GOD DAMNED, that’s out of No Country for Old Men :)))))

at some point, i wanna do a road trip with Michael too :)))

ok, running….

let comments on last post..

hugs, drive carefully…

love from marina

running
bob

Have a nice trip David and Mike! Looking forward to your new photos!

David, it’s always nice to read your comments and enthusiasm on other projects! I’m also working on my own project now in South Africa facing different challenges and enjoying a new environment… let me tell you that all the different conversations on this site help significantly!

All the best

beatrix

once you mentioned the forum links it reminded me that it was one of the previous posts where i dicovered the work of Laura El Tantawy and obviouslty visited her site(you asked me about that in your reply to my comment on the self portraits project).
Should check some of those 175 links,i bet there some hidden treasure among them.

kudos to you for findind the time to look and review such amount of work.

Have a great trip!

@Kelly: cool that somebody mentions Narelle Autio. Her stuff is very fresh and natural not only in colours but composition as well. The photographs she has in in-public are good.

@David: I’m sure that Audrey will give you a hard time (in a good way) with her photos. She gave me a (good) hard time with my French ;-)

media storm.. nice one kelly.

sounds like you are well on top of how to move forward, ven if right now that might mean being still for a while.
looking at the perspectives which you have photographed from.. the interviews which you have made.. i guess you know in yourself the progression from here… a pause always does good i think.

what i found really refreshing was the subject.. swimming.. i love it.
interesting, fun, irreverent.. it had nothing to do with pensive, serious, tough living or soul-searching as many photographers choose to cut their teeth.

that is not intended as a disrespect of people who shoot more serious subjects.. in fact i have done a lot of serious work myself..
just to say that it was really refreshing to see work which is about a passion for something.. your passion (photography) explaining someone else’s passion (swimming).

thought provoking in a completely different way and including some really quality moments, with both moving and still images.

one thing.. i think your site, along with erica’s, is made using a template.. is that right?
i am wondering what program it is, since i have seen a number of sites formatted the same.. just ogt my head around slideshowpro, and i don’t think it’s that..

? hmm ?

ANDRES

welcome to my first iPhone post! maybe
we can meet…I will pick up film tmrrw Chicago thanks to David M…stay tuned…

cheers, david

I think those floor lamps are in every hotel room anywhere ever

HI David & all,

For the last two months or so i’ve been off line and out of touch.
I’ve been moving from a temporary ‘home’ to a more ‘fixed address’ which being in the ‘bush’ has meant getting internet has been a tad tricky. I’ve also been getting my kids settled into a new school and dealing with many other things. My photography has been forced a little into the background, although I always try and shoot diary stuff.

Anyway, i’m back on-line now and i’ve been reading over some of the previous posts here. Amazing stuff and so much of it…

Time does not stand still not here, nor outside my window. I think when I last wrote here it was late summer (Australia) now it’s mid winter, blue gray early morning light, yellow Wattles in bloom and damp red earth…

I promised last time to get some work on-line to show myself…

Well, reading this post i thought, okay, even though I’ve only a small sample on-line and there is certain work I’d love you to look at, i guess i should just jump in and get things rolling.

I’ll post on the ‘student work’ list too but (hope you don’t mind) i’m gonna put my links here also.

on my web-site i’ve put a Portfolio that has a mix of work from my personal project as well as commissions.

http://www.samharris.phanfare.com

and i’ve just started a blog with a handful of more recent images
http://samharrisphoto.blogspot.com

and a self portrait…
http://albums.phanfare.com/4955643/2187337#imageID=33503731

all the best
and thanks for a great inspiration in all your doing

sam

p.s. my e-mail is: samharris.photo@gmail.com

4 the love of jesu, sam..
that must be the only self portrait based around pain.
i felt that.

AKAKY

Oh, oh, my man, 50 big ones! Don’t know if congratulations or consolations are more in order. In my case, 50 really was the big, the crucial, the ineluctable Rubicon, the crashing end to my outrageously, probably unforgivably, prolonged and delightful and carefree youth. Here’s what happened to me within a month of my 50th birthday:
• I gave up a cushy and overpaid tenured college teaching position at a Japanese women’s college full of cute and generally well-behaved girls
• I gave up my reasonably cheap rented house, where I had lived for 12 years, in the center of one of the world’s most attractive and livable cities (and where housing is very hard to find)
• I left the country, the circle of friends, the nearby hiking trails, the language, and the culture I had been immersed in for nearly 20 years
• I moved to place that even though it was the land of my citizenship felt like a foreign country; where people had rude and uncivilized manners and dressed like bums and whores, where it rains every day for 7 to 8 months a year, where jobs are hard to come by, where there isn’t a decent restaurant within 30 miles, where they roll up the sidewalks at 8 PM on weekdays and all day Sunday
• I married a woman whose baggage included a delinquent teenage daughter and three totally undisciplined and spoiled lap dogs, and a house and an enormous yard that required constant and unrelenting physical drudgery to maintain
• I organized and paid for a lavish wedding party weekend that led to serious altercations and ruptures with respective family members on both sides
• Within weeks it was clear the marriage had been a terrible mistake that would end in acrimonious separation
• My savings were dried up saving her house from foreclosure
• There was an almost immediate deterioration in my previously robust physical condition (I had in the previous year been a mountain climber, sea kayaker, and paraglider)… I could literally feel my body shrinking and getting weaker
• I was overcome with a sense of failure, hopelessness, and depression that lasted for years and still recurs chronically

I could go on, but I think you catch the drift. My advice? Don’t ever turn 50! Or if you must, then resist any and all major changes in your life and surroundings!

Beseechingly,

KELLY :))))

yes, more to write you, but i’ll try to send an email during the week…im so happy you know/like Narelle’s work…when Tamara was here to visit, we chatted about her…everyone knows Trent’s brilliance and im so happy you (others) know her magisterial dreams too :))))…

ERICA: :))…i tried to post the same info on the last thread, only to get hammered, but, that’s all that matters, the process and the discovery…

running away, until august…

hugs
b

DAH – i have been wanting/meaning to comment on your blog for some time – but feel like i am “crashing” a family reunion. i love and admire what you are doing here – creating this online photo family. i have no new work to post – my mexico project has been on the back burner since LOOK3 has taken over my life. however, i plan to use your site and EPF to review work for LOOK3 2009. i have seen a lot of amazing work on this site and will definitely be reaching out to photographers. i hope to be a regular on your site now. safe travels on the road…. hello to Mike… see you in perpignan. xo gina

Hey David,

small question about EPF…will it be like last time where you set a limit on when photos could be shot from and to? Or will it be more open, basically allowing us to submit pictures from anytime? Im going to be submitting Home Sweet Home which you know has been something Ive been shooting for a while now.

hi david. yes i do look at that section. and i know people have been posting links there. but i hesitated to do so because i understood the posting to be only for actual students in your workshops and seminars. am i wrong? may i post a link too?

bj

GLENNN!!!!!!!!!

THERE”S A WOMEN”S ONLY DEMOLITION DERBY EVENT!!!!!

HOW DO I SIGN UP???????????

Is the money good??????????

And how do I get my name back, I am sick of being only three dots..

..
or are you Herve?

what does it say in the Name field of Post a comment? have you tried clearing it and retyping your name?

David and Michael,
Wow! That’s the same Jeep that was in my driveway only a few weeks ago. That’s what I call getting around.

Michael, I hope you’re getting paid by the mile as well.

Best to you both, and safe, fun travels.
Mike

Mike–

I’ve already jumped on the Demolition Derby thing. I found a website that lists Demolition Derbies across the country.

All–

Here’s a link to the photos I took at the Orange County Fair. The photos toward the end are from the Demolition Derby. Almost immediately after leaving the fair, I realized all of the shots the I should have taken at the Derby! Can’t wait to get to the next one.

I would really appreciate anyones and everyones input. Feel free to rip them apart!

http://www.spencerlloydphoto.com/ocfair.shtml

Thanks everyone!

sl

Spencer:

Looked through the work. I see the start of something that could be good with time.

I’m just wondering why you decided on black and white for the demo derby?

I might try color. To me the photos lose a lot of valuable flavor and information with the lack of color. It’s a great slice of Americana, one I shot earlier this fall, but to me a project like that just begs for color.

Just my two cents. The important thing is it looks like you found a subject you’re passionate about.

Keep shooting,
Tim

Erica & DAH – thank you, thank you for the warm welcome! yes, erica – i do remember meeting you. just not sure i remember having “grace” that weekend – more like crazed chaos. i look forward to joining the family…. DAH – have a wonderful workshop in Tuscany – i loved that class with you!! see you soon….

Erica, 3 dots, not me… I never scream online (using capital letters) ;-)

bj,David did not answer, but anyone of us here can. The link is for anyone who cares to put their work up for all to see. Just specify in a few words if that is an ongoing or just finished specific project you want us to look at.

Rafal, I read Times and Newsweek off and on, OK they are not Nader’s official mouthpiece, but this whole idea that they are not highlighting pitfalls in the decisin making and conduting of the war, so that are being hidden the truth just doesn’t stick. It is just important to understand that most americans are not very progressive people, read little (that’s the problem, not the printed word itself) and in their global approach, think on the whole insularly, even bordering on isolationism, which allows at times, paradoxically, unilateralism….The plot always get thicker… :-)

The subject of not showing corpses and coffins is, IMO, pretty close to not showing any boobs or pubic hair on TV (and movies too), censoring prerogatives readily accepted (wrongly maybe) by people and the televisual culture of the country, stuff that will not change one iota if Obama is elected. Do not expect to see any coffins if he “surges” in Afghanistan, if/when elected.

ALL

I am learning SO much and David hasn’t even arrived yet! Isn’t expected to get here until Monday afternoon in fact. But just preparing for his visit, in particular for his review/edit of my Self Portrait/Daily Life project, is showing me things I never knew before.

He asked that I make 4″x6″ prints of all the images I wanted him to see. For me that added up to 60 images–24 from his first online edit, maybe 10 that hadn’t made the cut but that I wanted us to look at again, and the rest new images that no one has seen. Well, what I’m going to say next is something all you film photogs already know, but if there are other digital-only folks out there, this is for you…

PRINTS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE! They make your work real, tangible, something that exists in the world. I’d seen this when I’d printed 38 B&W prints to submit to a magazine last spring, but somehow I’d forgotten.

And the larger the better.

As I’m preparing for DAH’s visit, I’m also preparing for Mary Ellen Mark’s August 2-3 workshop in Upper NY State. That means I’m in the midst of printing 10-20 photos from the same series, each of them in color at 11″x16.5″. What an eye-opener! Colors show up SO differently on paper from how they looked on my monitor. I’m having to adjust color balance and saturation many times over. Luckily I’m doing 4×6 tests before I print the monster sheets, but still. Some images that I’d liked a lot on my computer are much less successful in print, and others look stronger on paper. It’s good to learn that now. I think I’ll be doing some serious re-shooting when I get back home.

HERVE

To answer your question about when our assignments will be finished, I suspect mine will NEVER be finished. Or if it is, it will take at least a year. And that’s probably being optimistic. I guess at some point DAH will take what I have, edit it, and call it “finished,” at least as an assignment. But I’ll just keep on keepin’ on…

AKAKY

When you start moaning about being old at 50, I hope you’ll look at the example of our fearless mentor, DAH. It’s been awhile since he crossed that rubicon and yet. And yet. Does he seem OLD to anyone here??? Gawd, man, he and Mike are planning to arrive in Detroit Monday afternoon, spend time photographing Ed and me, work with me on my project, have some dinner, maybe a little walk by the lake, and then get back in the car and drive all night long, hoping to get back to Brooklyn for a few days before he takes off to give a workshop in Tuscany!

I ask you, does THAT sound like someone who’s cruisin’ down a steep hill in a Cadillac convertible, or someone who’s got his pedal to the metal as he crests yet another hill???

Patricia

David,

Did you actually take the plunge and buy an iPhone? That is a LOT of technology for you to hold in your hand! Or are you just playing with Mike’s?

Watch out… it can be addicting.

David,
I can’t think that you’ll be just 300 km from here for a WorkShop and I haven’t holiday and during the week end I have to go to finish the photo-essay on the old people in a village in Taburno Park (near Naples)..
Do you think that there’ll be a final exhibition so that if I finish I can take a train also to be there for a couple of hours and have a look at the student work?
Who’s going? Only Lassal?

Patricia,
we’ll wait for a report about DAH visit.

All,
now I understand the one that you call lurker or someting like that, having not enought time also trying to read all the notes it’s not easy to keep an eye on everything and write something that has a sens (in english at least).
I found so interesting all the comment in the last post!
It was useful to have, as an answer to a David Mcgowan question, the simple number for presentation, exhibition, book etc.. I use to have a wide selection of 60-70 and a tight of 20 but it depends.
For me it will be really useful to have a Work in progress on the DAH assigment… like a link where we can have a look at the Z selection of Erica, Panos, Bob, etc.. that became C,B and then A with the choice of DAH.
I check the Patricia and Eric ones..
I’ve seen the Cristina one.
May be it needs to much time or may be it’s more personal for someone.

Akaky,
late but Happy B-day

LAURA

Months..but when it come to this stuff I am obsessive and I also had a lot of rescanning / converting files to do, as I was working with all film and a lot of BW. I am sure it wouldn’t take someone else all that long, if they were clear about what they wanted to use and had the files ready.

long time no see…
i thought i should be a little more positive,
and happy tonight… so…there you have it…!

and this one , specially DEDICATED TO DAH & maybe Mike and Bob…

peace
running back to my “beautiful hell”…. ( for now )

Erice/Herve:
I think the mysterious “three dots”, AKA simply ‘., is our cuz/sis Lisa H….

Lisa:
If that is you, as Erica suggested check out the “Name:” field and see if it somehow managed to save that instead of your name. If that doesn’t help, try clearing the cookies out of your browser cache.

