Congrats to the winners!!!

I would have loved to win the green bag that DAH had at the magnum meeting in Paris. David: can you tell me where I can buy it?

Thanks

Arie

Congrats Winners, those are great, as I am sure the other 37+ are as well.

DAVID et all,
I went out after harvesting some advice and shot again for my “assignment”. I think there is a noticeable shift in the imagery… some of the strongest imagery yet. comments welcome and appreciated.

http://www.sportsshooter.com/jonathanhanson/baltimorepolice4/

ALL…

the link is now up on the post with all pictures which were curated…

JONATHAN…

great work!!!!! keep going….

cheers, david

JONATHAN! :))))

great great ! :)))…as i said yesterday, i really love what you are doing and how you’re accomplishing and cant wait to see where it goes, with shooting subjects away from cops…

good on u!

running
away

b

Congratulations for winners and for all!!!!
The portrait are great!

hugs

Jonathan

the first one is my favorite.

Gui

Great selection of work there …and ’twas such an interesting ‘competition’ …congratulations folks! :)

i couldn’t agree more with those three selections.

David, the boy got leaps.

other favorites: where’s young tom in the water?, arie, bob, lung, KYUNGHEE!, peter, EMILY, erica!, lisa, aga, alex!,…

OOps. Please forgive my typo, Suryo.

Patricia

I’ve been out of the loop for a while. But I’ll be back in August regularly.

Hi David,

I think I found the bag but not the green color (tan color which I doi not like).

Thanks

Arie

Congrats!!

Congratulations.. and once again.. nice to see your faces!

wow…
wow.
wow.
b r e a t h

i’m at a bar bq with my future in-laws.. stuffed on salmon, pork and aquavita.. a new flavour in alcohol which has me smiling for more..
in a small community called florø in norway, one of the back gardens has just lit up, exploded with joy for seeing this post.

thank you.
so much.
david, chris and more..
bob and patricia for inspiring me to look deeper with their own work.. and beate for anchoring me so very beautifully and learning to love photography.

heartiest congratulations to the other selected snappers.. it is really something to gain recognition with so many wonderful entries jostling for position.. such excellent piers.. a fat slice of culture pie..
DAH – your idea for contributions was excellent, convieved with real love.. community building stuff to be proud of.. good man.. om shanti, boom-boom and all that warm stuff to you.

the first ever competition i have entered..

the prize is iceing on an already full cake, having seen so many great works produced by others..
i love books. i love books with photos in them. i love them more when they say ‘to beate and david’..

i’ve only recently begun to wander in these road trip pages and there is a hope in me for a greater prize still.. that is to participate more in what is happening here.
i’m still playing catch up a little, reading up on the past posts, and as soon as i am done with that i shall begin to ‘put up..’, as it were.

so many poets, strong minds, solid eyes and inspiring idea’s flowing here.. more over there is kindness, with the international shipping of ‘red cross’ velvia and people taking time to view each others visual mumblings.. superb stuff.
i’ll do my best to keep up and contribute with thoughts, snaps and norsk styles in alcohol.
the white russian wore thin..

by way of an intro – bophoto has the words on ‘me’ for clients here…
http://www.bophoto.co.uk/about/about.htm

the less official version would be that at present i am editing down stories from an exhausting decade photographing electronic music as it has spun around the globe.. i spun with it.. sometimes span out.. spun upside down on occassion to be truthful.. and finally found a way to get off for a year and look at what i have achieved.
the rush of the phonecall on a wednesday, ‘do you want to go to XXXX?’ and the comedown on a monday .. did that really happen? only to be reminded again on a wednesday..
it’s over for a while as i withdraw from that life and move into another.. withdraw from the music industries thrashing floor and back home to snappers anonymous.. ‘for a better life’.
i always prefered fusion-jazz anyway.

mini projects within the greater project kept me sane, although due to client deadline trauma, oweing rent (and other bland excusses) the projects remain filed.. until this year.
some gems are there, i hope.. some lost weekends.. a book, perhaps.

i’m living in stavanger, european ‘city of culture 2008’ (‘they’ say), and gently documenting what the place is all about to a recent immigrant.. me.
i also begin teaching photojournalism in august.. teaching and learning from the under-grads perhaps.

david – my full entry is here – the photo was done early on the sunday morning. the words explain the idea a little more i hope.
and thankyou again.
just a brilliant bit of fun.
http://www.bophoto.co.uk/frontphotos/fortheloveof.htm

so.
hello everyone.
a lurker i shall not be.

apologies for any typo’s above.. cannot find spellcheck on this p.c., although it does have the rather exotic feeling ‘æ’ key.
and ‘ø’
‘å’ too.

did i say thanks?

DAVID B

What a treat to get to know you better! But I had already loved you simply from seeing/reading your entry to DAH’s self portrait contest. I thought that was all I needed to know about David Bowen to feel close to you. And now I find yet ANOTHER reason–You’re into EM!!! Hell, man, they call me Grandma Techno! Check it out…

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2008/05/28/grandma-techno-rocks-the-demf/

I bet you’ve been to DEMF, maybe even when I was there. I’ve been going since 2005. Here are just a few of the pics I took this year:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/movement08

Guess you’re onto other things now–like becoming a daddy–but just know when I shake my bootie (as I’ll be doing to the DJs at Detroit’s CityFest this weekend), I’m doing it for you!

LOVE that you and Beate are among the winners here! You deserve it!!!

Patricia aka Grandma Techno

grandma techno–

you are a hoot, girl!!! :))

Now, if that’s not a ‘teaser’, then I’m the president of Berzerkistan.

wow there’re just great! very creative…

congratulations to all of the winners :)

LOVE all 3!! Congrats for the beauty..

REALLY DAH, such good keeps spinning forth from what you have started here..but yes, give some insight as to your revelation..too mysterious and i can’t stand it… you are right, whatever I am thinking could not be right, my mind is really outlandish at times…

Happy 4th..

Just got my first go round of negs back from the assignment..am scanning, looking, thinking, feeling..am terribly excited about seeing how this will earth. I want to show you but maybe not quite yet, a couple of more days shooting first? If it doesn’t pour tomorrow Andrew is coming to help me, an angel..

MWAHAHAHA!!!!!

I did just need a good laugh today as well!!!

They are great, great funny touching portraits- well done guys!

I must say David B I really always loved your shot best, congrats to you on your lifestyle change and I think you and ‘Grandma Techno’ (hehehehehehe gotta love that moniker!) should get together and do a book, I reckon you got something happening here!

DAH

Hmmmm… Curiouser and curiouser…

KATIA

Wish I was a bit richer! (hehehehehehe!) But hey thanks for that, I appreciate it.

Damn… i feel so pissed … i’m not “included” in the slideshow!!!
i put so much work in that “dildo”… photo..
i even built the dildo myself, as WITKIN would find very natural..
i hope..
And i thought that “kissing ass” really pays off…
Yeah right…
The Judge said : “OUT”…

ANTOOON,
no Duvel tonight, but J.WALKER yeeeees!

Congrats to the winners and runners-up. It was a great project. Thanks, David–and thanks to David McGowan for making it so easy to see the images. I saved the link to my desktop and tried to pick the winners. Too many really good ones.

Thanks Panos, I did enjoy…

It brought back quite a few memories…

You are right… there is similarity in these…

Jonathan,

I like very much your images (except can be 52), they are so quiet and dramatic I wait impatiently for the continuation(suite)…

Kind regards, audrey

This isn’t just my childhood home, it’s a house my dad built the year I was born. He passed away a few years ago.

The couple sitting at the laptop is looking at my photos for this project. I can go back and shoot more if I need to.

Mundane!

http://www.humanfiles.com/garagesale/gs08.htm

Oh guys! This is fabulous!! I just had time to see the selection of 37 photographs from the link and I was really shocked by all the creativity and intention I saw there…. Just great!
I missed this ‘contest’ because I was working and working without time for anything else. I have many selfportraits but I had no time to do a new one within the time frame David asked…
Congratulations to the winners, but also to the rest as there is a lot of good stuff there!
( Hope to get some free time and take a look to all the selfportraits and know a bit more from all of you ;-) )

patricia

superb – excellent.. detroit is one place i have yet to visit, and as the official home of house it needs to be done. you have some cracking photos.. particularly like the first one.. great layers and caught the moment.. right in the middle of it, which i know you will know is not so easy with elbows flying. i’d love to visit and …
…SOLD on detroit. it’s one place i never managed to reach through commission – the event you describe sounds just my cup of tea and i’d love to have you lead me through the meandering shap-shifters.. you’re something of a revalation yourself and motown, home of house.. how to resist?
as an aside – david + beate = D&B. hohoho

katia

that is indeed young beate anchoring me.. she’s a dream really.. and constantly suprizes me with her acceptance and happiness.. we both had such a giggle doing the photo.. stripping in the rain and dodging the church goers.. very funny.

lisa

grandma tachno is now my grandma official.
we call her GT at home.

rafal

i think it’s probably just as important to have an idea to simply shoot where you are without concept as it is to shoot with a preconcieved idea. i’m finding more and more that there are common threads to my random mumblings which are as worthy when collected as when i have chased a project.
of course i could be wrong and as yet still have to put-up..

DMc

how strange a visit that must have been.. to see people selling their lives from the porch your father built.. must have evoked some memories for sure

DAH

lets play ‘whats in the bag?’
.. is it a sandwich?.. nooo
.. is it a small kitten?.. nooo
.. is it a speed-boat?.. it is,isn’t it..

RAFAL…

footnote: all of the aforementioned photographers in their minds are still struggling along the way they always did!! full of insecurity, trying to make it right, on to the “most important project” of their lives…seriously, nothing seems to have changed…funny or curious perhaps, but true…

DAH: “…most artists in the early stages i think know they HAVE to do something, but i doubt most know exactly what it is or how it will “turn out”…[…], most just “do what they have to do” and the winds of fate take them where they may…
—
I like that one…

ok…something for a Friday…thinking sucking upon the bones of time work, thinking about Lance’s True Grit, the exchange with David, the dialog between david and rafal and patricia….and yesterday with Marina who is soon about to launch her website (david, i’ll send u the link later today)…

maybe, one of the embodiments of what has driven me, what has defined my own life, as a photographer, as a writer, and much much much more important and long lasting, as a person (husband, father, son, brother, friend)…is this:

“We only really face up to ourselves when we are afraid”–thomas bernhard.

WOW

ANTON, DAVID B

Different continents but the same skin…

Both so sensitive…

Beautiful, beautiful…

DAVID BOWEN….

welcome!! nice way to start with us!!!

i think we chatted a bit on Lightstalkers about a year or so ago..is that correct?? but, i thought you lived in the UK…am i way way off???

cheers, david

inspiring on so many levels.. my first time visiting the site…

bouncing around to get a handle on what is going on here.. very uplifting… and just makes me want to go grab my camera and run….but i think this is what most of us photographers want to do a large part of the time…

wonderful self-portraits each in their own right.. they all made me smile..

jonathan.. some nice images as well…. the way you framed the mother with her baby… and a few others.. my heart skipped a beat.

love what is going on here.. the dialogue.. the comraderie…

I will try to spend more time reading..getting a feel for the flavor of things…. and eventually hope to participate.. but i got to admit. i often shy away from things like this… group bulletin boards ..i tend to be more of a “voyeur”.. reading,viewing.. rather than posting. but truly the best way to get out… is also to put in.. what makes the community work here…so i will make an effort… in time.. lol

kudos david.. for all that you do here. .and elsewhere.. your energy .. open heart shines…..

can’t wait to see some of your images from being on the road.

happy 4th all to those who will be looking up as the skies turn dark..

DAVID….

the tortilla strobe filter! this one is bound to become a classic… they have an expiry date of “1”… hehe… “use once, then eat” :))) yes and the band-aid is GREAT…

ok time to study some more great books now… have “americans” here from robert frank… with a coffee… humble and hoping to learn… need get much much much better myself… not much self-confidence nowadays (black doggy thingy)… see you later…

PANOS king of the bongo bong :)))

this is why my pictures of yesterday at rock werchter are pretty crappy: “pounding pounding techno music” :))) i’m a pretty lousy video maker (sound is awful), but you’ll catch the energy…

hugs
anton

DAVID ,
the purple DILDO ( now confiscated by the EX )…
was not a BONG… it could be… it should be…
but honestly that dildo could NOT
BE MY BONG!!!
NOT LONG ENOUGH!!!

ok… let’s get serious for a sec…
i just got an email from my great friend SEAN GALLAGHER…
FROM BEIIJING.. f*****g CHINA…
enjoy below:
“…Panos!

How are you my friend? I hope this email finds you well.

Hey, I need you to post again for me on David’s blog if you don’t mind. It’s a message and link to a new story that I have recently shot.

Thanks in advance mate!

Sean

“Dear All,

Many congrats to the finalists over the self-portrait competition! Many of the images are truly hilarious and brightened up my day immensely.

I hope everyone has been well. I have been a little quiet as of late, since Look3, mainly because my Chinese server doesn’t allow me to post, only read the blog. Annoying, but easy to circumnavigate now with the help of my good friend Panos posting for me!

