hooray snow.

Winter is on my doorstep. My roommate and i put plastic on our windows to try to keep the heating costs down. The first snow flurries are expected tonight... perfect timing for Detroits Noel Night (http://detroitmidtown.com/05/noelnight.php?msub=77), the only time when snow is nice... the past few years i remember slipping and sliding down woodward, ducking into establishments to warm my cheeks, building hearts at the Detroit Science Museum and slow dancing at Cass Cafe. Trudging around in snow boots, white washing friends, watching polish and Indian dancers at the International Institute. Noel night is great. It's Dally in the Alley during the winter, with the support of all of Detroits' cultural institutions. My friends and all of their family usually come. So you should too.

On another note, with winter setting in, this economy thing is starting to whittle away at my foundations... the holidays and insurance premiums... the frustration that has been building up, the feeling that your efforts are useless... it's time to be proactive and take some responsibility for ourselves. Cheers to things getting better. Finding strength within ourselves and the arms of others. if we stick together we will come out on top.

One last thing, why the hooray? I was asked the other day why Vanessahooray, i should have some of my clients and editors answer this question... i approach every assignment with a positive attitude, so often in correspondence i would say "hooray, this is going to be awesome", or "Hooray, i'm so pumped you liked them". People, especially in the electronic music scene... some only knew me as hooray. So Hooray for being a Hooray. It's a pretty great thing to be.
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Detroit, New Frontier

Detroit, New Frontier

Posted using ShareThis

sleepless in detroit

for some reason i had a flashback to doogie howser right now.... hmmm... too bad my screen isn't blue, and i don't have prodigy, or a doctorate... yet. anyways. i have been relaxing the past few weeks and had some amazing opportunities come my way. a few are still in the planning stages so stay tuned for them... however i was very fortunate to be included in a photo essay about Detroit as the new frontier by a website called Shareable. I was refereed by a good friend and amazing organizer Mike Medow. Jeremy Smith helped to pull it all together and Aaron M. Renn provided words. Thanks guys!

check out the whole thing here... http://shareable.net/blog/detroit-new-frontier

also posted some new pics on flickr www.flickr.com/photos/vanessamiller

 I've done everything but go for a long bike ride to fall asleep, my typos are happening more frequently, and i think it may be time to fall into the covers and try again. have a good night folks. promise i will be back sooner then later with exciting new plans!

Round up!

It has been a very insane few months here in Detroit. Probably the busiest time of my whole life, many good things have happened and i feel privileged to live this life. The most concerning issues have been Michigan cutting funding to students, and the growing distaste for out of town documenters and journalists... for self preservation i have stayed out of the debate. However, the argument is very valid. Talk about stimulating the local economy, these media outlets should be utilizing the people who live and work here. The amount of surface coverage of the city of Detroit, feels exploitative to many locals... to tell a uniquely Detroit story, they are looking in the wrong places.

The Detroit story, only as a notch in ones' belt makes us no more important then a one night stand. This is becoming more and more apparent as carbon copy stories of decay, and failure are reaching news stands. Even the stories of hope are being recycled... there is even now a drinking game about it... go here to play, http://dyspathy.com/?page_id=1106 i can promise it is a good time.

Aside from that we have accomplished much in this marathon, the shows started with the Post-apolptic Motor City at 323 East in royal oak curated by famed local art critic Robert DeValle

the outside of the gallery was transformed by cass corridor and international artist chris turner

i contributed this image of a tired worker at Lafeyette Coney Island

Up next was the second installation of the Analog Social Experiment at Dally in the Alley, the best festival in the mid-west, took place inbetween the apartment buildings of Cass Corridor, the Diverse festival drew over 8000 attendees, 30 bands and many vendors. People were dancing in the streets from 10 am untill about 2 am, and Recycle Detroit (ran by friend Sarah Kubick with the help of the recyclowns) turned 85% of the trash into gold.

The installation was a great success and many of the visitors contributed, creating a visual record of the event.

people dancing in the street

In the between we did some exploring

ate some delicious vegan brunch

had some labor day bbq's in woodbridge

saw the opening of the Taubmen center part of the ford educational system and College for Creative Studies. Promising 90 percent of freshman will graduate, and 90 percent will continue onto higher education (the graduation rate of freshman in Detroit Public Schools is 21 percent). CCS Design and Graduate programs, along with 300 residents are also housed in the building, which was General Motors old Headquarters.

as that renovated structure was re-opened, Detroit City Officials tore down the classic and beautiful Lafayette Building.

