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Alex.

Creative. Driven. Empathetic.

Anchorage, Alaska. Summer 2023.

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Kevin & Faye in the Studio

I've known Faye for well over decade and while I can't recall how we met (perhaps she can fill in that gap) I do recall where we met on the fine late-summer afternoon of September 21st, 2012.

San Francisco, The Castro District.

(Click 'Keep Reading' below for that photo)

I had arrived in the city a day or two prior after spending the previous week hitchhiking down from Seattle. Thinking back on it now, I could've done it faster, the hitch that is; Though as much as I was traveling a geographical route I was also traveling a spiritual one. It was a route that had no fixed destination nor any particular cause. I was living.

I've known Kevin for ... well for all practical purposes I met Kevin when he and Faye arrived at the Studio to be photographed. We've crossed paths through various social circles before but we never had that lean in moment of, 'How yurrr doing?" Yet despite that as we began to chat about the photographs we were about to make I found myself feeling as if I knew both of them just as well. I suspect Kevin has been accused of being that person you just recently met yet you feel like you've known for years. After the shoot and on their way out, Kevin shouted out to me, 'You're an artist, Charles!' ... You know how certain words received at a certain time can have a profound impact on a person ... for good or ill? For good, these were some of those words. If you're reading this Kevin, thank you.

'Are you seeing this?' I wanted to ask someone and maybe I did. Maybe I blurted it out. I had stoped walking and was now staring directly across the street at this completely naked old dude who was just casually making his way up the side walk as if he were out for a Sunday stroll in the park. The Full Monty on full display. I had completely missed the memo on this bit of San Francisco. Folks who push the narrative like this, I'm sure, are used to the stares pointed their way and probably can often sense them well before they see them. Surely he noticed my eyeballs fixed on him with a steely tight focus ... head tracking the radius of his movement as he walked by. Though if he did notice, he surely didn't let on. I spent the next few minutes on my phone looking for that memo I had obviously missed. I found it.

Interesting enough only a month later the city of San Francisco banned nudity in public spaces.

As a photographer one of the things I've become adept at picking up on is nuance, particularly the nuance of body language and the story it tells. It is often that I lean in on the narrative of this silent story to inform and direct the decisions I make as a photographer. What I instantly realized about Kevin and Faye is that they share this quirky and magical connection with one another that didn't need direction from me, rather just room to breathe. So if I were to look at the back of my camera just a little too long to 'make adjustments' I knew some variation of their love would was bound to express itself.

And that was my cue to lean in.

// Anchorage, Alaska. Winter 2023.

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8:46PM.

Sundown.

// Anchorage, Alaska. April 2023.

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Published!

In the studio, at the show, or anywhere else for that matter ... always a pleasure catching up with the crew of SHE.

On the images; the first I took using a disposable camera during their September '22, lit af, set at Van's Dive Bar in downtown, Anchorage. In fact, that night I specifically left my gear at home opting instead to let loose and get after it. Having worked with disposable cameras before I was fairly optimistic as I turned in the film. But there's always a nervousness. When I got the roll back my feelings were every thing about the set was perfectly imperfect.

The second image we made last week in the studio as promo for their upcoming June LP drop, Goodpaster. Actually thinking about it now, I have to laugh. I've worked with SHE in the past. In fact they were the first band, strike that second band, I did group shots of. They were catalyst in a bit of photo technique discovery that when photographing groups, find a way to keep the groups heads close to one another. Keeps the eyes focused, and tends to visually come across better. Thinking about that and this last week where one of the shots wasn't working so I ended up moving them about only to discover them in the same arrangement, just a foot off to the left.

lol.

I noticed but they laughed first.

// Anchorage, Alaska. April 2023.

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Artist, David Vano (top), and son Ben Vano w/girlfriend Alysa K. during the opening of David's April 2023 art exhibition at Stephan Fine Arts in downtown Anchorage, Alaska.

Not our first photographs.

I actually met David almost two years ago when I was commissioned to take photographs for the group he was part of. After that I wouldn't see David again until I dropped in on his April 2022 opening at Stephan's where I took of him one of my favorite portraits of 2022.

