Brandy Kayzakian-Rowe, Music Photographer

Coloring my world, New versions of some B&W Jazz favorites

2011-06-30T18:07:00.002-04:00

I love B&W, I mean I love B&W photography but every now and then I get the urge to rework some photos in color.. here are a few I've been editing lately...

Nafisaria Scroggins-Thomas at the 2009 Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon

Thara Memory playing a custom Monette Trumpet at Jimmy Mak's in Portland, OR

I do like the new color versions but to me the B&W seems so iconic, timeless.. still considering it all, what do you think?

UPDATE:

Ok, so I went back and re-edited my already re-edited photo of Thara Memory to this hybrid!

A new lens, 80 degree sunny day and all of New England

2011-06-29T18:05:00.001-04:00

As an early birthday present I received a new 50mm fixed lens, and I love it! The moment the UPS guy dropped in our hot little hands, my husband Djerek and I headed for the hills! We meandered for hours through the mountains and valleys of New Hampshire and Vermont on an unusually warm, blue skied day. Here is some of what we saw:

Djerek in a Contoocook, NH 121 year-old covered bridge

more bridge work :)

In Sunapee, NH in the grass

More Sunapee, but with Djerek in focus

A Sunapee bus station, I believe

At the Tumble Inn Diner in Claremont, New Hampshire, Diner my shiny shiny love!

my reflection in the glass front door of the Tumble Inn Diner

Tumble Inn's booths

taken from the passenger window of a moving car going about 55 on the New Hampshire side of the NH/Vermont border

Dinner in Bellows Falls, Vermont

More of dinner in Bellows Falls, Vermont

an after dinner treat at Dari Joy in Bellows Falls, Vermont

Djerek walking along the New Hampshire/Vermont state line

and the state line itself :) going between Walpole, NH and Bellows Falls, VT

On the way home, in Walpole, New Hampshire.. I lived here when I was about 3 or 4 I believe.. then moved to Myrtle Beach, SC soon after, what a change!

New England at Dawn

2011-06-21T13:04:00.002-04:00

3am between Friday night and Saturday morning we decided to go for a ride... loaded the pups and my camera in the car, plugged in the GPS and then started driving. Ended up 5 hours away in Bar Harbor, Maine! Almost no sleep, no plan or forethought but resulted in an awesome adventure and the re-affirmation that I married an awesome guy who's willing to say sure, lets just go!

Here is an awesome gas station in Portsmouth, New Hampshire - I love how time just passed it by... it was about 4am at this point...

The road to Maine ...

oh so early in the morning, about 6 or 7 am in Bar Harbor ...

I wonder where the next trip will take us...

Hello New England, dig it.

2011-06-08T04:07:00.001-04:00

About a year and a half ago we packed up and moved to New England, just about an hour north of Boston, MA.

It's been sad leaving all the amazing Jazz musicians behind in Portland but I am hoping to continue the Portland Jazz photo-documentation project here on the East Coast! The final chapter as I see it now is documenting those who have ventured out of the Northwest nook of the country to Berklee and other schools in the New England area. I'm starting a list of students and teachers that are Portland natives and hope to photograph them in new easterly surroundings, if you have anyone to suggest, I would love to hear them!

I'm about to start looking for local musicians again, seeing what the culture of Jazz, Folk, Soul and Blues is in my new home...

As for the future of the Portland Jazz project, I am working on a book submission for publishers and will be applying soon to have the collection exhibited at The Jazz Museum in Harlem and The American Jazz Museum in Kansas City. Right now you can see 35 photographs from the collection at Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club in Portland, Oregon, rated one of the top 10 in the country! A truly amazing place for sure.

Oh, and there's a new blues album coming out soon that will showcase a photograph of mine on the cover, and yep, this one's in color, more soon on that front!

much love,
Brandy

Keb' Mo'

2009-07-16T19:13:00.002-04:00

God bless Keb' Mo', I've just loved him for years and was so very happy to be able to watch him perform at the Portland, Oregon Waterfront Bluesfest in 2009 where I snapped away! For a full gallery of my Keb' Mo' photos head over to my website, www.BrandyKayzakianRowe.com.

Album Season?

2009-06-01T17:02:00.002-04:00

Shorty after moving into my new place in SW Portland, my new little studio became all a buzz! I was lucky to find a new apartment with enough room to house my photostudio, working at home is wonderful!

In the first month running, my new diggs have seen the likes of The Andre St. James trio (their new demo is hot!), Amy Keys (oooh so sultry and powerful), Reggie Houston (laughing, talking and playing sax for the cover of his new album) and most recently Frank Tribble (telling stories and being incredibly photogenic for his new album)!

What a wonderful way to warm a new home, with music, photography and friendship! I have posted some teasers below of the recent sessions, experimenting with styles, techniques and more...

and I will leave the session of Reggie Houston until later, just finishing it up now! If you are interested in a session, e-mail me and we will make it happen!

All the best, now back to work!
Brandy

New Fiona Boyes Album featuring my photos!

2009-04-14T03:54:00.002-04:00

way too cool! I just saw the cover of Fiona Boyes' new album with a photo from the session I was hired to shoot.. and I LOVE it! Yellow Dog Records did a bang up job with the design... too too cool! The album, "Blues Woman" is coming out May 5th.. I highly recommend this Aussie Blueswoman who spends half her time right here in PDX! She was also the first woman and Aussie to win the International Blues Challenge!!!