-see more photos of the inside here http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanessamiller/sets/72157604132550295/

Between all of that... I shot a few Weddings, a few Oil Fires and began teaching a class at CCS.

Had a show at the Detroit League of Photographers studio in the Russell Industrial Center, as part of the Detroit Art now Weekend.... and am finally wrapping everything up with a custom Skate Deck show in Philadelphia. The Proceeds from the show will go to benefit the non-profit stay true... it is a group of internationally renowned artists, who will descend on love park for an evening of genuine ruckus. FInd out more about the event here----> http://awwsweet.blogspot.com/2009/09/good-wood-x-stay-true-x-philly.html

this is one of the test images for my deck.

so thats about it. going to relax for a little while now. edit months of backed up images. Pack for philly. Hopefully i will see you there. Over an out.

-vanezzy

the danger of the single story

This is sloppy, fast, but i feel powerful.

After watching the Ted Talk Titled, The danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, her message can be applied to the city of Detroit. She crystalized an idea and message that i have been grappling at for some time now. I would like to call out the journalists who have entrenched themselves in the home that Time Magazine purchased this summer and ask them to look beyond the mayors office and national headlines for thier topics of interest. http://detroit.blogs.time.com/ What they have been assigned to do will have serious effects to the image of city, and if they do not do it well, the people who live here will be the ones to suffer.

Adichie says "The media can create a single story

show a people as one thing, only one thing over and over again.. and that is what they become."

I would also like to implore that Time magazine and any other media establishments recognize, and levy the talents of the documenters, journalists, and photographers that have been living and working to show an honest and raw portrait of life in this very misunderstood place, and have been doing so long before the fall of our auto companies became an international dilemma. Long before the the decay, urban prairies, independent venues, and local gardens became tourist destinations.

Once again Adichie says " It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power... to be greater then another... stories are defined by power, when, how, by who and how many stories are told. power is not the abality to just tell the story single of a person, but to make it the definative story.

The single story creates sterotypes... which are incomplete.

The single story robs people of dignity"

See her complete talk here...

sometimes you have to admire

wedding photo by Ryan Southen

there is something about some photographs... that you cannot put a finger on and could never replicate. it is a mood of the light, the moment, when everything was perfect, the most critical snap of the shutter and you know the instant you hear it. That sound is what we live for, and in those moments we should be alive. with every fiber of our bodies experiencing and savoring something truly incredible before us. whatever that may be.

We should learn to recognize and appreciate these moments of our lives everyday.


This photograph was taken by Ryan Southen http://www.flickr.com/photos/southen.... and i think it is breathtaking... fit best with what i wanted to say. Ryan is a very talented Wedding, Portrait, Architecture... really anything goes photographer. and a stand up gentleman. just in case you were wondering.

please don't hate me

So..... i'm am kicking rocks with my head down for a sec... avoiding eye-contact with everyone i have ever gone to school with.... anyone who went to art school.... quite alot of people. I was asked my metro times to interview for an article on avoiding art school cliché's. This is awesome! However answering these questions and not sounding like a complete asshole, is/was very difficult.

I tried to be honest, admitting the fact that myself and my work at times is the ultimate cliche... i guess the only thing i really tried to get across, is the fact that whatever you do, whatever kind of art you may make... if you have a valid and strong point to it, you have surpassed the cliche. What is left that is original in our visually soaked culture, your mind, your opinions, your ideas. That statement in itself can seem like some art school induced bullshit, but i believe it to be most true.

I spent years photographing the abandoned buildings in detroit because i was bored, i liked it, i thought it looked cool. At one point i had to lock myself in a room covered in hundreds of my images and decide why i was actually doing this. I ripped my hair out, stomped around the room, until i realized it was because i was curious and i wanted to learn how to use images to make a positive impact. It's a road i have still been walking down, but i have learned more about humanity and myself, then most people do in a lifetime.

Oh gosh i hope vice magazine doesn't hate me... i am in love with thier investigative reporting, and if i could make photographs like Terry Richardson, Ryan Mcguinly, or Dash Snow (rip),step into thier shoes for even one day, i would probably mess myself. I have voiced my recent addiction with shooting into the sun.... ugh. it is happening it is coming. no more excuses. i stare at images like theirs all day on ffffound.com... jeeze louise.

anyways, it is what is is. i'm excited for the opportunity, and the beautiful photo taken by my chicago friend Carey Primeau http://www.flickr.com/photos/careyprimeau from in my studio at russell



also i will be showing new work in a group show at the 323 East Gallery in Royal Oak on friday.

Stay tuned for more. should be an interesting week. hope i don't get any banana peals thrown at me.