Thursday, September 4, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Back in California...
Hi everyone-
Jason and I have been super busy in our lives. Jayson has been traveling all over, which you will hear about soon, and unable to spend time on the internet to update all of you. As for myself, I have recently moved and my photography business has boosted. However our busy lives are right now, Jayson is returning to California on the 28th. After he settles here, we will be able to spend time together reviewing the interviews that have taken place.
What to look forward to:
-Interviews with current military, their spouses and family, war veterans, and Iraqi citizens and military.
-A new series of environmental portraits of surviving military. Jayson will be learning how to use commercial photography lighting.
I know that we don't update this site all the time, but our lives are real and human and survival takes time. But this project is in both our hearts.
Your patients and genuine interest is always appreciated:)
Feel free to comment and ask any questions, via this site, at anytime. We will answer them when time permits.
Jason and I have been super busy in our lives. Jayson has been traveling all over, which you will hear about soon, and unable to spend time on the internet to update all of you. As for myself, I have recently moved and my photography business has boosted. However our busy lives are right now, Jayson is returning to California on the 28th. After he settles here, we will be able to spend time together reviewing the interviews that have taken place.
What to look forward to:
-Interviews with current military, their spouses and family, war veterans, and Iraqi citizens and military.
-A new series of environmental portraits of surviving military. Jayson will be learning how to use commercial photography lighting.
I know that we don't update this site all the time, but our lives are real and human and survival takes time. But this project is in both our hearts.
Your patients and genuine interest is always appreciated:)
Feel free to comment and ask any questions, via this site, at anytime. We will answer them when time permits.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Photography Competition Update
First we would like to thank everyone who contributed to the entry of Jayson's images into the Del Mar Photography Competition. The results are back and unfortunately none of them were accepted into the art show. This is an international show and there were over 400 entries, all of which were amazing. I did get some information after much probing at the woman in the office, and I did find out that he was one point away! This is great news!
Jason is an amazing photographer, but does have room to grow, and as for myself, I have been in this situation before and all it is, is a sign that he is almost there. In addition to signs, Jason and I found a grant that we would like to go for next year. One of their requirements, is that we can not have exhibited or published the work before. With this said, we are very lucky! I have spoken to one of the people in charge and they are very excited about this project and have encouraged us to submit.
So we will have plenty to look forward to and plenty of time for the story to be worked on and time for Jayson to learn more about photography!
Thanks again to everyone!
Jason is an amazing photographer, but does have room to grow, and as for myself, I have been in this situation before and all it is, is a sign that he is almost there. In addition to signs, Jason and I found a grant that we would like to go for next year. One of their requirements, is that we can not have exhibited or published the work before. With this said, we are very lucky! I have spoken to one of the people in charge and they are very excited about this project and have encouraged us to submit.
So we will have plenty to look forward to and plenty of time for the story to be worked on and time for Jayson to learn more about photography!
Thanks again to everyone!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Latest Update...
Hey everyone-
I wanted to check in with all of you and let you know that things have been very busy and that is why you have not seen anything from either, myself or Jayson. As said in the last post, Jayson is home in NC. He is finishing up his duties with the Navy and then is off to have some well deserved personal time. He continues to work on the project while he is back in the states though. He has been interviewing several wives of Marines. The stories they share, with their truth of their men and the real life that they have to adjust to, is very intense.
As you can imagine, there is a great deal of stress and anxiety that they will experience in their readjustment to life here. And the wives, having not been through or seen what their husbands have, have to adjust from a blind perspective, but out of love, they push through with tears! Can't wait to give you more details later.
Some of you know this already, but my sister is in Iraq now. She is on the Lincoln for the Navy. Her daughter is here with our parents and her fiance patiently waits to hear from her every day. So it is not only the wives, it affects all of our loved ones!
Here is an amazing image that she sent me:)
ps...if you are reading this site frequently or even if this is your first time, please comment every chance you get. This will optimize our blog and make it more accessible for people who may be looking to relate to something like what we are offering!
I wanted to check in with all of you and let you know that things have been very busy and that is why you have not seen anything from either, myself or Jayson. As said in the last post, Jayson is home in NC. He is finishing up his duties with the Navy and then is off to have some well deserved personal time. He continues to work on the project while he is back in the states though. He has been interviewing several wives of Marines. The stories they share, with their truth of their men and the real life that they have to adjust to, is very intense.
