HERVE…

you had me laughing out loud….next time we are both in Paris, we will take d’Agata for a beer or two (or five in his case!)…please stop have nightmares…

BOB….

please know i have not forgotten you…just as i was ready to open your link, Kyunghee and Paola showed up at my front door and that started a chain of events which did not lead to my computer…

and i know that you know why i just cannot look at Bones right now..in two days yes, now no…

rest assured i will see Bones before your arrival on friday…are you sure you can’t get here a day before??? you will be arriving when i am in my most, shall we say, “intense mode”…but, maybe that is just right…in any case, our long awaited meeting is upon us…..

safe travels, peace, david

Posted by: david alan harvey | September 28, 2008 at 08:44 AM

PATRICIA….

i am totally ok…there are just many factors including that i might move my main “home” to the beach near my sons and just have my New York space as an office..i have my eye on a nice cottage with all the right smells…

if i do my family show on friday night, i would like to use one of the pictures of you and Ed…i would like your permission, but doubt i will have enough time or remember to send one to you first for your approval….what do you think??

cheers, hugs, david

PATRICIA :)))))))))

well, i guess i remember my dreams, and yes usually remember the details of them pretty well, always have since childhood for whatever reason, about 4 days a week…Marina has the same…and her details and intensity are even crazier…my dreams are not always so “literal of the present”, but i guess it was on my mind ;)))…and now worries, i’ll show bones (maybe today if i figure something out…and thanks again for the support…we’ll see my dear what dreams are made of, we’ll see…:)))))))

HERVE ! :))))))))))))))))))

GOD-DAMNED, THAT WAS HILARIOUS! :)))))…i think Patricia should start marketing her skooter as another “tool” for the “creative” photographer ;))))…i can just see Patricia and D’Agata goin’ to town in some god-lost run-down neighboorhood of Detroit or Marseilles shooting from the hip and blowing by folk :)))))))))….i love it :)))…more dreams please :))))

GLENN: :))))….got those Vo-Vo’s coming :))))…love love that story so much….

CARLOS :)))))))

I WILL TAKE LOBO ANTUNES :)))))))…just ordered “What Can I Do When Everything’s On Fire?” it was just published here…and this week he spoke/read in NY…i was so fucking bummed that i missed him by 1 week :(((…im praying he gets invited to Toronto for the October Festival of Authors…maybe :)))))))….fingers-crossed :)))))))…and i dont know what the damn NObel committee has been waiting for…i know Portugal is small and they already gave one prize to Saramago…but….enough already….Antunes is one of my heros ;))))))))))))))…and i ever get more money i’ll come visit u…Portugal holds a very special place in my heart and my wife’s heart :))))))))))

hugs
running
b

DAVID (HARVEY);

P.S. YES YES YES, STICK PART OF FAMILY DRIVE IN….

IF YOU DO NOT SHOW US SOMETHING FROM THE SERIES, THEN I REALLY WILL HOLD IT AGAINST YOU THAT YOU KO’D ON BONES AT THE LAST MINUTE ;))))))))

Now, Marina and I didnt spend all that money to come down just for Bones shit…i want to see Family Drive!

can i give u an order?? ;))

b

Hey David,

I wanna take d’Agata out for a beer, too:)

Alessandra Sanguinetti is one of my very favorites, she’s one of the top 5 photogs Id like to meet.

I updated some of my projects today, my favorite photo from today is from Park Life

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/2895314932_1317a4d800_o.jpg

Bob,

put Bones on flickr if you dont have any other place to put it, I really wanna see it. Do it after David sees it but PLEASE do it!

David,
I was considering attending your workshop, since I was going to be in NYC around that time. But finacially I just could not made it. oh well. but is the Friday party open for your blog readers? or closed to the student only? I am flying from the UK to NYC on Thursday to attend the Eddie Admas Workshop near NYC. Going to your party would be a cool start of my first American adventure :)

Just the right smells. Perfect. I know exactly what you mean. My move back to London was intense particularly getting the boys settled in schools. Also my computer went down and then PhotoShelter Collection folds as I was in the midst of preparing a substantial submission. I was beginning to wonder whether Claire and I had made the right decision.

Then one evening late as I opened the kitchen windows after preparing a nice meal I smelled the autumnal air and knew immediately that indeed we had made the right decision. I cannot really describe the smell but it’s particular to this part of the world. It’s where I belong now.

Once you recognize that smell, you know where you’re supposed to be. Right?

ALL.

Heading off to Texas for the week. No computer.
I’ll be back Friday, just in time to catch up and hear about the Fiesta. Have a great week everyone.

ERIC…took a look at the Pellegrin piece. I think yours will be much better. What was up with the pace of that piece? I understand the “feel” he was trying to give it…to match the energy of the athletes but it seemed more appropriate for an MTV video than photography. I wanted to have at least a couple of seconds to see the images :((

ALL-

Forgot to say that I attended a presentation by Paul Fusco this year the first day that Perpignan exhibition started. It was Monday morning, at 10am… when most of the photopraphers and “PROs” come later (mid-week). Hardly anybody in the amphitheater…very intimate… For the few fortunates that were there, Paul shared the work that he did with the kids affected by the radiation of Tchernobyl… Some unbearable pictures… Paul also showed the work on Bob Kennedy Funeral train that led recently to a new book… Some interesting images there as well all taken within a few hours the same day from the window of a train…I am sure he will be talking to the students about both pieces of work… Paul is not a very joyful man but it was very interesting listening in to him and I am sure the students will enjoy….

Eric

http://blog.ted.com/2008/09/bloggers_help_b.php

help james’ TED wish along..

DAVID…

OF COURSE show Family Drive! Couldn’t be more appropriate.
I LOVED what I saw of it in Santa Fe.
Can’t wait to see more.

DAVID

I wondered where everyone was! I seem to hang out at former threads way after everybody’s left…

Yes, yes, YES please show some of “Off For a Family Drive” at the Fiesta on Friday!!! I’m going to be there and want to see what you’ve been up to.

Yes, I’m coming to Friday’s Fiesta!!!

My friend Pat Kolon and I will be driving to Brooklyn on Thursday, arriving that night, and staying at the Nu Hotel (85 Smith St. in downtown Brooklyn) for three nights (Th, F, S). We’ll take off early Sunday morning and travel the 630 miles back home. I’ve just been printing out the Mapquest directions…

Regarding the accessibility issue, I’ll be bringing two portable ramps that should be able to handle the steps up into your building, and then I can use the elevator, right? I’m assuming there will be street parking for my minivan on Kent Avenue.

I’ll call you this week to firm things up just in case there are unforeseen problems. Or you can call me when you’re free.

I am beyond excited…ECSTATIC is more like it ;=)

Patricia

patricia

i can imagine the car and the driving tunes..
amon tobin.. carl craig.. some cuts from intec perhaps..

safe driving and respect for the effort..
big up’s
ai..

GINA :)))

yes, looking forward to seeing you next week. marina and i do not have a cell phone…(our son has one, but not us)…you cant get to us through Erica, with whom we’ll be staying…have fun with bones…wish i could show it here with music and black border, but flickr will have to do….

