RHONE SAMA

Documenting my life, the people around me, my travels, surroundings, and on occasion, the things I find unsettling.

[rhonesama]

untitled, new orleans and the outskirts of kenner, louisiana (2022)

[matthewgrantanson]

October Begins, Los Angeles – October 2nd, 2021

[rhonesama]

timeless

[rhonesama]

untitled, kenner, louisiana (2021)

When the fog arrives, the ghosts of the late 20th and now 21st century come out. Conversations, laughter, commercials on the radio and television.

“This just in! A time more physical than virtual!”

Forever trapped in those final days of nostalgia, the ghosts are content. I miss those days.

Photographer signing off.

[rhonesama]

untitled, metairie, louisiana (2021)

My nightmares and delusions are thick like smog. Sometimes they get so heavy with creative energy that the very reality in which my eyes observe mutates.

I don’t know why God bestows me with such power and I don’t care to. I’ll just continue my work. Capturing what enters my camera’s frame.

Photographer signing off.

[liminal-descriptions]

A single bus outside a train station at night. Above the windshield, the words "Wrong code" are illuminated.

Small green lights scatter around the bus ...

[rhonesama]

untitled, metairie, louisiana (2021)

My nightmares and delusions are thick like smog. Sometimes they get so heavy with creative energy that the very reality in which my eyes observe mutates.

I don’t know why God bestows me with such power and I don’t care to. I’ll just continue my work. Capturing what enters my camera’s frame.

Photographer signing off.

[omi99kim]

[rhonesama]

untitled, new orleans, louisiana (2021)

The world is getting faster and faster. People can’t wait any longer for the things they want.

Is it because of society advancing too fast for our own good? Is it because of the billionaire status innovators?

Whatever it is, it’s still so crazy how fast the world is getting.

We even got Mark Zuckerberg attempting to create the Matrix. And I think he’ll succeed.

(You young ones be careful with that in the future)

And ya know? Even if the world gets faster, people still have to eat. Hence, my job as an Uber Eats driver.

The clip at the end of the carousel is from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976).

(My favorite film!)

I believe this scene with Robert DeNiro and Cybill Shepherd perfectly encapsulates how it feels to go out of my way to bring the people of New Orleans their food.

Photographer signing off.

[rhonesama]

untitled, new orleans, louisiana (2021)

I learned and am still learning that every photographer should approach the medium in a way that isn’t just unique to them, but in a way that’d also compliment their circumstances.

I’ve been playing around with different cameras available to me for a bit and I still feel that my Nikon COOLPIX W300 is still the best fit for my style of shooting.

It doesn’t shoot RAW.

Meaning, I don’t have the same editing capabilities of someone who does.

And it’s no bother to me. I hate doing too much editing.

I like capturing moments quickly and hoarding as many photographs as possible.

I can’t do that with film.

The turn around time is just too slow for my tastes since I’m always on the move and snapping without thinking.

My camera can shoot more than 10K photographs.

So my tiny yellow Nikon and its legion of JPEGs are here to stay.

Elitism is unnecessary and detrimental to the joy of discovery.

This is Christopher Paul Rhone and these are just Thoughts from the Pen. Photographer signing off.

[rhonesama]

My Photography Heroes (2021)

Why do I like Daidō Moriyama’s and Greg Girard’s photography?

The look of their photography reminds me of how my eyes see the world. I try to show that through my camera, but of course, not in the way that they do completely. They're just reminders. Triggers for me really. I vibe with their approach to the medium.

I love how Daidō Moriyama isn't afraid to show "bad" photography. I mean isn't that how the eyes sometimes see the world? The eyes wander, always searching for light to focus on in all of that darkness. Daidō evokes so much emotion and movement in black and white photography, and his usage of blacks are so rich that it’s almost as if ink spilled onto the photograph. And it’s not just his black and white photography that’s legendary. The way he uses color is too. It’s like it has this “washed” aesthetic. As if the richness of the color had been diluted. That had me thinking. Do we see color in the same way when it comes to naturally taking a photo? It's a question I've always thought about. I feel like the way I see color is “punchy”. Saturated like a graphic novel, but not overdone. My color photography always leans in that direction with grim undertones.

Greg Girard’s photography makes me think about how the medium is good for recording history. I love how his approach is artistic, but still analytical in the way that it documents the events, places, and people he's come across throughout Asia. I’ve always had the travel bug and using my camera to document what I see out in the world ain’t even work to me.

Like these two, I hope to do similar things in my photography. I'll take what they've done, study it, and make it my own. And hey, I may find my third inspiration.

[rhonesama]

I’ll Use These As Much As I Want (2021)

I’m an observer at heart. I watch people, animals, structures, light, darkness, and things others can’t seem to see. I do this for one major reason:

I have bad eyesight.

So I’ll use it as much as I can. Because I appreciate what I can see more than the average person.

Rhone Sama

rhonesama.com

Instagram: @rhonesama

[rhonesama]

The Dead Lurk In Hotels Post-Covid (2021)

This right here.

This is where I discovered how close the dead really are to us the living. About a month ago, I was bored and wanting to practice photography, but somewhere other than my neighborhood. 

I had settled on a location that was seriously spur of the moment.

A random hotel on Veterans Memorial Blvd.

The place was bizarre and felt like it was stuck in an alternate reality where hotel residents weren’t residents, but lost souls. 

Empty green hallways, a dead lobby with no one eating, a slow elevator, an ominous looking pool, and the creepy stairway. 

And the random screaming and thumping’s I heard while documenting were in no way sexual. There were sinister undertones. Like spirits wanting to escape the hotel’s interior.

Here are some stills from my stay.

Rhone Sama

rhonesama.com

Instagram: @rhonesama

[rhonesama]

Oh, There’s Definitely Something In The Water (2021)

I laugh everyday at the space obsessed. We want so bad for life to exist outside our world. For there to be some strange creatures out there for us to discover, dissect, and place in vats in the museums of some crazed artists for all to see.

They’re looking too hard. Too too hard. It’s right here. On this blue ball. Have we truly explored everything? Searched every nook and cranny of this place? I find that hard to believe because we still have an entire world right underneath us in the deep waters. Deep waters...

Maybe Rapture is down there.

Rhone Sama

rhonesama.com

Instagram: @rhonesama​

[rhonesama]

No Drugs Were Taken (2021)

My neighborhood is a strange place indeed. 

Random storms from Cthulhu’s realm, abandoned vehicles miraculously thrown up on a hill, and empty streets.

I see these things on the daily in Kenner, Louisiana. How are your neighborhoods my friends?

Rhone Sama

Instagram: @rhonesama

[rhonesama]

A Look Inside My Head (2021)

[rhonesama]

Little Gotham (2021)

When darkness falls it isn’t strange. It’s something natural to our environment. Something that has been happening aeons ago since before we even existed. Darkness exists outside of our small blue marble in the nebulous galaxies of our unexplored universe. So why are we so quick to see it as foreign? Maybe it’s because we’ve enjoyed the light for too long.

Here are some stills from Laketown, Kenner when the night begins and inevitably cloaks.

Rhone Sama

Instagram: @rhonesama

[rhonesama]

I Ask You To Look At Your World Again (2021)

My apartment is on the south side of Lake Ponchartrain in Kenner’s Laketown, where a slew of cultures intermix. There’s Central American, Southern American, African American, and even some Asiatic cultures like Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean. Despite our differences, we do have one constant: The urge to visit the lake.

Rhone Sama

Instagram: @rhonesama

[rhonesama]

Hello, Kenner (2021)

Welcome to my photography blog