What a year it has been thus far, here is a brief synopsis in bullet form:
- Off to a busy start.
- Lots of studio time recording great musicians.
- Countless hours playing and watching basketball.
- SXSW (!!!!!), 43 bands in 4 days on crutches mind you.
- Photos in Recording Magazine.
- True love lost.
- Two page spread in 48HR magazine!
- Way too many airports.
- Lots of documentary/production work.
- Analog photo = 97.25%; digital photo = 2.75%
So much more really, but my focus this year has been on being offline, creating images by hand and building my body of work. Hence, this place has become rather neglected, and soon it is going to be sealed as a memorial of moments passed. I have created a mountain of work this year and am in the process of putting together a proper way for it to be viewed.
In the meantime, here are a few contact sheets for you to enjoy...
PEACE to you all!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Well Hello There
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Death Is The Most Important Band You Have Never Heard Of
Originally comprised of the three Hackney brothers - Bobby, Dannis and David, the band Death has to be the greatest musical re-discovery in recent history. Punk without even knowing it both sonically and symbolically, Death was doomed to obscurity when refusing Clive Davis' (of Columbia Records) request that they change their name. They pressed 500 copies of a 7 song EP on their own Tryangle records then disbanded the band by moving away from Detroit.
Brother David passed of cancer in 2000, but before his passing he urged his brothers to hold on to the master tapes, as one day "the world would coming looking for them."
David's prediction came true and more than thirty years later, thanks to the help of Drag City records, Death has been resurrected in the form of re-issue of the original 7 song EP, …For The Whole World To See. Death has since enjoyed a new found and quite unexpected bit of fame, the New York Times called them "the band that was punk before punk was punk," and Mos Def has a documentary about them in the works.
Uber hip music festival Fun Fun Fun in Austin hosted one of their select few reunion shows, I was lucky enough to hang with the guys before they hit the stage and shoot their set. Links to music and articles after the (hand developed)photos.
NYT Article.
Guardian UK.
Mos Def doco.
PEACE to you all!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tasergiving
OK - this past Thanksgiving was the most random holiday of my life. Unfortunately I cannot divulge how the following went down, but in a nutshell a friend of ours decided to see what being tased felt like. Big D took it like a man - standing up for 5 seconds. I cannot say the same for when we got tased for a mere 3 seconds.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Maui Rollin
Was in Maui for a day helping a friend trying to find a new place and we found this gem (actually there was two of them) parked out front of one of the apartment complexes we looked at. One day I would love to do a photo story on the real Hawaii - it's not all mai tai's and luaus. Thanks to the perfect weather and the tremendous high cost of living, there is staggering poverty and drug abuse. Here is a great photo story on the tent cities of Waianae.
Monday, August 17, 2009
JC Wears Shades
Have been working hard the past few weeks preparing for yesterday/lastnight's very special live recording. At the moment not at liberty to discuss the details of the project, but can say it was held at a VERY cool converted Pentacostal church and featured more artists and instruments than I could count on two hands. 
PEACE to you all!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Over/Under
Starting to stretch myself pretty thin these days - working on so many projects, there are just so many stories I want to tell. A goal of mine this week is to really prioritize everything I am working on so my creative time is used more efficiently. One thing that is on the top of my priority list is to finish the trailer for documentary I am making about Mother's Kitchen, where I volunteer. Here is a screenshot from the cutting room floor.
Monday, July 20, 2009
5 Questions Trailer
Keep in mind that I am not a videographer, nor a video editor. However, there are a lot of stories I want to tell that cannot be told with still images alone. So, I taught myself how to operate a video camera and final cut in an evening - shot all this yesterday and just put together a trailer. The thought of the project, and who knows how far it will go - is to ask someone on the streets five questions.
Chris is a Haight street regular, and a stand up guy. The music and overall theme of the trailer is upbeat - because Chris is a very positive person. He has been through a lot especially recently, but he just keeps going in the face of adversity. For a while he was running an internet radio station from a laptop during the day and sleeping in the park at night. He had to sell the domain and the radio station to buy food and supplies. His laptop was recently stolen from him while he was sleeping in the park.
