First real winter

It was a Friday afternoon, and rumors were going around that a blizzard was going to hit New York 9am the next morning. I was excited just hearing about it. The first blizzard while living in NY... So I wake up the next morning a little bit past nine expecting to see snow... but none. I thought maybe, it just went around Brooklyn. And then a few hours later, I look out my window and I jump on my bed and yell, "It's snowing!!!"

Outside my window....



This holiday season definitely did not feel like past holidays... maybe its because I was not with any family this year? Or maybe its because I'm getting old? Or maybe its because I had to work on both Christmas Eve and Day? I dunno... Yesterday I had dinner with some friends who were living through their first christmas in NYC---some who lived here for years...I asked..."Why did not one go home this year?" My friend Ni responded, "One word: recession." haha.... oh, but so true.

Secrets

I really like this short movie piece.

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God from Frank Warren on Vimeo.

A night of disguises...

I felt the Halloween spirit this year for the first time in a really long time;)









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Just having fun with friends....

AMAZING!!!!

Just hanging out at the lobby of Parsons, planning to read and catch up on homework, when inspiration caught me by surprise. There were a few folks setting up projectors and screens, and were doing a practice run for this Friday's event. They started screening a piece, and I was glued to that TV screen. Watching it over and over....

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

After recieving the news...

I'm so glad I followed my heart and saw Tita Lita before she passed. Thank you for your compassion, smile and open arms.

Time interviews Ken Burns about newest doc about National Parks

Transplanted, Processing, Cultivating

So, its been a little bit over three months since I moved to New York and I haven't wrote one entry in this blog about any of my experiences. What can I say, time goes fast in this city, and when you're in the mist of adapting to a new place, starting grad school, settling down, and figuring out how to pay rent---one can be definitely be absorbed.







I currently live in Brooklyn. Bushwick to be exact. In a three bedroom apartment with two friends from the Bay Area. I started classes about a month ago at the New School, pursuing my Masters Degree in Media Studies and Film. I started to have anxiety attacks in the beginning of the semester because I was struggling to balance the endless readings and assignments with my waitress job that requires me to get home at 4 or 5am.

The "New York lifestyle" where it is quite unusual to be "nice." Where kindness is a weakness around here. Well, at least to some people I've been coming across. When the cold hearted folks start getting to be me, I remember some wise words that someone said to be..."Don't let anyone take away your spirit, your joy."




Don't get me wrong, NY is not pure evil. I love New York. I don't know if its because of the millions of people living and moving on top of each other or that because one lives in NY one must have a certain state of mind--- but New York has a certain feel to it. I don't know how to define it, and I guess I am still trying to figure it out.

Fight, No Flight.

Come see my most recent project!

Saturday, June 13, 2009 4-6 pm
Exhibit Opening Reception +
documentary piece about women community leaders

Exhibit Opening Reception
FIGHT, NO FLIGHT
Women, Community & Power

Recent Projects by Jenifer K. Wofford
and Diana Diroy + Aisha Heredia

I live...

I like to think I live in the moment... but I also think I live in the past. Hence why, it takes me forever to upload pictures... I like looking at them later, later, later...just when you think the magic of that moment no longer lingers, a photo can arise a memory of that moment all over again.


(Greensboro, North Carolina)


On our way to Washington D.C. in a 15-seater van!


A moment caught in time.

A tree that stood out, in what can seem like a monotonous series of legal buildings in Washington D.C.
I got one guy to look up...

Analyzing the media

I like analyzing the media... and I like talking to people about the media.

Growth

One of the things that Dai Sugano said during San Jose State University's Visual Journalism Day was something along the lines about being inspired at least every six months and that will be his fuel to keep on going, to keep on creating. I smiled when he said that, because I know exactly what he is talking about. But, he only needs it every six months, I crave for inspiration at least once a week, if not everyday! haha... And for the most part, my craving is fullfilled maybe once a month.

People are amazing... it is really nice to see how people grow, and how their creativity and artistic eye grow as well.

Whether it be a fellow photojournalist I met through Chips Quinn, Deanna Dent, who knows how to capture the beauty of a moment, or whether it be an old "room mate" whose growth in spirituality is evident in her music and her being, djraichous, or whether it be a friend from college whose brush strokes continue to be more bold, original, and beautiful, Annie Lou -- I am quite lucky to be inspired by my friends, and to continue on the same road that our passion leads us---whether it be photography, music, or painting...

Thank you.

