allana April 15th, 2007
Last summer on the long desert drive to Arizona, I heard a short piece on the radio about the growing number of high school mariachi bands. Suddenly I had these images in my head, very avedon-esque, of these teenagers, in their trajes, as musicians. Last winter, while doing a printmaking residency at the School of the Arts at San Diego High School, I met Serafin Parades, the band teacher and leader of one of these groups of teenage mariachi musicians. We talked about me making some portraits of the students, and planned for a few months. I dropped in a few times to listen to them play and to make them comfortable with me.
Here are a few of the portraits. As I said, very influenced by Avedon’s Southwest, and Arnold Newman’s genious use of the shape of instruments to break up negative space. While editing, I was fascinated how the countenance and body language of the students changed when in their trajes and while playing their instruments.
allana April 8th, 2007
Trent and I volunteered to shoot the Hip-Hop Bunny Drop annual egg hunt that The Kroc Center partners with the radio stations Magic 92.5 and Z90.
Most of the kids were in their regular Saturday clothes. One girl had her full-on Easter best dress, heels, and straw hat. Her brother was wearing a tiny seersucker suit. The kids cleaned up thousands of eggs in under a minute. It waas amazing to see how motivated children are by candy.
See the elegance of a nine year old, waiting for the egg hunt to begin:
allana April 7th, 2007
I forgot to post this with all the excitement of the past few weeks. I was accepted into WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association).
a little pat on my own back.
allana April 6th, 2007
Katrina Radojevic. Mixing pieces of her Serbian clothes into her bag of fun outfits. Drinking red wine with me in the studio. Getting into a kind of serious bo-ho energy, then slipping off to Wine Steals.
allana April 2nd, 2007
Gwen and Rick have one of the coolest 13 year olds I have ever met. His bar mitzvah speech compared Moses to his hero Stan Lee, examining the themes of perseverance in the face seemingly unbeatable odds, ethical choices, faith in one’s self, internal moral dilemmas and human fallibility. For his studies he read of lot of Fantastic Four, and a unique jewish perspective in Stan Lee’s heroes and heroines. Wow.
a bit nervous before greeting the crowd
a kiss from a grandmother
words of wisdom from godfather Ramon
