[ spotlight]
Thursday February 14, 2013
thelantern www.thelantern.com
Courtesy of Nathan Dunmoyer
Some of Dunmoyer’s photographs are slated to be displayed from Feb. 18 through mid-April in Max the Salon, located at 640 N. High St.
Firefigher finds release with photos KAYLA BYLER Design editor byler.18@osu.edu Fighting fires helps Nathan Dunmoyer see the world through others’ eyes, but its through his lens that he allows others to see the world differently. When Dunmoyer moved to Columbus he began to become discontent and unhappy in his personal life. “I started taking some photos,” he said, and “doing a lot of thinking.” Photography became a “self-healing process,” Dunmoyer said. “I started spending a large amount of time on one picture … trying to convey my emotion.” Over the past two to three years, Dunmoyer’s venture into photography has coincided with his personal journey into becoming more comfortable with himself, he said. Dunmoyer grew up in a small town in Indiana, the kind of place where “everybody knew everybody,” he said. “I’m kinda a small town farm kid I guess.” After graduating from high school, he bounced around to several colleges before leaving to take a job at the Columbus Division of Fire. Dunmoyer said he was inspired to become a firefighter after his own house caught fire. “It made me realize what people experience,” he said. A turning point for Dunmoyer came when his friend Ryan Williams passed away in 2011 after being in a motorcycle accident. Williams was a 23-year-old student from New Albany, Ohio, pursuing engineering at Ohio State. “He had a huge lasting impact on you,” Dunmoyer said. “He was just one of those special people.” Williams was a photographer and encouraged Dunmoyer in his own work. Coping with Williams’ death proved a catalyst for Dunmoyer to realize that photography was “something (he had) to do,” he said. It went from being “a hobby to a passion.” Photography has become Dunmoyer’s passion, but he isn’t
seeking fame and fortune. He is more concerned in taking images that inspire a thought or evoke an emotion. Dunmoyer said he is pleased with people merely looking at his photographs. “They wouldn’t even have to buy (them),” he said. He uses his photography to draw attention to the often-missed beauty that is present in day-to-day life, he said. “I like passing a building and taking it from a different perspective,” he said. If you’re willing to take a moment to appreciate a seemingly mundane place it can become “interesting in its own way, beautiful in its own way.” Though he describes some of his images as “dark and eerie,” Dunmoyer said he does this because “a lot of people think that we live in this perfect world.” He attempts, through his photographs, to remind viewers that appearances are not always what they seem. “Much of his work is informed by color contrasts, intense, harsh lighting and objective manipulation of nature,” said Chase Ledin, a third-year in English and sexuality studies, and a friend of Dunmoyer. Beginning by posting photos on Facebook, Dunmoyer started doing more and more with his photography. A little over a year ago, Jennifer Speck, a friend of Dunmoyer, created a professional website for him. Speck met Dunmoyer because she lives in an apartment across the hall from him. “I really knew he had great potential,” she said. “He needed that extra little push, that extra little bit of confidence.” Speck said she created the website because she thought it would help Dunmoyer take himself seriously as a photographer. “(After seeing the site,) it hit me that I might be able to do something more with this,” he said. “I realized I might be able to get my photography out there.” Dunmoyer is working to get his photography displayed in galleries around Columbus. He said some of his work is slated to be displayed from Feb. 18 through mid-April in Max the Salon, located at 640 N. High St. in the Short North.
Columbus’ Own
Courtesy of Nathan Dunmoyer
Some of Dunmoyer’s photographs are slated to be displayed from Feb. 18 through mid-April in Max the Salon, located at 640 N. High St.
In an attempt to shine light on local music, The Lantern’s “Columbus’ Own” is a weekly series that will profile a new Columbus band every week.
