The "Photography" gallery represents what I think is some of my better efforts to actually engage in photography or photographic design as conscious art. (Or, if not always "best," at least some favourites – even if shot with poor equipment or film, much less skill.)

A good deal of my published photography is either in this album or in the "Portraiture" one, although maybe that would be worth making another album of its own....

Portraits of people are a distinct work in trying to do photography. There seems to me to be a different conscious effort in trying to express something more broadly about a person than in capturing the more specific occasion of an event.

Around the time I got to Marquette, I conceived of the idea of doing a self-portrait each year for the rest of my life. (Although normally I think in terms of school years, with August 16th being my mental "New Year," this project is working according to the standard calendar year.) I had taken the occasional such shot for one reason or another when I started getting a little more conscious of "doing" photography as a hobby at Notre Dame. Even if I had someone else snap the shutter, I considered it a self-portrait if it was a shot I had conceived and set up. And occasionally, especially for earlier years, there are some portraits here that others shot of me, sometimes with a friend, but which I considered the best shot of that given year (although some years have few photographs to choose from), enough to count as the "official" shot for this little project, as I conceived it. Over the years, I figure it will be interesting to watch the changes....

A small group of family photos I had in my possession and scanned into digital form.

A few assorted loose shots from high school I'd scanned, trying to preserve my photos, along with a few senior yearbook pages and pics of things I was involved in.

A few meager shots from my freshman year. In these years it just never occurred to me to take photographs....

Working at the Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center for the summer, teaching outdoor living and environmental studies in a biblical context, or as the mission statement nicely put it, providing experiences "connecting the word of God to the world of God."

A few scraps from my sophomore year at Northern Illinois University.

Arguably the best summer of my life.

School becomes increasingly spectacular as Dave Nutting and I start living together and having the time of our lives. We adopt Chris Urosevich at the inspired suggestion of Dick Noreen. Much drama is provided by dating Angie and Jenny.

A summer with much off-site activity as Trip Leader, which was both interesting in itself, but which also meant that I missed out on a lot of the pure experience of LOMC this summer. I did get two spelunking trips, though, including discovering a new cave, and I had something like two or three weeks with a great group of high school students when I was Trip Leader for the fantabulous Theatre Arts 1990 Tour.

Again, only a few random shots survive, with the fall semester being our last on C-2 Douglas Hall, then Dave and I breaking our leases to house-sit the Buennagel's place with Chris for the spring semester. I spend the summer in Madison at the University with the Navs.

As I planned from my freshman year, I took a fifth year to complete my B.A., taking advantage of a full-ride state scholarship so that I could take 12 credit-hour semesters that left me plenty of time for outside reading and study. This last year was another year-long high point as Dave, Chris and I bring in Nathaniel Easley, Joe Penn and Tony Holtz to rent 105 Oak Street. There is much hosting and good times. I spend the year running around with Julianna and meet Rod through her, soaking in a lot of time in their studios.

Falling in with an incredible new circle of friends and scholars: Bob, Kate, Greg and Tom. I fall head over heels in love with Notre Dame. A visit to DeKalb to see Jim and Susan Rink keeps a few old ties open for a little longer.

Again, only a few shots remain to remind me of a fabulous year, mostly from one or two days, spending time with Greg and Kate. A journey to Las Vegas to visit newlyweds David and Priscilla gets worked into the schedule.

These are some old shots of the Freeks I found in my photo stash, which I think Mark dumped off on me. Most are actually from before I started hanging around with the guys. I met Mark and Doug in January of '95, when Emily introduced me to them at Acoustic Café. Mark and I started becoming friends and I started attending more of their shows. I didn't have my first substantial conversation with Erik until April, around the time of the "Join Us On the Ride" recording sessions, which a few of these shots are from. Then there's a few shots from early in the 1995-96 school year, after Japes, Mark and Doug move into their apartment on Irish Way.

My first trip with the Folk Choir: a Chicago mini-tour from Friday 13 through Sunday 15 October, 1995. I'm not actually sure where I got these photographs. I know Erik took the first, but I think they might be a mix of his and J.P.'s.

In terms of this photo album, this is perhaps the most important week of my life.

On this trip down to the Abbey of Gethsemani with Erik, after the Fall Break mini-tour of Chicago with the Notre Dame Folk Choir, not only do I meet Frs. Chrysogonus Waddell and Patrick Hart for the first time, but Erik coaches me to start really *seeing* through a camera. From this moment on, photography becomes an increasing hobby, and my life, so sparsely documented in images until now, becomes open to me visually in a wonderful way. Still, other than the obvious ones, the bulk of these photos are probably by Erik.