Needless to say, I am still working hard. I have a new link that I’d like to share with you all. It’s a small project that I have been working on recently about air pollution in Beijing. Anyone who has visited Beijing will testify to the poor quality of the air here. I wanted to try and capture the problem in my own way.

Please check out the link

http://www.gallagher-photo.com/content/popup/airpollution/index.html

It’s a vitally important issue and serious problem, especially with the Olympics approaching.

I’m going back to look at some of the self-portraits again!

Best,
Sean”

or, let me repost it using Sean’s full name
panos
peace

“Dear All,

Many congrats to the finalists over the self-portrait competition! Many of the images are truly hilarious and brightened up my day immensely.

I hope everyone has been well. I have been a little quiet as of late, since Look3, mainly because my Chinese server doesn’t allow me to post, only read the blog. Annoying, but easy to circumnavigate now with the help of my good friend Panos posting for me!

Needless to say, I am still working hard. I have a new link that I’d like to share with you all. It’s a small project that I have been working on recently about air pollution in Beijing. Anyone who has visited Beijing will testify to the poor quality of the air here. I wanted to try and capture the problem in my own way.

Please check out the link

http://www.gallagher-photo.com/content/popup/airpollution/index.html

It’s a vitally important issue and serious problem, especially with the Olympics approaching.

I’m going back to look at some of the self-portraits again!

Best,
Sean”

“…Well Papa go to bed now it’s getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
I’ll be leaving in the morning from St. Mary’s Gate
We wouldn’t change this thing even if we could somehow
Cause the darkness of this house has got the best of us
There’s a darkness in this town that’s got us too
But they can’t touch me now
And you can’t touch me now
They ain’t gonna do to me
What I watched them do to you

So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day
All down the line
Just say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day this time

Now I don’t know what it always was with us
We chose the words, and yeah, we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind

Well say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day all boys must run away
So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day

Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie’s joint
And the highway she’s deserted clear down to Breaker’s Point
There’s a lot of people leaving town now
leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

Well Papa go to bed now, it’s getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there’s just different people coming down here now
And they see things in different ways
And soon everything we’ve known will just be swept away

So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But won’t you just say goodbye it’s Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away…”

is that PATRIOTIC enough or what???
peace

DAH

gentle honesty.. great words made out of little letters.

yes.. i was drunk on white russians and posted a picture.. magnum ice-creams and all that..
i believe you had a moving dragon to play with.
ireverant irrelivance which, one year later, brings me here..
thanks for the welcome.
i moved to norway on an instinct which has paid off handsomely.. it’s a fjord fiesta .. hohoho.
i still intend to travel and will be in london at some point this year.. you, sir?

anton

puva, uvb, betnovate, dovonex, dovobet.. i’ve tried them all… 8th of green and 2 ltrs of water a day.. giving up red meat and dairy products.. as you will know, it’s tought to look after.
there is a new drug (to europe at least) called raptiva which has a good rate of remission, although the best is still a month at the dead sea clinics, from what i gather. 97% rate of remission.. at 2000 GBP it’s well out of reach.

i’ve only had it for 7 or 8 years.. it was a shock at first.. it must have been tough as a younger man.. respect to you for replying to me.. it means a chunk to share some darkness..

still – with humour it is possible to cope.
beate and i had a giggle last night.
i’m her cadburies chocolate flake… ‘only the crumbliest, flakiest lover.. tastes like.. blahblahblah’.

congratulazioni a tutti….
grande david!

baci

CATHY…

You sell out, you! I thought we were the true “straight” shooters in here! You switched up and went “loose” and voila! You’re in the slideshow! I’m sooo disappointed!

(All of the above is just joking, of course! Or is it? ;^})

Seriously, nice shot girl. And congrats!

Hey all,

After being offline for a couple of weeks, while in Charlottesville and then Mexico City, I’ve finally returned to Barcelona.

In the meantime I’ve got a new site redesign with some new projects up. One, Ancestral Calling, will hopefully be a long term project about the traditional lives two relatives of mine live in Southern Ireland. The second story is on urban tribes in Mexico City. This is a project I did in 48 hours. If anyone has any feedback on the site, I’d love to hear it, publically or privately (you can email me through the site). Oh and DAH, I did take your advice, all be it kicking and screaming, and dumped the travel stuff.

SEAN, LANCE, ERICA, BRENDAN and DAH:
It was great to meet/hang with you in C’ville! Sorry it was such a brief visit. In hind site, it was really stupid of me as I just tried to pack too much in to too little time. I got in Thursday night, spent all day Friday in the Project Critique and Saturday morning I was on my way to the airport to get to DF. I didn’t even get to see any of the exhibitions! On top of that was the nearly $300 taxi I had to take to get to Dulles on Saturday, while JN was speaking! C’ville is a great town, but if you don’t have a car in America, you are nothing. At least you can get to Perpignan by train!

Next time I’ll organize myself a little better. Hell, next time we’ll be in Perpignan and since it’s practically a DC commute away from Barna, I’ll likely be there all week this year, so I’ll have no excuses!

BOB, ERIC & JAMES:
Thanks for the feedback on the Ancestors story. If you want to see what I went with, it’s now up on the site as well.

Self-portrait stars:
Deadly work;-)

cheers all,
Charlie
http://charliemahoney.net

Aloha

Settled into a nice hillside house, it’s raining, really cute guy singing on the TV keeping me moving, house to myself. The draw of this essay with the bachelors keeps me in one position in one place for long periods.

My Mac laptop is saying it needs some TLC with backup and downloading and relieving its little head so although anxious to show you the gun toting bachelor right now I better be wise. On bachelor #1 I went back to my contact sheet and pulled out totally different ones, the ones that tell the story.

I will post both under the special page for our work. Thanks guys for the fun posts. I will alert you all when I post the link.

Lee

SIDNEY….

welcome back!!!

your views are just as welcomed here as anyone else’s…i always read what you write and try to respond accordingly..

your point about the NG “China” book is well taken…i am sure it is a very good book..well researched and, yes, by many different photographers…personal vision is not a part of it, but i never said that “personal vision” is all that there is and surely there is a “wide audience” that has no clue about personal vision, does not want or need to have anything to do with personal vision or authorship etc etc…these readers and viewers of which you describe are, in fact, the audience of National Geographic!!!..not photography students, or purveyors of fine photography, just appreciators of what Natgeo does and does very well..yet the very individual photographers you mentioned who were published in this China anthology are very much personal vision photographers…there work may have been taken out of context of their original quest, but still can find another appreciative audience on the pages on Natgeo…

but, i still submit that you can’t get those pictures on the pages of Natgeo in the first place without the photographers themselves believing and living and immersing themselves in the pursuit of something much much more than Natgeo…

the photographers i know who had only Natgeo as a goal have totally disappeared from photoworld in general and even from the anthologies Natgeo themselves publish!!!!…

none of them are even in the book you so described!!!

so, the context in which pictures are created can be quite different from the context in which they are published…

i doubt that a single photographer you mentioned in that China book has that book on his or her coffee table…i would bet on this…

good book for the masses…yes, of course…but, of what value would it be for me to teach or mentor a photographer for the purpose of appealing to the popular status quo???…there are teachers who do that, but not me!!!

without trying we get to the status quo mass market anyway…..we are all published in books and magazines who do just that..the NG China book is an example..the status quo is all around us…but should that be held up high!!!

i think you have to differentiate between photographer “motive” and the “use” of pictures by picture buyers such as Natgeo…

i am absolutely NOT suggesting some kind of photography elitism…the photographers i admire are humanistic by nature….and i know for sure that all of my colleagues want and expect their work to go “out there” to a mass audience…not just have their work hanging on the walls of the wealthy…

but, photographers who are authors and who see themselves as such will automatically capture the “mass audience” and if they are careful will also appeal to a more select audience of decision makers and supporters of the arts..

as i have said many times before, as time passes, and all turns into dust, it is only art/literature/music etc. that survives our time on this earth…

by the way, i loved your self portrait …you flat out look like a really really nice man..i hope we will meet sometime soon….

please stay with us this time!!!

peace, hugs et al, david

SEAN

Your pollution essay has really opened my eyes to what it means when we read that the cities in China–and elsewhere–have terribly unsafe air. Somehow the photos of those cars and motorcycles made it real. I echo David’s idea for a book. Timely and necessary…and you, my friend, are the one to do it! In making your “mark”–which you are sure to do in any case–you will be helping our planet survive. We must first recognize the problem before we can change it, and that is where photojournalists come in. Thank you for your vision, heart and dedication. You’re making a difference already.

SIDNEY

I welcome your voice back to this blog. I wasn’t here when you were an active participant before but can already tell you are a man who thinks deeply, says it like you see it and has a delightfully quirky sense of humor. Besides, I like having another 60+ buddy here! We’re in the minority so that makes it all the more important that we speak up and share our perspective. Long life may suck in some ways (body stuff) but is a pure joy in others (being comfortable with oneself)!

Patricia

SIDNEY…PATRICIA

laughing…

well, i see this as nothing more than good discussion….and amigos, not one single negative vibe to it!!!

Sidney, you are not a “straw dog”…you have good points all around…keep them coming…

Patricia, i am not sure what you mean by having a “minority” voice and by needing to “share our perspective”

after all, i am older than both of you!!!

el viejo, david

Giggling now too..

But, dear David, I beg to differ. If your bio is correct, you were born in 1944. I got you by 2 years–1942. Besides, you are one of those ageless creatures, rather like a character in some fairy tale!

Patricia

PATRICIA…

laughing again..

well, i was just guessing and trying to make a point as i am sure you know…

i remember a lot of my friends getting really really old when they turned 30…lost every ounce of idealism etc….this was a wake up call to me…i was shocked….couldn’t believe it…i.e. the very best actor in our drama school was selling insurance by the time he was 31….

point is, some people grow narrow early, some expand as they go along…

viva expansionistas!!!!

hugs, david

MICHAEL K….

listen ….you love nature….consumes you…so i would not take you from where you are already…i would only suggest that you look at some of the work from non-nature photographers and incorporate this genre into your work…do you know “Last Place on Earth” by Michael Nichols?? he is consumed by nature too…yet , he manages to blend people with nature as well or better than anyone i know…and the aesthetic of Nick is the aesthetic of a European street photographer…so subject is not important, but approach is…what about James Balog and “Wildlife Requiem”…know him?? same thing…..Chris Johns, now NG editor, was the same…check out “Wild at Heart”…

you should probably move in the direction of the photogs above…different from them in style, but with that kind of commitment and advanced thinking about “nature photography”…

cheers, david

MICHAEL

An unsolicited opinion here- feel free to ignore me… just to tag on to David’s comment, I think you might find Freeman Patterson’s work (and books) helpful.

DAH:

It seems that I may have caught you in a moment where you are actively responding. Not an easy task considering the 6 hour time difference.

I’m curious as to the state of assignments, especially considering your pending cross country road trip. What’s the current status? Are people still working on last month’s assignments? Will there be a new round? Or has this evolved organically into something else?

cheers,
Charlie
charliemahoney.net

MICHAEL K..
you definitely got all the tech stuff “down”…
choose something from your “heart” now…
make us care, and think about it at night..
chooose something that will “haunt” us..
please..
i cant wait…
you are great, but make us care about your vision, too!
don’t let us outside!
not fair!
peace and love
and thanks again!
please say hi to R.

CHARLIE…

round one and round two are sort of blending…but i will have a total analysis of where the assignments all stand by next week…i was thinking about this earlier..just make sure i know what you want to do…

ok, running now, but back soonest..

cheers, david

David;

Just a short question to you and everyone… When you’ve come back from an important (to yourself) shoot, do you find it difficult to settle down and shoot other projects?

I’ve been on plenty of photo trips, doing mostly travel work, but this is the first time where I can’t get enthused over projects at home after returning…

Maybe it was because the last trip was so personal to me, I’m not sure….

Also, if you have time, which 6-8 images would you pick from my recent trip? I will be posting another link soon of other images I’m still mulling over.

The first edit was a rough one, mostly to get other’s opinions…

Cheers everyone

Bob B:

Thanks, bro, for your sympathetic words aimed at me.

“…i was left feeling slightly hunger for “interior” points of view as well…chinese artists, for example…but, the complexity of ALL place never allows for assimilation, of any kind, for place is still a cauldron of time and people and language and culture and spirituality and mind, mind, mind…”

Yes! I couldn’t have possibly said this better, we are on the same wavelength here, and despite years and years of looking at and taking thousands of pictures of places… the hunger remains for a more ‘interior point of view…’ the nostalgia for place is only whetted by the image, the experience is so much more multi-sensory and so much more psychological… and even the most skillful and evocative of images are merely postcards that can trigger memories of place in people who have already experienced them, but how can they possibly do that in people who haven’t? So achieving that impossibility remains the challenge… How to put the sounds of the language and the smells of frying guotie, burning incense, and rotting fruit in the gutter water all into a still photo? (Yes, some masters do it, I know it can be done…)

Fiction and cinema however seem to come much closer to doing this effectively, though I have to admit that still photography has always been one of my main doorways to the world. Incidentally, I have seen the film ‘Yi-Yi’ that you have been recommending a number of times and enjoy it greatly. I haven’t been to Taiwan, but the Taiwanese films I’ve seen, the things I’ve read, and the Taiwanese people I continue to meet all make me feel both a curiosity and a kinship for this place, with its mixed legacy of aboriginal, Fujianese, Japanese, and Kuomintang-Chinese influences. I hope to go there someday. Meanwhile, I spend time in Vancouver’s two Chinatowns, the old one on the downtown east side, and the newer one in Richmond.

