“Amongst the Transmissions”, The Dark Room, St. Louis

This past March, I went to Houston to participate in Portfolio Reviews at FotoFest, my first time attending this huge event. I met many wonderful people while I was there, reviewers and fellow artists alike. One such person was David Johnson. David is an accomplished photographer and teaches photography at both Washington University and Saint Louis University.

A few weeks after FotoFest, David asked me to be part of an exhibition he was curating and I gladly agreed. He specifically requested images from my Seagrass series that are about the ephemeral nature of life and thatI had shared with him in Houston.

Twelve of my images are in the group show (three are below). The exhibition runs from June 26 to August 26. Check it out if you’re in the area!

The Dark Room

615 N. Grand, St. Louis, MO

“Top 40″ Juried Competition Winners Exhibit

I’m very pleased to announce that one of my images was selected to be part of the  2014 “Top 40″ Juried Competition Winners Exhibit at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. The competition was juried by Joanna Szupinska-Myers (Curator of Exhibitions at the California Museum of Photography) and Ryan Linkoff (Parsons Curatorial Fellow at LACMA). The show runs from 6/12 to 7/5, 2014.

The image selected for the show is “Untitled” from my “In the Bedroom” series made in 2009. I haven’t shown this image much but it just continues to grow on me, which is one of the reasons I submitted it to this competition. I’m honored to be part of the show.

LACDA 10-Year Retrospective

I’ve been a Member Artist of the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art for the past few years. I find it a great venue to exhibit my work as it is very modern, dynamic, and cutting edge. As most of my work is made in urban settings and is frequently of an intimate or abstract nature, LACDA seems to be a good fit for me.

LACDA recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary and I, along with fellow Member Artists, had an image in the group exhibition. For this show, I decided to stay local and go with an image I made on the beach in Santa Monica a couple years back. The exhibition ran from 4/10 to 5/24

One-Year Anniversary

This is the one-year anniversary of the blog. When I started it, I told myself, and you, that I would dedicate myself to post something every other week for a year. I’ve held that promise, posting every other Wednesday; I’m very happy about that. It hasn’t always been easy. It’s amazing how fast those Wednesdays can come up! I’ve discovered that I really work better when I have a deadline. Now that it’ been a year, I wholeheartedly plan on continuing with this blog, but will not be making any sort of commitment as to how often I’ll post. I’m looking forward to that kind of freedom and flexibility.

For the enthusiastic movie-lover like me, it’s Oscar season; and with that in mind there are a few people that I’d like to thank. First off, I’d like to thank Page Orb Pedde, without whom, this blog would not be possible. Not only was Page immeasurably helpful in setting this blog up, but she has also been my editor and consigliere throughout the past year. I’m incredibly thankful for her patience, insight, and judgement.

I would next like to thank all of you readers out there who have allowed me to share a bit of my life with you. I know you have busy schedules and are bombarded with constant e-mails, status updates, etc. Thank you so much for making the time to read what I’ve had to say.

Lastly, but far from the least, I’d like to give a very heartfelt thanks to all of you who have not only read this blog but have also taken the extra step of e-mailing me with words of encouragement and support, congratulatory messages, or just using it as an excuse to say “hello” and stay in touch. Like applause to the stage actor, those messages have kept me going through the tough times and have made it all seem worthwhile.

So, to all of you, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

Venice, Italy

The Year Ahead

Happy New Year!

2014 promises to be a busy, fun, and exciting year. In January and February, I’ll be working on my skiing skills and spending some time with great friends and loved ones in Whitefish, Jackson Hole, and various other Western U.S. locales. I’ll also be spending a week in Paris making photographs, seeing art, and visiting my friend, Carolyn.

In March, I’ll be in Venice, Italy leading my first-ever photography workshop. There are still spaces available, so if you or anyone you know might be interested, please let me know. It’s going to be a fantastic time! Here’s the link: Venice Photography Workshop. Upon returning from Venice, I’ll be going to Houston for Fotofest the last week in March. This will be my first time attending this biennial portfolio review event and I’m really looking forward to it. I also hope to attend Paris Photo L.A. in April and Filter Photo Festival in September.

That’s a great start to the year! After that, things should settle down bit. Here is a list of workshops I’ll be assisting for the Rocky Mountain School of Photography:

Basic Photography, Missoula, MT, 5/10-5/16

Olympic National Park, 5/31-6/6

Basic Photography, Missoula, MT, 9/13-9/19

Acadia and the Coast of Maine, 10/4-10/10

I’ll also be giving a lecture at the school on April 15th entitled “Photography as Contemporary Art”.