New Sessions

2009-03-07T18:31:00.001-05:00

Since my last update of Jazz Photo Sessions I have been just as hard at work, on my website (www.BrandyKayzakianRowe.com) you can see the new additions of these intense ensembles:

Ben Darwish Trio
Andrew Oliver's Kora Band
Andre St. James Trio
The Group (Gospel with Janice Scroggins, Linda Hornbuckle, LaRhonda Steele, Maryetta Callier-Wells, Ronnie Shoals & Noah Peterson)
Yugen Fardan Rashad (KBOO Jazz DJ)
Lynn Darroch (Jazz Journalist & DJ)

I am also in the process of several collaborations, 4 new albums will be coming out soon using my photography ... more on that as the musicians make the details public... but as soon as the artwork is ready I will post them here :)

_______________________________________

My exhibit at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, MS is entering it's last month, finishing out an entire year at the Museum! It has been so wonderful having a bit of my soul still in Mississippi, where my thoughts are often wandering back to...
I have been contacted by so many awesome people from throughout the country and the world, the most recent was a festival organizer in the Netherlands. As a result, I have been asked to exhibit my Delta Blues photographs in Schiedam for their new Blues & Jazz photography exhibit and festival! That will be going on this summer, more details on that soon!

Have a great weekend!
Brandy

Andre St. James Trio News

2009-03-07T18:09:00.001-05:00

The first musician to inspire me to start this project was Andre St. James. I saw him perform with Mel Brown's Septet for my birthday and was immediately compelled to pick up my camera for the first time after 2 years of it laying idle. Since then Andre and I have become wonderful friends and I respect him all the more...

Andre has started performing with his very own trio at Sungari every Wednesday night, located in the Pearl on Lovejoy. I photographed the trio of Andre, Nick Saume on drums and Frank Tribble on guitar during their first night there and loved it. The cover is $3, and every last cent goes to the Oregon Food Bank.

A few days later Nick e-mails me to let me know he and Andre will be on KBOO radio that Saturday.. so I ask to tag along in order to photograph the events, I have been itching to get into a radio station to document jazz dj's and thought this would be an excellent opportunity.

Yugen Fardan Rashad was hosting his Saturday Jazz show and brought Nick, Andre, my husband Djerek and myself back into the studio... saying there were enough mics for everyone... much to my shock I began sputtering that I was merely there to take photos and was way to shy to ever speak on the air.. but he looked at me like, hmm..we'll see... so the next 30 minutes were devoted to my Jazz project, my beginnings as a Southern Delta Blues photographer and more... I actually spoke at length on the air and didn't do a horrible job at it!

Now Nick, Andre and Frank are about to record an album at the end of the month and have invited me to photograph their rehearsals and even the recording session! This is something that i have really been looking forward to seeing and documenting. the behind the scenes work that goes into being musicians. The trio will then come to my studio for a photo shoot for the inside and outside of their new album. What an honor it will be to have these three musicians in my studio! I promise to post photos when I can and maybe even the radio interview from KBOO!

much love
Brandy

2009-02-02T12:03:00.001-05:00

WOW! I just looked at this blog and realized how bad I am at updating it! Phew, so much has happened, photographically, since I last Blogged.

I may be lacking here but I update my website several times a week with new Jazz & Gospel shoots. I am going full steam ahead with my NW Jazz Project of fine-art documentation through photography of Portland Jazz Musicians. So far I have uploaded sessions of:

Mel Brown's Septet (2 sessions)
Thara Memory's Superband (2 sessions)
John Nastos' E4
David Friesen (2 sessions, 1 w/ Randy Porter & Alan Jones and then one w/ Greg Goebel & John Gross)
Dave Milne Band w/ LaRhonda Steele
Larry Nobori's Cafe Jazz
Linda Hornbuckle
Reggie Houston
Gordon Lee w/ Xavier Tabera
The Group, Janice Scroggins' Gospel Group
plus Thara's Pacific Crest Youth Jazz Orchestra

I am constantly attending shows and photographing these mind-blowing musicians... if you have any recommendations as to where I should go and who I should see next, don't be shy!

I am also planning on photographing some great local Jazz DJ's, storytellers and more... I love all aspects of Jazz Life...

So drop by www.BrandyKayzakianRowe.com and have a look around... let me know what you think!

much love!
Brandy

Big Photo Update

2008-10-07T02:09:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my last blog I have begun taking photographs again... well THAT is an understatement! I have fallen head first back into photography and can't seem to get enough... I have begun researching new photographers and have found such great inspiration... and have also set up a full photography studio just in time...

Fiona Boyes

About 3 weeks ago Steve of Blue Empress Music contacted me about shooting the covers of Fiona Boyes latest album as well as her promotional materials for several of the companies that endorse her... Aussie singer and guitarist, Fiona Boyes was the first woman to win the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN and she is one hell of a nice person! She is with Yellow Dog Records, an awesome little record company out of Memphis headed by Mike Powers, another awesome person! We shot in three locations over about 7 hours... it was in incredible shoot culminating in my new photo studio. here is a teaser... once I get word from Mike at Yellow Dog I will post the two full slideshows of the sessions ;)

and no, your eyes don't deceive you, it's in COLOR! I shot the all three sessions in color and created both color and B&W images ... I must say I was pleased with results and will be doing more color in the future! I will post more info about Fiona's new album soon.. she is now doing a large Austrialian tour with Robert Belfour and her awesome husband and manager, Steve Clarke.

