The Columbia Chronicle » Patti Smith visits, inspires

The Columbia Chronicle » Patti Smith visits, inspires

Caroline Louise Flys! - Cover of MAKE Magazine

MAKE -Chicago Literary Magazine - Sarah Dodson, Director - chose my color photograph of Caroline Louise Flys for the NEWEST COVER. Caroline Louise is my granddaughter and I am especially happy for her photograph to be featured.

Caroline Louise, summer 2010

Caroline Louise, Maquoketa, Iowa

Katie, summer 2010

Dave Moore

Took this picture of my friend Dave Moore at James Offutt's graduation party this past summer. I really like it.

100 Portraits - Andy Adams

Andy Adams - 100 Portraits - 100 Photographers: Selections from the FlakPhoto.com Archive. this is one of my favorite portraits...there are many.

Tom Waits reads Charles Bukowski

My Own Eyes - M & K Greenstreet

My Own Eyes is an interview/video collage with Kate Greenstreet by her husband Max Greenstreet. It's a brilliant and insightful, mesmerizing collage of images (mostly left-over video from Kate's archive) + photos taken by Kate + video of Kate by Max.

Kate Greenstreet's second book of poetry The Last 4 Things comes with a dvd of video/poems. Kate and Max were in Iowa City last fall I believe, on their tour all over the USA....http://maxgreenstreet.com/aboutmoe.html

Watch & Listen. Required viewing for anyone interested in SEEING and LOOKING at the world.

I Met the Walrus

Francisco Antonio Romero, near Iowa City, Iowa

Francisco Antonio Romero agreed to have his portrait taken just a few weeks ago. Liz Preciado and I were outside of Iowa City doing a portrait shoot of Liz and I was struck by "Frankie's" (as he is called) presence. Frankie is originally from New Mexico and has been living near Iowa City for a few years I think.

Iowa State Fair - Irreverences

Rolling Stones - Rocks Off (1972)

LOVE THIS - Robert Frank's super 8 footage of my favorite rock n' roll band.

State Fair Photos Featured on Easy Ed's Blog

What can I say? Thank you Ed for sharing your thoughts and my photos. Ed Maxin writes and blogs for NO DEPRESSION. My Iowa State Fair photos are featured today!

Elisa Korenne

This past June I had the great pleasure of photographing Elisa Korenne around her home town area of New York Mills, Minnesota. We worked inside an old Victorian home and outdoors as well. It was an entire day of shooting. For more information about Elisa and her music go to her website.

Liz Preciado - Lost in the Midwest

I had the honor and fun of photographing LIZ PRECIADO last week. We have known each other for well over ten years. She is my newest participant in my project LOST in the MIDWEST.

Visual Arts » Dismantling My Career: A Conversation with Alec Soth

Visual Arts » Dismantling My Career: A Conversation with Alec Soth

Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO

My print RADIANT CHILD, Maine is in the new exhibition called Black and White at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO. Andrea Modica was the juror. The show is up from August 27 - September 25th, 2010. If you live in Fort Collins, be sure to go!

Andrea Modica's Juror's Statement says a great deal about photography....

Iowa State Fair, Des Moines, Iowa

Traveled down 80 on Wednesday for a trip to the Iowa State Fair. It was hot. Way too hot for six hours of being at the fair. But I was there and ready to find some photos. An August day at the state fair in Iowa...

David Zollo Photos

LOST IN THE MIDWEST

In 2009, I started a new portrait project. Just recently I decided on a title for the work - Lost in the Midwest. This work is about the unknown. It is about finding oneself and at the same time, losing oneself. Rebecca Solnit writes in her book A Field Guide to Getting Lost that we should celebrate the unknown rather than fear it. Losing things, losing ourselves, is part of our human experience. Instead we want control over our lives and this severely limits discovery and knowledge.

The Midwest is often times overlooked or missed entirely. Geographically we are in-between. People from either coast tend to just fly over us. This body of work will explore the complexities of life in the Midwest. The portraits I am interested in making are one on one and collaborative. I do not have a fixed idea before I begin. There is my subject, the lighting and the environment. I go by feel. I do not have a road map. The elements must come together and inspire me to shoot the photograph.

More than anything I am fascinated with people. I want to convey something deeper about my subjects than mere documentation. It is my intent for this work to reveal a tiny bit of the unspoken, the poetic, the immense mystery of being human. Curiosity pushes me to ask permission to photograph someone. My camera gives me a certain license to go inside, to reach beyond the surface.

I made these portraits recently of Tom Caufield and his dog, Norman Judd. I am very happy with the photographs and Tom likes them too. What I like best is that I think we captured a real essence --something very beautiful and real -- about who Tom is and also about his relationship with Norman Judd. And it got me thinking about the people I am photographing....some have been Iowans since birth - like me - but many of my subjects/friends are people who have moved to Iowa or the Midwest and made it their home. They uprooted and transplanted themselves. They adapted to being midwesterners. More to think about...how this landscape forms and informs who we are and who we become.