Obama and Biden, sitting in a tree

Obama says you'll be my VP!!!

So, ya, it is 2:56 am, and Obama picked Biden just now apparently. Does this mean Obama sent texts to people at this time? Man, I'd be pissed if I were a normal sleeper. But still awake.

So, read the story here:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/08/obama_picks_biden.html?hpid=topnews

Full disclosure: Hopefully this will link in with the news cycle and bump up hits on the blog. Shameless self-promotion.

Some photos I have shot of Biden, from the Gala of the National Network to End Domestic Violence: A very affable and friendly guy, for sure. See more of my event shooting, including other Members of Congress and celebrities like Bernie Williams of the Yankees, in my events section.

News Comments: Disgusting Foreclosure News

To go off the topic of photography for a little, let me rant about some recent news headlines on major news networks. Ed McMahon and Evander Holyfield have both been the subjects of articles and specials on how the mortgage crisis is affecting everyone. McMahon is behind $644,000, approximately, on mortgage payments for his nearly $5 MILLION dollar home! Poor guy is having a hard time selling it, what with Britney Whacko Spears living nearby. Holyfield's Mansion is even more egregious in its size and cost, and the media is crying the blues for him, as well.

Pardon the expression, but F$## that! Though I feel sorry for anyone near losing their home, this should not be national news. The money McMahon is behind on could house 8 people in average size homes, people who may be out on the street, or struggling just to make rent. $644,000!!!!???? That is not behind on a mortgage, that is something seriously wrong with our society, that there is even news coverage for someone of such celebrity stature being in a bind, while daily hundreds of thousands go without affordable housing, or cut down in food and other necessities in order to pay their rent.

Holyfield, McMahon, and others, here's an idea. Downsize your house, sell it for a loss, and still come out with $3 million or whatever, more than the average American has or will see while searching for a new house. While these near foreclosures may point to the size of the problem in the market, for us to focus attention on people at this level, versus what is really wrong with our society plagued by high costs of housing, rising numbers of homeless persons, and more and more of us sinking below the poverty levels, is disgusting. This makes me sick.

A look at the houses and articles:
Holyfield's House!
Article on McMahon foreclosure
McMahon's house, photo and article

Artomatic again!

I will be taking part in Artomatic again this year. I till be nice to be back after 3 plus years of not having been involved. I'm looking forward to the exhibit in a great building Artomatic volunteers secured this year. For those of you who do not know, Artomatic is a huge, HUGE, exhibition, with nearly 800 artists. I'll be on floor 4 of the building, with more details to come.
Check it out here in the meantime: www.artomatic.org

PeaceNow Show in DC

I will be exhibiting photos in the PeaceNow show at the Warehouse Gallery in DC. I won't be at the opening. :( You should go! Especially if you are in DC.

Details:

Where Art and Conflict intersect

Warehouse Gallery

presents PeaceNow!

The 6th and final peace show at Warehouse on 7th Street

40 artists show painting, installation, photography, sculpture, video

Feb 22 - April 6, 2008

Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays 1-4pm

And by appt

Opening Reception Friday Feb 22 6-9pm

Meet the Artists

Earlier Peace shows at Warehouse:

* Faces of Iraq 2003

* Propaganda of War 2003

* War or Peace 2004

* Where's the Peace 2005

* Shock and Awe 2006

1021 7th Street NW

www.warehousetheater.com

Happy Mardi Gras!

In Memoriam: Tony Cushing - Cat's Eye Pub, Baltimore, MD.

A great night two years in a row, when the saints go marching in.

Also, may we never forget the tragedy that was Katrina, and the disaster our country still allows to happen: http://www.canyoupicturethat.com/Gulfcoast1/index.htm

DISGUSTING

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/09/18/VI2007091800699.html?hpid=multimedia1&hpv=national

EDIT: This is a longer version, showing his question and better angles at what is seen to be not violent resistance, at least not enough to deserve a taser. WTF? These cops should be canned immediately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE76LQwT6qA

EDIT 2: Another, showing the after effects and how some students actually did stand up for him:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHl4cPRDpzw

This is a video of a student being tasered. Apparently for speaking out? From the video, you can not tell if he did anything to deserve this, and it seems he didn't. This is not the first case of abuse of a taser by campus police, and it is thoroughly disgusting. Watch it until the end.