Thara Memory and The Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra

I began working with Thara Memory a few weeks ago, just before I went on vacation to San Francisco .. I spent 3 days photographing him and his youth jazz orchestra preparing for the Monterey Jazz Festival ... I have finally uploaded a slideshow of the images... More about my other projects with Thara soon!

Also on the horizon are sessions with Portland musicians Jen Moon and Ben Dewey... and a very special out-of-the-ordinary shoot with a fellow artist.. glass artist Davida Fernandez is blissfully pregnant and has hired me to photograph her ever expanding belly! This will be a new and exciting experience for this musician photographer... never stand still!

I have also taken many more photos of Djerek, my hubby, and have uploaded the bulk of them here. Djerek is of course one of my favorite subjects and he dosen't mind me clicking away as he practices.. I try out all my new ideas and techniques on Djerek, so take a look at his slideshow and see what's brewing!

thank you for all the e-mails and support, I really love feeling connected to my friends who often live so far away!
cheers
Brandy

Time for an Update!

2008-07-27T08:15:00.000-04:00

It's been a little while but I have lots of good little tid-bits to share!

First off I am so excited to announce that The Delta Blues Museum has extended my exhibit by another two months! The show will now run through October 2008! I have also just shipped a fresh supply of prints to the gift shop as well... they have run out again, what a wonderful feeling!

Blues Matters Magazine has run a second feature spread on my blues paintings (they even included a few jazz ones!) in their July/August issue!

(click for enlargement)

I have posted the new, full interview at the end of this posting!

Also, I am having my first ever painting sale! I have two paintings on Ebay for Half-price! There are also a few more on my website (click the Studio Sale link) that are on sale as well... the sale has been great and I hope the paintings are finding good new homes! :) I have started painting on such a large scale with my acrylics that space in my little studio is at a premium, time to make room!

I have also just finished another watercolor in my new shadows and music series... this is my Peruvian guitarist Hector:

"Shadows of Hector"
11" x 15"
Watercolor on #140 Coldpress

and lastly, for my birthday I received the wonderful present of a digital SLR, I know, finally I have made it into the digital world! I have just begun taking photographs again and have even decided to slowly begin accepting musician photoshoots again. It feels good to have a camera in my hands again!

I shot Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band (full shoot on my website) when they came to Portland and an extended shoot of my metal & classical guitarist husband Djerek!

As lastly, for now, this coming First Thursday the gallery will be open and will be completely filled to the brim with my work, the first time in about a year! There will be many new pieces and the studio sale will be held in the upstairs part of the gallery! If you are interested in a piece that is on sale, let me know... once it's gone it's gone! Plus, all shipping is free for pieces on ebay (within the contintental US).

Now, back to work!
Much love,
Brandy

Blues Matters Interview Part II

BRANDY KAYZAKIAN-ROWE

AN EYE FOR THE BLUES

INTERVIEW PART 2: PAINTING

Following our first interview with Brandy, there was then a hiatus of a few months as she busied herself with opening a gallery space in Portland. But Blues Matters! caught up with Brandy again at the start of 2008…

Check out issue 44 of Blues Matters! to view examples of Brandy’s painting work!

BM: A lot of changes in your life since we last spoke. You have opened your own gallery in Portland Oregon… How did that come about?

Portland, OR is a thriving and artistic town that has so many opportunities, one of which is Everett Station Lofts, a live/work loft/gallery space downtown in the Oldtown/Chinatown neighbourhood. My husband and I attended a photography opening for Peter Best and after talking to the gallery owner, we realized that he lived in the gallery. I was lucky enough to get one of the ground floor gallery spaces, ironically, that was right next door to that very gallery. Everett Station Lofts & Galleries is part of the First Thursday art walk that happens year round.

BM: What has the response been to your new space?

Wonderful, really. I have seen people of all ages and walks of life come through the gallery doors. My biggest joy is when people see themselves in a piece of art. I want to create paintings and photography that expresses my love of cultures and people. I am endlessly interested in everyone around me and find it all overflowingly beautiful.

BM: I see that you are now moving strongly into new media and methods. Is there something you can do with the new materials that you couldn’t through photography?

I took photos just about everyday while I lived in Memphis. I woke up every morning and my first thoughts were the performances I was to see that night, or the film I was to develop. When I moved to the Pacific Northwest, while breathtaking, it was not my home and I lost my desire to take photos. So after about a month or two of feeling stagnant and homesick I began to paint for the first time. I never took painting classes in school but it was now my way to express myself, beginning by painting images from my photographs from the Delta. I painted Bluesmen, juke joints and colourful people met along the way. The first two of these Delta paintings sold just this past December, and it was bitter sweet to see them go.
I began to paint using watercolors for the first time in January 2007. I experimented with watercolors for several months and then moved back to acrylics. Just recently, with the sales of my paintings, I purchased oil painting supplies and have begun to study techniques. After some work in oils, I have found that my true medium, in painting, is acrylic. I love the bold colors and quick drying time... When I feel I need a break, or think of an idea that calls for it, I break out my watercolor supplies! To further the case of my ever wandering mind, the past few days I have had a resurgence in my desire to take photos and found a 2-year-old spent roll of film in my camera bag... After having it developed I discovered photos from my last performance that I attended, Alvin Youngblood Hart; what a way to get back into photography!

