Artist Richard Custer's Blog

2021…

December 31, 2021 / Rick / 0 Comments

…is almost over. It’s hard to believe my last post to this was in July 2020. I didn’t mean for this to be a once-a-year thing. Let’s resolve in 2022 to up to the productivity. Let’s just hope I’m not merely adding to the pile of broken resolutions (admit it, you have some as well lol).

Since my last post, well, let’s take a look. There were the protests/riots after the death of George Floyd, a clusterf**k of a presidential election in the United States, a clusterf**k of a protest on the day Congress was to certify the election results, Covid vaccines developed and deployed, economic inflation that is threatening to do some real damage to economies around the world, new Covid variants, and an ever-deepening divide between people groups of people in the United States. This list is just the United States alone. Many nations around the world are facing their own new challenges brought on by Covid.

On a personal level, I lost someone I considered a friend (non-Covid related) as well as Ozzy, my beagle and all-around great dog that adopted me at the age of 8 weeks. He would have been 13 in Jan 2022. I miss him every day. I also almost lost my German Shepherd to a severe infection. Thankfully we were able to intervene before it could spread to other parts of her body. Many of you know I live in Texas and the challenges Texas residents across the entire state faced in February. All these things were in addition to the stresses brought on by the challenges of recovering from 2020. Recovery is going to continue into 2022, but one thing I feel is much more optimism than 365 days ago. I need this feeling if I have any hope of accomplishing my goals in 2022.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. Texas began its collective reopening in 2020 and accelerated that process in 2021 as vaccines became widely available. I found myself with some promo work and, after getting the pokes myself, was back in the bars doing what I loved the most – photographing live metal performances.

Dawn Of Dissolution – the commission that stirred me awake

David Van of Kranc - the first published concert photo from me in over a year. — David Van of Kranc – This is the first concert image made by me in over a year.

Since June, I have shot 7 shows, which is a little slower than the normal pace over the past couple of years (excluding 2020). For me, however, this pace is good. The show from where the above image was made was a chance to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in over a year (some in nearly 2 years). It was the fuel I needed after the Dawn Of Dissolution shoot to feel purposeful again.

Creatively (and in general) things felt as if they were getting pretty dark for a little while. I tried me hand at a few things in 2020 but quickly gave up on them as things with the outside world seemed to be only getting worse with each passing day. I tried my hand at digital painting from a photograph:

Scene just outside of Shiner, TX (photo made in 2011)

Zolrak Montes of Unholier at Destroying Texas Fest 2019

This little experiment last about a month before I fell back into the funk. A couple of friends and I joined together and started processing each other’s RAW images. This turned out some interesting results. Although at any one time we were working on the same image, this exercise taught us that different people can look at the same objective information and see something totally different from the others. This particular activity lasted several months until one of the members started classes at a local college. Once he completes his work, we will be starting this again.

There are several other things I started and continue to actively work, especially now that I feel a little more like myself again. One in particular is a marriage of text and imagery based of a lyric I once heard. “I will give you sanctuary in these hymns of Thanatos” is that lyric. It’s stuck with me since I first heard it a little over 14 years ago. I am organizing a series around it. Here are a couple of sketches:

These are a little all over the place as they were tests of different techniques and concepts. I’m beginning to drill down on some consistency over the execution and will soon start executing more fully realized images. I’m a little excited about this project as the lyric on which it’s based is beginning to burn more and more brightly in my mind.

For the final topic of this entry, I picked up work on an existing project that had been neglected for a long time. This project is the skyscape images that helped me get into the BFA program at the University of Houston. I’ve often wanted to continue this one, and now that is happening. As of right now, the project is strictly digital as I lost my medium format film camera in Hurricane Harvey in 2017. A friend of mine recently gifted me a Pentax K1000 35mm film SLR. As soon as I can begin purchasing color film, I am going to definitely be adding that back into the project (it is a mix of digital, color negative, and color positive images).

