The Road Goes Ever On...

As the holidays approach I must confess that I haven't been shooting nearly as much as I'd like to be... partially because I'm still in search of that ethereal, quicksilver fragment of something that would be a good project to throw myself into and a good story to tell.

Nevertheless, the road goes ever on and I'm picking my way through the muck and mire of creativity that we all invariably lose a shoe or two in.

The photos below represent some of my newer work (though the baseball photographs are obviously from earlier this year). Not sure if they're much good at this juncture... but at least I'm putting one foot in front of the other.

Happy Holidays.

The Road Goes Ever On... (pt 2)

THE PHOTOS (click to enlarge)

Take a load off Annie... (Part 1)

I've been extremely busy these past few months with a few things and have (as an inevitable result) have neglected both this blog as well as some of the various projects I'd like to be shooting. However, I still have some new images to post and a few new ideas to follow.

Much of my work up to this point has been "heavy duty" stuff dealing with critical social issues and has often lead me down the path of having a very "heavy" mindset regarding my photography... not exactly the best emotion to have when engaging in one's work.

I'd gotten myself into the groove of "there's work to be done, no time for anything else, you can take "fun pictures" elsewhere... THIS work is far too important to lose focus on."

But there's always a silver lining. I've recently had the pleasure to photograph some friends in a very simple and "carefree" manner. No journalism deadlines, no giant looming book project to keep in mind... just making photographs of very close friends. So, while the following images (see part 2) probably won't win a Pulitzer, they have done much to rekindle the joy of photography that had been eluding me for the past year or so. Lesson learned: follow (and complete) the big tasks of creative and social action, but don't forget that you initially got into this because it was supposed to be fun.

 

Oh, I've also included a couple of the more recent portraits.

 

I hope all is well out there in USA, Canada, California, Australia, and Japan (or anywhere else that happens to see this blog).

 

Dylan

Take a load off Annie... (Part 2)

Click to Enlarge

I'm Back

Hello everyone once again,

The summer was an interested one and I'm now eagerly looking forward to the numerous projects I have brewing for the coming fall, year, and probably the next couple of years.

I'll be once again organizing GUMBO in the Spring ("GUMBO Strikes Back"?)... and (in addition to a few other things) I'm beginning some of the early work for my next book (a visual-oral biography of rural farming in modern New England).

Here's the tiniest of teasers:

Also, be on the lookout for my latest completed work Will's Store (due to land on a bookstore shelf near you in the [hopefully] near future)!

Summa-Time Blues

Hello Everyone,

School is finally out for the summer and that means that I'll be wandering and wayfaring through the various green hills and down the rivers of the windfall light in the ever continuing quest for a story to tell.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Dylan

To Artists...

As I reflect upon this moment at hand, I am struck by the overwhelming dichotomy of the here-and-now. Never before has the fundamental practice of communication with one another been so open, so varied, and so potentially democratic in its nature and design. Never before has this wonder and practice been so critically essential and so critically endangered.

The fierce honesty of the present reality has forced me to arrive at a painful understanding: I now know that there are those who, in their apathy, in their indifference, in their personal paralysis, in their quest for profit; seek to censor, normalize, mechanize, and sterilize the artist; the environment in which the artist may flourish; and the ideas the artist seeks to express concerning our world.

I know also that this is the insidious product of a prevailing and manufactured belief that the voices of individuals can not affect the broader conversation, that it is simply too difficult and too fatiguing; that it is far too exhausting and expensive; too controversial an enterprise to risk raising one's voice in urgency.

I know this belief to be popular in its appeal, virulent in its spread, and utterly false in its foundation. I know also of others who care immensely for these current, fleeting moments; of others well aware of the "fierce urgency of now."

This is the reaffirmation of a truth: that there are still artists among us who would dare to speak to those thoughts, inspirations, and trepidations that have permeated both these and the coming days.

With every new form of illustrating, demonstrating, or communicating; there arrives new ideas and perspectives to be seen and new voices to be sounded.

With this simple truth we together have endeavored to hear new and untold stories, and also to witness the retelling of old stories that are once again emerging from the mystic chords of memory. These are the stories-essential that defined the best of our true and un-manufactured history, and with hope, will continue to define us in the true and un-manufactured future.

Let us neither confuse legibility with communication nor allow our efforts to be overcome by the most basic instincts of self-doubt and apprehension. To be drugged, to be placated, to be refused, imbued, and subdued within the present system is to be a proper citizen.

To be individual, to be creative, and to offer our own refusal to subscribe to the endlessly numbing effect of the profit-driven media… is to be human and alive. Our most powerful weapon is our own refusal.

Let us know that with each fleeting glimpse over the ever heightening walls of the here-and-now we gather new tools, new techniques, and a renewed determination to break the stony silence that too often has leaned its weight upon our shoulders.

This weight keeps in silence those that would speak and holds static those that would move. This weight forces those who once yearned to breathe free to become imprisoned by the suffocating grasp of self-doubt, uncertainty, and the heartbreaking betrayal of our most basic common link with one another.

If we are to understand and overcome this weight we must collectively rediscover that we are not of those who would allow such heavy silence to be hung upon us. We are not of those who when arriving at a formidable task quietly lay our explicitly creative tools on the ground before us.

We are the ones who, instead, infuse our long silent voices with the determination and resolve of those who neither shrink from uncertainty nor turn our ears from the familiar truths we have encountered.

In such efforts as facilitators of essential communication, we now hold THESE truths to be self-evident: that as the world continues to move about us, we shall not be immobile; that as the darkening challenges come down through the ages, we shall not be silent; and that as actions in our time will undeniably set ripples forth through all time, we shall not and must not falter nor delay in the critical expression of our deepest and most common belief and dedication to the better angels of our nature.

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Upcoming Show

Press Release

Innovative Art Show to take place in Old North End

Burlington College Hosts Multiple Artists, Media

Burlington, VT – An innovative and envelop pushing art experience known as GUMBO set to open at Burlington College on March 26^th 2009. With intent to celebrate, challenge, and examine the state of the society, GUMBO recruits many artists with differing artistic backgrounds and perspectives.

The show to consist of artists working in mediums such as painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, film & video art, and performance art, among others.

Curated by Dylan Kelley (23), GUMBO aims to challenge, inspire, and engage attendees in a discussion of the interconnectivity of ideas regarding art, humanity, and politics.

"All of the artists are being pushed to create and show work about issues and ideas they feel very strongly about. We're interested in work that moves people in a very human, very powerful way" says Kelley. "We're all very hungry to communicate and discuss who we are as individuals and as a culture. What's our place in society? What's our place in the world? Where are we headed in the future?"

Kelley is currently a documentary studies and photography student at Burlington College.

For future updates join the Facebook Group "GUMBO Art Experience"