Kelly:
A tardy comment on your swimming piece…it rocks! My best friend from the time I was 6 years old and all through HS (and his older brother)
were both swimmers (one step away from the olympic team when they were in college), and I tried it for a couple years. Such a hard sport, where the difference between success and failure can be measured in the hundredths of seconds
..you captured it so well, conveyed the drive and dedication those who choose to pursue – for whatever goal – that sport must have…I liked the sunrise caught in the corner of one shot of the morning workouts that showed how it isn’t your normal “after school” committment. Most of all, I love how you capture colors, this goes for all your work.

Gina:
I know what you mean about feeling like you’re crashing a family reunion! I lurked for about 3 months before posting anything, and even then only did so after chatting via email with a “regular” because I didn’t think I really was “qualified”…and being encouraged to participate..and even now I’m overwhelmed by the talent here….

Eric:
I’m sorry this weekend didn’t work out to get together, but I’m hopeful and confident sometime between wednesday and Sunday when we are back up there will work…will continue to converse with you in email.

As to yoru comments on why you enjoy the project, I think I can relate….I have been trying to think of a theme, a topic, on which to focus…and just doing that has me now thinking in terms of projects, and the ideas are starting to flow….I am keeping them in my note-book, and reviewing, updating, revising…perhaps one will speak to me. And evenif not, I am stretching, growing…reaching…which is the point, at least for me.

Mike:
I did, indeed, understand what you meant with your “energize the edges, the field” suggestion, and have kept that and a few other nuggets in mind when shooting over the last couple weeks…Thanks for the tip on the book – will look for it soonest, and I’m also going back through your recent posts, I looked at them before, but not fron that perspective.

Akaky:
Happy belated birthday!!!…you’ll be pleased to know that having read your words and seen your images both here and on LS, I often thought “wow, i was I was young and could be cool like he is…”. :) Not too many years before I hit that landmark (mine?) myself…

Patricia:
I picture you wheeling through your home with dozens and dozens of 4x6s stuck to all objects….a fun image! I often will take 4×6 or 5×7 prints and leave them in a room where I often work/sit/read, just to let them be “absorbed”….sooner or later, they seem to end up being adopted or thrown out very decisively…

HERVE!
(sorry, just had to yell that ;) You’re another one I pictured as a member of the young cool set….such great insights! Perhaps there is something to this over-45 thing that has an upside….

ALL
One quick question on the student links…I’ve looked at lots of them (ok, I confess, that’s why I lurked so long…intimidated!), but then haven’t really gone back….are you guys posting new stuff to those same links, or putting in a new entry with your link when there is new work to be seen?

best to all,
Andrew

There’s Panos!

thanks aplenty herve!

Panos!

Was saving this one from one of my recent remedial exercises for you!

Those are socially correct (lawn) jockeys in the background, holding the names of stake race winners this year….saw this one and we couldn’t resist…

http://photos.imageevent.com/j_andrew/whimsy/large/IMG_10214_001_sm.JPG

Tim–

Thanks for looking. I had heard from Patricia about the MEM workshop and tried to sign up, but it was full. They are going to photograph the Ulster County Fair, and that just seemed like such fun, so I started looking for other County Fairs in the Area and found the Orange County Fair complete with Demolition Derby! I really had no idea what to expect, and I recently started shooting black and white again and have really been loving it! I completely understand what you’re saying about the color opportunities at a Demolition Derby. The cars were painted with some really amazing colors. But I think the B&W creates such a different feel, like the photos are from another time. I kind of relate the Demolition Derby with the 50’s, so the B&W feels really right to me. I looked at some of your site. I have to get back to it. I really loved what I saw. You are great with color. I looked at your portraits and your trucker photos. Really nice work. An issue I seem to have with color in uncontrolled environments is that there often seems to be some element in the background that’s a very glaring color and very distracting. The same element probably would not be an issue as a gray tone.

Akakay–

Happy birthday… my father is 74. Spring, Summer and Fall, you can’t get him off the sailboat, and winter he’s constantly on the slopes. And when he’s not sailing or skiing, he’s traveling. He’s definitely not old! I’m about to come upon my 44th. Nice to know I only have 6 more years before I can start living comfortably if Herve is right!

sl

okay..

ALL & the rt honorable DAH.

i’m stuck.
there are two things i could do on and for this forum and i’m not sure which to follow..
hmm.

1 – post work i am doing now.. this is documenting my time in stavanger, european city of culture 2008 and all that.. my impressions.. show what the city is about.
it’s rolling along and i’m enjoying it, however it has nothing to do with my long term projects..

2 – post what i am working on with the long term project – mostly shot over the past decade and with probably another years shooting and editing to be done for a book.

the thing is that i am not shooting much of 2 right now, due to lack of funds and the fact that where i need to go with it now will be without commission.
the music gatherings i need for completion are of no real interest to magazines.. (non-commercial.. small..) and that was how i have, (bearly), been able to fund the rest of the work.

at the moment i am shooting much more of ‘1’, however what i would like considered for mentoring, possible funding and development is ‘2’..

DAH – could i set up a blog perhaps.. ‘making a book’ or somesuch.. and would the editing process for ‘2’ and where i need to shoot next be considered for the EPF?
OR
will i post my current photo-mumblings.. ‘1’, disconnected from my long term projects, although illustrating my developing practise and more ‘live shooting’?

i’ve been easing into this forum for long enough now to be ‘putting up’.. i’m begining to feel like the guy who’s turned up to the party without any alcohol to share… and i’m kind of struggling about what to share.

conflict.
the work i have been doing over time, but don’t shoot much of right now
or
the work i am doing now.. which does not fit into the longer project i am trying to finish this year or next.

i have to make a decision myself, however – opinions would be great.

one way or another i would like to be in on the next round of assignments.. they seem great fun and it would be good to get live feedback during a shoot..
i guess i would also like to ask for feedback on the larger editing project i now find myself doing.

if that post was utterly confusing i apologize.. it was a late night.

any and all opinions will br heartily recieved.

DAVID:

Hope you are doing well. I took some time away from the computer (and therefor the blog) over the last week as we have been having a break before leaving Asia, so I am waaay behind…. Anyways, in a couple of Jess will be flying back to the States (brother’s wedding) and I will be heading back to England. Some poor weather has dragged me back inside though, so I have started to get work organized as I prepare a new portfolio…

I posted a soundslides presentation of stuff shot in Macau a week or so back. Not sure if you caught it or not?… The soundslides thing was really just for fun, but it shows a large edit of the work…

http://www.jameschance.com/macau

I have edited the piece down now too, this is up on my site. I would really appreciate your thoughts on this work, and my edit when you get a minute. My TB/HIV story is also up on my site now. I would like to know if you think this edit is too lengthy? Not sure if I should cut a couple of shots?

http://www.jameschance.com

Finally, I am interested to hear what you consider my two strongest essays as I intend to choose two for my portfolio to show during my time in Europe (London, Perpignan etc.). Your opinion will be very useful at this time.

I do hope you are enjoying working on your families project. From what I have read on the blog, it certainly seems so. You are certainly getting around! Shit though brother! You must be spending half you budget putting gas in that Wrangler. Can’t you talk Mike into a nice little Honda Civic or something!… ;)

I was thinking, I know a family that may be of interest?… Through the America at Home project a while back I was introduced to a rather interesting family, The Enders, who are “nocturnal”. Mother JIll has always been a night owl, so now her family (three kids) have followed suit. Jill home schools her kids. When I visited it was around 11-12pm and they were all sitting around the table doing maths. Their father was having surgery when I visited, which is whey they were staying with a friend in Ohio I think, as they actually live in California. Really, really nice family though, very close and lots of love shared. I was very touched meeting them… They just like the night… Anyways, let me know if this maybe of interest and I would be happy to give Jill a call.

Safe travels on the road, look forward to hearing from you

James

audrey

this looks absolutely beautiful… such an intimiate portrait of brigitte et bernard… it makes me want to go photograph my family as well, makes me think why i am always looking far and beyond while the greatest treasures i have are closest to me…

i tried looking again with your question of editing it down in my head, but i couldn’t leave out anything.. i’m really curious what others think..

great great work audrey.. thanks for sharing

antn

AUDREY

Le travail est vachement fort; j’espere que tu le sais..tu as un vrai cadeau; tu donnes l’acces d’une monde prive dans une facon respectueuse mais au meme temps la porte est ouverte a nous sans censure..j’espere que ce travail continue..

Naturellement je prefere quelques images..ils sont intemporels! comme 4,5,7,10,11,12,13,14, 16!!, 17, 18, 20, 21!!, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 38, 39, 40!!, 42, 45!!, 48, 49!!..

Il y en a deux avec “25”, peut etre tu peus le changer a 25a et 25b..

AUDREY

thank you for sharing this beautiful and intimate story of your parents. can you give me your email or website to add to my list of projects to look at for LOOK3?

you have some wonderful moments – 10, 15, 16, 17, 20, 24, etc…. yes editing your own work is difficult. i do think you need a tighter edit of the hospital images. 31 and 38 are very strong. i think the ones you can probably edit out are 25, 32, 36, 37, 42, 49, 50… just a thought.

wonderful and moving project… gina

SOPHIA…

i will contact you soonest..maybe when i am in Tuscany…

i have no idea why i did not see your e-mail when you were in New York…to be honest, in my case it is always a good idea to try to reach me several times…do not be shy….i am bombarded with e-mails, phones messages etc., so sometimes i just miss…i do make every effort not to let any messages slip by, but every once in awhile it happens…

ANDRES…

i am still in Chicago, but leaving this morning at some point…i photographed families all around the Chicago Cubs game yesterday and then moved down by the lake…i must say Chicago is one very well organized and nice nice beautiful city at least along the waterfront…however, i do know a “cold wind blows” in january etc etc!!!

i sort of expected a phone call from you, but we would not have had much time to chat in any case…when i am actually shooting/working is not the best time to meet generally…but, i will be back through again later in the fall and perhaps we can spend some time…

DAVID MCGOWAN….

many many thanks amigo for setting up the “film drop” with Ken…nice guy…he came riding up on his bike as per planned and he gave me the 10 rolls of Tri-X 220..the last 10 rolls in Chicago!!!!

i will call you when i hit the road this morning….i will need to be at Patricia’s house by 4 or 5 this afternoon…..

PATRICIA….

on my way…well, almost on my way…i will call mid morning….

cheers, david

LAURA M….

i think i have 8 or 9 students in Tuscany…one of them is Lassal, but i do not know yet who the others may be…this workshop is organized by Carlo Roberti and i have not seen a class list…by now, Carlo is reading the blog and seeing that i am in an old jeep and in the middle of America and trying to imagine how i am going to be in Italy by saturday….hmmmmm, yes..but , do not worry, i will be there!!

yes i think you could show up at the very end of the workshop for the final show and festa…i have many Italian friends, former students etc., who will come to see me at the end of the workshop….as a courtesy, please call Carlo and ask…he sometimes freaks out at the size of my extended Italian “family”, but he will be fine if you just talk sweet to him..or, better yet, talk to Anna…she makes everything happen…i will also tell both you may come…

RAFAL….ERICA

you really do not need to do anything yet…i am well aware of your work…at some point fairly soon i will make an announcement just to make sure that everyone who wants to be seen is seen….the whole point of the assignments was so that a jury would be able to see how a photographer has developed and what kinds of work they can do in a relatively limited time frame and just how important their project is….

but again, this is a relationship, not a contest…anyone here who wants me to see their work, can either post a link or come up with an assignment idea as have you..

current print magazines have a “pool of photographers” they know and trust….over this past year, we have developed the same thing here…quite a bit of work has been spawned from many of you on this site…this has become a solid working relationship….and getting more interesting and better all the time…

the only thing i must check now is a legal question….and that is whether or not i can randomly give out a stipend for a photographer to continue her/his project or if i must have a set and organized date for doing so…

because i am raising funds for EMF under the non-profit status of the Magnum Cultural Foundation, i have to follow certain legalities for the disbursement of those funds….anyway, this is not really a big deal, i just need to do a bit of research on this…i.e. talk with the Magnum lawyer!!!!

the funds exist already to give out three EPF stipends as i gave Sean Gallagher earlier this year…or maybe one larger one??? i do want to go for more, but i am not sure how a bad U.S. economy is going affect my goals…my intention is to give out say 5 significant stipends…perhaps 2 to iconic established photographers and 3 to emerging photographers from this forum…this would give our whole stipend program a certain kind credibility in the photographic community..

as you know at my loft workshops in New York, i totally blend the iconic photographers with my students…for example, for the final student show i lead with say Elliott Erwitt or Alessandra Sanguinetti or Nachtwey or Richards and then have the student show follow…almost everyone told me i was crazy to do this, but it worked!!! this blends the iconic with the emerging in a very special way and gives honor to the “established” and allows everyone to see the “emerging” on the same platform….

ok, i must go go ….Patricia and David M. are “out there” down the highway waiting for me…i must go wake Michael up….i am a 6am up with the sun type…Mike is , well, a later starter!!!

peace, david

David, damn..i so wanna come to one of those wkshps at your house

p.s. your blog rejected my post as spam…can you guys check it and see if you can fix it? I posted some links to some new stuff Im doing…in color….

Yes, I shall be present in Perpignan in September, I lived at the moment at my parent’s ! At the 1 am by car of Perpignan !
I shall be enchanted to meet you,
Kind regards, audrey

David,
Thank you, you always find a solution, I’ll try to contact Carlo or Anna (?) and come for the final party but only if it’ll be possible without bothering them or anyone at all.
Or we’ll meet, may be it’s better, with Audrey and all the other in Perpignan.

David B.,
what about a number 3? :)
If the choice is between 1 and 2 I’ll tell you N.2 for sure may be something linked to that.

Audrey,
do you have another link, that one is not working in my PC (I can’t upgrade right now), I’m so curious.

