Book

So... I made an iphoto book. I tried to go for the retail catalog type approach. It is a really simple format, but that makes it look like it could be a really expensive catalog :-)

Here are a few of the pages as a sneak preview, if you don't like it... too late...

Further Thoughts

I am somewhat torn how I am going to present this project. My first thought was to do something that emulates a retail catalog layout. I think this would be very effective in removing these images from their typical response in somewhat of a satirical, critiquing way.

What do you all think? Is this enough? What would you think of selective coloring or a ComicLife based approach?

Cost of hospital visit

Insert stats on the cost of the birthing hospital visit and how that increases exponentially with number of days early the baby is.

Talkback (ComicLife?)

These have great baby "talkback" potential possibly through ComicLife. I could talk about a number of things including the cost of raising a child in the US, etc.

Diapers

Disposable diapers are soil nutrients that are being made inaccessible for redistribution by means of a convenient plastic-wrapped package.

Our long-haul based agricultural system is redistributing soil nutrients from the plains to a high human-waste concentration on the east and west coasts. These nutrients have to be replaced with chemical-based alternatives.

Artist's Statement

Having spent significant time in the United States, Canada, and Germany since my High School education, I love to explore. Beyond traveling, I love to explore how connected we are to our immediate and global communities. I am constantly nagged with the question of how our seemingly inconsequential actions in fact affect the rest our world.

More recently, my sister had a baby boy, and while taking images of him my mind began to take off with how I might present a human’s birth and early weeks in such a project. The human birthing and development processes are highly commercialized in our culture. We lead lives with a tremendous economic and environmental impact. Countries such as China have gone to the extreme to limit these impacts. What is our responsibility in a free-society to minimize such impacts? The first step in doing so is recognition of possible forces.

As a photographer, my style lends itself well to such a commentary. I am highly selective in what I present the viewer. I tend to select a tight crop and shallow depth of field, with an acute attention to background and how these shapes and colors will influence my focus and intent of the image. Between these attributes of my style and the addition of text, I hope to bring awareness to issues the viewer of a beautiful baby would not typically think of.