In terms of my art, this is where I’m at so far in 2021 and heading into 2022. I have a lot of goals to reach in 2022, both in terms of my art and in my personal life. I would like to get back to New York to visit my family sometime this year and find a way to get my wife home to visit hers (which is, in my view, the greater priority). I will find a way to discuss some things more in depth in a future post that will come much sooner rather than later. Until then, I bid you all a Happy New Year and good fortune in whatever form will do you best in 2022.

4 Months Later…

July 9, 2020 / Rick / 0 Comments

As we started to turn a corner on the global phenomenon known as COVID-19, something began tugging at our collective shirt to try to bring us back around, with some states feeling the pain more than others. The reasons for the spike are varied and nowhere near as simple as much in the agenda driven media would like their viewers to believe. We also can’t forget to mention the (in more than a few cases very violent) protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis, MN policeman. That event (also being simplified by agenda driven media), couple with the artificial economic slowdown in response to the pandemic, has left us in “interesting times.”

I always viewed the phrase, “may you live in interesting times,” not so much a curse but more a blessing. My wonder was why anyone would want to live in boring times. I watched on television as the Berlin Wall came down. I watched in near real time the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. I was in US Air Force basic training when the Belavezha Accords were signed, which officially started the process of dissolving the Soviet Union. I was able to see the first non-white President of the United States get elected, followed by the election to the same office of another man who had never held an elected position in his life. The only overt negative in all this time was September 11, 2001.

While the good outweighs the bad quantitatively, it’s a different story in terms of quality. Not long after my last post (Pandeminomicon), I went into a bit of a funk where I just felt my energy was being sapped from the moment I woke up every morning. It was made even worse when I realized what was happening, but couldn’t pull myself out of it. Things have reversed, and I feel my creative energy has returned. Now I just need an outlet…

While we’re strictly not locked down in Texas, going out is not really an option and I can’t make any new concert work given the resurgence of COVID-19. I’ve been tooling around a little bit in Photoshop, so that’s been a help. I also spent about 2 weeks (most of it waiting for permission to use music) creating some videos of my published images for The Houston Metal Project. That was actually a pretty fun little project as it allowed me a glimpse of where I was at start and now my work has progressed. I need to start the edit for the book, but I can’t get together with my collaborators, who are going to help with the image edit, right now. We could collaborate over the Internet, but for this project I need to have discussions in real time, when the ideas are fresh and can be better fleshed out.

I did come up with an idea recently that I think could be beneficial, however. I’m happy to announce that I will soon be posting interviews. The first one is being worked right now as my subject and I take the time to communicate via text message. I don’t want to do email interviews as there is no room for the conversations that make interviews interesting.

At this point I’m going to face the coming day. The link below is to the first of the videos I created as described above. If you like it, please hit the Like button and leave a comment. I’ll be seeing you again soon, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers. Until then, stay safe.

Pandeminomicon

March 31, 2020 / Rick / 0 Comments

To say 2020 is off to an interesting start would be, by many measures, an understatement. As a nation we’ve been treated to a presidential impeachment (voted for in 2019) and trial, a change in provider payment rules that severely affects my livelihood, and a pandemic which has infected, as of 4 pm EDT on 29 Mar 2020, 140,904 people in the United States. 2020 is also an election year, which makes everything even more interesting, perhaps even surreal. I’ve been seeing a lot of memes regarding 2020 and how much people think it sucks, but I am trying to stay positive about the whole thing.

The county where I reside is currently under a stay at home order. As such, we should only venture out for essential activities and only those who are essential workers should be reporting for work. My spouse is a Licensed Physical Therapist who specializes in home care for the elderly. For many of her patients, she may be the only one who is able to check on their wellness on a given day. I worry about her every day she goes out.

For me it’s been business as usual during the day given that I work from home supporting my wife’s activities – paperwork, phone calls, billing, etc. The only thing that really impacts me now is the lack of choice in what I can do with my day. I can’t run normal errands and there is the matter of my client agency employees now working from their own homes. That makes customer visits and getting paid in a timely manner an interesting prospect. Again, it’s time to stay positive. I just need to stop posting YouTube links to songs about disease on Facebook.

