Man Problems

MAN PROBLEMS: I've poked fun at my gender on and off for the last 30 years. I didn't have to go very far to do my research. I just had to think about all the stupid things I've done or thought about over the years and used what I found as a springboard for these concepts. So, in essence, they're really more about me than anybody else, and maybe the chapter should be called, My Problems.

Most are commissions for various publications, starting with Image #1, titled Dark Cloud, created for Popular Science Magazine and an article about self-care. Image #2, titled Tension, was a personal project and utilized a 3D Collage/Assemblage technique I developed at the time. Image #3, Dining with my BFF, was a commission from Men's Health Magazine and an article on ego and personality disorders. Pancakes is Image #5 and the earliest work in the group. It was from my last year at art school and was for an assignment to render a painting in a photograph. I chose a Dave Wilcox airbrush from 1974 that I found in a book titled, Airpowered. Image #6, titled Vasectomy for Two, was for Esquire Magazine and a nonfiction article about a man who got a vasectomy at the same time his dog got one. However, the interesting part about this photo is that this Vizsla was a show dog with "everything" intact. Another assignment for Popular Science Magazine is images #7 - #9 and a three-image series accompanying an article on mental health. Men's Health Magazine assignment is image #10, titled Heaven & Earth, and was the opener for an article on embracing death as much as life. From 1999, image #11, titled Millennialism, was for a promotional calendar for the turn of the Century. It was a collection of 12 photographic interpretations of memorable phrases and modern colloquialisms from the 20th Century.

When I lived in New York, I discovered the factory pictured in the following image, The Presentation. I photographed it specifically for this project and used a cutout print of it as the main prop. Image #13, All In My Head, was a commission from Esquire Magazine and an article about the gray area between perception and reality. Drawing a Blank is image #14 and was part of an entire issue devoted to mental health in Popular Science Magazine. The two last images were a personal portrait project for an actor friend of mine who wanted "something different." I was a little surprised he went for these ideas, to be quite frank, but it was he who made the images as successful as they are.