That’s it so far! Thanks, as always, for reading my blog. I hope our paths cross soon. Here are some images from some projects I’m currently working on:

Series on unconventional views of museums

Painting, this one from Glacier National Park

Series on hotel beds, the morning after

Television, from a yet to be determined series

New series on signage

Series on communication and hope

Your Daily Photograph

On December 8, 2013, one of my photographs, “Frau Zuruck”, from my “Reinventing Berlin” series, was featured in “Your Daily Photograph”. “Your Daily Photograph” is a project run by Duncan Miller Gallery in Los Angeles. Sarah Hadley, of the Filter Photo Festival, is currently serving as the guest curator. Thanks, Sarah!

Your Daily Photograph / Doug Ness

Frau Zurück

Artist Reception in Omaha

There will be an Artist Reception for me this coming Sunday, 12/22. For those of you in Omaha, I’d love for you to stop by! Here are the details:

Sunday, 12/22/13, 5-7 pm

Beebe & Runyan Building in the Old Market section of Omaha

105 South 9th St.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Gift Ideas

As if you didn’t already know, it’s that time of year! Trying to think of heartfelt gifts to give to family and friends this Holiday season? Maybe a little something for yourself? In a shameless bit of self-promotion, please allow me to suggest two gift ideas.

1) From now until December 18th, all prints of my images will be offered at very special, reduced prices. This is my first-ever Holiday Print Sale. It’s an opportunity for you to give the gift of art to adorn a loved ones home or office.  All prints are limited-edition and professionally made. Order early to ensure getting them by Christmas! Feel free to browse my portfolios to see what images are available. There are also many more on this blog from posts made throughout the past year.

2) For that special photographer in your life, there is still availability in my Venice, Italy Photography Workshop this coming March. I don’t know of a better place to make photographs and memories that will last a lifetime. What better gift than that?

Please contact me regarding print prices or if you’re interested in learning more about the Venice Workshop. Below are some examples of my work that have been purchased over the past couple of years. Happy Holidays!

40″x60″ pigment print, mounted to Dibond

40″x60″ pigment print, mounted to Dibond

14″x21″ pigment prints, matted and framed

14″x21″ print, matted and framed

30″x45″ pigment prints, mounted to Dibond

20″x30″ pigment print, mounted to Dibond

30″x45″ pigment print, flushmounted

30″x45″ pigment print, flushmounted

Into the Wild: My Puppy, Lightroom, and Me

I’ve long held a romantic notion of going to a cabin in the woods and getting my catalog of 50,000 images better organized. The idea, of course, is to get away from all of the distractions of everyday life and concentrate on a singular project. I think of writers and musicians who have done similar things, and I think of Thoreau. I also think of students and professionals getting away, if even to a hotel room in town, to study for the Bar Exam, Series 7, GMAT, or other important tests. So last week I did just that. I, along with our 4-month old puppy, Elsa, rented a cabin in Sula, Montana, and worked on image management for three days.

Sula is just an hour-and-a-half drive from Missoula, down through the Bitterroot Valley along the Lewis & Clark Trail, but feels like a world away. What’s most sticking there is how intensely quiet it is; remarkably dark at night, and quiet day and night. With no cell phone coverage and some spotty WiFi, it was the perfect place to do the work I wanted to do. Being 80 miles south of Missoula and 50 miles north of Salmon, ID, it’s really in the middle of nowhere. That said, my cabin was a stones throw away from Highway 93, the Sula General Store, and a Conoco station, so “into the wild” might be stretching it a bit.

A couple of the highlights of our stay there were taking Elsa for a run on a winding gravel road up in the mountains with a creek running beside us, grilling brats over an open fire at night, and a prime rib dinner at the Naughty Moose, just 10 miles up the road. Simple life, out there, and I couldn’t sit in front of the computer all day long!

And after a few days there, I had completely revamped the way I organize my folders and images in Lightroom. For those interested, I changed from organizing folders by dates to by geographic locations, which makes much more sense for how I think of my photography.

Little mini-adventures like this are one of the reasons I love living in western Montana. I hope to get back again soon!

My workstation

Elsa would chill while I worked

Our Walden Pond

The Sula Store

Oh, our little Elsa

Brats on the fire

Cabin kitchen

Fetching views

At work

The Sula school