Erica,
Three years ago I spent almost one year just scanning and editing all my past work to do with a portion of that the second version of my web site and just 15 days to realize it on flash.
Of course going on photographing..
Then… i went on editing the same and other essay but… I can’t modify the web site… It seems to me time stealed, subtracted to the photographic work (or social?)

… of course we want to see the essay of Gina.

thanks laura..
blog building now.. number three is of course to do both and show them…

gina.. please.. pretty please..

audrey.. excellent work .. i hope the photography is helping life in general along.
how did you get on with ‘millenium images’?

best
d

gina

that gave me a giggle.. there must be very few projects in which a couple more chicken photos are needed before completion..

yours, interested
david

dah:

enjoy your travels. i’m on one of my own right now in alaska. pics on my blog.

this forum rox.

ANDREW B,

Hope you enjoyed your time at the tournament…I will keep you posted on what my plans are for the coming week… There is one big watchout as I shared a bit earlier on the blog…I did find out that the kids I am following for my boxing essay are participating into a boxing competition that takes place in Columbus, as part of the State Fair. This actually starts this Wednesday and lasts until Saturday…I just found out about this event and obviously I was meant to be at work this week, but I am trying to do a last minute DAH change of plan, get on the “road” and try to join this event….this may be a great opportunity to get out of the Gym and see these kids in different setting which is what I was trying to do for a while…If I decide to be more “serious” and not leave work I will be in town on Wednesday and Thursday to hopefully meet with you but if I go “wild”, I might be out by Wednesday morning and off to Columbus… My heart tells me to go….my head tells me that I have a lot of work to do this week….who knows what I will decide….keep you posted in any case….

GINA,

I do not know you but somehow I was aware of this project of yours…Cannot recall when/how but wonder if David might have mentioned your project when I attended one of his workshop…In any case, great to have you here and look forward to see your project…I am sure it is tough to edit a project of 7 years…I have …I will also be in Perpignan and was hoping to meet whoever from the blog will be there…Might have a chance to also meet.

Cheers,

Eric

ERIC
Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to add another diminsioin to your project. I’m sure that such an event is a very big deal for the kids, and to be able to capture that aspect is one of those rare opportunities…I certainly understand the “head vs. heart” decisions that must be made…no problem if it doesn’t work this time, we are so close…we’ll just keep in touch.

ALL
Any suggestions for events or workshops in the mid or east parts of the US that are coming up in the fall or winter? I am already planning on attending Look3 next year…

ps. you cant be serious about the film in Chicago, with its photographic history. I cant imagine that film over there is hard to find.
thank god there is no problem in LA for film.

Hey James,

http://www.jameschance.com/macau

one can always cut stuff out, I guess, but I liked it a lot. To me, it tells me of a place that has lost its identity but where you can easily find your way and function, just as you would in any other mega asian capital. Forget asian or capital, any mega city in the world. You caught a lot of in between mood shots, self-inquisitive, very open-ended (Pink floyd’s music helps) in a way that we do easily reciprocate that mood, watching, and get inside the frame, since these places are familiar, so familiar…

As an after-thought, With the MM installation, it may not be about photography (So many times, a photos is not about photography but about…. Just being a Photo), doesn’t matter if that is the case, I wonder if for you, that was something you can call work, or just done on the side of your more journalistic endeavours.

Isnt 6 am the middle of the night?

gina..

it took me a long while to get the cow photo i was after for my goa project in 97..

:o)
http://www.bophoto.co.uk/singles/singles.htm

any tips on editing from many years would be gratefully received..
i have one 7 year project and a ten year one to edit.. waiting for the negatives to be shipped as i have recently emigrated.

i think i’m going to be doing a lot of writing … start dedicated blogs for both projects.. then editing.

lots of short stories as well, which i have yet to digitize..

editing can be as much fun as the shooting itself i think – and hopefully once all my negs are in one place it will fall together without too much stress..

welcome..

Steak n Shake photo edit:

http://www.humanfiles.com/journal_galleries/steaknshake.htm

ANTON – yes, it is me – your (brief) roommate at LOOK3. Wait – that did not sound good…. Anton needed a place to stay the night before the workshop – so i put him up in the LOOK3 flop house for a night.

ERIC – would like to meet in perpignan too. lets all touch base before we leave and pick a day and time to get together. I will be there for a week (going for work).

DAVID B – i like the cow photo – i assume that is the first one in your “singles” portfolio. I also like the tattoo guy on the beach. i am going to work on my edit with a co-worker from NG this week and hope to put something up soon.

Yes, editing is the hardest part – but so important. you always need a tight but strong edit and it is so difficult to edit your own work – especially when it is so personal. sam abell has helped me a bit with the edit and he said to pull out one of your strongest images and use that as your bar. if it is not as strong as that image – put it aside. when i show my work to another photographer or editor – i try to just show the strongest 20 images. you can definitely lose someone interest with too much work.

NACHO – i checked out your site – nice work. i like the camel walking into the doorway. i also really like the young girl smiling/laughing in the refugee camp – you captured a special moment with that one… i too live in DC. if you ever get down town near National Geographic – let me know – we can meet for coffee. my email is gmartin@ngs.org. gina

ERICA,
damn.. thanks for the video…
i havent seen it before… and there is no way i could expect…
that “script” or “plot”… or twist in it…
( immigration officers, etc )…
hmmm..
thanks again…

DAVID MCG…
i dont know , i really dont know why…????
but if we were ALL rappers for a day…!!!
i see you as EAZY E… Compton… ORIGINAL…
Anyways, i missed earlier your link with the narration…
cool! keep it up!

anyways , this one for you!!!:

Im not sure its about the “Yes” factor..I think its more about keeping a certain mood instead of keeping the best shots. If a shot is great but somehow doesnt fit in the body of work, be it mood or content or style, even if it is a brilliant image, it shouldnt stay in, and a weaker but a more relevant image should be kept. Ofcourse the quality should be high in the first place what Im saying is that even your best image might not make it into the edit if it strays from the overall body of work you are putting together. For me that was a struggle, as some of my better images from the Look3 slideshow didnt end up in it because they dilluted the mood. Since then Ive taken them out and now am aiming to shoot more tightly, actually editing before I even click.

PANOS: :))))

chronic spend a good long while on walkman (remember that shit) when dre left nwa, ….

so, now gotta give you some lovin’ back…gotta say, dre makes me swoon, but Ice is what cuts my my heart, since the time i rolled over one night at a part in a part of pittsburgh i had no frickin’ right to be in, at a party i’shouln’t been at, and that night tricked me in a rich gorgeous cocked-up cock way…

for you bro:

and an old photograph for you….late-late late at night in spain…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/300277044/sizes/o/

running

hugs

b

and an old photograph for you….late-late late at night in spain…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/300277044/sizes/o/

BOB, YOUR PHOTO IS AMAZING…
i have a similar shot from a bar in barcelona ( old town )…
that reminds me … but mine is weak, thin, skinny…
your PHOTO ABOVE is full,, is phat, dope, great…
jesus… im throwing “mine” in the trash… nowwww…

thank you … look at this PARADOX…
YOUR PIC BROUGHT ME BACK A MEMORY THAT BELONGS TO ME…
( thats how much powerful your photo is… it makes me think its my photo…!
im almost convinced,….???????? )

LET ME KISS YOUR ASS ONCE MORE…
GREAT MOTHERFUCKING PHOTO…
BRAVO !!!! ( and i still think this photo, should be mine !!!! )

Yeah Panos call me Easy D

DAVID

I have no words big or deep enough to say how grateful I am for the time and attention you gave me tonight. And it is a tremendous honor for Ed and me to be subjects for your “Off for a Family Drive” project. Please give Mike our deepest thanks too. It was wonderful to get to know him better. Have a wonderful workshop in Tuscany. Those are lucky people!

ALL

Well, David & Mike have come and gone, but they will not be forgotten. Two of the sweetest, most generous-spirited fellows I’ve ever met. Every minute spent with them was pure delight. Can’t think of any other 3 1/2 hour period of of my life that was so instructive and transformative. I feel like I just took a giant step towards becoming a real photographer, and I owe it all to DAH.

For those who have met and worked with the master, you already know what I’m going to say. During a one-hour edit we covered more territory than in any class I’ve ever taken. It was all about educating my artistic eye, as well as learning important technical information. David inspired, pushed, critiqued, taught, supported and helped me refine my focus in relation to my Self Portrait/Daily Life project. I came away from our time together not only with a tight edit that I feel good about but with a stronger sense of myself as a photographer. I also now know where I want to go with this work. Priceless stuff, that.

So, here’s what I stayed up late to bring you–a gallery of photos of our visit:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/dah

PASSWORD patricia

Tomorrow I’ll post a link to our tight edit but now I’ve got to go to bed. Night night…

Patricia

PATRICIA…

Wonderful!
Are we sure this guy is really DAH?
Or is he Santa Claus, coming early? :))

ERIC…

You are probably torn about what to do.
If it doesn’t work out this time something else will come along but I hope you are able to go!

Thank you…

Gina, I am delighted to know that we shall soon meet, and I hope to see also very soon your work (I like your ” idea of the bus “!)

David Bowen, I still thank you, I sent a link to Millennium Images but I do not still have of return, I shall not miss to hold you informed…

Laura, I know in no way why the link does not walk(work) on your computer, I can maybe send them to you by e-mail, in any small format ? There is 50?

Hervé, thank you for the link, I knew Pete’s certain works (Alyssa, Migueltio…)I like your last work (news), you made an enormous work!

Laura, Eric, Pierre-Yves, and all here, in the pleasure to meet you in Perpignan…
Kind Regards, audrey

Herve, I wouldnt say shooting tight..Id say shoot loose but shoot with something in mind..I dont think shgooting loose is shooting just anything, I think you still want to shoot on message. For me shooting loose means getting in the moment and shooting. However still with something in mind, like mood for example. I do think that it goes beyond personal projects though, for example if you have photos shot really beautifully, organically, where the onus is on emotion and suddenly in there comes this highly rigid graphical and detached shot…it ruins it. But it can go the other way too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinju/sets/72157606002172259/

This is a project Im doing….it took me several weeks to figure out where Im going with it and what I want. And thats a dtachment, a lack of intimacy, a distant perspective, almost a lack of any sort of humanity, and if so a humanity dwarfed by the environment. I originally had some intimate close ups where humans played a central role in the action but now those would be like a pebble in a shoe. And there were some really good shots I edited out of the set. But they didnt fit.

In the riverside project Im shooting tight, in the Home Sweet Home Im still shooting loose, i think, still more in the moment rather than thinking about anything else…but still hopefully in that same mood.

If that makes any sense.

I guess all Im saying is is that sometime your best shot wont fit the project in terms of not only mood but content, aesthetics….be it personal or journalistic in nature.

The YES factor might lead to detract from the whole thiong, which would be a real danger.

Cheers HERVE! The whole shoot was really an experiment in cutting loose. I had piled a lot of pressure on myself producing the earlier projects on this trip and was feeling tired and rather lost in this strange city. Basically I just decided to cut the pressure valve and hit the streets shooting as freely as possible. This was the result. It certainly helped me clear my head if nothing else!

DAVID: Can you let me know if you caught my last message. I don’t want to keep bugging you.

James

late night tunes: Einsturzende Neubauten

GINA

Thanks!

I live very near NG. I’ll definitely come have that coffee when I’m back in DC (probably not before October).

Cheers,

Nacho

Ubiquitous … hmmm…

Hi all …
I have not been involved here much lataly. I wanted to post an essay to talk about but I have been doing quite different projects lately. Out of necessity more or less. No time for photographic essays at present time, just time for a lot of thoughts, doubts and some little photos here and there. Thus nothing to show. I feel really bad about it. And in this sense I am a little worried about the workshop, too.

The workshop actually was David’s idea and I was instantly excited about it, especially because it was just in a small time window I had – and as some other thing got called off, I had some spare money, too. Pure coincidence! And so I just went for it right away.

Later I realized I do not have time to prepare anything relevant, thus I will arrive with empty hands. Absolutely, completely, totally empty hands! Nothing to show, nothing to edit. That is crazy! And on top of all I probably will not even manage to take my good camera … Just my little pocket camera(s). Ok, I did the Africa-Documentation with it and the pictures are ok, as long as there is enough light around, but it does not really look as if I am taking things very seriously.

hmmm … There I have the chance of doing one of these great workshops with DAH and there I am like a complete idiot.

I will try to have some fun, I will try to learn as much as possible and perhaps answer some of the more craving questions that are torturing me. I had told David a while ago that I envy most of you because even if you might have trouble finding time and/or money to do what you long for, most of you absolutely know what you are after.
I am actually completely insecure about this myself. And that is hell.

Well, in any case I consider myself happy to be able to go to the workshop, to get to see David and to listen and see whatever there will be to listen and see. And of course to make a lot of photos!

I was thinking, I could maybe make a quick and dirty essay about the workshop itself, next to whatever might happen on the workshop but I have not talked to David about it so I do not know if this would be on his radar.

So I hope you wish me luck with this – so I do not completely screw it up …

Peace,
L

NASHA, AUDREY!!!!!!!!

GORGEOUS STUFF!!!!!!!!!!

YOU GO GIRLS!!!!!!!!!

Ooops, shhh sshhhh, I am er, ‘screaming’ again. Damn sorry Herve!!!

GINA

Anyone that spends 7 years on a bus shooting is someone I would love to meet!!!!!!

In lieu of that, I would love to see the pics!

PATRICIA

Yep, DAH is a ‘doll’ but isn’t Mike a cutie as well, lovely guy and an unsung hero in lots of ways…

SO LADIES…

Looks like the odds have evened out on this blog…

Thanks DAH for the first forum I have ever been in where there are just as many women as blokes in photography, its somewheat of an achievement I think!!!!!