Shame on the people in the room for not doing anything. Shame on the officers and campus admin for allowing this to happen from most likely bad training and procedures. Kerry does seem to try to answer the students questions, but shame on him for continuing to babble while the student is detained for no reason.

Like I said, the video shows no motive for the officers even attempting to escort the student out, but perhaps there is more to this story?

Add your voice against photography restrictions in NYC

Sign this petition.

NYC is once again looking to restrict First Amendment guaranteed rights of photography in public spaces. This is a very bad precedent if it is to happen, and also a severe attack on freedoms for all of us. It will even impact amateur and casual photographers.

For details on the proposed rules, see here.

Only 3 days left to sign the petition. Thanks to Lenny at DC / MidAtlantic Artnews for posting this.

Rising from the cave...

...Not a real cave, but I've neglected to update the blog and the page for quite a while. I am still in Baltimore, working part time on my photography and some non-profit consulting work, and also at Patrick's, www.patricksofpratt.com, as a bartender.

Some recent news related to my photography:
-I've shot a few more weddings this year, I'll post links soon for the public to see.
-I am now a member of the Sowebo Arts collective, here in Sowebo (Southwest Baltimore), my new neighborhood.
-I should have a showing coming up in September at a local restaurant, and one or two others in the works.
-I'll soon be selling smaller prints on Ebay, keep an eye out for more info.
-I did my first "Fair" this year, sharing a booth with my brother and his Bonsai work at the Sowebohemian Arts Festival here in Baltimore.

That's all for now. More to come soon. I hope your summers are treating you well.

Matt

A Debut!

A while ago on this blog, I let everyone know about the unique photo I captured of the Wilson Bridge demolition, as seen in the Express, and "Solarize This" Blog. I am proud to announce that is now available in a Limited Edition of 95 Prints.



The print is an impressive 20"x24" inches, printed from a 4x5 inch black and white negative. It captures all 5 to 6 seconds of the demolition charges as they ripple along the bridge.

The first 20 prints will be sold at a special introductory price of $375. Orders can be made by emailing me at matt@canyoupicturethat.com.

The public debut of this image will be this weekend, on sunday, May 27th, at the Sowebohemian Arts Festival in Baltimore, MD. Join me there to see this unique shot in person and get your order in.

Comments about this photo:
"Dark and Moody," "A wonderful shot," "A cool photo."

See the video of the bridge demolition here.

Breaker news!

I have some great news from my home town, relating to the Huber Coal Breaker which I have been photographing for a while. The Breaker has been acquired by the local government by eminent domain to be transferred to publi use as a museum. The museum is probalby a much longer term piece of this puzzle, but the fact that it now shifts to public ownership, versus private ownership and possible destruction for scrap metal, is a very positive point in the life of this historic building.

Read the local newspaper's article here: http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/16486620.htm

I will be updating my breaker photos with the newest additions in the coming days.

Hapy New Year!

We partied like rockstars...

A special thanks for an awesome New Year's Eve with Strike First Music Corporation in NYC. My brother Mark and I hung out with them and welcomed the new year until 10:30 am!

Here's to a Happy New Year for everyone! Let's hope its filled with love and peace, and all that good stuff, and perhaps we can stop the rising toll in Iraq, the numbers that have decreased the enjoyment of this day, with 3,000 US dead.

AND...if you'll be in NYC on January 3rd, please join me at my first NY show!

Gallery onetwentyeight 128 Rivington Street N.Y., N.Y.10002

1-212-674-0244 www.galleryonetwentyeight.org

CELEBRATING TWENTY YEARS IN SIX WEEKS.