As part of the stay at home order (and I believe under the orders of the Governor of Texas), bars in my county have been forced to close their doors. This, of course, makes it impossible to photograph concerts. I do miss going to the local shows right now. The people in the metal community (both the musicians and employees) in Houston are near and dear to me. I can only hope they are weathering the storm and can hit the ground running on the other side.

The dearth of concerts right now isn’t such a bad thing. I mean, I am saving a little bit of money on cover charges, drinks, and CD’s. It’s also rekindling the creative flame in me. I thought about it earlier today – I’ve spent so much effort on concert images over the past 6 years that some of the other ideas floating in my head are being pushed away. In fact, one of my started projects has been on hiatus for the last 3 years due to my efforts on the Houston Metal Project. This would be a good time to achieve some balance in my creative efforts. The only problem with the hiatus project is that it’s portraiture. That isn’t very conducive to social distancing right now.

But hope exists because lately I’ve been rediscovering my macro lens. The panic buying in the run up to our current state of affairs in Texas left the shelves of most retailers rather barren. It appears to have calmed down since then, but it got me thinking what it is that people are seeking for the end of civilization (I know that’s hyperbolic, but I strongly feel things are going to change; whether the changes are positive or not remains to be seen). I’ve seen images arranged as formal still life compositions, but that’s about it. I’m using the macro lens because I want to really get to the object and to see what it is about the object that has people making obsessive purchases. This is what I have so far:

These are by no means final images for the series. I have more objects I need to photograph. I am also going to explore different ways to capture what I’ve already done.

Has anyone been able to resolve why there’s been such a run on toilet paper in response to a pandemic involving a respiratory illness? My wife’s sisters in the Philippines told her they are laughing at Americans over this particular phenomenon.

I read somewhere a few days ago a blog post title that encouraged creatives to write about their “quarantine” experience. I didn’t read the post as I was trying to get something else accomplished and, unfortunately, forgot to bookmark it. Going off that headline advice, this is my first foray into that. We’ll see if I write more in the coming days, especially now that President Trump has extended the social distancing guidelines to until 30 April 2020.

As for now, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I do need to sign off. Stay safe, practice your social distancing, and for those of you stuck at home – avoid naps, make sure to get dressed in more than your pajamas every day, and stay in contact with your friends and family. These are all mental health tips provided by one of my local news stations. I will be writing again sooner rather than later.

The Next Step

September 6, 2019 / Rick / 0 Comments

I always had an “endgame” of sorts for my work on The Houston Metal Project. My original vision was for a book. The biggest thing holding me back was deciding on an insertion point. My plan is to continue to photograph these shows until I am no longer able, which made the decision harder. To put together his book, True Norwegian Black Metal, Peter Beste spent 7 years photographing the black metal culture in Norway. At the time I first saw his book (2015), I had been working on my own stuff for just over a year. I didn’t know if I could wait that long.

Here we are now, 5 years after The Houston Metal Project began, and I feel that this is a good insertion point for my first book. There are a lot of things to be decided aside from the images. Those decisions will come further in. My biggest constraint right now will be how much to include as this will be made through a self publishing service. Books from self-publishing services can be a little on the expensive side, and additional pages can really force the price per unit up.

With that constraint in mind, it’s only fitting that I begin the editing process now, even with Year 5 still in progress. This first edit is based mostly on technical grounds, with some subjective thought (e.g. composition) applied. To begin, though, I had to wade through over 2 years of images that were organized in ways that did not reflect any organizational discipline. Once I found those images and gathered them up, along with images from 2016 – 18, I found that I had published 2622 images to Facebook. All I did was sit there for 15 minutes, staring at that number, and ask myself what I got myself into with this stupid idea. Once that wore off, I started the initial edit.

At first I was a little shocked at what was published. There were images where the subject was slightly out of focus, underexposed images, ones with more digital noise that I would normally tolerate, and some that were just poorly processed. That isn’t to say there were no “good” images in there, they were simply a lot more far and few between then I realized then. Here are some of the gems I found in those early days.