As a token of my appreciation, I will try to blog more, and post up photos more often! haha.... I am known to take a bunch of photos, but never really post 'em... okay, okay... I'll start doing it...

Here are just two photos from the Chinese New Year Parade a couple months back...





More to come...

Taking the time...

It's been a while since I last blogged... a lot has been going on I suppose... working on "projects," traveling with folks, and a little bit of this and that.

It's May 1st tomorrow. The beginning of a new month. I remember around this time last year, I was preparing to come back home from the Philippines. Now, I'm preparing to leave home... I've been having doubts...not quite sure if I should stay or if I should go, but I think its just me going through that phase where I weigh out my options. And there's something that is just pulling me over there... my thirst for growth...

When there's a countdown, everything around you is just magnified. Everything you wanted to do, but just didn't have time to do, seems to gain priority on the list of things to do.

I love San Francisco and I love rediscovering its treasures.

My first time...

So I can finally take a breath and re-focus. For the past couple of weeks, I've been in San Jose just preparing for the SJSU Inauguration photo show... We had our opening reception this past Wednesday, March 11 and the photos will be up until April 11 on the fifth floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. The photo exhibit will then move to the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland on May 1.

Although it took a lot of time cutting, laminating, and mounting these prints-- it was a good experience. I learned a lot from the amount of work that goes behind an exhibit to the importance of the attention to detail. At the end, (and we're not at the end just yet)it was definitely a rewarding experience to see the end product. And it was really nice to see one of my prints blown up huge for the first time!

In between projects....

I have basically been juggling projects for the past month...in between the inauguration post-production book and show, to my documentary, to wedding and event photos, to TRYING to get my website together--- my life has been in front of this computer screen for WEEKS!!!

I just finished editing through the more than 1000 photos of the Golden Anniversary Wedding I photographed in early January.





I did have the time to take a break and go to the Andy Warhol Art Show at the DeYoung Museum. I had my preconceptions before going....but I'm glad I went. NOWHERE is NOW HERE.










And here is the one piece I did for SJSU's Inauguration trip. Come to the photo show at San Jose's MLK Library on March 11, 5th floor!!!:


44 years to the 44th President from dee dee on Vimeo.

Here and there...in between Oakland and San Jose. Teaching multi-media to sixth and seventh graders... shooting. editing. living. loving....and drinking lots of tea.

"What is LOVE to you?"

I watched Frida today.... it reminded me of how much I miss Mexico. But it also reminded me of Frida and Diego's crazy love story.

''I don't believe in marriage. I really don't! Let me be clear about that,'' Ashley Judd says in the movie at Frida's and Diego's wedding,''I think at worst it's a hostile political act. A way for small-minded men to keep women in the house and out of the way, wrapped up in the guise of tradition and conservative, religious nonsense. At best it's a happy delusion. It's two people who truly love each other and have no idea how truly miserable they're about to make each other.'' She pauses. ''But when two people know all of that and decide, with eyes wide open, to face each other and get married anyway, well, then, I don't think it's conservative or delusional. I think it's radical. And courageous. And very romantic.'' She lifts her glass. ''To Diego and Frida.''

Legacy of a Genocide

It may be hard to listen to their stories, but they deserve to be heard.

"During the 1994 genocide, Rwandan women were subjected to massive sexual violence, perpetrated by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe. Among the survivors, those who are most isolated are the women who have borne children as a result of being raped. Their families have rejected both them and their children, compounding their already unimaginable emotional distress.

An estimated 20,000 children were conceived during the genocide in Rwanda, and many of their mothers contracted HIV during the same encounters that left them pregnant. They feel they have lost their dignity, are alone and utterly powerless.

Intended Consequences chronicles the lives of these women. Their narratives are embodied in portrait photographs, interviews and oral reflections."

I &hearts my new lense...

I have a lot of photos to sort through, but as I do, I will be posting photos here and there from the East Coast / Inauguration trip.

I started shooting with a new lens that I am absolutlely in love with. I always shot with my 16-35 2.8... but I am not too fond of the distortion of my images or how huge it is. So if anyone is interested in buying it, let me know.... but I'm quite involved with the canon 28 1.8.... its not the greatest lens, but its ideal for me right now. Oh camera talk....gotta love it.

So here are a couple of shots with my new lens.

New York Subway...





Portraits of Friends...









Photos, like music, have a power to sway your emotions and invoke memories... Thoughts like this cross my mind especially when I'm looking through photos while listening to music.

Gosh, I got a bunch of stuff to do, but I distract myself by blogging... haha...