Foreground photos

In 2004, I started to take photographs while on tour as a way to give myself something creative to do when waiting for trains, planes, sound checks, etc.  Photography also gave me a means to more directly wrestle with ideas that inspired me from the visual arts.  The first time my images were used on a project was for the Vandermark 5 double cd, “The Color of Memory” (Atavistic), which was released in 2005.

Initially, the images were taken with cheap, disposable Fuji film cameras.  Then, as I became more and more interested in photography as a creative outlet, I purchased a number of quality film cameras and took black & white and color photos with these for five years.  In December of 2009 I decided to purchase a digital camera for my trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with members of The Ex, Ab Baars, and Paal Nilssen-Love,  since I wasn’t sure how available 35 mm film would be while I was there.  From that point in time I’ve been working with small buy europe digital cameras because the challenge of trying to get film through security at every airport I traveled through became completely frustrating.  I miss using film for a variety of reasons, and with the help of the outstanding photographer, Matías Corral, I hope to start working with black & white again.

The “Foreground” photos that are included on the site, particularly in conjunction with the “Notes From the Field,” are archived by year to help illustrate the way my visual thinking has developed.  Since “The Color of Memory” was released, my photographs have been used on a number of albums, and in the future I plan to also integrate them into book and soundtrack projects.

All images were taken with a hand held camera (currently a Canon PowerShot S95, which was suggested to me by Andy Moor because it is so compact, while still providing excellent results), and none of the photographs have been edited or processed with post-production methods (cropping, color treatment, shifting of exposure or tone).