EM:  Occupation and Position.
Photographer

EM:  What neighborhood do you closely identify with?  What makes your community so unique?
I currently live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but I think the things that I love about it the most are the parts that remind me of Austin, Texas, and the neighborhood around South Austin specifically where I lived for 3 years after college. I hope to have the chance to live there again someday, but for now it’s nice to be surrounded by people that really inspire me creatively and are doing work I find really interesting — not just in photography, but also in music, writing, fashion, anything really. Austin is a great place, but straight chillin is a top priority on everyone’s to-do list there and I worried if I didn’t get out I just might freeze!!

EM:  What’s the greatest item that you found at your local garage/estate sale?
I found this great old American flag in Austin at a car repair shop turned junk store that has hung over my bed for the past few years. I think it gives me strange dreams which make sleeping a bit more exciting.

EM:  If you could interview one unsung hero, who would it be? Why?
It would probably be Magnum photographer Eli Reed who is currently a faculty member at the University of Texas where I studied for a few years. He was somewhat of a mentor to me while I was there and is a photographer who truly cares about the individuals he photographs on a level much deeper than to simply tell their stories or for his own recognition. He would approach photographing Tupac or Russell Crowe with the same attention and enthusiasm as he would a person he met on the street. He really teaches that work should be inspired out of a compassion for the human struggle and not by ones own ego, something that is lost on many artists and journalists especially those working at his level.

EM:  What’s your favorite youtube video.
It is easily this Dee Brown no-look dunk clip from the 1991 Slam Dunk Contest:

I just watched it 5 times in a row answering this question!  It’s soooo goood!
Nothing like that clip to pick you up when you’re down.

EM:  Where are your favorite local spots to eat?

There is this great dumpling joint in Chinatown called Shanghai Café that I try to get to a few times a month. I’m also a big fan of Caracas, this Venezuelan restaurant in Williamsburg and also in the East Village. I really like Taim in the West Village when I feel like being healthy. This Mediterranean restaurant called Tanoreen in Bay Ridge is also delightful, but a bit of a trek. And….just about anywhere with cheese fries on the menu.  

EM: What songs are at the top of your playlist at this very moment?
There’s a couple people that I saw last week during CMJ on there: Patrick Watson, who is pretty great, The xx and Heavy Trash which is Jon Spencer’s more recent band. A few Pulp greatest hits are on there as well as an Atlas Sound album a friend just sent me. Johnny Cash, Elvis, Dolly Parton, The Byrds, GNR, Les Paul et al. are never too far from the top of any playlist as well. I also listen to a lot of podcasts  — I’ve recently gotten hooked on The Sound of Young America. It’s put out by this guy who is pretty awesome at what he does, Jesse Thorn, a friend of one of my good buddies from Austin. Check it out! He actually owns the url: maximumfun.org

EM:   What is your current bedside read?
I often read my computer in bed — and occasionally fall asleep on it so I guess that’s my bedside read.  Does that count? Some pop non-fiction books, too? Any magazine I can get my hands on – usually ones stolen from work.

EM:  What is your favorite city to visit when you travel abroad? And why?
I like most cities I’ve visited, but I’d prefer not to go to the same place twice if I could go somewhere new instead.  India is where I’d like to go next — I am trying to collaborate with some of my writer friends on a project out there and make one of them go with me.
Of past travels, I went to the Arctic Circle on a grant five years ago which was pretty rad and wouldn’t mind going back there again.  It was light 24 hours a day!

EM:  What new projects you are building on right now?
I just started working on a project about the end of the world — or what I imagine that world to look like if I woke up one morning and everyone was gone.  It’s more conceptual than work I’ve done in the past and I think somewhat inspired by living in two major metropolises in the past year (New York and Hong Kong) where it is hard to see nature amid all the man-made structures and hard to find space where you are truly alone.  I really love walking home by myself late at night because you almost get that post-apocalyptic feeling.  I’ve also always been really obsessed with death and dying — I think in part because when I was growing up, both of my parents were afflicted with serious health problems and I was always afraid I’d lose one of them.  I think this obsession is something that’s made me really drawn to photograph, because I think I believed that if I could document life happening then maybe it wouldn’t slip away so fast and I could have some sort of control over everyone’s mortality.

I’d like to get back to that town in the Arctic as well — Nunavut — if it hasn’t melted away in the next 5-10 years.  If I can get money for it again, I’d love to do more serious work on the effects of global warming up there.  I went there a week after getting my first digital camera in 2005, and needless to say, the digital learning curve is steep, so it’s pretty painful to look back at those images and see what could have been.  I’d like to continue my Disney work at all the parks towards a book  — Tokyo, Paris, Florida, and the new Shanghai resort that’s slated to open in 2014 are all on the list. Space Mountain here I come!

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