Portfolio and blog of Tori Breitling, user experience designer based in Austin » Photography

Some days feel like this

Tori — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:38:14 +0000

Thoroughly Used – A fresh look at old things

Tori — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:28:23 +0000

My parents are children of the depression. Both were raised on farms in Oklahoma at a time when most folks didn’t have a lot, or even a little. What they did have they used the hell out of… tools, food, clothes, everything.

Their retained impulse to save everything has long been a source of eye-rolling and exasperation amongst my siblings and I. After all, who is ever going to need an entire drawer full of used bread bags? (I’m not kidding.) Their reluctance to throw food away borders on the dangerous, their refrigerator a biohazard.

Yet in this day where we have clearly endangered ourselves and our planet by making too much and using too much, I’m rethinking how I view their habits. After all, they were re-using and recycling long before there were special bags for it.

This photo series is the beginning of an on-going documentation of their unconscious and automatic reusing of things, as well as some of the thoroughly used objects in their lives.

The luckiest cat photo I have ever taken

Tori — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:12:26 +0000

When I’m experimenting with settings on my 30d, I tend to use my cats as subjects. They don’t complain, but they don’t hold still either. This shot, which looks staged, isn’t. I found her that way, her mouse tucked between her paws, and grabbed my camera. I managed to get off two shots before she changed position. Thanks to Shelah for responding to my quick demand of opening the curtains for more light!

Fruit Strips

Tori — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:24:13 +0000

This macro series I made from unrolling and vertically hanging fruit rollup strips. I hung them using a dowel in front of the cheapo lightbox I had made. They’re disgusting to eat (I had to try them), but make for interesting abstracts.