End of the Decade

It seems that the last scheduled photo shoot of any year is always a no-show. I’m sitting here “waiting” for a client that’s 45 minutes late now, but it’s okay. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with him, anyway.

Jay’s got a horrible headcold, so our plans to go to a couple of New Year’s Eve parties are cancelled. We’re staying home, watching movies, and ordering a pizza from our favorite neighborhood joint. I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s Eve, anyway, so I’m fine with this. And somehow, Jay’s being sick today seems an appropriate ending to this year, which has been generally crappy. Don’t get me wrong, we made some amazing new friends this year and got a lot closer to some old friends. But as a whole, with job dissatisfaction and dying mothers and car accidents (and two cancelled vacations because of the latter issues), I know neither Jay nor I will be sorry to see 2009 come to an end.

For what it’s worth, I think 2010 is going to be amazing. Jay and I have big plans for several major life changes in the next year, and while I’m not going to talk about any of them now, I’m sure you’ll be vicariously taking the journey with us, if you keep coming back here.

Since it just doesn’t feel right to write a blog post without any photos, I’m going to show you the salad and asparagus roll that I had for lunch a few weeks ago. I’ve read umpteen times in the last few months that it’s tacky to photograph your food: Details magazine calls doing so one of the 50 signs that you’re a tool; a food magazine I was reading (Gourmet?) says it’s a major offense to the chef; and a photography professor I know says that he discourages students from photographing food because these photos are just boring and unimaginative. But despite what everyone says, my food was just so lovely that I couldn’t leave my camera in the bag.

Salad and vegetarian sushi roll, Miyagi restaurant, 96th Street, Indianapolis; both photos copyright, Scott Barnes

The restaurant, itself, was just as lovely as the food. I might say that Miyagi has the best decor of any restaurant in the city. But I’m not sure, as I love Shanghai Lil, too.

Happy New Year.

Forbidden Gary

Someone who was thinking about posing for me recently sent me this link of Forbidden Places. There’s some great photography on this site, perhaps some of the best urban photography I’ve come across yet, and the photographer has an affinity for abandoned hospitals, which I also love (we’ve already talked about that).

But I was surprised while looking through the galleries, which are mostly collections of east coast hospitals, European theaters and churches, and Australian urban decay, to find a gallery dedicated to Gary, Indiana.

*Downtown Gary

I would agree that Gary, the most foul-odored place I can think of, the murder capital of the world more than any other city in my lifetime, could be called, as a whole, a “forbidden place.” I’ve often thought as Jay and I have passed through on Interstate 90 on our way to Chicago that there would have to be some amazing photography to be had in Gary, but I never stopped because

1. Jay would have a fit if I took him to Gary, and
2. we had Chicago, after all.

Still, I’m glad to see a photographer captured Gary so well. These photos are all amazing.

*Abandoned Methodist Church

*Taco Stand, appropriately named

*Abandoned Auditorium

There’s a lot more great photography on the main site, with an index of explored forbidden places here.

*All photos in this post copyright, forbidden-places.be

The Ten Faces of Fred Faurtin

I’m not up on my French porn stars, or my American porn stars, for that matter. This, depsite the fact that at least four of the boys who have posed for me in the past have decided to go that route. Anyway, I digress.

It seems that there is a French porn star named Fred Faurtin, who has become the subject of a new fine art photography book.

The book, called X: The Ten Faces of Fred Faurtin, puts Fred into 10 different characters, where over 100 photos total tell a story of each of the characters — sometimes alone, or sometimes with other men and women. I have to admit that I like this concept and if it’s executed well, this could be a great conceptual piece. But if not executed well, it will look stilted and phony.

And since I haven’t seen the book, so I can’t speak to how “artful” it might be. It could be nothing more than a vehicle for Faurtin’s fans to obssess over his body a little bit more. But the photography I have seen, I like. Mostly.

You can order the book here, if you’re so inclined. Below is one last image, the cover, which is nothing if not enticing.

*All images in this post copyright, Exterface.

Froehliche Weihnachten

And yes, it has been. I went to Indian buffet with two of my best friends (and my goddaughter); I watched a movie about a photographer that I admire; I traded presents with Jay; I talked with my dad; I had some wine; I enjoyed Christmas tree lights; and I put bells on the beagle.

Merry Christmas to you, too.

Supermodel

I can only name two of her roles (Tai and Luanne Platter), but I was still really sad to hear about Brittany Murphy this week.

Truthfully, Clueless is one of my favorite movies.

Cher, Tai and Dionne; Clueless still

And it’s funny that of all the options, this MP3 started playing today in the car while I was out buying Jay’s stocking stuffers.

