November 2006

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Photography: An Interview with Mike Brady Reflection Ian Berry

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Untitled Connor Stratman

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Somewhere Between Here and There Gary Norris

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To Fall Asleep and Dream Joey Fechtel

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Untitled Travis San Pedro

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Untitled Connor Stratman

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The Painter Ian Berry

Publisher Student Council Artistic Editor Ian Berry Layout Editor Kurt Swafford Associate Editors Brian Bedford Ben Allen Michael Randall Moderator Mr. Degen

Jesuit Journal

Photograph by Mike Brady ’07

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Photography: An Interview with Mike Brady What ideas do you try to convey in your work?

I try to see things from a new perspective, and in that way it can be hard for me to find something to photograph. I always want to bring something new to whoever sees my photos.

subject matter. In an interview with graphic designer Andy Mueller, he pointed out that after having worked for a studio with invaluable equipment, he hardly ever uses it, because he’s less interested in that part of the process. I find that I can relate to that.

At this point, the inspiration comes from the desire to capture an emotion or subject that is truly enthralling, rather than producing a photograph that’s perfectly developed.

How do you create your images?

I started off with a Canon Rebel T2, and planned to move on to better cameras, but that’s what I still use today.

It’s a film camera, though, and the cost of development and film itself can add up quickly. The first summer I started taking photos I took a class, so I always developed them myself since I had access to a dark room every day.

Lately, because of a busy schedule and a lack of access to darkrooms, I’ve had commercial developers process my photos for me. I was pretty worried the first time I had someone else develop my photos, but I learned that it can lead to some interesting surprises, which is one of the most enjoyable aspects of photography.

Your photographs have a lot of variation in content.

What do you usually look for? Do you have a favorite subject to photograph?

Usually, when I go out looking for something to photograph, I try to get far away from where I usually am. I never gave a lot of thought to the subject matter of my photos until a teacher commented on how often I photograph man-made objects, and use the symmetry and repetition of architecture and design to compose my photos. That’s also why I favor black and white photography. The lack of color brings out the simplicity of the man-made design; the composition becomes more important. I started to move away from this and simply photo anything that catches my eye, in color or black and white. Hopefully, I’ll become more comfortable with using color film and photographing people.

What first inspired you to begin taking photographs?

What inspires you now?

Being able to capture a moment in time always seemed powerful to me and I wanted to be a part of that.

Also having the power to manipulate exactly how that moment looks by shifting focus in order to emphasize certain details interested me. Ironically, the photos that inspired me to pick up a camera were photos that utilized swirling, saturated color, and I didn’t end up taking that type of photo.

Recently, I find that I’m less interested in the actual properties of the photograph and more interested in my

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Photograph by Mike Brady ’07 Do you have any role models when it comes to photography (i.e. famous photographers)?

When I first started I tried to get into the culture of photography and follow the big-name photographers, but I never really immersed myself, so I’ve never followed any particular photographers.

The first photographer whose portfolio I really enjoyed looking through was Robin Laananen. Her website consists mostly of music portrait photography, but it captures a lot of the energy and personality; she does

November 2006

Jesuit Journal

“features” with bands from the Seattle area. She’ll follow them around the country while they’re on tour and makes a photo-chronicle of the few months on the road. She tends to follow around some pretty eccentric bands with live performances that are pretty out of this world, so her photo galleries are always really interesting to peruse.

I recently found another photographer, Marília Campos, who does some really cool stuff with her photos.

Her trademark is using expired film and cross-processing it, which basically means she develops her film incorrectly, and she gets really vivid, saturated colors by doing so. She lives in Portugal, so her subjects, which are usually posed people, are always in a setting that I’m unfamiliar with, so a new life and candidness is brought to her already emotive photos.

Reflection Ian Berry, ’07 To rise up out of the waters, immutable, serene, and for all things borne up to run as the rain across the mirror, determinedly.

And with that waking question see nothing in my reflection left unused; or rather see the face looking back and his the life I choose.

Mike Brady is a regular contributor to both the Roundup and the Journal.

Photograph by Mike Brady ’07

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November 2006

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Untitled Connor Stratman, ’07

Somewhere Between Here and There Gary Norris, ’08

I saw the highway give way into a billion technicolor oceans Deep open window scent of the dry hot air slowly filling my lungs and rowing through my body

Somewhere between greed and generosity, Stands a helpless soul blessed by compassion Of those willing to assist others in need when they are not.

Realizing the true desperate state of out time.

transparent layers of atmosphere dreamy in the sky explosions visible in the heavens I am closer now to the edge of the world I’ve come to know nothing, hence fear nothing I am free as I fall through the clouds High on oxygen and wide-eyed visions Rowing boats floating in circles around me I’ve ceased moving I’ve become a part of our universal nothingness We are still and without impatience We are free

Somewhere between hunger and contentment, Stands a starving child, at ease for the first time.

