Quite possibly the most nerve-wracking experience of my life, thus far — at least amongst those of my own choosing, I’ve just submitted my application to Duke University’s Masters in Fine Arts – Experimental and Documentary Art. Wish me luck.

This Wordle was built using the text of my statement of purpose — the hardest 2 pages I’ve ever drafted.

No, I’m not photographing real-estate. This is a glimpse at a new project I’ve recently begun. The excessive numbers of surplus existing homes crowding the housing market has been cited as one of the major forces behind the slow pace of the economic recovery.

I was surprised to find, that even in the relatively-moderate income county which I call home, that there was a large number of relatively-new houses for sale, whose asking prices were in excess of triple the median home price and which have been on the market for the better part of a year.

This project, Extraordinary [Surplus] involves ‘portraiture’ of these houses. The aim not to document their grandeur, but simply to put a face on the most extraordinary examples of the excess housing market.

Last night was incredibly clear (and cold), so I was inspired to dig out the TC-80N3 and play with some long exposure starlines. This image is the result of a 30 minute exposure. Tonight, I’ve set-up a 3 hour exposure. It should be done around midnight.

Although I rarely made photos using it, I mourned the passing of Kodachrome. Kodak’s bankruptcy has made me realize just how quickly I transitioned from practically 100% film to essentially 100% digital.I’ve got unopened rolls of T-MAX that are 6 years past their expiration date.  :-/

For more information and to support my project, TwinLens: An Exploration of the Art Nude & Global Culture, visit: kck.st/ugIscw

A video experiment with Kristen Surban.

Part of TwinLens: An Exploration of the Art Nude & Global Culture.

Have you been wondering what all this “TwinLens” stuff is?

It’s my attempt at mashing-up art and social science research to document and artistically explore the models’ motivations and cultural attitudes and to provide a primer on modern art theories as they pertain to the female art nude in photography.

TwinLens began as an experiment to tell a story through two different visual mediums.

It was one of those ‘hm, that’s a cool idea,’ thoughts that rarely, if ever, gets written down, let alone actually started.

As the project has rolled along, I realized that to increase the demographic breadth, I would need to work with traveling, professional art models, in addition to those professionals, amateurs and aspiring-professional models closer to home, which has caused the project costs to skyrocket…

Which is why I’ve launched a Kickstarter project to fund the completion of TwinLens: An Exploration of the Art Nude & Global Culture. Visit the project to lend your support and help spread the word.

I’ve finally gotten around to updating the portfolio system, dropping the useful, but clunky flash-based slideshow for a much more elegant and easy to update system called “Galleria.”

Above: Prolific alt-model Cam Damage during a recent TwinLens shoot.

Magnum Emergency Fund photographer, Sohrab Hura speaking at the John Hope Franklin Center, on Duke University’s campus in Durham, North Carolina.

Sohrab and I spent most of yesterday together, touring Duke’s Nasher Museum. Of the things we spoke about, the most striking was his notion that the worst thing that could have happened to his work, was him becoming known as a ‘Photographer,’ rather than just someone who happened to take photographs.

I’ve been struggling to update my portfolio, out of fear that I’m not an artist (a title which I feel conveys a certain level of pretentiousness when it comes to most photographers), or even a photographer. But maybe that’s not for me to decide, or even be concerned about. So, it’s about time that I actually update my portfolio…

Part of an amazing shoot with Model/Photographer extraordinaire Rebecca Lawrence.