#fotofusion

[howardschatzphotography]

In two days, Thursday, January 25, the Palm Beach Photographic Center will host its opening reception for the exhibition of my work: 

My grateful thanks to the Palm Beach Photographic Center, its President and CEO Fatima NeJame and FOTOfusion Director Jim Colton. I am honored. 

[seandugganphoto]

DeSoto Firedome & Departing Flight Little Havana, Miami

An image from the first day of FOTOfusion the last week of January. I’d visited Little Havana for an afternoon 15 years earlier. It was good to go back and explore it again.

[custardcroissant]

Megan, Banks, and Roscoe West Palm Beach, January, 2023

Roscoe initially caught my eye while I was walking to look for my first interviewees. As they were all seated eating lunch, I did not wish to interrupt. After taking another portrait, and passing by the same location however, I noticed the Basset hound and his owner standing up to leave the restaurant. I couldn’t resist and thus got to pet the one-year-old boy and converse with his owners.

Megan is South African and Banks is a Georgia native, meeting through mutual friends and sharing a love for boats and the water. When I met them, they were eating in West Palm Beach as a treat after putting an offer down on a nearby house, moving North from their current residence in Miami. Their Basset hound, Roscoe, will no longer be the baby of the family as Megan only had a few weeks left in her pregnancy at the time of meeting them.

Arriving in Miami a few years ago by buying a boat and sailing solo from Georgia, Banks now runs his own charter company. Banks shared his wishful advice to his teenage self: “I would have told myself to drop out; then I would have been that much more ahead in creating my business.”

[custardcroissant]

Jordan and Benji  West Palm Beach, January 2023

Last week I volunteered and attended the Palm Beach Photographic Center’s Fotofusion Festival and was challenged by the incredible photojournalist Peggy Peattie to “get comfortable photographing strangers.” I have been struggling with my art for a while, especially finding subjects other than myself, and finding a sense of community where I live. Peggie’s lecture and “assignment” gave me a completely renewed outlook on photography and journalism. 

Walking around Clematis, I found my comfort speaking to people with dogs and beginning the conversation and asking for an interview and portrait there.  Hence, these are my first subjects: Jordan and Benji. 

Jordan had picked up food from a local restaurant, Kabuki, and was awaiting a “Circuit” ride with Benji to return home to their apartment when I struck up conversation. At ten years-old, Benji was adopted by Jordan, and her now-husband, when they first began dating, meeting through mutual friends while out in West Palm as college students. Hosting her own bible study, Jordan is an active Christian and to her own surprise has been approached multiple times by various neo-Christian cults in West Palm Beach. Luckily, she is intelligent and holds firm values which allowed her to deal with these interactions.  When asked what advice she would give her teenage self, she replied,  “Nothing. What I’ve lived through got me to where I am today.”

[seandugganphoto]

I'm looking forward to teaching and presenting next week at the 28th annual FOTOfusion at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre (Jan 24 – 28). The first time that I taught there was 20 years ago!🤯 Since then, as near as I can figure, I've been able to participate in ten FOTOfusions. This will be my eleventh. 

I'll be giving two presentations:

The Personal Project: Finding New Creative Paths, and Photographing for Photoshop Compositing.

I’ll also be teaching two hands-on computer lab sessions:

Postcards from the Imaginarium: Combining Images with Photoshop Compositing and Photoshop Selections & Masking.

Check out the website for a list of all the sessions.

2018 was the last time I was able to go and I'm looking forward to the first photo event of 2023 and catching up with a very creative group of good friends and colleagues. The south Florida temperatures will be a welcome change from the torrential rains, snow, and cold weather we've had the past few weeks in the Sierra foothills!

[fotofusionasturias]

♥ Momentos compartidos ♥

[fotofusionasturias]

Colgante corazón partido grabado Medidas: 3,4 x 2,7 cm Material: metal. 2 colgantes independientes que encajan al unirse. Personalización por 1 cara. Método de grabado: láser. 15€ #fotofusion #regalospersonalizados #colgante #corazon #grabado https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmGesSnCF7/?igshid=kdo5h6egvs2r

[robinschwartz]

Thank you #MelissaGolden for letting me do a Melissa & the Animals with you. Hope you don’t mind this post, now whether to post @dzalcman & the Animals? So good to spend time with you both at #FOTOfusion.org (at Downtown West Palm Beach)