Contributors

D. Austin started his love for photography during a family road trip that took him across country from California To New York and back. He was given a fully manual film camera by his father and was told to take pictures. Not knowing an f" stop from a camera lens, but fascinated by the idea of traveling from California to New York, D. Austin was taking compelling pictures by day 3 of the 21 day trip. That was over 16 years ago, since then D. Austin has created photographic images for magazine editorials, fine art exhibitions, and advertsing campaigns.

Austin is currently finishing up his first book, Titled " The Untimely Pursuits Of Pleasure", and travels internationally shooting fashion and stock photography.

For more information or to view his portfolio please visit: www.daustinphotography.com.

Mollie Bryan (Mokedophoto): Photography has been a part of my life since I was a child. The idea that someone can capture their own sense of beauty, style, life, and opinions in a photograph and spread those thoughts and ideas through art has always amazed and inspired me. A simple (or sometimes not so simple) click and a flash and there it is--a piece of my thoughts, my view, and my personality frozen in time for all to see. My photography has grown and evolved naturally, but the remaining constant is my love of the earth and the relationship between the earth's natural beauty and human beings. We co-exist with Mother Nature. Reminding the public of that, in whatever subtle form, has become the heart of my photography. That and keeping a sense of humor. What is life without laughter? http://mokedophoto.blogspot.com/
http://www.jpgmag.com/people/mokedophoto

Jesse Dittmar: When I photograph empty spaces I allow light and form dictate the moments I choose. I shoot spaces that have significant human remnants: signs that the space has been used. The photograph acts as a reminder that there is a story to be told here.

Thomas Dowler is a British émigré with strange ideas about politics, philosophy and religion. As such he spends a good deal of his time attending rallies and underground agitprop groups dressed in top hat and tails, smoking cigarillos and talking loudly about 'Her Majesty's colonies'.

Artist/writer/poet Ivan Jenson was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in a family of talented artists. A child prodigy, he earned international acclaim when, at age nine, he produced his first sculpture that was ultimately used as a model for a poster for the National Museum of Costa Rica. Ivan was drawn to the national epicenter of the art scene, NYC, at the age of fifteen, where he began successfully creating and selling his bold-colored, “Picassoesque” portraits on the streets of SOHO. This precocious artist earned immediate praise and recognition from art critics and was featured on several local network news broadcasts. Spotted sketching portraits on cocktail napkins by the late founder/Publisher Malcolm Forbes of Forbes Magazine one night, he was immediately invited to paint portraits of Forbes’ corporate guests aboard the famous “Highlander” yacht. They became such close friends that Ivan was commissioned to paint what was to be the last portrait of Malcolm Forbes, who would pass away soon thereafter. Absolut Vodka commissioned Ivan to paint an original “Absolut Jenson” for its national advertising campaign; and Philip Morris purchased Ivan’s “Marlboro Man” for its corporate headquarters. He has collaborated with Keith Haring and his works have recently sold at auction at Christie's New York. It is now Ivan’s intention to expand into other markets including film making, poetry and fiction writing both stateside and abroad.

Andy Jones: When not at a computer I spend my time fishing, surfing or just generally worshiping the ocean. My main philosophy with art and life alike is-- no person or experience should be overlooked as far as inspiration is concerned. Never stop looking for things to inspire you. The eye is just a sensor; the brain is the processor, so make art for the processor.

Ben Lokey began his photography career as a staff photographer with the Daily Utah Chronicle, while earning his Bachelor and Master of Find Arts degrees from the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City. He went on to become the company photographer for Ballet West, in Salt Lake City, The Pennsylvania Ballet, in Philadelphia, and The Los Angeles Jazz Company, in Los Angeles. Ben has worked independently shooting film and television shows, theatrical, commercial, modeling, portfolios and weddings in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City, Utah, and the Gulf Coast. Ben's photos have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Weekly, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Hollywood Drama-Logue, L.A. Herald Dispatch, The L.A. Register, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia Daily News, The Sun Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Deseret News, Philadelphia Sunday Bulletin and the Nevada State Journal.

Celebrities Ben has photographed include Bill Cosby, Wynonna, Phylis Diller, Ben Vereen, Hall & Oates, The Commodores, Don Williams, Tim Conway, Tony Orlando, Charlie Daniels, Duran Duran, The Village People, Alabama, Sinbad, Kenny Rogers, Danny Kaye, Martina McBride, The Everly Brothers, Toby Keith, Harvey Korman, Lee Ann Womack, Brad Paisley, Mark Chestnutt, Cheryl Ladd, Lee Greenwood, Ronnie Milsap, The Moody Blues and Olivia Newton John.

Last year Ben was nominated for the prestigious 2008 Baum Award for emerging American Photographers, and last July, closed an exhibit of his photography at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, with curator Dan Cameron.