DAVID BOWEN :)))

thanks…the essay i am writing for it is long…and well, yea, i would love to share it…story is complicated (or not) but well…it the pictures dont sting enough, than i have failed regardless of what i write ;)))

as to FLICKR, yea, it totally sucks…and some folks here (PANOS, KATHERINA, ANDREW) OFFERED GENEROUSLY to house the pics for now, but i didnt want to both them and their time…the images at flicr are sized at 1500 x 1000, so they look absolutely ridiculous at flickr, but well, i dont care anymore…you gotta look at them when you’re drunk, stoned, happy, sad, late at night, lost, sleepy, all the above ;))))))))))…

PATRICIA :))))

wow, that’s brilliant! :))))…that will be lovely, i am so happy and so looking forward to seeing you….:)))))…will be great…will be lovely lovely to finally hiss/hug in person :)))))…

ALL: again if you look at bones, make sure you start with the 2nd page (picture of museum shot with pin-hole camera into the sun)…the last photo is the photo of dima…i loaded backwards ;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/sets/72157607559432969/?page=2

from here (last image), go backwards until you get to HolgaDima ;)))

ok, running away now for real…family is calling

PATRICIA…

maybe i missed a comment, but are you really coming here?? am i supposed to know that???? great, fantastic, unreal!!!!

yes, all you need is some way to get up those first steps…they are steep but short..can’t i carry you up those steps and put you in a chair?? after that , really easy…get here early ..no later than eight..to my place 607..the show is down in 402, but we can get you there easy as well…

call me…this is going to be unreal…

hugs, david

bob..

i’m probably understating, and so i apologize..
i’m struck with the photo – certainly.. they have hit with me.. asking for the words was simply because i knew there were words..

it’s midnight and although i’m not drunk, stoned, speeding, tripping or even high on a sugar rush from cola i can see them and you..
no need to talk of failure, bob..

DAVID BOWEN :)))

no worries amigo…i totally understand…:)))…i’d love to show you the work (there’s more, but i cut out so much to try to get David something manageable) in a dark room with music…a slideshow…as i showed dima…someday :))))

DAVID HARVEY )))))

ok, so like i’ll go back and add some of the images (not many) i took out last week….but my mom is coming for thanksgiving, and i will shoot more of her (since she is a ghostly presence in this story)…

just remember; THIS ESSAY WAS BORN OF YOUR INSPIRATION FOR ME TO DO AN ASSIGNMENT FOR YOU…this essay (and there is more to it in pics, maybe 100 that i can live with) is for my father, my son and for YOU….we’ll talk about that in person…

i hope Doug is doing well :))

running
hugs
bob

BROTHER BOB

I definitely get to claim kinship here now… Everything DAH says and more!!!!!

I did say ages ago that when you had good bones they always passed the test of time and these are the most beautiful bones ever…

Of course I have favorites, ‘Subway Glasses’ and “Portrait of my Father’ and ‘Bear, Fear’ but I agree with DAH that they are a body of work, a whole and should only be edited if there is not enough space in the book…

And I also agree with David B. I have always felt that your words and images come from exactly the same place, there is no disconnect which is the rarest of things and that your words should stand besides your photographs with staunch and proud equality…

When I did ‘Shadowlands’ (unfortunately its not all on my site) it was a departure for me in a way, but at the time I was in a very hard place and I couldn’t express my world in sharp clear focus and the words for it came from the same place the pictures did and it was the first time I had ever been able to do that.

I didn’t manage as you have done, your work is an art and deserves to be acknowledged as such.

All I can say now is WELL DONE and apart from adding the text I wouldn’t (to quote from my favorite Poet/ Performer from Oz, Nick Cave) ‘Touch a hair on their head’

‘Bones’ are just beautiful Bob, now leave them alone and stop worrying them, I think they are just perfect as they are….

BOB…

Simply amazing. Bravo. And visualizing as a wall, as suggested…wonderful.

ALL
So sad that I am able to travel this week but am already committed (and, indeed, am now int he low country of South Carolina). I wish greatly that I could be there to experience so many of you in one place at the same time….at least know I’m there in spirit and hopefully will meet all of you (singularly or perhaps at another fest) in the future….

AKAKY IRL: go!

Patricia and Panos: you must BOTH document…it will be so enlightening to see the coverage from each of your perspectives….

best to all,
A.

could someone shoot some video at DAH’s? perhaps the slideshow /talks?

:o)

Patricia? can I eamil you regarding a technical issue with our camera/lens combinations? You seem to be successfully avoiding/solving an issue I keep having…

thanks,
A.

That would be email, not eamil. I believe eamils are small, furry creatures commonly found in dark, sandy dune-like areas near ocean sounds.

ANDREW

my email (eamil?) is croneart@comcast.net

I’d be happy to share anything with you. But me helping with a technical camera/lens issue? God, that’s a new one!

Patricia

Bob,
I am too without voice, I love your very personal and unreal essay…
I love your Portrait of My Father, Portrait of Marina, Dinosaur Dream, Portrait of My Father, Boy with Skull, Dinosaur Dream, Flight… there is too much that I like… Portrait of Firebrand, Reflection, Bear: fear, Son’s Dream… it is stunning!

Lee,
I hope that you will make us share very soon your work, I am very impatiante!!

All,
I wish you all a very beautiful family meeting…

Amitiés, audrey

PATRICIA-
Unbelievable that you will make it all the way to Brooklyn! I always mean to ask where in Detroit you live (though I’m usually in hiding on here)…I’m a Michigander myself, spent my early years in Detroit….look forward to meeting you…

I should have waited a year before leaving NYC, then I could party with you all. Damn!

Have a hooley. A web feed would be weird but v. cool.

MACIEJ….

you are most welcomed to come to see the shows of the students and of Alessandra Sanguinetti and Paul Fusco…i think you will enjoy both…

i thought i also told you before that you are welcomed in my home anytime..i would like to see what you shoot at Eddie Adams and otherwise…

please come…..there will be a posting soonest with my address etc. or just look two posts back at the slide show fiesta announcement…

i hope to meet you …

cheers, david

andrew b

live feeds via skype?
that would work – jeeeze we’d have to get up early in the europe.. or stay awake through beer goggles late at night.

anyone able to switch on a litle video for a little of the fiesta?

erica’s written report was a superb endeavor, however if there are no objections it’d be very funny for the rest of us to see you all there..

ERICA
btw..

i’m teaching darkroom this coming month.. it’s on the syllabus.. and i’m delighted that it is.. we’re going to do a little pinhole as well..
i’m now on the look out for a bulk film loader and film canisters again..
the only problem?
none of the students have film cameras from what i am told… and so i have been routing around charity shope looking.. a beaten up AE1 here, F301 there and hopefully there will be enough.

Well said, David. Yes, I am greatly anticipating our blog reunion but even more than that I long to see the recent workof Kyunghee and the other workshop participants, Alessandra and Paul, and your own Family series. This is what I am driving 1300 miles to see…

And now off to jury duty. PLEASE don’t pick me!!!

Patricia

To: David Bowen
I’ve got an old bulk loader somewhere in my boxes. The handle broke off years ago and so I used to use a tweezers to crank it. Took a while. No need for it now though. I’d send it to you but for the broken handle.

To: David Alan Harvey
A gathering of colleagues and friends to discuss and enjoy fine photography is, to me, the ultimate party.