Impoverished and weary beyond our thought, She will forever be thankful to her giver.

Somewhere between war and peace, Stands a jeopardized soul, rescued From the carnage of hopeless and futile quarrels.

At peace from a war that was not his.

Somewhere between what the world is, And what it strives to, and can, become, Stands not drastic change affecting the masses, But solitary lives being bettered one by one.

Somewhere between heaven and earth, Stands Gods face in the shadows.

Will we carry it out into the light?

First, this we must consider: His love radiates strongest through our actions.

Art by Norman Belza ’08

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November 2006

Jesuit Journal

Art by Brad Boudreaux ’08

To Fall Asleep and Dream Joey Fechtel, ‘07 My reeling wooden floor, Spattered with clothes, Throws out a few more details And my mind explodes, Falling like drops in pointillism, Painting a pretty little picture of chaos, Seizing, in a wave of tension, my hopeless body; Greasy, wiry, taut, and sweaty, Pining away in the heat of AC. A scintillating cynosure of all electricity, The lighted flesh forces inspiration, Which dribbles stolidly from pores into pillow, And ousting my mind behind, my entirety Soaks quietly into the thick papyrus mask of reality.

So suddenly my semblance becomes A fiber of that intangible masking manuscript, Written out fantastically by some superior thought, Which moves through and/or beyond me To other, more esculent layers, Awaiting its drops of inky enlightenment.

Connectivity looms on all sides Of this placid sheet that carries Noise, vaguely from its edges, Sounds of figures on the fringes sizzling, Whispering into white heat, like

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Drizzling rain on tin, floating With the smoke of memory, Misty in the stifled din.

What dark and transparent dreams come To carry away the smoke!

They are akin to black chariots, Singeing always this grainy surface With their wheels of fire, Ignited from th’ first flame.

And I too, transparent, translucent Inhale it. Yes, as paper I breathe; I breathe a picture of the everlasting, Of an eternal bed, no posts, Nor pillows to bind the head, But only secret comfort, As a secret sun makes bright the sky, Yet hides, without betray’d position, Behind the paper clouds, Blending in as does perfection, With the entropic twisting of silken covers, Wrapped cONvUlSively to preserve the naked dignity Hidden forever between paper thin sheets, In the paper thin armor of integrity.

And I awake to find my open eyes staring straight into the dark.

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Untitled Travis San Pedro, ’08 Curiosity beckons the crowd from sport A link to my own world sways side to side My neck supports the burden like Atlas I lift the camera to my face Behind the viewfinder just me I talk to myself Fidgeting with the lens like a dial Left, left, right, left, right, right, slightly left, right, now more, more right, as far as you can zoom!

Sometimes athletes speak of a zone Dubious But when every two seconds I freeze the emotion, the camera vertical then horizontal, the lens adjusted, the moment captured, all seamlessly in excited synchronized metronome I can’t help but believe in a runner’s high When I put down the camera to view my validation

It is cold Not like the plastic warmed from my breath and forehead which I hide my insecurities behind The people are no longer subjects They feel, opine, judge The spectators, the athletes turn their thumbs down superciliously I am left to fend for myself in the arena I scramble to put the camera back to my face And continue taking my pictures

Photographs by Mike Brady ’07

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November 2006

Jesuit Journal

Art by Norman Belza ’08

Untitled Connor Stratman, ’07 Where are you taking me? Dear one, Where are you leading me?

Why are you walking into the shadows and kissing the walls While singing forlorn songs With loveless words, With bitter, harsh cadences, and distraught movements of the throat?

Does your shadow attach itself to you in the sunlight, as mine does to me?

Do you feel the chill of its presence In the heat of the summer, When you throw yourself into the sunlight to escape it?

Does the world frighten you as much as it frightens me?

Do closed doors give you comfort in your endless solitary nights?

Does the silence become so still that all noise fades from your noticing?

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Does a long gaze into the window show you visions of the ether world, Where circles spin slowly and rainbow shapes collide and fall away as you kiss the bending flowers in a cool breeze in spring?

Will you know the hour of the end of the world?

Will you hold my hand as I walk through the final gate?

When all is gone, will there still be you?

Will there still be you?

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Photograph by Mike Brady ’07

The Painter Ian Berry, ’07 Night falls a final stroke of brush; tragic it is to never understand a day until it is gone.

What begins a landscape of endless horizon now bears to my eyes its purpling sky, with its promised possibility, all an end to which I lack the means.

Forever, it seems, my ears lie ignorant of the morning, her stifled whispers through the pillows.

Now only the dim light of the lantern in the corner betrays the growing darkness along the wall, a canvas quite easier to define.

For in its making lies the unmaking of all else, a place from which lights and emotions fall slowly out of focus into the remaining malaise, a product of dreams.

Tomorrow comes ever still it’s easy enough, the thought of living, without the day to call me to it.

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November 2006

Jesuit Journal