Adam Wisneski photoblog

I started a new project with the Mental Health Association of Tulsa on people who have since risen from homelessness. Geneva Phillips is my first subject. She’s been a poet all her life, through her rocky childhood, on the streets of Tulsa, and now into her twilight of recovery. Here’s one of her poems. 

I Am These People

These are from a while back.

I’m reading a new book about commercial photography that talks a lot about how important it is to look deep inside yourself to let your vision surface. It’s in focusing your vision that you up your value as a creative, it says. It’s airy-fairy stuff, but I believe in the internal, spiritual side of photography as much as I believe in ISO and f stops. This is from a walkabout downtown in Tulsa where I tried not to filter my shooting with the “oh that won’t be very interesting” internal dialogue.

I went to see one of my favorite rappers, Atmosphere, at Cain’s last night. He was there with Blueprint who I liked and Abstract Rude who didn’t like as much. It’s cool to put a face and an attitude with the voice.

In the middle of the show, he paid a fan $20 to leave. Just gave him a twenty and had security walk him out. The guy kept yelling out a request for an old song that he didn’t want to play.

Players on TU’s offensive line shaved their heads in solidarity for Wilson Holloway (the guy with the lion roar in the first pic), who is undergoing cancer treatment. It was a fun shoot, lots of laughs, although I was watching my back. Halfway through a young kid came up to me, looked me in the eye, and said “You’re gonna get your head shaved.” Then walked away. I thought he had overheard the players plotting. Luckily, they spared my mane.

My girlfriend sits on a picnic table on a windy day in Oklahoma. We had to hold on to our chicken sandwiches so they wouldn’t blow away.

I went to Springfield, Mo. to see Obama speak. It was one of those times I felt like I was present for something big, something people will talk about down the road. His energy is contagious.