Monday Protests

Demonstrators gathered at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland, OR on Monday evening to protest against recent police shootings.
Demonstrators break through a police horse barrier at the intersection of Columbia and SW 9th Ave in downtown Portland.
Demonstrators ran through a street late Monday evening in downtown Portland, OR. Police forces contained the demonstrators for several hours.
A resident photographs demonstrators outside her building on Columbia and SW 9th Ave in downtown Portland.
Police officers carried zip-ties, handcuffs and pepper spray.
Approximately 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Justice Center in downtown Portland, OR Monday evening to protest recent police shootings.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Justice Center in downtown Portland, OR Monday evening to protest recent police shootings.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Justice Center in downtown Portland, OR Monday evening to protest recent police shootings.

Some Driving

A mountain pass on Wyoming’s I-80 was nearly covered in snow early Saturday morning.
My parents’ trusty Honda made the approximately 1300 mile trip without any hang-ups.
The Saturday sunset in Utah along I-84 was more stunning in person.
Eh, why not…
Refueling just outside of Rupert, Idaho.
A dreary Sunday morning on I-84 in Oregon.
I stopped by Vineyard Christian to see my good friend Adam Rothrock (the man with the guitar on stage).

Evening Thoughts

My father’s colleague invited us to her home for dinner. The men talked religion and politics; the women looked through family pictures. Afterwords we drove through Denver.



Denver’s great. The city has a lot to offer: interesting places, entertainment, sports, etc.

My parents’ two-bedroom apartment is in Parker, Colorado. Parker is Squareville. It’s a bedroom community filled with tightly packed, replicate homes and condos. Denver’s professionals (along with cat, dog and the kids) quietly waste away in Parker. The houses all look the same, the roads are ridiculously wide and it smells like ass. It’s suburbia on acid – without the acid.

There is a length of bike path that meanders through neighborhoods, parks and what remains of a wilderness. I went for a run – I promised myself I would train once in Colorado – and I heard animals yelping. I even saw the silhouette of a coyote running against the white snow. It served as an interesting contrast to the rigid civility of the surrounding community.

Everything is packed. We leave tomorrow at 9:00 am.

Some Moving

Alright, chaps. By sheer luck there’s an unprotected wireless network around my parents’ apartment. Here’s some images:

Colorado had a storm on Wednesday that deposited 6 to 8 inches of snow.
The restrooms at Denver International Airport double as tornado shelters.
Moving.

My mum.

Denver-Bound

I leave Portland for Denver tomorrow morning.

Last July I helped my parents move to Parker, CO, a suburb 20 miles outside of Denver. They’ve decided to move back to Oregon, so I’m flying out to help them pack.

View Larger Map

I have a one-way ticket; I’ll be driving their Honda Civic back. I plan on updating my Twitter regularly, and I’ll upload photos when I get back on Monday.

Daily Diptych Launches!

Maggie Hudson and I (finally) launched our collaborative photography project, Daily Diptych. Every day we make a photographic diptych from our images. We each select a picture from the day at random. She’s on the right, I’m on the left.

We put a lot of time into the project. I spent evenings and weekends sketching logos and drafting website compositions. Countless hours were logged in Portland coffee shops (mostly Backspace) talking about the project.

We both want to see how far the project will go. Current talk: social media presence, press releases, gallery showings and a year-end book.

The current design is rudimentary; we simply wanted to put something up and showcase our work. We’re planning for a bigger and better version in the near future. In the meantime, check out our work and follow us on Twitter.

Blur of Activity

These last few days have been, well, hectic. The week was a blur of activity and, of course, photos.

My parents are moving from Colorado to Oregon. I’ll fly out, pack a U-Haul and start driving back to Oregon.

Aside from work, here’s what the next few days look like:

Monday: Solid Rock project (Tony’s house church)

Tuesday: Solid Rock project (Jeff’s house church)

Wednesday: Late dinner with Sam

Thursday: Dinner date

Friday: Fly to Colorado

Saturday: Pack, drive

Sunday: Driving

Monday: More driving

Saturday Concert, Pt. 1

I shot a little concert on Saturday. More images to come.

Dave and Mel versus Mel and Dave

A little fun diptych, from the backseat.

Layouts & Compositions

I had a chance to sketch some layouts for the Daily Diptych project. I’m not especially excited about any of the compositions, but they’re slowly moving in the right direction.

Functionality is undergoing some changes: focus is on the diptychs, and navigation must be robust. I would like to build in keyboard functionality so left and right arrows navigate forward and backward through the diptychs. I think that requires JavaScript and AJAX – things I have little knowledge in.

Forge on!

Saturday Services

These images are from the Saturday, March 6th Solid Rock church meeting in downtown Portland. I started photographing the church last week. The project is slowly taking shape. There are lots of events to shoot and many people I have yet to talk to

I plan on going to a house church, a small gathering in someone’s house or apartment, tomorrow evening. There are two house churches downtown Portland, and they meet monthly.

The sound board is the heaviest item: it requires several men to muscle it up stairs and through narrow doorways.Volunteers fill disposable plastic cups with cranberry juice for Communion.
Crew members look on as the worship band warms up.
Tommy, a Portland resident, was baptized after praying with Solid Rock pastors. An open baptism session is held between services on the first Saturday of the month.
Pastor Phil Comer preaches to a full assembly at the 7:30 session. Comer’s message centered around the Biblical story of a rich man (Mark 10:17).

Saturday Coffee

I had coffee with a good friend, Ron Graves. He pulled out some illustrations he’s been working on: I pulled out the camera.

The on-going design process

More variation sketches on the Daily Diptych logotype.

Tuesday Evening Meeting

I attended Solid Rock’s Tuesday evening prayer and worship meeting. Here are some images:

Chinese in Chinatown.

Converting digital images to greyscale color space, adding too much contrast and crushing the blacks are cheap parlour tricks.

Solid Rock: Week 7

I’ve been thinking about doing a documentary project on Solid Rock, a prominent Portland-area church, for months. The church made a push into downtown Portland back in January.

I contacted the downtown coordinator, Brandon Mosser, shortly afterwards. We had coffee on February 22th. The meeting went very well, and I shot my first function, the main Saturday evening meeting, on February 28th.

The whole idea of the project is something that I’ll write about in the future. In short, Portland is rumored to have the highest number of strip clubs per capita in the U.S. It is also known as a church graveyard. Solid Rock church pushes into the downtown area knowing full well these challenges.

All the people I’ve met are very excited about the church’s downtown presence. Their eyes light up when they talk about what they’re doing; its like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’m excited right along with them: I feel they have important things to say, and, moreover, they have action. I’ve never seen anything like it … but I’ll get into that in future writings.

For now, pictures:

Solid Rock members walk the streets of downtown Portland before the first Saturday service. They ask peoples’ opinions about Jesus and invite them to church.
The downtown group meets in First Baptist Church of Portland, located on SW Taylor St. and 12th Ave.
Solid Rock’s downtown extension offers 5:30 and 7:30 services on Saturday evenings.
The First Baptist Church of Portland was built in 1894. It has the eccentricities of older churches, including narrower doorways, wooden pews and stained glass windows.
Last Saturday’s message was about Jesus as Truth and judgement. Pastor John Mark Comer encouraged attendees to write their sins on note cards and symbolically throw them away. “Right here. Right now. We need to deal with sin.”
Solid Rock changes the space dramatically to suite it’s needs. Several volunteers spend a couple of hours cleaning and storing equipment after the second service.