Adventures in Roxbury, Medford, JP & Allston

I left Maine very early in the morning to get to Boston in time for my first shoot of the day in Roxbury.   Nora is an old friend from Hampshire and part of an arty group that moved right after graduating that have made Boston my 2nd home.  She is registrar of the contemporary collection at the MFA and gets to do cool things like escort paintings to Europe.  Her husband Allen works in PR for Berklee and started a program to bring kids from Mississippi to study blues and gospel.  While hearing all about their cool jobs, I also got to meet their new adorable and very peaceful baby, Nadine and Nora made me delicious coffee and waffles (my favorite, FYI)! I also got a tour of the historical park across the street with incredible views of the city.

Then off to Medford to photograph Doug who I met through the art world in Boston.  He is an artist that mergers performance, photography, documentation and his day job in a business / on going project called Environmental Services. Much like his work, the art / home thing go hand in hand.  He made me tea and fed me snacks of cheese and salami.

Then off to JP to have dinner with Joe & Katie and the girls, and to grab Katie to go see & photograph Andy aka Astronautalis in his tour van in Allston.  I was really excited to shoot Andy for a couple of different reasons- I tend to plan my shoots around my love of music and after I saw his amazing show at  Space last month, I was excited to see he was playing in Boston where I had shoots to do.   I bought all of the albums and they have been my studio soundtrack as I scan my way through this project.  Also, as I travel I am feeling a kinship to other traveling artists.  Although, I don't know Andy, he is good friends with my friend Sonya and bleubird who I photographed while he was also in Portland.  I really admire his self sufficient crowd not industry supported campaign to produce his music, you can feel his passion.  I asked him on twitter if he would be a part of the project and he graciously agreed.   (due to technical difficulties I don't have the video  uploaded yet ... soon!)