some 35mm from the Everglades

I have to admit, I'm not always the biggest fan of the collodion process. It is heavy, cumbersome, and stinky, and sometimes, after using it all day, I get a little high off of the fumes. Plus, when my skin is covered in giant splotches of silver nitrate, I can't shake the look that I've been rolling around in the mud.

Kevin gave me a half-frame camera right before I left for my journey in November. I was SO excited to start using it.

There are about 45 miles of park road leading from the edge of Homestead to the tip of Florida through Everglades National Park. The entire park is 1,509,000 acres, and much of it inaccessible by car.

When I go out shooting, I often take a few hours a day to walk and observe on foot. I meet a lot of really great people out there on the side of the road. And it feels great to go tramping through the sawgrass in knee-high water when the temperature is really high.

Here is a couple of half-frame pictures from my rambling.



birds on powerlines


sunset and slash pines


moonrise over one-lane dirt road


park road and fog


turkey vultures


egret

counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

ice and snow, the blizzard, NJ Turnpike, December 26, 2010

May 21, 2011

Prior to my Everglades journey, I went skipping down over south and west to Tennessee with my lovely friend (and epic hair-and-makeup artist), Heart. Our mission? Go squaredancing, take some tintypes, see Graceland (and Graceland 2), and have the most fun, ever.

On Halloween morning 2010, we woke up in Nashville, and the lovely Heart and I set out with great joy to the Harpeth River in Nashville, TN to make some tintype photographs of the Hogslop String Band, our lovely and generous Nashvillian hosts.


directions, as written by Daniel Allen Frazier Junior

It was a day of music and image-making and intense work and laughter and probably one of my favorite days, ever.

To see some pictures from the day, visit my website here (or mosey on down my blog to the post on November 7, 2010.)

Here is a scan of the last image that was made on Halloween, a tintype of Heart, taken just as the sun was setting over the horizon:


Heart

And what happened to those mission goals?

Well, we went squaredancing in rural Kentucky, took plenty of tintypes, got the full-on experience of Graceland 2 (and the partial experience of Graceland proper), more dancing, slept hardly at all, and yes, had the most fun, ever.

Bring on the armageddon.

The Hogslop String Band from Nashville, TN

I am just one man speck in a packed and manspecked place, here.

Everglades - Opening September 25 at KMR Arts!

Kevin. East Hampton, NY, August 2010.