What's This Button Do?

I was a photojournalism major in college and by graduation I wanted to hang myself with my camera strap. I got over the education and the spot news pieces involving severed limbs and screaming children enough to start bringing my camera to shows. The majority of work that I have been doing lately is for bands and shooting live music.

I got a bit frustrated with that namely because of finances and eye surgery that has left me with sparkling lines bursting from every light source (story to follow on that one. It starts with "I don't know if you've ever had a needle stuck in your eye...") My answer to that frustration was my "Picture Per Day" project, which I have been doing monthly ever since, using a disposable automatic camera.

It's crazy, but I'd never used a digital camera until last week. Literally. It's bizarre. I'm not afraid of the technology, it just didn't interest me. Images are just a slice of why I take pictures. The sensuality of film, of pans of liquid, of grain that can be manipulated with fingertips, still quiet darkroom, running water, Dektol that smells like my childhood, the click of the shutter, the response of the flash, the maleability of emulsion. Even Polaroids are magical to me. But it's getting old to shoot, print, and then scan, losing so much quality in the process.

Here is my first run of shots. I took a walk home tonight and this is what I found. Isn't it cool that you can just take these pictures and have them up on the Web like an hour later? My gosh. I’m starting to sound like my father.

"My Walk Home" - A Digital Photoessay by JT

"Why I Buy Advance Tickets"
Window of the Middle East, Cambridge, MA.