BM: Are you still in touch with the Blues scene in Memphis and Clarksdale? Is there any similar scene in Oregon these days?

If you are there for a day or ten years, you can't help but create a second family in Mississippi. There are so many people that I think of often and miss dearly, I e-mail and write many... I am lucky some of the musicians that I met and befriended are touring and have come to Portland once or twice to perform with me up front. As for Blues in Oregon, I do know there is a very large annual riverfront Blues festival, and my Delta Blues photography show was one of my best attended openings. I think my severe sense of homesickness for the Delta has caused me to be a bit of a hermit when it comes to venturing out into the Portland Blues world, something I hope my renewed love of photography will remedy.

BM: Last time around, you spoke of trips to Italy and other parts of Europe; have you managed to exhibit in Europe yet? What was the response?

Funnily enough, about a week ago I began creating submission packets to send out to galleries across the USA and Europe. This will be my first attempt at submitting my photography abroad, so we may need another follow-up in the future to fully answer this one!

BM: You have become involved with the ‘Keep A Child Alive’ & ‘Emergency Communities’ campaigns. How did this come about?

I discovered the Delta through my work with The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis…my heart has always been devoted to children. I grew up with many hard times, financially, but my parents always made sure that I never truly felt the pinch. They nurtured my love of art and reading in any way they could with what they had. I believe my sense of the world came from this and I saw a lot of myself in the children I taught while with the Dixon. Now that so many of these experiences have fuelled my work, I want to give back when I can. I will be donating portions of the profits of each of my paintings to "Emergency Communities", a group working to restore and rebuild the 9th ward of New Orleans. New Orleans is a place that has always been a dream and a fantasy for me; I have wanted to live there since I was a child. I see so much life and vibrancy in the people of New Orleans and I want to be a part of the restoration of their homes and communities.
"Keep A Child Alive" administers life-saving drugs to children and families in Africa who are suffering from the pandemic of AIDS. As I have said before, children are the centre of my heart and I ache for their suffering. So many can be helped with such modest contributions. I have just begun selling my paintings and cannot wait to begin really donating on a regular basis to these and many other charities. I have never been in a financial position where I could afford much else than rent and food - selling my work allows me to give to others who have dignity but are in need.

BM: Do you feature the work of other artists in your gallery? What determines your choices?

My work is shown in the gallery about half of the time, alternating with other artists, of which, I have shown eight, so far, and have several lined up for 2008. I want the gallery to be a place that furthers peace and unity, shares culture and provides a platform to learn from each other.

Portland Waterfront Blues Festival

2008-06-29T05:21:00.000-04:00

Good news!

I just very recently was offered an exhibit in the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival. Amanda Gresham of The Delta Music Experience has asked me to show my acrylics, watercolors and photography in the Gulfport Pavilion at the 4 day long festival starting on Thursday July 3rd! I met Amanda while I was in Clarksdale, MS for the Delta Blues Museum opening this past April. I am excited to say that I will be showing my work alongside Amanda's photography and Stan Street's paintings. I have been in full-tilt boogie mode since finding out that I have ONE WEEK to prepare, whew! I thrive on deadlines though and this is going to be a massive and great event

At the festival, I will be debuting my latest painting:

Untitled so far 40" x 60"

there will be 4 more acrylics, 4 watercolors and a slew of Mississippi and Memphis Delta Photography.

The festival begins at 10am on Thursday and runs from 10am to 10pm through Sunday July 6. This is such a wonderful surprise for me and at a perfect time, my 29th birthday is July 9! What a wonderful birthday present! :)

I hope to see you there... from what I heard, admission is 10.00 and 2 canned goods. This is a huge event, we stopped by to check out the pavilion and our area is right infront of one of the MASSIVE stages of which there are 7 total! check out www.WaterfrontBluesFest.com for more info including a performance lineup... Robert Wolfman Belfour and Issac Hayes will be there!

ok, that's good for now... come see me and I will post photos after the event! Oh, and this means that the gallery will be closed for July's First Thursday.

Much love!
Brandy

My painting in the Boston Globe!!!

2008-05-22T22:47:00.001-04:00

I have always loved Boston,
and now I have another reason why!

I awoke to an e-mail this morning that has had me smiling from ear to ear all day! I think I will just repost it, it says it better than I can:

"Hello Brandy, I'm a Boston Globe photographer. This past weekend I was in Clarksdale documenting a story on the Blues for our Travel section and I went into the Delta BLues Museum. There I was told not to photograph the traveling exhibition which included your beautiful acrylic painting of Puttin Hatchet. I was photographing three kids walking through the exhibition when I overheard one of them saying, "there is grandpa in that painting." It turns out they were the
grandchildren of Puttin, so I asked them to pose in front of painting. I
liked the photo and so does my photo editor but we need to ask you for your
permission to use this photo. Of course you would get full credit on the
caption as the author of the painting.

The Boston Globe is owned by the New York Times so a lot of our stories end
up in the NYT or other newspapers which subscribe to the NYT wire service
pick up the stories and run them in their papers. In other words your work
would get a lot of publicity if you accept. If you dont want me to use the
photo just let me know as soon as possible. "

Needless to say I am beaming with excitement, how cool is that? My painting in the Boston Globe and possibly the New York Times?

today is a beautiful day my friends :)

much love
Brandy

Full Interview with Blues Matters!