5 Questions Trailer, Chris from Ryan Chahanovich on Vimeo.
PEACE to you all!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Love Is a Battlefield
Last night I developed six rolls of color film at home, and just cut and scanned the results. I have a very cheap scanner, so a lot of the images appear to be color shifted but I am pretty sure that that is the annoyingly horrible automatic exposure correction.
The images below I shot back a few months ago when Israel was bombarding Palestine and a large rally was held in downtown SF. I was shooting with my Petri Color35, an old boutique automatic camera from the late 60's. The film as usual, was far past it's date of expiration. 
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Back
Here is an outtake from my time in Austin shooting for the Living Canvas series. Troy's backpiece, which was done by the venerable Chris Trevino, is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Full Disclosure
A screenshot of my workspace - busy day today, 3 shoots and started working on my first documentary. 
Monday, May 25, 2009
200!!
Well, this is my 200th communication since I started broadcasting here in this space. The image below is rather appropriate to mark such a milestone, as honestly I have never been more proud of anything I have ever created in my life. Actually, let me step back and say that in my heart I believe I had nothing to do with the images below, and that I acted merely as a vessel, a transmission device, capturing the faces of the most beautiful and selfless people I have ever encountered. The faces below are the people I volunteer with at Mother's Kitchen - a vegetarian kitchen that cooks for San Francisco's hungry every Friday. The images are a part of a greater whole, something I am working on that I hope will bring much love into the world and help eliminate suffering and inspire people to give back to their communities. 
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Unseen
Yesterday was possibly the most debaucherous day of the year, known fondly as Bay to Breakers. As tens of thousands of partially clothed and fully intoxicated people trashed the streets of San Francisco, few noticed a certain brand of "entrepreneur" quietly sifting through the refuse left behind. At each major trash dumping station those who make their "living" or at least a good part of it from collecting and recycling cans were hard at work sorting through the garbage searching for glass and aluminum.
I shot 5 rolls of film yesterday and have already developed and scanned one (BW). The other rolls are C41 and E6, so they will be developed later. Of course I took plenty of not safe for work images (!), but when it comes to B2B those are a dime dozen aren't they?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Thoughts on Paying Attention
Let me start by saying I am a huge nerd, and I love all things web. Blogging, Twitter, RSS feeds, Crackbook - it is safe to say I spend a lot of time broadcasting my life and tuning in to the lives of other's on the web. But, while at SXSW, especially the Interactive session I noticed that people get so wrapped up in broadcasting every moment that they forget to actually slow down, be in a moment, and absorb an experience as it happens.
The more I reflect on this, the more I feel like detaching (to an extent) from technology, and just BE in a moment. To me, shooting film is perfect for such a mindset because after depressing the shutter there is no instant review. For better or worse that moment of light is captured. A few days or weeks down the road when the film is developed and scanned/printed and enough time has separated you from the event you can reflect and transmit. Shooting film means being present and aware, in my own little world at least.
With that here are a few rough images from SXSW Music, three of my favorite performances captured as moments of light. Bear in mind, this film had been expired for several years!
Circle Jerks at Emos, I flipped my shit when they played Coup D'Etat and I hopped in the pit and am quite sure I hit several people in the head with my camera.
The Great Lakes at Red 7. I could have gone either way until at the very end the guitarist hung his guitar from the rafters while it fedback like a banshee, he then climbed the rafters himself hanging above the crowd - awesome!
Efterklang at Habana Calle. Considered by many to be the Beatles of Denmark, the performance was overwhelmingly beautiful.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Comp
Did a shoot yesterday at a rad shop over in the Mission, Tribus Vivas Dermafilia. The shop had a cool loft with a good view of 18th above the retail space. Special thanks to Wilson, Betto, Kyana and Lukas for being so awesome.
Please note that these are VERY rough and I just literally threw a few images onto one canvas for reference.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
In Progress
Mentioned a few posts back (Let It Begin) that I am working on a new project that I have been visualizing for a long time, here is a screengrab from an edit session of last night's photo shoot.
Last night's subject is a very cool artist in his own right - jToddo - you really should check out his work. jToddO's site. He really brings some incredible characters to life in his work, rad dude to boot.
Also, looks like I am going to have some photos displayed in the heart of the Haight here soon. More details on that soon.