The trouble with a book on ‘China’ is of course that it’s just too big a subject. I’d love to see a book of the same size and visual sophistication done on just one town or village. Back in the mid 80s a Japanese photographer (Saito Yasuichi) did a whole book in b+w on the city of Suzhou (Soochow) that is still one of my favorite photo books, though sadly no longer in my possession.

Panos:

Don’t a have a broadband connection at the moment but will check out your YouTube link when I get the chance.

Cheers,

ANNA B….

there has been some kind of mixup…i looked again at the self portraits and yours was not there…did you submit twice?? i remember a picture of you in the mirror, white, flowing upside down…you right?? well, where is that picture??? i like that picture…Mike not here…maybe he has an explanation..or you??

cheers, david

Kyunghee Lee–

beautiful and dreamlike work.
you do this well.

Hey Panos, I hear Snoop Dogg is killin it at Rothbury right now. I found a ticket – going tomorrow!!

Hi David, Bobblack and All…

I was taking a nap this afternoon and a question kept coming back in my had…I would appreciate your hindsight on this. Last week, I saw the short films that Herve had shot during the magnum meeting in Paris: we could see DAH dancing, Koudelka, and many other people…my issue is that I do not believe that pictures could show us what these movies showed us, with the sound, the movement (etc). The movie where you see Koudelka dancing is quite unique. In 50 years from now, when we look back at this meeting, I don’t think that pictures taken of this same event will have the same impact on the viewers. Is it possible that the value of photography (as a tool to register events…) will diminish and diminish until still pictures are not around anymore??

Have a good day from Bermuda,

Arie

ARIE

I have thought about this as well..but it seems to me that the gesalt of a continuous flow has quite a different (not stronger per se) impact on the emotions/psyche than does a poignant still image. Just lions and tigers.. If the photographer ‘does his job’ and catches that which otherwise would be fleeting, even in a flow of motion-imagery, he succeeds in holding up a mirror to that which may not have been seen by most. Simply put, there are moments in time that once frozen leave an incredible and indelible mark on the heart and mind.

That somewhat begs the question about creating video/film and then pulling still frames from that, but I think then it is more a game of chance, and for me, the fun/challenge is in actually seeing and feeling the moment.

Assignment update..

Andrew S and I were able to work until the skies threatened..good stuff I hope/think..he is a lovely fantastic help..

Lee;

Thanks for the comments. I’m exactly the same when shooting. The same thing used to happen when shooting slides too. When I first looked at my work I’d hate it all! Whereas a couple of days later when I’ not so “close” to them I can look at them more dispassionately…

I have to be careful that when shooting digitally I don’t delete images too quickly. Sure I get rid of the crap, but be very careful with everything else.

Another thing I noticed on my last trip which has never happened before; was that some days I absolutely hated everything I’d previously shot (even the images I had loved before). Whereas the next day or so, was back on an even keel again…Curiouser and curiouser as Alice in Wonderland said…

I had a look at the first link (bloody dial-up internet is SO slow!). But will have a better look later today when I have more time. One thing I did think was how good they would look in B&W???

Cheers

David,

very much what I was thinking too. I personally am not thinking at all about what im doing being commercially viable…Im doing it for myself and I think Im lucky I have a way to support myself financially which gives me freedom to be as non-commercial as I want, shooting for myself rather than any ideas about making money from it. Just “doing the work” is something that appeals to me very much.

P.S. Eli Reed is in Korea today doing a talk about the Korea work you guys did, David. I wont be able to make it bu I will go there tonight to see the pictures. Hiroji Kubota is here too, but I dont know if he will be giving a talk.

David Alan Harvey-
As a newbie to your blog I am not sure if you have tried this before.. but I am just going to put it out there… What do you think about doing a crowd sourced assignment? Perhaps a project based on a universal theme? With all the talent scattered around the globe that calls this blog home I am sure we could come together and create a great body of work. It would be a great Social experiment if nothing else? Potential Potential..
I am fascinated by what the internet has to offer us as a means to collectively share and create together. I am sure we (the entire community) could come up and agree on a project that we all could work on.
I know we are all busy with our lives and personal projects, but you have to agree that the potential here is great..
I am sure that there are a few of us out that would help out on the logistical ends of such a project. I have a ton of server space that is just waiting to be bombarded by images….
Willing and able.
Please Let me know what you think
Thank you for all you do.

Perhaps the Family of Man Part 2

Douglas Titus

Hi David,

Thanks for your answer and I look forward looking at your pictures of Koudelka. I would like to show my work but it is so different in style and subject…
Last April, I did a one on one worshop in Bermuda with Peter Turnley. He was kind enough to fly to Bermuda and stay at my house for three days. We discussed at length his Harpers essays (which I consider very highly, actually that is what I would liek to realize for myself). Maybe you coul give me an assigment (as you do with others) and I could try to design a story ?

Thank you again for all that you do – it has been 2 years (almost) since I joined your blog, and it is quite sad that I have not met you yet. Next year I will be in Paris in June and if you agree, I could attend the magnum session (that Herve attended)…that would be incredible (that would be a WOW WOW WOW experience)!!

Have a good day form Bermuda – Arie

David, now that you mention it, I could swear I saw this picture before…by sieff I believe …let me look in my books and I will come back to you.

Arie

Or maybe I am wrong and this picture is an original…I saw it so many times in the last few weeks that I am not sure if I saw it before (maybe it reminds me of something else)…in any case we have to be prudent as it would not be fair if there is a real Les that took this incredible picture…

Arie

still looking looking….i may be wrong, but i think it’s a Japanese pic (that’s why i thought at first Araki), but hunting hunting….pouring over my japanese books..

All you readers with substantial photobook libraries:

perhaps the “Les” photo is by, if not Les, then Ralph Gibson ??????
Although possibly not graphic enough for RG but grain-wise, yes…

An early Annie L, maybe????

Thinking it’s not Japanese… sure does look familiar…

hmmm
sounds like you’re onto something legit, asher

I hope I’ve transformed into an “expander” after all this time being a stay at home dad. I’ve learned so much. About human nature and photography. I think my best photo days are in front.

I’ve been a bit of a stranger around here recently. Rather a lot of difficult stuff happening. And all the while trying to get off a few frames.

I recently became a reluctant executor challenged with dividing the proceeds of a two family home in Queens between three. My cousin and next of kin to the decedent, has only just gotten out of prison having been there most all his adult life. I had to put on my old hack hat to track him down. Finally did through the NY State Police.

He’s a nice guy but has no clue as to how the outside world operates in the 21st century. And he never got to see his mum before she passed.

Anyways, I’ve got to sort all this shit out and pack my house at the same time ahead of our move to London. Movers come on Friday. Then we’re off to DC/Baltimore before returning to New York for our flight out on the 26th.

And there’s so much yet for me to do. I’m also trying to finish a book for a July 14th deadline.

On top of all this I had my first experience of a big medial scare. I went to the doctor to have some stuff removed from my skin only to be told I have high blood pressure. Fucking nightmare. I hardly drink much. I don’t smoke. And I walk everywhere very fast. I’m a frenetic guy.

My wife says to wait until I’m settled in London before I test myself again when all this STUFF sorts itself out. Perhaps then my pulse will have slowed.

I think the blood pressure scare is a result of my not making as many pictures as I’d like to be making. And worst of all is getting some major inspiration in the middle of all the crap and not being able to do anything about it. That’s the worst kind of stress. Wouldn’t you say?

Here’s one I managed to make during the week. Not brilliant but not bad either.
http://paultreacy.com/images/boyhood/BentEoin.jpg

Looking forward to the “revelation”.

I’m knackered. Dismantled loads of shelves today. I’m packing it in for the night.

Good night world.

Paul, holding you in good energy as you make your way through the next couple of weeks. May all go well. BTW your wife’s advice sounds good. What you’ve been experiencing of late would send anyone’s blood pressure through the roof! Once you get settled in London I’d guess your body will settle down too.

Love your latest portrait of your son and his friend! Your photos are filled with such life!

Patricia

Patricia i think you should be a sleuth, nice work. seems as though the mystery man is revealed and that the picture is an original.

uhhh… one and half day and new one hundred comments. When read it? How to keep up?
hmmmmm… this is really great…

Panos,

No youtube… show me new photos… show me… :)

David

I will work at “hometown” soon. If nothing change (my life is unpredictable) I will finish this essay during two-three weeks.

Guys

one more thanks for help.

peace, must run

Dear DAH,

I’m still a bit overwhelmed discovering that my self portrait was featured as number four on the slideshow..DAMN!
Considering the fact that i have only recently discovered your wonderful blog(s) and this great forum.
i must be honest,my submission was made waaaay later the given and time,and still you were so kind to take it into consideration.
this forum is definitely a place i’d love to spend some time on.

Thank you so very much!

Cheers from Israel!:)

Kira

p.s
Thanks to you i’ve discovered the work of Laura El-Tantawy,her project “stay another day” pretty much broke my heart…

I’ve just been two days away and now I have 4 new pages to read and a lot of links to new works! this blog is like a river moves so fast
I’m happy you back David
I am going to read what I missed
back soon again
Nasha

Lisa;

Keep ypur chin up, I’m sure something will come up for you… But like you say you do need to be out there all the time drumming up work.

Have you ever thought of private sponsorship for a particular project? that’s another string I’m trying to work on at the moment…

Also, I flicked you off an email yesterday with a few ideas, hopefully it may help..

Cheers

DAVID

Your comments make me reflect on my own path… I must say that photography has helped me a lot in order to EDIT my own life! but also to enjoy the “fugitive moments” that give us great joy…

On another topic it seems that you are coming back to Europe next August… I missed you last time but I wont be around in August… grrrr…Im heading to South Africa in a couple of weeks so any chance that you go there this year? :)

Ohhh and by the way I have been looking at Lee Friedlander “America by car” photos which reminded me of your project…

beatrix

Now, Asher, don’t give ME the credit! YOU were the one to ferret out our brother Les’s last name & that he’s part of the Leica forum. Congratulations go to YOU!!!!

Patricia

HELLO ALL…

well, i disappeared from the keyboard to host a small July 4th “see the fireworks” party and the “forum detectives” went to work!!!

Patricia, i think it is you who actually went in there and found Les Shikuro…Many thanks to Asher, Bob and David as well…i had to skim the posts this morning, so i do not know the whole story yet…

Please pardon my “paranoia” in the first place, but i did have a serious “joke” entry under the EPF where one of my Magnum photog buddies pulled a joke on us and submitted some of his work under a fake name just to see if we would catch it…it was either that or his assistant did it…in any case, ever since then, i have been on the “lookout”…

the Les photograph did look referential to something, but i could not put my finger on it…anyway, all is well and Les Shikuro deserves full credit for making a truly remarkable image..

step up Les and get your round of applause!!!

ARIE…

i remember you telling me that Peter came to see you and work with you…and you mention his Harper’s work often…nice man, Peter…

the Magnum annual meeting will be in London next summer…we rotate between the three offices…..in any case, you are invited as of right now!!

you may recall many months ago that i was very interested in you…i even said that if i ever decided to make a film or do a screenplay , i could see basing it on you (or my imagination of you)…do you remember that?? based on how you described yourself…in your office….looking outside….but your computer being your “way out” so to speak…maybe i have it all wrong, but i think that is the gist of it…

i think i also suggested at some point that you photograph your office…maybe that is exactly what you do not want to do…you need to tell me what interests you have, what your fantasies are, what you learned from Peter that would apply to you etc etc…let’s start thinking now about an assignment for you that would be fun and push you to your next level….up for it??

MICHAEL S…..ARIE

no, you do not want the Filson med field bag…very heavy even when empty..looks cool, but the weight will kill you and besides you would need to put a different kind of strap on it anyway…the new lighter version, with the larger buckles and wide cotton strap (whatever the name is??) is very nice, although Arie said he did not like the color..color seems fine to me…anyway, color aside, this is the bag to have…waterproof, light, discreet, will age well….this is the one you saw me with in Paris..

hey boys, just come to my loft and go bag shopping!! i mean, i have way way too too many bags…i am very economical when it comes to camera gear…totally minimalist… but bags!!

cheers, david

More LES clues..

http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/nn237/lesterlaii/

David,

I was able to catch the Magnum Korea show today. Very interesting. What a LOT of photos!

First, your photos were a special treat for me since I think I was there when you took most of them. Certainly the one of the girl descending the blue stairway or the one at the Dress Cafe I believe I was within a few feet of you when you took it.

