I’m traveling for the next week or so and may take time away from the blog. I’m looking forward to hitting the road and seeing what the weather brings.

Birds, New York, New York, 2010

Louie Palu is a photojournalist currently based in Afghanistan. I highly recommend watching his Unconventional Warfare podcast series created with the Atlantic as well as his Garmsir Marines series.

U.S. Marine Lcpl. Preston “Bukkake” Calkins © Louie Palu

Powerful. Make sure you watch the entire video.

Maya Lin – Unchopping a Tree.

I have had three remarkable experiences with bald eagles that I can remember, and each one is unique.

The first was when I moved to Maine during the summer of 2006. I was settling into managing the digital services at the Maine Media Workshops (then the Maine Photographic Workshops) and meeting news friends, photographers, and film makers. It was an exciting time as I had just left college and was about to begin a new chapter of my life. One beautiful, sunny, Saturday afternoon a bunch of friends and I went to Megunticook Lake. We dropped our inflatable tubes in the water, paddled away from shore, and moments later a bald eagle flew maybe 15 feet above our heads, so close we could hear the wind against it’s wings.

(Photo by Juli Lowe from that day)

The second was when I was living in a rustic trailer along the St. George River in Cushing, Maine from September 1 – December 24, 2008. It was both romantic and brutal at times; the former because it was very private and literally next to the tidal river, and the latter because there was no insulation. I was fortunate, though, as a landlord friend, Colin, was letting me stay in the trailer free of charge, minus electricity.

In the morning I would walk next door to another house Colin owned, a summer vacation rental. The house had a walkout basement and Colin had given me a key to use the downstairs toilet and tub anytime no one was renting the property. One morning I was walking next door through a small path in the woods that connected my trailer to the house. Above my head I heard a loud tree branch break. At first I had no idea what was happening. Then I saw an enormous bird flying away with a large branch in it’s talons. It was a bald eagle. It flew a hundred feet or so to a tall pine tree that stretched out across the river where it was construction a beautiful nest.

Realizing the nest was there, I started paying closer attention and discovered there was not one bald eagle but two nesting bald eagles. After this discovery I would often see them soaring above the river, spreading their wings and looking for food. I visited the trailer again this summer and had lunch with Colin. He told me the nesting pair went onto have fledglings (baby bald eagles). I still find it wild to think about.

(the trailer after a large snow storm a few days before Christmas, 2009)

The third was just now while riding the Mega Bus back to Syracuse to finalize a book we’re creating for my upcoming Uganda: A River Blue exhibition at Anastasia Photo. We’re driving on Route 17 and crisscrossing the Beaverkill River as the driver navigates bumps, uneven pavement, and everything else needing to be done to keep us, his passengers, safe.

Moments ago I received news from friend I worked with the same summer I saw my first memorable bald eagle in Maine. Right after receiving this news, the bus crested a hill and at the top was a bald eagle sitting on a branch hanging over the road, taking in the landscape on this cloudy but beautiful winter day.

A few months back I had a photograph from my Alebtong, Uganda series featured on Flak Photo. Shortly thereafter, Terri Saul, an artist raised in Los Angeles and now living in Berkley, California, contacted me about creating a painting inspired by the photograph. I was flattered that someone would want to make a painting based on one of my photographs.

Terri and I started exchanging emails and have since become good friends. She and her boyfriend now own a photograph from my Alebtong, Uganda series and I own her painting Stand Back Sibley. It’s a beautiful painting that I identify particularly well with; a man standing on top a mountain examining the wilderness that surrounds, thinking every and all thoughts that come in these moments.

See and purchase Terri’s work here.

Terri’s interpretation of Luggard, Alebtong, Uganda, 2009

Stand Back Sibley by Terri Saul

Photograph Magazine is an terrific resource for current and upcoming exhibitions, private dealers, intriguing writings about contemporary photography, and much more.

Pick up a copy of the January/February 2010 issue and check out the announcement for my upcoming Uganda: A River Blue exhibition at Anastasia Photo.

Ethan Jones and I had the remarkable pleasure of creating Pause, to Begin with our epic team.

In conjunction with the Pause, to Begin exhibition at Booksmart Studio in the spring of 2009, we produced a color, 108 page catalogue and it’s now available for purchase. All of the sewing, gluing, and binding has a one-of-a-kind touch: the human hand. It’s truly beautiful and not to be missed.

Artists: Matthew Gamber, Tealia Ellis-Ritter, John Mann, Colin Blakely, Shawn Records, Thomas Prior, Hin Chua, Sonja Thomsen, Brea Souders, Timothy Briner, Alejandro Cartagena, Erika Larsen, Matthew Eich, Shannon Johnstone, Shawn Gust.

Additional contributors: Ethan Jones, David Wright, Susan Morelock, Joyce Tenneson, John Paul Caponigro, Cig Harvey.

Hand-bound book, ISBN 0-9765368-9-7
108 pages, 9.5 x 6.375 (in), 24 x 16.25 (cm)
Edition size: 500
Type of printing: digital, color.
US$31.99 + shipping.

Purchase the book through our publisher, Booksmart Studio.

Richard Oculi was a wonderful goat shepard and agricultural worker at A River Blue, the non-profit I worked with in northern Uganda. He was a great, gentle man and was always willing to help without being asked. I was informed that Richard recently passed away due to a supposed chronic lung infection.

Richard, you will be missed. Rest in peace, my friend.

Richard, Alebtong, Uganda, 2009

I had breakfast with the great folks from Luceo Images while in New York last week. They’re having their first show in New York with MJR. It’s a one-night only event so add it to your calendar. Details:

25CPW, January 21, 2010, 6-10PM, 25 Central Parkwest at 62nd Street

Luceo Images (minus Daryl Peveto, the newest member)

Ethan Jones and I visited Tim Briner in the spring of 2008 while traveling across North American to speak with selected photographers about their work for Pause, to Begin.

Tim had literally just finished making photographs for his series, Boonville, and we spent a night camping in Point Reyes National Park interviewing him about the work, talking about photography, eating hamburgers and hot dogs, and drinking beers.

Boonville is currently on display at Daniel Cooney Fine Art and while in New York I had the pleasure of seeing the exhibition with Tim. The images and prints are remarkable, and seem particularly appropriate right now given the ebb and flow of America. Visit Daniel Cooney Fine Art for more information. The exhibition is a must-see if you’re in New York.

In the last picture is Tim making pictures of his Boonville book.