2008-05-22T22:45:00.000-04:00

This is the full article that goes with the photo spread Blues Matters has just published:

Link to Blues Matters webpage and article

BRANDY KAYZAKIAN-ROWE

AN EYE FOR THE BLUES

INTERVIEW

Brandy Kayzakian-Rowe is a nomadic artist with a deep love for the feel, sight and smell of the Delta. The self-styled “Wandering Gypsy Soul” only picked-up a camera as part of her Arts degree but found satisfaction in photography as a means of capturing the spirit of the Blues. Working exclusively in black & white, she reserves colour for her paintings – vibrant expressions of the soul – another outlet to express her love of the place and the people that gave us the music we love so much. To coincide with an exhibit of her photographs and paintings running from 15th April - 15th August 2008 at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, issue 43 carries examples of Brandy’s work…

Brandy first spoke to Blues Matters! at the start of 2007…

BM: Brandy, you are a photographer with a particular interest in modern Blues, and a style that harks back to the great photographers of the past. Where and how did you get your start, and what drew you to the Blues in particular?

I have a degree in Art Education and Fine Arts, and as soon as I graduated college in Rock Hill, South Carolina, I moved to Memphis, TN. After working at a photo lab for a couple of months, I was offered a job at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens as the Art to Grow Art Education Outreach Coordinator and Instructor. A long title that basically means I worked with teachers, principals, parents and community leaders to bring art lessons into under-funded schools throughout Memphis, Northern Mississippi and parts of Arkansas. I drove all over the three-state, sixty-mile radius teaching art to children in grade K-5 everyday, seven classes a day, five different schools a week. I was very new to the area and had not explored much, but this job really showed me all the wonderful areas of the Delta.
After about two months, a parent in Clarksdale, Mississippi called me requesting I come to her daughter's school. Clarksdale is outside of the sixty-mile radius that the Dixon allowed me to travel. But then the woman wrote such a beautiful letter telling me about the students and town that I asked for special permission to drive the hour-and-a-half to Clarksdale for the day’s worth of classes. Once I got there, I drove through the streets of Clarksdale searching for the school, all the while marvelling at the beautiful little town that time seemed to have forgotten. During my lunch break that day, the parent took me out to lunch downtown and told me all about the wonderful culture in town. She showed me Ground Zero, Cat Head, the Delta Blues Museum, and took me to lunch at the Dutch Oven, a bakery run by Mennonites. After I finished the day of teaching, I drove back to Memphis, dropped off the van and drove back out to Clarksdale, so that I could explore that night.
Due to a family illness I moved away from Memphis about a year after I arrived and was gone for about 2 years. When I met my husband, we moved from Richmond, VA to Memphis again - in 2005 - so that I could again immerse myself in the music and people that I was shown a beautiful glimmer of a few years back. Djerek, my husband, worked at a vitamin shop to support us while I drove all over taking photos and attending festivals and concerts and loving it! My love of the Blues grew as I listened to the stories that the musicians like Pinetop Perkins, Bob Stoger and Super Chikan told in song and then at the tables in the jukes before and after their performances. Then I began to meet young Blues and roots musicians like Reverend Peyton of Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band who told me stories about their musical heroes and inspirations like Robert Belfour. I started to see the impact that the music and the makers were having on so many people.

BM: Who are your influences as photographers?

My influences were not photographers but the people and places of Memphis and Northern Mississippi. Memphis is filled with historic empty buildings, spaces between brick buildings where you think there might be grass and dirt, but then you wipe away the sediment and find an old tile floor where who-only-knows danced and sang all night long fifty years ago…
I spent one New Year’s Eve in Red's Lounge, in Clarksdale, with Red himself. All the big names had been booked at Ground Zero and pretty much left all the other jukes without players or patrons. My husband and I sat and listened as Red talked about Mississippi in the ‘50s and ‘60s; how when he was a boy, he was sent to Jackson where his aunt lived to pick cotton when he was bad… All the time the juke's only other patron, Robert Whitfield sat at the bar smiling and nodding his head to the memories. Some of my favourite photographs came from that night. The stories and soul-filling in that empty juke on New Year’s was all the inspiration I could ever need.
Now, as for other photographs, I will admit, there is one photograph I saw that inspired me early on; it was a photo of Miles Davis at Birdland Lounge by Dennis Stock. Man, now that was the end to me - the best. As for inspirations now, after I began my photo work; I saw the work of a Parisian photographer named Hermann Deza online, and his work has blown me away, permanently. He calls his body of work Afropics and I hope one day even to come close to the level of artistic intelligence he has mastered in his photography.

BM: You have moved away from the scene of your most atmospheric work – why?

Ever since I was a newborn, I have moved from town to town, state to state. I was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and then at 3 months old, my parents and I moved to Keene, New Hampshire. I seem to get restless about every six months and start to think, "Huh, I have never been there before, I bet it would be a nice place to live!"… I have been told before that I should try vacationing. I guess most people would say, “I have never been there before, we should visit.”
I have actually moved to Memphis twice.. I moved there fresh from college and then again two years later (with SC, VA, and TX in-between). Djerek and I moved to Memphis about a month before our wedding, which was held on the banks of the Mississippi, and then about eleven months later I had the itch to wander again… In those eleven months I took the bulk of my photographic work; some of my photos had been taken during the year I lived in Memphis in 2002/2003. In February of 2006, we moved to Seattle and lived right downtown… We took a trip to Portland four months later and fell in love with the town. We moved there three weeks later. Who knows where I will end up next - maybe even the Delta again! I named my art company "Wandering Gypsy Soul Studios" for pretty much this reason. I seem to wander often, and most of my art is inspired by my travels. Though nothing has inspired me as much as the Delta…it still haunts me.