This is just a small sampling from the keepers of the keepers of 2014 (I’m rather proud of the King Diamond image). 2622 images over 4 years is a lot to sift through, so those images are still being examined. This year, 2019, is still in progress in terms of making images, so after 1 January 2020 I’ll be full bore into that editing process. Help with the conceptual edit has been enlisted, but it will still be a while before I get to that point. What I want to say is going to have to be decided before I can think about that. Of course, these first keepers of the keepers are going to have a lot to say in that department as I start thinking about them. I’ll leave any commentary about that stuff to the appropriate time, i.e. when I come up with my own answers on those questions. My friends were more eager to help than I initially thought they would be, which is welcome because it shows they believe in what I’m doing with this project.

Moving along through these images, I have noticed a change in them and it can be seen in this image from 2019. I think this phase of the project is going to reveal a lot about my own practice to me, which is always welcome. To my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight. And as always, comments are welcome and encouraged.

PS – “Endgame” is in quotes because I plan to continue this project as long as I’m physically and mentally capable. This is just too much fun to not do.

It’s 2019…

January 2, 2019 / Rick / 0 Comments

And I’ve just now realized that it’s been nearly a year and a half since my last update. Many who know me on a personal level know what I went through with Hurricane Harvey and the burglary of my home while I was working to get it to a point where repairs could begin. At this point I’m not going to write about that. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a past event and, while it affected me in many ways, I’m not going to rehash it. I will say the process of rebuilding my home is ongoing (I’m doing most of the work myself) but it’s moving along with all the other things I have going on in life.

It’s not that I’ve been neglecting this blog out of sheer laziness. When I opened the editor earlier, I found 3 posts that had been started but paused as I moved on to other tasks. Although much of my writing is, in the artistic sense, automatic, it does take an hour or more to post something here. I start with a thought going through my head and as I write, I’m constantly proofreading, editing, or sometimes just simply shifting gears on a post. Sometimes something comes along and completely derails the process.

I just lost 4 minutes because “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” came up in my iTunes shuffle and I just had to jam.

The thought that was going through my head for this particular blog post was the new year. Every year I used to do the “new year new me” line of thinking. I would make a promise to myself to make a big change. Around April, I would realize I broke my promise and steel my resolve. By the time the NFL season began to gear up, I would realize that what I promised was unrealistic and just look forward to the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall (which happens to be my favorite season). After the big changes forced on me by Harvey, I began to understand that life shouldn’t be about making a promise for a big change once a year. It should really be about making small changes to improve all throughout the year. It really hit home this past Spring as I battled with a bout of depression. Without going into too much detail, let’s just say it was Harvey-related and lasted quite a while. A lot of things suffered – my repair progress and my photographic work being among the hardest hit. I knew intellectually something was wrong, however, I couldn’t bring myself to figure it out and deal with it. All it really took to break through it was one small change I made. Afterward, I felt a renewed sense of energy and I saw that small changes are much more profound and longer lasting than the big ones we promise to make. I’ve made several process changes that have yielded great results and not just in my photo and home repair work.

One positive event in the past 18 months was going to New York for my dad’s 75th birthday. It was a surprise for him as he didn’t know I was going to be there for the party. It was great to see the smile on his face. I also got to connect with 2 old friends. I did set aside a couple of hours for making photos. This time, however, it was a little more difficult. I always get nostalgic when I visit the Cincinnatus area. One in particular was the ice cream shop in town, which is only open during the Summer months. Given that my dad’s birthday is in December, there was very little chance of me getting a chocolate soft serve cone. Seeing that shop all buttoned up for the winter, though, brought back a lot of memories.

Well, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you adieu until I come up with my next writing inspiration. As for right now, I have some photo work that is seriously overdue.

Rest in Peace, Maurice Eagle

March 23, 2017 / Rick / 0 Comments

The photography world and the local Houston music scene lost a member. Maurice Eagle had been battling colon cancer and succumbed to it on the morning of 23 March 2017. After having moved from Austin to Houston, Maurice brought a unique perspective to photographing bars.

When I first saw Maurice, it was just about a year ago at a show at Acadia (I believe it was Ten Ton Hammer). He had with him a unique setup – it was his camera (with what appeared to be a super wide angle lens) and 2 external flashes mounted on a wooden plank. I thought this was unusual so I decided to ask him about it. After he introduced himself, I immediately saw the reasons for his setup. I had been looking at his work on and off for a while. During our conversation, he took care to mention several times that he was NOT a concert photographer, but that he was a bar photographer and there is a difference. I didn’t press him on that point, but I understood that approach when looking at his images.

