This is a biography...

I (Joseph Vavak) am a photographer from Omaha, Nebraska that has a somewhat puzzling obsession with the mundane and the everyday. My photography is the result of what happens when someone cursed with a photographic memory and the mind of an engineer becomes wrapped up in the freedom of creating something unique to his existence.

2010 marks the completion and unveiling of ninety-three, a photographic record of the state of Nebraska. ninety-three features one photograph for every one of Nebraska's counties, the result of countless miles spent wandering my home state. It is a random collection of memories and places unlike most any portrait of Nebraska that you might have seen. ninety-three is about getting to know exactly where it is I come from and recording everything that I encountered along the way.

ninety-three will be on display at the Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska in May of 2010. The show will be opening during the Hot Shops' spring open house weekend.



Exhibitions
May 2006
Corning Center For The Fine Arts in Corning, Iowa
Miniseries

October 2006
W. Dale Clark Library in Omaha, Nebraska
One MWPSE Student Exhibition

November 2006
Hillmer Art Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska
Artist and Mentor Show

April 2007
The Art Of Music in Nebraska City, Nebraska
inexterior

January 2008
Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska
Miniseries 2.0

May 2010
Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska
selections from ninety-three

May 2012
Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska
selections from The Magic City


For references, inquiries or any other questions that you might have, please contact me at josephvavak at gmail.com.

About the author

Welcome to my latest endeavor, a blog that will undoubtedly lay neglected far more than it is maintained. This is far from my first foray into web authorship, although it has been over two years since I worked on the website of my last project, the music-centric somedaynever. That experience defined me for over five years and lead to many accomplishments that I'm very proud of and quite a few disappointments that I have learned from. The last sdn event was in January of 2007, a rock show at a local dive bar that was a fitting end to a pretty good era for me.

As my interest in somedaynever waned, I found myself with the time to really delve into photography. While most art-minded people grow up with a creative mindset, most of my time in high school and my first two semesters at college (before inevitably dropping out) was spent on math and science classes. It wasn't until I was 23 that I picked up a camera artistically for the first time. By the time 2007 rolled around, I had completed most all of the commercial photography curriculum at Metropolitan Community College here in Elkhorn and found myself looking for a direction to focus all of my creative ideas and energy on.

Pushed by the writings of Jack Kerouac and photographers like Stephen Shore and Robert Frank, along with some coaxing from some very good friends, I hit the road and began to explore this country. The first revelation came in Glacier National Park, on the shore of Avalanche Lake in mid-May. There was this quiet beauty there, this isolation, that I hadn't considered to be important in my life or photography before.

A month after the Montana trip, I began a project that I envisioned for quite some time but found myself ill-prepared to really go out and create. After a few day trips to explore Nebraska, the idea evolved into a collection of ninety-three images, one for every county in the state. 8,000 miles later, I am nearing completion of the project and hope to self-publish a book in the coming months. The photographs that make up ninety-three are not meant to symbolize each part of this state, but stand as more of a collection of memories and places that I came across over the course of my travels. Some are beautiful, some may be humorous, but all are a snapshot of this place at this time as seen by this curious observer. Nebraska is as much a part of me as I am of it, and I've enjoyed nearly every moment spent exploring its smallest corners and widest spaces.

2008 finds me trying to balance what I need to do with what I want to do, attempting to find a way to continue my travels, move closer to finishing a bachelor's degree and exist in a world where art photography doesn't necessarily pay the bills. This web log will (hopefully) record my photo-related adventures in the coming months along with my thoughts and insights into all other things photographic.