THEY LIVE, WE SLEEP.

artisdifficult — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:52:04 +0000

Last Friday the 13th I totally blew off the Friday the 13th tattoo extravaganza and ended up photographing The Undead Prom at the Bell House for the Village Voice. If you’ve ever spoken to me personally for more than 10 minutes, I’ve probably had some kind of zombie discussion with you.

I recently heard that zombies will be getting a twilight-like treatment with zombies loving each other and all that nonsense, pretty much the worst news I’ve ever heard.

Ingrid Biorck.

see the rest here.

ALSO.

get to the top, im too tired to rock.

artisdifficult — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:20:36 +0000

I shot the 11th annual no pants ride in NY on sunday for the Village Voice. Its become quite a media circus with a bunch of non participating weirdo photographers. If you want to make a photographer uncomfortable, take his/her picture.

I’m not above participating myself.

feel it all around.

artisdifficult — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:47:02 +0000

So I recently got showcased on virb, which has since driven my website and blog traffic up about 500%. Id like you to notice that I forgot how to take a screen shot on a mac and also how to close a tab, hence the chrome tab “HOW TO TAKE A SCREENSHOT” appears, im kind of an idiot.

I’m also working on some sweet promo materials for the new year, give me your address and maybe ill send you one.

And to keep the nostalgia boat floating from last time, here is a portrait from my 2nd year in college. Handguns in pictures are so 2004.

Happy new year.

ninjas. hijacked. my mother.

artisdifficult — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:34:37 +0000

This will probably be one of my last posts of the year, but the past few weeks have been interesting to say the least. I shot a portrait of Dan Holzman, Co-Owner of the Meatball Shop for AMNY, was on the Rachael Ray show for a good combined 3 seconds (skip to 1:55 here), moved into a fancy new apartment (send prints please, my walls are bare), and found a bunch of photographs on a hard drive from when I was in college of which I’ll sprinkle in here and there, you gotta remember where you came from.

Somehow it hasnt snowed yet here in New York and this makes me very happy.

Dan Holzman

Me standing in for Mike Jones.

Norio. Circa 2004. 2004! We’ve come so far.

Also, have you seen this? Video of the year for sure.

See you in San Francisco.

electronic surgical words.

artisdifficult — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:48:06 +0000

Since we last spoke, I shot a style piece for Karen Millen, I placed in a contest, I’m moving to a new apartment, I did a job for Ragu requiring me to make spaghetti, and I’ve been drinking kind of a lot ($5 beer+shot is a gift and a curse).

I also managed to place 2nd in the adventure category for this years APA|NY photo annual.

(its still real to me damn it.)

the lengths to which he’d go.

artisdifficult — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:04:13 +0000

It has been a little while since my last blogpost, but I didnt want you to think that its because I havent been photographing a gang of shit and trying to keep a balance of personal work and work that puts the gyoza on the table. The last few months have been kind of all over the place culminating in what can only be described as the most terrifying and liberating thing I have done in a long time. I deactivated facebook.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

I’m about to talk about my disconnection from the social network because of my personal gripes with nothing better than a ranty, whiskeyed, personal blog post, as backwards as that is.

You see, this will be the first time since I started college where I wont be actively on some sort of social networking site. The direct access to my personal life and to have access to all of your lives felt so damn off putting today that on a whim, I decided to just disconnect all together. Not to say that I dont care about what you are all up to and how you are doing these days, but its nothing that an email, text message, or phone call couldn’t resolve. I mean, our parents didnt have facebook growing up, even though some of them do now.

At the end of my facebook life I had a fluctuating number of friends anywhere in between 485-490 friends, which leads me to believe that some of you have deactivated and activated right back, which isn’t a big deal, but when the number would change I would have pretty much no clue who was gone unless we speak more often than not. Out of close to 500 people I’ve ever met, I’d like to think that at most, I talk to maybe 20 of you? Its clear that people come and go in your life, it doesnt devalue our friendships, but to lump you all into the “490″ feels like something less meaningful.

There is no doubt that what readership I have here is surely to take a sharp decline, since most of my hits come after i post on facebook, but for the anonymous few that check this, i’d like to think we interact regularly and i dont have to tell you on facebook to check out what kind of photos ive been making lately.

So heres to the end of pictures of my dog, one liners from songs im listening to, pictures of me drunk, declining invites to parties that arent even in my city, reminders of how things used to be, reminders of how things actually are, not having to check the weather update because everyones status update does it for me, likewise on how the 49ers are doing, links to blogposts like these, lurking, and liking your updates.

dont worry though, you can still find me on flickr, instgram, tumblr, words with friends, and linkedin. and if you feel so inclined to drop a note here, i will respond accordingly.

fuck off, facebook.

Elliot Erwitt didnt have a facebook.

Because one time, I turned into a dog and they helped me.

artisdifficult — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:21:42 +0000

Patriciana Tenicela, Mrs. Captain America

Mac Cloud as B.A. Baracus

Tom Goetz as Nick Fury

I had the pleasure of photographing the NY Comic Con for the umpteenth time for the Village Voice. It becomes more challenging every year since the amount of photographers seems like it triples. I try to do it differently every year but it seems like people are starting to catch on and are bringing octobanks now! OCTOBANKS!? REALLY?! Next year im just gonna photograph everyones feet and call it, the feet of comic con.

Special thanks to G.Robinette for saving my ass.

Also, i hope you watched the walking dead yesteday because it was epic. Someone please make a gif of rick grimes throwing that rock at the 2nd walker.

Turf and turf.

artisdifficult — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:21:50 +0000

Been a pretty interesting couple of weeks. Below is a smattering of some things I’ve worked on including but not limited to style shoots, a wedding (sort of), and a recent visit to a friend of mine who happens to be a Real Life Superhero. Also, I met Bill Cunningham and then proceeded to photograph him in his own trademark style.

Elan.

Jennifer.

Mariette.

Alex Welsh.

Anytime you photograph a wedding with another shooter it is inevitable that they’ll find their way into your frames.

Bill Cunningham reloading film at Governors Island.

Outtake. A superhero who happens to have a roommate that is a Magician in their Brooklyn home.

Also, feel free to add me on instagram. paulnonymous.

BONUS OSTERHAUS TEST FRAME!

wakarimasen.

artisdifficult — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:42:59 +0000

Every time I go to Williamsburg I usually spend a good amount of time at Junk, the thrift shop with a gang of old negatives and photographs in an epic bottomless pit that is a wooden bin. I only take the negatives, since I like to mess with the tones myself and there is something cool about scanning these because you cant really tell what the hell is going on in some of them. These ones involve a girl who either a) is a negative space genius or b) didnt have a tripod, but had a floor.

Also, recently dusted off the hasselblad and who do i photograph?

moxie.

blue carolina.

artisdifficult — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:45:56 +0000

Took a bus this last weekend down to Charlotte, North Carolina. Officially the furthest south I’ve ever been in the good ol’ USA. It should be required that one leaves New York City at least once a month. To actually be able to hear myself think without the constant horn honking, screaming, and construction was amazing. Also nice to be able to see things with a fresh eye, these arent the most exciting photos ever, but its still real to me damn it!