I recently realized I've been moving around a lot since graduating college. I don't know what financial stability or job security is like; I know it sounds nice, I just don't have time for that right now. I have too much to experience, photograph and write about before I most likely become a [willing]slave for the film industry. Even when I was in the same city(NYC) for a while I was moving all over the place. Four years in the Bronx, then home in Rockland, an apartment in the East Village and friends' apartments everywhere in between. For close to four years I've worked freelance on commercials, photo shoots and TV; and more recently as a photographer. At the end of November '08 I drove cross country to Lake Tahoe to work as a photographer at a ski resort shooting people from all over the world(and get in a solid 130 days of riding(click)). Winter came to an end and since then I've been couch surfing all over the west coast. I left most of my belongings at my aunts in the bay area and have been spending most of my time between there, LA and San Diego (with an occasional night in the back of the van).
I've been meeting a lot of people along the way and have every intention to see everybody I've met again. In my six months in CA I've made friends with some great people from all over the country, South America, New Zealand, Australia and Europe. I'm not the best at staying in touch with people, but I will make the effort to see you, eventually, funds permitting. Especially if you're living somewhere I've never been. It's nice to always have new places to visit and explore with people who already know what's good in the area.
For a long time I avoided blogs. I never found much appeal in them. Maybe I just saw too many people writing about things that didn't interest me. I'm sure somebody cares about the sleeping patterns of your cat or who you ran into at the mall. I don't, but hopefully somebody else does. Just as I hope somebody cares about what I have to say. Either way I'm going to try to post only things that have drawn and held my attention for one reason or another and made me stop and think, even if only for a moment. Most likely it entertained me too, which seems to be the pattern. If the subject doesn't interest you, hopefully the photos will, which is what this blog is about more than anything. On average I'd say I shoot 100-200 photos a day, more often than not of the most obscure, random shit I can find: wine bottles, grass, carpet fibers, walls. It doesn't matter, I can usually find something interesting in anything. It comes partly from boredom, but more so from a desire to make the often overlooked things in life stand out and be seen in a different light. Most of these photos won't usually make it to my other website with my portfolios (www.brandon-stanley.com) but I figure most are still worth a look. I enjoy what I do and hopefully somebody else will too.
So this blog is to share my work and keep people updated on where I'll be, where I've been and what I'm doing, because I don't even know half the time. Every once in a while I'll throw out a good album or film that deserves attention because that's whats so great about art and technology these days. You can share ideas all over the world and actually get the content and information out there that matters. Most likely my mom will be the only one who regularly reads this(hey mom), but even if all this blog does is give my mom peace of mind about where I am, then I guess that's good enough.
[Written at the kitchen table, AN's - Portola Valley, CA]
Plans for a little while:
Oregon Coast for several days
CA/Bay area until beginning/mid June
NY until end of July
South America until end of August
September-November is between NYC, LA and SF, depending on what looks best at the time
