Art Collector JOE BAIO

This weekend i went down to NYC for an art conference.  Along the way I visited collector Joe Baio's house with a group of colleagues.  Let's just say he was amazing along with his partner Anne Griffen.  Let me pass on some information about Joe before going on to everything in his house for those who have never heard of him.  Joe started collecting in 1989 and in 1994 he became a proclaimed collector of photographs.  He, like other people who have a passion for photography started photographing mainly his children and took courses at ICP.  LAter he decided not to pursue it and became a lawyer.  So, Joe hasn't always been at this location near MacDougal Street in the Village.  H emoted here in 2003 and has over 2,000 photographs.  Anne and him put up 200 every year in rotation.  His eye is very keen and exquisite mainly concentrating on adolescence and growing up.  Most of the rooms consists of photographers photographing their children.  He had photographers like Steve Pike, Emick Gowen, my photography advisor Doug Dubois, Alvin Booth and Magnum Photographers like Davidson, Eliot Erwitt  & Arbus.

I have seen mostly all of these images before yet was very impressed with the entire setup.  Each room had a different theme.  I was probably more observant with the owners, Joe and Anne unlike everyone else who were more interested with the photos.  Joe walked around the house talking to everyone in his socks while Anne was in a well fitted dress with boots; comfortable but dressed to host.  They had coffee and donuts for us which I wish I knew before hand so I wouldn't have eaten :) lol.  I enjoyed Anne's company as we both paced the room observing everyone in their focused state of mind not realizing that they were being watched.
(excuse the bad quality photos..my iPad isn't the best picture taker)

Deana Lawson Exhibition

I went to the Deana Lawson Exhibition at the MoMa "The New Photography 2011" on Saturday.  Love this woman!!  Her working procedure is exquisite as she uses her husband to sketch out every idea that she plans on using in a project.  She then finds her characters to play the role and the location.  She explores the African American culture in an almost vulgar yet hard not to intrigue you manner.  Her pieces for this exhibition were "Diva at 73 years old","Daughter","Baby Sleep", "Thai","Roxie and Raquel","Flex" and "Altar".  My favorites were "Diva at 73 years old" and "Daughter".  After her lecture we sat down to the side and spoke.  I had met Deana at her Lightworks exhibition of her whole collection and fell in love with the way she captured her subjects.  We briefly spoke during that time for everyone wanted her attention. While we sat in the MoMa we spoke about her exhibition in Syracuse and everything she was doing now as well as with what I was doing these days. We spoke of my senior thesis and project and the rest goes on until of course people started interupting our conversation.  Hopefully I'll get to see her again soon.

(excuse the bad photos from my iPad)

Mamady Kaba-African American/Guinea

Adil Kaouadji-Kabylie in Algeria/Arabic

Senior Thesis Project

So as many of you know I am a Senior this year..thank God...and I will be working mainly on my senior thesis for the upcoming months.  I will be photographing men of diverse ethnic backgrounds trying to compare their body and facial features to those of a white man.  I am going to photograph men bare from head to waist and head shots to portray this.  I will use the features of different men to create a white mans face and the facial features of a white man to create a man of color's face.  Yes it is a touchy subject but that's what I do.  I'm pretty content with it and lets hope it all goes smoothly.  I'll put some samples up in a few.

The Strange and Opinionated

So.  There will soon be a new feature that is in the works.  I will be starting a journal magazine called "The strange & Opinionated" which will discuss different things ranging from politics, culture, art and everything in between.  This magazine will always be written in journal entry form and will not always only include my opinion on whatever topic is being discussed but other people's as well.  The first one will be coming out the first week of September and will be featuring a few interesting, opinionated people :) peep the logo. The first topic will be how the "American Dream" influences foreign cultures...stay tuned, guys. 

Lunch & Psychic w/ Mr. Burke & Maquella

It sucks that Burke and I haven't seen each other all summer..due to me being busy with my art residency at the Westbeth and my collaboration project. On Thursday, Burke convinced me to meet him at Cafeteria which is a restaurant that definitely makes my top 5 WORST restaurants in Manhattan...haha..why did I go? Two reasons: Burke wanted waffles and what he wants he gets and I hadn't seen him in a while so I said why not. Once I got there...late of course...there was a pretty blue eyed and blonde haired Frenchie sitting with him...Maquella is her name..she's adorable. Any who, our conversation roamed from topic to topic about Burke's pop burger womanizing escapades, my liking for two different men at the moment, my favorite website The Madbury Club that he is a part of and life. After Burke was convinced how bad Cafeteria was and had realized that none of us had finished our food we paid the check and left. Two blocks up we saw a sign saying "Psychic Reading". Of course Burke was against the whole idea as if it were a complete conspiracy...but all in all none of us had ever had our palms read...so we tried it, me being first. Maquella went 2nd and then Burke who was mostly surprised that the lady ended up not to be a gypsy or stitching witch like he had thought. The lady was very accurate. Surprised the he'll out of me with a few things...matter of fact even had Burke not wanting to talk about it :) haha. She was accurate. I highly rexommend she's located on 17th and 6th...enjoy

IM BACK, WITH LOVE OF COURSE

Hello hello hello...how I've missed you all this summer. I've gotten alot of sad,angry and confused emails about the site not being updated. So this is hownit works. This is no longer the primary site but the blog version. I had this urge to make the site into a flash website. I had an art residency at the Westbeth this summer as some of you may know collaborating on a project with artists Sean De Leon and Ellie Simon. It was a pleasure working with them. I ended up with a list of contacts and offers for many more projects during the upcoming year. So I am going back up to school on Wednesday and will be spending most of the year working on my senior thesis...wait for it...I've met alot of new people this summer who I have already or will interview so during the week stay tuned for new interviews and photos etc of what's been going on this summer. Thank you guys for being patient and I won't disappoint :) xoxo, Love.

Dimming Sanity

this is another sneak peak of the Dimming Sanity exhibition coming up this July :) by yours truly.

The D.R. Series

Soalot of you guys have been asking me to keep putting up content from my trip to DR so i'll keep doing so since it is one of the many projects that I am working on.  I'm currently working on a multimedia video for one of my final projects for school. Yes!! I know since when am I working on a project for school ^_^. Here are some more of the photos. Enjoy!