Columbus native found gigs through Craigslist, now balances jazz, reggae, R&B projects SARAH PFLEDDERER For The Lantern pfledderer.2@osu.edu Blaine Dillinger is busy. When the 2010 Ohio State graduate catches some spare time between recording sessions with his reggae group in San Francisco, he’s booking gigs for his self-titled jazz group around town. And he does all this while sustaining a long-distance working relationship with an R&B project in Columbus. It all started on Craigslist. The Findlay, Ohio, native said his choice to move to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2011 was always in the cards, and upon relocating, he posted an ad on Craigslist for musicians to play in his jazz band, Dillinger’s Hired Guns. Soon after, he came across another ad calling for a guitarist to join the reggae band Clear Conscience. He joined the group in April and said that’s been his main commitment since. “It was all kind of part of a plan. I wanted to make myself as good of a musician as I could be and then see how far I could take it. I figured the best place to do that would be out here (in San Francisco),” he said. “I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into, I just knew I had to get out here and get into it.” And while Dillinger might be considered a rookie to the five-man group, he’s been in tune with reggae since high school when he first started studying the genre with reggae-island artist Calvin Fuzzy Samuel. “He really got me into the whole reggae, island type of sound,” Dillinger said. He didn’t drop the interest while he was studying jazz guitar at OSU. From the time he was in undergrad until he moved, Dillinger played guitar for Shrub, a Columbus-based reggae-rock group. Studying jazz, he said, has proved to be beneficial in his own jazz group and in playing across different genres of music. “It’s one of those things where they say, ‘If you can play jazz, you can play anything,’” Dillinger said. “It’s really cool because all the technique and the ability to apply the harmonies and the concepts of
Courtesy of Clear Conscience
Blaine Dillinger joined reggae band Clear Conscience in April 2012. jazz cross right over into reggae or into pretty much any other genre.” Josh Badura, drummer for Clear Conscience and Dillinger’s Hired Guns, agreed that his experience with jazz improves his musical aptitude. “As I grow as a jazz musician, my reggae and hip-hop drumming grows immensely,” he said. Badura also said playing with different musicians has helped him improve, and like Dillinger, he credited Craigslist as his go-to networking source with musicians. That’s how he first met Dillinger. “I found his ad and that’s how we met. We originally started doing stuff for Dillinger’s Hired Guns
and then he found another ad for Clear Conscience, and that’s how we both got into Clear Conscience,” Badura said. Dillinger said contacting bandmates this way is becoming more common. “I’ve gotten lots of gigs, bands that I play with, musicians that I play with, from Craigslist,” he said. One group he didn’t rely on Craigslist to join, though, was the Eugene Walker Project (EWP). The Columbus-based R&B recording project recently released its first single “Love Faith Hope” from its album “EWP,” which is slated to release this summer.
Dillinger said he was working on a song for the album a few days ago with O.A.R. trumpeter Jon Lampley, but he was in California and Lampley in Ohio when they were recording together. “It’s mainly just sharing things electronically,” he said of his involvement with EWP. Eugene Walker, songwriter for EWP, said Dillinger’s contributions to the project go beyond just adding guitar riffs, though. “If it wasn’t for Blaine, EWP wouldn’t be where it’s at right now,” Walker said. “He pretty much has acted like an executive producer on the album.” Working remotely with EWP seems to be a part of Dillinger’s plan as well. He hasn’t visited Ohio since moving to the West Coast and it’s not because of the San Francisco weather. “There are a lot of talented players in Ohio and Columbus especially,” he said. “But opportunitywise, there’s a lot more out here. There’s more venues, more varied musical taste. There’s a deeper appreciation for music around here.” Walker echoed Dillinger’s perspective on Columbus’ music scene. “The only problem that I can say Columbus has is the proactivity. (Musicians) don’t believe in networking. It seems that it’s every person for themselves,” Walker said. But with the release of Clear Conscience’s album “Shelter from the Storm” Jan. 22, Dillinger said he’s looking to encourage the group to tour toward the Midwest. Badura said he’d back the idea, but not because he’s looking to tour to Ohio specifically — Badura is from Michigan. He said he and Dillinger often give each other grief for being rivals. “(Dillinger) is one of those bandwagon San Francisco fans, so I get it twice from him — any time we’re playing an Ohio team or anytime we’re playing a Bay Area team,” Badura said. The rivalry doesn’t seem to put any tension between the two though because their friendship centers least on sports, Badura said, and added, “How can you complain about playing music every day?”
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