A lot of really interesting perspectives. Alex Majoli’s dyptychs were great, and generally his collection there stuck in my mind a lot. Also Lise Sarfati’s photos and Pinkhassov.

Wish: I wish d’Agata was one of the guys shooting…

ERICA :))

did you hook up with Tamara??….and no more reports about Kibbutz and DAH parties without pics!!!!…since most of us have still not made it to the promised land….at least not yet ;)))….

ok, running for real..

hugs
b

RAFAL…

yes, you are the only one from this forum who has been with me when i was actually working…that rarely happens….and yes, you were right beside me when i took those pictures…

i was very disappointed with the Korea book however…different from the exhibit…i saw the book proofs in Paris….originally we were each supposed to have our own section or essay and then the producers “backed off” and decided to do a “mix” which probably helps sell the book to a mass audience, but was not the first plan…go back and read my comments to Sidney on this topic…the Korea book ended up looking like one of those “Day in the Life…” anthologies which are never really rewarding from a photographer standpoint….

anyway, many thanks again for all the aid you gave me in Seoul….you were a real resource….and you were the first person i “met” from this forum…and i am pleased with 4 or 5 of the photographs i made because of your help..

cheers, david

ps.

DAVID AND ALL, I FORGOT TO POST: HERE IS A WONDERFUL ARTICLE ON OUR VERY OWN MIKE BERUBE

Mike is a GREAT GUY…(he used to be my little brother for drinking, but not my little tea brother!)…Mike took 2 of David’s WORKSHOPS (Still raves about the experience)…AND David showed some of his Kenya work at FOP/LOOK3…it’s magnificent (i was there with Marina for his exhibition)…Mike is a great guy, thoughtful young man, great photographer and deeply loving…i am happy and proud to call him my friend!…enjoy

http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/whitby/article/101937

hugs
bob

PATRICIA

Thanks for the credit, but I love Emerson’s famous quote “There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.” It was a team effort! Also, let me use this opportunity to tell you that I think your photographs are very strong and unique. For what it’s worth, I agree with DAH’s comment that the “darker” photos have a more intriguing “brooding” feel (apologies if I misinterpreted your comments, David).

BOB: Why am I not surprised you don’t have a phone book??? ;-)

JULY 4: THE ANTI-CUBA (shot this yesterday).
Does it remind you of a bad dream version of the cover shot of DAH’s CUBA???

http://www.asherschachter.com/anti-Cuba/

could this be the start of a wacky suburbia/Americana photo essay, like Bill Owens meets Martin Parr???

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s a bong? ………no, I am not going to ask the next question………

BOB, thank you for posting the link on Mike Berube … simply incredible and Mike’s depth, commitment and light shines through in this darkness. He will have a great life i think.

When i see such important work as this, and see it juxtaposed in my mind with the unconcious crap at the grocery store checkstand, and frankly nearly all the periodicals at the bookstore even, i suspect my feelings are just a small bitter taste of what Mike experienced when he returned home from this journey to listen to people talk about TV show plots in the local cafe.

“Most” people, it would seem, do not want to see the world as it is in this age of entertainment news … and yet, i think there are many, many more who would look, think, given the chance. I keep coming back to this … when i had a small publication and published “real” stories on occassion, i was so surprised at the number of people who said “thank you,” people i never even suspected would even read it, or think about it, or have something to say about it.

Here, with Mike’s work, with something so important as this, and with the many others out there putting it all out there and on the line to have something to say, to show the world, how will the world see it? It is great to get recognition from fellow photographers and even notice from editors et al, but it falls way, way short of enough …

WHERE is the vehicle for this important work to be shown to the world???!!!????!!!???? A light is needed to focus on those pointing the light in the right directions. I believe, I have always believed, that publications/media CAN have both a profitable and fulfulling mission at the same time, that they do not give even close to enough credit to the general public, to people’s depth and intelligence and capacity to care and love …

… not everyone wants to stroke themselves into Reagan-era unconcious mindlessness … and i see people, a lot of people here in America, wanting to wake up … someone just needs to point us toward the light …

Who will hold the torch? The cycle has looped, now is the time. Please …

Hi everyone thank you for the selection, I’m stunned that i won. I’ve been traveling in Toronto and will be in NYC on Monday 7th. Will it pbe possibe to pick it up in person? :)

Thank you David for this competition and to everyone who participated, and also to Erica McDonald who sent me an email informing me of this win.

Les

ok ok i’ve calmed myself down now and read through all the comments above, and you guys are truly wonderful! Thank you all for putting so much effort into tracking me down.

I’m so sorry for not responding earlier, I’m currently back in Toronto for my wedding and will be going to NYC on Monday 7th July. If it is at all possible, I would love to pick it up in person and possibly shake David’s hand and thank him for this :). However if that’s not possible i’ll send you my address.

Thank you thank you thank you!!! I’m so excited and happy for this win, especially within such a talent pool.

Les

For those who found this picture familiar you may be on my contact list on Flickr or have browsed through my Flickr page as this is my icon.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecomfortzone/

Hi Lex,

Congratulations on your picture!! You deserve the first prize and we look forward seeing you work on this blog.

Arie

Sean G:

Wo de pengyou ah, ni zuijin zenme yang? Hau jiu bu jian!

Great work on the air pollution in Beijing and finding a new and distinctive- and yes, menacing- way to show it.

Just two suggestions for your ‘remaining three’ chapters, after desertification and air pollution: I think the consensus among environmental scientists, geographers, and planners is that the single greatest long-range and large-scale environmental problem facing China is water- chiefly the lack of it, and water pollution, but also flooding, fair apportionment, etc. Both Chang Lee and Ruth Fremson of the NY Times, among others, have covered this extensively, but if you could come up with a different approach to showing China’s water problems as you did with the air pollution essay, that would be a significant topic.

The other very big environmental topic in China is loss of prime farmland, not through desertification but through urbanization and industrialization and exploitive development that favors the rich. I’m sure you could find lots of creative ways to approach this one.

(And I just thought of another- tainted food supply, which is of concern not only to the Chinese but also to countries they export to: the US, Japan, South Korea, etc.)

Hope these ideas may prove helpful in stimulating your own thought processes. Really looking forward to seeing more of your work as you move forward on this project.

Zai jian ba!

Sidney

DAVID,

Hope you saw my previous post above re: Santa Fe.
I’ve been putting the word out looking for families for you to shoot.
I’ve got a bunch of good leads but will need some advance warning so they can be available for you.

Would you like a description of some of the possibilities?

P.S. “Young lady” was the best compliment I’ve received in quite a while!

Oh my god. Jonathan. They are all powerful but #47 is the one I will NEVER forget. It kicked me in the stomach and brought me to tears. And I don’t cry easily. Excellent, excellent work.

Patricia

Excellent work Jonathan. Of the first 4 photos, I think #48 is the strongest, and I agree with Panos: #61 is my favorite.

Jonathan:
#48
#59
#61 as it reveals more about #59 (the fact it does’nt appear to be a young woman)

Way to not blink. You chose the right project for you. Please share your final edit with us?

David McG,
you look more like a “rock concert” NME ( england ),
type of style… like slow speed action shots…
DMG, am i wrong ???

DAVID

Would you be willing to post just a little preview/teaser/taste of your Family project????

Please?

Altough, i would like to see you ALL here…:( mainly because of the counter!!!)

http://web.mac.com/innerspacecowpanos/%22MOVIES%22/following_JIM_MORRISON_all_around_Venice…_4th_of_july.html

if for any reason you live in china click here:

http://gallery.mac.com/innerspacecowpanos#100101&view=mosaic&sel=0

( full screen slideshow )

Katherina,

I think you should ask that of the Chinese. For example, I was recently in Shanghai and wanted to buy some Chinese photography books, as I was curious about contemporary Chinese photography. I found NOTHING to buy, mostly some random albums and photoshop tutorial books. Nothing about contemporary Chinese photography.

Rafal,
I have lived in China for about 15 years now and believe it or not : you find a lot if you look around…and this despite the potential censorship problem which in theory does not apply to a Western country …. There have been so many photo editors, editors , etc coming here to look at galleries , photo festivals ,taught in seminars etc….and therefore I find it bizzare that somehow we don’t see much translated into western publications … Chinese art( photography) has become pretty dominant outside China…why then not other genres ?

Katharina,

Wie geht’s? Zenme yang? Nice to hear from you! Been thinking of you lately, and I loved your two self-portraits.

First, I should mention that there are at least a few photos in this ‘Inside China’ book by Li Zhensheng, Wu Yinxian, and Shen Qilai. And quite a number of both historical and more recent photos by ‘Photographer Unknown’ who one suspects may have been Chinese photographers who sold photos to Western news agencies and no one kept track of their names (?) (Also, I know the ‘Chinese Century’ book you mentioned and enjoyed it very much. But that is a rather different kind of book, more historical. This book is more of a hybrid, a little bit historical, a little bit contemporary, and a little bit of a trendy photographic showcase for already known Western photographers).

But still, you are quite justified in asking, where are the Chinese photographers in a photo book on China? I think there are a couple of answers. The first is, this book is for a Western marketplace, and the ‘name’ photographers are ones known in the West, or at least known to the editors of this book. Even though we live in a somewhat globalized world, there are still big walls separating regional cultural-linguistic blocks. Right now contemporary Chinese artists are all the rage in New York and other art market centers, so within a few years Chinese photographers may also be better known. If Chinese photographers in large numbers start showing up at Perpignan, Arles, Look3, or other Western photography-insider cocktail parties, then it may happen faster (?).

Something else is, I think, also at work here. Language is a big barrier, of course. For many Westerners, Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese names are hard to pronounce and hard to remember. We tend to read, listen to, watch, and rely on media, information, and entertainment in our own language, and somehow to trust it more. There is a racial, linguistic, and cultural bias, that we may be only partially aware of, that suggests that Western photographers or writers may be more ‘honest’ or more ‘accurate’ than Asians covering their own countries. And unfortunately, the Chinese photography that most people in the West see is stuff like ‘China Pictorial’ which is cliche’d, heavily over-saturated color, sentimentalized and posed propaganda. This reinforces our prejudice that ‘these people’ can’t be trusted to do ‘serious work’.

Of course, if one takes the time and trouble to explore, one can find many treasures, as Bob Black has done with Japanese photographers, as you have done with Chinese photographers (or as I am doing with one of my own current passions, Korean films and soap operas). But most of us are lazy, and most of the people who put out photo books these days, in America at least, are conservative. Especially National Geographic!

I don’t know if the Chinese photographers you mention have made an effort to be seen outside China or to publish their work in Western languages, but I can give an example from my own experience of a Japanese photographer friend, somebody I worked with in the environmental movement in Japan the 80s and 90s who is a very well-known (in Japan) photojournalist of social and environmental causes, Itoh Takashi. In addition to his many other projects around Asia, he has made numerous trips to North Korea and has had freedom of access there to everyday life that no Western photographer that I know of has. Mostly what you see in the Western press are the cliche photos of propaganda posters and monuments in Pyongyang and the ‘Arirang’ mass games. Recently there was a photo book called ‘Inside North Korea’ that I thought was a joke… aside from the usual tourist shots of downtown Pyongyang, most of the other photos were actually taken with big telephoto lenses from ‘outside North Korea’ (!!), on the Chinese bank of the Yalu or the southern side of the DMZ!!! Itoh, on the other hand, has visited farms, villages, schools, hospitals, factories, etc. in the countryside and on multiple repeat visits. But his work has only been published in Japanese language outlets, his web site is in Japanese, if you don’t read the Japanese media, you would never know this guy existed. Here’s a web address for some of his North Korean work:
http://www.jca.apc.org/~earth/sub7.html
(All in Japanese, of course, but I know you can read Chinese characters so you may get something out of it). I don’t necessarily think that Itoh is a brilliant world-class photo artiste dripping with ‘authorship’, but he is a journeyman photojournalist whose work deserves to be seen more widely, especially by anyone interested in North Korea.

I must confess that I too am ignorant about much of what is happening in photography in China these days. I was familiar with Li Zhensheng, but the other names you mention are new to me. Where can I see their work?

Fahr wohl,

Sidney

I can not belive… I just went away for one day (I was busy shooting some funny wedding).. and here are 150 more posts!!! You all will kill me! I have to be totaly jobless to read your blog David ;-) There is no other option :-)

Marcin,

its funny you say that because if you read Magnum Stories its surprising how many Magnum guys say that they arent photojournalists. Yet they tell stories. I dot think the world needs more PJs..it does need interesting stories though.

GRAMMA TECHNO!!!

right on… keep on feelin’ the beats…
am at Rock Werchter now, experiencing some great beats… and tonight is Underworld!!!! they are the total rulers when it comes to getting in a trance… no drugs, no booze, just juanita/kiteless and more…

will try and make a short video for you… images will be near impossible… fingers crossed

rock on
anton

Sidney,
o genki ?, Ni hao,

( DAH: sorry for kidnapping your blog here …just one more !)