Blood Of An Outlaw (Scout Bar, Feb 2017)

Whenever I see another photographer at a show, there is always a sense of competition. There is the obvious – will he or she get a better moment than I? Will this person be able to capture more quality images than I can? Why won’t they move from that spot because I would like some from that angle as well? But those are in the moment, when I’m trying to realize my own vision and there’s someone else honing in to try to satisfy theirs. After the set is over, that sense is gone and we move on to the next. But there is also that sense of competition when I’m looking at other concert work, and it is competition with myself. When I see high quality work, I ask how I can push myself to up my own output. After that first conversation with Maurice, the more banal sense of competition was quickly dispelled when he told me he was a bar photographer. His work inspired me to push myself even further, and was one of the prompts for my experimentation with color photography as discussed here.

Beyond Oblivion (BFE Rock Club, Nov 2016)

That’s not to say I was going to try to copy his style. Maurice’s style was pretty unique and incorporated things with which I don’t care to work. These things include HDR processing and highly saturated colors. I’ve experimented with those elements in the past and it just doesn’t work for me. When they’re done well, they can really look good, and Maurice certainly did these things very well. In the above photo of Beyond Oblivion, the selection here (because photography is a selective process) illustrates why he did this well. The saturation of the colors doesn’t assault one’s vision in the way many HDR processing saturations do. This is due to the fact that the image has an analogous color scheme (green – blue – blue violet – violet), which not only is pleasing to the eye, it creates harmony and serenity. The HDR processing created the contrasts necessary for this work. Overall, the colors juxtapose nicely with the subject, which at the time was delivering an all out sonic assault. The venue’s logo, although partially obscured, does still have a prominent place, letting us know where there was taken.

Chaotic Justice (Fitzgerald’s, Sep 2016)

Here is another example of Maurice’s touch. Here he selected an image with complementary colors (a tinted blue and a shaded orange). The orange around the subjects stands out nicely against the blue light, framing the mostly black-clad performers. Again, the venue logo is obscured, but still occupies a prominent space in the frame so as to be unmistakable.

I did not talk about Maurice’s use of a super wide lens in this as it is not something on which I can comment in an intelligent manner. I’ve only used my super wide for landscape images, never for a concert performance. That stems mostly from the fact that when one gets close, the edges tend to distort. I’m a precisionist by nature when I make images, and it’s hard for me to break that habit sometimes. I’ve seen some concert photographers use it at shows as it creates a chaotic effect, especially when the performers and crowd are both in the frame. Since Maurice was a bar photographer, I imagine creating that sense of chaos wasn’t his intent. Sadly, I can only speculate that since his goal was to capture 1 single image that encompassed the whole of the stage, he had no choice but to use this type of lens.

Spectral Manifest (Scout Bar, May 2016)

Here is another example of Maurice’s mastery of color use – this time with a split-complementary scheme dominating the scene.

Although Maurice’s style is radically (for lack of a better term) different than mine, he still inspired me. He had a unique style and he worked it perfection. While I have a preferred style, I never pushed it to the same the level Maurice pushed his. Now I am in competition with myself to push my style even further and create great images for my friends in the local Houston metal community.

I only got to meet you once, Maurice, but that meeting was something I wouldn’t trade for anything. The only way I can thank you for your inspiration is to push my own style. You’ve earned your immortality, good sir, and I hope when we meet again we can share some good stories about shooting some great shows. Rest In Peace, friend.

You can view Maurice’s work on his Facebook page by clicking here.

The Houston Metal Project

March 15, 2017 / Rick / 0 Comments

So much for those plans for an entry on Roy de Carava. As I started looking at things, I realized I didn’t really know how to say what I wanted to say on the subject of him and my own work. So, I’m changing my tactic a little bit. I think this will be a multi-part essay regarding my work and then bringing in how I’m being influenced by Roy de Carava and other artists.