Uncle Dave – I don’t know whether you wonder why I call you Uncle, but where I come from it is a title I was brought up to give to those older and wiser than myself, with no familial bond implied.
As for the work in the ‘lands’, it’s a continuation of my life’s journey… I suppose from growing up in a small mining town in the Western Queensland Desert , a place with a reputation being more or less equivalent to the deep south of your own great republic in that its issues of race are not entirely undeserved.
Growing up we were 50 /50 white and black, kids together with no sense of the greater world being any different… then one day, almost overnight we stopped playing, started separating, started fighting. I suppose that my attentions to this issue stem a lot from the casual racism that I was brought up with – the pressure to conform to hate and ambivalence, and a deep underlying curiosity and suspicion about my own attachment to the land, this country, how can it be valid when the first Australians, AUSTRALIAN CITIZENS and let’s not forget that , are living in conditions you would’nt keep a bloody dog in.
I remember walking through a refugee camp near Quetta, Pakistan full to the brim with Afghan refugees, thinking that somehow none of this was new to me, the smells, the children so excited, desperate for the diversion that the tall white fella provided from the crushing boredom of a life without hope. The adults, shamed into lethargy by their inability to pull themselves out of a mire not of their own making… I’d seen it all before on faces that were friends to me, the Aunties who helped raise me and the first girl I fell in love with when I was 14, I was all at home.
There are many photographers who shoot in the Aboriginal world, sympathetic and capable but somehow not offering a window of a ‘future’, only a tragic reflection of the past that is lost and without hope.
I suppose that I moved here to this vast space, the Northern Territory to be closer to the work I see as mine. I, like the body of pictures, am a work in progress and I use my position as a plugged in member of the Australian media as a tool for awareness and a tool for showing that this wide expanse of land north of Alice Springs is not empty, but full of what makes this country special and where some hope for the future lies.
I’ve thrown a few pics together here

http://www.digitalrailroad.net/glenn/Production/PhotoGroupView.aspx?pbid=4&msa=1&pgid=13865640&ipp=64&sort=0&page=0

I made myself available to the only story that really matters in this country and I’m plugging away ,still hopeful , still learning .
thanks for your interest Mate

glenn

you’re a legend.. MAXIMUM respect.. keen on.. keep on..
some here are looking for what has become termed their ‘venice beach’ and some – you – stand out as having climbed into a project a long while ago.. for good reason.. with personal interest.. with an open heart and mind..
how many years has it been?
do you know some good writers with a passion for the same?
it has helped me to speak to a couple of good writers who know my field well.. turn over book ideas and that brings up idea’s on what i need to do in order to complete the body of work.. because as i have found, completing a journey which has been going on over many years is a challenge.. regaining focus and forming a ‘whole’ has had me stalling for a month now with th edit.

love your work glenn – like the patient approach.. you’re building something authentic, over time, which will stand among it’s peers.

there are lots of books about Tibeten refugees – i’m the only one i know who photographed one village over 6 years..
lots of books about music – i’m the longest standing electronic music freelance working worldwide..
find something to take a little pride in – an angle you have covered which others have not – and that could be the selling point to publishers and the rest.

that could all be garbage, *disclaimer* and of course i’ll always bow to a differing opinion..

pea’s n chips

ALL:

Patricia, Lisa, Andrew, Eric, Anna Marie, Rafal, David B, Audrey, Anton, Katherine and all the others who’ve written me privately, i just want to say thank you so much for the loving support and words. I do not have a lot of words at the moment (surprise?), but just know that it means a lot to me. I am still conflicted about the work, mostly because it is unfinished and must be fleshed out (about my mom, dad, something dima added the other day in a word), but it’s nice to have such support. As David mentioned, i’ve never really cared about whether people get what i do or what is going on in my head. The photography means much much less to me than the way i’ve tried to live, the relationships created. Same too with “narrative.” This essay began from seeing my dad crying, sitting on his hotel bed, and immediately i was a child again. 2 days later, when my son was attacked in front of his school by guys with a knife, and i was in nc, the same: the idea of how to express or protect..immediately, i struggled with the futility of that and then when David announced his assignments, i thought: i’ll show that even as convoluted and abstract as my work is, it is born of specific feelings and specific moments and people, that documentary photography can be born of a conceptual heart, or rather what else can a photographer do except tell the stories around her and in the way only she knows how to tell. I’ve never been imitative and have always been a pretty emotional kid, and i appreciate that there are some pics here that might make sense, some not, but indeed it is about memories and about how my life as a young boy in many ways now mirrors my life as an adult watching his own young boy or watching his father…and can “family” be passed by something other than dna or family bones…dima and i do not share dna, but we share something that probably is even closer…i’ll put back some of the other images that i loved into the story (not on flickr) that i cut last week, thinking they would be too hermetic…anyway…

i appreciate all your kindness and patience…

if it makes any sense, the question i always ask myself is this: we all see and experience and remember so differently and yet we somehow sense the universality of all our lives, so what is that that binds…

for me it has always been a simple thing:

courage (or idiocy) to hold strong to your vision, even when it begins to crumble…

thanks for everything :))

hugs

runnings

http://www.digitalrailroad.net/glenn/Common/PhotoDetailPage.aspx?msa=0&pid=17746526&slid=c94da4c0-83f4-480f-baef-683629c05a84&slididx=0&lid=0&rstid=3266a8fa-0678-4804-97dd-0430b3ae242b&aid=1

genius

Dave B , Brother Bob – I’m staggered , I really don’t know what to say! I had thought about private e-mailing my response but in the interests of the blog and in defference to those who continue to inspire me , goad me and thrill me – I spill my guts here , to this band of merry tricksters.

Glenn

Your pictures always make me dream about australia!!!!
I hope I will go to your country someday.
Maybe my good friends will move back to australia and I will have good reason to visite them.
some excellent works you have.

marcin

Love to see a live feed of this gathering , with a section for random skype shots of those who are at the ends of the earth
??? we’re not talking shoe phone here! make it happen oh “Mike The capable” !

glenn

genius indeed… lived in australia for some time… good on ya, mate… keep it up, you’re building something great for sure…

cheers,
anton

Shoot. Skype only allows video calls with 2 participants….multiple viewers is something they are working on.

MIKE!
Any ideas? I will look around for something that would be easy as well….we really only need a feed out to multiple participants…although it would be cool if participants could show random images/feeds to those there as well….

Yahoo chat would do it….

Love Bones, BOB. Fine Art – don’t let it sit in the cupboard – must be an exhibition here.

Mike R.

lee… have a great one… 3 kisses from me!

Lisa,
trying to send you an e mail, but it keeps bouncing back….

