WINTER, 2014
Volume Six | Number Four | Winter, 2014
Front Cover Photo by: 2wenty Title: Me, Myself and I Model: Spacegoth Back Cover Photo by: 2wenty Title: On To The Next One Editor-in-Chief:
Dan Buczynski dan@strongboxmagazine.com
Executive Editor:
John W. Davis, Jr. john@strongboxmagazine.com
STRONGBOX MAGAZINE is a quarterly web publication born out of a love for all things creative. Each issue is available for download in PDF format, and is 100% free. Our goal is to have fun with art and photography, and share what we find interesting. If you’d like to participate, submit something today!
All of the content in this publication is the sole property of the featured artist and cannot be used or distributed without their written permission.
facebook.com/strongboxmagazine
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Isa Gelb
4 Roy Kienitz
24 Chris Litherland
40 2wenty
60 Melissa Crouch
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Isa Gelb
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I find it difficult to talk for very long about my own photography.
Qatar Grand Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe / Horse Race
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I'd rather let my images reveal themselves. I’m not trying to create art. Although I have my own personal likes and influences, I don’t have an aesthetic program. I simply enjoy the experience of taking pictures and sharing them with others. The process communicates aspects of myself I doubt I could express otherwise. My subjects have a modesty that I hope remains intact within my images. One purpose of my work is to give credit to that sense of modesty I witness, rather than using artistic means to amplify it and change its nature. Since 2013, my current medium has been film. I prefer analog photography because the limited number of exposures spurs me to create more deliberate compositions. I personally find film more challenging. I believe my experience in analog photography will give me greater versatility in creating images. But as viewer, I like both, analog and digital. I should mention that I am not only a photographer. I greatly appreciate the images of other contemporary photographers as well, so much so that I've created my own photography magazine, Underdogs, to present and share their works.
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In The Middle of Nowhere
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The Message
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Zar The Lion
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Connected
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The Life Aquatic
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The Little Astronaut
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Jungle
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Leaves
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Pink Cavern
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Untitled (From the Attacking Light Series)
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Big Cats Tribute
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Duo
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Car, Sweet Car
For more of Isa's work, visit:
Her Flickr Site Her Tumblr Page Underdogs on Issuu.com
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Photo by the author
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Catastrophe The words they‘ll use to describe what happened. Believing to have articulated what a tragedy that befell, what horror was visited upon. See how it deafened the morning? Grass stopped growing, weeping children fell silent. The words they‘ll use to describe what happened will leave us with our hands cupped and waiting, cupped and waiting, in the 3 a.m. dark. -Melissa Crouch
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Do I know you?
Photos by Roy Kienitz
When photography was new, people were amazed how it captured the human essence. Some cultures believed it could steal the soul. My interest centers on the opposite phenomenon. I always notice how even the most true-to-life pictures don’t capture us. The camera sees everything except the one thing that matters. This series is about wanting to see someone and almost seeing; about wanting to know someone and almost knowing. But not quite. About others and about myself.
All pictures were taken with a Fujifilm X10 camera except “anger” which was taken with a Samsung Galaxy S cell phone. Roy Kienitz lives and works in the Washington DC area
Lecture, Minneapolis MN, 2014
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Self Portrait #1, Silver Spring MD, 2013
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Self Portrait #4, Dulles VA, 2013
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La Bamba, Silver Spring MD, 2014
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Anger, New York NY, 2014
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Butch Willis, Silver Spring MD, 2014
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Bus Shelter Mona Lisa, New York NY, 2014
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New Hampshire Avenue, Washington DC, 2014
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Value Village, Silver Spring MD, 2013
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The Eyes Are The Window To The Soul, Silver Spring MD, 2013
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Self Portrait #15, Washington DC, 2013
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Self Portrait #30, Washington DC, 2013
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Self Portrait #61, Kensington MD, 2013
For more of Roy's work, visit:
His Flickr Site
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Drought For the last year I‘ve eaten nothing but cinders for breakfast. Burnt words piled on plates, not a lick of rain to sooth my cracked tongue. Outside, creatures go on bleating and bleating while the sun above never ceases its staring. It can‘t stop seeing what it‘s seen. My hands, a tattoo of ash, fold and rise as if to beg, but my brittle heart has hardened and I cut the nearest throat, desperate for the quenching, not caring that it‘s blood, not caring whose it is. -Melissa Crouch
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CHRIS LITHERLAND
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My last view of downtown Houston when I was leaving for Pittsburgh.