A long time ago in my own galaxy in my own city not so far away…

If it hasn’t become plainly obvious to any of my regular readers, I’m a fan of heavy metal music. I remember my preteen years of listening to the radio, especially the Top 40 countdowns every Sunday evening. I liked the songs that were played, but always found myself more drawn to the rock and hard rock selections on the airwaves, e.g. “We’re Not Gonna Take it” by Twisted Sister and “Round and Round” by Ratt. I was 13 when I got my first true heavy metal album, Motley Crue’s “Shout at the Devil.” The rest, to borrow a cliché, is history.

So we fast forward a few years (ok, at least a decade, but that’s all I’m revealing) and I’m getting into photography. I wanted to learn to how to use a DSLR camera to take better concert photos for a website I was trying to build at the time. The effect was twofold – I learned how to use my camera and it reawakened the artist lying dormant within me. I took photos of big touring acts when I could get a pass, but there wasn’t really any direction with them. I was looking for that one image that could go on the website with an article, and that was about it. When I started my run at Coog Radio, the college radio station at the University of Houston (UH), I started scratching the surface of the local heavy metal scene in Houston. What I found was a scene that was vibrant and relatively untapped. Again, I took images when I felt like it (sometimes you just have to leave the camera at home and be a fan), but again, there was no real direction with my activities.

Given my love of heavy metal and art, it was a no-brainer to merge the 2. Instead of designing logos or album covers, I wanted to use my particular skills to bring a new visual perspective to the scene, with my primary focus on Houston. With a click of the mouse, The Houston Metal Project was born in the Spring of 2014. Now what was I going to do with it?

The project was initially started as a depository for the images I created at local shows, with the focus being on local artists. I also photograph national touring acts when I can (it’s not very easy to get photo passes to venues they play) as they add to the scene when they play in Houston. The bulk of the collection, however, is made up of images of local talent, with some of them on their way to becoming national acts.

Jonathan Bayliss of Desecrate The Faith (2014)

Jesse Brisendine of Behelit (2014)

Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society on the Revolver Golden Gods Tour (2014)

The 3 images above are part of the early months of my activities. These images to me represented the first steps I was taking as they seemed to capture the intensity of the live heavy metal performance, even if the focus isn’t as great as it could be. I definitely noticed a style developing.

Depravis Nocturna of Spectral Manifest (2014)

It was this image of Depravis Nocturna that crystallized the style I was going to work to develop. I wanted to stay in black and white and fill the frame as much as possible. I would use the venue lighting when possible, but I wasn’t going to rule out using my external flash if necessary. I couldn’t let all that time spent learning to effectively bounce light to go to waste, could I?

King Diamond (2014)

Nergal of Behemoth (2015)

Stage detail of Testament (2015)

Lit stage at Testament (2015)

The images above represent a little bit of a departure from my developed style – King Diamond was actually posing for his portrait on stage. I also dabbled a little bit in storytelling and stage detail. It usually happens more with national acts than local acts. I’m sure the show budget has a lot to with that.

Helmuth Lehner of Belphegor (2016)

John Hull of Desecrate The Faith (2016)

Alice Lima Lovchik of Insolvent (2016)

The images above are part of an experiment in color photography. I decided after this phase I was going to concentrate solely on black and white for this project. I will discuss that in my next entry as it pertains to what I’ve been thinking about as I wind my way through this endeavor. It’s not that I’m unhappy with these. I wouldn’t put them out if I were. They just don’t fit my vision. As an aside – Ms. Lovchik is a graduate of the University of Houston Law School. Last I heard, she was studying for her bar exam. Best of luck to you, Alice!

Casey Howard of Suicide Pandemic (2017)

It’s 3 years into this project. I have over 1000 images published (I haven’t counted) on the Facebook page for this project, whittled down from the tens of thousands taken over the past 3 years. I have an endgame in mind for what I’m doing, but I’m not quite ready to take that step just yet. I am, however, going to be taking a very critical look at what I have made so far, and charting a future based on that.

I promise my next entry will be sooner than later. I knew there was going to come a time when I needed to start taking trips down the intellectual rabbit hole and charting out a more concrete direction for this project. As for now, you can comment as you like below.

