Here is an outtake from a Living Canvas shoot yesterday with Gabe.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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. 
Friday, May 22, 2009
M O S
Mates of State
Chromogenic Print
1/3, Artist Test Print
Registration is misaligned, but can be cut down.
$100 UPDATE: This print has been sold and is no longer available.
ryan.chahanovich@gmail.com
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, May 12, 2009
Clothing Optional
Well, again this space has been unused for sometime and this time I am not going to apologize. As of late I have been spending less and less time on the computer and actually taking the time to enjoy life outdoors in the wonderful city I live in, I highly recommend it! Have been creating a lot of images though - all film - and developing rolls as well. Here is a shot of me at work with my Mamiya 645E manual out in Wilbur Springs.
Here is a link to a few more images from Wilbur.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Centered
Wow, it has been exactly two weeks since my last post - lethargy on my part I guess. It has been a great couple weeks, the opening went fantastic. Good turn out and the photobooth was a lot of fun. Here is a link to the photos, which I edited late in the evening a little left of sober so they turned out a bit darker than I would like.
On another note, the anniversary of my birth occurred yesterday, and to celebrate the Moon and I rented a car and headed north to Wilbur hot springs. Wilbur is a special place and the springs there were certainly the most healing waters I have ever encountered! The entire place was powered by solar panels and has zero cell phone coverage, it was nice to be off the grid albeit for a few short days. Also turns out the springs are clothing optional, an option we of course exercised! :)
Took a lot of photos over the weekend which I have yet to develop, for now here is an image that reflects my current state of being:
Monday, April 20, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Getting Back to Work
So, I have been focusing all my energy the last few weeks on my photo exhibition - printing, editing, mounting, promoting and the like. But now it is time to get back to what really matters, creating images!
I am starting to schedule more shoots for the "Living Canvas" series, which features the floating tattooed limbs. The other night though, just as I was somewhere in between waking life and sleep I was hit with a vision. I had to get up immediately and jot down what I saw, and all I can say about it now is "Adam and Eve." Not sure how it will be pulled off, but I am going to continue visualizing the image(s) and working on possible ways to make it a reality. The shot below is from a rough mockup I made yesterday for a necklace style piece that I saw in the vision.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Upper Haight Monthly Salon
So, this month is going to be the first Upper Haight Monthly Salon - which is a neighborhood artwalk with over 20 shops participating on Haight from Central to Stanyan. My work will be at C to the P and is featured on the artwalk. Flyers below...
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.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Busy
Sorry I haven't posted my SXSW Music review but I have hit the ground running since I got home. Getting ready for my upcoming photo exhibit has kept me crazy busy - printing in the color and bw darkroom, preparing master files, mounting prints and so forth.
Here is a pic from Rayko, where I do most of my work. You can see the Moon at the table cutting some foam core and just for some size proportions, the closest table is about 10 by 10 - lots of work space.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
SXSW 09 Film Favorites
Having a Gold badge at this year's SXSW I made it a point to see a lot of films. In between panels, showcases, and items on my shot list I would sneak over to the Paramount or the Ritz as often as possible to catch a flick. I ended up seeing a total of nine films, all of which were excellent - was not disappointed in a single film. Here are my top 3 picks:
1. Winnebago Man. This film was unreal, a documentary based upon one of the first ever pre-youtube viral videos. An outtake reel from a late 80's Winnebago industrial film shoot hosted by the venerable Jack Rebney was copied from VHS tape to VHS tape, making the rounds all across the country. The filmmaker tracks down Jack, now a hermit living alone in Northern California, and tells a great story of someone who came into the spotlight under less than ideal terms. There is not a trailer for the film online, however the original clip that spawned the phenomenon is on youtube, and is probably the funniest thing I have EVER seen.
Official site.
2. Iron Maiden: Flight 666. So I grew up as a huge metal kid and have even played in a few metal bands, but I am confident that this fact did not bias my review of this film. You could hate metal and THOROUGHLY enjoy this film. It is an intimate portrait of a band that truly loves what they do and have created an incredible fanbase the world over. As the film's director said before the film ran, "If you are new to Iron Maiden, welcome to the family." Funny enough, after the film that is exactly how I felt. Most astonishing I think was the fact that the band got it's own custom 757 to tour the world with their gear and crew and the plane was flown by the band's lead singer Bruce Dickinson! The sound was fantastic on the film, and invoked a feeling of actually being at one of their larger than life shows. I was grinning from ear to ear the entire film and often laughed out loud. The crowd at the Paramount was awesome, when their marquee songs would come on a few guys in the front row would stand up, take their shirts off and swing them in the air, so good!
