Sandy Hooper Photography

I’ve been holding onto these images for a while now, but the issue has finally released so now I can show all of you!

I did this shoot for Whitewall Magazine back in February 2010 of Atlanta art collector, and former gallery owner, Fay Gold. The assignment called for photographs of Fay’s extensive art collection, and how she manages to turn her home into a gallery of sorts for the works she has amassed over the years. The writer, Drew Hinshaw, interviewed Fay as I roamed throughout her beautiful home. When the interview was over, I pulled Fay aside for some portraits. Below are some outtakes, and also how the feature was run in the magazine. Check it out online too, pg. 116.

This weekend has been an absolute whirlwind. I’m not going to go into my Las Vegas>Los Angeles adventures until I scan those negatives in, but I will pick up on Sunday morning. My flight back to Atlanta was originally suppose to be at 4:55pm. However, with news of the impending snow storm Atlanta was about to get, Delta decided to cancel around 1000 flights way before the storm started. We were scheduled to have breakfast with my Uncle Jose in Long Beach at 10 am, so on the way to his house I was on hold with Delta trying to figure out how I could come home. Luckily, there was a spot open on the 11:12am flight that would get me back to Vegas and then eventually back to Atlanta by 10pm. Seeing as how that was my only option, we did a 180 and headed straight for the airport. Sadly, my L.A. trip was cut short, but I felt extremely lucky to catch a flight home that wasn’t Thursday of this week or one that didn’t cost me an additional $200.

All of the passengers on our flight back to Atlanta were anxiously awaiting news from the captain that our flight was actually going to arrive in Atlanta and not be diverted through Birmingham or Charlotte. As soon as we heard the landing gear come down, we all broke out into applause.

Now that I was finally in Atlanta, getting home from the airport was the new obstacle. Gabe was stuck on an idle 75/85 due to the snow and ice, and Marta trains were running single track. Luck was still on my side though, because a Marta train was waiting for me and it just so happened to be the last train running north due to the ice.

I spent Monday morning roaming Grant Park with Julian and his roomies. We walked around beautiful snow covered Oakland Cemetery, started snowball fights with strangers, and grabbed some pizza at Grant Central where I’m pretty sure all of Grant Park residents were.

Now it’s Wednesday morning, 3rd snow day off from work. There is still a 2-inch layer of ice on everything. I was asked to go into the office this morning, and I attempted to drive there. My car slid down the hill from my driveway into traffic, and as I was about to get on the ramp for the highway I hit a patch of ice that sent my car down a hill at a 45 degree angle and then spun a 180. Needless to say, I didn’t go in. Cabin weekend is this weekend, and I’m starting to worry if the roads will be ok to make it up to Blue Ridge. This stuff needs to start melting, asap.

I’m slowly but surely learning WordPress as I go, so don’t be surprised if you see the layout change a few times as I’m trying to find a theme that fits into what I envision this blog to be.

Twen-ty e-lev-en….that’s a whole mess of syllables that will hopefully be easier to say as the year rolls along. I already have a good feeling about this year. I’m finding myself pretty busy at the moment due to finishing up grad school applications, grant applications, and organizing a big fundraiser in February.

The week before Christmas I spent 4 days in New York City and a day in Boston as part of my “grad school tour.” I scoped out NYU’s journalism facilities (I’m applying to their News and Documentary program for Fall 2011). Very impressive! I sat down with a Graduate Administrative Aid after my tour to talk about the program more in-depth, and about the application process and she had some great suggestions for me. My application is totally complete and submitted, now I just have to sit back and wait for an answer which will hopefully come through in March. I spent about a day and a half in Boston just catching up with old friends, checking out the city (I’ve never been before), and taking a tour of Boston University’s Communication building. I didn’t get a chance to meet with anyone to talk about their Broadcast Journalism program, but I did wander throughout their building, in and out of their studios and classrooms to get a feel for where I could be spending a majority of my time. Their facilities were nice, and I had a chance to read about some of their graduating M.A. student’s work which seemed pretty impressive. I’m also applying to Syracuse, but I didn’t get a chance to see the campus. However, I did hear a lot about the 70″ of snow that they had just in the month of December. I’m not sure how this California girl can handle that….

I’m also staying pretty busy with things other than school applications here in Atlanta. In December I found out that I have been nominated for the Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. I’m working on my final presentation packet that will determine the finalists for the awards. I think that announcement will be made sometime during the summer. Fingers crossed! However, I already feel honored by the fact that I was nominated to begin with. I along with the other 2/3 of Burnaway.org’s Art Crush Art Team, Susannah Darrow and Laura Hennighausen, and Art Crush lover Stephanie Dowda, have been really busy planning our Art Prom fundraiser in February. For the past year we have had a monthly column on Burnaway called Art Crush, where we feature an artist whose work we are currently crushing on. Promotional materials for our event will be going out next week, so I’ll be sure to post more information here soon.

So hopefully from here on out I can start keeping better tabs on my life’s daily musings. I’ll post tear sheets of where my work has been printed as it comes up, and I’ll post photos here and there of my adventures. I’m heading to Las Vegas tonight for a spontaneous weekend road trip to Los Angeles (my home!). So, expect the next post to be full of photos!

Here’s to twen-ty e-lev-en….phew.