And Lee, happy birthday!

hey lee! of course many many more if you like… and hugs too… just don’t ask me to jump out of a cake in my green mankini :)

enjoy today!

hugs :)
anton

LEE :)))))))))))))

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :))))…have a great, sweet 28th! :)))))…looking forward to meeting you :)))))

AKAKY-DAD! :))))

yea, i know…after a couple shots, the mechanism just failed (not all pics are out of focus), but the damn camera keeps getting fixed and busted…but, know you can make up for that Dad by buying me a new one :))))))))))))…pretty please :)))

MARCIN :))))

TOTALLY TOTALLY AGREE, 100%! :)))0..and i totally understand…that’s why i feel frustrated: it’s only the beginning…begun as an assignment for David…but that’s why i included other pictures of “bones” (barber chair, young girl singing on the street, sign of missing teenager, fish, got lots more that are not bones, but important, but took them out to make edit manageable :)) )…so, how will this work: it’s gonna be united with some of my old work and new project (water)…and hopefully, i’ll flesh it out when my mom comes…it’s only a beginning, but i am thankful that David encouraged us to do something for him, as an “assignment”…now, what magazine would ever want to publish my assignment, or my “interpretation” of bones/museum/childhood ? ;)))))))…thanks so much Marcin for the important insight :))

hugs
b

AKAKY IRL: Robert, I fear a new camera is entirely out of the question, given that you broke the last one. Until I see you assuming some personal responsibility for your belongings, there will be no new cameras for you. You cannot going around breaking photographic equipment whenever you take a notion to and then expecting me to pay for replacements. Maybe if you start buying your gear yourself, you’ll start taking better care of it.

AKAKY: You’re a real shit, you know that, right?

AKAKY IRL: So people keep telling me.

AKAKY: Well, just so long as you know.

BOB!

you’ve been using that eye again…… (1)

:-))))))))))))))))))) (you, all of you actually, are now used to my sick irreverential sense of humour now, hopefully)

I never talk about your images, Bob, because I think this is not exactly to be talked about as photography, and because the communication forced upon us, if we really look (and eventually see), does not come as words, and as thoughts (non-thought, finally) FIRST. They also deserve many visits, and indeed the eventual format you are bound to present them with. I like the idea of seeing them alone, intimately, so a book maybe.

But I also think that the journey of BONES as a work of emotive and self-cognitve expression is not over. Maybe the mere introductory flickR format does that to me, and there will be a text also, I understand.

In many ways, your images are visiting us more than we seeing us, and they in return invite lingering, lulling even, rather than description and deciphering, which al eyes are dying to do. But we are not talking eyes only, here, after all.

(1)Actually, on the very contrary, I found the “sharp”, “real” photos broke the gripping spell induced by the others.

Late for work….

lee

happy birthday :o)

i click ‘next page’ at the bottom, then in the address bar at the top replace the page number.. i normally put in \’10’ instead and it takes me to the most recent page..
unless there are more than 10..

and then i leave the page open in a tab.. i did along with a bunch of others i refer to daily.
good luck for the year ahead..

harry
– thats really kind mate..
i used to live in the uk although not anymore..
it’ll be fine.. going to do a camera obscura workshop and hire a couple of medium formats i think.. then i have a couple of film camera available.. if i’m short someone will have to use my early box-brownie.. :o)
very strange though – to them this is some freaky magic from the past.. to me it is the essence of photography, from where i came from..

all

my negatives and books and junk arrive from the u.k. on monday.. and will enable me to continue editing down the music work..
fantastic.

joni

nightlife in cardiff.. tough, tough.. i love the place in general.. and the welsh are a great bunch.. nightlife though.. has a tough rep.. looking forward to seeing more.

AKAKY :))))

WELL, DAD, even if you’re a shit, i still love you :)))…what’s a child to do? ;))))

HERVE :)))))

thank you very much (can i use your blurb on the back jacket) :))…I want to tell you, with all heart-felt sincerity and richness, that i appreciate deeply your words and your reading of the work. You’ve hit the eye with your finger on the hope of this work, as i imagine it to be…your reading, insight and suggestions are all what i hope stay with the viewer, after all, the hope was that indeed it’s not just about bones, but about the nature of seeing…of not only seeing the world, but trying to see how we are and of what we come….i really appreciate your words immensely :)))) (and yes, i finally get your humour, after all this time :))))

and yes, the “sharp” images are my least favorite too, but i think i need them to show (at least for me) that vision and all the world around us is always in a state of flux ;)))…(and besides, dima ask me one day while i was photographing a woman with children (removed from the edit at flickr), “dad, you’re not making them all blurry and weird are you…” ;)))

running

hugs all
b

LEE

Happy birthday, dear woman! So we’ll be together during your “birthday week.” Fantastic!

ALL WHO WILL BE IN NYC THIS WEEKEND

We’re working on plans to gather for an early dinner on Friday. Everyone is invited! We’ll post the time and place here as soon as it’s been decided. Erica, Mike, NYers, any ideas???

Patricia

Thanks Joni,

I do tend to leave it up during the day but when I open after being shut down it was always tedious, especially when there are 700+ comments.

Patricia, yes it will be a wild time. I don’t know any restaurants except the one on Bedford Avenue where I took a couple photos that made it into the show. Can’t remember the name though.

Bob, I like your math.

Lee

SIDNEY – Mate Thanks AGAIN,
The slide show was’nt really fleshed out due to the short time spent on that particular assignment , As for books and such I’ve only returned to this work after it’s been shot and filed on assignment , some shot my own visits ,some as shot opprtunities present themselves , I’ve yet to tackle the work in any focused manner….
moore soon

SIMON

That pisses me off royally! The “imaginary lines” between the US and other countries have become all too real since 9/11. Homeland Security is doing little to keep us “secure” and all too much to give our sisters and brothers from around the world reasons to dislike America and Americans.

I am so sorry this happened and am terribly disappointed that it means we will not meet in person…at least not this weekend. May it happen some time some place sooner rather than later.

You used your time in Amsterdam well! I love how you mix abstraction with reality in your work. It gives a dreamlike quality to the whole. And your “Imaginary Lines” web page is inspired. Please keep us posted on how it develops…

Patricia

KAT

Yes I think my web host was having some problems but its seems to be fine now…I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. Cheers…

SIMON,
Was this your first attempt to visit our
“island”…? or , what was the reason
for deny entry?
Sorry, either way!
Loved the photos..!

DEAR ALL,
I’d just like to pose a question for you…
for those of you shooting digital…do you find that your digital files “live” on your computers/hard drives, and rarely get printed? I’m having a bit of a problem with that, letting my images exist in the nether world only. I KNOW that I edit best with physical prints, and I know that my emotional understanding of my work has much more depth when I make prints, but I never put the funds aside for prints! Shooting film I always make the contact sheet, make the little prints, but with my digital files, I perpetuate the unsatisfying practice of just looking at them on the computer.
Somebody break me out of this cycle!

Just wondered if I’m alone in this…

joni

i know some of cardiffs nightlife :o)
if i were still in nottingham i would certainly chip over.. there was once a young woman in cardiff who i admired..
photoed gil scott heron there a bunch of years ago.. must have been 96..

jean

too many comments.. yes indeed.. indeed… :o)

patricia.

lesson planning to billie.. love it.. thanks.
i love strange fruit.. brilliant.

simon

WTF is wrong with u.s… what does a border look like? i’ve yet to see one.. someone wiser than me stated that borders exist for people who hate.. and business i guess as well.. what a rubbish turn of events.
i have not worked in north america since 2005.. first worked there 2001 after september and it has become more and more uncomfortable getting into the country year on year.. and now.. i would happily not work there again..
last time i was there i was photographed, fingerprinted, interrogated and generally felt like a criminal for no other reason than i was arriving..
rubbish .. rubbish.. and does a great disservice to you good people who live there..