The published images can be seen on the project’s Facebook page. Just click here.

Wherefore art thou, Richard Custer?

February 20, 2017 / Rick / 0 Comments

I’ve been here, but a bit inactive as of late. I’ve been a little inactive in writing as well as creating art. My activity has experienced an uptick as of late, but not really enough to have anything to put out there. The long of the short of it is that I’ve fallen into a bit of a rut with my work and am slowly climbing out of it. It’s taken (and is taking) a little perseverance, but I’m getting there. I also just read this article over at Medium.com, which seems to have kicked me in the ass a little bit (I’d say this post is evidence of that).

I’ve started work on a digital art piece that’s going to require a full year to complete. It’s going to take a full year because I can only add to it a small element each day. It’s not a choice, it’s just the nature of the project. I was inspired by a piece I saw on Twitter, where the artist used only a period of one month. I’m not sure how this will turn out aesthetically as it’s more of a personal piece, but I am learning something about myself from the piece and the process. Just what comes out of that new knowledge will remain to be seen. The piece will be unveiled after the beginning of February 2018 after I examine and make refinements to the individual elements for consistency. I may mess with the colors a little as well, but the elements and their placement will not be touched otherwise.

My friends in Desecrate The Faith have a new album, entitled “Unholy Infestation,” dropping in early March. I was privileged (and more than slightly honored) to be asked by them to do the photography for the album. This is one of the images I can show at this time:

From left to right – Tyler Shiery, Mike Caputo, John Hull, Coleson Cowden, Jonathan Bayliss

The other images for the album will be released with the album, but I’m very proud of the work I did for them. I was also able to sit in on the recording sessions with them. That in itself was a hell of an experience. I had an idea of how albums were made, but this really showed the hard work that goes into creating an album before the CD’s are ever made. Those photos can be seen here.

In terms of death metal, this album is going to make an impact on the genre’s landscape, and will be a model for other bands to follow. Seeing my name in the liner notes is already surreal, but given the impact I’m sure this album is going to have, the level of surreal (for me) is off the charts.

I’ve been reading a lot, though, and it has helped keep my mind turning through this rut. I’ve also acquired some equipment to help with another project on which I’m working. I just need to get off my ass and make use of it.

As for now, this concludes the latest update. I know it’s short by my blog entry standards, but never fear. I am currently structuring a new post that will outline some things I’ve been thinking about in relation to some of my concert images. Look for that within the next day or 2.

PS – If you’re into death metal, do yourself a favor and check out the first promo single from “Unholy Infestation.” You won’t be sorry.

Untaken – 18 Jan 2017

January 23, 2017 / Rick / 0 Comments

There is no doubt that the larger world can be a scare place. Leaving the (relative) safety of our dwellings and workplaces can be a stressful thing. The dangers lie not in just the obvious big things, e.g. crime, car accidents, etc., but also in the little unseen things, i.e. germs. Any place where large numbers of people gather can be a hotbed for germs, and that includes the grocery store. Some of the larger grocery stores I’ve visited have an alcohol pad dispenser so a shopper can wipe down the cart or basket. Normally I’ll see people take one, wipe down the cart handle, dispose of the pad, and be on their way to shopping.

This did not prepare me for what I saw this night, however. As I was grabbing a cart (meanwhile ignoring the sterile wipe dispenser), I glanced at a gentleman wiping down his cart. It wasn’t the handle he was wiping, though. He was wiping the metal around the top of the basket. I had to look away for a moment to process what I was seeing. When I looked again, he was taking another pad from the dispenser. Then he proceeded to wipe down the metal bars along the side of the cart. I looked at his face. There wasn’t worry or fear in his expression, just a determination to get through this task and proceed to the next. He was executing these movements next to the dispenser, but out of the way of other incoming customers and partially obscured from their view.

I can’t make any assumptions as to why he was seemingly intent on sterilizing every surface that could possibly contact his skin during his shopping time. Perhaps he had a weakened immune system. That begs the obvious question as to why he would be out anyway. Didn’t he know how acquired immunity works? Without exposure to some pathogens, his body will never learn how to fight them. Did he simply have OCD, was aware, and tried not to let it affect others?

