Island Punk Scene, which wasn't really that big, but hey what do I know about music ( please see http://soundsfromtheblackbox.wordpress.com/ for more music info), but anyways. Check it, our boy Justin ended up moving to Brooklyn to start his career and was hired as the photo editor of Guitar Magazine and Revolver. Wait!, thats where I've seen his work, but there is something to be said about his portraits. I mean he can even make that horrible creature that is Robert Smith ( don't fucken say who, The Cure, oh that Robert Smith!) look like a human being. Plus I really like the pic of that girl from the school newspaper show on MTV, or just could be that I am a sucker for girls with glasses. Look and Love it!

Movie Posters with great portraits...

Michael MULLER... PHOTOGRAPHY...BANG!!!

On Monday Mechael Muller came to speak at Hillside, and it was freaking awesome. The man is made of stone and redbulls and his heart is all photography and Impact!. Listening to this guy makes me love photography so hard it hurts. I got out of that place wanting to shoot and punch people in the face. At one point he said that before a shoot he would take a deep breath and say to himself " I am going to murder this shoot". He reminds me of the "Powerthrist" videos on YouTube. Photography BANG!!!

Some people are just this good...

On my search for good music I found this artist. Two year ago I decided to turn off my radio, because I was just tired of all the shit that was coming out of it. What was worst is that people buy into it, all top ten albums would make me hate music. So I decide that there had to be something more. So in some of my sleepless night ( every other day) I search for music. I don't care if it's the newest thing or if it's hipester approve. I just have to like it, fuck what others thinks is the coolest sound, you know who I am talking about. Less than two years ago I came across this ep that had really soft song on it. it wasn't really what I would listen to, but I put it on a CD, along with other music. I could stop listen to that sound, it even stayed with me. So I went out and look for more of her song. Lykke Li has been around for a while and she is not a new sound. Yet the girls is amazing, I can never get tired of listen to her. Thank God for YouTube, I am able to see all kinds of videos where she just sings. Like real artist use to, in small clubs, outdoors on the street and even in a fucken bathroom. Now who can still sound good in a small room like that, she even tap a spoon on key. She use to be a dancer for a show in her country, where she danced hip hop. You can even catch her "Crumping" in one her videos. I love her music and she's also very foxy, but as an artist, she got skills.

I've been working on this series for almost a 7 months, and everytime I have a session I keep pushing my self more. I try new things, it also help that ever subject is different. So every session becomes an experience, as it was on Monday. I shot to people for the first time. Lucky for me they were a couple, this gave me so many more options. Specially, because they had no clothes, that would be hard with strangers. I continue to shoot film with it, because I want to know what more I can do with this project. I know that there is so much more that I haven't though of.

Goodbye Horses...

This is fucken funny, and it never gets old...I love how one movie can influence another in a mess up way. "Oh we totally do" says Jay, is the best line in the movie. Watch out for "Pillow Pants" that troll will get you.

Promos!!!

I realized that I am one step closer to graduating when I opened my box of promos today. I know I've been preparing for this since the moment I got here. All the work I put in this term is to graduate ready to work, but just looking a these postcards made me think. It's big boy time now suckas! Anyways it gives me a good feeling to know that all that work is paying off.

Ink Shots

I am having a show on Sat. March 28, 2009 of work from two series ( Tattoo Artist & Transparent Ink ). It's 8pm to 12am at the American Electric Tattoo Company.

I have been working really hard to become comfortable with digital photography. I use to be someone lunch every Friday to get tutored on Photoshop. I research and bought books on working with digital media. I spend hours one file, doing 10 different versions of it to see what would work best. Finally I got to the point where felt like I knew enough to create work that I would be proud of. Then I began using my digital camera in the same way I had use my film one. So began buying medium format and 35mm cameras, and started to shoot film. I scan my negatives of course, but film has become my passion with in my other passion. Instead of taking a digi point and shot, I began to take my rangefinders everywhere ( Fuji 120 and 35mm Voigtlander). I have a need to take pictures every day. The more I shoot film, the more I remembered why I started doing this in the first place.