*ramble on continues ad-nauseum*

ANNA MARIA

yes you are not alone here… i look in my “former” darkroom where my prints are stored and there have been very few additions since digital came into my life… it makes me feel very uneasy…

what patricia said goes for me too: my images took on another life once i printed them to edit… so this is something which has to be done…

thinking… thinking… i think i will start now keeping aside ONE day a month for printing… collecting all that (potentially) has been done the month before that is worth printing… send it to the lab, do archival quality prints… store them in acid-free boxes…

and one day a month will keep the costs ‘manageable’ i guess…

or not?

the first time doing this would be a pain of course, having to catch all up…

cheers,
anton

Anton,

Its a feeling I’m not *that* comfortable with either, paying for access. However giving of gifts is different, it would be a poor visitor that brought nothing for his hosts! Normally I would make some enquiries and bring something that is hard for them to obtain and trivial for you to obtain (there are a few families around the globe with a haggis and no idea what to do with it…) alternatively you could offer to do some family portraits and give them prints. Japanese culture may view this differently so some research is in order. Most guidebooks offer advice for what to take a host family, so that would be a start.

Sounds like a cracking project, good luck!

PATRICIA,

I hear you… I grew up moving around a lot and vever had any problems from South America to North Africa to Europe… I look forward to meeting you at some point — you and your work inspire me — I point my parents to it whenever they say “we’re too old to do anything new”! And to be clear, I am NOT saying you are ‘old’—you are very, very YOUNG!!!…Younger than many people my own age that I know (I am 30)!

Thank you for looking at my photos from Amsterdam, and for your nice words about them and Imaginary Lines… I’ll certainly keep you posted.

PANOS,

I had been to the US before, but the story of the visa problems is simple in human terms yet complicated in bureacratic terms, as is usual with these things… I have been told that it is best for me not to discuss it in public on the ‘net since what I write may be used against me in the future.

I ran into Snoop Doggy Dog coming out of a coffeeshop in Amsterdam. There was this huge guy stopping everyone from going in, so naturally a crowd began to form around the place and word got around. When he came out with his entourage they got on bicycles and cycled down the street with a mad crowd in pursuit knocking over restaurant chairs, flower pots…pandemonium in the middle of the day!

ANNA MARIA BARRY-JESTER,

I’ve taken to printing out 10cm x 6cm contact prints after a first or second edit of the photos on the computer. I then use these for further editing on a table or on a corkboard/wall (inspired by David and several other photographers). It is a great feeling to hold the pictures in your hands, to move them around, and even do a little exhibition wherever you go!

I’ve also found that the size of pictures give a different feel…and I find it is easier to see relationships between pictures when they are all small…also easier to edit if you don’t have a lot of wall space…

I try to keep in mind that each picture should be able to stand on its own…the difficult part…which means I need to shoot a lot (and even then, I am not usually successful)!

DAVID BOWEN

I agree with the person that said that borders exist for people who hate and for greed…

I will be writing about all this and more on Imaginary Lines, but the main point is that if one considers oneself ‘American’ or ‘English’ or ‘Costa Rican’ or anything associated with a flag or a label above considering oneself a human being, then one is dividing oneself from the rest of humanity and essentially committing a violent act (violence does not need to be physical…) and contributing to the world’s state of affairs as much as the persons making the policy decisions and the persons physically building the walls and barriers…

Thanks for your words—I had the same feeling of being treated like a criminal when I last visited the US. I trust in individual people however, and do not judge anyone based on what ‘one’s country’ does.

Consider Joe McNally on the tarmac of a cosmonaut training center somewhere in Russia. He hands several thousand dollars to his fixer, who signals the “Vomit Comet” aircraft to take off with him and trainee spacemen inside. He was’nt going to get access any other way…

DAVID B, NEIL, MARTIN

yes… that is my main concern… IF one starts doing this, where will it end? i guess it comes down to taking a stand and saying ‘this is something i, as a rule, do not do…’

of course, paying the fixer makes perfect sense to me (and will happen of course), as he is actually working hard to make everything happen, gaining access, looking for places, involving people, places, angles…

so i understand the Joe McNally thing too… making a $$ deal with a fixer is “in se” not a bad thing i guess, and one could leave it up to him to decide what he does with his earnings…

but paying “subjects” directly seems like a dangerous path to walk… it makes me feel not at ease…

contact sheets/prints/book/exhibition is what i had envisioned to give to all people involved, as a recognition of their involvement…

difficult one… pff i’d be very discouraged if this would be the only thing left standing in the way of this project actually having a chance of happening…

David

nice, I will come on friday night. That’s gonna be the highlight of my trip to the US ;) It is a pity I didn’t know about those grants.
Will bring you a small gift – my first self-published book – http://www.blurb.com/books/342113

and some people mentioned Cardiff nightlife. I have been working on this project for quite some time, there is the current state of it, a rather loose collection of best images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciejdakowicz/sets/1391696/

ANTON…

I dealt with this same issue when photographing some of the tribes in Africa.

For the Maasai, I had arranged to provide some “gifts” for the village (cooking oil, sugar, beer, etc…) which felt like the right thing to do and wasn’t that bad.

For the Hadza tribe, I had to make a small monetary donation for the group; I also had to bring them some weed. Again, felt like the right thing to do and wasn’t that bad.

The Surma tribe in Ethiopia were much different in that they demanded $ every time I clicked the shutter. I tried to negotiate some gifts or donations for the village as a whole but to no avail. That’s just the way that it’s done and being out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by AK-47 touting men, I felt I should comply.

The entire experience did leave me feeling uneasy but for them it is a simple matter of give and take. Needless to say, my 2 week planned shoot lasted about a week as I ran out of “photo-money”

Having gone through various levels of having to pay for access, I agree with DAH that it’s a bad road to start down but sometimes there is no alternative.

Yes indeed, there’s nothing like an AK-47 to ensure mutual respect and good will towards one’s fellow human beings.

PATRICIA, thanx for Billie. She’s a favorite of mine.

AK47KY…
Stop giving illegal legal advice…
Support our border patrol…
Please…

And now for something completely off topic:

Now, you may find this a little hard to believe, but gentrification has had some fairly unusual effects here in our happy little burg. In the years since our economic turnaround began, we’ve had an influx of people from the metropolis to the south. Most of these folks are artists of one sort or another, the type of people who refer to well-known holes in the wall as spaces and who often wonder aloud why they can’t buy their favorite coffee here. Their favorite coffee often has a very long name, which causes no end of confusion hereabouts, as most of the indigenous population thinks of coffee as a beverage that either comes black or with cream and sugar. But what really sets the gentrifiers off from the gentrified is the worldview of the former. They are a well-traveled, cosmopolitan lot, on the whole, dropping the names of obscure Parisian restaurants in conversation in much the same way as our stout yeomanry drop dollar bills on the lottery and nodding knowingly at the mention of artists whose work is so obscure that their parents haven’t heard of it yet. With all of this sophistication, you may well wonder why these people would want to spend any amount of time with a provincial yutz like me. The answer, I’ve found, is that for all of their worldliness and sophistication, most of these people have never actually met a Republican.