PS Hopefully my name is back now…

LASSAL:

:))…it is never WHAT YOU HAVE (equipment wise) that makes for a great workshop but WHO YOU ARE….this couldnt be more true when you have a relationship with David as well…(and i’ve never done a workshop with him, just a friendship born from this place)…

it’s (for me) often the most depressing mentality that i encounter: tools trump the spirit..ANYONE CAN BUY A LEICA/NIKON/CANNON/ROLLEI/HASSEL/HOLGA/LOMO/ fill in the __________________ but not everyone is Lassal….

I am sure you will have a brilliant time and do well and burn light into the eyes of others :)))….

PATRICIA:

:))))…happy you had a chance…and that young cowboy (aint talkin’ bout Michael) is one beautiful motherfucking hombre (the eyes, the eyes, the face)….HAVE FUN WITH MEM….

PANOS: :)))…yea, ice goes back (remember seein’ them (nwa) in boston, long before any of those dues were dead or movie stars or producers…and that pitbull voice has got one of the most beautiful smiles on the planet ;)))…..thanks for the words about the old pic: that’s Seville, …from a series about bars…wait until you see Bones ;)))…

ROBERT/ANTON :))…WHEN BLIXa and company were 3 years ago to promote their last album (yea, they’re much softer, but i still dig em and him), Einsturzende Neubauten was recording their live album…on that album you can hear Marina Banshee/African wail/screem….:))..end of 1st cd…

running
b

Rafal

Trzymaj się cyfry, gdyby nie to ze cyfrowo mi nie wychodzi juz dawno rzuciłbym tradycyjna fotografie w cholere. To nie jest zdowe i normalne. Mam dziesiątki filmow ktore leza i czekaja na wywolanie… no i poczekaja jeszcze.

Pozdrawiam

ALL / ERIC

Here’s a shot taken by assist. Tom Sullivan from yesterday of the little outdoor set up..seems I am smiling ear to ear, I think it was because I got to sit down and have something to drink!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3226/2713767576_1e473a1d48.jpg?v=0

ERIC/ DAH (former Ohioan that you are) note the Ohio State t-shirt, I am wearing the image of the mascot Brutus Buckeye..

RAFAL

I think the question then becomes about how you define what a YES! photo is..after all, only I (you) choose that photo, and it could be for many reasons, i.e., because it informs the mood you are after. And that is why I said that after some time, there often comes another YES! photo as things develop. But I was also talking about editing along the way, not after everything is shot. So the temporary YES! image helps by creating a foundation from which to move.

PATRICIA

Great to see your images of DAH, also editing your work, and I love the ‘serious moment’ shot.

LISA,
oh thank you, hmmm … unfortunately I cannot check it right now. I am travelling (assignment) and stupidly enough forgot to take my new webmail-passwords. So I can go online but I cannot check my mail… :(

Can you post it here?
Otherwise I will be back at home right after the workshop.
Hmmm… I will see if I find a way to get to my passwords…

BOB,
thank you for your encouragement. I was originally thinking the same, thus that it would not matter what camera I took, as long as I take something like a camera. In fact I am mostly taking pictures with this little point-and-shoot cameras, as I always have them with me.
I have not been seen as a serious photographer in Kenya because of the camera – which lead to some very nice pictures. But what I was afraid of is to give DAH the idea that I am not really taking this serious. I mean, Bob, it is not even the fact of it being a point-n-shoot, but you should look at that piece!!! It looks like 10 years in the ocean. They used to make these nice metal cases at Nikon’s even for the coolpix cameras. Nowadays it is just painted plastic. And the paint comes off way to easy, too. So it looks like straight from the waste-bin.

I feel quite uncomfortable holding this under DAH’s nose…

But well, if I do not get home before the assignment it will be just me, my two jeans and this camera. :)

Audrey
I loved your “Portrait” and … wow… the rest … no words right now! Please, please go on with this and my best regards to your father. I hope he recovers soon. So great that he trusts you in this and allows this openness. And thank you so much for charing!!!

Patricia,
thank you for charing your photos, thoughts and time with us, too. The insight is very helpful. I am thinking like a madman about a project I could pursue with David. It is always so different and so, so much more, when you have something specific to talk about and not mere abstraction….

BOB …
… just thanks again :)
I am getting the jibbers (if there is such a thing, but it sounds right).

Peace,
L

Nasha, I like totally!! I like your use of the format landscape and portrait…

Rafal, I find your very interesting approach, your “empty” foreground and your “full” background, where we imagine this big city which swarms with world…

Patricia, I think that you are creating a very “big” work…

Lassal, thank’s, my parents are absolutely adorable persons…

Oh Audrey, but it is I who am in awe of YOUR work!!! The gallery of photos of your parents is poignant, powerful and beautifully understated. A most significant body of work. I hope your father is doing better and will soon regain his good health.

Patricia

ERICA

You are so right! I see it as the only way to deal with this camera on a good way.

And I am trying to do so, too. But sometimes is just too much necessity, you see? For example I do very often HAVE to convert into black and white, if I want to save an image, that ended up with too much noise. Because that is the only way I know of I can turn this noise into something acceptable.

There was this one day in Mosocho (Kenya), where we went to photograph families. And I knew it was no way for me to manage that because the skies were dark as night, there was no light inside the houses and no way to use flash. I told the other photographer that it was his turn and that I would pass this time. Of course standing there, I ended up taking some pictures, but I could not even see the results on the monitor, so dark were they.
Then what happened?! The datachip of the other photographer got damaged and his version of the day was 100% gone. The only thing that was left were my little snaps and by converting them into b/w and adjusting a little I really still got something out of it. Not the perfect familiy-shots because I was aiming at other things but … well at least there were some people on here and there and not all was lost. But from that day on we had the colour series and the b&w series, which made things more complicated…

Very often now I am into b&w BECAUSE of the camera. It should be because of the subject.
I really love b&w… But sometimes it is wrong.

LASSAL,
good luck,
and dont worry too much…
we ALL know that you are brilliant…
Bob is right… many cameras out there BUT, ONLY ONE
LASSAL…
peace

Erica

I try several different ways to do it.

When I talk with them they are mostly nice, but when I try explaine that I am photographer and I am working on some project/article/book/exhibition for magazine/newspaper/publisher/gallery ( all could be truth if future, many people asking about this project, but right now is not finished) they always stop smiling and mostly cover face like I try to take them pictures or hit them even if my camera was in bag. I ask old, young, couple, whole families.
Belive me this is really hard town. This is not first time when I ask people for portraits in many places. Many times they said no, and many yes. But in this town when I walk with camera outside, poeple wathing me like wolfs who dont know that they should attack now or not.
Three times I was attact and almost not loos my equipment by guys I even not shoot.

Erica I know that I am guy and not too much nice mostly. Probably you and David bring from them many nice portraits, but I can do nothing there, even if I have not many problems in others places. I never said that I am good in interpersonal relationship, I have many huge problems with that (I am freak), but people mostly not refuse me.

It always looks fuuny when their faces are changed when they hear: meybe I could take your pictures?
Like I ask about their blood.

Like I said, it is almost statistically impossible.

I don’t know… mostly I shots some portsits and then I don’t use them after final edit. But For me without some portraits whole essay not exist. Probably I will not use it in this essay also.

Good news is that I found one person (insaider like panos always said) who will help mi with this portraits.

peace

ps. When I took pictures of this two old mens, only one has agreed and help me convice this second guy… ha ha ha

Peace Panos.
Hope you still say that AFTER you have seen some of my pictures.
:)))
You can bet I will ask you!

Ok, I’ll go to Tuscany with my little troll and make some nice & revealling photos of the workshop so you all can see what went on. By the way, we are having 35°C in Frankfurt right now. I fear Tuscany is boiling at the moment.

ERICA,
I have missed your explanation about the project you are doing right now (These blogs would need some good seach functions…). Are you doing that alone? I mean, is there someone regularly with you when you are standing with all of your equipment on the street?

Sometimes situations can get quite out of control…

Marcin,

this sounds difficult… Have you tried to show them some samples of your work? Maybe they do not believe you to be who you say you are??

Someone I know in Brazil always told people they could get famous if they were photographed by him… He said he got the darkest guys posing for him this way. :)

Nothing I could do, though. I am never convincing if I am not convinced.

a, I forgot to mention, yes if was time to show my pictures I show. This is like my famili, they just do not want to be shooting.
But of course it is my mistake. If I could be more like David and I have gift to open people it could be easer.

but anyway meybe it all will change soon.

HELLO ALL….

i have read all recent comments and would love to “jump in” , but alas, i must pack and go…now, i am in Ohio, somewhere near Cleveland i think and heading for the old house near Warren, where i used to make prints in the basement (next to a coal burning furnace!)..the seeming very unlikely place where i started my current family project exactly 50 years ago this summer…i did grow up mostly in Virginia, but did spend three years in Ohio…both places gave me fodder for the beginning of my work..

yesterday was classic “road trip”…i had a terrific time with David M. and several hours later with Patricia…and i must say it was such a luxury to be able to look at their work, move pictures around, talk about motive and flow and just get their respective works down to a nice place for them to each move forward in their own way…all of us agreed that the “hands on” editing is so so so much more practical and flat out “easy” compared with trying to do it on line…some things really work well on line, but editing is not one of them!!!!

David, many thanks again for the “film connection”…and i think the waiters at “Steak and Shake” will never quite understand what we we doing at that table moving little pictures around all over the table while they were trying to serve!!!

Patricia, many thanks to you and Ed for allowing me to try to capture just a bit of your life…and for dinner and for just a lot of good energy!!! so much energy that we did not stop driving until 3am or so!!! please enjoy your time with Mary Ellen and tell us all about it…

ok, i must go….back to New York by late this evening i think……my oh my, this is a big country!!! i always forget…or, maybe it just seems big bouncing along in a Jeep Wrangler!!!

peace, david

LISA,

by the way, if that was the reason for your eMail, I found a very good substitute present!
Something completely different but of great help for him.

So no need to worry!!!

I understand perfectly that you need more time and that you want to have everything scanned in first, as you wrote. You have to feel comfortable, that is very, very important!

I am writing this here because I will probably not get to my email in the next days and I want you to know that all turned out well.

So.
My clients just called. I have to go back to other things now.

Best to all of you,
Lassal

ANDREW,
I almost did not see it, sorry, (thank you Erica).
It is absolutely sweet of you, that you want to sent me your camera, thank you so much! The point is just, that i am moving around … no fix adress. And I would hate to have your camera lost somewhere “in translation”… :(((

Maybe I manage to get home in time to get the proper camera. But … I am not that worried anymore. I kind of forgot that DAH reads this… so he knows now the “why”s and “how”s and that no disrespect of mine is intended.

Thank you sincerely for your comments and support – I will find a way to make the best out of it :)
It will be 14 hours in the train to get there. Plenty of time to think of a project – I hope…

LASSAL;

I understand the moving around…and it may be no better than what you have, it’s an older Fuji…but it is sitting unused, and if there is someone who is also going to the workshop with a more fixed address (DAH?) I’d be happy to send it them to bring for you….it is of little use to me anymore, and I will likely give it to a charity or school somewhere anyway…

Anyway, best of luck, I am sure the workshop will be wonderful, no matter what you shoot with…

A.

Erica

I am always wide open for advices.

There is only problem that I just need some faces. And I don’t want to lie, that I need for something else than just show inhabitants of my hometown. Many times They say “no” after long conversation. Sometimes I was really surprised. And I never insist. Maybe it is problem baceuse I am alone. Who trust alone guy.

Many time I feel like I try to hurt them. This is really frustrated.

All

Some more advice? How you work with people?

James Chance:

Dropped you an email to info@…..

Marcin–

I’m also doing some street portraits and I too am a guy who is alone. I’ve had great luck as far as people agreeing to let me photograph them. I’ve only had 2 or 3 people say no. But I pretty much get right to the point when I approach some one. I tell them that I’m a photographer and that I’m doing a series of portraits of people on the street and then tell them what a great portrait they would make. So far this has worked out very well. My problem has been once they agree, my nerves kick in. but that has definitely improved. I also am in New York City. People here may be more open to it than where you are. Erica also has given me really great advice about approaching people genuinely and from the heart and don’t take the “no’s” personally. And my favorite words from Erica… “take truckloads of brave photos.”

Patricia–

I love the new edit! The sequence really flows well and all of the photos are interesting. I’m so glad my favorite made the cut; the photo of your husband through the window. It’s a really lovely series. Can’t wait to hear about the workshop. If the Ulster County Fair were having a Demolition Derby instead of a lame Tractor Pull (said with contempt) I’d be up there with you!

sl

Marcin,

respectfully….
i find it strange you find strange people dont want to be photographed by you.
… i wont either.
Why should i let a stranger enter my privacy?
I think i’d behave exactly as those 70 did…
Plus, you come from a country that experienced Communism, so people there are possibly even more suspicious…
Honestly i dont think it’s a matter of being more like david (actually anyone can see he’s working hard on finding contacts, he’s not randomly knocking on doors), nor of smiling or being nicer. If you want to photograph people either you do that without their permission or you get yourself an access. Or you have to give them a very very good reason besides your own interests.
Now i dont understand exactly what your project is. “My hometown” sounds like a very broad subject, is it portraits of people from your hometown?
If i had to work on such a project i think i would start from my personal network, people i know, relatives, friends, neighbors, and then try to expand the network little by little. I’d also try to have access to some personalities (a jazz musician well known in town, a politician, an established photographer, to make some examples). I’m not talking about celebrities, just people who have achieved something in their fields, they can certainly be flattered more then a street guy. They usually know each other if it’s not so big a place so it shouldnt be difficult to switch from one to another. Then try to figure out who else could get something in return by being photographed by you. Shopkeepers for example, they could see some promotion for their business by being in a book or a magazine.
In any case if you want to ask people in the streets permission
to take a photo you have to feel confortable. If you feel uncomfortable and frustrated after a refuse then maybe that’s not the kind of photography you really want to do.
Photographing shouldnt be a punishment i think, expecially when you’re doing it for your own pleasure.

cheers

details Anna?

