this is not an advertisement

i have my work on a billboard. atop a coffee bean & tea leaf. until 12/20.

the address is 7225 beverly blvd. facing west. that's just east of the grove, CBS television city, the museum of the holocaust, and puking distance from el coyote.

there are 30 something billboards in the exhibition, and they will all be occupied by some righteous art. ed motherfucking ruscha is in this show. check out the map on the site, and enjoy.  look at me.

i called on my friend and favorite subject, lucy griffin nemeth, to pose for this picture in her wedding dress.  that's everly in her belly, and her grandmother's brentwood house in her skirt.  five hours after our shoot, lucy gave birth.  

year of the scout

my friend, shawnte salabert, has taken on the wicked cool mission of earning old school girl scout badges throughout the year and posting her experiences and projects on a blog, year of the scout.

though shawnte is herself an incredibly talented photographer, she chose 4 photographers to feature in the acquisition of her photography badge.  i answered her questions as honestly as i could, which gave me the pleasure of revisiting who i am what the hell i'm doing with a camera.

what have we done 2012

semantic satiation.  it's that thing that happens when you repeat a word so much that it becomes meaningless sound.  it's how i feel about the evolution of my second annual collection of work, what have we done 2012.

after a year spent searching and coping and re-evaluating while not taking as many pictures as in the past, designing my magazine was a difficult task, made more trying by an incessant stream of technical problems, printer errors, crossed-wires, and mandatory re-designs.  i worked on this magazine so much that the images started to look like blotches of color and abstruse shapes, void of content.  the text sounded trite and tried.  i nearly sent the fucker to languish in the matrix of mac trash, but instead i published it.

despite the tribulations, i am proud to have created such a thing.  after all, the experience of making something doesn't always reflect the quality of the outcome.  and i am uber grateful for the people in my life who have cheered me on and made me feel like what i've done is important and meaningful.

What Have We Done 2012

what have we done

i've done it!  after much culling, designing, and editing, i have compiled my 2011 work into a magazine with writing contributions from some seriously talented artists.  you can preview the entire magazine at the link below.  digital and print versions are available for purchase.  i got mine in the mail today and am super impressed by the quality of the paper and printing.

What Have We Done

By Ashley West Leonard

108 pages

ink well

images and text from my series, the other woman, are featured in ink well magazine's volume on masks this week. 

they also published a bit of dialogue about my work, my childhood, and my obsession with joan of arc.

summer

earlier this year, i heard about the santa fe photographic workshops summer-themed contest featuring some phenomenal jurors and felt obliged to submit.  i knew i didn't already have images that inspired a terribly summer-y feeling, nor did i want to make images that stank of summer cliches.

i used the theme as a springboard for a series of atypical summer moments.  lives are lived every day of summer that have nothing to do with silly fat women with zinc noses at the beach, or washing oblivious dogs with a hose on the lawn.  i wanted to show the ordinary and the sad, beat on by the sun and the heat.

i'm pretty sure that the first set i shot, Summergirl, successfully slapped around that giddy bitch season until she looked like armpit razor burn in winter.

while i was very happy with the results, i felt i should go easy with my next subject, an adorable 5 year old wonderboy.  we shot Summerboy on the hottest damn day of the year, in the cockpit of hot - the inimitable san fernando valley.  we got a lot of lone hero, sad boy shots, as i had planned.  but in the end, i decided to include some of the more hopeful, carefree moments to provide some balance with Summergirl and assure my audience that i'm not a total masochist.

these sets are now part of an ongoing seasons series and i'm very grateful to santa fe for providing the inspiration.  even better is that the image above was awarded an honorable mention in their contest!

one giant arm

andy adams of flak photo shared a link on google+ for one giant arm and i immediately fell in love with their collection of stills, vids, interviews and general aesthetic.  let today be no exception, as i am featured with a few images from The Other Woman series!

it's not you, it's me

i've got an image from my slowly developing series, "Romantic Dinners and Walks on the Beach", in the Lenscratch Self-Portrait Exhibition.  as usual, aline has attracted some seriously significant talent from all over the world.  definitely worth checking out.

a few images from the series...

outta the way, eve

four images from my intersubjectives series have been selected for F-Stop Magazine's "All About Me" issue, published today.  the collection of work chosen by christy karpinsky is stunning and i am quite stoked to be included in such a wildly talented international pool of self-portraitists.

mobile exhibitionist

the monthly phone bill.

and good news!  one of my iphone shots has been selected for exhibition at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, opening tomorrow night!

thanks

happy thanksgiving, everybody!

one of my favorite photography blogs is aline smithson's Lenscratch.  in honor of the holiday, she is featuring submissions from her readers with Family as the theme.  there are so many great images from all over the world.  my contribution looks a bit cynical next to cuddling children, kittens, and family gatherings, but this can't really come as a surprise.  perhaps i should make a point of taking more uplifting, hopeful pictures in the new year...or not.

my thanksgiving apple pie progression

FIRE SALE!

It's been just over a year since the La Canada station fire ripped through 160,000 acres and 89 homes in southern California.  

The holidays are upon us and I'll bet you're wondering, "how can I commemorate the destruction of immensities of land AND provide my loved ones with the gift of affordable, original artwork?"  Speculate no more, I have the answer.  

My image, Reckless Burning, is featured on 52editions.com this week and will be available in their permanent collection after that.  

What's great about 52 Editions is that you can own a gallery quality, limited edition print without giving up food for a year.  Just think of the respect and/or action you'll get when people discover you collect art.  

Reckless Burning, Los Angeles (2009)

8.5"x11" Archival Pigment Print

Limited Edition of 275

$45 | unframed

$125 | framed

come together

let's hang out.  i have a rather large image in a show called Concatenation and it is opening tomorrow night, october 14th, at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.  it is part of the downtown art walk (aka crazyass mardi gras street madness festival of art and debauchery), which draws about 20,000 people!  there will be a wide variety of people crowding the streets and bars and galleries, music, food trucks, and more art than you have ever wished for ever.  ever.

Stardust, from the series The Other Woman, 2008

southland woman finds success with "Abduction"

i have returned from a most awesome trip to vermont and have buckets of images to get through before i can share them with you fine folk.

in the meantime, i am crazy excited to have had my piece, "Abduction: Rape of the Sabines" accepted in the Bauhaus Inspired Photography exhibit at the Chicago Photography Center, running oct. 6-29.  the image is an homage to laszlo moholy-nagy's "Rape of the Sabines", a modern portrayal of the kidnapping of the sabine women by roman men.

Abduction: Rape of the Sabines

Rape of the Sabines

'haus call

i found a call for entry for an exhibition with a bauhaus theme and felt an odd push to submit.  it's close to one of my favorite art movements, futurism, but the flat yellow triangles and dumb blue squares i associate with bauhaus art always makes my head hurt.   then i discovered lászló moholy-nagy, who composed seriously arresting geometrical stories on paper and film.  below are my contemporary attempts in honor of moholy-nagy's ingenuity and versatility.

self-searching: found

from the series, Intersubjectives

I am thrilled to announce that my work has been selected for SELF-SEARCHING: The Art of Self-Portraiture at the Vermont Photography Workplace's PhotoPlace Gallery.  The juror, Aline Smithson, is an incredible artist who has been a great inspiration for me.  What's more, the gallery is located a stone's throw from where my family lives in Vermont, so I hope to be able to attend the reception in September.

More images from the series: