USS Inaugural wreck on the Mississippi

I know its not part of my usual portfolio of work, but with the Mississippi river at record lows levels these days, all sorts of things are popping up along the river banks. This old WWII minesweeper was sunk in the flood of 1993 and now sits a mile or so down stream from the Arch. Its a very cool, big thing. Its every boys dream to drain the ocean and walk on ship wrecks.

Working the "book farm" at my Tyson studio

"Planted" some new books for the winter season. I have had to cover the books with wire mesh and brinks to keep the deer from turning them over and eating them.

With the limited rain we've had the books are not rotting and decaying as fast as
I'd like, I think I may need to start going out there and watering them from time to time.

Banned on Instagram!

I got an email from the folks at Instagram which informed me that my account is now inactive and suspended for posting images that violated their community standards. This image seems to be the offending work that triggered this notice. I guess there are worse things than being banned from yet another social network that sucks up your time and energy. For all you Instagramers out there, beware of the nudity! I would be interested in knowing just where the line in with nudity, cleavage? nipslips? topless males? Beachware? It's a slippery slope.

or was it this one:

Shower series

My good friend who is a painter asked me to make some reference photos of her in the shower so that she can use them in some new paintings. Some of them turned out well enough for me to think this might be an interesting series for my own work. I think I need to find a bigger shower room, perhaps one of those walk in showers with abstracted glass doors.

Judy Hopen

Today, one of my long time model and collaborator passed to her reward after a long fight with cancer. I first photographed Judy in 1999 when she was a WU art department model and I used her in one of my elective classes. This started a longer professional relationship that this spring turned into a collaboration while she confronted her illness. Though out it all, she was amazingly positive and upbeat, using art as a way to understand and make sense of this terrible situation she found herself in. I shall remember her not as the woman who's body in the end was ravaged by both the illness and the brutal medical treatments she endured, but as the beautiful person I found her to be both in body and spirit.

Fair winds and clear sailing Judy, you'll live on in work we did together.

Aimee Mann

I don't usually do a lot of concert photography, but I was hired last week by Ivan Edwards, the drummer for Aimee Mann who was performing this past week in STL. I was great show and gave me the chance to dust off my 70-200. It was a great concert and everyone was great backstage.

Grand Isle, Louisiana

New Work Selected for Magazine

This work from the new series, Marching Bands of New Orleans at Mardi Gras will be in the Oxford American magazine, on your books sells racks December 1.

New portfolio: "March Bands of Mardi Gras in New Orleans"

A new portfolio of work in development, March Bands of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, work from 2010-2012 initially, but I have 21 years of Mardi Gras to choose from. This new portfolio just zooms in on one aspect of Mardi Gras that I've been photographing for two decades now and this might been a good time to edit that work out from the larger body of Mardi Gras work into its own portfolio.

Studio shoot with Kendra

With the weather here in STL turning cooler, this may be the last figure/text shoot of the year. Even with mild temps I had all the heaters running and poor Kendra was still chilled. Still, I got some great material from this shoot and the summer was overall very productive. I now have the winter to work with these images and edit them into a new portfolio of work.

Shawna-Tyson 2012-9-14

Studio Shoot 2012-9-9

Susan-Tyson Studio

Making new book pages and zeroing in on the shooting technique along with a great mix of models and this new work is really moved forward this summer.

studio shoot 8/11/2012

Very intense shoot with Judy, took me a few days to get my head on straight again. She is amazingly resilient and positive in the face of some daunting health issues.

R.I. Beach landscapes summer 2012

Narragansett Town Beach, R.I.

East Matunuck State beach, R.I.

East Matunuck State Beach, R.I.

After working with the figure and book work for the past month, it's great to return to working in the landscape, and in particular the R.I. beach landscape. This work is part of a much bigger series about the beach I've been doing for 20 plus year.

Judy Tyson studio

Some new work done before my trip to R.I. next week, all collaged with some of the new book work I did last weekend.

New Book Work

I made 10 new book works this week with the intention of double exposing figure elements onto them, this one might stand on its own.

Stephanie Tyson Studio

After showing this work to some friends, I am back to including the medical illustrations in the book works.

Ellen at Tyson studio

Ellen is such a terrific model, really knows how to move in response to my lighting cues. The use of the manikin may remain just an experiment, I think it adds another level of complexity to the narrative. I need to call Ellen and try to set up another shoot this fall before the weather turn too cold for Tyson.