The portfolio of photographer Ro Tam
June 14, 2010, 9:40 pm
One of my favorite human beings and collaborator, Marie Peller, creates art out of baked goods. This sumo wrestler cake is just a sneak peak at one of her pieces. This photo is a promo shot and place holder for her website thats in the works. In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you want to commission her for a custom edible piece of art because she doesn’t check her email.
May 30, 2010, 11:40 pm
Voxtrot is calling it quits and will be playing a few shows on the west coast before its all over. They skipped Portland and played San Francisco which means we went on a road trip. Everything came together perfectly. Photo pass, free room at the Marriott, Amoeba Records, trashy Ed Hardy lighters, karaoke in Sacramento and VOXTROT. Best road trip ever.
May 29, 2010, 9:55 pm
While down in San Francisco, I snapped a portrait of International Waters from Austin, TX. They opened for Voxtrot and share Mitch Calvert on guitar.
April 12, 2010, 1:23 am
The Slants just released their second album “Pageantry” and I took some press photos for them here in North Portland because my mom told me to. The one with the tie all the way to the left is my brother Simon and the other nice young man with a tie, Johnny, lived down the street from us while growing up. They’ve been in several bands together since high school and I love that they’re still playing music together. Now that I think about, I’ve been photographing their bands for over ten years and they’ve put up with some of my stupid antics at their shows for just as long. Whether you’re into the music or not, the Slants put on quite the rock show and you should make it a point to see them live (not just because my mom says you should).
April 2, 2010, 6:18 am
Beauty Bar, its a chain. You can go for their happy hour and enjoy a martini while getting a manicure. The first time I went to one was while in San Diego for my birthday a few years ago. Originally the plan was to see Erlend Oye perform in Tijuana but there was some kind of complication with crossing the border. Plan B was to check out the grand opening of the Beauty Bar because drinks were suppose to be on the house till midnight. That didn’t happen either. We later found out that the bartenders pocketed the money and had a coke party. Recently a Beauty Bar opened in Portland and I was there photographing it for the Willamette Week. The scene was a lot different than my previous experience but DJ Beyonda was spinning so it seemed more like a Portland queer event.
March 22, 2010, 6:40 am
Spring is here and the Vernal Equinox happened last night while I was asleep. Every year for the past four years I’ve been thinking about the gravitational pull that happens on this day and how you can get an egg to stand straight up. For those past four years I’ve only remembered to try it the day after when it was too late. So this morning I woke up with eggs on my mind determined to take some portraits. Got up early, went to work for some coffee and my deviled egg costume (thats where I keep it), then bought an 18 pack of eggs. I learned that some eggs are better than others. Ten survived. Happy Spring!
March 22, 2010, 6:20 am
I’m starting to get really into Camera Obscuras and Pinhole photography. I just had a nice birthday weekend journey around the great basin region of Oregon to Summer Lake Hot Springs. We went on a wild sage grouse chase, soaked under the stars and turned our cabin into a giant camera obscura. The cabin had a beautiful view of the winter ridge which was projected upside down onto the walls. It was a long exposure but the image wasn’t too clear so thats why theres white paper on the walls. Once again, foil was used to block out the sunlight. Sometimes its worth sleeping in a big tin foil box in the middle of the high desert when you can have the outside projected inside.
