To do or not to do

I was wondering if I should enter a photo contest. In over 8 years of doing art, i have never entered a contest. I guess in school, at the end of the year "spring show" when i only got one piece in, i got discouraged. It seemed they were looking for a specific kind and mine wasn't it. The only worthy piece I have happens to be the first one i ever did.


I also starting to lose some hope as to whether the reenatype will ever be a recognized photographic process and if i should even continue to do it. It's a lost art, coming from a Polaroid, to a color C-Print, all using chemistry, which makes me wonder about the environment. Not very green of me. That's why it's a guilty pleasure creating this process. I take something, a moment, freeze it, then stretch it as far as the imagination can go with the process. I can't imagine not having a hands on experience making art. Sometimes I used recycled things, sometimes i use new things, but it always produces something unique. The natural give and take, the yin and yang.

Living in an apartment in NYC is not the easiest of art situations either.
1. NO SPACE...to create or store anything. You also have to think twice about using recyclables from around here.
2. NO MOOLA...i know everyone in the world has this problem, but since the invention of digital, which magically happened as I was cast into the film oblivion, is far cheaper and now just as good as film. Imagine, all the cost of film, developing, printing, framing, storing all now held in a tiny little electronic stick.
3. NO MOTIVATION...this is the most important. After years of showing this process and my work, it has still gone unnoticed. The kaleidoscope of prints pile up and i just feel like throwing them away. All unique and special to me, they stay locked up in a box. I don't even know where to put the box.

Review, revise, restore. everything now becoming digital, electronic, recorded...until everything just gets DELETED.

More current Reenatype

First Reenatypes

It's been a while since i've been able to do my process, The Reenatype. It's sorta of a big deal. Since combining my blog with my website, i'm going to try to post more photos. Polaroid is so expensive, so I don't know when I'll be able to make more. Contributions welcome!!!

This is how they looked when i began:



This is the absolutely first successful reenatype. I made this one on 30x40 paper.



Very similar to the first, but I was obsessed at that point.


The color and the texture were the highlight of this one.


A palm tree that I made large and then altered after. This is actually in negative form

Self Portrait when i lived in San Francisco and had long hair.


This is the view of San Francisco from Treasure Island.

The Reenatype

What differentiates the Reenatype print from a traditional photographic print is the process. The source: a Polaroid (not a negative). This process gives the photograph a very unique, individual look. Through all of the advances in photography, the magic of the Polaroid still does the best in capturing “the right moment”...

The “Reenatype” series is a very unique style of photography, a personal process developed after years of experimenting and learning different photographic mediums. I was always amazed at the captured image and how it came to develop. My curiosity grew as I continued to experiment with the art and science of photography. Since the beginning of doing photography I knew that I would push photographic techniques as far as I could, but I have come full circle to where people first saw the instant developed photograph…the Polaroid.

My obsession with Polaroid intensified as I realized how much feeling the image emanated. As my process developed, I sought out more Polaroid cameras with features that added to my technique. Experimentation became an everyday adventure with new results all the time. I developed exactly what I was searching for, to have complete creative control with a hands on process yeilding a one of a kind print (non digital!).

Through this process I have come to be infatuated with, I began capturing the true essence of the world through my eyes. This often included anything that evoked emotion, which is often twisted, warped, and oddly beautiful in a dark sense. It became my goal to convey my vision as I saw it, to have the viewer experience a feeling, an emotion, something that connected one person to another, artist to viewer. Being human means exploring the different areas of the mind and playing with our imaginations.

The Polaroid is customarily contained in it’s small square, a memory frozen, wanting to be immortalized, touched, and remembered. I have figured out a way to break the image out of it's box. I only hope my work will communicate the beauty in which I see the world, unique, wondrous, and beautifully imperfect. In today’s modern day of technology, it is hard to find a hand crafted photograph. This is my contribution to keeping that art alive as well as finding more ways to continue to explore this medium.