BM: Is there anything in your new location to provide the same level of inspiration as you found in the Delta in the South?

I love Portland. I think it is a vibrant, young, artistic town and living here is wonderful but…I still can't get the Delta out of my artistic consciousness. When I moved to Seattle, the only photographs I took were of Alvin Youngblood Hart, a favourite of mine who travelled half-way across the country to perform in Seattle from Memphis! He has been the only person I have photographed since I left the Delta. But when my desire to create art started to back up on me, I began to paint. I take my favourite images from my work in 2005 in Memphis and Mississippi and paint them. I take them from real life colour to B&W film then back to my imagination's colour in paint. So, the inspiration I have found in my new location has been Portland's wonderful artistic vibe. The day I visited for the first time, I felt like painting, sewing, welding, anything! Everywhere you look here, people are creating. So, I began to create art here, with that inspiration, but art inspired by the Delta.

BM: The festival scene in the US seems to give you a great deal of access to the ‘up and coming’, as well as established stars of the Blues. Were there any issues with regard to either your age or your gender that had to be overcome in order to develop these relationships?

I do think I received some unusual treatment because of my age and gender, both good and bad. As a young female in a sea of middle-aged male photographers, I do stand out to the musicians as well as the other photographers.
I remember being at a performance at the Hopson Commissary in Clarksdale, MS to see Bob Stoger and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. I am a shy, quiet person, ever since I was very little - very, very shy. I think this has helped me to be a better photographer. My method is to blend into the background, never to be noticed. This way I get very natural shots of people. They don't see me or the camera so they act natural; I see more of their soul come through; but not this time, not at the Commissary. I was trying to be in the background while taking shots of Bob Stoger and Willie Smith but they just kept looking my way, especially Bob Stoger. One of my favourite photographs is of Stoger, he was in the middle of a song and hit the wrong note on his bass. He immediately looked at me, and made the most awesome face, which I immediately caught on film!
Then, after awhile I started to walk around the place, looking for other photo opportunities, when I noticed Pinetop Perkins sitting in the back of the room surrounded by people. So, I stood waaaay back in the opposite corner and put on my zoom lens so that I wouldn't be noticed again but no luck (laughs). Every single last time I raised my camera to take a photo, Pinetop would turn his head and stare right into my camera, from about twenty feet away! Maybe five times I tried to photograph him and all five times he caught me; then, the last time I tried, I saw through my lens Pinetop Perkins raising his finger to me and motioning me over to his table. Oh, boy, this is a shy girl’s nightmare! (Laughs).
So, I walk over and he pushes out a chair right next to him. He then said, "I see you over there…you know, I have written many a song about women your size… I like you!" I laughed and, I'm sure blushed at the 92-year-old man's comment. Then I asked him if he was going to perform and he said, I will never ever forget it, "My father was a Baptist preacher and my mother was a God-fearing woman… I don't play THIS kinda music on Sunday!!" One of the people from his table leaned over and said it was time for them to leave. Pinetop Perkins leaned over and asked me if I wanted that photo now… I nodded yes and thanked him as I took a perfectly posed shot, the same pose I saw him give for every Blues fan with a camera who walked up to him all night. Such a wonderful nice man - incredible memories.
As for any negative treatment I received, most of it was before anyone saw my work or got to know me. I think a lot of people looked at me like I was too young and not one of the faces they were used to seeing over the past few decades. But mostly, I have gotten wonderful responses to my work over the past few years.

BM: Who are the most memorable of the new artists that you have met on your travels? Is there anything that tends to set them apart from their counterparts in other musical spheres?

I would say hands down that my favourite newer artist is Richard Johnston. I would go to see him play on Beale Street almost every weekend. He set-up his one-man-band rig on the sidewalk in front of the New Daisy Theater. His music is the most powerful, fist clenching, soul drenching experience ever. He is just incredible! Also Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band (out of Eagletown, Indiana), Alvin Youngblood Hart and The Dempsey's (both of which are based out of Memphis currently) are all favourites of mine to see live.

BM: Has there been any interest in your work from the UK?

(Pauses)… Blues Matters! is my first British based interest, so far. In 2005, I was invited to show my work in Parma, Italy during the Rootsway Blues Festival but unfortunately my work, as well as a few others, was caught up in customs until after the festival was over! Several of my photographs have been on the cover of a studio CD and a documentary DVD for Big George Brock, a St. Louis-based Bluesman. He has since begun touring Europe, so in a little way, my work is there, too! I am currently working on an album cover for Elam McKnight, a Blues and rock musician out of Tennessee who just got home from a tour in Italy as well.

BM: Your photography and your canvasses seem to have widely different styles and content. Which medium to you feel most comfortable in?

I have always referred to myself as a serial artist... Since I was little, I have been in love with just about every art material that I can get my hands on. Art is completely enthralling to me; the search for something beautiful and moving truly engulfs me.
For me, photography has always been natural. I feel like I was born with a camera in my hands. Painting, on the other hand, is thrilling to me but something I feel I have to work at, something that I feel I am learning more about with each canvas I paint. At this point, am thinking of leaning how to use watercolours and get back into silver casting, a class I took in college that I just adored! I would say the only medium I don't feel comfortable in is ceramics…but I fully well intend on spending more time with my hands in the clay!

