Deb's and My Wedding and Honeymoon

On September 28, 2019, Deb Kmetz and I got married! The next day we left for Yellowknife, NT in Canada for a unique and amazing honeymoon. The above photographs were made by Kyo Morishima Photography, Metuchen, NJ. My daughter, Melissa Aaron, supplied the cake topper, bought from an Etsy shop. The cake came from AwesomeYo’s Kitchen, also in Metuchen. In all of the photo gallery, click on the right photograph to advance to the next image.

One of the reasons for going to Yellowknife was to see the Aurora Borealis. We were lucky to see active displays four of the six nights we were there.

We also took a drive on the Frontier Trail, Highway 3, about half way from Yellowknife to Fort Providence to see the wild Wood Bison found there. Again, we lucked out and saw many in the grasses next to the road.

There was much else in the area, including some eagles and interesting scenery. For the two photographers we are, we were thrilled with this experience and hope to return in the future.

A New Experience

For almost 11 years, I’ve been doing a great deal of my work with art models. The above image was made at the first session, and was exhibited several times. Much of this involves me hiring these people, mostly women, to make images I want, in my own vision. Although the majority of these sessions are my concepts, as you see in the pages on this site, I am always willing to try things they suggest, especially since many of them are more experienced posing than I am photographing. Through this I developed my style of running a studio or location, generally easy going and fun. I also have cultivated a reputation as someone who is reliable and professional.

I was recently contacted by a model who I had photographed twice. She had posed for a drawing session during which a non-model woman, an artist and dancer, spoke to her about having some nude photographs made and if she could recommend a photographer. The model recommended me! I felt honored, but a bit nervous about being hired to photograph someone the way she wanted, using my skills. We found a date of mutual availability, deciding to use the studio where I am a member.

As I suggested she brought some variety of wardrobe for images in addition to the posing nude. As often with someone new, it took a few minutes to get into a rhythm. We made quite a variety of photographs, silhouettes, clothed, lingerie, as well as some nude. As a dancer and yoga instructor, she was able to move into poses which we fine tuned by looking at the camera LCD screen. In the end she commented that I made the process, and being photographed in this way, comfortable, which to me was a humbling compliment. She even commented that she might send some friends my way. It was also interesting for me to not be fully in control of the photographs we made. I enjoyed the process and result as much as she did.

Maybe I need to do more sessions like this.

July-August 2019 Trip

In late July and early August, 2019 Deb Kmetz and I traveled to Boulder, CO to visit friends then onto Sedona, AZ to attend the 2019 Sedona Hummingbird Festival. In addition to seeing much of the beautiful landscape in both places, we did see, and photograph hummingbirds as well as a few other species. In addition to the images here, they and many others are in a folder off of my home page. Click on the photograph above to see more.

Published Photographs

I found out that several photographs I made, as part of my work with the Metuchen Downtown Alliance, were published in the first edition of “Discover Middlesex County”. The publication highlights communities all over the county. Several of my photographs were used to highlight Metuchen, especially the Downtown District. You can find them on pages 46 and 47!

Mid-2019 Catch Up

I’ve gotten so bad at posting these blog entires. I really need to get back to doing them more often. One thing I’ve been up to is experimenting with is infrared photography, like in the image above.

I am excited to post that I have had work accepted into two more exhibits.

The first will be the Studio Montclair Members Show, “State of the Art 2019”. My image “Ripples” will be on display there June 28, 2019 until August 9. The opening will be June 28 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm.

Here is an installation view made at the opening.

In Autumn, 2019, Transformation Gallery at The Old Franklin Schoolhouse in Metuchen, will house “Hope”. My image “Hope for the Future” was accepted for that exhibit. I’m not sure when the opening will be, so I’ll post again when I know.

Enjoy the summer. I have a little travel coming up and will post the result of that.

