I took a portrait class about a year ago and the teacher said a lot of my work resembled that of William Eggleston’s — a photographer known for his mastery of taking pictures of the ordinary. At the time, I was not as impressed with the importance of Eggleston’s work and had troubles identifying my work with his. I have since been more receptive and eager to learn about other noted photographers and today felt ready to revisit Eggleston’s work on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Eggleston says, “I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around: that nothing was more important or less important.” Every detail, no matter how insignificant takes on meaning. It’s taken me a while to get to this point but I’m glad I see the resemblance, but at the same time, the differences are even more pronounced — a sign that my work says Wendy, not William.

This picture is overexposed. There is a guy in the reflection looking like he could be holding the white purse, but he’s probably watching me take the photo. There is an apartment building with windows that kind of remind me of the previous waffle pic I posted. There is this kind of rectangular thingy that is on the boobs of the mannequin with the purple dress. I like that the only color in the photo is on the dresses. The mannequin on the left looks like she might be pushing the bicycle. What is in the window is very different than what’s outside. These were some of the thoughts that ran through my head as I was looking for something interesting and different to post. I’ve described the photo, but I haven’t described the photographer — or the reasons why I took the photo. Tonight I attended a ‘conversation’ between two famous contemporary photographers, Catherine Opie (who currently has a show at the Guggenheim) and Gregory Crewdson, who were both able to speak intelligently about their work on a far deeper level. I’m learning that in order to get noticed in today’s world of photography you have to be able to describe your work in a way that is different than everyone else. It is a very difficult thing to do, in part, because you’re basically turning yourself inside out. Perhaps I picked this photo today because I’m not into borders right now and there’s mystery and girlishness beyond the glass.

We had a light dusting of snow last night.

More precisely, above the mantle at a Cracker Barrel somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania.

Still on my architectural kick, I had to snap this shot of the Empire State Building from the ice skating rink at Bryant Park (before I got in trouble and had to put my camera away).