2022 saw me creating nude photographs in the white sand deserts of New Mexico and nude photographs in newly cooled lava fields in Iceland. I photographed solitary trees in the Atchafalaya swamp and monumental cityscapes in the heights of New York City. I documented Stone Henge. I documented Iceland and captured the faintest expressions left on a skull amidst 2 million of its contemporaries in the Paris catacombs.
I’ve had to rethink sharing just my ten favorite photographs from 2022 because my heart would break if I had to condemn so many artworks to dusty archives and the digital doldrums.
⚠️ This article will contain nude bodies and naked trees. ⚠️
[PS. the bottom of this article has some amazing photographs, too]
As a matter of fact, lets begin with a naked tree and a nude form.
Sundance. capturing fierce independence at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. This collection is among my favorite sets of portraits ever. There is something pure in these photos, and the marriage of landscape compositions and the nude form showed me that it was possible to carry my aesthetic from one genre to the next.
Sundance is a collection of 1/1s available as digital assets on Sloika here.
At the end of 2021, Ally and I had an Escape from Miami adventure after being grounded for almost a month because of COVID. We couldn’t fly to Panama. We couldn’t do Christmas with our family. We couldn’t fly home. So, we drove…. to Seattle.
Road trip photos: here’s another tree.
Silver Forest, Atchafalaya Swamp, Louisiana
The Atchafalaya swamp is still very high on my list of places to photograph. Specifically, I want to be there during the Autumn. This was very much a winter afternoon, and I took a little liberty with the post-production to portray that. I haven’t listed this as an NFT or added it to my portfolio yet, but I think it is a no-brainer to add it this year.
Throughout our drive from Miami to LA, we shot a collection titled Blue is a Mood. Ally is a nude model, and we met during an interview for the Aria Collection in 2019. Our artist-muse relationship has been very rewarding. We’ve created a LOT of art together since then, and today we work together in the Web3 space. You can find our “Blue is a Mood” collection on Cardano. It is currently 80% sold out and is only minting for 200 ADA!
Even more awesome than “Blue is a Mood,” when we got to LA, we photographed the location for the 9th angel in the Guardians collection.
I don’t think I’ve explained why I've dove so deeply into NFTs to my traditional art collectors yet.
The Angel of LA
The Guardians are an idea I came up with in 2012. I sat down with a production designer in Kakaako, HI and planned an elaborate photoshoot that never happened. Up until NFTs, I could only be a landscape photographer because that was what put food on the table. NFTs changed what puts food on the table. There are a lot of ways NFTs add to my art career. I’m happy to chat about it with you any time! In the meantime, imagine sitting on art ideas for a decade! Check out this 1-minute trailer for all ten Guardians. The Guardians are also minting right now for 500 ADA each. Click here to learn more about them.
The next big photo trip produced one of the best, most aligned photographs of career
A quiet place
For my birthday in April, I went to Iceland for 18 days. Not long enough. The trip left me with a strong desire to go back and experience the island nation in every season. Twice.
The first ten days were spent exploring the Ring Road in a camper van. Then we had some extra time to go on a photo tour with Icepic Journeys. I bought this adventure tour as an NFT and received this photo of me as part of the tour.
I took A LOT of photos in Iceland (I have 500+ photos of a skull that I’ve been carrying around with me for a while). I feel that the photograph below is so “aligned” with the core of my creativity. It fits into an aesthetic I call “Comfortable Isolation.” You’ll get a really good feel for what I mean by taking a quick browse of my article WHY I create art. It’s filled with pretty pictures, so it has that going for it and if you want to read it, it goes deep on some psychological hurdles I needed to overcome to be the artist I am today.
A quiet contemplation of the world at large
“Here I stroll, memory underfoot, through this land that is also me, on fragments of memory that are the foundation of this experience, against a shearing wind eroding the “I” from these histories in an attempt to restore innocence from cause and remove responsibility for effect. Among the rubble, I search for the root from which I have grown, the purest “I” in observation of all the things that I am not.
I am a witness to the weathering of these worlds within. To beliefs being defined by thought as surely as mountains are carved by the wind in truth. I am a witness to the universe experiencing itself, experiencing myself in a constant state of becoming… a quiet contemplation of the world at large. ”
There are six pieces in the Iceland portfolio so far. Each follows the same line of pursuit that I am calling Quietude. You can find them all on Foundation (NFT) and collect the limited traditional works here. I am really proud of this body of work.