Another Juried Exhibit

I found out that I was accepted into another exhibit. The Southeast Center for Photography in Greenville, SC started a membership program and decided to do a Members Show. The juror, Polly Galliard, selected this photograph of Anoush Anou, which I titled “Covered”. The exhibit opens on Friday, January 4. If the location sounds familiar, it is the same place that I showed last November. I am quite excited, and humbled, to have been selected for there again.

Fall, already!

I can’t believe we are about to arrive at the end of Summer, 2018. WOW, where did it go?

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This continues to be a terrific year. Deb and I spent a week in Cape May around July 4th. It was so much fun, good food, time in the ocean, and lots of fun activities and tours, including fireworks from both a boat and the top of the Cape May Lighthouse.

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We also attended workshops at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine. I’ve always studied with great photographers, this year I had the honor of attending “Intimate Portrait” led by Joyce Tenneson. She was fascinating as well as a lot of fun. In addition to the classroom and photography time, we got to see her work space in her home and a personal walk-through of an exhibit she had in Rockland, Maine. Our group worked well together and are keeping in touch.

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Since returning I have continued photographing in my body abstraction series as well as portraits and fashion images, working on building that portfolio.

I was also pleased to be accepted into a group exhibit at Transformations Gallery for their Doors, show. I am also now photographing some local public art installations for the Metuchen Downtown Alliance, both as they are being created and after completion.

It looks like the Fall will be no less busy, so stay tuned.

Summer is Coming!

As a photographer, this post will be almost all words. 

Dual Vision came down a few weeks ago. It was a great opportunity for my partner, Deb Kmetz, and I to showcase work we made, curated, framed, and hung together. One photograph sold, but it was seen by all the people who passed through the Old Franklin Schoolhouse, in Metuchen, since January, and there were a lot! We tried to attend many of the public events and got some terrific feedback.

We were also part of two group exhibits organized by Charu Bakshi and her Earth Studios. We again sold work in those exhibits. We hope to be involved in more of those soon. We are also in an exhibit that was part of the Metuchen Art and Music Festival, the revised Junebug ArtFest, in the Rotunda Gallery at Metuchen Borough Hall. MetFest, as it became known, was a great success. I again organized the visual artists and made photographs during the 10 hours of the festival.

My work with models continues. I have updated many of my galleries on this site with current work. Deb and I will be doing some traveling soon including a trip to Maine Media Workshops where I will study portraiture with Joyce Tenneson, who juried the exhibit in South Carolina I was in back in November, while Deb attends one dealing with connection to place.

There is more to come, some photography wise and some personal. That will wait for another day!

Catching Up!

Life really has been busy! After 41 1/2 years at my day job, I retired in December. Since then there has been a lot going on, all good.

I have been involved in two amazing exhibits. One, "Dual Visions", is a joint exhibit with my partner Deb Kmetz. It contains 18 photographs we made during our trip to the Palm Springs Photo Festival in May, 2017. Originally we expected to show how two people can be together yet produce quite different work. In the end we found that the work has much more in common. The exhibit opened in January and continues until the end of April, 2018.

I was also selected to submit an image to a local exhibit, "Return to Love" at Earth Studios. My photograph, "Love Emerges from Darkness", received much interest at the opening. That exhibit will be until the end of February.

I have also been continuing my work with models. Use your cursor to scroll through these images.

And of many local events and area landscapes. Use your cursor to scroll through these images.

There are many interesting things on the horizon. More about those as they get close or occur.

... yet another exhibit! (Image and some links contain nudity and are NSFW)

For a few years I vowed to start entering more exhibit opportunities. As I mentioned in recent blog posts, I've had some success this year. As an artist with the usual impostor syndrome fears, this seems quite impossible.

At the end of July I saw a call from the Southeast Center for Photography for an exhibit titled "Intimate Portrait". The juror for this was Joyce Tenneson, the amazing portrait photographer and teacher. I decided to enter and see what would happen.

Today I received notification that she accepted a nude, natural light portrait of model Keira Grant, a regular subject of mine, titled "Keira Backlit". 

The photograph was made early in the morning on the private property of Chris M. Day, a photographer from Monroe Township, NJ. 

