Casual Blasphemy

I climb 29 flights of stairs in complete darkness. Only a glowstick to light my way. I take off my fashion motley of hiking boots & three piece suit, ending another day’s work on the flooded cobblestone of Wall Street. Hurricane Sandy was a mess, but I loved the adventure; 25 days of surreality living downtown NYC with no water or electricity in a virtually abandoned skyscraper. A building meant for 3000 people and I was all alone. Storm of the century. At least thats what they called it till the next one. The experience was incredible, but with only a camera on my cell phone, I missed my chance to document it. I bought a camera soon after and started on a path that would change my life.

This is the moment my whole world changed. It came about 6 months after Hurricane Sandy. My Disney Princess moment. Staring off into the blue, some 80ft down, im looking at a school of thousands upon thousands of jackfish. So many you cant see through the swarm of it. I get the tingle. No, not the pee tingle; That primal twitch that starts in your spine, runs up to the back of your head and down into your stomach pushing all the way down to your balls. SOMETHING IS THERE. I flipper around and out of the blue comes a 25 foot whaleshark. Straight at me. With a few meters to go it ever so effortlessly dips down, gliding right below me. So close my body was shoved in the wake of its tail. How could I ever go back to finance?

I purely pursued photo for about three years, picking up some clients in fashion, learning the craft and constantly challenging myself to pursue new styles and technique.

In 2017 I entered into physical art. What started as experiments with silver gelatin and eBay chemistry in an old school photo darkroom turned into painted photography mixed media.

2018 my resolution was to learn how to draw and conquer my fear of the blank page. I was told hands are the hardest thing to draw, so I started there. At the end of the year I created this piece, Aeon, my first large piece made from nothing.

I can pretty much only draw my own left hand, but I figure this is the start of a long process of learning.

2019 has been all about jewelry, writing and some sculpture. I just photographed a pottery studio and feel a calling. If anyone wants to sponsor some studio time, ill make you things.

This is just the beginning of a tremendous journey, I have about 30 lifetimes of projects to create, thanks for sharing it with me.

Cheers,

Max