Will certainly check out your Japanese photographer friend….would love to see his photos from North Korea !
As for the Chinese I mentioned : some you may find ( and order ) through Timezone8.com or 3shadows gallery ( they have a website) … but seriously there’s so many more…if you are interested in just a general overview/introduction , try and find ” Humanism in China ” ( Chinese title: Zhongguo renben) .
Some years ago there was a curator from XYZ museum in the US whose plan was to accumulate Chinese documentary photographers and do a book… hm somehow this didn’t happen …
YOU:… There is a racial, linguistic, and cultural bias, that we may be only partially aware of, that suggests that Western photographers or writers may be more ‘honest’ or more ‘accurate’ than Asians covering their own countries….”

True… and there’s been also some feeling of superiority from the West…. which at least is gradually changing over here…
( big topic..)

Hm…not sure if the Chinese will show up en masse in Perpignan and elsewhere…. whereas in art there’s money, for everything else there’s very little sponsorship.
bye-bye le !

Ari,
I don’t consider myself that knowledgable….but it’s interesting and only fair to look beyond the perception of Westerners……Asia has so much to offer that we don’t get to see/ read/ hear ( or at best we scratch on the surface) because of cultural, linguistic,financial …..barriers.

Katharina,
I’ve heard about some famous chinese art photographers, but not much beyond that. There’s some guy doing large format landscapes I think and those prints sell for big money. Forgotten the name though..
It’s sad that it’s all westeners and I’ve always thought it would be cool if photographers from other cultures like Africa or Asia would go to Europe or the US to shoot. To show another perspective, that WE probably don’t see..

Cheers

MARCIN SAID:

“…Photography is something very simple.

This is what I think.

peace

Posted by: macin luczkowski | July 06, 2008 at 02:49 AM…”

……………………..totally true MARCIN, totally true……………………

RAFAL SAID:

“…I dont think the world needs more PJs..it does need interesting stories though.

Posted by: Rafal Pruszynski | July 06, 2008 at 04:14 AM…”

…………………..totally true RAFAL,totally true……………………………

ANTON , keep dancing on that euro beat…&
in the meantime, for whoever missed Jim Morrison’s
re- appearance last night somewhere in VENICE…
here it is once again… ok time to go to bed .. 4:51am..

http://web.mac.com/innerspacecowpanos/%22MOVIES%22/following_JIM_MORRISON_all_around_Venice…_4th_of_july.html

Mornin’ BOB & ALL

Yes – Tamara and I met up and walked about the streets for a spell before settling in at my favorite Mexican place..the Corner/ La Esquiina..anyone been? Authentic, and 24 hours..a photo project itself, you should see the diversity of types that go there, from white dinner jackets and dancing heels to, well, everything else. T is a lovely soul sister, and we talked ‘girl talk’ all night, something I don’t get to do too often..and of course I got all kinds of insider notes about you, dear BOB and your generous Toronto hospitality!

BTW, Marina’s site is beautiful (Bob’s wife..www.marinablack.com ALL, check it out) and it is fantastic to see so many of her images in one place..mysterious, lyrical, fun..I just LOVE the animal shots..and how on earth did she put it together so fast? You weren’t kidding about getting it done..

anton.. why no photos? not of underworld.. apart from their big stripy lightshow they are boring to look at.. would be great to see all of the other shape-shifting animals around you..

email me if you have other festival plans.. you’re in europe right?
could try to hook you up with magazines if you want to do that sort of thing.

think i have a couple of norsk ones i’ll check out.. pretty firmly parked off-road for a while.. thats the idea though.

okay – pappa is mowing the lawn.. it’s a big event here in patio-land so i must commit it to.. erm.. digital sensor.

list of chinese photographers;

Xing Danwen, Rong Rong, Cao Fei, Du YingNan, Maleonn, Hu JianWen, Huang Xi, Liu LiHong, Tang HaiTao, Wang YiShu, Yan Shi, Yang Fei, Zhang Jin, Zhou XuFan, Wang Zi, Patrick Lee and on and on and on…got lots of names…but no time, do the homework ;)))

b

PANOS :))))….

LOVE lots of these Jim returns pics…BUT BUT BUT, since when the hell did you ever “CENSOR” YOURSELF???…what’s up with that old man? ;))))…u gonna show folk, wrestling in the venice tunnel, than bring it on, or dont show ;)))))…(i guess venice folk are still private as well)…anyway, love these strange, hallucinatory pics,…keep em coming….

JAMES CHANCE! :))))…heartbreaking and powerful work…important essay and hoping david will use for assignment…keep us posted….would love to know even more about these specific people and their familiies…thanks james…

ok, now off for the day..running and got deadlines..

hugs
b

Great example of a consistent vision and a tight edit:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/07/06/weekinreview/kabul-multimedia/index.html

hasselblad xpan camera, me thinks.

Martin,
agree…what a thought !

Anton, Bob, Sydney,
a while ago I had the opportunity to look at some books by new Japanese women photographers ( hm.,will see where I put my list, sorry ) …does any of you have any insights about women photographers ? The photos took you on a journey beyond the ordinary….

JAMES,

As usual, I very much like what you are shooting…you are an amazingly prolific photographer. Your HIV story is another powerful story even if this is a tough story on which to innovate as there has been so many on that topic. One of my “favourites” is the work done by Pep Bonet. He has covered this topic across several countries including Asia. I do not know if you are already familiar with his work but I have attached the link underneath if you want to check it out….

http://www.pepbonet.com/hivaids_asia/hivaidsasia_india01.html

MARINA/ BOB,

I can tell that you are a B&W family….there is mot certainly a BLACK touch here that links the two of you….I think that you guys have found each other…Your photography seems symbiotic in many ways…Great to have Marina join us on the blog…

CHARLIE,

I checked your new site. Looking very good and I liked the edit on your ancestors… Very close to what I had proposed so great to see. I will be at Perpignan…I hope we will meet there.

ERICA,

Seems like you are progressing your story…I really cannot wait to see what you are up to. I have to say that I was very intrigued to see you starting this project with this old camera…Very curious to see the touch and feel of the protographs you are doing with this. When can we hope to see some initial work here?

Well, later this week I hope to restart my boxing work…. The kids should be back around mid-week so hopefully I will be able to get this going. Several of you have been very kind to send me some links to past boxing work as well as some articles so I will try to learn from all this and try to add my personal touch and see where this goes….

Cheers,

Eric

BOB SAID:

“…YES, the family that shoots/drinks/talks/runs/develops/prints/meditates/loves together…stays TOGETHER :)))))….”

bob,
please stop reminding me my SEVERE loneliness..
( not laughing and about to drive in search of sedatives,
to forget )..

bob, i also agree that MARINA is LUCKY TOO..
YOU also said above that:
“…our work is both very similar but also very different…im not sure WHO INFLUENCED WHO :)))…..”
honestly i don’t see any similarity in your work and Marina’s…
funny thing is that you write, you are embracing and helping everybody IN HERE and not only,
BUT when it comes to your photos, you EXCLUDE most elements…
not only being “outtafocus” but alswo you are “TELE”..
piercing angles…
MARINA, chooses wider view, LET US see , but through her own personal FILTER…INCLUDES
THE ELEMENTS!!!
( the Marina filter )… so, BOB, i dont see influence, i see COMPLETION…

I WISH I COULD SEE AN EXHIBITION OF YOU GUYS TOGETHER SOON…
I MEAN A BOOK… THE “BLACK” BOOK…
just the “BLACK BOOK”…

I wish Marina would write here from times to times… because i enjoy the way
“UNIVERSAL CITIZENS – WRITERS”… write…!
enough of the “western” way or the “eastern” way…!
how about the “universal” way…?

AKAKY is a prestigious writer( next big thing in NY times ),
BOB , is a magician with words,
YOUNG TOM. HERVE, SIDNEY
amazing poets and writers also..
Not to forget RAFAL , and many more…

Poetic language, great use of english…

And on the other side, the “slow”, the “thirdworlders”( my word ),
the misfits , the freaks, the ones that always in the wrong place
at the wrong time…
like me ( PANOS or my best friend MARCIN )…or

you can even “read” our heavy accent…
WE CAN BARELY WRITE IN AN ACCEPTABLE FORM OF ENGLISH…
still using an ( X ) for a signature…
so people OF THIS WORLD WELCOME TO WRITE HERE!

(so… MARINA please join us , ONLY if your english is NOT AS GOOD
AS bob’s..!!!)
laughing

Bob Black:

Thanks for the lead to Xing Danwen. I love her ‘Urban Fiction’ series. I’ll check out the other Chinese names you mentioned as well when I can get a broadband connection. Cheers!

Joan, thanks for checking out the galleries…

Dont forget to pick out a print!

Jonathan

Dear Marina,

What can I say?

More, more, more!!!!

Bob,

lucky you!

Jonathan

I have looked at your main website on my laptop, but it’s not working on opera browser. No scroling, no menu. Only black singer. Some tech mistake?

peace

That should read

f i r s t

not fist. Woops!

DAVID,

Many time when you write your critic about someone’s works you say; “look at work this guy” “that guy did it before” “this magnum photographer did it that way”, “don’t try to be next Webb, we dont need next webb”, “Look how did it Rodero”, compare to this, compare to that, similar to this, similar to that.
I can’t find Harold bloom’s quote about “Repeatablety” in english. I know only his words in polish. I hope you will know what I mean.

there is always somone before. There is only few “genius”, who find quicky own unrepeatable stryle. But we all have someone’s breath on back.
and time not work for ours benefits. every next generation gives us next barrier to overcoming.

we all are eating by time and generations.

we are only reflecyion at the someone’s mirror.

what do you think about that?

with who you had to fight when you had started?

with who you have to fight right now?
do you think about it?

I know thinking it’s last thing we should do, but who not thinking about?

am I Intelligible ?

peace

PANOS, being a good writer on a photography blog sort of misses the point of the blog, I think. People ask me why I take pictures when I write like I can. The answer is that there are people who have actually paid me for my pictures; no one’s ever paid me a red cent for the words. Second, why would anyone write if they could do something else? Writing is a slow motion form of torture some people inflict on themselves for reasons I am sure I do fathom at the moment; writing in English is more than merely masochistic, it is just incredibly stupid, since no matter how hard you try, no one will ever believe that you are better than Shakespeare or Dickens. Even in the humbler pastures I plow, no one will ever believe that I could be as good as P.G Wodehouse, S.J. Perelman, or Robert Benchley. No, writing is something to be avoided if at all possible, although I am sure that the credit card companies will not accept my logophobia as an excuse for my not signing my checks to them. All things have a downside, I fear.

BOB/MARINA,

Great pix. You might want to get someone to look at your autofocus, though. It doesnt seem to be working right.

PAUL T,

congrats on the 2nd edition, but you know, the one thing I really wonder about these days is why there are no first rate cookbooks for cannibals anymore. ;-)

AKAKY…why don’t you try
http://www.icantbelieveittastesjustlikechicken.com ?

BOB and PANOS , Thanks guys for dropping in on my efforts the other day.

UNCLE …Thanks for your kind words , I will be back on deck with new pictures to show soon .. but was in the meantime going back to the olden days of this blog when you were talking about how you rationalised and compartmentalised the shooting on Divided Soul ,the reality that I have been photographing for a book only hit me a few months ago when my computer shat itself and I was unable to scan pictures ,only shoot!
Looking at the trannies and realising that I’ve been going over a lot of subjects a bit more than I should , repetitive pictures , same thing going on, really forced me to have a look at what I wanted to do and where I wanted the work to take me. So thanks for that!
Cheers Glenn

andrew

thanks for the report! i can fully imagine the great atmosphere… and as usual: wishing i was there :-)

yeah you’re right i do combine these things already, but i’m not happy with them living together like they are now… web design is a pretty demanding partner in this marriage… and that’s what i’m trying to change… i don’t need to forego on the web design all together, but i wouldn’t shed too many tears if it were so (so to speak :-)

i don’t know if a divorce is in order, or marriage counselling… hereby comes also my mistress, miss graphic design, with whom i sometimes secretly want to run off with…

the question is: do i divorce web design and her money which supports me, so i can pursue my photography more in depth, or do i keep on living under one roof and try counselling, knowing fully that i will have to add too much water to my wine…

i guess i’m hoping all you guys and gals here will be my wise wise counsellors :-)

cheers
anton

ANTON & GRANDMA-STER DISCO

it is true – the performers can be the least interesting aspect of events and looking towards the edges and periphery of an event normally gives a better indication of the kind of vibe going on. then for the party you can tell the part of the crowd that is kickin the most from the edges.. i’d always head for that area.
i’d say that if you wanted to try it, people are generally cool about being photoed.. on the whole.. there are bad reactions on occasion – generally positive though and if yer quick people don’t even notice they have been snapped.. especially with the lights flashing.. lots of tips on camera set up to make life easy if you’re interested..

