PONY BOY!

"Pony Boy" 2006

For about the last year or so I have been collecting produce boxes that come in and out of the hotel I work at part-time. At first I intended to draw funny little pictures on them and mail them to friends and galleries. I drew on some of them but never really had the ambition or guts to send 'em out.

My favorite one is the above series titled "Pony Boy". There are some interesting things going on in this produce box (by produce box I obviously mean really awesome art!). I have a few other pieces in the works that are also related to found or commercial products. See Pony Boy on my bedroom wall here. Laura loves that!

I also found a site which sells vintage produce label art. Here is Pony Boy, live and in color.

"Major Award"

A Christmas Story is hands down my favorite Holiday movie, just beating out It's a Wonderful Life and Rudolph the Red Noise Reindeer (which Laura's Uncle directed - but he's a Jew?). Also, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was a wonderful treat as a child. Thanks to the Turner Broadcast System, I am able to watch A Christmas Story over and over and over again -- they run it for 24 hours on Christmas!

I woke up this morning expecting only to find the presents that my father and step-mother sent me under the tree. This was not the case, Laura, being the bestest girlfriend, had a shit-load of presents waiting for me! (We had already exchanged presents - see my Chrismukah post). As I was opening my presents (The BG Miniseries and Season One, the Band of Brothers box set, the Vitamen PH photo book, and a kick ass mug, amongst other amazing things) I realized there was one thing I really wanted that I knew I wouldn't get. I wanted a Leg Lamp, the "Major Award"! I REALLY want a Leg Lamp! Dixie? Santa?

If anyone wants one or wants to buy me one go here. I'll take the 45" Standard Lamp with full size wooden shipping crate.

See even more embarrassing pictures from a fantastic Christmas here! Plus, check out Laura's great wrapping job, recycle those magazines!

WOW! This post was very personal and revealing. Good thing only you read it!

Artist of the week - Enrique Metinides

Copyright Enrique Metinides

Stunning! The Mexican photographer, now in his 70's and retired, has been photographing grotesque circumstances since the 1940's (he was only twelve when he first photographed a corpse). Enrique tends to focus more on the mood, the distant scene and the subtle details in a not so subtle moment. He is often referred to as Mexico's Weegee, who is amazing in his own right but has nothing on Enrique's poetic insight.


Copyright Enrique Metinides

Copyright Enrique Metinides

His work is now on display at Anton Kern through January 13th. His book is available here.

Read Thursday's New York Times article here.

Happy Merry Chrismukah!!!

Yesterday morning Laura and I celebrated our third Chrismukah. Laura is Jewish, I was raised Christian, so we decided to mix the holidays. In 2004 my big gift to Laura for Chrismukah was Dixie, an inflatable reindeer (Dixie was later featured in my photo series "The Adventures of Dixie"). Dixie is now our "Santa" and usually makes an appearance for a few weeks before and after the holidays.

This year we got a tree, my first live one since I was a child living in Indiana. My mother was kind enough to send me many of our old ornaments that I made way back in Christian school and some that my grandmother crocheted. We also added a few Star's of David and Menorah Candles to keep it real.

We had a blast! I felt like a kid again. Laura's face, after she saw that "Dixie" brought out a bunch of presents after she went to bed, was priceless. Totally corny but 'tis the season.

I got me some iPod Shuffle! See more photos here, here and here.

Slava's Snowshow = lots O' fun

Backstage at Slava's Snowshow with Spencer - Copyright Jason Covert, 2006

Last night I saw the amazing Slava's Snowshow for the third time! The last time I saw the show was about 2 years ago. Like the previous time, I saw this show with my good friend J. This time around the show was even more exciting - Spencer, the director of Cannery Works (the non-profit that is helping with Boonville), was the second lead in the show, officially titled "Lead Green". During the show, Jason decided to wage an all out war with the up-tight lady in front of us (pulling her hair, kicking her chair, whipping large balls at her head and throwing paper-snow in her grill). It's not quite as vicious as you might be imagining, I did it too...

After the show, Spencer invited us back stage and then a group of us went out for some dinner and drinks. A good time was had.

If your a New Yorker or visiting New York in the next 5 weeks check out this great show, it's closing its doors mid-January. Slava himself is returning to perform - I've never seen this famous clown do his thing, should I go for number four?

Turners Falls, MA

Untitled (VW), Turners Falls, MA, 2006

Just before I had my second knee surgery (October) I spent 3 days in Turners Falls, MA. I've just recently submitted some of these images along with some studies I did in Broad Channel, Queens and Boonville, NY to the Santa Fe Review.

