Today I listed ‘Mescaline’ on foundation.

Knoxville’s most iconic building (and our only claim to fame besides the University of Tennessee) is the Sunsphere. It was built for the 1982 World’s Fair that was held in Knoxville. Everyone, and I mean everyone has taken a photo of the Sunsphere and it is quite easy to take a great photo of such a unique building. So during my walk I decided I wanted to make a photo of the Sunsphere that no one had ever taken before so I could view this building in a new light, and boy did I ever.

I use a technique called multiple exposure in my work a lot. For those unfamiliar, a multiple exposure is a photograph in which two or more images are superimposed in a single frame. It works similarly to overlaying images on photoshop.

For ‘Mescaline’ specifically, I decided I wanted to take four photos of the Sunsphere but rotate my camera 90 degrees between each shot. I figured this would create a cool grid-like view of the Sunsphere with the ‘sun’ as the center of the frame. Although the final image did not look exactly how I expected it too, I have never been so blown away to scan an image. It’s ethereal.

Another huge part of this process and the image turning out the way it did was due to the film I used. I do not remember the exact film stock but I do know that it was a roll of Fujifilm slide film that had expired 20 years prior. When developed, slide film produces a positive image instead of a negative. This was commonly mounted and used in slide projectors to make images easy to share with family and friends before the days of social media. Slide film is also developed completely different from normal film. Normal film is developed with a process called C-41 and produces a negative in which the color needs to be inverted to be viewed correctly. Slide film is developed with a process called E-6. However, you can develop slide film using the C-41 development process, this is called cross processing. Cross processing yields wild and unpredictable results, often shifting colors and lowering image detail. This process can be really fun to experiment with, and with enough practice you can create some really interesting photos. I had been cross processing expired slide film for about eight months when I shot ‘Mescaline’ and this is by far my favorite image that came from experimenting with that process. I am convinced that I was only able to make this image with that exact role of film due to the unpredictable nature of cross processed and expired film.

A moment of inspiration, perfectly preserved on a negative as a reminder of the importance of searching for inspiration, even when it feels unattainable.

I am what I like to call a ‘walker’. I don’t always have a set idea in mind when making my work, I tend to just walk.. I walk and allow myself to really feel my environment and soak up all the things that are happening. This specific day I remember I was really frustrated with my work environment and how draining it was to me and how much that was affecting my relationship with photography. It was also in the middle of winter, sun sets early, its cold, I was constantly cranky. I happened to get off work around 1/2pm this day and I distinctly remember sending a message to a group-chat of my photo friends that said, ‘I am gonna go make photos today, I got off early’. I had no idea what I wanted to make but I was desperate for anything to get my mind into a different place than it was. I rushed home, grabbed my camera, snagged my airpods (solo photowalk necessity) and hurried downtown to park and get walking. It was about two hours before sunset when I started walking and the light streaming into downtown Knoxville was the most beautiful and soft golden light. Immediately, my mood lifted and I knew I had made the right decision to get out and shoot some photos. I always try to split my photo choices between two things: beautiful scenes and fresh compositions. I’ve been shooting photos in Knoxville for over six years now so the latter is sometimes a little hard for me to nail. It’s quite hard to shoot ‘new’ things in a small city that you’ve taken photos of hundreds of times. Below are some of the other images I shot this day, a mix of beautiful scenes and compositions that were new to me.

When I originally scanned this photo I sent it into a group-chat of my closest friends with an unreadable message of amazement and joy. My friend James (I love you James) immediately responded and commented that it looked like tripping on mescaline. I knew immediately that had to be the name of the photo.

‘Mescaline’ is a photo that I hold very close to my heart. In a time when I was struggling to take meaningful photos of my hometown of Knoxville, this photo hit me with a new surge of inspiration and satisfaction with the work I was making. I have minted this photo previously and since burned it. However, this photo is too important to me and I want to have it on the blockchain so the story of this image can serve as a constant reminder to me that inspiration is always right around the corner.

Recently, I have been thinking very intentionally about how I release my work and what I want that process to look like. A lot of my favorite photos are very process oriented and I always love discussing the thought process/story behind the photos that I mint, but with Twitter’s character limit (and the short attention span we tend to have with social media) creating a place for discourse around my work has always been a little bit of a struggle.

Writing about my process on Mirror seems to make the most sense to me. No character limit, a central place collectors and artists can go to learn more about my art, and reminders for myself about why and how I create the work that is most meaningful to me.

So here we are…

I will be minting these articles on Mirror alongside the release of each 1/1 NFT. It just feels right. I want the process of explaining my work to be preserved on the blockchain just like the image itself.

If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to better understand my photo and what it means to me, I love you.