BM: You mentioned on your website that you use a second-hand Canon Camera. Is that 35mm or digital?

As for my camera, it is a film camera, an EOS Rebel G (EOS500 in the UK AS). I adore film. My mom is a photographer, too. She does prom pictures and portraits on the side, but she only uses digital and has been trying for years to convince me to make the switch. But I am addicted to film, I love the grain and the warmth... One of my favourite things is the moment you take the cap off the film container and that little whiff of film and chemistry hits you, I love that!

BM: What lenses do you use and is there a lens you find most comfortable for candid photos?

I began with two lenses, a 35-80 mm (came with the camera) and an 80-200mm. My 80-200mm was always my favourite, I love telephoto lenses, but one day I was in the outskirts of Memphis, photographing the Howlin' Wolf tour bus that I just happened to see on my way to Clarksdale, and the 80-200 lens fell from my camera bag and broke! My husband bought me a 70-300mm lens for Christmas and I just adore that one! I also have a 19-35 wide angle lens that I like but don't use too often.

BM: Who is out there at the moment who you would like to ‘get’ but haven’t caught up to yet?

(Pauses)… As for living musicians that I would love to capture, there are quite a few... I wish I had photographed Barbara Blue while I was in Memphis. I would love to photograph Keb' Mo', Robert Randolph and Chris Thomas King. I got the chance to see Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band play and got one photo of Robert Belfour and the Peyton Brothers but I would love to take more of the band performing, they are incredible on stage! And maybe one day actually get one of Pinetop Perkins in action! (Laughs) Really, there are a lot of well-known, locally known and completely unknown musicians I would love to photograph. As long as I feel inspired by them and their music, I usually reach for my camera!

BM: What is currently occupying you?

At the moment, I am finishing up a painting that I was commissioned to do for the cover of Elam McKnight's upcoming album. The inspiration was a combination of Pam Grier, a voodoo priestess, a belly dancer, a Hindu goddess and a gypsy. He asked for her to be in the Delta, amid the cotton fields and Mississippi River and behind a blazing bonfire. I am really pleased with the results, so far! I have also begun a painting inspired by India.Arie, a personal favourite of mine. I still adore photography, of course, but painting has completely taken over my consciousness at the moment! I paint for hours a day lately; I really can't seem to get enough! I am excited to see my range grow with daily practice. I love to paint large scale, boldly coloured studies of faces and emotions. I like B&W in photography but can't get enough colours loaded onto my brush! AS

2008-05-19T18:14:00.000-04:00

Yay! British based Blues Matters Magazine has published a photo spread in the May/June issue! You can click each image for larger, readable versions. Visit BluesMatters.com to read the full interview! I will post the interview soon :)

The next issue (July/August) will feature my watercolor and acrylic paintings!

The American Delta in Blues Matters Magazine!

2008-05-08T15:53:00.001-04:00

I am still working out the kinks of this blog, if you would like to be added to the e-mail list to be notified each time a blog is posted please send me your e-mail address, hopefully soon I will have a handy submittion box where you can join on the blog! Thanks, now onto the bloggins.

Blues Matters Magazine, a British based publication with international circulation has published a photo spread and interview/article! My B&W blues photography has been featured and I can't wait to see it!

I have ordered my copies but have yet to recieve them but as soon as I do I will post it! If you happen to have a copy of this month's issue and a scanner, I would LOVE to see it!

This is my first magazine appearance and the editor tells me that my paintings will be featured in the next issue, July/August which will be a great birthday present for me!

Happy Thursday everyone!
Brandy

My opening at the Delta Blues Museum!

2008-05-06T18:01:00.000-04:00

Hola!

I have just started this blog so that people who aren't on Myspace can check up on my art happenin's! Be forwarned, I love exclamation points and suffer from bad spelling.

I figured that opening this blog on a high point would be a good place to start...sooo the most recent activity is my opening of The American Delta exhibit at The Delta Blues Museum! (see, I get excited about stuff and there go those pesky !'s)

-Click images for larger versions-

I am so lucky to have 32 of my Delta Blues photographs, 2 watercolor paintings and 2 acrylic painting on display at the Delta Blues Museum until August 15th. My exhibit opened April 15th, just in time for the 2008 Juke Joint Festival, how cool is that??

So we got to fly in for the opening and my mother met us in Little Rock, flying in from South Carolina. We drove to Clarksdale and headed over to the museum to see the show and do some last minute cleaning of glass and frames... the museum has just gotten a 1.5 million grant and they are putting on a new roof and eventually building a whole new wing... but the roofers were pounding so much that we had to wipe some dust off the work... no problem with me! I am loving it just being there... it has been my goal for years now to have my work here...

It was really one of the best nights ever for me... I got the meet the mayor, the exhibit was on the front page of the newspaper and best of all, Puttin Hatchett was there. He was the very first person to arrive and was waiting for us as we came in. He first asked me very coldly, "Can you see??" and my heart froze.. I though he hated the painting I did of him and then he asked again, "Do your eyes work? Can you see??" I said, I think so... then he pulled out a pair of dice and proceeded to do a "vanish before your eyes" trick...then a card trick... I about puked from relief and then joy as he walked us right in and went over to the painting.. he really loved it. I am sooooooo thrilled... that made my night, I think if he really had been mad at me I would have had to leave the opening, at least for a little while to recompose myself. Seeing him was really the main thing I wanted to do at the opening...