A few assorted photographs from later in the Fall Semester at Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame Folk Choir's Winter Tour through Columbus OH, Naples FL, Venice FL, Tampa FL, Savannah GA, and Greensboro NC, among others. January 1996. I believe most of these photos are from J.P., although I know part of the middle set comes from one of my hosts on the trip.

Images from early in the semester: hanging with Japes; Grandma Novak's funeral on Feb. 19th, after her death on the 16th, on the morning of which I wrote the first lyrics for what became the Notre Dame Folk Choir's "Behold! I Make All Things New."

The Folk Choir SYR, which was supposed to be "Roaring Twenties" themed and morphed into anything from '20s to '50s. Friday 23 February 1996.

Assorted images from later in the semester: a few pics from a party; a few shots from a spring trip back to the Abbey of Gethsemani. Time with the Liturgy of the Hours, with Fr. Chrysogonus and Br. Thaddeus.

The Freeks graduate and immediately after Notre Dame's graduation ceremonies, the Folk Choir sets up across the road at Saint Mary's College for the recording sessions for "Prophets of Joy." Meanwhile, after my extra year of Ph.D. prep, I decide to take a break from the academy, realizing after months of trying to figure it out that I was simply burnt out after my B.A. and M.A. back-to-back, plus the extra academic work I had done. I thereupon manage screw up my paperwork so that I cannot graduate until the *following* year.

25 May-1 June 1996. After finishing recording the Notre Dame Folk Choir's "Prophets of Joy" CD immediately after Notre Dame's graduation ceremony, Erik and I returned to the Abbey of Gethsemani, where we had been invited down for Pentecost by Chrysogonus. There we engaged in studying Merton in the monks' private library, visiting Chrysogonus, driving into a band of tornadoes for a sugar fix on the 28th, and then heading off to Cincinnati to visit Erik's grandmother and her new husband.

http://novak.livejournal.com/429262.html

Various scenes from the later summer at Notre Dame: Bob finishing at Holy Cross House and Notre Dame, the Folk Choir's Milwaukee trip, time with the Freeks, still seeing Julie some, long-distance in Chicago; Working at Holy Cross House; Working at ACE/OSD; Moving from Holy Cross House to Clifford the Big Red House

A new "George and the Freeks." The house-opening party at Clifford. Much socializing with Folkheads and Freeks. Hosting at Clifford the Big Red House.

The series of ads for upcoming George and the Freeks gigs that I designed, and that I just found in the depths of my computer. Mark and I had a blast that semester just in the evenings we spent walking all over Notre Dame's campus together while posting the things.

The artist hired by the band to draw this picture of George, commissioned for the CD art, listened to the music and assumed that any band doing the jam-band thing in any way must be a drug-band, and so there was George. No one was particularly happy about this, as I recall, but neither was there a budget for new art....

The Folk Choir gig in Kettering, Ohio, and fun times at the Portunes'. Starting to date Jen. Peak Week at Notre Dame. Life in Clifford.

Here are pictures and text that I took from my roommate Mike L's account of when he had the nationally-touring shows for Ida and Babe The Blue Ox play South Bend in our basement. I had nothing to do with any of this, not being nearly so aware of this part of the indie music scene, though I was vaguely aware of Babe The Blue Ox. I walked into the middle of this utterly unaware of what had been arranged while I was out. I lifted this account from the South Bend Power 90s website [http://southbendpower90s.blogspot.com/2009/08/ida-babe-blue-ox-clifford-big-red-house.html]

For the first time ever, I was missing Thanksgiving with my family as I had to work Thanksgiving night. But the Warners opened up their home for Folkheads who couldn't make it home or to family, and so Jeff Nichols, Jen and I joined them.

The Christmas Party at Clifford the Big Red House with many Folkheads in attendance, with me sick, hanging upstairs with Jen; Visiting Jen and Andrea over at their dorm; Jeanine and Mark hanging out later on; Joe and I with Dad, Grandpa and Uncle Joe; Madison on Christmas Eve at Ann and Scott's; Kate in town at Clifford after New Year's.

Hosted by the Portunes, I believe that this gig marked the beginning of regional touring for George and the Freeks. It was an awfully cold weekend to begin doing such things, with the windchill hitting a -27ºF, thus giving the band an unexpected crash course in the effects of extreme cold on electronic equipment.