ANTON
giving up money for photography.. well .. quite :o)
the way it worked for me was to take on a little commercial work to supplement the work which i loved.
one food shoot a week for ‘the metro’ would pay my rent and bills..
the music work payed badly – from 5 usd per photo for u.s. mag ‘urb’ to 300 usd per job (up to 4 or 5 days) for dj magazine. mostly broke even with it, sometimes lost.. my landlord was more understanding than my grumbling belly and my girlfriend of 7 years eventually lost patience with her absent lover and left me to my persuits

the good thing about having a magazine association is that you can gain passes and even flights and accommodation if you get the right amount of page space and the festival needs press. working with tourist boards also gained funding for expenses.. it was very, very hard and creative work to even get to the point of shooting an event.
spending 2 years living in my photo studio – (a condemned warehouse on short term lease) – also worked for me.. it depends what you want to do and what you are prepared to do to get there maybe..
the universe provides, though, and things just kind of straighten out once in a while.. one large picture sale.. one extra special commission.. and it’s worth it.. carrot and donkey.. looking at the photos afterwards is rich reward.

i’d say that if you had a current source of income – keep it. you can always reduce the amount you are working in that area and make it into a supplement for the work you really want to do. if you need more time for photog then take it while nurturing your business as well. maybe there is time for it all?
your work is superb by the way. i love the crisp moments you catch with birgit and the quiet calm of the sikh mosque..

point of interest – how do others here fund their photography?

AKAKY…

you are going to force me into a new post….

writing has been around awhile….everyone does it…

writing and reading are “learned” at an early age….part of our early communications skills and, in fact, the very definition of language…

photography is new…mostly viewed as a technical skill by most…but, alas, now everyone can do it…no longer a technical skill….also a language??

if so, then doing “good work” with photography will become so status quo (as is writing) and only a “Wodehouse” will thrive..

no “easy way out” my friend….

getting paid for something??? best paying job(percentage wise) i ever had was being a golf caddy at the local country club when i was 15…

we will chain you to your keyboard…you got it…..just because it is painful for you does not mean we are not waiting!!!

cheers, david

ANTON….

ok, you have had enough seminars, workshops, parties et al…you have been everywhere, all the time!!

now go somewhere alone….just to work….somehow keep your “day job” if possible, but work on a personal project and see how it goes…work at least for awhile the way Eric Espinosa is working…i mean, he has a “real job”, raises his family, AND is out there concentrating on his photography…

IF you are really serious about your life in photography, you cannot “wait til later”…later is now….

but, that does not mean you have to necessarily “jump off the economic cliff” either…just do something now, over the next year let’s say, that is “easy” to do do logistically…get immersed….then see how it looks…self evaluate….lay this work “on the table”….THEN JUMP!!!!!

peace, david

DAVID & ALL,

Recently I’ve been shooting a lot and also thinking a lot about my photography. I’m shooting digital as many of you do. I’ve also been happy with many of my images allthough I slightly prefer the look and feel of film.
However I’m feeling stressed. It almost like an addiction to shoot and it makes it hard to relax and think about other things. I guess the use of digital cameras makes this feeling stronger, because it’s so limitless. You can shoot how many frames you want every day of the week and you can view and edit the work directly after.
Yes, it of course has a lot of advantages, especially for commercial work, but for my own work it stresses me out, but maybe worries about processing and scanning would do to?
I have the feeling that film will edit a bit for me even before shooting though and will force me to be more patient and think more before.

What’s your feeling about this? I’m thinking of switching to film and slow down my shooting for my own best..

Cheers

PANOS….

you have some pretty amazing work with the Jim Morrison fantasy (or reality)….different from your usual “documentary”….but all of it is some kind of “docu/drama”….not sure what it all is yet, but it is something for sure…

are you making small prints?? i mean, it is really hard for me to keep all of your work straight in my head…but sometime soon we need to have little prints spread all over the floor or tacked on a wall…

do not stop shooting now..i mean, right now you are “in the zone”…stay there….these moments do not come back…hard to find…hard to “get there”…you may not even know it, but please just keep this going as long as you can…tired? bored?? ok fine, even more reason not to stop…

yes, we will meet on the road soonest..but , between now and then, do not leave Venice…

MARCIN….

of course , i use references…because many photographers just do not have a good sense of what has “gone on before”….studying history is the best way to see the future…

seeing the past great work done should not paralyze, but influence and stimulate….when i see great work, i am first humbled, mesmerized, followed by being overwhelmed, followed by “action”…

being referential to another artist does not mean you either copy that artist nor “give up” because it has been “done before”…

for some reason, doing what comes natural, does not come natural!!!! if you can figure out in your own personal life what is truly truly natural to you, and you can put it “down”with either words or pictures or paintings or with crayons or whatever, THEN you will be doing something that has never been done before!!

hugs, david

ASHER,
I usually edit very tightly so I only keep about a 1/4 to a 1/5 of my images. And I may not shoot a lot when I go out to shoot but digital makes it possible to shoot whenever, at least for me and I both think it’s for good and bad..

KIRA….

welcome….we all look forward to seeing more of your work…

i am so please you like the work of Laura El Tantawy….have you gone to her website?? she is a very talented photographer and good and special friend….

CATHY…

i should be in Santa Fe by next weekend…and there all week….is that enough “advance warning”??

one really interesting family would be fine…Reid is helping me with some others…

i want to do something really SANTA FE…i mean, all those folks who have come from California and New York etc who have become ENLIGHTENED…and hang out at A THOUSAND WAVES spa….know any couples who wouldn’t mind me shooting them getting out of bed in the morning with their Porsche slightly out of focus in the background?? do you know what i am looking for here???

the other scene is , of course, the Española world, but i do not think that is your “thing”..

by the way, what exactly is “your world”?? i guess i am about to find out!!!

i look forward to meeting you Cathy….

cheers and smiles, david

ASHER….

several have asked me to post some of my American family work…i have thought about this quite a bit….i think it would be prudent to wait…not because i am not willing to show “work in progress”, i do it all the time..but because of some of the families with whom i am working…there is a relationship i have with these families and the work i am doing…i think it best to wait a bit longer, maybe by the end of the summer, when this work will be more contextual, and the families themselves can see exactly what is happening with the pictures they so graciously allow me to make…

cheers, david

Thanks David- I understand- that makes perfect sense.

JAMES….

this is some of your very best work….much much stronger , in my opinion, than the cemetery life photographs…you might be jumping around a bit too much, but i suppose this is just the nature of your current trip…if you could somehow just stay in one place long enough to really really “finish” all of these nice essays that you have “started”, i think you would be better off in the long run…

peace, david

Speaking of…

“….when i see great work, i am first humbled, mesmerized, followed by being overwhelmed…”

The July issue of The Digital Journalist is now up online and the extensive feature on John Moore is “humbling, mesmerizing, and overwhelming” and much ‘moore’ besides:

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0807/moore-intro.html

Especially the Pakistan Gallery. And don’t miss the extensive written interview with JM.

Sidney

Since I’m going to be living on the edge of Crystal Palace Park in London I’ve decided that that will be the location for my next big project. I’m wait a while before starting my Thames project as the initial research will take a while as will adjusting to the inevitable culture shock after more than five years Stateside.

Crystal Palace Park is a wacky place. I’m sure there will be characters to match. It’s in keeping with “my thing” too. This could be my settling in project. David, are you willing to guide me? Can I show you some images towards the end of August perhaps?

Getting excited now. I can let off steam with this project. It’s decided.

Thanks.

Addendum to my brief report on DAH’s 4th of July fiesta…

Every good reporter knows to safeguard the beer supply, so I must quash any impending rumors of why so many cops were loitering near the Kibbutz. NYC’s finest were parking their personal vehicles there while providing security for the fireworks show on the East River.

Now off to finish Harlem jazz!

Cheers,

andrew

ANDREW..

you’ve rendered me silent with your kindness and generous spirit..it was a pleasure and an honor to be able to share the experience with you, and I am very much looking forward to doing it again soon. THANK YOU.

ERIC / ALL

Because of the slow (think snail crawling) nature of this assignment (shooting when it’s not bloody raining – in the forecast for another 5 days now, and if I can get help) I might shoot 4 – 6 people on a day, meaning maybe 1 or 2 good images if I am doing well) it’s going to take some time for it to take shape and make sense. I talked to DAH about this and think it is best to wait a bit before showing images.. I do want to share, but it’s sort of like a germination period, where everything is still very much in need of a gentle touch. I have to let the people guide the piece somewhat as well, and am in the early stages of listening to them to see who to focus on. Essentially this is about one neighborhood / community and how they are experiencing the changes that so many NYC hoods are going through. But of course, it has to be in their faces / their eyes.. I guess I am trying to see the essence of the community reflected in the faces and details of individuals.

The medium format is turning out to be an important facet of the piece..as is the audio..

It becomes quite a challenge for me, how to show face after face and not bore the viewer, to retain a strength in repetition by emphasizing the commonality/uniqueness in the individual /whole..

But yes, please, if you have a day free, let me know and we will have fun and I will at least get you something to eat or drink..

DAVID

Les is wondering if you will be back in town before the 12th, and if so if he can hand pick up his print..

Akaky,

Writing is wonderful! If someone loves to write, the idea that they’ll never be as good a writer as Shakespeare shouldn’t keep them from writing. It’s like anything else… use Shakespeare as inspiration. When I look at Mary Ellen Mark photos, I feel like I’ll never be able to do that, but instead of giving up, it makes me want to try harder…

Anton,

Don’t know if this will be helpful, but here’s my experience… I went to school for photography and worked for 11 years or so as a photographer. It was very difficult. The work that I got that I actually enjoyed, didn’t pay, and the work that payed was definitely not what I thought I would be doing when I was a young lad in photo school. In 97 I accidentally ended up with a job at a big company making webpages. It started out just a couple of days a week. I had no intentions of giving up the photography, but it eventually turned into a full time job. The steady paycheck was new to me and kind of exciting. And I never once had to call to bug them to pay me!!! Oh… and health insurance???!!!! So anyway, it’s almost 12 years later, I’m very frustrated sitting in a cubical doing work all day that I’m not interested in. But at the same time I do have some freedom. The steady paychecks give me the ability to buy film and so on, and now I can photograph only what I want to photograph without having to worry about the bills piling up! It would be lovely to be able to spend every day doing only what I love doing, but being past due on rent is very stressfull and depressing. It’s really a tough call. I think you just have to figure out what will bring you happiness… or less unhappiness. Shit… After writing this, I think I have to figure some things out for myself!

SPENCER

oooowwwww now i made you think… sorry! :))))

and yes your story too tells me to find a balance instead of throwing it all out and staring anew.

“balancing” has always proven to be so very difficult for me, i’ve always been a one-track person (hey, i’m a guy), going one hundred percent for one thing at a time…

and now it’s time to multitask… i realise that now… branch out… keep my job and submerge as well… if eric can do it, so can i… maybe i have been using this situation too much as an excuse NOT to push forward with my photography, as contradictory as that might sound?

so no more hesitation, i’m going for the “keep job/submersion” thing…

ideas will be posted soon, and opinions asked of you all… and maybe i should ask david for an assignment when he hands out his second round… up the pressure a bit…

peace
anton

DAVID, ALL…

This is the link for my project:

http://www.photosjsbreault.com/Project/simpleviewer/index.html

Please, tell me what you think about. I did it more personnal than the previous and it is the only six I like, and I’m even not sure I’m in a the right way. I edited with a machete !(http://www.photosjsbreault.com/Mixed_Heritage/simpleviewer/index.html).

I was in Cuba last week for family vacation. I did not read the previous post. The last four week before have been hard. 3 jobs for pay the bills and the family vacation.

DAH –
I have spent much of the last week moving from a one-bedroom apartment in Montréal to a 165-acre farm in eastern Québec. A good place for a Look3 reunion one day! We just got connected to the internet yesterday, hence my delayed congratulations to the three portrait winners and all the runner-ups. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

Your July 3rd posting to Rafal has touched a cord deep within… what makes me “tick” is to marry my career in international public health with photography. I can not explain the need (or has it become an obsession?) to publish images which document how the other half of the planet lives, dies, eats, makes do with so much less than we; I can not explain this intense attraction to photographing poverty (hence the trailer park essay in Cville), broken health care systems, pollution and, increasingly, climate change.

Up to this point in my life, public health has paid most of the bills, while photography has taken a back seat. I am obviously trying to change that. However, I do recognize that public health has effectively “subsidized” my so-called photographic career to date by bringing me to countries that I would not otherwise have visited, nor would have been able to afford to visit, e.g., living the last five years in Botswana while working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Another way of saying this is that my photography has been profoundly affected by my international career.

In an effort to move beyond AIDS photography, I am currently working with one of my professors from the Harvard School of Public Health to develop a proposal to document Chagas disease in Latin America (new continent, new disease). This disease is relatively unknown outside of Latin America, but what “attracts” me to photograph it is that it is a disease which, due to its unique vector, targets primarily the poorest of the poor. I realize that this kind of photography won’t “sell”, and it sure as hell won’t make me rich or famous, but it keeps pulling me, disturbing my sleep, makes me read scientific research articles in scholarly journals till all hours in the night and, to use your words, makes me “tick”. Now, don’t ask me why I have just bought a farm – I am surrounded by rolling hills and cows, and I don’t do cows. I want to photograph people! One of my new neighbors just told me that up the mountain behind our farm, there is … drum roll… a trailer park! So, maybe I will have to think of a way to expand my Look3 photo essay by documenting “the other side of the tracks” from both sides of the Americo-Canadian border, to show that we have much more in common that we think… That’s it for today – gotta go cord some wood for the winter! Hey, this is the first time I have ever participated in a blog…

cheers, joan

BLISTERS.

where’s that schpelcheque?

