New York and "What are you Listening to"?

Video by Ty Cullen

This video is adorable. In a city where everyone is rushing from one place to another and people don't make casual conversation or talk to strangers on the street, it is reassuring to see people connect momentarily. You get a sense of part of each person's personality as defined through the type of music or artist they are listening to. We get a soundtrack of these people's lives during a moment in time. When I lived in New York my life felt like a soundtrack. Just walking down the street is exciting and feels like music!

Reflections in glass, designer glasses on fashion slaves,
skateboards flippin’, boom boxes and bicycles,
messengers and bakeries
fried food, chicken parmigiana and pizza, gourmet mac ‘n cheese and egg-shaped seats below street level
Walking and smoking - I never could
Asians, Russians, Puerto Ricans, Italians, Armenians, Irish, Africans
Sushi, Greek, Cuban, Haitian, Indian, classic Americana diners
Delis, markets, lights
24 hours, bullet holes and cats, dogs and dogs and dogs
Slush and trash and holy shops
Musical subways, dark and sleepy and pensive
Coats, gloves, scarves
Rain, Soho, all over the world
Relatives, friends, babies’ bundled cheeks
Peking ducks hanging by limp necks in restaurant windows
Fish air, naked trees
Sparkling sidewalks at night

That was, in part, my daily experience in New York. Makes me inspired just thinking about it. Here's another little tale.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU? WHAT GETS YOU LISTENING? WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LOVING RIGHT NOW? WHAT MUSIC LAYS HEAVY ON YOUR HEART?

(Documentary) Photographing Other People's Suffering - Why I Can't.

Earlier today, I was thinking about what it is about me that I can't photograph other people's suffering. Some of the photographers that amaze me, like documentary photographers Robert Capa, George Rodger, and Mary Ellen Mark - whose work, in part, documents wartimes, homelessness, and the hardships among world cultures - put painful or unpleasant images/realities in front of our eyes that are so stripped down that they're purely and simply beautiful.

Austin Photographer - A Point of View

As an Austin photographer, I see alot of photography and other artwork. Not that I go to an extraordinary amount of art shows but I always see it. Art. Frankly, I see more things that I consider artful that aren't created in the usual sense of the word art like photographs, paintings and sculpture are. For example:

Graffiti and Cities

Graffiti and Cities

Graffiti and Cities

Graffiti and Cities

Walking along sparkling sidewalks below dizzying buildings that cast a continuous shadow over whirring streets, I felt like a rock star. Strutting in slow motion. Everyone's a star when the concrete sidewalks have glitter embedded in them. Hot dog vendors, hip hop fans, punk rock kids, businessmen -- they all look like they're in a video. They're part of what everyone thinks of if you've ever dreamed of living and making it in New York. Dive bars, the MoMa, Alphabet City,

GRINDHOUSE Project

I don't know exactly what it is about grindhouse or exploitation films that excites me so much. What disturbs and infuriates me about sexism, stereotypes, violence and racism in real life, pop-culture, and the media is exactly what I find mesmerizing and hilarious in these films. Somehow, I feel empowered watching nymphomaniac stewardess vixens in techni-color.

Austin Wedding Photographer

Austin wedding photographer

I love love. Other than that, here's my approach to photographing weddings: WEDDING PHOTOJOURNALISM. Everyone can pose for the typical portraits but the sentimental moments, fun times, and things that cannot be redone are spontaneous and natural interactions with your friends and loved ones. That's what I capture -- a glance, a barrel laugh, a sweet kiss, a twirl on the dance floor, a flower in your hand, an earring gracefully dancing across your neck,

Vintage Motels

Click the link above for more photos.
As promised, an explanation as to my endless delight with hotels:

Vintage Motels

(No, that's not me. That's my roommate during my first year at UT Austin. That was my shirt.)

I love hotels. My fascination with hotels amounts to my appreciation of these three things: 

Design

Travel

History/Nostalgia

Wrapped up in all of those things are sentimentality, respect for change, romance, creativity, imagination, and grit.