Several months later, David looked me up about taking senior portraits for his son, Ben. While senior portrait photography isn't my line, I got the impression that our temperaments and style were of the same ilk so we did the thing. And despite pissing off some of the fine folks at the Anchorage Museum we crushed it. Fairly certain, to this day, Ben is still rocking as his avatar the double middle finger portrait I took of him during that set.

Great running into these guys this month and getting an updated for file.

// Anchorage, Alaska. April 2023.

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3000.21 performs at a house show in Spenard, Anchorage. // April 2023.

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I Met Austin, stage name Sole Context, at a house show in Spenard, Anchorage a couple weekends back. After his set I approached curious to know about his inspirations for rap. Soon we got to talking on art and just doing the dang thing and low and behold turns out this was Austins first live performance. Glad to send him a couple frames to remember it by.

// Anchorage, Alaska. April 2023

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Kat // Anchorage, Alaska. October 2022.

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Alisa Marie & Johnny // Anchorage, Alaska. December 2022.

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Father & Daughter duo, Kurt & Julia Reimann in the Studio on New Year's Eve. // Anchorage, Alaska. December 2022.

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Sabrina // November 2022.

#Anchorage #Alaska #Studio #Portrait #Photography

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Anchorage, Alaska. April 16th 2023

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'The Photographer's Eye'

I've told the story about meeting Issam before. It was an interaction that lasted only a handful minutes and yet seven years later here I am looking back at Issam's intent-full gaze and wondering ... where he is, how he is? 

Over the years I've walked up to hundreds of strangers and asked If I could make their portrait. Ball-parking it, I'd say 92-95% of the people I approach allow me the opportunity. And yes, if you're wondering, even though it is an inherent part of the process, it is still a bit of a burn getting turned down. 

Photography, particularly this approach to it, challenges me in the best way. It brings out of me a level of thought, and creativity, and emotion, that pushes me to not only make better images but strive to be a better human. The degree in which my emotional intelligence has grown since picking up a camera is just beyond. Empathy is something I am constantly processing–it is also empathy that gives me a degree of sight. It is a sight that showed me Issam, the human, before the composition of this photograph. I suspect it was why half my communication with Issam was non-verbal. A hand raised in salutation followed followed by a slight yet re-assuring smile and a gesture to my camera. A two hand outline of the composition I had in mind. A nod of assent. We're working. Index and middle finger to my chin with a downward push prompted him to bring his chin downwards leveling his gaze directly at me.

A push of the shutter and a gesture to hold.

Another push of the shutter and a gesture of one more.

The bus is coming, wait for it. Wait for it...

--

After, I asked Issam where he was from. "Sudan" he replied. 

"Wow! How long have you been in Alaska?" I asked. 

He paused as if to calculate the dates, "Two years this December," he replied. With a coy smile and a playful eye-roll look around at our surroundings I asked, "What do you think of Alaska so far?” 

He lifted his right hand, palm faced to the ground, before tilting his hand from side to side as if to say, "so-so".

Downtown, Anchorage. Winter 2015. 

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Bullwinkle // Anchorage, Alaska.

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There is something special about the April light in Anchorage, Alaska. Personally, it is one of my favorite lights. With the warmer spring air filling the Anchorage bowl and the winter snow receeding the April sun, when out, brilliantly torches the evening sky each night as it burns a little longer, a little brighter, and a little further over the West horizon.

Beluga Point, Alaska // April 2018.

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Hoa Nguyen

I photographed artist, Hoa Nguyen, in early October at the Penny Royalty Fashion show in Anchorage, Alaska. She was kind enough to stand in for a light check to which I expressed to her not to worry, 'I'm not going to use these images, just checking light.' The plan was to reconnect later in the evening once I was firing on all cylinders but we ended up missing one another. Of course I had to back track on my prior intent of not using those light-check images and after sending this image over to her she was perfectly fine with it.

A month later Hoa and I hosted a photo exhibition of our fashion portrait photography work with Penny Royalty.

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The day of the dead twins // Anchorage, Alaska. October 2022.