Studio

Ben Liddle photographed me in the studio. His lighting setup was siiick.

kick ball

Welcome to RIT

Winter

Congratulations

Draft is a student run magazine and photography show. It is passed down though the senior classes of RIT. This year Matt Aprea, Eric Ruby and Carter Rowley are running it. I submitted some of my portraits and got it in! I am excited to see how things work out.

RIT

Some friends from RIT have been putting up new websites or updating their old ones. Take a gander.

Eric Ruby

Matt Aprea

Neilson Tam and Anna Mack's
This Never Happens

And someone tell Nikki Graziano that 3.0 is the new 2.0. Come on gurrrl

Real life

It didn't look like this real life, I swear.

Hey

Will Green, I like your blog a lot. Also those images from your photo final looked awesome. Can we do a print trade too?

Yours very truly,
Graham Joseph Walzer

© Will Green

© Will Green

by the way

October 10th RIT is going to have a little visitor. And for seventeen bones I probably even see Miley Sirus. Come hang out.

New Photographs

I have been scanning for a couple days at school. I have amassed some great portraits. These are the ones I just finished spotting.

Evan
©2008 Graham Walzer

Yong Chan Kim
©2008 Graham Walzer

Lovey
©2008 Graham Walzer

Back

I am back to school. My first day was Monday and it was great to be back at it. I felt quite nervous as anyone does on the first day back. But today is my third and I am gettting into the groove. For the next couple of postings I will be showing what I couldn't upload while in NYC.

fun things

Shalini tipped me off on Beefsoup blog. Bryan Williams a recent RIT illustration major. I likes.

Parking lot photo party

We all had to do photo shoots using flash and the back seat of the car. In total, there was about five cars and a bunch of us. Music was basting, strobes were a flashing. After my shoot was done, I had a little fun getting in everyone's business.

Kyle looking epic

Jennifer looking fabulous

Jessica P. being Jessica P.

Kyleen

Evan's umbrella

Visual Cliche

My friend Shalini from RIT has a blog called Visual Cliche. I really have been enjoying the work she has been posting. The only problem is that she hasn't been keeping it updated. Someone let her know.

Slide show

Last week (has it really only been 7 days?) we organized a slide show with my first photo teacher at RIT, Dan Larkin. Dan was the swearing, full head-of-hair man, that I wrote about in another post. He showed the ten of us his photographs from his journeys to Newfoundland. He has visited twice, for three weeks each time. The photographs were very interesting. The fact that Dan could talk about each piece was also really good. We all lounged around, ate pizza, and talked photo. It was great.
Dan likes using the slide show format to exhibit his work because he likes showing the work in a series and being able to talk about the experience. I was very surprised and glad when he agreed to present his work. He is a great inspiration and supporter.

Thank you Dan Larkin.


PS. Maybe if Mr. Larkin got his website up, you could all see his work.

Tonight

We organized an art gathering+slide show. Dan Larkin,my photo arts 4 teacher, will be presenting slides from his trip to Newfoundland. There should be about fifteen people attending. I am really excited!

Niagra Falls+PA5

My class went on a loosely organized field trip to Niagra Falls and then on to Buffalo.

Meet Evan and Yong Chan. Gotta love 'em.

Keith Johnson

Keith Johnson was a professor that stopped in on one of our class critiques. He totally blew our class away. His words were honest, inspirational, and thought provoking. Oh, I like his work too.

Time is a flying...

