Like most everyone in the creative visual space right now, I’ve found myself trying to wrap my mind around the wave of Ai and figure out what it will mean for me professionally. I’ve been experimenting with a lot of the tools and I find that I’m most interested in what Ai can’t do well (yet).
This is an exercise in reimagining the possible roles of actor Nick Offerman in my son's Legos.
I made this photo last week when I stumbled into a view of Liberty that I hadn't seen before. A lot of times the city feels very small to me. Especially since covid, I find myself following the same paths and staying within the East Village. The truth is it is massive and there is no shortage of new ways to see something.
I made this photo last week when I stumbled into a view of Liberty that I hadn't seen before. A lot of times the city feels very small to me. Especially since covid, I find myself following the same paths and staying within the East Village. The truth is it is massive and there is no shortage of new ways to see something.
"People who want to do creative things are generally going to seize the opportunity to do so whenever they can."
- Al Jaffee
Several years ago, I had the pleasure of, along with writer Todd Leopold, spending a couple of days with the geniuses of MAD Magazine when they gathered in Savannah, GA. It was a literal joy to spend time with them. They influenced my outlook as a youth and my adult sense of humor.
My son's first magazine subscription was MAD. I bought him an issue in the grocery store checkout while we were visiting my parents. The new Star Wars was on the cover. He chuckled out loud at so many of the pages and even weeks later, he would just burst out laughing. When I would inquire why he would quote a line from that issue. It made me so happy that I got him a subscription. It still comes every month and when I mentioned to his mother that the magazine was closing, her comment was "It's not because you failed to support them." This is probably true, but it doesn't make me feel any less like we all will be missing out on something special.
I think its influence and irreverence is visible in the funniest things. If you spent time buried in the pages you can recognize it's humor in contemporary comedy, everything from older movies like Airplane and decades of SNL to the funniest of shows on Cartoon Network.
But times have changed. In an article on Reason.com today Brian Doherty writes "Mad continued to deal with real presidents and real issues, and it had been hitting Donald Trump regularly and hard in its newest iteration. Trump insulted Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg by tweeting that America wasn't ready to elect Alfred E. Newman (Mad's goofy mascot who came to appear on every cover) president; Buttigieg purported in his youthful way to not have any idea who Trump was talking about, marking Mad as hopelessly irrelevant."
I understand his point, but I don't entirely agree. I'm certain that Mayor Pete has cracked open a couple of issues of MAD in his day, and MAYBE he didn't know who Alfred E. Newman is,MAYBE, but just because Buttigieg doesn't get the reference doesn't mean that MAD's influence won't live on. It's a lot deeper than that.
I traveled to Colorado to photograph Kimble Musk, the fellow wealthy genius and older brother of Elon Musk. He is obsessed with food and the possibilities of making good and delicious food affordable and accessible. He is surprisingly down to earth and approachable and he is constantly thinking of ways to make more and better food in an affordable way. I love everything the Elon Musk is attempting, but if you asked, well Kimble is my favorite Musk.
I got to travel and photograph the world with Anthony Bourdain.
Sounds like a dream job right? It was.
I traveled thousands of miles to far-off places like Vietnam, Tanzania, and Russia, as well as to places not so far away like South Carolina, Montana, and all over New York City. Along the way I learned to be a better traveler and, hand in hand with that, a better person. I’m thankful for the experience. It’s hard to imagine that I’ll ever have a better job…