Holy cow, 5.8. No word of damage. You okay Anna?

marcin,

i didnt mean you are frustrated, just suggested that people declining your invitation for a photo for 70 times in a row could raise some professional frustration…
it would in me at least…

MCG, MARCIN, GINA

Thanks for your concern!!

Where’d you grow up, Gina?

Anna,
it just came in the news here in Germany.
Hope all is fine with you.
Give us a quick note as soon as possible, ok?

Andrew,
thank you, it will surely be nice to have a backup. And maybe Carlo – who runs the place in Tuscany – would like to keep it for further use? I can imagine that things sometimes break at the least appropriate time… But only if you really think it is worth the trouble.

I am attached to my Nikon Coolpix S10 because of the monitor that goes 180°. That turned out to be of quite some value for me. Unfortunately they do not make this camera anymore – I called every single store here and whatever I could find online … nothing… I even spoke to “Nikon” to see if they had any “leftovers”. Nothing there either. Unfortunately these S10 do not get very old. It is my 3rd. They just get slower and then, one day, they fall asleep. Nobody here wants to repair them because they say it is not worth the hassle.

I now ordered 2 via ebay, used but refurbished. From the US. The only offer I could find at all. They do not want much money so I wonder what I will get. They will hopefully arrive soon (from the US) as my little S10 is showing first signs of sleepyness already.
That is what is really bothering me because I just love this little camera despite all the noise it creates.
****

A friend just called me while I was writing this post. He does not have a S10 but something similar. I will pass at his place tonight to pick it up.

So Andrew, I am well taken care of with point &shoots now…
But thank you sooo much, really!
If you still want it for Carlo, then tell me, otherwise I really liked the Charity/school-Idea. ;)

So helpful people around this blog…

ANNA – glad you are ok. I was born and raised in Northern California – Oakland/SF area. And incase anyone cares – that makes me a DIE HARD Oakland RAIDERS fan! I lived there 28 years – then moved to DC 12 years ago (yes, just turned the big 40!). I go “home” often too – all of my family is still there…

BOB – your earthquake story is priceless!

GINA :))))…

AND TRUE!…but, i’ve been discreet ;))…no names, no behaviors ;)))…but, like Ana, I will also have fond memories of my first LA shake (so to speak :) ))..

cant wait to see the Mexi-Bus trip too :)))

running
bob

Bob,

Did you ever drink Zubrowka?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubrowka

Our export hit. With apple juice… ummm… heven!

But if you want something strong, something for men, come to poland I will teach you how polish highlanders drink all night sea of vodka and they walk stright.

;)

GINA

Welcome! It’s so good to have you join us here. You have already offered gifts aplenty…one of them being your affirmation of DAH and my edit of my Self-Portraits/Daily Life project. Thanks so much. I’m feeling good about our choices as I spend today printing the 11×16.5 prints to take to MEM’s workshop this weekend.

You and I have lots in common. I was born and raised in the DC area for my first 24 years. Then after 30 years here in the Detroit area I started spending 3-6 months a year subletting apartments in the Mission District of SF. Did so from 1996-2002. My dear husband Ed would stay home in Detroit and I’d go “do my thing.” Nothing bad, it was just that I had to be in the Bay Area. It was where I belonged. I expect you understand. Then in 2002 I was ready to stay in Detroit year-round again. Life is such an adventure when you follow your passion…

Patricia

Anna

I love your pictures. They are simple and beautiful.
And your selfportaits! You and Aga are the best!

PATRICIA

This edit of yours made me feel WHAT I WAS CRAVING TO FEEL the first time you requested feedback on this project! These ten pictures reveal the perfect amount of struggle (and make my eyes well up). Second time you’ve almost brought me to tears, young lady — You had the same affect on me when you thanked me for my initial feedback not too long ago. Well done!!

MARCIN

It means so much hearing these words from YOU, my dear.

I don’t know jack diddly about contemporary painting, but always receive email updates from a gallery in NYC who represents artists whose work is reminiscent of Ola’s. I’m thinking it might be a good idea for Ola to create a relationship with these guys:

http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/

Anna

Did you know someone in this gallery?
You see creating relationship with gallery by unkonown artist is very difficult if not impossible.
They mostly not read emails from without some support.
But many many tanks for your words and link. :)))

All,

just want to apologize – I made myself be misundrestood… I think … with the camera-problem.

I have a D200 at home which makes nice pictures but is way to heavy for me to carry around the whole day. I get fantastic back pain by doing so and thus I carry a little point&shoot around me the whole day until maybe one day I will get me a little&light leica M8 ;D.

But the workshop would have been an event for the D200 all right. She just makes better quality pictures. I was not worrying too much about it though, until I spoke to a friend yesterday, who is photographer too (advertising) and he said straight forward that he wonders if David would not think it as insulting if I come with that piece of junk I use as a camera on a day2day basis … That is what set it going. And over the night the thought just grew in my mind. It was not about the quality I was worrying, but about how it would be percieved by DAH.

Of course it is the photo that counts… But I have no photos to show. Even my website is empty, empty, empty … So they cannot speak for themselves … I just have to check if I have anything on my notebook which I have with me.

ok. Thanks everybody for straightening my head out. ;) At least until David ripps it off in Tuscany because of this idiotic discussion I started here …

ANNA
great you are fine!!! ;)

MARCIN
please post more of your hometown-work if you have any. This dark poetry of yours … I find it extremely strong. Maybe you should look for a galerist outside your place… I have a friend here who is publicist. A well known one. It is just an idea but I would like to show him your work … Meeting him in the 2nd half of August or beginning of September, depending on my own work here… It is just a shot – do not know if it leads anywhere… But if one shoots a lot, I am sure one hits something eventually!
Ok?

Peace!

marcin,

thanks for looking….
It’s old work, photographs taken many years ago when i used to shoot colour. Only recently again i made a few velvias but for more than ten years i’ve shot b/w only. So far i have no money for a good scanner so i can’t show anything else. Pity, since you went to Morocco recently, and i saw some nice color pictures of yours, i would have liked you to see my b/w morocco photographs…
Hopefully at the end of the summer i’ll finally buy a scanner.

I’ll try to find that polish vodka you recommend….i like vodka though these hot days i only drink pastis. Does any of you yankees know what pastis is?

good night

Anna…

yes, you are right, but they are at home with my D200 ;)

And they are more arty, too… Less of what this blog is about.

The one book that David found interesting, he has got that one already from me. But that is old work.

Well, I will just have to hurry with new work in T.

ALL

As I’ve spent the day printing out my ten images in–for me–large size (11×16.5″), I’ve been checking the conversations going on here. Fascinating insights, sharings, questions, responses. I’ve been most gratified by your responses to the edit DAH and I did last night. Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out.

DAVID

Rather than try to play phone tag, let me just say that the pleasure was all ours. And a bit of help with gas $$ is the least I could do. You are so generous in sharing your time and expertise that you deserve all the support we can give.

Regarding how I will feel about Mary Ellen Mark’s review of my portfolio–whether positive or negative–I’ve come to an entirely new place with that. Of course I will listen closely and learn all I can from her, but I now feel so RIGHT about this edit that no one could change that. There’s an organic integrity to the ten images we chose that truly reflects who I am at this time in my life. And I very much feel it was a collaborative effort, that we both entered into it, so it is not YOUR edit, it is OUR edit. I own it too.

I look forward to hearing MEM’s perspective not just on my work but on all fifteen of the workshop participants. There will be much to learn I’m sure. It’s just that I no longer NEED her opinion to feel good about my work. You, my friend, in your honest assessments have given me all the confidence I need. And I am deeply grateful to you for that.

Now I know just where I want to go with this project…and I WILL go there. I promise you that.

Our love to you and Mike,

Patricia

P.S. Please tell Mike I figured out why I was having trouble managing the color on my printer. It was due to some post-processing I’d used on the images. Once I went back to the originals, all was well. But please thank him for checking it out for me. What a dear man!

Hey, Patricia, tell us what is it that David brought into the edit, and made you aware of, that you couldn’t before? That would be really relevant information.

Or, to pose the same question from another angle, just imagine what would it have taken you to get to this edit, without David?

That may point something to those here who have to do it alone until David comes their way (eventually he does, unless it’s on Mars!).

can someone provide me with the link to patricia and DAH’s edit?
i don’t have the time now to go through all these comments but would like to see.

thanks!
hope you’re all well.
will catch up soon,

katia

HERVE & ALL

OK, I’m going to try to put words to what was obviously, for David anyway, an organic process. After having seen him in action I think I’d have a much better chance of doing this myself in the future, but until last night I was utterly clueless.

So, physically, he first goes through the 4×6″ prints, discarding the ones that either don’t fit the theme or are not artistically strong. Sometimes I’d ask why a particular image was relegated to the discard pile. In every case he’d point out problems with light, composition or such. In some of those cases he’d give me suggestions as to how to retake this photo in a more effective way.

As he went through the pile of possible images, occasionally he’d lay one face-up on the table. Then another and another. As he did so, he’d group the photos according to tone, shapes, mood, but not, as far as I could tell, according to content. He had three sections going–a beginning, middle and end. The weakest were in the middle with the strongest at the end and the beginning. He stressed the importance of having a strong beginning and a strong ending.

Then he started getting more and more rigorous in his choices. Occasionally he’d discard one he liked because there was another that was similar but, in his opinion, stronger. It was at this point that we started talking about my intentions, ideas, motives for making this particular work. And where it might go, how it could evolve.

The photos in the center–in my case there were eight of them–were more about where this project might be going than where it was right now. The group at the beginning–there were five of them–and the final group–again, five images–were where the project was now, what my original intent had been. They also had a cohesive sense of aesthetic. They looked well together.

It was at this point that I suggested we set the middle eight aside and just look at the ten best. As soon as we did that, it was like the whole thing came together. For the first time I could see what was going on with this work. I also saw the bar I had to meet with future images.

As far as I could tell, David sequenced almost intuitively. It was artistic, aesthetic choices, not having anything to do with telling a story. In fact he told me it was a common mistake to try to do a linear sequencing, ie., A followed by B followed by C, etc. It was all about flow, about relationship, about artistic sensibility, not about story. Any story would make itself known in more subtle ways, especially if we stayed clear in our focus and motives…all of which would probably change as the project progressed.

But when we were done with the edit, it was obvious. We could see and feel the rightness of it all. And we’re holding the middle section aside for later. We’ll see if those images become integral to the whole as things move forward.

By the way, David stood over the table during this entire process, like a dancer. And it WAS a dance. A beautiful thing to watch and to enter into.

I hope this is helpful. And, David, please correct me if I’ve misrepresented any of it. Thanks for asking this question, Herve.

Patricia

Oh Erica, I am deeply moved by you, what you are doing, and the encounter you described with the teens today. You are so obviously doing what is yours to do, making a difference to the neighborhood, not just with your photos, but with your presence. You are one gutsy woman and I love you for it. What a book this will be!!!!

BTW if any one wants to see DAH’s edit of my work, simply click on my name.

Patricia

P.S. Erica, I adore the photo!

ERICA,

Go Buckeyes!!!!…Thanks for sharing this story about these young teenagers… I have only briefly met you Erica but it does not take long to see that you genuinely care for others…I am sure your subjects get that right away…Your portraits are a perfect reflection of the inner Erica!!!!

PATRICIA,

Thanks also for sharing in such details your evening with David and the editing process that the two of you went through… I remember David saying on the blog long time ago that he could fix anybody’s portfolio within 10 minutes…Quite fascinating indeed to see this and a pure joy to watch that process in the workshop that I attended. What you shared brought me a lot of good memories!! I have to say that the two of you have done a very nice edit! Well done and I am sure MEM will appreciate…

CATHY,

Well, I am going….Leaving mid-day tomorrow. Booked a hotel so I am almost on my way…Not sure if this boxing tournament will end up interesting or not and might be screwing up very few days that I have left this year but what’s the heck….I have to give it a shot… Will be off for the next 3-4 days…Hopefully, will have a few interesting images to bring back to complete this essay….

ANDREW,

Will have to find another time to meet. My apologies for disappearing while you are actually in twon. I am sure we will meet soon.

Cheers,

Eric

ERIC
No apologies necessary…you have a wonderful opportunity for your project, you must follow it. I wish you good shooting, if you return by Sunday and have some time, give me a call on my cell.

PATRICIA
What more can I add to what has already been said…a wonderful, intimate look inside your life…interesting in hearing you describe DAH’s advice about the story not being linear…I certainly felt the story reveal itself as I was going throguh the slides. And a great job capturing the visit as well :)

A.

LASSAL…

i could care less about what camera you bring to Tuscany…it does not matter to me at all as long as you are comfortable …i would be very happy with a workshop full of students all shooting with disposable cameras…

also, you cannot be to “arty” for me!!! on this forum there is a “leaning” towards pure documentary, but i am open to way way more than linear essays…Bob, and Kyunghee Lee and you are certainly not “documentary” in the traditional sense and please go as far as you want in the direction you want…as a matter of fact, my job is to take you even further than you ever realized you wanted to go..

in Tuscany i will first try to find out what you want, who you are…then we look at the work..then we talk…then we think…then you will get “into the zone” as never before!!!!

see you soonest….

cheers, david

Patricia

In addition to being a photographer, you are quite gifted in your ability to use words to describe in detail a very complex process. We all owe you many thanks for your in-depth account of your editing session with David.

JAMES
meant to ask you a question about your macau piece (which I like much, btw…I found myself lost along with you, becoming comfortably numb)…

Anyway, forgive me if this is a silly question, but I am curious….I think you mentioned you shot this over a week or so, is that right? Or was it less? How many images did you have in order to get to your final edit?