On The Road

This weekend I went to the Bay Area to do a family portrait.  Its been very crazy this term, and really need to get away.  I had some issues with the project, I don't think me work say " hey I am family friendly".  Once I figured that I didn't have to do anything unlike me, things where much more clear in my head.  I decide not to stress and took the trip not as a job, but a time to reflect ( I know that sound so new age whiny bull). Once where on the road I found myself just staring out onto the road.  There some thing so relaxing about looking at green hills, mountains and clear skies.  There were certain time during the drive that I want to stop and just walk out into those field.  I even got emotional about feeling the air hit my face.  I am graduating, I should be enjoying this, not killing myself to place someone who might stand in front of my images for a few seconds.  The night before I practiced my set ups, so the next day the shoot was so easy it took 3 hours to shoot 6 people in 2 sets.  On the way back I caught myself stair out the window and feel happy.  No thinking, no taking, no stressing, just letting everything go...

Nothing Can Stop Advertising

    This outdoor ads for a local strip joint the other is a european ad for Puma. It goes to show you that anything and everything can be use to advertise.

European Ads

What is this about?... It's a cool and you understand it til the end. It's actually clever, yet while your watching you may be thinking "what the hell".

Covers On My Wall

My wall are covers with tons of stuff that inspire me. Art work, masks, rosaries and photos that keep me thinking. I also have three album cover which have been my favorite since I was a kid. I loved this images even before I knew anything about photography. Through out the year I have collected them and frame them, to remind my of where my music taste comes from. So here they are: first the Ramones, second is The Beatles and finally N.W.A. The Ramones, mainly because it was the first band I had ever known the lyrics to as a 9yr old kid. My mother was a big fan of The Beatles, and the Abbey Road images had so much impact for me. One of the first record I ever bought was N.W.A., and of course because it was the first time a group from my neighborhood had a record deal.

This How It Was In the Old Days...

Pretty Messed Up !

Cell Phone Camera=Good Idea, Taking Dirty Pics of Yourself= Dumb I dea

Since there was photography, there was nude photos. It's no big deal and it's nothing new. The problem is we live in a time where your devices can be hack or you can send a image that may get post on the net. Then there is also the "dumb people" element, yes those stupid people who take weird nude pictures of them self. I don't mean nude shot of sexy underwear. No!, people who shouldn't by naked and doing things that are not only sexy, but kinda gross. To make matters worse, there are now WEBSITES that show this phone pictures. Tons of images of naked women ( and two dudes) doing strange things. Here's who on the site; young pretty girls , ugly, big, small, wet, dirty, very sweaty and very hairy, but that's not the worse part. The images of mothers and grandmas are disturbing, Yes I said grandmother. The site even has top 20 of the month, all I have to say is STOP IT. Yet there could be worse things people are capturing with there cell phone.

No Body Loves Me, But I Do

I have been a fan of Portishead since they first hit the scene. There music is not only an amazing mix of different styles, but they are true artist in every form. Their album covers have always caught my eye, and the videos have became art pieces in their own right. I feel like the video are mini movies of a style from cinema no longer seen. They are not afraid to go far out, yet they stay very classy. They reach out as far as Hip Hop, to the point were they are collaborating with rappers. This is what music should, it should cross boundaries and push for higher standards of work. I love the lyrics and the choice of instruments. Their live performances became magical and are still been referenced by critics. I constantly looking at them for inspiration.

  Music has always been very important to me. When I started to create images seriously I wanted to find a way to use music.  So I started to look for musicians to work with.  Which allowed me to get out and do some great work. I also began looking at music video for inspiration and that opened a new world of creativity. One of my favorite is Bat For Lashes "What's A Girl To Do", which was inspire by the movie Donnie Darko. The video is a good example of taking an idea and make your own, but also just going crazy with it.

  

Art Center's Broken Lights Actually Work for Something.

  Everybody know that most of the stuff in the warehouse doesn't work.  Somethings have not been  working since my first term.  Last term in Frank Onkenfels class with did a lot of work with random lights.  Most where battery powered and the others where conventional but use incorrectly.  I started using the light bars because I saw one person used them once and not very good.  So placed them every where but on a C-stand. I began to get good results, and so I kept playing with them.  I also figured that since the plastic that defused the light had turned yellow, I would be getting some thing different. I also thought they would make a nice affect if I didn't pop them. Putting them together on the floor gave me a great looking, the next step was to get a model.  This is where my beautiful friend Jordana close in, look how pretty.