A full account of this gig can be found at: http://novak.livejournal.com/255407.html

Doug McE puts together the latest issue of "A Boy and His"; Doug McK and Chris party with Freek groupies; Jenny writes Jen; Dressing Mike L for the first Eighties party ever; Winter from Holy Cross House; Dr. Schorn

This gig had a tragic side to it, in that it was to be the biggest-paying gig for the band in its new phase, in a place in downtown Pittsburgh featuring regionally-touring bands and paying the Freeks a sweet two grand for the night's work. And then the place burnt down a few days before the gig. Hasty replacement calls were made, but now the gig was for virtually nothing and mostly being carried out so that Mark could get a chance to play before a hometown audience.

Easter 1997 was a big to-do, with the Folk Choir Mass, an Easter evening and Easter Tuesday jams at Clifford the Big Red House, a gathering at Holy Cross House Easter Monday night, and more.

Spring Break found me conducting "The Francis Sessions" in a do-it-ourselves studio we made in my bedroom at Clifford The Big Red House, adapting and recording the music from "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" with Mark Lang, J.P. Hurt, and Jeanine Wynton. We also recording some of my music, some of Mark's, and a tune of Erik's.

April and May were busy. After the Francis Sessions, the Folk Choir sang a Mass and performed a concert in Rockford on Saturday 19 April 1997, with Mom, Dad and my Aunt Val attending. Time was spent with friends, including a surprise afternoon with Chrysogonus Waddell on campus.

Pre-graduation parties and then the Event itself! Since this was my second degree and my brother was graduating from the University of Illinois with his first one, my family skipped out on any portion of the Notre Dame graduation. I attended the Baccalaureate service at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Saturday with Jen and J.P. and then I stole my Master's robes and headed down Sunday to Joe's graduation with Jen. Rushing back that evening to leave on the Ireland tour the next day, we got caught in a cell of tornadoes and we spent part of the night huddled in the car on the side of the interstate, waiting for the end of the world.

The 1997 Folk Choir Tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This first leg features Notre Dame, O'Hare Airport, Shannon Airport, Tulla, and adventures in the Burren.

This leg takes us from Tulla to Clonmacnoise, to lunch in Athlone, then on to Monaghan and our arrival in Armagh.

Armagh to a beautiful field somewhere in Northern Ireland, to Derry, Greencastle, to University College Dublin, and Dublin City.

Dublin, the Maynooth Concert, to Saint Kevin's fair valley of Glendalough, to Wexford, up for a day at Enniscorthy, and more Wexford.

Wexford, Waterford (at Waterford Crystal), Cahil, to Ennis for our broadcast concert, back to Tulla. The Cliffs of Moher, afternoon Church Music Workshop with the Poor Clares, to Ballindooley Castle in Galway for a closing bash, and then to Shannon Airport.

After the Folk Choir tour was over, I hopped over to England to visit Peter Booth, a medieval historian friend of mine from LOMC days back during my undergraduate. Along with much talk, we hit a number of sites together, sometimes with his wife Lia (or was she still girlfriend then?), including their accomodating me for pilgrimages to the ruins of both Coventry Cathedral and Tintern Abbey, where at both places I shot photostudies. (I had to break into the Tintern Abbey grounds, which were closed.)

Here I isolate my photostudy of Tintern Abbey in Wales from the previous gallery. I had actually discovered the existence of the Abbey from an early page on the internet, from there to the Wordsworth poem on the ruins, and then, thanks to the outrageous kindness of Peter's willing to take me that far, conducted this exploration of my own.

The next few weeks had me settling into my new apartment at the Mar-Main Arms on the north end of downtown South Bend, just an easy mile or so from my new job at Saint Joseph's High School and from Notre Dame.

On July 4-6, 1997, the musical and spiritual center of the universe was the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky. A weekend trip became the first occasion for a "Chrysogonus Fest"--a time of talk, music, reflection, wonder and just plain silliness in Fr. Chrysogonus' small house in the woods a mile east of the Abbey. "The Hermitage of the Thrice-Blessed Trinity" became host to Erik, J. P., Mark and myself as all five of us poured out music and story, including a visit in memory via Chrysogonus by Fr. Louis (Thomas Merton) himself. Now only we know the truth about what happened to the wine.

http://novak.livejournal.com/410312.html

The Chrysogonus Fest 1997 recording can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KGMG2C20