BOB/MARCIN:
Sorry for being a kibbitzer, but you mentioned Żubrówka… it has a special place in my heart (or liver.) I spent an evening once in a Kazimierz bar sampling vodka and it was a revelation. Some tasted like bitter roots, some like walnuts and strawberry, and one like honey, if I remember correctly… but my favorite was the buffalo grass… I need to know the secret of the Górale… that night, after the vodka and a pork knuckle I stumbled back to the hotel… no ocean of vodka, just a small pond.

I am raising my wee glass of Soplica Staropolska to you both now…

MARCIN:
I’ve been reading your posts about problems finding subjects…. I just wanted to say that I think it makes no difference. What I mean to say is you have a very distinct photographic voice, a gift… we can hear it… your intuition will give you photographs, not people, and that is all that matters. Trust your eye, and your voice… hold onto the stress only if you need it.

My too-brief conversations with Erica have been incredibly helpful to me (thank you, Erica!!) and her advice is clear and wise and true… in my case she is reading Shakespeare to a chimpanzee… a testament to her patience and generosity… and my limits, but I know good advice when I hear it… listen to her!!

I have no advice for you… jestem wulgarnym dziwolągem i habniebnym klaunem, zrobiłem zdjęcie bezczelnie i bez grzechu. If that makes any sense. I recommend my practice to no one.

PATRICIA:
Thank you so much for you words and your pictures. I have nothing to add to the above, just my voice saying thank you for the description of the editing process with david and, of course, for your essay. Have a wonderful time at the workshop!!

HERVE:
I wanted to ask you about what you thought about Robert Frank…. yes i don’t think he made history with mood (many thoughts) but i wonder how you thought he did make history… out of gas to write more….

ANNA:
I glad to hear you are safe.

ANNA,
just kiddin’…
i could care less about “SAFETY”…
peace

ANNA…ALL…

Arrived in San Diego last night. Got here just in time for the earthquake today. I was sitting in a chair waiting to get my hair cut and suddenly the building felt like it took a sharp slide to the right, then a less sharp slide back left. The woman next to me screamed “What is that?” …before it became evident.

The funny part is that most of the others in the hair salon with us felt NOTHING! They asked us what we were smoking.

ERIC…
Great that you’re going. I know that feeling of committing and then wondering if the whole thing is going to be a bust but no matter what happens, going always beats sitting home wondering what you’re missing out on! SOMETHING good will come out of it.

LASSAL…
Have a great time. Can’t wait to hear about it.

song for the evening :

Panos,

Not for nothing… what can we count on? The earth underneath our feet… phone service…. the next thing you know, they will stop making tri-x.

Glad to hear all is well with you and Ryan and family.

ANNA

Thanks for link I saved it.
We were send many invitation to several galleries in Europe. Now she have to just work because she have some exhibition in good gallery in Poland and on art market in Berlin.
She have deal with good polish gallery.
we’ll see.
It should grow up.
We work on it.

GUIDO

Scanner?!
This is one of most needed thing for me now. Like most of us photography on films killing me. I am thinking how to cut cost, I have links to lomo shop with cheep films, and now I have to get money for scanner. and the funny thing when I spend 2000 $ for scanner it will be cheapest way.
So I perfectly understand you.
And you make me curious!!
Please find the way to show me your b&w photos, and this from morocco especially!

and try zubrowka, it have unusual soft taste with apple juice. One part of vodka two parts of juice.

LASSAL

I am thinking and working on exhibition. I don’t know yet it will be “hometown” when I will finish or my color “haiku” from many places. I send invitation to my website to best gallery (sole) in Poland. They say I have “nice” work, but this is good direction. I just have to close some body of work. And I will remind about me soon. Maybe they will offer some little exhibition. If my hometown will be look enough “art” I will try to find art gallery in my town for exhibition.
And about your friend publicist, This could be great idea for me. I’ll try finish “hometown” soon maybe next week. So it could be really great.
From one side I understand why I have so many rejected, I am conscious that my photography is not bad, but also I see that my work have many blanks. I just need more work.

ERICA

Dear Erica, you are the best teacher of portrait photography. I will save all of your words as a best advice. But I can work on my “hometown” just one day more. I have no money to go there for long time. That why I am happy I have “insider”, it will go faster. Should be good. Next week processing.
You helping all of us!

MIKE

I love when you write in polish and your words jestem wulgarnym dziwolągem i habniebnym klaunem it suits to me perfectly!! How you know how I feel????
;))))

All

Thanks for this inspiring chat and for all good words and great advices. Must running to take some pictures. The weather is great. Tonight I will work on new dark stuff “the caves”. I have idea but no idea how to realize it.

MARCIN,
I think I’ve said it before, but say it again. Try http://digitalcopy24.de/
They scan with either Hasselblad Flextight X5 or Nikon Coolscan 5000/9000 at a very good price point. I myself recently got a Coolscan V and it works great, but of course can’t do medium format.
Feels good getting back to film though!

Cheers

marcin: Poland has many of the most luminous and gifted minds in the world both past and present !! Keep your Spirits UP !! +

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Poles

GOOD Morning ALL

can’t sleep, and the quiet of the city is so nice to be awake for..totally off topic, but I keep thinking about the book Irish Travelers by Alen MacWeeney, and want to make put a link here in case you haven’t seen it. http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Travellers-Tinkers-No-More/dp/0979013003/ref=sr_1_1/103-1356837-6783004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188602038&sr=8-1
I almost can’t digest what a perfect piece it is..these are images that deeply affect me as a lover of the medium and make me want to be so so so much more adept at it.

DAH

If this week doesn’t work, we have later in August too, yes? I have yet to scan most of what I have shot..will start today, but i don’t know how far I can get.

I am glad you like my note to Marcin and that you feel the same, I know you are the most generous and magnanimous person, but this blog is still your house to me, and I wouldn’t want to sprawl out too much on it’s floor, even though you have a mi casa es su casa philiosophy. I sure do spend a lot of time here in this house you built..in fact, it seems like time stands still when I am here; it never seems to get in the way of anything else I ‘need’ to do in the day.

Here’s my morning ramble of rapid reply..

BOB

jees ‘um, it’s all on credit. I don’t know why the banks insist on giving me all that plastic, I guess it is because they know I will use it!

ERIC

I am so excited for you to shoot this piece of the puzzle..even if the photo ops aren’t rich, you will create more intimacy with the kids and the subject.

KATIA

falling in love with the people..exactly the words I use to describe the feeling. wish you could be here too, though we might knock people down with all our love!

PATRICIA

I so want to call you Pat..but that could be the wrong name entirely for you? Thank you ever so much for your words about David’s process; really great.

MARCIN

Not sure I can teach anything, but I can share..Only one more day shooting Hometown? Oh my..I had no idea. Then my new suggestion is to pray to the photo gods. I do it everyday I shoot. About galleries, have you ever talked to YOURS?

CHARLIE

Yea!! You know I really admire that body of work. Big hopeful congrats..gaps, I dunno..if I can I’ll look again today.

ANNA

I lived in Santa Cruz for the 6.9..we are all happy to know you are well. I remember the feeling of living with aftershocks..the not knowing. It’s exciting and a little scary all at once. When I was in the 6.9, I was in a food coop that was in a make shift building, sort of like an aluminum airplane hanger. The whole thing nearly walked..and the food went flying off the shelves..when it stopped everyone was smiling and hugging and yelling yippee..and as it was my first, I felt like a very young virgin – I didn’t even know what had happened!

MIKE

you hush up about there being no tri x one day. I had to run into the city yesterday as I had run out..just the possibility of the stores being out makes me want to act in a deviant fashion and stockpile it!

ERICA

Funny thing about names. It took me 50 years of being first Patsy then Pat then Patty to finally live into and claim my full name of Patricia. During that time I was doing art therapy with refugees, many of whom were fleeing the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Whenever they said my name “Patricia,” it sounded like a song. I’ve stuck with it ever since. Only David now knows that my Eddie still calls me Patty. Guess he’s grandfathered in!

Patricia

Good morning to all,

I am back finally after 3 weeks following my eyes surgery. I didn’t have access to the blog before.

BobBlack: sorry we could not meet in Toronto, I hope we do soon.

David: are you familiar with the work of Ralph Gibson and what do you think of it?

Thanks

Arie

ERICA

you have such a beautiful way with words…. i love your description of being sprawled out in DAH “house”. i wish we had a chance to talk more in cville. i will have to let you know when i get up to nyc. do you ever get to dc?

I wonder why it’s San Andreas’ fault in the first place. You’d think a fault that big would have kept him from being a saint in the first place, but stranger things have happened, I suppose.

Erica, I love how you describe the process of meeting people and making them subjects for photographs. Wise words indeed. I seem to have lost my nerve to approach strangers recently (made doubly difficult for them being japanese and I don`t speak the language well) and that advice hit home. Inspired.
To Marcin, Poland is one of the best countries in the world for finding interesting people in interesting environments, your images are, as said, dark poetry. I hope you find completion on your “home town” story and many others that come from the contacts you made. Ideas…Are there people who mourn the old Communist days, contrasting with the new Europeans? What about returnees from the UK and other older EU countries; new rich, new horizons, new beginnings with old families they do or do not understand any longer. Are they loved, hated, avoided, blamed or respected? That`s the story i want to do but my Polish contacts are limited now. My wife knows Polish women are beautiful and probably won`t let me go shooting in Poland again:)
Anyway I`m sure you`ll work it out.
I like Zubrowska by the way but the alcohol of choice in such dark places, I`ve heard, is spiritus.
Damon

ARIE…

welcome back!!!! i do hope your surgery was more or less painless and successful all around…

yes sure, i know Ralph Gibson…i cannot say that i would draw much inspiration from his work now (i have not seen any new work for a long time) but he was certainly an icon back in the “counterculture” revolutionary days in the 70’s and early 80’s…Ralph certainly represented “free thinking” overall, and i always liked that about him…and maybe you know something i do not know….new book, new work????

ERICA…

sure, whenever we are both free to meet, then we will meet…i will be away from New York almost the whole of august…now Italy…then my family beach time ..then maybe Perpignan first week of september and then two weeks of workshops in New York…one week in between the two…so there is some time…

i only wanted to talk to you about book publishing…i know you are not ready with your street portraits…but, we can have that chat anytime this fall…

hey my friend, mi casa es tu casa….without the writing from all of you here, there would be no forum…your words of inspiration mean a lot to all of us…i cannot be here 24/7, so i totally appreciate and need the words from you and all of the others who so take their time to write thoughtful prose…

the true beauty of this “gathering” is that so many photographers here are out shooting , thinking, editing etc etc…when we put all of this together this fall it will be a real “tour de force”…..what we did at Look3 this year is “only a beginning” compared to what we will have next time around….i look to you as an integral part of this whole “organism”..

yes, yes..we cannot even speak of Tri-X going away….shhhhhhhh!

PATRICIA…

we both spoke so much about your editing, that neither of us mentioned the pictures i took of Ed and you!!! there were a couple of classic moments with you singing by the piano with Ed playing…honestly, i was a little “choked up” and had trouble focusing..i do hope there will be something there that will please you…

i will take the film in today for processing and contact sheets….we will send you a set of contacts for your perusal soonest and you may choose whatever you want for your personal family album or whatever…

as i mentioned before, it takes two “thumbs up” before i will consider the pictures i took of you for book publication or exhibition…you must like the photograph i took as a likeness of Ed and you and i must like it as a photograph representative of this body of work…so, we BOTH must like the same picture or the picture “goes away” for publication purposes..fair enough???

at some point i would like a good audio track of you talking about your work, your life…and the “captions” for the book will be your words only…

my whole plan here is to let each family speak…no interpretation from me..just the words of the families….i will write an overall forward, but the main “text” is to be the “voice” of my subjects…this is not just for you as a “special friend”, this is for everyone in my photographs for this essay…

SEAN….

i saw this last night…good show…very cool that you were part of this…and , yes, it is perfect that you came to Look3 and set up this very good contact for yourself…

this is what i try to tell everyone all the time…do not worry about what will “happen” to your work later…some try to find the “end result” before they will even attempt the work…you just went and did it…and who would have guessed how it would have been “discovered”??

i do know one thing for sure….just do it…and SOMETHING will always “happen”..you are proving this point quite well..and, there will be much more to come for you ..one good thing always leads to another…

cheers, david

point-and-shoot cameras…
Now that they’ve become affordable, i recently bought on ebay a
Leica minilux zoom for € 150.
I had heard you could get great pictures but i didnt believe i would not tell the difference with the pictures taken with the Contax zeiss reflex I’ve always used…just unbelievable.
Besides, i dont know where, but somewhere i read Alex majoli shot many of his war reportage with a point-and-shoot Olympus.

Arie,
thanks for writing about ralph gibson, didnt know him and just visited his website. Lots of good stuff (though i dont like everything…)

Damon

Yes Poland is full of amazing stories now. We are at the turn right now. For me most interesting is poverty. Not because I want to be next Salgado or Nachtwey, but because I see it everywhere and it wounds me. I know places where houses looks like ruins some forgotten civilization. Wher people afraid live.
Now we have time of hard economy. Zero social for nothing. My mother have 140 euro of Annuity and she must work in sicili and german for life, my grandmother have 190 eu of retirement pension. I paid for my small apartment almost 400 eu. So you can imagine how hard life is for many people in poland now. We young are stong and multitalented, but many people was just drop in our new reality. They have no skills. They work for food and alkohol. Thats why in my hometown young parents beat their child to death. They are more and more unsocial, frustrated, angry. Like in brazilian favelas. This is just beginning.
But of course after this 25 years many things are changed for good.

I will work on this but in future. I need very strong base to do it. It can’t be doing “because I have that idea”. Like “hometown” stuff.
I need very good reason to ask this peolpe to open and show thier life. I need reason. Very good reason.
When I was on cuba the poverty was everywhere. Cubanas try to talk with me about it but I just not seapak spanish.
http://marcinluczkowski.com/photo/news/b7.jpg
We try but it was hard to undersatnd each other. Here comunication is not problem.