Yes, it is a good time to be a Republican here in our happy little burg; I know that my party registration has improved my social life immeasurably these past years and I am positive that being a Republican can do wonders for your social life as well. Rock-ribbed Republicanism will help you get girls and be the life of any party you attend. It won’t help you clear up your skin, of course, but in the main, you will be a more exciting, more fascinating person when you finally stop procrastinating and register in the GOP.

You are probably asking yourself, but Akaky, how is this possible? I’ve tried everything from industrial strength Clearasil to online blind dating with Filipino transsexual lesbian dwarves to improve my social life, how will my being a Republican make me a more interesting person and help me score with chicks, which, as we all know, is the main purpose of any male’s social life, no matter what their party affiliation. Let me explain what happened to my social life.

The vast majority of our gentrifying influx was, as mentioned, from the metropolis, a well-known one party state where Republican are few and far between, and when they do win elections, they have to compromise on vast swathes of the GOP agenda and pretend that they meant to register Democratic when they were filling out the voter registration form but that the form was confusing and the guy in front of them in line farted loudly and so they accidentally checked the wrong box. So most of our gentrifying influx has never actually met anyone who fundamentally disagrees with just about everything they hold near and dear to their hearts. Your average cosmopolitan knows that Republicans exist, of course, but they know that they will probably never meet one in the course of the day and so long as they remain ensconced in their island home they need never think about such people. So they ignore them, and by them I mean people like me, in much the same way that a Cairene ignores the Great Pyramid of Giza or a hungry dieter ignores the food pyramid with pepperoni pizza. But when the siren song of modern art calls to the cosmopolite, they must follow, even if it leads to our happy little burg, which hasn’t gone Democratic in a presidential race since Zachary Taylor won handily here in 1848. This was an anomaly, of course, and one the local historical society usually attributes to Taylor’s enthusiastic support among local Mexican War veterans. Faced for the first time in their adult lives with the much dreaded Other, many a curious cosmopolite will seek to grasp just why it is that the natives believe in the odd things they believe in and so they often ask me to explain the hows and the whys of what is going on here.

I don’t mind, of course; many of these people are quite sincere in their curiosity, although I am also quite sure that many others invite me along merely to shock their friends and add a bit of a political frisson to their dinner parties. It seems a strange fate for any Republican to be a suces de scandale, but it seems I have managed this difficult task on more than one occasion. I am not sure how I managed to get the job as token Republican in the first place; I suppose that some of my Democratic friends recommended me as someone who was reasonably intelligent, reasonably knowledgeable about what’s going on in the world these days, and could be trusted not to blow my nose in the tablecloth between the soup and the main course.

In some ways, of course, I am a bit of a disappointment. I am not, for example, a member of the National Rifle Association. In fact, I do not own any firearms at all—I am, however, like a good many other civil servants, a dangerous man with a rubber band and a paper clip—and I have experienced my share of crestfallen looks from people who thought that I must, like the Republicans they’ve seen on television, have several years worth of canned goods next to the arsenal I have stashed in my own personal bomb shelter. I don’t actually have a bomb shelter, either, and this and the fact that I believe that if you wish to possess0 a 155mm howitzer of your very own, then the government ought to take a polite interest in what you intend to do with the thing (you might, for example, be planning to overthrow the constitutionally elected government of our happy little burg, or worse, plan to do a little target practice on Saturday mornings when I am trying to get some sleep), has led more than a few people to believe that I am not really a Republican at all. Nor am I an evangelical Christian and I am not completely sure I could identify with any degree of certainty the significant theological points of contention and agreement between Fundamentalists and Pentecostals, except for a somewhat unfortunate taste in hair styling. I suppose I am not atavistic enough.

Still, I’ve learned over the years that one mustn’t completely dash people’s illusions, and I have managed to epater les avant-garde on more than one occasion. There’s nothing quite like the reaction one gets from pointing out to some cosmopolite with a home in Vermont who has just spent an hour expounding on the racial problem here in AmeriKKKa that the reason many white liberals love living in Vermont is that it gives them the opportunity to decry AmeriKKKa’s racist treatment of African-Americans for hours on end without having to live anywhere near actual African-Americans. The sound made on one of these occasions is a sort of a low moan, similar, I think, to the sound one makes when you step out of a car wearing brand new shoes and step right into a pile of fresh dog crap. Your average host or hostess loves this sort of political spat; it livens up the conversation in what, in other circumstances, would have been yet one more dull dinner party. They’ll denounce my obvious idiocy—this simply goes without saying, naturally; they have to keep their Vermont friend happy too, you know—and it almost certainly means another dinner invitation in the not so near future so that I can politely mock the shibboleths that they and their friends hold most dear. Hearing someone praise Karl Rove can be a mind-altering experience for some people, however common such praise may be in some GOP quarters. I guess everything sounds a bit shocking if you’ve never heard it before.

My perplexing adherence to what these folks often refer to as the Repugnicans, the Rethuglicans, etc. causes no end of cognitive dissonance among the cosmopolitan population—they think, of course, that by all rights, I ought to be a Democrat, the same as them, and they will often ask, in their confusion, if there is anything I wouldn’t do for the GOP? To comfort them I say, yes, there is: I will not give money to a candidate for political office, even to a Republican candidate. You may not have noticed this, but campaign contributions only encourage politicians, a particularly noxious breed of peculating parasite, to run for political office in order to do whatever it is they do on the public payroll, and to continue to run for office long after the rest of the population has gotten tired of listening to them and wish that they would simply go away and leave the rest of us alone. Our Great Republic will only survive if and when vast numbers of American citizens treat running for public office in the same way that they treat jury duty: as an onerous task to be avoided whenever possible, and if political office becomes inevitable, to be gotten out of as soon as possible. I mean, really, would you want the leader of the Free World to be someone too dumb to get out of being President? I didn’t think so.

http://www.1854.eu/2008/09/talking_about_bjp.html

infamous in some circles, perhaps.. :o)

i think it’s a member of lightstalkers who posts the bjp blog..

oh ps DAVID

i made a total stranger smile today… and it was within 20 feet :)

anton

ANTON>

the reason i posted that story is that i was reminded of it by a student who wanted to photo a sheep from the green fields to the dinner plate.
no permission from the slaughter house was gained.. he did not think the project would be completed as he had hoped.
but he carried on regardless..

for 3 days he went back to the fields to get the ‘right’ picture of the sheep there..
he ended up gaining a great snap.. and the farmer saw him doing this tirelessly..

the farmer turned out to be the owner of the slaughter house.. the boos of the woman who had refused him permission to shoot there.

the farmer finally gave him permission at the 11th hour.. and it also looks like the whole story, or folio of images, produced for collage will be bought by the slaughter house.. because they like them.

none of this would have happened if the student had GIVEN UP when told he could not photo in the slaughter house..

the world most definitely turns for those of us that try to help it turn.. dig our feet into the dirt and push hard..

DAVID B

Great story! Good on your student. It pays to be so persistent you get what you want in the end.

Patricia

ALL,
Just pulled over at a AM/PM gas station
for a quick snack..
They told me I can’t use my ATM card,
neither credit.. ONLY CASH..
The cashier told me:”sorry the whole
ATM / credit system is DOWN..
looking for coins to buy water….
Something really nasty is happening here..
or is about to happen!!!!!!!????
Driving to another gas station..