For those living nearby, the opening will be on Friday, November 3, 6:00 - 8:00 pm at the Center.

Since I originally wrote this, the Center has posted all of the photographs on their web site.

The 2017 Junebug ArtFest

I realized that I had never posted about this year's Metuchen Junebug ArtFest. It was another successful year for the festival with good crowds, even on the week when it rained while we had the street closed.

My personal highlight was winning first prize in the Curators' Choice of the store Windows Gallery. As last year, when I got third prize, two Metuchen residents, who are museum curators, judged the 22 windows and awarded prizes to the top three. This was quite an honor and was completely unexpected. The images were of the ruins at Salton Sea Beach, just after sunrise. In the chaos of the ruins, the morning light revealed an odd sense of beauty. I have submitted these photographs to other contests so I'll see if others feel the same about them.

A New Exhibit

I received word today that one of my photographs, above, was accepted into an exhibit at Nails in the Wall, the gallery at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Metuchen, NJ. For their fifth anniversary show they chose the theme "GOD in the abstract" and used outside jurors for the first time. Phoebe Pollinger, owner of PMP Art LLC, an art consulting firm, and Harry Simon, owner of the Simon Gallery, had the task of reviewing 300 entries and selecting around 30 for the exhibit. The photograph, of Hanna, is titled "Let There be Light".

The exhibit will open on Saturday, September 23 with a reception from 2:00 pm until 5:00 pm at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 17 Oak Ave. Metuchen, NJ 08840. I look forward to discussing the photograph with many of you then.

Palm Springs Photo Festival, 2017

In early May, Deb Kmetz and I attended the Palm Springs Photo Festival in California. It offered us a chance to not only participate in many different conference events, but also the opportunity to photograph unique landscapes, very different from those near our homes in New Jersey.

Arriving on the Saturday before, we got up early the next morning, although not too difficult since our bodies were still on New Jersey Time, to photograph sunrise at the Salton Sea. It is a beautiful but odd place that led to many terrific images.

I attended a workshop with Greg Gorman, a photographer of celebrities and art nudes. His instruction and critiques were terrific. Even in the short period we were together I believe we all learned quite a bit. Deb studied with Brooke Shaden, another of the fantastic presenters who were all so giving of their time.

The week ended for us with a trip to Joshua Tree National Park, another for sunrise. This is a location where everywhere you go the view is different, and also beautiful. In the end we spent about 12 hours in and around the park. Before leaving for the flight home we also visited a local botanical garden where I made my first hummingbird photographs, a subject that is a passion for Deb, and took a ride on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which offers another unique experience.

I have added a gallery to the main part of this site with many more photographs of all parts of the trip.

The Unusual Exhibit Opportunity, Revisited

In the end only the photograph above wound up in the initial exhibit. However, it tuned out pretty good in the end.

The next exhibit went up this past week. The original image has remained in the space and the two above were added. These are both of Theresa Manchester, another professional model with whom I worked quite a few times. She is also a terrific photographer so please check out her photographs.

I'm already in conversation with the curator about work to hang for the next exhibit, sometime this fall.

An Unusual Exhibit Opportunity

Last Autumn, the employee cafeteria where I work was rebuilt. When it opened the dining room was full of beautiful abstract art. The artist, Mariyah Sultan, is a part-time employee of the company and is also responsible to curate future exhibits in the space. The first of these is a photography group show of work by employees. After a period of working out what work and sizes would be accepted, those of us participating will be delivering photographs this week. I will have two pieces in the exhibit.

The first is an abstract composition of a doorway of an old, currently abandoned, building at Sandy Hook, NJ, made in May, 2016. We decided it actually worked better cropped and rotated and will be presented 11"X17", plus the frame which the company will provide.

The second is part of a series I am working on of body elements of models with incense smoke. This one, of Erica Jay was made in June, 2016. It had been her suggestion to use incense smoke some months earlier, so I finally had the opportunity work on this with her. This image, presented 16"X20", again plus the frame, was one of the last of that session. This is a size I can not print at home, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the image works at that scale.