When I will have some time and some money I will go to Walbrzych and Boguszow Gorce and I will show some snapshots of this places, you will know what I mean.

If you need some help with shooting in Poland give me a note. I will help.

peace for all

MARCIN…

every heartbreaking word you say tells me how important your “Hometown” work will be…

you must see your work as both art and history…

if you need more film, i will send to you some soonest…or maybe a friend of yours will be either in Italy or France and i can give it to them?????

just focus…..

cheers, david

Marcin, I was last in Poland 12 years ago when Poles were still proud and hopeful: proud that they alone, and against all odds, had started the fall of communism and hopeful that the future would bring the reward befitting such brave people. The signs were there, even then, that things were not going well or quite according to plan but the generation I knew had known the time before, and anything, anything was better than that. They believed in the fruits of the revolution ripening; all you had to do was wait. It seems, from your words, 20 years later that many people have lost hope. That is a shame because there was so much promise in the energy for the new Poland in the young people I knew in those days. Maybe the world has got harder for everyone, everywhere and Poland`s immature, damaged economy was always going to be easy prey to the faceless businesses that seem to be buying-up the good lives of good people now. But I am sorry to hear what you say. I would love to go back oneday, I can meet many Poles in London true, but there was something special about the generosity and pride of the the Polish people I met on my hitch-hiking travels through your country that it is saddening to think has gone now.
Damon

PATRICIA

Got it!

GINA

I haven’t had call to get to D.C., but if I do I will certainly find you in advance. I wouldn’t mind a visit, as I’d also like to get to know photo friend Neal Jackson better ..is he a friend of yours by chance? But please let me know when you make it here, too..

DAMON

I actually don’t know what I said that was wise, but I will admit to having lots of practice of pragmatic experience with this, so I am sure I will continue to chat about it loosely! It just so happens I am the type that MUST write if i am reading..sometimes I wish I could be a lurker, but it isn’t in my blood. Someone would have to steal the keyboard.. You know what I am losing my nerve for? Not asking..the spontaneous street shots. I was frustrated by the rain on Sunday..i had set up by myself, not so easy, and then the skies grew dark, fast. I got home dry, but frustrated. I sat in self pity for a little, then took my 35 out into the rainy streets. I have absolutely zero idea if it will work or will be needed, but I thought I should try to shoot some of the street stuff in the area where i am doing the portrait piece. Anyway, there were a few lovely moments that I should have grabbed, when I froze instead… the worst is that I often pace back and forth in front of the moment/person, to see how long it is still a moment, and of course then I freak the person out and the moment is gone.

DAH

OH! If we are just getting together I can try to do that whenever you are free..would you call if you get a window? The thought of having to pull my self together though has me scanning..a good thing. Light is good for shooting, but I am tired and need to see what I have shot so far. Your schedule is crazy..I hope the beach is refreshing.

I wanted to ask you about what you said to Patricia, that the portraits will be okayed by both you and the persons photographed. Have you always worked this way for portraits? Does it ever work out poorly in that you lose a shot you love? Do you mind? I just had a man who I care about see his image on my site..he doesn’t like it..wants me to take it down..this is hard for me. I just photographed him again for the street piece, and am hoping he will like this one better.

SEAN

awesome! Was the work found through DAH’s LOOK presentation?

PATRICIA
I love it, have a good time in MEM workshop. hope you back and tell us what you learn there

DAVID

I see you have huge expectation from my work. But this will be not social essay. I wish do it social, but it will be just loose impression. I will try to show it as a dreaming with little nightmare. Soemthing unreal. But maybe it will be one big shit. Not first time I am doing nothing, you know that.
Thanks for films. Now I don’t need more. Thanks to Anton, Nick and W Robert I feel free. Soon I should have no more financial problems.

My “hometown” will be very short In comparison what I would like to do. When I go to my hometown in may and I had no place to sleep, my wife said me “this is not your hometown any more. You can feel free. Maybe you should go to Walbrzych or others places. This is the same thing as kamienna, even in Wroclaw you can find your hometown, your broke soul”

And she was completly right! When I finish my first “hometown” (I just have to, right now), I will start working on my real “hometown” something wide, witout address and maps. Beside I have just started it. This work should be more history. I will focus on it more.

DAMON

I am talking only about part of our reality. There was many changes in Poland for good and I know that in Paris, Berlin and New York is the same poverty and problems. Poland is not sole.
But in Poland people can feel more duped (I an find other word), because They work hard all life and now whole reality telling them that it was rubish.
And most problems will come soon. Because now many things are expensive for young working people, so what can do people in small poor towns, wher is no job, or there is job but payment is a Joke.

And of course is this other side of story. Agression. This part is completly incomprehensible for me! I hate stupid violence. Many of young guys think they are macho, and I know that frustration equal anger, but for me this is just incomprehensible.

When you come to warsaw or wroclaw and you wondring on street with shops and young happy people you will not see what I am writing about now. This is good, very positive and hopeful

http://marcinluczkowski.com/photo/news/b9.jpg

peace

MARCIN:

everytime i think of “hometown” work, i think of Milosz’ poem ENCOUNTER…i’ve posted it here many times…but, i dont know Polish (only English translation)…so thinking of the above pic, i send you his poem..:

Encounter

We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.

And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.

That was long ago.Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.

O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.

–Czeslaw Milosz

——————————

MARCIN

That is such a glorious moment, smiles passing between strangers who know themselves to be not strangers but “family,” an old woman and her “grandson” Marcin. Beautiful! I know that photo will be a keeper! Congratulations!!!

Patricia

Okay I probably won’t put this as eloquently as Patricia, but I thought I’d pass on the results of the DAH visit. (Plus I just liked the vibe of the Exit 76b, Steak n Shake pit-stop, road trip edit.) I feel like I have a lot more shooting to do, but for where I am now, this group represents the core of the project, a la DAH:

http://www.humanfiles.com/garagesale/givingup.htm

Now depending on what I’m editing to, the number may vary (maybe down to 10 or as many as 30, etc.) but this edit represents images that are strong enough to stand alone, but as a group fulfill all (or most) aspects of the story. Moving forward, fresh shots will replace some of these to decrease repetitiveness, or if the new shots are just stronger. After that, other images fall into a second and third tier, and are used sparingly where appropriate.

We also talked about how the book would be developed, much like the edit above with the focus on the strongest work, but perhaps with a spread or two that starts with a strong full-page shot of a “garage sale sign”, but is followed up with thumbnail sized images of every sale sign I’ve shot (or enough to fill a grid, and maintains a good rhythm in the book.) The same approach could be given to the “sale items”, etc.

We talked briefly about the slideshow—basically I’m on the right track, I just need to make sure I get audio of the people from the more personal stories I shoot.

Then we discussed how the show would be presented in a space, which was really cool. David had great suggestions, one was why not have an opening in a garage? I’ve already been collecting 10 cent frames from the sales, for the purpose presenting images of the sale items when I do show. Another great idea—start collecting the sale signs after the weekend of the sale, before they are discarded, and display them—I got a jump on that after our meeting. And another great suggestion from David—people having sales are effectively creating displays, in other words, art installations. If I get the right opportunity, I should purchase an entire table of items (including the table) and recreate the display for the opening.

Between chili, burgers and shakes, I’d call it a pretty productive meeting!

http://www.humanfiles.com/journal_galleries/steaknshake.htm

Oh and one more thing for the opening (my idea) a bin of 1×1.5 inch prints of EVERYTHING I shot for the project, free for guests of the show to take with them.

Anton, can I come sit on your windowsill and eat with my fingers too??? My mouth is watering at the thought…

Patricia

pic 1, means your pic “20:, i mean 1st pic to start the story…followed by #2 :))…like those kids are like: fucking mom and dad dragged us to this field (#1) to look at junk ;)) (i remember thinking that once when i was young)…and by the end (girl with mom and cow)…the children have been altered…and are the real center (for me) of the story…our memories, our dissipating lifes, not ever to be really sold ;))

hugs
b

Anton, I’ll hold that thought ;=)

Patricia

P.S. LOOK3 next June?????

look3 next year? you bet.

ALL – mark your calendars for LOOK3 2009 – June 11-13…. hope you all can make it.

NICK,
yes, I am shooting digital. TPW apparently has two labs: digital and analog. One can choose whichever one needs and pays a small fee for the usage. Comes in quite handy.

BOB …
photographing… bones?! Really? ;)))
Ok … Bones work :))))
Bones à la Bob
I get you some bones too.
But not in Italy.

But hey, I have only half a camera with me but some other material: like a recorder! …
Maybe … just maybe … if everyone agrees … I can tape something for all of you. ALONG with pictures of course.

David,

please do not go into the trouble to ask for labs. I am probably shooting digital all the way in Italy. And I have all I need for it with me. Agree that it is much more practical with digital. I just hope they have enough sockets in the monastery for all our recharging needs … :)

The disposable idea is quite nice for some extra. Maybe later or so. Maybe I can get it at the railway-station. I have little hope, though … It is all cell-phone and digicam here now.
But I will have to get me a disposable somehow for Bob’s bones (I am sure he did not mean it the way I am putting it, but … :))

I have one book with me, that I can show you. With “arty” things. I have it with me because I need to do some research around it. So… But it is nothing to build upon. Just part of a project.

Actually I am open for anything. Does not have to be conceptual … Most of the time I just “collect” things by taking it’s pictures. Like butterflies…
No backthought… only collecting. Just to take these things home with me. I would love to do something more complex – complex from the picture and not complex from the thought.

But at the end I am just extremely curious as to your analysis and the “beyond” you were talking about. ;))

Will be arriving saturday night. Carlo arranged a pick up for me. He seems to be a very sweet person… I was lucky too, to get a room in the monastery. Apparently there is not much left – if at all now.

Best,
Lassal

Waiting for “Freakonomics” to be sent to my library…

Thanks again David.

Oh my, scanning all day..is often like Christmas, but today am tired, even though I am happy with several images. Listening to my neighbors and their little children in the pool this whole day isn’t helping..

MARCIN

you have broken the cycle..

ANTON

you cook? that’s so refreshing..and it sounds healthy and delicious. is there room at the LOOK table for more?

DAVID B

I love the installation idea..you could even hold a garage sale at the time of the opening..your in paper and street signs would make for great invites to the opening.

BOB

when ARE you coming? I really want to spend time with you all, but need to be in many places..pls let me know when you have a date…

David,

I think the last time I used film is several years ago. I have only had digital cameras since the very first camera I got from my parents got smashed during a flight. But to be honest, I did not have fun with film back then and only fell in love with photography after I steped over into the digital world. Maybe because I am used to the medium, probably because I need to see quick results …

I got my uncle’s battered F3 some time ago, when he heard I was photographing … It was very sweet from him and I am trying to avoid any questions … Because … I have not even touched it yet!

At the moment film it is very far away from me. But maybe that is why I liked the idea about the disposables.

(I can imagine that this might change when I learn to develop myself … but no way I am doing this in Italy!!!)

Oh .. I have lots of project I could do. Little ones. And the one big one I am carrying around in the back of my head. If I find some pictures for that, it would be marvellous!
I will have to see the place, if there is a village in the vicinities, etcetc. I think I might be able to decide pretty fast then.

It would be interesting to hear from you if you think my choice is wise.
Oh yes, and I just found a number of pictures on my notebook. It will probably help a lot. If you like to have them printed, I will try to sneak into the digi-lab as soon as I arrive. But maybe it is enough to see them on the notebook. They are nothing special. But I think they show the way I see things.
Glad I found them …

Taking the dog now out a last time today …

ALL
have a good night!

sorry, DAVID M..told you I was tired..

No problem, I figured it out!

Ha Ha!!! No worries David – no secrets will be told here…. As much as I like to give you shit – you still are the best instructor i have ever worked with. David can party with the best of them – till the sun comes up. But man, he will be there when class starts – and ready to teach! He is passionate, excited and inspiring… even on little sleep. I wish i had your energy David!!! Have a wonderful workshop – I am sure you will inspire (and entertain) all of your students…

xo gina

LANCE/KELLY….

fantastic…great….cool…and damn!!! i will miss this show!!!! i am literally catching a plane at the time the show starts….major bummer!!!

are you guys going to be in New York friday night??? i am here, but i have to be a good boy since i will be jetlagged etc arriving in Italy, so i just can’t can’t can’t get “extensive” this friday nite…but come over and make sure i get to bed early…

abrazos, david

Kelly –

Great news! I sent the link to the Swimmers piece to a friend who swims most mornings….finds his peace there in the water. He LOVED it.

Joan

JOAN….

“two thumbs up” is the way i want to work with this project….

i have not always done this…when on assignment for a magazine, this is not a promise you can make…

but, i felt for this family work, i would make this reassuring offer for people who are so kindly allowing me into their homes, their lives…

perhaps i will regret this promise..some of the pictures may not be “flattering” from their perspective…what happens if my most favorite favorite picture is just not acceptable to one of my families???

first, of course, i will try to talk them into it!!!

if that does not work, then a promise is a promise….

i may “lose” a picture or two….but, so be it….and, of course, i will refuse to publish a picture i hate that they might love…remember, TWO thumbs up!!! we all have to approve the picture or pictures….all or nothing…

as was my work in “Living Proof”, i do not see this family project as some sort of display of my photographic prowess…

or even expect it to have the “photo book” look…i do not want this “look”…this is about THEM, not Me…

naturally, i will want the best work to be published, exhibited etc., but i will just take my chances that my subjects will allow me to publish the “best” photograph because by the time i am done shooting them they all know my intent, my seriousness, and my overall commitment to a fine book etc…i suspect that most will trust my judgment when it comes right down to the wire…

remember that all of my subjects sense right off that i have no hidden agenda…they know where the book is “coming from” in my personal life, what it “means” overall..

trust begets trust….i will stand by this…

cheers, david

David Mc–

It’s been several days since I watched your multimedia piece. I like the new edit, but there are some photos that stick out in my mind that are not in the new edit, some of the close up photos of items for sale. I remember in particular a photo of mugs and one or two of some old books that I liked a lot. Then of course there’s the Big Jim Camper! I really felt like some of those photos really added to the story. No?

sl

Rafal–

I really like your photographs. Graphically, I think they’re wonderful. I especially love the two with the birds in the foreground and the foggy city beyond. Very nice…

sl

Marcin–

Congratulations on the old woman photo! Sounds like a great way to start a string of successful portraits! Well done.