Official site.
3. Sons of a Gun. I met Greg, the filmmaker on my flight out to Texas - he was a SXSW virgin stoked to be showing his film. Once I landed in Austin I viewed the trailer and knew it was a must see. The production was done on a shoestring, but the film portrays such a touching drama that you can't helped but be sucked in. Better characters and story could not be fabricated and can only exist in the twisted reality that we all inhabit. Really and truly a great film and a wonderful human drama.
Official site
The rest of the films I saw:
Letters to the President. A great look inside Iran. Trailer.
Intangible Asset #82. An Australian drummer's quest to find a Korean Shaman. Trailer.
Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy for Governor Tales from the campaign trail of one of Texas' most original characters. Site.
Objectified From the creator of Helvetica, musings on industrial design. Trailer.
Sin Nombre A young girl travels to America with the help of a former gang member.Trailer
Most of these may not ever be available on DVD or in theaters, but if you get the chance to see any of them I highly recommend you do!
PEACE to you all!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
God Bless Texas
Let me start by saying thus far I love San Francisco and all, but my heart and soul will forever reside in Austin, Texas. It was wonderful to be back, it felt like I hadn't missed a step. Moving to SF was the right thing to do for now - but it will not be home forever.
So, here are a few snaps of two Texas icons - the Lone Star Flag and Kinky Friedman. The images are super grainy, I was shooting ISO 3200 Kodak that had been expired for over 5 years. In retrospect I should have hit it harder (more exposure time, wider aperture) and possibly dipped it another minute or two in the D76 developer, but oh well.
Also, as promised my write ups for film and music are on the way. Getting ready for a photo exhibition in the Haight, preparing negatives, master files and mounting is keeping me super busy.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Blur
I think I said this last year, and it certainly applies again, was it a dream? Am I already back in San Francisco, waking up in my own bed? Certainly I did not hit SXSW (music portion) as hard as I did last year, but still had a wonderful experience. Saw lots of good music, a ton of films, and made lots of images.
Let me start with the thank yous, Scott Gress you were a wonderful host, Gin and Meow Poww Media you rock, Marc Urselli always great to see you, and perhaps thank you most of all to Bettina and Eric at Austin Bikes. Really, lending me a bike totally made my trip and I am so very thankful. If you are in Austin and need a new ride, go to Austin Bikes, they are the best!!! Also, to all of you who I love and did not get to see (Jon, Todd, Duke, so many more), I was just so overextended that I was not able to see and do nearly 1/100th of what I wanted to, I love you all and will be back in Austin soon.
Tomorrow I am going to do a write up on all the films I saw, and the following day will do the same for music and post a few images. Was shooting exclusively film during music, so I need to go buy some new chemistry and develop/scan so I can post some images.
PEACE to you all!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
It Has Begun...
SXSW Interactive kicked off today! Going to be a busy boy but I will check in from time to time...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Dev
I have been accumulating some black and white film at home over the last few months and over the weekend finally broke down and bought some chemistry. I developed a roll last night with some shots from xmas time. The image below was taken on xmas eve when I went on a hiking adventure with the Soulmates, a dedicated crew of hiking fanatics on Oahu.
I really did almost die on this trip. We were hiking to the Makapu'u tide pools - which are absolutely gorgeous. The surf report indicated a high surf advisory, but we were hiking at low tide so a group of decided to make the trek around the cliff-hewn lava coastline, giant waves smashing all around us. We got to one point where the cliff cut into the coastline so much that one section had become like a waterslide, slick lava rock that shot straight down into a washing machine of a break. So, of course as I am traversing this harry spot, a huge breaker popped out of the ocean and slammed me into the rock. I braced myself on all fours but started sliding down the slick rock, I managed to find some traction and hold on, barely getting out of trouble before the next wave of the set rolled in. It was a pretty harrowing experience, because if I would have slid down there was no way I was going to make it... 
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