Today I listed ‘Mescaline’ on foundation.

Knoxville’s most iconic building (and our only claim to fame besides the University of Tennessee) is the Sunsphere. It was built for the 1982 World’s Fair that was held in Knoxville. Everyone, and I mean everyone has taken a photo of the Sunsphere and it is quite easy to take a great photo of such a unique building. So during my walk I decided I wanted to make a photo of the Sunsphere that no one had ever taken before so I could view this building in a new light, and boy did I ever.

I use a technique called multiple exposure in my work a lot. For those unfamiliar, a multiple exposure is a photograph in which two or more images are superimposed in a single frame. It works similarly to overlaying images on photoshop.

For ‘Mescaline’ specifically, I decided I wanted to take four photos of the Sunsphere but rotate my camera 90 degrees between each shot. I figured this would create a cool grid-like view of the Sunsphere with the ‘sun’ as the center of the frame. Although the final image did not look exactly how I expected it too, I have never been so blown away to scan an image. It’s ethereal.

Another huge part of this process and the image turning out the way it did was due to the film I used. I do not remember the exact film stock but I do know that it was a roll of Fujifilm slide film that had expired 20 years prior. When developed, slide film produces a positive image instead of a negative. This was commonly mounted and used in slide projectors to make images easy to share with family and friends before the days of social media. Slide film is also developed completely different from normal film. Normal film is developed with a process called C-41 and produces a negative in which the color needs to be inverted to be viewed correctly. Slide film is developed with a process called E-6. However, you can develop slide film using the C-41 development process, this is called cross processing. Cross processing yields wild and unpredictable results, often shifting colors and lowering image detail. This process can be really fun to experiment with, and with enough practice you can create some really interesting photos. I had been cross processing expired slide film for about eight months when I shot ‘Mescaline’ and this is by far my favorite image that came from experimenting with that process. I am convinced that I was only able to make this image with that exact role of film due to the unpredictable nature of cross processed and expired film.

A moment of inspiration, perfectly preserved on a negative as a reminder of the importance of searching for inspiration, even when it feels unattainable.

I am what I like to call a ‘walker’. I don’t always have a set idea in mind when making my work, I tend to just walk.. I walk and allow myself to really feel my environment and soak up all the things that are happening. This specific day I remember I was really frustrated with my work environment and how draining it was to me and how much that was affecting my relationship with photography. It was also in the middle of winter, sun sets early, its cold, I was constantly cranky. I happened to get off work around 1/2pm this day and I distinctly remember sending a message to a group-chat of my photo friends that said, ‘I am gonna go make photos today, I got off early’. I had no idea what I wanted to make but I was desperate for anything to get my mind into a different place than it was. I rushed home, grabbed my camera, snagged my airpods (solo photowalk necessity) and hurried downtown to park and get walking. It was about two hours before sunset when I started walking and the light streaming into downtown Knoxville was the most beautiful and soft golden light. Immediately, my mood lifted and I knew I had made the right decision to get out and shoot some photos. I always try to split my photo choices between two things: beautiful scenes and fresh compositions. I’ve been shooting photos in Knoxville for over six years now so the latter is sometimes a little hard for me to nail. It’s quite hard to shoot ‘new’ things in a small city that you’ve taken photos of hundreds of times. Below are some of the other images I shot this day, a mix of beautiful scenes and compositions that were new to me.

When I originally scanned this photo I sent it into a group-chat of my closest friends with an unreadable message of amazement and joy. My friend James (I love you James) immediately responded and commented that it looked like tripping on mescaline. I knew immediately that had to be the name of the photo.

‘Mescaline’ is a photo that I hold very close to my heart. In a time when I was struggling to take meaningful photos of my hometown of Knoxville, this photo hit me with a new surge of inspiration and satisfaction with the work I was making. I have minted this photo previously and since burned it. However, this photo is too important to me and I want to have it on the blockchain so the story of this image can serve as a constant reminder to me that inspiration is always right around the corner.

Recently, I have been thinking very intentionally about how I release my work and what I want that process to look like. A lot of my favorite photos are very process oriented and I always love discussing the thought process/story behind the photos that I mint, but with Twitter’s character limit (and the short attention span we tend to have with social media) creating a place for discourse around my work has always been a little bit of a struggle.

Writing about my process on Mirror seems to make the most sense to me. No character limit, a central place collectors and artists can go to learn more about my art, and reminders for myself about why and how I create the work that is most meaningful to me.

So here we are…

I will be minting these articles on Mirror alongside the release of each 1/1 NFT. It just feels right. I want the process of explaining my work to be preserved on the blockchain just like the image itself.

If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to better understand my photo and what it means to me, I love you.