May 23 Update
Richard gives a written and visual life update from May 23.
Hello friends,
[For everyone:] How are you doing? [For the San Diego locals:] Is the cold June weather freaking you out? [For your parents:] Can you believe half the year has passed by already? [For my woke friends:] Did you have a good Juneteenth? [For Brad:] Did Jeff ever give you the fifty bucks back that you lent him back in January?
I realize I’m VERY late to getting to my blog/newsletter/slideshow this month which is annoying and I do apologize because I’m really trying to establish good habits and consistency with these posts BUT at the same time I’m also I have to hide behind my first-time-foster-parent card again because we had some unexpected events and ended up having to write up lengthy incident reports while we’re supposed to be on vacation. I’ve learned in foster life things don’t always go as expected and I just have to play the ball as it lays. Things with fostering/Wolfy are looking pretty grim as Erin, Wolfy, and myself are continually reminded just how broken the system is. To put it plainly: it’s sickening how harmful the system is to the kids in it. A common thread we’ve found is a lot of people working in the system have shortages in the spine department and therefore kids are needlessly put in harm’s way. —aaaaanyway I have to change gears otherwise I’ll go on a diatribe/write myself into the fetal position so…
Photographically May (and I guess most of June too) has been a great time for me. I linked up with a musician’s jam based around the same crew I ran into at the skate park a few months back and I made it out to shoot with them a couple times now and I plan to shoot with them more throughout the summer. Such a talented group and so fun rockin’ with them. Also been continuing work on my captivity project though I didn’t have it reviewed yet as I’d hoped for but I think I might have time to make that happen pretty soon so I’m not sweating it too much. All that and I’ve been making my appearances at a lot of artist talks, I’ve gone on a couple photo walks with the SD Walkabouts crew met some new like minded friends, I also met up with some of my new friends from Medium Photo for an informal coffee and catch up event, and I just went to the MCASD (La Jolla) with my family this weekend for Father’s Day. Needless to say my art cup is quite full at the moment which is nice.
In addition to shooting a lot this month and filling my art cup I’ve also got a lot of shows on the horizon which is pretty exciting to look forward to. I’ll be doing a one day show with ArtWalk at Liberty Station on 7/7/23 (Friday) for their Summer Series and then in August I have my first Walk In Art event in Hillcrest on 8/3. The Walk In Art events take place the first Thursday of each month and I’ve committed to doing August, September, and October so far. Right after my first Walk in Art I have the ArtWalk @ Liberty Station which is on 8/5-8/6 BUT this year they’re adding a Preview pARTy which is a ticketed event on the Friday before 8/4 so it’s a little more exclusive but also very exciting. If you’re interested in attending I have a few comped tickets so DM me or shoot me an email.
Then right after that four-day run of working my booth (8/3 - 8/6) I’m off to Boston and NJ for two weeks with Erin and hopefully Wolfy. We’re even doing a quick 2 day stop in NY on the tail end which is really exciting as I’ve never been and you know, street photography Mecca and what not.
For the record: The pictures/slideshow are only from May so even though this blog covers may and most of June. For June photos you’ll just have to wait until next month’s slideshow in a couple weeks.
Alright, that is it. I love you all. Thanks to everyone who supports me. If you are interested in buying prints or postcards you can do it here, and if you want to send me some love you can do it in the comments or at richard@ricpics.me.
Be well,
Richard :)
Stuart Todd Whitworth: The Music Project Strikes Back
My extremely talented singer-songwriter friend, Stuart Todd Whitworth and I collaborate on a multimedia project.
I’d written before about my chance encounter with the incomparable Stuart Todd Whitworth briefly as an aside in another story regarding my music photography/project but as a refresher for us all I'll go into more detail (in case anyone is interested).
I’d first run across Stuart while I was filming some person-on-the-street interviews for a yet to be released video project. I had been bouncing all around San Diego County over the summer and fall during 2020 looking for places with people around and on this day I happened to post up in La Jolla. I had gotten some decent b-roll, a handful of participants recorded, and had been about at the end of my day. It was about the end of the day’s day as well as the sun had already set by this time, but something about Stuart’s… I dunno… aura (?) when he approached me made it feel like I NEEDED to shoot this one last interview.
Stuart gave a great interview and afterwards we started talking and he told me he was a musician and blah blah blah. I remember being pretty cooked by this time and therefore I didn’t think too much about Stuart or the fact that he was a musician. We traded information as Stuart had mentioned that he was always looking for someone to help with photo/video stuff but at the time, music work was not really something that I thought about pursuing in any degree.
Fast forward 6 months and I’d been inspired by a local jazz band that had been rehearsing near my girlfriend’s old place. I decided that there’s tons of great local musicians and I’d like to try and collaborate with them, if they’ll have me. So I’m at the Subaru dealership waiting for my car to be serviced when I get a random call from Stuart asking if I’d be interested in filming a show for him the upcoming weekend. I had plans already so it didn’t work out but I mentioned to him that I would be interested in collaborating on a photoshoot or some other project if Stuart would be interested.
He was.
Over the course of a couple months we’d catch up on the phone and meet up in person to brainstorm. Stuart told me all about his impending album release and his unorthodox process of completing the album, we listened to some of his music, and we tossed some pasta at the wall. Eventually we had a project idea that stuck and we both felt it would fit our style and artist voices. We decided on a photoshoot and interview to be smashed into a self-narrated slideshow and that is exactly what we came out with and I’m beyond excited to be able to say that it is available for everyone to watch RIGHT NOW!
I’m very proud of how this video came out so thank you for watching. If you enjoyed the video, you should definitely check out more of Stuart’s music. You can find all of his music videos on his website, or you can follow him on social to keep up with him. You can find all of his socials here. And lastly, but certainly not leastly, if you really want to support my man, Stuart, you can show love by buying his album which not only comes with a disc and download code, but also a really cool book with amazing artwork renditions of the cover art from multiple artists across multiple mediums. Like the man and the music behind it all, the album presentation is unique and beautiful.
Support the artists you love so they can keep making the art you love.