I am excited for this opportunity. If they decide to have an opening, to which I can invite people, I'll post about that.

Two Recent Sessions

As I get back into creating new work with models, I recently reconnected with two professionals with whom I hadn't photographed in a while. 

I first met Zoë West during a workshop at The Center for Photography at Woodstock in 2012. She had already been modeling for some time and we got along well. We have created together privately several times since. Our new work was done in her apartment in Kingston, NY.

At a series of group photography sessions, held for many years in Metuchen, NJ, I met Rebecca Lawrence in early 2009. After working together there several times we began doing private sessions. Much of that was at the studio I use regularly. For this shoot we decided to use a different location, Fovea Studios, in Brooklyn, NY.

One of the things I realized, is how important it is to create with paid, professional models and more than just once. Paying models allows me to make the images I want, although model input is always welcome. The model is more present being treated as the professional most of them are. With multiple collaborations I find a comfort and trust that allows for more interesting creativity. I look forward to more of these as well as first sessions with models new for me.

It's Been a While :-(

It has been since July when I last posted, sorry, but there has been a lot going on. I sold my house and moved to a terrific apartment in Metuchen, NJ. This puts me closer to the arts community I have grown to love. I also went through a medical issue that is now behind me. I also have something very personal that is fantastic!

In August I attended another workshop at the Maine Media Workshops. "The Narrative Portrait" with Amy Arbus was an incredible learning experience. Her direct and informative critiques has fired up a love of story telling through portraiture. I am looking for subjects so feel free to let me know, through the form on my contact page, and we can talk about setting something up.

Since things have settled down I have been photographing again with some new work on most of the pages on this site. Please browse through them and see what you can discover.

I now have some work hanging at Cai's Cafe in Metuchen so please take a look when you are there enjoying their terrific coffee, hot chocolate, and treats.

I have another exciting opportunity, which I will talk about when it is finalized :-)

The 2016 Metuchen Junebug ArtFest

This was an exciting year for me at the annual Metuchen Junebug ArtFest. For a couple of the weeks I photographed the events, many posted on the event web site, and others I had my usual sidewalk display as you can see in the photograph above, made by Deb Kmetz.

In addition, I showed some work in the Metuchen Public Library Gallery and in the Main Street Metuchen window of Carpet Maven II. As in the past, the participating Window Galleries are involved in several awards. One of these, the Curators' Choice, is judged by Sharon and Chris Atkins, Metuchen residents for the past three years and curators at major regional art museums. My display received the third place award. The images involved are shown above (please click on them to scroll through all six). In commenting on this selection Sharon and Chris wrote "We were struck by Mark’s delicately abstracted photography of details of the human body. We especially enjoyed his focus on hands – as central to his display at Carpet Maven, and as vehicles for exploring craftsmanship more broadly." Needless to say, this is a great honor and I am thrilled with the recognition. I hope to meet with them soon to express this in person.

Exquisite Corpse

I am honored to have this photograph of Shasta Wonder included in the Maine Media Workshop book "Exquisite Corpse Volume Two: Extended Play". For more information about the concept and the book, and to order your own copy, click on the book title.

This is very exciting. I look forward to seeing my own copy of the finished book to see this photograph relating to the others submitted.

Some Old Ideas Return

Note that some images below contain nudity and are NSFW.

As 2016 seems to rush by, I have been collaborating with a number of models I've worked with before. This has me revisiting some ideas I started playing with before in addition to continuing on my portrait studies.

After experimenting with candle smoke in January, I wondered how it would work against the bodies of my subjects. Erica Jay, a model and friend, suggested trying smoke from incense since it was longer lasting and has no open flame. It also leaves the studio smelling great. As you can see in the images above it has been interesting. The lighting is the trick and is still evolving, so stay tuned for more.

I also have always been interested in silhouettes. With some better tools, and more experience, I decided to give them a try again. The above, click through to see them all, are a few examples of recent attempts.

With many more sessions booked in the next few months, I look forward for more of these and whatever else comes into my head.