Again, I've been thinking a lot about the Boonville project and how I will end up shooting it and presenting it. I will inevitably over analyze this project until the day I set out to leave -- which will be June or July of 2007, do or die. More updates coming soon...


Untitled (CatLady), Turners Falls, MA, 2006


Untitled, Turners Falls, MA, 2006

Boonville Diary - The New Year

Boonville, NY, 2003

Yesterday I was thinking hard about the coming year and the launch of Boonville. After too much thinking I started to get very nervous and began to experience some anxiety.

Over the last 10 months Boonville has grown to be very real. I've studied these six towns and their relationship to the rest of America very closely . I've even started to feel a kind of kinship towards them. Yesterday I started to question some things: Can I survive for a year on my own? Will I receive enough money? Can I actually pull it off? Will I get it shown? Can I pull it off? Will my point be made/received? They went on and on...

Boonville and Kevin Sisemore

Copyright Kevin Sisemore

Last week I received an email from Kevin Sisemore about my Boonville project. Turns out Kevin used to hang out in Boonville, MO as a child. This is the second random Boonville, MO connection I have made in the last month. Also, a few months back I received an email from a German reporter living near Boonville, CA (you can write from anywhere these days).


Kevin Sisemore is a photographer living in NY. The above image is from his Zoo project. From reading his blog he seems to be quite an ambitious photographer.

- A few years ago I started a project entitled “Parks and Recreation.” The idea came to me after reading an article about New York Cities 1700 parks. Every week I set out for a new park. -

Copyright Kevin Sisemore, Randall's Island

See his great hunting series here and be sure to check out the rest of his blog: Site Under Construction.

More early work - my first and last cover

copyright TB, 2006

I moved to New York just over 6 years ago to start working as a photo assistant and occasionally got my own shooting jobs. This is the first and only (real) magazine cover I shot while I was seeking commercial work (I did 3 covers for The Blade NY but its more of a newspaper). I was very happy with the shot - it was the first time a job felt like it was my own. I had been working on a set of black and white portraits for about 2 years - I was psyched to try this style out in the real world. Not that it was any different but I was proud of my commitment to stick with one style.

Unfortunately, they didn't love it - I would go so far to say they hated it. To my amazement they still wanted to use it and asked me to send them a few cropped versions (at least they let me have creative control over the cropping). Above is the final along with the one I wanted to use. Looking at it today I think the cropped version looks great and the obvious choice for this publication. It turns him into a mystery - who is this enigmatic wine sommelier... I was wrong to hate this editor for the last 4 years. Sorry for the letters! You were right!

About two and half years ago I stopped assisting and shooting and stepped into a non-photo related job. I was getting tired and found myself starting to hate the photography world. This random job gave me the strength to focus on my art. Since that job, I've shot 90% of the projects that are on timothybriner.com and have had time to cultivate my Boonville project, as well as a few others. This job has also supported my growing fascination with knee surgery - In total, I have paid less then seven dollars for the twelve doctors visits, one ER visit, multiple x-rays and MRI's, as well as the two surgeries. Pretty amazing!

See more of my early B&W portraits here.

I do LOVE technology but...

Copyright TB, 2006

Since moving to NY in 2000, I have seen the technological evolution unfold. The photography world has dramatically altered its standards. Most of the self-printing labs I spent long nights in have now morphed into digital scanning and printing labs. The lab I take my color negative film had 24 employees when I was an assistant. Today they have 2 and have literally cut their hours in half. Back then every job I took was shot on film (and expected to be) and every single photographer I worked for shot transparency. It wasn't until about late 2001 early 2002 when it became normal to use digital. Most people had no idea what they were doing but that soon changed.

These days it seems everyone, sans myself, is a digital expert. I have a small Casio point and shoot (which I can handle) but anything that involves an ICC profile makes me instantly channel somebody with tourettes. I do own a cell phone but can't imagine it doing anything other then transmitting or receiving a call. No PDA or iPod for me. I am fascinated by it all though -- I love the amazing things that are helping to change the world.

OK, so maybe I want an iPod but not one that plays TV shows or movies. I don't even want one with a screen! I would like the ipod shufle for books-on-tape and the very few times I get the urge to listen to music on the subway or street. Don't get me wrong, music is my second favorite thing in the world, but it doesn't top the thoughts that rush through my mind when I am on the streets of NY.

I want to understand technology better because I do LOVE it. It's just so easy to get frustrated by the misuse of such an amazing tool. So much good has come from it but the opposite is ten fold . I just hope that one day we will see that technology truly has the ability to change the world. Rather then using it to exploit commercialism or consumerism or money or wars or drugs, etc.

Inspiration for this post is thanks to a confusing conversation had by Jason, Darren and I last night. Thanks for your obsessive love for all things tech J.