Joseph Vavak

Friday, January 15, 2010

January

Omaha is (was?) starting to thaw out after a rough month or so of consecutive blizzards. There were two snowfalls of over a foot along with numerous smaller storms along with temperatures that bottomed out around fifteen below zero. My day job finds me in the business of selling snow throwers. After five weeks of nonstop phone calls and emergency shipments of product, everything is finally settling down and things are getting back to normal. All in all, they say it may be the worst winter in 60 years. And, unfortunately, it's not over yet.

Above is a photograph of the ten plus foot snow pile that has become a (semi-)permanent resident of our cul-de-sac.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

This is a biography...

I (Joseph Vavak) am a photographer from Omaha, Nebraska that has a somewhat puzzling obsession with the mundane and the everyday. My photography is the result of what happens when someone cursed with a photographic memory and the mind of an engineer becomes wrapped up in the freedom of creating something unique to his existence.

2010 marks the completion and unveiling of ninety-three, a photographic record of the state of Nebraska. ninety-three features one photograph for every one of Nebraska's counties, the result of countless miles spent wandering my home state. It is a random collection of memories and places unlike most any portrait of Nebraska that you might have seen. ninety-three is about getting to know exactly where it is I come from and recording everything that I encountered along the way.

ninety-three will be on display at the Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska in May of 2010. The show will be opening during the Hot Shops' spring open house weekend.

Exhibitions
May 2006
Corning Center For The Fine Arts in Corning, Iowa
Miniseries

October 2006
W. Dale Clark Library in Omaha, Nebraska
One MWPSE Student Exhibition

November 2006
Hillmer Art Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska
Artist and Mentor Show

April 2007
The Art Of Music in Nebraska City, Nebraska
inexterior

January 2008
Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska
Miniseries 2.0

May 2010
Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska
selections from ninety-three

May 2012
Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska
selections from The Magic City

For references, inquiries or any other questions that you might have, please contact me at josephvavak at gmail.com.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Oxford Project

One idea I have been saving for a rainy day, perhaps for a thesis project, is to photograph every person in a small town. And, as seems to happen with many ideas, someone has already beat me to it.

Peter Feldstein's The Oxford Project features photographs of most everyone in the small town of Oxford, Iowa. Oxford is just northwest of Iowa City and currently has around 700 residents. I've got a handful of family members buried in the town cemetery, none of which appear in this book.

Feldstein takes the idea one step further, photographing the town residents twice, once in 1984 and again in 2006. Along with the pairs of photographs, the residents were asked to describe how their life had changed in the twenty-two years since they were originally photographed.

The result is a fascinating book about the identity and growth of a small town. We see some of what has changed and what has stayed the same. Some residents talk proudly about the smallest details of their lives. Others confess to how the small town atmosphere has been suffocating. But most all seem proud to be Oxford residents, for better or worse. It's especially interesting to see how people have changed over the course of two decades and how many of the children have chosen to stay and make the town their home as adults.

A small sampling of The Oxford Project is available online at this website. The book is currently available from Welcome Books.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Five: Photo books from 2009...

I didn't buy enough photo books this year to author a 'best of' list, but here are five books that I really enjoyed this past year.

William Eggleston
Paris
While Paris is unlikely to change anyone's opinion on the photography of William Eggleston, it's a solid book for anyone who may already be a fan. Along with the images, there are a few of Eggleston's drawings interspersed in the book.

Edward Hopper & Company
This book basically takes what might be my favorite painter's work and discusses his influence on some of my favorite photographers. It's a fantastic little book but sadly already out of print and demanding high prices.

Jungjin Lee
Wind
Released late in the year by Aperture, this book has served as my introduction to Lee's beautiful work. Wind features atypical, intriguing landscape photographs produced on homemade paper hand coated with a homemade emulsion.

Sarah Greenough
Looking In: The Americans
This is by far the most obsessive photobook of the year. Greenough's look at The Americans is several times larger than the book it analyzes. The highlight of the expanded edition is a look at Frank's contact sheets for the project.

Peter Kayafas
O Public Road!
Peter Kayafas' collection of American road-trip photographs has a title I wish I had thought of first. And the book comes with a song by Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide fame, bringing music and photography together in an effective way. A great concept.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Image: Meadville, Keya Paha County

When I set out to construct my first project on Nebraska, I decided that I wanted to create a sort of visual collection of all the random places I visited throughout the state. The idea was to explore this place I call home and record images of its smallest corners that may otherwise have been forgotten or left in anonymity.

The Omaha World-Herald has an article today about a new bridge being constructed across the Niobrara River in north-central Nebraska. I visited the old bridge during the summer of 2007 and captured the above photograph which will appear in the final edit of the series.

Meadville is what amounts to a ghost town on a rarely-traveled gravel road that wanders over 30 miles between Springview and Ainsworth. All that remained there was a general store and this old, one lane bridge. At the time, I wondered just how safe the wood-surfaced bridge really was.

Not safe enough, it seems.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Image: Omaha, Douglas County (Alt.)

As November draws to a close, it's time to look back at another year gone by. 2009, like most years, has went by much faster than expected. I got back on track with my work, stumbled upon some new inspiration and began to pursue my BFA in earnest.

2010 is shaping up to be a big year for me. My first solo show at the Hot Shops. Two extensive projects to develop. And the many surprises that every year we live through inevitably presents.

The above image is one of several alternate images from ninety-three for Douglas County that I captured a few weeks back. I'm on track to have the entire project finished by the opening of the show on April 30th. Just a few improvements to be made and I'll be ready to call it finished for good.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Once again...

Back at work on ninety-three once again, hoping to get some work done before the weather takes a turn for the worst in the next few weeks and winter settles in.

Harvest is my favorite time of the year to photograph rural Nebraska. There's lots of activity in all the little towns and the late afternoon sun has a warm quality to it that just isn't there the rest of the year. I revisited a few places and discovered a few new ones. The sun sets so early.

The above photograph is from downtown Pierce. Just the small detail of a glass brick from a building.

Also visited: McLean, Magnet, Hartington, Coleridge, Belden and Laurel.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Out and about...

With the Hot Shops show just a few months away, it's time to finish and tidy up ninety-three for its debut. Today I set out to find an image for Douglas County and wandered Cuming County for what felt like the 20th time. Sometimes I just can't seem to find something that will work.

Pictured above is an old barn still standing all by itself in a recently harvested field near Bancroft.

Also visited: Omaha, Aloys, West Point, Beemer and Bancroft.

Monday, November 9, 2009

John Vachon

"Omaha looked swell this morning out the train window," wrote John Vachon. "Very unspectacular, and ordinary looking, but definitely camera-challenging.

John Vachon wasn't from Nebraska, but he extensively photographed Omaha and Nebraska for the Farm Security Administration in late 1938. There are quite a few (sadly low quality) images of Nebraska available here on the Library Of Congress website.

The always excellent Shorpy has quite a few high resolution images by Vachon here.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Image: Instance #2

Just a small taste of something new that I've begun working on over the last few weeks. The process shows a lot of promise, I think.

The series will be titled An Instance. Merriam-Webster defines instance as "a step, stage, or situation viewed as part of a process or series of events," and that's pretty much exactly what these photographs represent. A moment (or step) in time that's defined by a process and its somewhat unpredictable results.

I'll let you use your imagination as to how this was accomplished. In actuality, it's really quite simple.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Five: Songs From 2009

Cub Country - Lone Tall Pines

The Mountain Goats - Ezekiel 7...

William Elliott Whitmore - Mutiny

The Thermals - Now We Can See

Eels - Prizefighter