Puttin infront of my paining of him (based on a photo I took of him in 2005)

Such a cool place to have my work!

The museum has an education program that teaches kids about music by local musicians... Bill "Howlin Mad" Perry is one of the teachers, I got to see him perform the night after my show and took some pics! Here is one with Johnnie B Goode aka John Lopez!

Daddy Rich and "Johnnie B Goode" John Lopez playing at the exhibit!

Here is my awesome mother, who, by the way is a photographer as well, she took all the color photos from the opening!

and here is my hubby Djerek...oh yeah, and Robert Johnson too! :)

I was interviewed by Patricia Hymel (below) for the Clarksdale Press Register!

The paper ran this article the day of the opening:

Photo exhibit opens at blues museum

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 12:41 PM CDT

Special to The Press Register

Today, the Delta Blues Museum will present the opening reception of Brandy Kayzakian-Rowe's "The American Delta," featuring her paintings and photography.

"The American Delta" is an exploration of modern Delta Blues culture as seen through the eyes of a young woman. Kayzakian-Rowe's work is a high-contrast, gritty and grainy tribute to the men and women bleeding their souls into the blues.

Shot completely in analog, "The American Delta" looks as if it had just been found in a dusty trunk stowed away at the turn of the century.

Accompanying the photography will be a selection of Kayzakian-Rowe's vibrant acrylic and watercolor paintings featuring both fictional and actual bluesmen and a very special Clarksdale resident.

Focusing on live performance, local heroes and southern landscapes, this collection is distinctively the American Delta.

As Kayzakian-Rowe tells it, "I stumbled upon the blues while I was working as an art education outreach teacher for The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis. My job was to travel to different elementary schools each day and teach six to seven art classes in under funded schools lacking art programs.

"The Dixon allowed me a 60-mile radius to travel, encompassing Memphis, northern Mississippi and northeastern Arkansas. When the parent of a student in Clarksdale contacted me, I spoke with my supervisor about extending the parameters to include Clarksdale, which thankfully she did.

"After my day of teaching, the parent took me out to lunch and on a tour of the little blues town. I was in love! That very weekend I began my trips to Clarksdale and took one of my favorite images, Robinson Chapel Baptist Church."

Although Kayzakian-Rowe now lives in the Pacific Northwest, she says her subject matter tends to remain with the men and women of blues, roots and jazz music.

"The American Delta" will remain on view through Aug 15.

Reception begins at 5 p.m., with a gallery talk by the artist beginning at 5:30 p.m. Local musician Daddy Rich will also perform.

"The American Delta" sponsors include the Mississippi Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, Hendricks Gin, Raynal Brandy, Little Black Dress wines and Jack Daniel's, and Friends of the Delta Blues Museum.

(article highlighted in yellow)

Then this past Sunday a follow-up interview/article was published with Puttin and me on the front page! Here is the text from that article:

Exhibit explores blues culture

By Patricia Hymel, Staff Writer

Sunday, May 4, 2008 3:06 PM CDT

"The American Delta" on exhibit now at the Delta Blues Museum is a fascinating multi-media collection by Brandy Kayzakian-Rowe.

This is the young artist's first solo show and she is excited it is in Clarksdale.

"I fell in love with Clarksdale the first time I came here," Kayzakian-Rowe said.

"My first job after college was with the Dixon Art Gallery in Memphis as a traveling art teacher visiting underfunded schools in Memphis, Mississippi and northern Arkansas. A parent contacted me one day to teach at her daughter's school in Clarksdale, - a place I had never heard of - but she was very nice and I agreed," she said.

"That one little trip changed my life. I began visiting here whenever money would allow it and attending shows and always stopping into Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art Store, the best little store I have been to, ever!" she continued.

"The American Delta" is an exploration of modern Delta Blues culture as seen through the eyes of a young woman.

"Her work is a high-contrast, gritty and grainy tribute to the men and women bleeding their souls into the blues," Shelley Ritter, director of the museum, said.

"Shot completely in analog, 'The American Delta' looks as if it had just been found in a dusty trunk stowed away at the turn of the century," Ritter continued.

Accompanying the photography is a selection of Kayzakian-Rowe's vibrant acrylic and watercolor paintings featuring both fictional and actual bluesmen and special Clarksdale resident, Puddin' Hatchett.

"I began to notice that photographers and newspaper people would huddle around the big acts that played in town and those bluesmen would have their images in books and framed in local stores, restaurants, etc., and the lesser known musicians didn't; so I concentrated on them," Kayzakian-Rowe said.

"I have made some of the nicest and dearest friends by traveling the Mississippi highways from Rosedale, Leland, Clarksdale, Lyon, Lula and the list goes on and on," she added.

Now a resident of Portland, Ore., Kayzakian-Rowe and her husband, Djerek Kayzakian-Rose, a musician, enjoy the artistic community of the Pacific Northwest.

She started painting in Seattle where they lived for a short while before moving to Portland. She paints everyday and expresses her love for the Delta in this creative outlet. Alternating between watercolors and acrylics, she hasn't touched the camera since she left Memphis and the Delta.

The exhibition will be at the museum until Aug. 15.

and I must say I am pretty excited about that, two front page articles... huwah!!

So I bring my inaugural blog to a close... and I leave you with this...

until next time, ~much love~
Brandy