As you can imagine, there is a great deal of stress and anxiety that they will experience in their readjustment to life here. And the wives, having not been through or seen what their husbands have, have to adjust from a blind perspective, but out of love, they push through with tears! Can't wait to give you more details later.
Some of you know this already, but my sister is in Iraq now. She is on the Lincoln for the Navy. Her daughter is here with our parents and her fiance patiently waits to hear from her every day. So it is not only the wives, it affects all of our loved ones!
Here is an amazing image that she sent me:)
ps...if you are reading this site frequently or even if this is your first time, please comment every chance you get. This will optimize our blog and make it more accessible for people who may be looking to relate to something like what we are offering!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Need Help with Funds to print...
Hi everyone-
We have started to print posters to spread the word about the blog and project. They are not too expensive, but I cannot pay for them out of my pocket at the moment:( Any help to spread the word, would be appreciated!
Contact me via website:
www.jleeimagery.com
Thanks to everyone who is helping in whatever way they can!
We have started to print posters to spread the word about the blog and project. They are not too expensive, but I cannot pay for them out of my pocket at the moment:( Any help to spread the word, would be appreciated!
Contact me via website:
www.jleeimagery.com
Thanks to everyone who is helping in whatever way they can!
Monday, May 12, 2008
So much going on!
Hi everyone-
I have been way too busy for my own health. I apologize for not updating all of you on the events with Jayson and his project. He should have left Iraq on Saturday, the 10th of May. I have not spoken to him yet, but we agreed to speak tomorrow, which I am really looking forward to. I can't wait to get a decision from the judges on the art board! I will keep all of you posted and I can't wait to see Jayson and start on this amazing book!
Contributions to the development of this book are appreciated....please contact me with any inquires in regards to how to help...
I have been way too busy for my own health. I apologize for not updating all of you on the events with Jayson and his project. He should have left Iraq on Saturday, the 10th of May. I have not spoken to him yet, but we agreed to speak tomorrow, which I am really looking forward to. I can't wait to get a decision from the judges on the art board! I will keep all of you posted and I can't wait to see Jayson and start on this amazing book!
Contributions to the development of this book are appreciated....please contact me with any inquires in regards to how to help...
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Art Show Update...
Final selections for the upcoming art show that everyone has been helping us with, will be on June 14th! Everything will be dropped off for viewing next week! The anticipation is so uplifting!
Count Down!
Hi everyone-
We have only 4 days until Jayson can return home. You can only imagine how relieved and excited he is! He will be able to spend time adjusting and unwinding from the Navy. His enlistment will be up shortly after his return and as of now, there are no plans to re-enlist. Keep posted, he will be able to communicate more when he returns!
We have only 4 days until Jayson can return home. You can only imagine how relieved and excited he is! He will be able to spend time adjusting and unwinding from the Navy. His enlistment will be up shortly after his return and as of now, there are no plans to re-enlist. Keep posted, he will be able to communicate more when he returns!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
TEN DAYS!
We only have 10 days until Jay will be home! I can tell you that he is so relieved to be coming home and living a new life with his new found love for life and creativity! Upon his returning and situating himself, he will be finishing his time in the Navy and then promptly moving to San Diego for the summer. During his stay here, we will be spending time developing the long awaited book with beautiful imagery, captivating interviews, personal stories, and the evolution of the human soul.
It's count down time:)
It's count down time:)
Monday, April 28, 2008
For Military Wives and Girl Friends
I wanted to offer something special to the women who are supporting their men from afar.
I started taking these images of military wives and girl friends for friends of mine and the response was huge!
"He told me that he felt like I had given him a piece of my soul and then he cried"
What an amazing thing to hear and feel while you are distanced by war. I would like to offer my services at a discounted price for military wives and girlfriends.
Please Contact me if you are interested or know some one who is:
Jessica Lee
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
When you live your life like this it hits you that you're really not living a life at all
My last day in the city wasn't particularly different from all the other days I had spent out there. Everything becomes so repetitive, bland, and so indistinguishable from the previous day. Time and any sense of progression loses its effect on you entirely. You don't feel like your moving forward in life towards any particular moment, certain date or anything really at all. Everything becomes so patterned from one day to the next. At times you get reminders, of how much time has passed. it comes in the form of the simple and mundane things that occur, in fleeting moments, such as thinking about the last time you took a shower, looking through a case of movies and seeing ones that you have already watched previously or it being hamburger-hot-dog night again with no buns or bread to eat it with.
