Keeping with my trend of street photography, I spent most of Monday wandering the sidewalks of lower Manhattan. From the World Trade Center to Chinatown to the West Village, I chased light and color down side streets. I also had the wonderful company of my former classmates, Jeff Lautenberger and Chris Dunn. It was nice having old friends join my explorations.

Disclosure: For those wondering, this was from a few days ago wandering Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.

Last month, my work, “The Flying Horsemen,” won the iWorld solo exhibition at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver. Tom & I flew out to the opening, where we ate well, made new friends & enjoyed the vast landscapes. What a beautiful city! I can’t wait to go back. Here are a few photos from the show.

I’ve had a lot of inspiration from early color photographers: Saul Leiter, Ernst Haas, Fred Herzog and of course, William Eggleston. There’s nothing like some painterly street photography. The work is so beautiful and great motivation to get out in my neighborhood to make some images.

It’s funny the things you see in your own neighborhood.

Today, walking home, I noticed a large crowd gathering around the police station a few blocks from my home in South Williamsburg. My friend Rob Bennett told me it was the perp walk for Luis Ortiz, a suspect accused of shooting NYPD offier Kevin Brennan. Never having photographed a perp walk before, I naturally felt inclined to make pictures.

Every Thanksgiving, I travelled with my family to a community dotted with oil derricks from its “Boom Town” heyday that sits along the northern edge of Texas. A few miles out of town, my grandparents’ ranch nestles the banks of the Red River.

“He saw this ad in the paper,” my grandma, Mitzy, recounted as she explained how my grandpa, James, bought that very property.

“He saw this ad in the paper of this ranch for sale. He went to look at it, and he bought it. It was awful. It was an old oil field. Just more junk, trash on it than you ever saw. Weeds were this high.” She lifted her hand a few feet off the ground.

James, Mitzy and their three children moved into the small, four-room house in 1955.

Though the ranch was in poor shape when the Ludekes took it over, they worked very hard to clean it up and raise cattle, chickens, wheat, rye, barley and six children.

James ranched, taught at the Air Force base and fathered. He also had a strong passion for photography. He chronicled a decent amount of life on Kodachrome slides: from farm work, to landscapes to everyday life.

Two generations later, I began documenting the decay of their land: rusted cars and farm machines, drought-stricken fields, a dwindled livestock population. Paired with the mid-century Kodachromes, these diptychs offer a visual history of Texas ranching. They also serve as a metaphor for American history. As the country invested in higher education after WWII, many younger generations went to college, abandoning an agrarian way of life.

The notion of time in these diptychs shows a progression of terrain, the growth of people and the persistence of memory.

Work from The Flying Horsemen is currently being shown at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver, Co. It will run until Feb. 13.

I will be having my first solo exhibition next month at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver, Co.!! The opening reception will be Friday, Jan. 13 from 5 – 8 p.m.

I’ve spent the last several months working on a documentary project about my grandparents’ ranch in north Texas. It will be a series of diptychs—my work paired with old Kodachrome slides my grandfather made.

Check back soon for more photos from the show.

Alyssa Campanella, Miss USA, enjoys a serene moment while getting ready for the Sheri Hill NYFW show.

This season’s New York Fashion Week didn’t end with Zang Toi. The wonderful women at Amazing Cosmetics had me photograph the backstage scenes of another show they sponsored, Sherri Hill. The space, in the basement of the Trump Towers, was a lot more chaotic than at Lincoln Center, but I was grateful for the lighting. That made it a lot easier to play around with light and exposure.

Sherri Hill also had celebrities modeling for her: Kendall Jenner, Cassidy Gifford (Kathy Lee’s daughter), Miss USA Alyssa Campanella and Miss China Luo Zilin. Quite the lineup.

Kathie Lee Gifford, right, gives her daughter, Cassidy, some advice before walking in the Sherri Hill NYFW show.

Luo Zilin, Miss China, tries on a dress before the Sherri Hill NYFW show

Kirstie Alley waits for her hair extensions while sitting backstage for the Zang Toi show at New York Fashion Week.

Ah, Fashion. Thanks to the wonderful ladies at Amazing Cosmetics (I really do love the women there), I get a chance to photograph the backstage craziness at New York Fashion Week. They sponsored designer Zang Toi’s show, whom I also photographed last February.

His clothes are spectacularly tailored and Zang seems like such a sweet guy. He’s always laughing and high energy. It’s contagious.
Like last winter, he used another celebrity as his final model. This time, a childhood favorite, Kirstie Alley. She really looked beautiful. I could definitely sense the humor she’s portrayed in her acting.

And who says women don’t age well? She disproves that!

Zang Toi laughs with Kirstie Alley backstage before his show at NYFW

The models listen to directions on how to walk for the Zang Toi show at NYFW. (And yes, that is Dani, winner of America's Next Top Model cycle 6, on the left)

Zang Toi makes some final adjustments before his show at NYFW

The great thing about photography and about learning is that we all grow. Before now, I would’ve never stopped at a photo like this. When I noticed this looking through my outtakes from an assignment a few weeks ago, I was hooked.

It’s so fun. I like the quirky parts. It really makes me stop and try to understand what’s going on.

I’m certainly nowhere near John Szarkowski or Tod Papageorge in terms of theory, but I’m pushing myself outside of my comfort zone.