Art Curator, Claire Tancons says this about Ben Lokey's photography: "Ben's new images range from abstract color field to expressionist landscape, romantic portraiture and other genres that have yet to be defined. When the original motifs, nudes, family snapshots and ballet dancers, surface, it is only as palimpsests, images in limbo that are the stuff of dreams and memory, and films. But Lokey's photographs do not only summon up images of Alfred Hitchcock's horror-struck blondes or scenes from David Lynch's Mullholland Drive. They also seem to summarize a host of historic European painterly genres from Klimt's Viennese Expressionism to Renoir's Impressionism and the Nabis's oniric brand of Symbolism." To see more of Ben's photography, go to: http://web.mac.com/lokeyproductions Or contact Mr. Lokey at: LokeyProductions@mac.com

Jennifer König is a photographer and writer based in Cold Spring, NY. After studying literature at Binghamton University, she lived in Munich, Germany for several years; the city's grace and grandeur sparked her interest in photography. As she pursued a career here in New York, developing web content for publishing houses and agencies, she never strayed far from photography, building up a body of work spanning thousands of images over several years. Finally, in the Spring of 2008, she decided to pursue photography full-time. Her work has been shown in local establishments, as well as the Garrison Arts Center.

Galya Kovalyova was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Having spent the first twelve years of her life in a port city inspired her curiosity for what is on the other side of the sea resulting in a fascination with travel. In her photo travels she is very much concerned with city fabrics like fog, twilight, glass windows and other disturbances that reveal the poetry of things. Her work has been published in Canadian Geographic among others and exhibited in shows. Galya currently lives and works in New York City.

Thad Lawrence is a graduate of Wingate University with a degree in Art and Education. He is a full time Photography/Art teacher for Durham Public Schools in North Carolina and a part time Wedding/Portrait Photographer.

Harmon Leon is a comedian/filmmaker/author. His books include The American Dream, Republican Like Me, The Infiltrator, The Brothers Rjukerooka, and National Lampoon's Road Trip USA. His other stories have appeared in Esquire, Salon, NPR's, This American Life, Details, Maxim, High Times, Hustler, Penthouse, Black Book, Cosmopolitan, and Wired.

Harmon has appeared on The Howard Stern Show, Penn &Teller's Bullshit, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, VH1, Court TV, Blind Date, as well as the BBC. Harmon also costarred with the infamous OJ Simpson on a hidden camera reality show called Juiced!

He's performed comedy around the world, including the Montreal, Edinburgh, Dublin, Galway, Vancouver, Adelaide and Melbourne Comedy Festivals.

Harmon is low in sodium and perfect for the elderly.

Darrell Lindsey's haiku and tanka have won awards in the United States, Japan, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Canada. Most recently, he won International Second Prize in the 2008 Mainichi Haiku Contest.

JW Miller pleads the fifth.

After working professionally in the commercial photography for the past 5 years, Yvonne Ng felt that the creative nature that propelled her to pursue her photography career was dying out fast. She needed an intake of oxygen to keep this dwindling flame burning, thus she went into the dusty 25kg Fedex box in the closet and looked through her art-driven work that started this whole journey. She found her first love; a series of images titled "Contradiction," which she decided to complete. Giving it the fresh air it deserved, she soon found herself slowly moving back into the fine art photography scene. Her work can be viewed at www.vonphotography.net.

Kailey Mills pleads the fifth.

Ryan O'Connor is a recovering misanthrope.

Jonathan Parks-Ramage enjoys Red Velvet Cake.

Scott Robertson This piece was created as a challenge from my professor to the class. The requirement was to create a piece of art using only letters, but in an abstract form. The letters had to become a form, for example, you could not simply use a series of capital H's stacked on top of each other and call it a ladder.

I knew right away I wanted to use a serif font because I feel they have much more character. I chose Times New Roman because it's a classic everyone can recognize. The concept for the bleeding X came to me without inspiration really, it was just the first interesting thing that popped into my head. Originally, it wasn't even flowing into another X, it was simply just flowing to the ground below. After some experimenting, i decided to add an additional X to kind of tesselate it. I feel this is a strong piece because it conveys a strong sense of motion and as with any great composition, the end result is greater than the sum of its parts.

David Henry Sterry is a best-selling author, award winning actor/comic, book doctor, and a man who has not worn matching socks in thirty years. He has been featured in (among others): The New York Times, The London Times, The Sunday Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Details Magazine, BBC Radio, and NPR's Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and Talk of the Nation. www.davidhenrysterry.com

He's worked as a chicken, a chicken fryer, a soda jerk, a cherry picker, a poet, a building inspector, a limo driver, a barker, and a marriage counselor. He graduated from Reed College, and loves his wife, his cat, his girl, and any sport involving a ball.