Si Vis Pacem

Photo by Rob Salem. Copyright © 2017 Rob Salem/The Stormworks. I took this photo a few years ago, while working on a project that revolved around the veteran suicide crisis, PTSD, and the struggles that combat veterans face when they come home from war. Recent world events and my connections with the veteran community have...

Mountain Climbing

The Black Hills, June 2019. Photo by Rob Salem. Copyright 2019-2021 Rob Salem/The Stormworks There's a saying in the firefighting community that I think has broader applications to life, and especially pursuit of goals and dreams. "Risk a lot to save a lot; risk little to save little." For firefighters, it basically means, "We'll risk...

The Art of Loneliness

Me at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, June 2019. Photo by Scott Pretorius. The more I pursue my artistic interests—whether photography, music, filmmaking, or any of the others—the more I embrace the self-prescribed loneliness that goes with that pursuit. Loneliness as an artist isn’t a universal truth, of course. But I find in my experience...

No Perfect Mondays

Aerial photo by Rob Salem. Copyright © 2021 Rob Salem/The Stormworks I’m one of those guys that likes to plan. And when planning I have a need to make the start of a thing line up with the calendar in such a way that it will start on the “first” of a block of calendar...

Making More of Less: The Spaces Between

  There’s a thought in music that says that the spaces between notes are more important than the notes themselves. Essentially, this is the notion that notes played are made more valuable by the silence around them. As a guitar player I agree with this notion. But I think it’s an idea the goes beyond...

Good? Bad? Good Enough?

I'm currently working on a project that involves going through the several thousand photos I've taken the last few years and figuring out which ones I like enough for commercial use while keeping in mind the purpose of the end product and the probable consumer demographic. It's a project that's been on the back burner...

A New Year & A New Start

  I’ve had this blog for a few years, but haven’t really done much with it the past year or so. The past couple, really. I’ve made occasional posts here and there, but with no consistency nor any mind towards developing the identity of this particular corner of the internet beyond what it’s been for...

El Salvador: Imagen y Palabra

Let’s start with a cliché: El Salvador is a country of stark contrasts. Cliché, but true. I suppose that could be said about most places in the world but given its status as one of the most dangerous countries in the world that isn’t an active warzone, I’d say it’s particularly true of El Salvador....

Ars Gratia Artis

Something that's been bothering me lately is the tendency of others to always make art about money. Before I go any further, I want to clearly state that I'm absolutely in favor of artists of all mediums being compensated fairly for their work, and that the above statement is relevant to a specific phenomenon I've...

What’s In A Name

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I was honored with the opportunity to display some of my social awareness and humanitarian related photo work at the 8th Annual Indiana Campus Compact Service Engagement Summit. The ICC promotes socially and culturally aware social service and engagement, with a focus on developing leaders in the field...