Subject: OMG

This semester I have been teaching a "Contemporary Practice" course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yesterday we had our final critique for the semester and I was really pleased with the work that was hung on the wall. Here is some work by the students, you can click on the images to see a larger view:


This is the work of Caitlin Leonard. Caitlin spent the final month of the semester documenting the life of her thirteen year old sister and the social dynamics of suburban youth. The images were paired with pages from her sister's myspace.com account.


These are the photographs of Jaime Kim. Jaime became interested in photographing scenes from the underground subway here in Chicago. Her pictures capture the disorienting blur of life as a commuter.


These photographs are by Julius Dorsey. Julius is a painter and he works a lot with the color red. Earlier in the semester he made a photograph that informed this project. He would stay in one place with his camera on a tripod and photograph every person that would walk through his frame wearing the color red. He then composited all of his photographs so that everyone in the scene would be wearing red (even down to the cars and street lights).


This installation is by Lauren Christiansen. Lauren decided to create a family "photo wall" for her final project and skipped lunch to make sure that it was hung just right. We talked a lot about Nan Goldin's work as well as Christian Marclay's "White Noise" piece.


These photographs are by Micah Schippa. Micah's work of fantastical characters inspired a conversation about Anna Gaskell's work (she was a visiting artist earlier in the semester). I thought that the above photograph was made under water ... I was wrong.


Misato Inaba's work examines overlooked mundane artifacts and images of social isolation. I love how the rust on the back of the street sign mimics the pattern of the clouds and her image of the lone girl with shadow is slightly unnerving.


Ryan Uhm spent the final month of the semester creating a series of large scale digital panoramas. The top image was shot over the course of a number of hours from the vantage point of The Field Museum here in Chicago and the bottom panorama was made in Wisconsin. I love the blue lens flare in the rural landscape!


Finally there was Sebastian Alvarez who was our resident performance artist. Sebastian is interested in photographing surreal scenes in everyday places and has a remarkable knowledge of contemporary art. The above images are from two different series and I look forward to seeing how they evolve.

Well, that was our final crit at The Art Institute and you can color me impressed.

Knights of the Square Table

This past weekend, Brian, Matt and I travelled to Toronto to check out the Contact Photography Festival and to meet a few folks. The weekend was a great time, we met some fantastic people and as always, it was sad to say goodbye at the end of the weekend. Our nights were spent drinking, looking at gallery after gallery full of art and of course ... late night pizza. These photographs were taken during a pause on friday night:
Brian Vonne Ulrich contemplating the artwork of Vaughn Von Vonne,
Jeff Harris, Associate Photo Editor of Mcleans, dreaming up the next night's photo shoot,
Myrabelle "Free Pony" Charlebois, Photo Editor of En Route Magazine, explaining to me how cell phones are the devil's work
Chris "The Stash" Taylor causing mischief Vancouver style,
and finally Matt "Vaughn" Siber ... Inquisitive ...Tactile.
Other notables from the trip: chatting it up with Ed Burtynsky, cocktails and chaos with Bruno Ceschel and repeating the same story over and over again to Jaret MacRae Belliveau. I hope to see all of you again really soon ...

The Other Git

My friend Cable just alerted me to my doppleganger. There's only enough room for one Git in cyberspace and I am officially declaring all out open war! (unfortunately for me, the other Git looks pretty scary)

Commuter Tales

This weekend I finished taking photographs for the public art commission that I have been working on. For three months, I interviewed passengers on the Armitage Brown Line platform and asked them to share with me a place of significance to them (in Chicago). I will be launching this whole project as a website this summer but here is a little taste. Enjoy ...

Hocus Pocus

I have a new all time favorite band . . . This morning I stumbled onto an amazing performance by Focus from 1973. Click here to experience the magic!

Scouting Out the Situation

Last sunday, Matt showed me the abandoned elevated train tracks located up in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. We walked the tracks for about a mile and a half (it felt very "Stand by Me") and we eventually came across some abandoned train cars. Matt climbed up and looked inside . . . a couple tons of gravel.

The Shark and Jacques Cousteau

Last tuesday night, Robin and I celebrated our third anniversary and yesterday she presented me with my anniversary gift: Jacques Cousteau's, "The Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea." This was my absolute #1 book when I was a kid and to this day, I dream of putting down the camera and jumping on a boat to roam the high seas.