A Quiet Suggestion of the World in Motion
A Cloak of Quiet Anticipation
A Quiet Place to Ruminate
A Wind Stirs
Moment
CITY OF DREAMS
After Iceland, I was back in NYC for NFTNY. Say what you will about NFTs and Web3, but I will underscore it with this: Because of this technology, I’ve met more people and made more friends than ever before. By “ever,” I mean the 34 years I had been alive prior to Web3 coming to market. If you’d like to learn about all these things, I am happy to share what I’ve learned in a language you can understand.
Another trip to NY meant I could finally create this image. A bucket list shot, this photograph from the “Top of the Rock” is so high in the resolution that you can see people in the windows of the Empire State Building.
Sometimes you wait so long for a moment that you are stunned into stillness as if lightning struck from a clear blue sky when it comes. That was something like what it was like creating this image. It took me almost a full year to work through the details of completing this artwork. I was so stunned that I didn't want the work to be over.
City of Dreams is available as a single edition NFT on Makersplace and is also a 1/1 traditional piece. It is not listed on this website yet. If you or someone you know would have to have this work if they saw it, please share!
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Being back in New York inspired me to complete an image I had tucked away on my hard drive some time ago. ONE was originally made for a certain NY Yankees baseball player, but when the season got going, they ghosted me, so I put the artwork on hold until last year.
The feeling I seek in my work, "comfortable isolation," is composed around isolating subjects and bringing the amplitude of the energy in the art down while keeping the vibration high. I am genuinely in love with one. The solemnity and its grandeur, its solidity, and its singularness... it's as a hero in a story stood to defend their people, and the light shinned on them for it.
As with City of Dreams, ONE is listed as an NFT on Makersplace and available as a single-edition physical work.
Enter: Artificial Intelligence
Midway through the year, artificial intelligence became popular. Like a lot of artists, I was abhorred. I was insulted by the very nature of it. It made me sick in a part of my stomach where fear shows its scales. Then I got over it. I'm just a guy making art with a camera. I can’t stop technology. Fighting the wave of change means being left behind by innovation. Like my Tech Sergeant used to say, “If you can’t fight it, grow with it.”
The question then became, "How do I make AI a tool that creates art that still represents me and my aesthetic?” First, I fed the AI my trees and then used it as a prompt to create a body of work that felt like me. Trees of Peace
I wanted to create a collection that began with my photography, was filled with AI, and ended with my photography. So, when Trees of Peace sells out on JPG.store I will reveal a photograph that looks very much like the tree above. The trees are minting on the Cardano blockchain for 1000 ADA each, or about $330 each. You can collect with credit and ETH, if you’ve ever wanted to get into a body of my work for non-break-the-bank numbers, Trees of Peace is a good entry point. Do I value AI less than the things I've made? Hell yes. I’m still in love with this collection, though.
I created over a thousand trees before arriving at the collection of 40 that are minted today. It was work. And because I was able to keep my aesthetic in the artwork, I firmly believe that it is mine. I am training an AI on my images as you read this. My next AI artwork will have my art in its DNA.
Europe
The last half of 2022 was a blur of art and NFT conventions, followed by an Art Basel expo. In November, I found myself in the UK, then France, and finally Switzerland. I visited Stone Henge, the Eiffel Tower, and a random castle in Lausanne. I’m still working on those photographs. I’m still working on the art from Iceland! I typically spend 4-6 hours on a photograph and as much as hundreds of hours on composite artwork. It’s slow going, especially when most of my time is spent on marketing and helping others create art businesses. I really need to demote myself to being just an artist. I did finish one body of work that I am very proud of.
A memory of light
I wrote a whole article about this commission from one of my most prominent collectors. He is a historian moonlighting as a restaurant owner. He asked me to go to the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, and make an artwork that beautifully impressed the weight of the sacrifices of the men and women who stormed the beach so long ago. Above is my favorite photograph from the collection. See the whole collection in the articles on my website.
Fin
2022 was a year filled with art. As I mentioned, I still have a lot of it to process. There are a few bodies of work that I couldn’t share with you in this article today because they are slated for some pretty epic reveals soon. There were also many photographs that I wanted to include above, but I couldn’t think of a way to make them fit. So, I’ve showcased some of them in the photo gallery below. Happy browsing.
Remember, hit me up if you are interested in any of the works I shared today.
You can also reach out if you want to dip your toe into crypto and NFTs. It’s easier than you think and more fun than you’d expect.
Follow me on Twitter; it’s also fun.
Lastly, don’t forget to notice your empty walls. Imagine the art and inspiration that could adorn them. Then reach out. I can help with your interior design needs and make choosing artwork a truly fun and rewarding experience.