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR BOBBLACK

Hi, I will be in Toronto with my wife and daughter from the 8 of July (Tomorrow) to the 10 (Thursday) for an eye surgery and I wanted to meet you for a coffee (if you have time of course). It would be great to meet the guy that writes so many interesting here. Let me kmnow if that woudl be fine with you.

take care for now, Arie

ON COMFORT / GETTING TO WORK

Just now back from dropping of film, I sat down and watched a few moments of Charlie Rose, who was talking with the prolific Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough. He passed on a working method that was passed on to him when he was young, which he says was the best advice ever given to him. I find it interesting and will perhaps it will be of some help to someone regarding keeping a level of structure and discipline..

McCullough does about 50% of his needed research on a project, and then at that point he commits to writing 4 typed pages a day, and at the same time keeps researching. When he is ‘done’, he goes back to the beginning and re-writes, which for the visual medium would mean looking at the gaps in the storytelling and filling them in.

I can see how having a format to work within could be of tremendous benefit to some..

Erica,

Your latest message is very interesting.

Thanks for sharing

Arie

ARIE: :))…

WOW, eye surgery…right up my alley…i’ve got a major-major full plate..

my schedule:

tuesday: teach until 3:30, buy film, return home.

wednesday: teach until 3:30, shooting until 7:00 pm.

thursday: teach until 3:30, shooting util 7:00…

i definitely cant meet wednesday cause im shooting (it’s also the night i cook dinner) and thursday, ditto….

i can meet you for a coffee on tuesday (tomorrow)…i finish 3:30, and from there will by film at henry’s (queen east)…give me details about where you will be, and i’ll meet you after 4:00…

running
bob

SPENCER,

I wish I could share your opinion of writing, especially now that I am trapped in a hellacious dry spell in which nouns are so full of themselves they will not work with each other, verbs won’t do anything unless you hound them like teenagers with a dirty room, adjectives refuse to describe anything, and adverbs not only refuse to help out verbs, they are planning to go on strike for shorter hours. In such conditions, writing is not only not in any way fun, it is the psychic equivalent of kneeing yourself in the groin while starved rats gnaw on your toes. Why anyone would actually choose to write instead of playing the flugelhorn in a Dixieland jazz band is a Rosicrucian mystery to me.

Akakay… are you crazy? That one paragraph that you just wrote to me about why you can’t write was amazing! It was beautiful and funny and entertaining and visual and probably so many other things. It seems to me that writing comes very naturally to you, and I don’t believe for a second that you didn’t just have fun writing that little bit. It actually made me want to read more of your writing. Maybe whatever your working on right now is just not inspiring you?

Also another telling bit from McCullough..

“It’s hard work..but I have never equated ease with happiness. I am often happier when i am working than doing anything else. I’m on vacation every day..I love it. And I want you to know what I love.”

AKAKY…

“ATTENTION”…SERIOUS QUESTION:

what’s the percentage of TIME you consumed so far in your lifetime,
READING BOOKS,
AND
what’s the percentage of TIME you spent
WRITING YOUR OWN STUFF ???

i’m just trying to do a quick evaluation of your TALENT ( writing part only , not photography ) regarding its originality…

in other words i love your stuff..
and THE MORE i dont understand or get , the MORE i like it!!!!
and if you really wanna go CRAZY…!!!
TRY “YOUR STUFF” ON A GREEK TRANSLATOR…
now i know why Audrey and Laura love your writing!
coz they “read” you through computer translators…
the only problem is that still “apple computers” can’t figure out
how to TRANSLATE the AKAKY dialect …
either way , love you man…!
peace

Hi BobB,

I think that it will be difficult to meet as we am arriving at the hotel around 5:30 on Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon is my procedure . Would it be possible to meet during the day maybe (Thursday)?

Thanks

Arie

ERICA….

i will not be in New York when Les arrives….perhaps i could give his print to you and you to him??

cheers, david

hi Arie:

just got in…ok…thursday, gonna shoot (friday is my last deadline, self-imposed, for bones of time stuff), but yea ok, cool…i teach until 3:30…i might have to meet with my private student from 3:30-4:30 (not sure yet), but, if not, let’s meet ~4:00 thursday….until 5:00??…if i have to meet my private student, i’ll change times…but, i’ll leave a note tomorrow morning…what is the procedure??…

AKAKY: HMMMM,…but you see, meditation is already a serious intoxicant (and at 40, managing intoxicant’s is a priority, as a father and husband, now) and contrary to most notions meditation is the most waking part of my life….i drink enough already, im poor, so i have to manage the purchasing of liquor much more than the consumption, but it’s the same dragon, is it not…

as to the writing ordeal…dont i know it too…but, i dont think it’s the writing that is problematic (Akaky, as a writer, you know damn well, that that aint the problem for a writer!!!!), it’s the GETTING STARTED, sitting your ass in the chair and writing, carving yourself and your head up to start, to think of something interesting to say and to hone into some kind of sentence that both embarrasses and surpasses anything your 10th grade english teacher asserted was a Stunk-thunk sentence…my aim aint shakespeare or benchley or any of those cats, nor even Beckett or Joyce (after shakespeare, the greatest magical fucker of english i know) nor agee or waugh, nor faulkner or anderson, nor whoever…my aim has been simpler Akaky: to outgun the sprectre of Mrs. D, my 10th grade and 12th grade AP English instructor, who once told me after my high school graduation that i “wasted my talents like no student i know”…that little beknighting that she conferred upon my Aqua-velva drizzled teen neck has stayed with me for the entirety of my life…i don’t know if my life and my life’s work has proven her wrong (most likely not), but i do know that I am much happier than she was, cause im not so embittered as to castigate poor, overly aftershaved 17 year old boys….the cruel irony: the first piece of writing i ever published was a poem i wrote about the shape and stature of her hair….

it aint the writing, it’s the awful awful beginning and the terrible following day, hung over and bleached, when you re-read what you’ve written and realize that your english teachers, hounding your as if a miscreant waddling pup from Baskerville, was right all along…

i know your pain Father Akaky…i know ur pain….

b

DAVID..

I think Les leaves on the 12th, so as long as I got it from you before then, all would work out perfectly..

Akakay,

So the real question is, why choose between writing and the flugelhorn? If you have a passion for writing and dig the sound of a brass horn, who says you can’t do both??? I write as well. When I get stuck, I walk away for a while. When I come back and read what I’ve written, the next sentence usually comes. I also play flute, clarinet and classical/spanish guitar (all badly), but i do these things because they bring me joy. Haven’t tried the flugelhorn though… hmmm…

And DAH, this is also my first blog experience. Thanks for being here. What a great group…

DAVID,

I have a fun story for you about a couple of your buddies I met the other night. Will have to save it for tomorrow as I’m running off to a Bob Sacha presentation at the Workshops…and want to talk to Reid.

Also hoping to post some photos tomorrow and hope you’ll have a chance to take a quick peek. I already am pretty sure I know what you’ll say but I may as well wait and hear it from you! :))

As far as the Santa Fe Family for you…

First of all I am TOTALLY the “Espanola type.” I have photographed one lowrider show there before moving here and have been working on car club contacts because that is a subject I plan on spending a LONG time on…Something that attracted me to living in this area in fact. I have attended lowrider shows in CA as well.

LOVE that culture and LOVE all subcultures. That’s what I’m all about…whether it’s surfers, sikhs, ballerinas, lowriders, cowboys, b boys, you name it I love it ALL.

I TOTALLY see the porsche image. GOT IT!! I don’t have that exactly but maybe something even better. The woman who actually LITERALLY wrote the book Santa Fe Style. Her husband has a folk art gallery and they live in an old mill a couple doors down from my house. Wooden snakes and coyotes everywhere! The epitome of Santa Fe style and best of all they have two daughers..one unfortunately is on her honeymoon but the one that’s here has GIANT STARS TATTOOED ON HER CHEST. How great is that??? Also one dog.

Best of all I asked them and they are interested. Sound good?
Hope you don’t mind if I am there watching the shoot! :))

LISA

What is a “doco”? A documentary?

Writing scientific grants for NIH funding has become my life for about 9 years now, and only in the past year have I begun to understand how the process *really* works. I couldn’t possibly begin to understand how to write one for a photography project! I would wish you luck, but persistence is much more valuable!

My favorite writer at the moment is the prolific Akaky. I just love how his zany brain just spills out all over the screen here. You have a dexterous wit. Writers block? I don’t believe it for a minute.

Some of you will wonder where I’ve been when you read this comment, but my only excuse is that I just discovered DAH and this forum in April, so I’m still playing catch up…

David says “when i see great work, i am first humbled, mesmerized, followed by being overwhelmed, followed by “action”…”

Well, I’m still in the humbled/mesmerized/overwhelmed phase of the cycle and I have DAH himself to blame. My copy of “Divided Soul” arrived today and I sat right down with it and practically wept.

David, it is SO BEAUTIFUL, SO RICH, SO POWERFUL. And I’m not just talking about the images either. Your words add so much to the experience. The images and words in this book show just what you mean when you talk about AUTHORSHIP.

Yes, “Divided Soul” is about cultures intersecting in the past & present, but it is also about this man we love and respect, a man who is authentic to his core. A true original.

My task now is not to compare my work with his. That goes nowhere. I know that, but it’s still hard to avoid that trap. Any suggestions?

Patricia

DAVID,

I know a photo editor from French Vogue during the era of Avedon and the likes has a home and store in Santa Fe she shares with someone… might be an interesting family situation to photograph. If you are interested, let me know and I can dig out her contact info. Reid may know who she is as well.

Martin,

I had almost completely stopped shooting for a couple of years. Then a friend at work introduced me to digital, which I had refused to explore before. I felt that if it wasn’t film, it wasn’t real. But he has some really beautiful digital photos, so I decided to give in. It got me shooting again. It really made it easy… no trips to the film store, lab etc. And yes, you can push the shutter release at anything and everything and know if it’s crap there’s always the delete button. But then I really started missing film! So I whipped out the F3 and loaded it with tri-x. The simple act of advancing the film with my thumb felt sooooo good. So now I’m walking around with my film camera and I’m much more selective when it comes to releasing my shutter. And I got so used to seeing my images immediately that the waiting for film to be processed is killing me. But I’m also really excited about photography again. I have to thank digital (and a couple of people in my life right now) for getting me shooting again… but… ahhhhhh film….

DAVID:

Thanks for your reply re. my latest work, i’m very pleased to hear your positive words. Yes, jumping around a bit, but as you say it is the nature of this trip. Time, money and energy always play huge factors. I felt it was necessary to do it this way as I wanted a new injection into my portfolio (more than one piece), but also to build a new multimedia portfolio with Jessica. In this respect I feel the experiences to date have been successful. Yes, the sacrifice was only being able to spend a short time in locations. But I hope however as I look towards 2009, the work I/we have produced will help set up for a more settled future, and the ability to work for longer periods on specific pieces. One more step up the ladder maybe?… I hope also the interest generated in current work may present the possibility to revisit some of these stories. I would certainly like to do so.

I don’t think there really is an answer to the question: Was this the right way to do it?… Should we maybe have slowed down and spent 3 months on one story?… I don’t know?… Everybody works in different ways. You for instance go for the “long haul” project. My experience to date has been producing stories in a week or so. And as I mentioned the multimedia was very important to us as we wanted to branch out into this growing area. I think in this respect having 3 pieces in the multimedia portfolio is a good thing.

One thing that I do know is that I probably won’t do it this way again. Moving from one project straight into another while living out of a backpack in difficult locals has been taxing. There has been little time to breath and I feel that this may have been to the detriment of the later/current work. Just running out of juice you know!?… Which honestly leaves me baffled as to how you manage you work, travel, meetings, festivals, workshops and this blog! Dumbfounded!!!!….

We are in Macau right now and starting a less literal piece which I hope will provide the opportunity to work a little more loosely and experiment a little more. Also, after much technical head banging our multimedia piece from the cemetery is now on my site, please drop by. Will announce this (with link) in next post.

Thanks as always for your time and interest.

James

JAMES,

When looking at your Bangkok pictures I get a text about soldiers in Iraq…

James,

I like the multimedia piece, is that a British accent? The scene setters and the last picture work very well and the audio work is good, its nice to hear your subjects speak and I’m impressed by their English. I especially like the interviews. The one with the caretaker especially. I did’nt 100% get how the exotic birds people fit in, but a second viewing should sort that out.

The audio cut at the start just after the lady looking thru the cross is’nt quite right when I play it (Firefox 3 on PC) the voices start before the cut. Its also a bit long for my jaded instant gratification internet tastes.

