Before the first frame

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while.

For years, the work has spoken for itself. Or at least, that’s what I told myself. But increasingly I find that the stories behind the photographs are as much a part of the work as the image itself: the early morning drives to a location that might not yield anything, the hour spent waiting for a particular quality of light, the decision to leave something ambiguous that could have been made explicit.

This journal is where those stories live.

I’ll write about the work: how specific photographs came together, what I was thinking about when I made them, and occasionally what I was thinking about when I almost didn’t. I’ll write about craft, the technical problems that interest me, the photographers and architects whose work I return to, the equipment I actually use. And I’ll write about the business of being a working photographer: the shows, the editions, the moments when something sells to someone who sees it exactly the way I intended.

No particular schedule. When something is worth saying, I’ll say it.

If you’ve bought a piece from Mario Tarantino, I hope this gives you more to hang alongside it. If you’re here because you’re curious about fine art photography, I hope it’s useful.

The work is still the point. But this is the rest of it.