A funny thing happens when you re-encounter a book as an adult that you once loved as a kid -> It's like a form of time travel. As I looked through the book, there were so many pictures that I knew so well and yet that had been lost somewhere in my memories. It was like suddenly waking up from amnesia and feeling the same feeling that you had felt fifteen years earlier. And so I read through the book, my favorite chapter headings being: "Chapter 5- The Squaloscope: Abu Marina. Operation "la Balue." The capture and study of sharks. Study of anesthetics: cognac, MS-222. The respiratory system." and "Chapter 8- The Island of Derraka: The narrow escape of Doctor Francois. Individual cages. Battling a swarm of little sharks." and finally, "Chapter 9- Frenzy at Shab Arab: Arrival at Shab Arab Reef. A terrible mass frenzy. The killing of a shark and its effects."


At the end of the book, there is a series of really amazing drawings. I found these two and it all became clear to me: this is why I take pictures! This is what I was born to do! If anyone out there has a boat, is planning on taking off for a deep sea excursion and is in need of a cameraman . . . I'm your guy!

Thick as a Brick

Lately I've been trying to update my address book. Last night I sent out an email asking people for their info and working on auto-pilot, I accidently sent one to Robin. Today I opened my mailbox to find the above email.

(ps. if anyone reading this would like to be added to my mailing list, send me your address to jon@thegit.net)

Caught In The Act!

Two nights ago, we had our garbage can stolen and for the first time, I caught it on tape! Now the tough part . . . relocating it.

Midnight Meditation

Another Git Enters the World

Last night, my brother Ben and his wife Jenn welcomed their daughter Julia into the world. Ben is my youngest brother and this is my family's first niece/grandchild. Ben has just launched a new blog to document his experiences as a new father and so . . . let the spoiling begin!

It's a Beautiful Day in my Neighborhood

Street Portrait

As mentioned in previous blog entries, I've been spending my days pacing up and down the Armitage Brown Line platform making field recordings for a public art piece that I am working on at the moment. If you walk to the southbound portion of the inbound platform and look out onto the street, there is an amazing portrait of a realtor painted directly on the side of a building. Why not artist's murals as well?

It's Hard to be a Muse

This morning I received two images in my mailbox, both of which confirmed what I already knew: I am an important person and people think about me when I'm not around. I'm not sure who the top drawing is by, it was found by the surly Brian Ulrich. My favorite part of this drawing is that Matt Siber has three ears. I always said he was a good listener. The immaculate collage found above was created by the illustrious and highly skilled Caitlin Arnold. It is an homage to the new wave of Chicagraphy that is sweeping the nation (or at least my apartment). Featured within are Jon (the pillow hugger) Gitelson, Jason (twinkle toes) Lazarus,Matt (grin and bare it) Siber,Greg (the chipmunk) Stimac and Brian (I invented the peg) Ulrich.

YES!!!

Lately I've been passing some nights upstairs at my friend Nate's apartment swapping music and playing computer risk (I haven't won a game in months). Nate recently turned me back on to one of my high school favorites . . . YES. There's nothing like guitar harmonics to set the soul on fire. I saw Yes live in 1992 at Nassau Coliseum during their "Circle In The Round" tour (they had a rotating stage and every musician that had ever played for the band). I remember taking a few hits off of a joint (sorry mom) and falling asleep in the aisle before the show even got into full swing. The next thing I knew, I woke up to the encore which was Roundabout. Life was good! Long story short . . . don't do drugs.

M.I.A.

I've been a very bad blogger this month, a terrible blogger.
Part of the reason for my absence is that I have been spending most of my free time lurking around the Armitage Brown Line (Chicago Subway) platform trying to interview people for the public art commission I've been working on. I've been asking people to share a story from their life in Chicago with me with the plan of making a photograph of the location where the story took place and pairing it with an excerpt from their story (does the name Studs Terkel ring a bell?). Below you can see an example of a tile and a sketch of the finished piece (10' x 45'). I'll be building an area on my website for this project but in the mean time, I promise to be a better blogger.

People Buildings and Cars . . . Chicago comes to the great state of Vermont

This past friday, a group of us from Chicago had a show open up at The Vermont Center for Photography. Vermont had apparently been struggling with a lack of snow this winter and so we brought some with us from the windy city. We got about two inches on the night of the opening and had a great time with friends both new and old. If in the area, be sure to check it out. The show features photographers: Brian Ulrich, Matt Siber, Greg Stimac, Jason Lazarus and Mary Farmilant.