Dreamers

Frye
Dreamers Adult Video Store
Austin, TX
Christmas Day, 2009

I stopped to take photographs in the parking lot of Dreamers, and it felt serendipitous that Frye got out of his car and happily agreed to step into the picture. Thank you for making my Christmas Day. Frye told me that he was a DJ in a strip club in Dallas and he was in Austin for the night. He was as spontaneous and likable as they come and tried on different outfits that he pulled from his car. It felt like we could be friends - like we were friends.

Frye is the first person I have photographed to invite me to be his friend on facebook. Welcome to my neurotic world of facebook, Frye. Is yours as compulsive, voyeuristic, riddled with temptation and torture as mine? Who and what do you spy on? What landmines lie in your past and present, occupying this single space?

Until we meet again in Texas, let's stay in touch here. Let's be less alone together. Let's hope each other's dreams come true. Let's take care of each other when they don't.

Leaving for Austin

Mustang Jewelry & Pawn Shop
Austin, TX
July 2009

Jose

Jose
Barton Springs
Austin, TX
June 2009

Alberto and Jessica

Alberto and Jessica
Barton Creek
Austin, TX
June 2009

April and Raleigh

April and Raleigh
Barton Creek
Austin, TX
June 2009

Barton Creek

George
Barton Creek
Austin, TX
June 2009

In August of 2007, my brother took me to Barton Springs in Austin because he knows how much I like to swim. The calm water of this spring-fed swimming hole was surprisingly cold at first despite the summer heat. I fell in love with the springs at once and found a Jesus Boy amongst the nymphs at the water's edge. Now whenever I go back to Austin, it is the first place that I go.

Barton Springs was described in The Unforeseen, a documentary film about development that threatened to contaminate the springs, as the "spiritual center" of Austin, and it's hard not to feel that on some level. Sometimes in the summer, there are hundreds of bodies lying on the grass, floating in the water, and walking along the trails.

The pool is surrounded by a fence, and it costs a few dollars to get inside. Two distinct communities are separated by the fence: those who can pay to swim and to tan on the lawn, and those who congregate at the edges where the water from the springs spills into the creek. The division is obvious - the right and wrong side of the tracks, so to speak.

The wrong side of the tracks is comprised of teenage boys and girls, pot-smokers, beer-drinkers, hippies, runaways, war veterans, dreamers, lost souls, ex-cons, low income families, young couples and more than a few pit bulls. Some of the regulars could be found there every day, and the economy and joblessness seemed to create even more of a haven for drifters from all parts of the country who found refuge in Austin.

I never anticipated my growing collection of tattooed male chests ... which were everywhere near the creek. Encountering George along the trail brought to mind Jacob on Main Street in Binghamton. They were both walkers and loners whose bodies were covered with cryptic messages and rippling muscles. Both were almost startling in their beauty and their rebel vulnerability. Both were so open and sincere and glad to be noticed. Perhaps it is the same picture in another time and place.

Found in Austin

arthouse

Yesterday afternpon, I stopped by my favorite art space in Austin, The Arthouse at the Jones Center, to take a look at the current exhibition, New American Talent: The Twenty-fourth Exhibition curated by Hamza Walker. I first discovered the Arthouse during the summer of 2007 and wrote about that year's New American Talent show on my blog.

I didn't find as much good photography in this year's show, though I did like some black and white images of families shot by Amy Grappell accompanying a video piece. The other two photo series on exhibit involved considerably more stylization, campiness and staging. Amy's work is straightforward and curious - evoking early work by Bill Owens of families in suburbia.

Besides showing work by emerging artists, one of the coolest things about the Arthouse is the architecture of the space itself and its history. In the 1920's, the Arthouse was a thriving movie theatre on Congress Avenue, the Queen Theatre, which then became a Lerner's department store in the 1950's. Now a sleek contemporary art space, the Arthouse is currently undergoing a major expansion which will include three new galleries, two artists' studios, a 90-seat community/screening room, and a 5,500 square foot rooftop with a movie screen. Enough to make even Minneapolis and New York jealous.

The Arthouse also has a blog, THE ARTHOUSE BLOG, which is now listed in the Artist Resources section of Culturehall's homepage.

Pictured above:

"Space Suit Form with a Burden of Platonic Solid Talismans," 2009, Garland Felder

"The Kings of Hearts," 2008, Stephanie Bernstein

Lamar Blvd.

Damian
Lamar Blvd.
Austin, TX
December 2008