And then the day finally comes and you find yourself leaving and moving on to something else, but you find its nothing new, its all the same. The only thing that really changed is the way in which you do it. Now I am taking a shower everyday and eating three meals but these days end up all become part of the previous pattern. I am eating with the same people and waking up next to the same people. Even when I am on the internet or phone I have the same people sitting next to me. None of it is any different then before. The sights, sounds and smells all remain the same. Its just now I am doing it in a different bed, on a different schedule, and at a different base.
I think of having been out here for six months and it shocks me, if people stopped counting the days, I would surely lose all track of them out here.
When you live your life like this it hits you that you're really not living a life at all. Where am I going....What am I doing...I ask myself this constantly....
On the last evening I was loaded into a truck with 15 other guys from the company. We had just been out that day at a checkpoint for five hours and immediately following our return, we went right back out again. It was quiet on the ride back. For the most part, you could see, the Marines sitting next to me felt relieved. They were getting all their contempt out for the Iraq people by throwing their arms out the truck and flipping people off, yelling "fuck you" indiscriminately to the people we passed by on the street below. I turned around and saw other Marines waving to little kids out the other side, some were taking pictures. I over heard one Marine talking to another about how sorry he felt for him because he didn't get any combat experience during his deployment. He wished him luck in finding it in his next one. I hope he finds what he's searching for.
And then the day finally comes and you find yourself leaving and moving on to something else, but you find its nothing new, its all the same. The only thing that really changed is the way in which you do it. Now I am taking a shower everyday and eating three meals but these days end up all become part of the previous pattern. I am eating with the same people and waking up next to the same people. Even when I am on the internet or phone I have the same people sitting next to me. None of it is any different then before. The sights, sounds and smells all remain the same. Its just now I am doing it in a different bed, on a different schedule, and at a different base.
I think of having been out here for six months and it shocks me, if people stopped counting the days, I would surely lose all track of them out here.
When you live your life like this it hits you that you're really not living a life at all. Where am I going....What am I doing...I ask myself this constantly....
On the last evening I was loaded into a truck with 15 other guys from the company. We had just been out that day at a checkpoint for five hours and immediately following our return, we went right back out again. It was quiet on the ride back. For the most part, you could see, the Marines sitting next to me felt relieved. They were getting all their contempt out for the Iraq people by throwing their arms out the truck and flipping people off, yelling "fuck you" indiscriminately to the people we passed by on the street below. I turned around and saw other Marines waving to little kids out the other side, some were taking pictures. I over heard one Marine talking to another about how sorry he felt for him because he didn't get any combat experience during his deployment. He wished him luck in finding it in his next one. I hope he finds what he's searching for.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Help for the art show...
If this is your first time visiting this blog and you are interested in helping, we need help with money to pay for printing and framing for an upcoming art show that Jayson's images will be entered into. If there is left over money, this money will be saved for producing the final product, the book. For more info of where to send money, please contact:
Jessica Lee
I will be happy to answer any questions you may have:)
Jessica Lee
I will be happy to answer any questions you may have:)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Leaving Iraq!
There is a date set, that Jayson will be coming back home. For now, the date is the 10th of May. He will be returning home to, North Carolina, and then coming to San Diego, where he will spend time with family and friends. He will then be enrolling in school in Los Angeles,to seek out his dreams! It's been long awaited Jay!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
My thoughts about photography
Photography means a great deal to me in terms of what I am able to share and reveal to others, but its more than just this alone. If it was only this then you could presumably say that the whole process of taking pictures and putting them on this blog is just a means to an end in that I am here just to show you what is happening in Ramadi. But for me photography is something far greater than just a tool or method to capture our existence like whats going on in Iraq. It has become something that continually changes and alters me personally as a human being and not only in terms of the way I think and feel about life but also in the way I experience it. When I am out there on the streets patrolling looking threw my camera eye-ing a shot to take, something begins to change inside of me. A sense of calm and peace slow invades my mind, I become relaxed and still. I notice and focus in on the subtle movements and expressions of the marines, people and children around me. My senses increase to an ever higher state of perception. I pick up on sounds that I never would of heard, movements that I would never have otherwise seen. I enter into a place where the minute and finite distinctions of color, shape, light, texture, movement and emotion can be observed and experienced in their true essence. I get lost in this place where time slows down and the senses become overwhelmed, here I simultaneously lose my self and find myself connected to all things. Here I find my true state of being. Every-time I go out and use my camera I am volunteering myself to experience and feel to all that is around me, here I find my own true essence for life.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A Quote for a Lifetime...