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While growing up in Texas, I grew concerned that soccer field development was putting a local park's wildlife habitat in jeapordy. Around thirteen years ago - when I was in 8th grade - I got involved with the Houston Audubon Society and birding. It was birding that led me to photography. For the first six years or so, I almost exclusively photographed birds, and felt that I was really good at it. However, I had a hard time distinguising one bird photographer from another, so I aimed my lens elsewhere. Everything in the suburbs of Houston and Dallas was pretty much built after 1980 and lacked character. I always had an appreciation for old buildings, but only got to see them when my family took a trip downtown to attend a sporting event or go to a fancy restaurant. I had always wanted to live around historic architecture, so after graduating college in Arkansas, I enjoyed a brief stint in Lafayette, Louisiana before moving to downtown Houston. I loved it. For all its merits, however, Downtown Houston still didn’t have the density or history of East Coast cities that I’ve always sought. Two years ago - on a whim - I decided to move to Pittsburgh, PA. Now I am surrounded by history and beautiful places to photograph. Since I have a profound respect for the past and historic architecture, I try to shed light on its beauty with my photography. I feel that these places are important to preserve for the future. Buildings and neighborhoods are not built on a human scale anymore, and once they are gone, we aren’t getting them back.
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U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, PA
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An abandoned one-room schoolhouse in Greene County, PA
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An abandoned church in Duquesne, PA
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The abandoned Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood
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An abandoned Methodist church in Greene County, PA
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Abandoned late 1940's PCC trolleys from Boston's T in central Pennsylvania
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The completely abandoned downtown of Brownsville, PA
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Historic downtown Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
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Looking up Broadway towards Lower Manhattan LEFT: Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn
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The historic Montgomery House in Claysville, PA
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For more of Chris' work, visit:
His Facebook Page
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Linens She didn‘t last the night. The blanket that held her was standard hospital issue, white, worn and frayed. The orderly took it down to the basement where tomorrow it will be washed, folded and stacked with the others— these quiet ferrymen, who circle in on themselves, hold and wait with infinitesimal patience under the hum of lights that never go dark, never stop illuminating what no one wants to see. -Melissa Crouch
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2wenty
Late Night Selfie
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2wenty is an American mixed-media artist and photographer from Los Angeles. He is known for using light as the central theme in his work. 2wenty comes from a background in lighting television and film, which gives him an intimate understanding of how light works. The sources of light he utilizes for his light paintings are handmade, and the LED paintings are all done by hand. 2wenty expands his oeuvre into light painting photography. Through long exposures, the camera captures not only the subject, but also the source of light the artist moves across his “canvas�. Within these detailed images," There is a depth and other worldliness that records both place and passage of time", says 2wenty. The surreal effects that emerge are done in-camera, not with Photoshop.
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Dont Fade Away
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Dream Within a Dream
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Light Guy & Brake Lights
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Where's My Food?
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Monkey Bird
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Monkey Bird Two
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Fallen Beepss
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Sawa at the Beach
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Two Light Guys
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Angelina Guido
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Amy
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experiMENTAL
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Los Angeles Dreaming
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I Hope My Words...
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As I Brave The World
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Stay The Night
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Sarah McCune
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Spacegoth
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Sunrise
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Far as the eye can see (3am)
Models: Amy (page 80) | Angelina Guido (page 73) | Beepss (pages ) | Chante Fox (pages 65, 76) Katie Ann Martin (page 75) | Monkey Bird (pages 68, 69) | Sarah McCune (pages 64, 80) Sawa (pages ) | Spacegoth (front cover, page 81)
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Let the water wash away... (3am)
For more of 2wenty's work, visit:
Flickr • Facebook • Instagram • Tumblr
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