Its awesome to see geniunely good journalistic multimedia, audio backs up still images so well!

ARIE:

this will be quick…your hotel is right around the corner from the place we meditate, and across the street (ROM) where i’ve spent the last few weeks at various times shooting…

how about we meet at 4:30??..i’ll meet you in front of your hotel and we’ll have a coffee in yorkville…

running
bob

HEY JAMES

I am sorry but I can’t access it!

And I am desperate for good procrastination material at the moment. (Writing for government funding ARGH!!!!)

I know I am hitch hiking on what is possibly my neighbors wireless connection, but its really pretty good (Thanx neighbors I owe you!) so I am not sure what the problem is.

I know some people in USA have had trouble seeing my site, I wonder if its something to do with my ISP?

BOB

I would love to see your photographs from the Bloor-Avenue Rd area. When I was living downtown (Bay and Wellesley) I used to shoot around there with little, if any, success.

PATRICIA

After reading your comments on Divided Soul, I pulled out my copy and enjoyed it all over again. I, too, enjoy the writings as well as the photographs, particularly the description of the cowboys on the annual roundup, the woman who was being forced to leave the village she’d always known (and her husband’s original grave), and of course, Scooter!

After that, I picked up Alex Webb’s “Istanbul”. I think Alex and DAH are both supreme masters at subtle yet at times complex compositions that put you right in the middle of the action, and are simply mesmerizing.

With Istanbul, just last night I finally put together 2 observations: I’d always appreciated that Alex often incorporates something vertical in the center of his photographs. AND he’s been interested in “borders” for much of his photographic career… I’ve looked at that book so many times before and never made that connection- talk about authorship + content + context!

JONATHAN, MARTIN, SPENCER & DAVID
I think your collective experience is quite common among photographers. I have my own similar story. But what I’ve really come to believe is that digital technology has reached a point where agonizing over “film vs. digital” is energy better spent on developing one’s vision and “authorship”. I think many of us agonize over “which medium”, which camera, which lens etc… I’m no professional, but for what it’s worth my personal best work comes when it comes, and it comes when I’m using the simplest setup that leaves me with minimal equipment-related decisions, so I’m not focusing on my gear. Just my 2 cents.

DAVID

I will be in the city, midtown today and the next (tues/wed) from about 10 – 2 and then in brooklyn from about 3:30 – onward if you want to try to do a hand off of the print either in the city or in brooklyn. Thurs in brooklyn till 2..

ERIC

I’ll be in Cleve sometime in late August, maybe we can try to find a day together..but of course if you are ever here lets shoot and hang.. Yes, isn’t that Amerasian story gorgeous? Talk about being able to follow a piece as a photographer and see it through. Still, I’m amazed at how much you get done, and done so well.. I need to take a lesson from you in that. I am loving how some of the new boxing images remind me of dye transfer prints or something, the ones I said were ‘dirty’ in surface. Really evocative.. I keep thinking you should apply for a residency at the Lower East Side Printshop..I had one about 3 years ago, as a printmaker..but there is another type of residency that allows someone who works in a different medium to work with a printmaker (am not talking traditional photo prints, but fine art printmaking, like etching, seriography, lithography). Zana Briski did one with her Born into Brothels work..anyway, we can talk more via email if you want to know what on earth I am talking about.

Re print trade…
can you email me? I know what you really want is that Salgado, but I guess mine would do!!

3699c
4371c
3741f

Erica and DAH

I will be in NYC till the 10th of July. I got it confused with my flight to Singapore, which is on the 12th of July. Thanks guys for trying to arrange a pick up, very much appreciated. Would love to see the print before i leave for work in Singapore.

cheers

Les

SPENCER, am I crazy? The idea has been floated on more than one occasion, but I’ve always managed to stay one step ahead of the guys from the funny farm. They don’t appear to be terribly bright, but that may just be a dodge to help them get close to the reality challenged. As to the flugelhorn, my inability to play is based on two major factors: I don’t actually have a flugelhorn and even if I did have one, I dont know how to play it, being completely devoid of any form of musical ability; I can’t even hum a tune properly. And then there’s the question of whether any actual flugels were harmed in making these horns. I wouldnt want people to think that I was encouraging cruelty to defenseless flugels in any way.

PANOS, I have spent way too much of my life reading books; I’ve been reading for so long that I dont actually remember learning how to read; it’s just something I did, like going to the bathroom or lying about who actually broke my brother’s nose with a 2 by 4.

BOBB, I agree with most of what you wrote. Starting anything is almost always an epic pain in the ass, especially when you can’t think of anything to say. One of the things I like about photography is that you either got the picture or you didnt; there’s no going back to the beginning and starting all over again. Writing, editing, and rewriting are pernicious habits to fall into; I spend a fortune on Christmas cards every year because I rewrite them so much, a trait that drives my mother up the wall, as in “Will ye just write Merry Christmas and sign the damned thing already?!” I like Mom, but she gets on my nerves sometimes.

ASHER, I’ve applied for government grants, or rather, I wrote the first drafts of the applications and then other people have actually done the applying. Successful grant writing is a delicate balance of high-mindedness and toadying that I’ve never been able to master. About half way through any grant application I’ve ever done, I stop to consider wouldnt this whole process be so much easier if I just went out and robbed a liquor store instead?

PAUL T., unfortunately, I can’t tell myself that writer’s block doesnt exist, anymore than I can tell myself that the flashing red lights behind me dont exist when I blow through a red light. Reality has a way of forcing its attentions on all of us, I’m afraid. On the other hand, while thinking and commenting upon your brand spanking new edition (available at Blurb Books, everybody) I thought of the following:
We live today in an age of ever-increasing market specialization, with niche markets pullulating like so many phony tax shelters on a millionaire’s quarterly return (not to get off the subject here, but can anyone tell me why Bill Gates, a man with a personal income larger than the gross national product of any seven Third World countries you could name off the top of your head, a man who makes more in the time it takes for him to go to the bathroom than I will make in my entire life, needs $600 from the United States government in order to stimulate the economy?). Where once consumers had to take what goods and services corporate America offered them or do without, in today’s Internet driven market more and more customers can indulge whatever taste or interest they may have, content in the knowledge that someone somewhere will have what they want to buy, no matter how strange that purchase may seem. Nowhere is that more true than in the market for sex toys, and if you are interested in this sort of thing then you should stop reading right now, because this is the last mention of sex toys in this particular bit of business.

No, I am speaking today of the publishing industry, where the smaller, boutique publishers, the specialist presses that may only handle a few books every year, are challenging the industry’s giants for a share of the market. One need only go into bookstores and public libraries from one end of this our Great Republic to another to see the effect of these digital age Gutenbergs. Shelves strain today under the weight of new books, an odd phenomenon, given that vast numbers of the citizenry are now too illiterate to understand the pictures, much less the words, in what the trade nowadays refers to as graphic novels, which in another time and place were simply known as comic books. Cookbooks abound today as never before, with books on French and Italian cuisine growing more and more narrow in their focus. Where once Julia Child could produce a cookbook that contained all anyone would ever care to know about French cooking, today’s culinary scribes feel a constant pressure to come up with something new, something more cutting edge, something no one else has, the demand driving them to concentrate on smaller and smaller areas, to the more regional and village cuisines, going deeper and deeper into the countryside for their subject matter, until these harmless drudges of New Grub Street are describing in exquisite detail for the gastronomically deprived wretches of the New World just how the coq au vin of Madame Defarge differs in style, taste, and texture from the coq au vin of Madame Dubois, the grouchy old bat who lives two doors down from Madame Defarge in a Alpes de Haute-Provence village so remote the villagers spend a fair amount of time wondering what numeral the current Louis is up to. The discerning critic will note, however, even after a cursory examination of newly published cookbooks, that nowhere in this ever-expanding pile of culinary prose will he or she find a cookbook describing the best way to prepare and serve a missionary for the socially conscious savage who wants to impress their family and friends.

This dearth of cannibal cookbooks seems a more than a little ethnocentric to me, if not culturally arrogant to an extreme degree, privileging Western gastronomic concepts over those of other cultures. How else will the environmentally concerned cannibal learn that Roman Catholic missionaries should be thoroughly washed and dried before eaten, as they may contain artificial preservatives known to cause cancer in laboratory rats? Or that the intelligent host should never serve Methodists, Episcopalians, or Mormons as the antipasto, reserving these denominations for the main course? Most up to date cannibals already know better than to consume Presbyterians or Dutch Reformed missionaries raw, as Calvin’s doctrine of predestination tends to give the flesh a slightly bitter aftertaste that the cook can remove by first marinating the missionary in beer (Heineken works the best; Bud Lite the worst—even the most ignorant and benighted of savages know enough to regard the vast majority of American beers as little more than slightly insipid imitations of the real thing) for several hours before cooking, but where is the anthrophagous Jacques Pepin who will tell today’s hip, with it upwardly mobile fine young cannibal that they can whip Pentecostals, Fundamentalists, and Southern Baptists into a fine frothy lemon meringue just by mentioning how much most cannibals support sex education in the schools? Alas, here is a niche market if ever there was one and apparently one that no publisher in the Western world wants to touch with a six foot Pole (Come on, admit it, you didn’t think I had the guts to use any pun that awful, did you?)

All is not lost, though. Self-publishing has been around for a long while; Proust self-published the first volume of A la recherché du temps perdu, for example, and Whitman brought out the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself; but over time many people, perhaps influenced by the publishing industry itself, which stood to gain financially by such an attitude, came to look down on the practice, calling those publishers that still did it the vanity presses. This, today, is an antiquated attitude; modern digital self-publishing has made the process much more available for the common person who may not have access to the centers of bookmaking power in New York, Boston, or Churchill Downs. Today’s publishing software makes it possible for any budding Rachael Ray to tell the struggling young working mother the best way to juggle the often conflicting demands of demands of work, family, and how to get and prepare the best cut of Congregationalist they can afford quickly and easily. And it will not be long before she does, I think. The possibilities created in our digital age are endless and endlessly fascinating. Bon appetit, everybody!

And now my brain hurts, so I am going to stop. That’s another thing photography has over scribbling: it very seldom gives me a headache.

David,

I read more than I write here, and ultimately find answers/direction in your comments to others and through the “Conversation” in general. Granted many more questions are also raised..but that is the beauty of it!

In Jackson you told me to take on a personal project, something close to home, something I could dedicate my self to. Looking through my work flow on the Mead Ranch essay you mentioned that my work was “all over the place” and that I should “draw focus” – stop jumping around. In the big picture…I am still “all over the place”…still jumping around. I feel as if I am shooting everything..and yet no one thing! Should it be so hard to find my own direction? I am not looking for a “formula” so much as an outside perspective. I have not forgotten your advice!

Last winter I took some risks, spent money I did not have, and made my way back to Africa. I felt strongly about furthering my work in Lesotho and I wanted to come home with a “story”. I also think some part of me wanted closure and perhaps a sense of perspective to my own experiences there. I wanted to test my self as a “journalist”. I wanted to come back with images that were more complex, maybe even open the doors to future projects as I realize my work there has just begun. I still very much want to tell that Story…

But……

That is not my “personal project”. your were right David. My “personal project” must be in my own backyard. I am “home” now, in the four corners..sorting out my thoughts..ready to dedicate myself to “something”..searching my heart and weighing out my options.

I have touched on topics from Chaco canyon to cattle branding, Native American culture to “western” landscapes, elk hunting and most recently the Narrow-Gauge Railroad. I am attracted to the “old ways” – I think I understand the “old west” and the “new west” equally- I prefer the old. I want to tell a story, it must involve people, a sense of culture and ultimatly I would like it to have an “Impact”.
Do I weave these topics together to create a story..or do I need to single one idea out and develop it further? Should I consider starting from scratch? Do I ask myself ‘Will I eventually get paid for this?’ or do I just dedicate myself- keeping it Pure/Malleable like your own current “Family” endeavor….without any strings attached. great potential- no “definite” expectations?
I have ideas, I could use some insight/direction. Any chance we could catch up in Durango around your reunion next week? are you seeking a “family project” in this area? something I could help you set up…. the old barter system! Let me know. 970.769.2939

Cheers – Jeremy

TO ALL: Self Portraits look STELLAR on the final slideshow! Enjoyed them very much……Congrats to all.

HEY DAVID (in case you missed my previous post…)

in the mirror, white, flowing upside down… That would be me!

I’d originally posted two options, then chose to go with my original entry, the first of the following two links. The picture was included in David McG’s gallery… Not sure what happened after that, though I am bummed the picture never landed in your court.

http://bp1.blogger.com/_d-l72iXjdjs/SFqHVFCB1lI/AAAAAAAAAFI/kf2UkTu4n-8/s1600-h/ANNA_B.jpg
http://bp0.blogger.com/_d-l72iXjdjs/SFs3AQ-6TjI/AAAAAAAAAFo/-LLjOLrU56E/s1600-h/ANNA_B2.jpg

Curious which of the two you preferred.

Anna B.