Thomas Bliss

"I have over 20 years of industry experience spanning the "Motion Picture" and "Television Industry" as a "Production Still Photographer", to working in the executive offices of a major international advertising firm.

Living in the Northwest, I am very fortunate to be within three minutes of some of the most beautiful inland waterways in the world. I’m a rather accomplished sailor and yachtsman, graduate of the United States Power Squadrons® , U.S.C.G. Americas Boating Course, and a member of the United States Coast Guard / AUX, Flotilla 33.

In addition to shooting land based assignments, our yacht photography crew is comprised of current and retired U.S.C.G members, certified "coxswains" some with over 30 years of on the water experience in navigation, mission planning, SAR, First Aid/ CPR and AED. We have several shooting platforms available from swift boats to luxury yachts, fixed wing and rotary wing (helicopter) pilots.


Rest assured that when you hire us for a land, sea or air based shoot it will be safe and well organized." -Biography

- 4 images and / or video/sound clips of artwork

It doesn't look like there are any interviews out there, as he is more business based than art based. I think this is why I am attracted to his professional work. It is focused on being a business, with clients. However I find many of the photographs to be strikingly artistic.

Clients or "galleries" include:

• Aleutian Yachts
• Arizona Foothills Magazine
• Jacobs Carter & Burgess
• Charlotte Russe
• Curran & Conners
• Dream Homes Magazine
• Ferdinand Fine Furniture
• CVG International Airport
• Seattle/Tacoma International Airport
• Super Lawyers Magazine
• Arizona Foothills Magazine
• FoodBrand
• Regency Centers
• Centerlines Magazine
• Tucson Lifestyles Magazine
• Coopper Pacific Kitchens
• Ben Leland Homes
• Paul Davies Homes
• International Banking Technologies
• RS Homes
• Starbucks
• Pinnacle Magazine
• Janson Communications
• LUX Magazine

http://www.architecturephotographer.com

Thomas Bliss


Edit: Drr... forgot to add pictures.

11/13- Global Economics

"Jolted by rising unemployment and shrinking investment portfolios, Americans have been feeling the pain of the world's worst financial upheaval in more than a half century. As President George W. Bush and leaders of other major countries meet here for an economic summit, many are wondering if they'll be able to find common ground for relief."

Meltdown 101: Will the world economic summit help?

Jeannine Aversa, AP November 14

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gulxT_fMzSinmjdXxpkCC92zoDowD94ETP880

My interests revolve around the economics of this global economy. I think this current economic downturn has been a reflection of just how interconnected our economies are on a global scale in this day and age. One country cannot experience economic trauma without affecting the entire global economy in the same manner. I still feel markets will work themselves out if regulation is limited and the governments involved do not put too many constraints on them. Most interesting to my particular market in trading global currencies, is the fact the the US dollar is actually at the same level today vs major currencies like the EURO as it was in 2006.

Simen Johan

Still haven't decided what to post on this presentation. I could not decide how to react to the actual presentation, however the art itself is easy to react to. I think the artist was hampered in getting his idea's across via a language barrier. He knew why he was creating the art, but wasn't able to verbalize it in English as well. Which is disappointing, as I believe he could talk about his different series all day.

Overall the art was very dark, especially in the earlier kid years. He seems to harbor a pretty deep resentment towards children that comes across in his earlier work. The mostly composed children portray a very sinister feel, even in some very innocent positions.

I believe he further developed this later in his nature series, though maybe with a little less natural dislike coming through. The pinnacle of the nature series are the statue's. Where beauty and a dark theme combine into several pieces that are beautiful until the viewer looks a little closer to find the slightly darker underside with spiders hiding in the center.

Ted VanCleave

"The Hollywood Sign is an international iconic symbol that is recognized by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. It not only represents Hollywood, but it also represents the movie and entertainment industries and the dreams of everyone who has enjoyed a movie and who dreams of being in the world of entertainment"


Interview with the artist

Galerie Lakaye


tedvancleave.com

Economic Downturn

"The economic downturn, which started in the handful of states where the housing market was in the worst shape, is spreading to almost every corner of the country and to a wide variety of industries, according to a Federal Reserve report released yesterday.

The trouble is showing up in such disparate ways as weaker demand for staffing services in New England, lower trucking volume in Ohio and surrounding states, and a resistance to spending money on capital projects by financial institutions on the West Coast.

That assessment is based on the "beige book," a compilation of anecdotes from businesses around the country gathered by the Fed's 12 regional banks. The previous report, in the middle of January, found signs of weakness in certain states and industries but described a U.S. economy that was generally holding up."

Economic Downturn Expands Countrywide
By Neil Irwin
Thursday, March 6, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030501053.html

The economic downturn and the media's reporting on it are key to my current work. This is one of the few media articles I could find that did not try to lay blame on any political party or person. It seems to be reporting the facts in numbers and quoting actual economists. I think the media should be focused on these numbers, as they affect us all. However a majority of media outlets seem to focus on assigning blame and making it seem worse than it is. It is a free market, as long as the fed's keep out. A free market must have fluctuations up and down, but downturns are only lengthened by government intervention. Another recent article was released citing the New Deal and how it prolonged the Great Depression for 7 years longer than it should have lasted.