It's already Wednesday?! I think of Sunday, and it feels like ages ago. Things have been really busy, but, I'll try and recap. I have completed a number of assignments. We wrote a biography, and shot an introduction photograph using digital 35mm. We also wrote a future autobiography and photograph to accompany that using large format, 4x5 "Fujiroid", film. Today we shot a still life in the studios using 4x5 chrome, positive film. Today's assignment was to buy 10 items at the dollar store and compose a still life with these, this was called, "The Dollar Store Daydream". The whole class has to re-shoot the bio photo to improve upon the things we talked about during the critique. While it does not seem like we have a lot of assignments, combined with class time, I'm booked. We get to class at 8am, work until twelve or one and have lecture at two. This break does not allow enough time to do anything besides eat. After class finishes at four or five, I go back to my dorm to let my brain relax a little. At about seven I am usually hungry and ready to eat. The problem is that dinner hours for on campus food are 4:00-6:00pm. The only option left for me is to bum a ride with someone for dinner.
Yesterday, after class, four of us went to the dollar store to purchase items for our assignment. Four turned to five, then six, as we ran into fellow students shopping for "The Dollar Store Daydream". Afterwards, we all decided to eat at Applebee's for dinner. I explained to them that on the West Coast, Applebee's is quite the Old People's diner but they brushed it off. It is quite the hot spot in Rochester. I had a cheese-infused piece of chicken, it hit the bottom of my empty stomach like a ton of bricks. Today I ate much better. Evan, Nate (another classmate/friend), and I went out to eat. After several minutes of intense deliberation, we settled on the "Dinosaur Bar-B-Que". It was a fifteen minute drive downtown. I must say I was more than a little skeptical. But after ordering the "Texas Beef Brisket" I left my appetite in the hands of a BBQing dinosaur. Surprisingly, it was delicious! The soup of the night was "Roasted tomato and onion" and combined with the seasoned fries, it was damn good. The brisket reminded me of Tri-Tip, which the waitress never hear of, was okay. Rochester Eating - 1, Graham's Stomach - 1, fair tie. I probably should be using my meal plan, but when Applebee's becomes hip and dinosaurs are cooking, you have to seize the opportunities in front of you.
It would be good if I could write about my actual classes, but once I am done with my school day, I don't really want to think of it any more. Not that anything is wrong, it's a lot of fun and work, my brain just wants to be free to ramble. One thing to mention is my teacher, Dan Larkin. He has been very helpful to all of the students and has organized some interesting field trips coming up within the next couple weeks. Well, until next time, peas and eggs.

Oh yeah,
OBAMA!!!

My first day of school!

Oh how exciting it was. I felt like I was in Kindergarten all over again. I was very anxious and couldn't sleep last night. Finally at around 2:30am I fell asleep. I jumped out of bed at the first beep of my alarm. I took a shower and was on my way to class. My class started at 8am and I was stumbling numbly to school when I noticed I was the only one around. I literally saw less than five people on the fifteen minute walk to class. I started to get nervous all over again. Would I be the only one in the junior transfer program? "I won't meet anyone and this whole summer quarter..." "...I'm lonely and depressed, waaaaaaaahh." Then I got to class and everything was alright.
The class was a cozy 15. Our teacher, Dan Larkin seems like a good college professor, complete with swearing and a receding hairline. He went over the syllabus and then had us all get into a circle. We introduced ourselves, explained we were from and each told a exciting experience that had happened in the last three days. After our introduction, we went on break.
Six of us wondered around campus, getting ID cards, and changing our food plans. Six turned into four and we toured the gym and underground tunnels before having lunch. I split away from the group to get my bicycle from a friend. I had it shipped to his house before I left LA.
After our boring afternoon demo, I hung out with another transfer student, Evan, that lives in the same dorm building as me.
Evan and I worked on our first assignment and then went to eat. For some strange reason, all of the restaurants, if you could call them that, close at 6pm. Lucky, for me, Evan brought his car from Connecticut and we went searching for food. We found the Pita Pit, think subway-but pitas instead of sammies. It was a good satisfying dinner.
Now I am back at school in the computer lab, no I still have not gotten my computer to work in my room. This will do for now. Oh, and today was a really beautiful Cali-esk day. Blue skys, white billowing clouds, and a cool breeze.

ps. here is a video of me and my room

Here now...

My mom flew into Rochester with me Thursday night to help me settle in. We drove to some of the Finger Lakes, visited Ithaca, saw Iron Man (very good!) and ate some good meals. I felt like we came to early because I am anxious to start school and I didn't want to hang out but it ended up being ok. We traveled the city a bit which helped me orient myself.
I am here at the RIT dorms for the Summer Semester. I have never lived away from Cali before (for longer than a month) and this is a very weird sensation. It isn't like I am living in my own apartment, its almost like summer camp, without the counselors. I am looking forward to meeting people.
I start school tomorrow at 8am. I couldn't get my computer working in my room. Apparently, I have to take it to the IT office tomorrow. I also need to get my RIT ID and go to the student store and get supplies. I am excited to go to my first class tomorrow.
I am sitting in the computer lab in the bottom floor of my dorm building without much to do. I checked Myspace, email, and a little Google reader to waste some time, but now what. Earlier the housing people said that there would be about 250 people in these dorms for the summer. Today may be a very boring day until tomorrow when I start classes.

Until next time....

ps, These are what I am watching on Ebay.