It is a good time to live if one is not obsessed with money, Panos.

When having is more important than being, then the rooster is due to come home to croak every once in a while.

The sooner we get this in our heads, the better life will be….Like borders! Give it another few hundred years….Yes, you are right, I am quite an optimist by nature. :-)

7 major Greek banks
“collapsed” today..
Reason: huge investments in our stock
Market system ( globalization)…
Someone said :” when the US catches
a cold, the rest of the world gets pneumonia…”
:-(((

Moshi moshi fellow photographers

PATRICIA and AUDREY

Thank you, that was exactly the feed-back I was hoping to hear! I am aware that I don`t always change my perspective when I`m shooting, I will get my bum up and moving and do it better. Good idea showing only parts of my mom, I have a good feel about this.

ALL

Thank you for an really exiting blog. It`s hard for me to integrate with your current conversations, since I just joined in :) So please do excuse me if I misunderstand something.

About my project about my mom ( http://acfoto.no/mom/mom.html ) . I would like to add some elements into this story, to make it more understanding and to really tell the secret of our family life. So I was thinking that it might be good to have hints of my father with me (drug addict), and my siblings when they come home. But I`m not really sure how to angle it so that I still have the focus on my mother?
I will have my Afghan warscapes out as soon, will need to go through aprox 9000 photos from my 6month fieldtrip down there.

BOB

Your series bones is really neat :) The pictures really sent me in a state of tranquility. My favorite pictures was definitely “boy with skull” and “Bear: fear “. Boy with skull really reminds me of my childhood playing in my dad`s garden, they were digging up the entire garden to get rid of some mountain and me and my brother stumbled on a skull, funny thing, I almost pissed my pants. :)
Is this pinhole btw?

DAVID

Can I bring beer in the darkroom on Friday? :D

-Alex

ALEX

Regarding including pics of your father and/or siblings in a project where your Mom is the primary subject, I think it will work well. You might also consider including shots of yourself either with or without your Mom.

What you want is to bring us INSIDE your Mom’s life not just show us your Mom as seen from the OUTSIDE (from your perspective as photographer). You want us to feel what she feels so if your father–whether he lives with you or not–is a player in your Mom’s life, we need to see him.

I think of an example from my self portrait/daily life series. There is one pic where I’m not present at all, but my husband is. Interestingly, that is the one photo that most people pick out as their favorite and they always see it as part of my story. The URL is

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/101547620

Another way of bringing someone into the story is through the use of shadow or reflection. Here’s one of mine where I use that technique:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/101588625

Let me say this: we each start a photo project with an idea of who is the subject and what we want to say. But after awhile the body of work takes on a life of its own, and we need to be ready to follow where it is taking us. That was certainly true for Bob Black and his “Bones of Time,” and is true with my project as well.

You have started your project with the intention of having your Mom as the primary subject. Don’t be surprised if the focus shifts as time goes on. It might shift to your family as a whole, or even to yourself and your life. As artists we must be open to where we are led. It may not even be where we want to go. In fact we may really NOT want to go there, but go we must if we’re going to be true to ourselves.

Please let me know if I can be of any help as you proceed on this exciting path. You can either post entries here or contact me by email at croneart@comcast.net

I’m so glad you’re with us…

Patricia

ALEX C :)))

GOOD ADVICE FROM MS. PATRICIA :))))…a quick look at your series about your mom (looked 3 times)…my first thought was this: where is your relationship to this woman, this story…i mean, the pictures look lonely and this woman transmits isolation and struggle (which is most likely at the heart of the story you are telling)…but, those emotions and struggles and the consequences for her (and for you, if you wish to incorporate your own reltionship to this story) are not yet availabe to us visually…the only advice i can give you about how a story “works” or how to “get further into” a story is a simple one:

time time time…work work work…spend time with your mom MINDFUL AS A PHOTOGRAPHER, but dont shoot her…see her as a photographer covering but unable to shoot her, this will/can mix with your thoughts as the son…eventually, she and you will collide and open onto things you hadnt imagine, or more importantly, hadn’t “seen”….it’s amazing how much more you see when you start to “train” yourself to “see” and be patient…

the one rule for me is this:

A CAMERA DOES NOT TEACH OR SHOW US HOW TO SEE THINGS, WE MUST TEACH OURSELVES FIRST HOW TO SEE…

and then we use the camera…camera’s dont replace seeing or the expression of an emotiona or idea or moment, then only TRANSMIT :)))…

you’ve already have a great subject, now just be patient…give u an example:

the first day i was supposed to meet my son at the ROM (royal ontario museum) for the first day of shooting (i was just going to walk around with him, watching and talking to him, nothing pre-scripted, just simple), he NEVER SHOWED UP…he left me waiting for 3 hours in front of the museum…after buying 3 rolls of film and lugging 2 cameras and a camera bag around…at first i was scared (i dont have a cell phone) then i was pissed then i was confused (what should i do, wait, go home)…so i decided to just walk around and watch people, imagining i was with my son, i photographed people, parents, bones, animals…all trying to see the museum a new….but by then i had already learned to see mindfully…later, when i went back to the museum with him (2 more times) and with my students and alone, all was prepared: both what i wanted to find (hoped to find) and also what i was ready and open to discover….

it’s all about time and time spent talking and observing and thinking and LISTENING to her…and seeing, as Patricia says, not from the outside, but as a part…

hope that esoteric shit isn’t too pompous…

enjoy!
hugs
bob

HERVE ;)))))))))))))))))))))….

i dont think so…at least not yet ;))))))))))))))…

that’d be moi ;))))))))))

gotta run

see y’all soon

b

david m..
wanting to comment.. not wanting to put my foot in my mouth even more.. lol.
but.. the work of documentary photographers, war photographers, shooters during the great depression, etc.. are these photographers putting photography before politics, or getting right into the middle of things and outwardly saying the government/certain policies are wrong (and here is my photo why…)?
slippery slope.. am not advocating a blind eye or indifference.. but yeah..
photography forever! :-D

All,

Here is the link to the Bikes, Blues & BBQ event in Fayetteville, AR that I promised. Just for fun. I am going to post this link to a web page for this event so that the bikers can view them.

Hope you enjoy the fun; it is long (174 photos) and is not in any order except chronological.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27850900@N03/

I will catch up on comments now that this is done.

Lee

Panos,

Calm down babe. It is just a glitch in the system. It isn’t the end of the financial banking system.

Lee

Panos did I read you were coming to NY? I also thought I read you were already there. Confused. Would love to see you again and get to know you better in person.

Lee

Alicia-

I’m house sitting at a place that has good cable, so I kind of overdosed on news/talk this afternoon.

I’m probably a little more aloof than I indicated earlier, but no doubt the more politically motivated you are personally, the more it has the possibility of coming through your photography—especially if you’re shooting social issues. But I think photography itself has no political bias—there are good and average photographers on both sides.

I’m honestly not placing blame with my garage sale project, but observing a side effect of the mess we’re in. I don’t feel informed enough to assign responsibility, so let’s just pin it on the political monster for now. There are the usual suspects.

People having garage sales for economic reasons have all sorts of political opinions. Those employed tend to be decided in their vote. Those unemployed tend to have faith in neither party.