Slideshow available here

Bret Culp

Artist Statement:

"Roots creep over rock searching for refuge and nourishment, neglected bricks and mortar crumble under the elements and return to the earth, a mountain is slowly devoured by the sea forming a precipice ? these are photographs of matter governed by time chosen to illustrate the relentless determination of nature, the beauty in impermanence, and the eternal cycle of creation out of destruction.

The medium and techniques that I work with are chosen to strengthen the sensory aspects of the photograph in order for the viewer to feel more directly connected to the world within it. I believe that the authenticity of the final image should not be based on how loyal it is to reality but how well it conveys its message.

I have a natural inclination toward black and white photography as its inherent qualities of abstraction grant it the power to intensify the emotional impact of a place while leaving space for mystery. It?s in the shadows that you find the true nature of the subject. Grain is one of the creative tools that I like to employ to further my expression, like a painter?s brushstrokes. I particularly like the additional level of atmosphere that grain can bring to a photograph when artfully used.

I primarily use medium format, as there is a nice balance between being able to push abundant grain out of the film and retaining a high level of detail. Prints are made using pigment on cold pressed archival cotton rag producing an extraordinarily rich tonal quality, excellent sharpness and archival permanence."



Bio

Leonardo Gallery

www.bretculp.com

Socialism

"In this post-Communist era when even "liberal" has become a dirty word, the effort to create a more humane society will not be revived without explicit demands long associated with socialism. Social movements for environmental protection, women's rights and racial equality sooner or later run up against the institutional constraints imposed by capitalism. Then they discover that they can't achieve their goals without becoming anticapitalist. What will individuals and groups demanding equality, democracy, respect for the environment and freedom from the market call themselves as they try to coalesce around increasingly global demands and on behalf of increasingly global alternatives? We need not be timid about naming this "socialism." What else is it? What a new progressive movement needs can be simply stated: more socialism. "


The Left Needs More Socialism
April 1, 2006 Ronald Aronson
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060417/aronson

I think this article from 2006 is appropriate in todays world. We have now had the majority of the US vote for socialism. We have had a major political party run on the platform of taking money from the rich and making everyone equal and win. We have voted against personal responsibility and drive to make ones life better, and instead would choose to take the money from the people who have had that drive in the past and been successful at it. It doesn't matter that no one in the middle class will benefit from hurting the people that sign their paychecks. It only matters that the rich feel as miserable as everyone else. The amazing thing to me, is that they ran on this platform. It wasn't some attempt to pull the wool over our eyes and lie about what the left actually believes in. They ran on it, and we voted for it. I just hope we get what we asked for.

David Hume Kennerly

"
David Hume Kennerly
Photo Credit: Karen Ballard

David Hume Kennerly has been photographing history for four decades. Contributing Editor for Newsweek Magazine, Kennerly continues to travel the globe to produce insightful images of important historic events.

His career began in Roseburg, Oregon, where he published his first picture in the high school paper when he was just 15 years old. His first official photographer jobs--as a staff photographer for the Oregon Journal and then the Portland Oregonian--led him in to a position with United Press International (UPI).

Kennerly won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 1972 for his remarkable photographs of the Vietnam war. After the war, Kennerly returned to the United States for Time Magazine, and in mid-1973 and threw himself into the domestic battles then raging in Washington. After Richard Nixon resigned, Kennerly was on the South Lawn of the White House as the soon-to-be ex-President departed. His historic photo of Nixon’s wave goodbye, taken when Kennerly was just 27 years old, is one of the dozens of his images that have helped define American photojournalism.

Nixon’s successor, President Gerald Ford, asked Kennerly to serve as his White House Photographer, a role that resulted in some of the most personal political pictures of his career. During Ford’s tenure, Kennerly photographed world leaders including Emperor Hirohito in Japan, Leonid Brezhnev in the USSR, Franco in Spain, Ceausescu in Romania, Marcos in the Philippines, Tito in Yugoslavia, Suharto in Indonesia, Deng Xiao Ping in the People’s Republic of China, and Queen Elizabeth during the bicentennial celebration at the White House.

When the Ford Presidency ended, Time swiftly called the 29-year-old Kennerly back to action, sending him to photograph Fidel Castro in Cuba, President Anwar Sadat in Egypt, and the horrors of Jonestown in Guyana, among many other assignments. He went on to major projects for Newsweek, LIFE, ABC Good Morning America Sunday, and George Magazine. Kennerly has photographed more than 35 covers for Time and Newsweek, covered assignments in more than 130 countries, and counts more than one million images in his photographic archive.

Kennerly serves as National Program Chair for Washington Mutual’s forward-thinking “Home of the Free™ Student Photojournalism Project”. Home of the Free gives 7th- and 8th -grade students the opportunity to learn how photography is used in news reporting about government, while creating photos of public servants in their own communities.

In the year 2000, Kennerly traveled more than 250,000 miles to 38 states and seven countries for his fourth book, Photo du Jour: A Picture-A-Day Journey through the First Year of the New Millennium, published in October 2002 by the University of Texas Press. A companion exhibition of fine art prints from Photo du Jour appeared at the Smithsonian Institution’s Arts and Industries Building from October 1, 2002-December 29, 2002, and at the Houston Center for Photography April 30 – June 12, 2004."



Review of David Kennerly

No current galleries, however past galleries include:
USC
Modernbook Gallery

www.kennerly.com