Good Press

I've had a bit of good foreign press lately. First, the French climbing magazine Escalade did a review of my photography and design work, and now photographer Ismael Velasco from the Spanish blog El Canto Chino has added a small write-up about my work as well.

Boise, Idaho

Just got back from a last minute, whirlwind trip to Boise, Idaho.  3 days, $160 in gas, $50 co-pay for a trip to the ER, 5 types of rock and an amazing crew of climbers.  Heather and Dean Lords drove from Idaho Falls, Mike McClure and Tammy Stowe



were my hosts/tourguides and local Craig Hurst braved a badly sprained ankle to climb some cool lines. 

Image © Dean Lords

If you are a wine fan, check out Mike and Tammy's family winery, Indian Creek.

Ogden ClimbFest II

One of my images won "Best Photograph" in the 2008 ClimbFest.

Dean Lords on his climb, Indulgence M9, Idaho.

"This photograph captures all the drama, energy and beauty of the ice climber's winter landscape." 

Ogden ClimbFest

Starting today, I will have a small exhibition at the Artisan Grille in Ogden, Utah in conjunction with the Ogden ClimbFest.

The exhibit will feature five 16" x 20" framed prints. 

They will be on display at the Artisan until April 18 when they will move to the Eccles Community Arts Center located at 2580 Jefferson Avenue in Ogden for the Climbfest. If your in O-Town and have time, check it out.

Signs of the Recent Past

Over the past few years, I’ve been working on a personal project documenting old neon signs throughout Utah and surrounding states. To me, these signs are more than just a colorful reminder of our past. They show who we were and who we are becoming now. These signs are an artistic representation of business that were an important part of their local community. Vibrant and colorful, they showed off a business’s individuality. Unfortunately today, these signs are rapidly being removed from the landscape and replaced with generic, cost efficient and mass-produced signs representing chain stores without much of a link to the community in which they reside.



Throughout America (and the rest of the world), our past is being replaced with generic versions of everything. Entire neighborhoods are built where every house looks exactly the same. Urban sprawl has brought strip malls into almost every community making it possible to drive for hours and feel like you haven’t moved. You see the same stores and restaurants everywhere you go. Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and McDonalds are quickly replacing our local businesses such as Saccos, The Gem Theater and Finns.



Some might say that the lower price and greater selection is worth the tradeoff, but is it really? You might pay less at mega-chain now, but as more and more research is showing, the cheep pre-processed foods and goods are harmful to our bodies and the environment. Cheaper in the beginning but higher insurance and medical costs quickly make up the difference. Blockbuster is easy and convenient, but we stay locked away in our homes rather than meeting our neighbors at the local theater. You can eat in your car while on the run, but what happened to sitting at the table with your family while eating a healthy dinner?

In the two years I’ve worked on this project at least 3 of the signs I’ve documented no longer exist, fallen victim to our generic forward progress. One of my favorites, the Kuong Jou Cafe just 1 mile from my house recently fell to a mediocre fresh-mex chain. To their credit though, they did re-use some of the framework to create a generic take on the original.



To all my friends and family in the Utah area reading this, I’d like to ask that if you see a sign like these and the others in the gallery on my website http://www.pullphotography.com
please tell me about it and give directions to get there.

A new site

Hey everyone,

I'm in the process of updating my website and adding a lot of new features such as this blog. Hopefully I'll keep up and post regularly. In the meantime, here is a test image from our Thanksgiving trip to Bishop.

Cheers,

Nathan