Wednesday, January 3^rd, 2007 6 pm – on. At....

Gallery onetwentyeight

El Castillo

Kronkite

Tiny’s

Schapiro’s Kosher Wine

(Essex Street Martket)

Gallery onetwentyeight will celebrate our thriving part of New York at the above five locations with artists working in different medium. Some of the artists are;

Richard Armijo, Joan Criswell, Tommy Flynn, Eric Ginsburg, Katrine Grotepass Jefre Harwoods, Peter Hauenschild, Christofer Heinz, David Higginbottom, Arlan Huang, Steven Gwon, Ralph Iwamoto, Gerald Jackson, Germaine Keller, Gloria Kline,

Karl-Heinz Klopf, Fran Kornfeld, Nancy & Judy Lin, Eizan Miyamoto, Haruko Mochimaru, Sylvia Netzer , Kurt Novak, Yukako Okudaira, Toki Ozaki, Janet Passehl, Joyce Robins, Miguelangel Ruiz, Carol Salmanson, Helga Schager, Christian Sieckmeier, Nancy Spero, Nobuto Suga, Mako Tanaka, Toyo, Angela Valeria, Rob van Erve, April Volmer, Joe Watanabe Studio, Margret Wibmer, Noriko Yano, The 6^th Grade Students at Powell Elementary School in Washington, D.C. (Ms. Vega Principal) and many more…

NYC Show? !

I have some exiciting news. Thanks to Eric, who purchased some of my super-discounted prints at our Holiday Open Studios, I will be showing a piece or two atg a gallery in New York City! Gallery One Twenty Eight.
This is a rather last minute happening, and I don't yet have all of the details, but will update this post when I do.

Check back soon.

Matt

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all! I hope your holidays are filled with peace and happiness.

Matt

Holiday Open Studios - Saturday Dec. 9, Sunday, Dec.10

Looking for that perfect gift? Art lovers on your list? Want something unique?
Look no further.

Join your three favorite DC photographers as we clear out our studios and reduce prices to give you amazing gifts, all under $100! We will have photos that usually sell for 3 times more, but we need to get them out the door to make room for other work! You can make them into a present like no other.

The photographers are:

Matt Achhammer - www.canyoupicturethat.com

Alexandra Silverthorne - www.alexandrasilverthorne.com

Robert Walton - www.teamwetdog.com

We'll have brunch snacks, mimosas, and the art work, and we hope to have you there with us to socialize and shop and talk about photography.

On Saturday, Join Alexandra and Matt at the Gallaerie in Mt. Pleasant on Saturday night at 8:30! 1644 Mt. Pleasant St. NW. We'll have photos on display and on discount, of course.

On Sunday, Join all three of us at Alexandra's place on Wisconsin ave. Email Matt or others for more information.

I hope to see you there!!!

In the Express online, and now, a video of the bridge demolition

So, to my surprise today, Alexandra sent me a link to http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/2006/11/local_blog_log_suckcessories_on_display_1.php, and in the "Local Blog Log," my Wilson Bridge photo was profiled. Thanks Alexandra and The Express.

Now, for a bit of background to the long exposure, I am posting the video of the demolition, as you'll see, it is very quick.

See the video here.

The Wilson Bridge

A while back, I went to see the wilson Bridge being demolished, and thanks to the prime location of my friend Jason's apartment, I was able to capture it perfectly on film. The following image is the first look at the results of a 5 second exposure with my 4x5 camera, which captured the whole event, all the flashed and explosions, on one negative. Enjoy! I plan to print this and do a limited edition for the Metro area in the future. You may not be able to see it all in the fairly small image, but if you look to the side of the standing portion of the bridge, you will see a series of lights that are explosions as they rippled up the old bridge to take it down.

Olbermann: Special Comment ( a Must SEE!)

On Election Day, I send you to this video from Election eve. Kaith Olbermann, in a "Special comment" session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIua7n5131s

enjoy,