Ads in The US Suck!

 I love advertising, it doesn't matter what kind print, TV, even those crazy installations on buses. The problems that the US is so afraid of hurting people feelings and people cry about everything in this country.  Perfect example, the Superbowl where Janet Jackson's nipple was exposed.  Ads in other countries are so bold and exciting.  There is so much violence in our entertainment in the US, and it's accepted. Yet the slights sign of any sexuality and the freedom of expression is out the window.  Is we stop fearing everything and began to think logically as a country, maybe being creative would be a great quality in our advertising. The world is leaving us behind and great work, I mean award winning works is being done elsewhere, Boo conservative dumb asses.

Promos!!

  The hardest thing about creating a promo is getting started.  Then comes the fear, "is this the right images?".  I keep wondering if I am making something that's going to end up in the trash pile.  So the plan is to end up on desk or wall of someone who will get me work.  Now, how do I do this?, most importantly how do I get started?  I don't want to make a promo that looks like every one's.  What will stand out?, it's funny, I sound like I am being insecure and not just about my work.  How do catch an editors eye and how do I stay on their minds.  I have to realize that I am not my promo, I am a photographer, and that's what I have to show. (Promo by Dennis Klein)

Living is a Attitude, it really is...

I really didn't know what I was going to do for this shoot.  I wanted to photograph my friends grandmother, but I hadn't seen them in a while, and I found out that she's not doing well. Which is kinda sad and it makes me want to go back and photographer before anything happens.  So I though why not shot Paul Jasmin, Art Center's fashion photography legend.  So when I got to school I had a plan to put him against a black background outside.  One of the things I remembered about his class shooting outside a lot, becoming a fan of natural light. So the plan was to use a beauty dish and to bounce the sun to use as fill.  I got digitaly, which I felt wasn't the right way.  I ended just using the sun, and that made me think.  It's Jasmin, I should shot the way he had me shoot models.  "Shot them when they don't expected" he would say.  Sometimes he would have shot them when they weren't even looking and blurry.  For some reason I thought of taking out my medium format rangefinder.  So remembering his teachings and just shot. The problem is a Paul just can't stand still, he was all over the place.  To days later my assistant at a tattoo artist shoot deleted all the digital shots.  Things happen for a reason... 

Instant Photographer

I realize that we live in an age where everything is being documented in some form of manner.  Everything has a camera, there are toy digital cameras for kids and there even waterproof. There are grandmothers in the Midwest uploading movies onto YouTube right now.  All those novels and stories of how people are being watch are actually true. Just not by evil government but by dumb ass people who have a lot of time on their hands.  I wonder if this is what photographers felt when Kodak put out the Brownie in the early 1900's.  Sometimes when people find out that  am a photographer, they like to tell me that they love taking pictures.  I wonder if doctors get told things like "I love medicine, I operate on small animals when they are hurt" ?  

Assisting Is Like Graduate School

I had plans to start assisting a couple of months before graduating, somehow an internship of a month turn in to a job. I started assisting last year for a photographer who I have admire for years. I have a lot of friends who hate assisting, they see it as manual labor. Some say they would rather be working on their own stuff. Others are just straight out lazy, and Just want someone to hand them a check. The more and more I am on set I realize that it's another school. Can't be late , you start at the bottom and work your way up. Ever day you learn something new and your classmates are much better than you. Yet I feel that the moment you start assisting there is a countdown for you to go out on your own. Yes, this a very hard time to be self-employed, but clients are most likely to hire cheaper and less known photographers. On the day of my first paid shoot, the 1,2,3 assistants approach me, and pretty much told they would kick my ass if I was still there after a two years. There reason why I went to Art School, and I should be creating my own images for clients instead of helping someone else make money. I think they're right, every shoot I work, I feel I need to take the most from and begin to make plans in my head of how to get to the next step.

First Step: Getting Ready to Graduate from Art School

This is the beginning of the end, I tried planing it put so I wouldn't have to do much but finishing my book and shooting. Somehow I feel like I am forgetting something, promos, cold calling, reworking my site, building a contact list, networking, keep assisting. Yet there is this feeling of the unknown that keeps bothering me, I think once I start crossing things of my list I will feel more at ease.