Supermodel, Jill Sobule, from the soundtrack

Speaking of Clueless, I wonder what ever happened to Christian?

Christian (aka Cher’s gay boyfriend); Clueless still

He was supposed to be the next big thing, I think. And yet I don’t think I ever saw him again.

Muse

Did you see the movie Revolutionary Road?

Revolutionary Road still

Personally, I didn’t particularly enjoy it, although I was thrilled that Kate Winslet won an Academy Award last year between her roles in this and The Reader. She’s amazing, and one of my favorite actors of this generation.

Revolutionary Road still

But whatever I thought of the movie, I can’t stop thinking about it this week. It’s stuck in my head . . . the music, the dialogue, the imagery. I think I relate to April Wheeler at this point in my life — not the bad actress part of her, and not the part that thinks she’s “unique and special,” and not the part that wants to give herself an abortion in the bathroom, I relate to April because she wants to leave her relatively stable job and suburban home and live in Paris with artists.

Revolutionary Road still

This year has been challenging to say the least, what with dying mothers, canceled vacations, job dissatisfaction, car accidents, and pets that can’t seem to get well again. But it wasn’t all bad. Jay and I became godparents, my photography business grew, Jay started a new art project that amazes me. We made new friends and got closer to old friends. Jay joined the cast of a play and decided to return to the stage for the first time in 15 years, and I was asked to join the board of a political action committee and get more involved in the Democratic party. And through it all, we live in a comfortable and beautiful home.

But still, I am asking, what happened to me? Did I get this far off course or am I just taking the long way? How did it happen?

A Different Kind of Portrait

At least for me, considering that I live in a state so homogeneous that being left handed almost qualifies as minority status, this isn’t the kind of thing I get to photograph everyday.

Beagle, Sick

Lucy has been at the vet hospital since Monday afternoon. She couldn’t keep any food or water down and just looked miserable. We had been in Chicago over the weekend and left her with a new dog sitter. Lucy is a fragile and sensitive thing, and this wasn’t the first time that going away for the weekend might have led to a medical issue. Or, the other possibility is that she was having a reaction to the rabies vaccine she got last week, which has also happened before.

In short, Lucy seems to be telling us that when we a) give her shots or b) leave, she’s going to pay us back with a $700 medical bill.

And yet this trip to the vet was much more worrisome than previous visits because her blood test showed that Lucy was experiencing kidney failure, which may or may not be reversible. I’ll be honest, I haven’t let on as to how upset and sad I have been.

Her vet (who might be the best vet that I’ve used in my life) was concerned last night because while Lucy’s appetite returned, her blood wasn’t improving. But he said that either way he wanted her to come home today, if nothing else for Lucy’s peace of mind. Then just a few minutes ago, he called with very good news: her last blood tests are MUCH better. Two of the three kidney markers are within normal range and the 3rd is very close. The vet says Lucy seems happy and is smiling, “as much as a beagle ever does smile.”

I know I’ve posted these each at least once before, but here are two of my favorite photos of Lucy.

Jay and I are going to spend this evening on the couch, with Lucy between us.

Justin

The latest subject of my Unexpected Hoosiers series is artist Justin Vining, who I have wanted to photograph for a long time. He’s unexpected to me because he is days away from graduating from law school, but he’s going to pursue a career as a full time artist. And he’s a very good artist. We purchased a piece of his work a couple of months ago, which you’ll see when you come over. His art is dreamlike and askew but comforting at the same time.

Friday

Jay and I spent the first part of our weekend in Chicago. Our friend AK’s theater company was putting on this show, which we saw.

Here’s another video.

Andrew Kain is a very good influence and a slightly bad influence at the same time — good because I’ve rarely (if ever) met a person who truly wants to help everyone he knows reach their full potential . . . slightly bad because in doing the aforementioned, he also likes to get people out of their comfort zones. And look at him — all he has to do when you balk is just smile and wink and say, “yes you are,” and the next thing you know you’re doing whatever ridiculous thing he wanted you to. But really, everyone should be so lucky as to have a friend like him.

After the show, he took us to three bars, introduced us to tons of people and immediately started networking for us. Jay and I are doing well when we’re still awake at 1am most Friday nights, but we finally got back to AK’s from the last club at 4:30, and even THEN he wouldn’t let us go to sleep because he wanted to hang out and talk. 

Here I am with Andrew Kain shortly before we finally went to bed, sometime around 6am.

And Jay, same time.

And here we are the next morning.

And here is Dave, AK’s boyfriend/husband.