Overview
Fitzbomb.com is an award winning blog which began publication in spring of 2008 as a way to showcase my work. Shortly after its inception, I started to question, "what do people want to see?" "What content is relatable to my work, but adds interest to the paintings themselves?" My immediate answer was that people want to see themselves as well as candid views of the lives of others.
One has only to consider the popularity of "reality" television, or the countless hours spent perusing others' photographs on sites like Facebook, to realize that today's technology provides a new way to fulfill our desire to people watch. While one can still enjoy the activity on subways, in malls, on busses, etc, now one has access to peer into people's lives through the privacy of a computer screen. And the thing is, those people who are being observed, they want to be observed. They have no privacy blockers on their countless online photo albums, they post links to their flickr pages, and blogs of their thoughts.
Fitzbomb.com is a way for viewers to "people watch" myself and the subjects of my paintings in the outside world. The viewer not only has access to view the finished oil painting of my subject, but she may view that subject at a party, art opening or while providing an interview in a personal setting.
Since the people watching aspect was added to Fitzbomb in October of 2008, the site has received nearly 30,000 visits from 119 countries. I have been invited to countless events (openings, music performances, parties, red carpets, theater productions) and asked to bring my camera. The process has become cyclical, as now, I don't just photograph people I paint, but I often meet new portrait subjects through photographing them for Fitzbomb.