Always Wash Your Hands

“Bathroom Mishaps,” 2007, Hands

For the “Hands” project, we were allowed to take any photographs, providing the subject matter were some form of hands. So, while strolling around a Halloween store, I found this disembodied arm with blood spatter on it and thought to myself, “This would make for a perfect subject for my photos.” This image combines my love for dark, macabre humor–as seen in many of the zombie films I watch, with an interesting play on angles and illusion through the use of the bathroom mirror.

Hand Holding Head Floating

“Old News,” 2007, View from an Inanimate Object

Following up the disembodied hand is an image with even more disembodied parts. “Old News” features a disembodied arm holding a folded newspaper with a woman’s disembodied head printed on it. Shot for the Inanimate Object project, I took this picture from the perspective of a garbage can at a train station. The image evokes a creepy feeling in me–a feeling of dread, as if the woman on the newspaper is some ghost of the past staring back at me.

Cops and Robbers

“Escape,” 2007, View from an Inanimate Object

Stemming from the same assignment as the previous photograph, this image was shot from the perspective of a door. This door happens to be the door to the boiler room at a local elementary school in my home town. The location I was shooting in was actually found by accident, as it was three a.m. and on private, county property; my model and I were taking shots when we saw the headlights of a police car turn into the school’s parking lot. The moment we saw the lights, we ran in the opposite direction from the cops and ducked into a grungy looking stairwell–the entrance to the school’s basement.

Violence is Always the Answer?

“Politik,” 2007, Newark Scavenger Hunt

Never in my life did I think I would ever run around downtown Newark taking photographs. The Newark Scavenger Hunt changed that completely. The image here is the reflection on the windows of a gallery of the street and buildings outside the gallery. It just so happens that the building reflected in the window is a government building which is part of the town hall in downtown Newark. The guns mesh with windows of the building to make a statement about U.S. government decisions in the past few years.

Awkward

“Proportions,” 2007, NJ vs. NY

I enjoy weird photographs that play with your eye and mind. This image, shot from a park in Hoboken, New Jersey, is one of those photographs. The awkwardly similar proportions of the Lamp to the Empire State building to the telephone pole to the tree distort the viewers sense of depth and scale. The fact that the building on the left does not extend past the tree and can mostly be seen through the eye of the tree, adds to this awkwardness.

Natural > Industrial

“Natural Bridge,” 2007, NJ vs. NY

At one point during the New Jersey vs. New York assignment, I visited the Palisades Cliffs by Englewood, NJ. Nearby, lies the George Washington Bridge, a gateway to the Upper West Side of New York City. This photo is of the G.W. Bridge while walking along the road that runs through Palisades Park, contrasting the natural, wooded areas of New Jersey to the industrial, steel and concrete jungle of New York.

As Seen Through Trees

“Golden,” 2007, NJ vs. NY

Like the previous picture, this image was taken to juxtapose the wooded scenery of New Jersey to the iron-wrought entrance to the Big Apple. This image is slightly more straightforward than its predecessor, but I really love the overall compositi on, color balance, and integration of the bridge’s cables with the vegetation around it.

What Lies Below

“Structure,” 2007, NJ vs. NY

Although this photograph was taken during my NY vs. NJ shoot, its purpose was not to juxtapose the two–in fact, I took this photo for myself, without regards for the assignment. This photo is an abstract view of the George Washington Bridge from underneath it. I was drawn to the precise diagonals of the bridge’s skeleton as well as the color contrast between the bridge tower, the deck, and the sky.

By Mistake

“The Birds,” 2007, Monumental

“The Birds” was taken quite by accident at the train station in Whitehouse, NJ. I commute to and from school via the NJ Transit train system daily. On one particular day, I missed my stop and ended up two stations down the line. The sky was a perfect blue, so I decided to photograph my surroundings. The railroad crossing seemed to loom above everything, so I tried to bring out that looming, overpowering, slightly creepy feeling in the image.

Shoreline Solitude

“Fishing,” 2007, Public Places Private Spaces

This image was my submission for the Star Ledger newspaper’s photo contest, “Public Places, Private Spaces.” The photograph was taken at Seaside Heights, New Jersey, at the waterfront. My goal was to capture the solemn privacy of a fisherman earning his living amidst the public, yet empty, Jersey Shore.

Urban Crucifix

“The Watchers,” 2007

During my visit to the Jersey shore in November, I took this photo of a set of windows along a boating supplies building right next to the boardwalk. At first, I was attracted to how the telephone wires played with the slightly angled vertical and horizontal lines of the window frames. After loading the pictures to my computer, I realized that the picture has a much deeper meaning beyond its formalities–the telephone pole acts as a crucifix amongst the telephone wires and windows in this urban setting. The windows look upon the cross as the sun sets on it, ever watching.

Bridge to the Heavens

“Beacon,” 2007, NJ vs. NY

This image was taken at the waterfront of Exchange Place, in Jersey City, of Liberty State Park. The viewer is standing in what seems like a swampy, decrepit area, while the “church” is on a well kept island with the sky opening above it. The bridge leads into the doors of the structure as the parapet leads the viewers’ eyes to the heavens.