DAH–

I’m sure we’re all dying to see the photos of Patricia and her husband at the piano. If they don’t make the cut, does that mean we’ll never see them??? Also, I saw in an earlier post you mentioned workshops with you in NY. Is there one coming up? I’d love to do a workshop with you.

sl

DAVID

I promise you that Ed and I will give you both thumbs up to publish/show any image of us that works for you. We’re just honored to be part of this amazing project.

Have a grand and glorious workshop in Tuscany and we’ll share stories when we both return. My deepest gratitude again for your visit, for taking Ed’s and my portrait & all that means, and for helping me with my edit. You’re the best!

ALL

It’s time for me to pack my clothes and iBook since I hope to be on the road by 10 a.m. tomorrow. The important things are ready, and that is my 10 prints for MEM’s workshop. If you want to see a pic & read my blog entry for tomorrow, just check out

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/100986892

hasta luego

Patricia

David,

I like to be busy:) Im dabbling in this look. Ofcourse Im still on the Home Sweet Home project as my main project but Im trying to dabble in other things, and this is a perfect time to do it, I mean its summer, I have time to be out there. I like this look. I love the Sobol look but I also like the Shore or Power look. Im also trying to expand, try different things and see how they go. So for this summer while Ik trying to build on Home Sweet Home, Im also doing something colpletelt different. I do wish I had a larger format than a 35mm as that sort of seems to be the way to shoot this sort of stuff but I have to make do with what I have. What I like about it is that its so etached as a look, in general, much more contemplative and slowed down than shooting something like Home Sweet Home which is quite more intense in how intimate it is. With Home Sweet Home I have I think a base of the pyramid, what I mean is a feel and look and a general direction of where Im going with it, so Ive slowed it down, being much more demanding of what I keep and put in the set….theres a real danger of it overgrowing since its something Im IN 24/7… in a way I fear it, since Ive set my mind on doing this project for an extended period of time, as in several years..how will I deal with the sheer amount of imagery, how will I edit it? So I decided I need to be slower, more demanding as the story grows, I cant let the thing build into a tsunami..plus I need an out once in a while, and the Riverside project allows me to slow down and retreat from the subject when I wish. A sort of refuge in a way from being overwhelmed by the family stuff. And the two can co-exist easily. Neither takes time from the other…I shoot at home and I shoot when Im out (between gigs, during transit, I go to the riverside for 15 or 30 minutes or longer when I have the time)

As I told Bob, I think, I consciously did something totally opposite from before: color vs b/w, close (space wise) vs detached, intimate vs detached, organic vs graphic composition to set the space between the two projects.

Your caution is spot on, theres a danger in dilluting yourself with too many different looks, styles, and I tried to get that topic going but it didnt take here:) Maybe it will now.

And I knew that you would recognize many of these places. LOL

DAH–

Thanks. I think I have childhood connections to those items. It’s hard not to be touched by them. I saw what David wrote about the Sale signs, but I missed the bit about the items. And thank you also for directing me to the workshop info!

Did you see my earlier post about Centralia, Pa. My friends family lived in the area. Sounds like an interesting place.

sl

RAFAL…

yes, i understand…and this is what i thought you were doing and thinking….

you clearly have your “head on straight”…just checking!!!

cheers, david

DAH–

Centralia is an old mining town in Pennsylvania. I mine fire has been burning there since the 60’s. The government tried to buy out all of the residents but a few families refused to leave. I would think these families might be very interesting american families. Here’s the story on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

sl

David thanks for answering Spencer’s question. I just got back from the bar and I’m no good for typing!!

RAFAL….

yes yes yes…YOU ARE ON THE CASE!!! you have just terrific new work from Home Sweet Home and Family Ties..well, both belong together perhaps….anyway, no matter…as i said when i first saw HSH, you have made the most amazing leap from the work you originally showed me when we met in Seoul…where you are now, from where you were just a year ago, is very very impressive in my opinion…and i see a lot of work!!!

ok, Rafal..now i am adamant ..please do not get distracted from HSH…energy is energy….no wine spilled on the ground please…just finish this family work…you may not be far from finished…just cross over the “boredom line” or whatever…there is a “second wind” for you…suck it in….breathe deep….you will never never get another chance like this….these things do not come back…no delay..once in a lifetime…things change ..SO GO NOW…please trust me on this one…GREAT WORK…just make it a little better!!!!

cheers, david

Hi David;

Just thought I’d leave you a quick note to let you know I finally got the other two Timor images up on the web page. (Soldier with daughter & 3 boys)

I’m also about to substitute a few more later this week. I appreciate that you took the time to pick your favourites!!

Cheers and have a safe journey!!!

The last one pictures of my hometown essay will be blue tree from wroclaw, so if I will have any image of this woman (it is not obvious, know that everyone who working with this hmmmm… unusual camera) I add this portrait at the end of story. Somehow this situation is part of my hometown essay…

must run

GINA, BOB, DAVID – I will be at Slideluck in spirit only.. not only is the last minute flight to NY expensive, but I have prior commitments with the bull riders here in Texas. I really wish I could have planned for this because I’d love to be there.. I’ve always wanted to catch one of these Slideluck shindigs… someday, someday. KELLY may be there.. at this point I don’t know what her call is.

I hope it goes well and I can’t wait to hear about it!

Abrazos, Lance

hi hi.
earthquakes, return of panos.. equipment probs and some superb work – it’s all been happening here, no?

i’ve begun to tear my hair out over editing down my music work.. the idea is for a book.. confidence is waning, my eyes are getting tired and i’m starting to think it’s not worth a book.
in any case.

i have started a blog to communicate what i am up to..
http://1997to2008.blogspot.com/

there are a handful of photos up there.. more words and thought right now.
they are in no particular order and certainly not a final edit.
just a bunch of photos.. some good ones i hope.

in the main edit not yet on the blog, i have cut the photos scanned (prob 1/3rd of the total number i have taken) cut down to about 300 photos.. i’m going to get that down to 100 and then upload them to the blog.

i’ve been looking through a good few thousand to get to the 300 now on my computer and once my negs are shipped over i will have many thousands more to look through.. scan and edit. so.. lots of photographs and i know some of my fav’s are yet to be looked at again.

the ones online right now are in colour although i have begun to edit in B&W since looking at so many colours was starting to fry my brain. they are not necessarily the best i have so far.. just a fairly random bunch picked from the editing file… to show the kind of range i have.

so..

very nervous about posting this in such good company.
hope you like some of them, in any case – love them, hate them, indifferent to them – any guidance on photos you like, advice on editing or if you just think i need to give up and open a sandwich shop.. please feel free.

strange – i have been submitting to magazines for many years.. have been published in hundreds of them.. am very thick skinned, however i’m helluva nervous about posting some here.

i’m going fishing now, to straighten out my head.. it’s been an emotional experience looking through some of the commissions.. some good times.. some bad times..

hi hi.
earthquakes, return of panos.. equipment probs and some superb work – it’s all been happening here, no?

i’ve begun to tear my hair out over editing down my music work.. the idea is for a book.. confidence is waning, my eyes are getting tired and i’m starting to think it’s not worth a book.
in any case.

i have started a blog to communicate what i am up to..
http://1997to2008.blogspot.com/

there are a handful of photos up there.. more words and thought right now.
they are in no particular order and certainly not a final edit.
just a bunch of photos.. some good ones i hope.

in the main edit not yet on the blog, i have cut the photos scanned (prob 1/3rd of the total number i have taken) cut down to about 300 photos.. i’m going to get that down to 100 and then upload them to the blog.

i’ve been looking through a good few thousand to get to the 300 now on my computer and once my negs are shipped over i will have many thousands more to look through.. scan and edit. so.. lots of photographs and i know some of my fav’s are yet to be looked at again.

the ones online right now are in colour although i have begun to edit in B&W since looking at so many colours was starting to fry my brain. they are not necessarily the best i have so far.. just a fairly random bunch picked from the editing file… to show the kind of range i have.

so..

very nervous about posting this in such good company.
hope you like some of them, in any case – love them, hate them, indifferent to them – any guidance on photos you like, advice on editing or if you just think i need to give up and open a sandwich shop.. please feel free.

strange – i have been submitting to magazines for many years.. have been published in hundreds of them.. am very thick skinned, however i’m helluva nervous about posting some here.

i’m going fishing now, to straighten out my head.. it’s been an emotional experience looking through some of the commissions.. some good times.. some bad times..

hi hi.
earthquakes, return of panos.. equipment probs and some superb work – it’s all been happening here, no?

i’ve begun to tear my hair out over editing down my music work.. the idea is for a book.. confidence is waning, my eyes are getting tired and i’m starting to think it’s not worth a book.
in any case.

i have started a blog to communicate what i am up to..
http://1997to2008.blogspot.com/

there are a handful of photos up there.. more words and thought right now.
they are in no particular order and certainly not a final edit.
just a bunch of photos.. some good ones i hope.

in the main edit not yet on the blog, i have cut the photos scanned (prob 1/3rd of the total number i have taken) cut down to about 300 photos.. i’m going to get that down to 100 and then upload them to the blog.

i’ve been looking through a good few thousand to get to the 300 now on my computer and once my negs are shipped over i will have many thousands more to look through.. scan and edit. so.. lots of photographs and i know some of my fav’s are yet to be looked at again.

the ones online right now are in colour although i have begun to edit in B&W since looking at so many colours was starting to fry my brain. they are not necessarily the best i have so far.. just a fairly random bunch picked from the editing file… to show the kind of range i have.

so..

very nervous about posting this in such good company.
hope you like some of them, in any case – love them, hate them, indifferent to them – any guidance on photos you like, advice on editing or if you just think i need to give up and open a sandwich shop.. please feel free.

strange – i have been submitting to magazines for many years.. have been published in hundreds of them.. am very thick skinned, however i’m helluva nervous about posting some here.

i’m going fishing now, to straighten out my head.. it’s been an emotional experience looking through some of the commissions.. some good times.. some bad times..

hi hi.
earthquakes, return of panos.. equipment probs and some superb work – it’s all been happening here, no?

i’ve begun to tear my hair out over editing down my music work.. the idea is for a book.. confidence is waning, my eyes are getting tired and i’m starting to think it’s not worth a book.
in any case.

i have started a blog to communicate what i am up to..
http://1997to2008.blogspot.com/

there are a handful of photos up there.. more words and thought right now.
they are in no particular order and certainly not a final edit.
just a bunch of photos.. some good ones i hope.

in the main edit not yet on the blog, i have cut the photos scanned (prob 1/3rd of the total number i have taken) cut down to about 300 photos.. i’m going to get that down to 100 and then upload them to the blog.

i’ve been looking through a good few thousand to get to the 300 now on my computer and once my negs are shipped over i will have many thousands more to look through.. scan and edit. so.. lots of photographs and i know some of my fav’s are yet to be looked at again.

the ones online right now are in colour although i have begun to edit in B&W since looking at so many colours was starting to fry my brain. they are not necessarily the best i have so far.. just a fairly random bunch picked from the editing file… to show the kind of range i have.

so..

very nervous about posting this in such good company.
hope you like some of them, in any case – love them, hate them, indifferent to them – any guidance on photos you like, advice on editing or if you just think i need to give up and open a sandwich shop.. please feel free.

strange – i have been submitting to magazines for many years.. have been published in hundreds of them.. am very thick skinned, however i’m helluva nervous about posting some here.

i’m going fishing now, to straighten out my head.. it’s been an emotional experience looking through some of the commissions.. some good times.. some bad times..

hi hi.

earthquakes, return of panos.. equipment probs and some superb work – it’s all been happening here, no?

i’ve begun to tear my hair out over editing down my music work.. the idea is for a book.. confidence is waning, my eyes are getting tired and i’m starting to think it’s not worth a book.

in any case.

i have started a blog to communicate what i am up to..

http://1997to2008.blogspot.com/

there are a handful of photos up there.. more words and thought right now.

they are in no particular order and certainly not a final edit.

just a bunch of photos.. some good ones i hope.

in the main edit not yet on the blog, i have cut the photos scanned (prob 1/3rd of the total number i have taken) cut down to about 300 photos.. i’m going to get that down to 100 and then upload them to the blog.

i’ve been looking through a good few thousand to get to the 300 now on my computer and once my negs are shipped over i will have many thousands more to look through.. scan and edit. so.. lots of photographs and i know some of my fav’s are yet to be looked at again.

the ones online right now are in colour although i have begun to edit in B&W since looking at so many colours was starting to fry my brain. they are not necessarily the best i have so far.. just a fairly random bunch picked from the editing file… to show the kind of range i have.

so..

very nervous about posting this in such good company.

hope you like some of them, in any case – love them, hate them, indifferent to them – any guidance on photos you like, advice on editing or if you just think i need to give up and open a sandwich shop.. please feel free.

strange – i have been submitting to magazines for many years.. have been published in hundreds of them.. am very thick skinned, however i’m helluva nervous about posting some here.

i’m going fishing now, to straighten out my head.. it’s been an emotional experience looking through some of the commissions.. some good times.. some bad times..

david bowen : here is the other link >

http://www.lastnightsparty.com/