Born and raised Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX, and now living and working in Bedford-Stuyvesant (DoOrDie-vesant), Brooklyn, NYC, ericjhenderson is a fine art photographer shooting exclusively with a 1950 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye found at 125th and Park in Harlem, NYC, 2003. ["It's the one I found: I use it for pictures, not nostalgia."] With no prior experience in photography he began shooting with it simply to see if it worked. In those first moments, he realized that it was the camera that found him. Since then Eric has exhibited, taught, and been commissioned in Brasil, France, Morocco and across the United States. He also works with numerous private collectors and commercial entities. (By now, you wll have discovered the first person writing in necessary bio third person.)
He is an ugly surfer (think What About Bob? "I'm sailing, Dr. Leo Marvin!), fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, perillós in Catalan, a published essayist, a marathoner (2:54 best), all-in-all just trying to make things DO!
He earned an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management (Glendale, AZ) - including one year at ESADE (Barcelona, SP) - putting that parchment in play at a few big companies and not-for-profit organizations before finding this path. (Mighty useful and somewhat underestimated experience for art.) Music is a love (from Raphael Saadiq, Maria Bethânia, Teri Moïse, to Todd Sickafoose...). Coffee is a must! Books are life. (Blas Jimenez, Umberto Eco, Richard Feynman...) You may also find him trading mighty tall tales with friends when the good fortune of a puro de habana o de otra buena localidad del mundo tabacalero presents itself.
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"The Unexpurgation" because here I would just like to talk [go to BlogThought]- to talk about what is behind and in front of the processes that I use to find images. Accept this uncut edition of words as an invitation to join me. I have learned so much about myself that I'd never know if others had not stopped me to say, "How did you do that?" or, more specifically, "Who's the walking guy?"
I imagine each of the tools we use has some infinite use not embedded in the sanctioned or expected range of tasks. I imagine further that even the practical boundaries of that use, well short of any theoretical infinity, still reside in a practical infinity when we consider the possibilities we overlook in the mundane or outdated things of this world.
So let's see what shapes we might become and create with this one instrument. Let's remove it from nostalgic concern and make it as current as the air we breathe. It's old because it's old and new because it's. In that sense of timeless utility, I explore with this Brownie Camera. I may run out of new things with it. (It's not the air I breathe, no matter how romantic that sounds.) But I bet we'll get some mileage before the story is done.
Be well.