Please, may we all remember this, knowing that the best thing we can give this world, is the happiest self we can be, yet be compassionate to the process of this happiness, in remembering,
"How am I not myself?"
"How am I not myself?"
Friday, April 4, 2008
New Sponsprs!
We have two new sponsors!
John Luciano
Luciano Developments
and
Michael Rilling
Europe Representative
Michael Rilling
Thanks for the support guys!
John Luciano
Luciano Developments
and
Michael Rilling
Europe Representative
Michael Rilling
Thanks for the support guys!
Help Sponsor Jayson's Work
Hi everyone-
There has been an amazing response to helping sponsor Jayson's work for the upcoming local art show. We have raised money for 12+ images already. I think it is best to not overwhelm the judges for this competition, so we will now be saving all other donations to help pay for printing and framing costs. If there is any additional money, from the donations, after printing and framing, the money will be used for the book that we are planning to produce. The donations can be in any amount that you wish to contribute.
Thanks for keeping updated with us and please, if you are interested in helping out, email us:
Jessica Lee
Thanks for your support and you are loved dearly for it:)
There has been an amazing response to helping sponsor Jayson's work for the upcoming local art show. We have raised money for 12+ images already. I think it is best to not overwhelm the judges for this competition, so we will now be saving all other donations to help pay for printing and framing costs. If there is any additional money, from the donations, after printing and framing, the money will be used for the book that we are planning to produce. The donations can be in any amount that you wish to contribute.
Thanks for keeping updated with us and please, if you are interested in helping out, email us:
Jessica Lee
Thanks for your support and you are loved dearly for it:)
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
New Sponsor!
I have received two new inquiries for sponsors today!
Sponsor Info:
Lisa Gisczinski
Lisa Gisczinski Photography
Thanks so much for your help and spread the word!
Thanks for the support guys!
Sponsor Info:
Lisa Gisczinski
Lisa Gisczinski Photography
Thanks so much for your help and spread the word!
Thanks for the support guys!
Art Show Deadlines...
Hi everyone-
If you would like to sponsor, the deadline to is April 18th.
The show will be held on the 13th of June.
If you would like to contribute after this date, the money will be used for printing, framing, and other project fees.
Contact:
Jessica Lee
If you would like to sponsor, the deadline to is April 18th.
The show will be held on the 13th of June.
If you would like to contribute after this date, the money will be used for printing, framing, and other project fees.
Contact:
Jessica Lee
San Diego Art Show-Del Mar Fairgrounds
Jayson has created a large catalog of images during his deployment since November of 2007.
There have been many emails sent out by myself, Jessica Lee, and many who forwarded it to their email list as well. The email was to inform people of an upcoming art show that Jayson's work is to be entered into. Supporters/Sponsors, donated $16 per image of their choice and were given an option to name the images.
Images Sponsored to date:
Thank you very much to the sponsors up to date:
Jessica Case (Owner/Representative)
Colure Hair Care
Colure Hair Care
Laurie Wolf
Charles Jones
Nicol Akins (Owner/Designer)
Dirty Red Athletic Gear for Women
Dirty Red Gear
Danielle Gano (PR Consulting)
Elle Communications
Elle Communications
Morgan Lund (Designer)
Metric Home
Metric Home
There are many more that are offering their help and will be posted soon!
There have been many emails sent out by myself, Jessica Lee, and many who forwarded it to their email list as well. The email was to inform people of an upcoming art show that Jayson's work is to be entered into. Supporters/Sponsors, donated $16 per image of their choice and were given an option to name the images.
Images Sponsored to date:
Thank you very much to the sponsors up to date:
Jessica Case (Owner/Representative)
Colure Hair Care
Colure Hair Care
Laurie Wolf
Charles Jones
Nicol Akins (Owner/Designer)
Dirty Red Athletic Gear for Women
Dirty Red Gear
Danielle Gano (PR Consulting)
Elle Communications
Elle Communications
Morgan Lund (Designer)
Metric Home
Metric Home
There are many more that are offering their help and will be posted soon!
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