Alex Blackwelder

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
— Anaïs Nin

“I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.”
-Margaret Atwood

I took this photo somewhere between Murfreesboro and Woodbury. When I came home from my photo adventure, I completely skipped over it when editing. But now I really like it for some strange feeling it gives me. I’m routinely amazed at how re-editing work from years past can give me a completely different outcome.

Black/white and color don’t go well together, right?

Often using signs in photographs feels like an easy way to express ideas in an obvious, in your face way. Nothing subtle about it. Many photographers will say they are not a fan of it, but I found a series of photographs using signs that .has shaken me a bit

L. Weingarten over at JPG submitted a project titled “A Series of Questions”.

The ongoing project consists of portraits of transgender or transexual people, holding a sign of a question that someone has asked them. I’ll be honest, the photos make me feel uncomfortable. But it is a good thing.

The photos make you face your own demons.

Weingarten wrote, “…the questions are turned on the viewer, shifting the dynamics under which they were originally asked, and prompting the viewer to cast a reflective, self-critical eye upon him or herself, revealing how invasive this frame of reference can be.”

I feel the critical eye. How do the images make you feel?

This is one of those photos that I love, but I can’t exactly describe why.

In Love Actually, the narrator argued that airports are THE place to see evidence that “Love actually is all around”. When I’m at them, I get a completely different feeling. Lonely businessmen talking on their cellphones. Families sick of spending so much time together. People in general are just out of their elements and it shows. Maybe I haven’t watched the arrival gate too closely.

So while bored out of mind because of a flight delay in Minneapolis, I challenged myself to a shoot from the hip battle just to see what I could get. The results are interesting. Everyone was so concerned about their bags, phone calls, and upcoming trips to really take notice. Except the lady above.

Here are my favorites

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