That last possibility seemed the most plausible. I had my phone in my hand (I had taken it out to pull up by grocery list) but quickly put it in my pocket. This was his cross to bear and the fact that he was away from others seemed a statement that he would bear it alone, at least out here. For me to have taken a photograph of his activity, without his permission, could come across as mocking. Mocking was never my intent, but I decided not to leave my intent (which was fascination at that which I did not understand) to question.

Thou Doth Protest

September 18, 2016 / Rick / 0 Comments

Things get rather complicated when those who preach hate truly seem to believe they are doing it out of love for their fellow humans. Such is the case with an insular group from Topeka, KS. This group decided to visit Houston, TX to protest 2 locations – a transgender therapy clinic in the Montrose district and a gender conference taking place at the University of Houston. While the contingent was small (I really expected a larger number of members to appear), their presence was no less felt by students and alumni of the university, which saw a large contingent of counter-protestors to meet this small but famous group.

Early on, some counter-protestors decided to mix in with our guests. This only lasted a few minutes before they separated. One can imagine the police did this in order to keep the peace.

Despite the sunglasses, I’m pretty sure she was looking at me as I pointed my camera. Her smile was the dead giveaway. If the message is God’s love, why is she putting herself in the center?

The group is engaged in a song. This group is known for its parodies of popular songs.

Does God really hate America?

She’s only too happy to answer a reporter’s questions. I’m assuming they were denied the opportunity at the transgender clinic as they (the clinic) asked that no media come to that event.

Their websites are many, but the message is the same.

A couple of counter protesters in the median inside University Drive. The Baptist Student Ministry is in the background.

The discussions from students with members of the group were, for the most part, civil. Most of the antagonizing, unfortunately, came from the students who walked by the group.

The discussion between these 2 is still going on. No harsh words were exchanged by either side. Both were unyielding in their positions.

How is it love when they seemingly want to invite hate?

The discussion is still ongoing and remains civil. She chooses to only step on the flag rather than let it fall and be trampled. Could this be a safety issue? Or could it be more a demonstration of her control.

Their signs are their shields.

This is 3 of their group of 4 on the corner. The much larger counter protest is on the opposite corner.

On a day when tempers could easily be flared, a moment of love between 2 strangers drowns out all the noise.

I went in not really knowing what to expect. The last protest I attended was in Austin where a group of liberals was protesting the actions taken by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to limit the power of the public sector unions in his state. The anger there was palpable, and the speakers were cheerleading that anger, but were careful to not incite it beyond a temporary emotion. The anger at the Tea Party rally was also palpable, but the crowd showed tremendous respect and restraint.

This non-political (in the government sense) protest was new territory for me. All in all, it was peaceful. The group wasn’t projecting the hatred for which they are known, but there was something more sinister. They believe theirs is the righteous position. Knowing their firm belief in this made them seem more powerful and insidious than they outwardly project. Even the website, which, prior to the death of their founder, was full of fire and brimstone, has taken a more nuanced approach in spreading the message.

As stated in the captions, the rhetoric that came from some of the counter-protestors was just as hateful as the signs carried by the guest protestors. At one point, a man who I believe is a student went up to the lone man in the crowd and asked if he perform fellatio on the protestor. Nothing was said by the target of this attempt to incite. A few minutes later, the same student, thinking I was with this group, asked me the same question. He walked away with an angry look on his face when I told him that I wasn’t with the group, so I wasn’t opposed to it. Unfortunately, my initial reaction was anger at the young man who seemed to just want to pick a fight, but I kept my cool (owing a lot to my military training). In the end, however, his embarrassment at his own false assumption was gratifying and my anger quickly dissipated.

I must say I did expect a little more energy from our guests. Perhaps it was the heat, their small numbers, or exhaustion from already having protested that day that kept their energy level on the lower end. My rational and romantic minds were both stimulated that day. The rational felt the darkness in their hearts and realized they mistake it for light. The romantic mind came away with a respect for their resolve, despite the abhorrence of their ideals and their message.