So it doesn’t surprise me that there’s a hugh lack of consumer confidence in this $700B so called bailout. The guy on the side of the road selling his stuff with his family hanging out in lawn chairs, who has already lost everything, doesn’t care if Wall Street is preserved—that’s why 40% of the dems and most of the conservatives voted against this bill. Their constituents are calling in 200 to 1 against it.

I bet they could restore consumer confidence though, if they worked on a bill that didn’t only preserve main street, but literally rebuilt it. Wouldn’t it make sense to pump that money into creating labor jobs that focus on our infrastructure, as a way really put money back into middle America? And at the same time prosecute and hold accountable the illegal practices right where Wall Street meets the political machine?

I saw that Eric!! :):)

Hey Lee;-)

NY… for photogs is what
LAS VEGAS is for strippers…

so… Yes, I have to admit…
I’m a stripper…
I love NY…

12:00am… or MIDNIGHT… or
MIDNITE….
Thursday night waking up Friday
morning I’m arriving….!

( whatever that means…;-)))) )

Again thank you Andrew , Anna and
of course… Who else…
THE USUAL SUSPECT
himself…
Mr David Alan Harvey……!!!!

Thank y’all!
Peace

Anton,
I also think that the money is the bad beginning, but I have already heard that a very great photographer (I do not remember to myself any more his name, would have I to look for him) had given a money to reach an African tribe what me gene more in your case, it is the real physical danger! But I am happy to abandon that you gave up for the moment…
also think that you have to continue Brigit who is a magnificent and personal subject, your 7-year-old niece if I do not make a mistake, Brigit, so brave and so smiling, her has many things to learn us…

Eric,
oui, j’ai bien reçu ton mail et je t’avais répondu, je viens de te renvoyer les images, j’espère que mon mail est bon… le bonjour à toute la famille!

Amitiés, audrey

Do we have a digital convert perhaps, Erica? Good for you. It is fun.

Anton,

As David said to me: “i am thinking your parents to be perhaps the best..first of all, photographing your parents cannot wait til later……you cannot take your parents for granted…..you should photograph them now…now is all we have…… you cannot find other parents.if your parents will let you really dig in and work, then i would say go with them for your essay….you have nothing to lose by trying….and the worst you will have is a nice family document…the best you can have will be a beautiful personal essay…”

Thank you David, thank you Anton and Aex, I would never have thought I could inspire one day somebody, I begin to believe in me!

ALEXANDER…

yes, you may bring beer….just do not spill any on my negatives!!

DAVID M..

fiscally conservative?? hmmmmm, weren’t we in the black (surplus, no war) with Clinton and aren’t we going down the drain w Bush???

Uh oh…..

I have always heard to not talk politics or religion in mixed groups like this….

But you are right DAH. All we had to worry about then was what he was doing under the desk. And who really cared?

Lee

DAVID:

got an email from Jason Eskenazi. i invited him to the Fiesta this friday. I left a note to the blog 2 week’s ago about Jason’s magisterial and brilliant book WONDERLAND:

http://www.amazon.com/Wonderland-Fairytale-Monolith-Jason-Eskenazi/dp/0974283673

IT IS AMAZING! :))))…

anyway, i dont know if you know Jason (marina and i will meet him for the first time at your party), but if not, i’ll introduce you…this man is a brilliant and poetic and important photographer….

see how far the love spreads :)))

see u soon

hubs
b

DAVID M…

yes, we could re-build main street and a whole bunch of other neighborhoods too, if we did not have the billions, which could have been used for this, going into a totally senseless war…it amazes me how those people sitting in their lawn chairs selling the family sofa will vote AGAINST their own self interest..

i cannot imagine how anyone who is making less that 1 million dollars per year could possibly vote Republican.. the Reps know how to push all the “right panic buttons” on the very people who get totally screwed by their own policies…

DAVID MCG:

the problem with the old “job creation” is that it’s just another political slogan, tossed back and forth by both arms of the corrupt body politic…the world has changed, and the problems are systemic to the american body politic and economic…

people need jobs (especially in the regions once prosperous from manufacturing, where you live, and which ironically makes up a great deal of Ontario too), but…

real help for these folk comes from a nation and a governing body (executive or congressional) that understands that to make jobs, the economy and the spending habits and the priorities of the nation and the people must change…

im neither (repub or demo)…though i’ve always voted either for democrats or independents…

but the mess the nation is in is more profound that even the polticians speak…you should see it from afar, once you’re living in another nation…

hugs
b

David

I didn’t say that the middle class doesn’t give a damn about Wall Street—my comment “The guy … who has already lost everything, doesn’t care if Wall Street is preserved” suggests that people who have bottomed out would prefer that those on top feel the pain as well, rather than this “golden parachute” as indicated by the overwhelming calls and emails congress is receiving.

DAVID MG,

This is a dilemna for a government, the problem coming from changing the spending habits of the people is that the people do not spend enough anymore => not good for the economy… However the way a government spends his money is a different story… Don’t worry about the 700B check, the US already have something like 70000000B debt :)

D A H

alexander C is one of my students here in norwayland.. he did some work inspired directly by patricia and audrey.. a new angle for the blog perhaps..

his work-in-progress link again – http://acfoto.no/mom/mom.html

anyway – it’s me he is hinting towards about beer in the darkroom.
i am teaching it next week and for fear of loosing my job i have to outlaw alcohol, potions and herbs which allegedly may, (or may not), on other occasions, (outside of collage hours), aid the printing process..

*i would not know*

although – i think everyone is better at playing pool after a few beers drinks.

so.. apologies.. no beer alex – despite the ‘main man’ harvey saying it’s cool-and-the-gang.
*smiley*
not yet, at least..

now..

i’m packing an overnight bag for hospital.. charging the camera btteries.. having a shave.. beate thinks i’ll be a father this weekend may be the weekend.. and she knows much better than i..

Lee

I don’t think political discussions, especially during an election year, have to be taboo—as long as they don’t turn into seeing who can spew the most clever rhetoric back and forth. I just hope I didn’t stereotype myself, because I’m quite happy with whatever party set us on the road to peace and prosperity.

I just fall on the side of low taxes and low spending, of which Bush has been a horrible example.

DAVID MCG :))

spending habits of both the governing and the governed could be improved…and that starts at home (the largess of most politicians on all sides of the aisle directed toward themselves and interests is just morally numbing…i know, i was a speech writer as my first gig, for some folk that were both senators and reps…my former boss is now office manager/stategist for Senator Jack Reed of RI, so i’ve seen gross evil on both sides)….

though, in truth, i dont mind government spending my money on the health, education and welfare of the nation’s people…

hard to go wrong when one follows those 8-fold steps…but alas im a dreamer…so i give up on politicans and prefer to do my small part locally, communally and with those i can help…

in truth, i dont trust anyone who aligns themselves with a party as a mantra…

people hurt for real and should not be used as fodder…which, alas, politicians do…

but, for the record, i have to say this adminsitration and the last 8 years has been the most corrupt and most deleterious …we have ourselves, each of us, to blame..

anyway…i dont judge others on their political pursuations or their economic/social theories:

action speaks to my heart :)))

cheers
bob

DAVID MG,

No I am not in the US, but it is a little bit the same here in Europe, people get more and more debts… And you know, if there is a crisis in the US, there are big chances that it will arrive here, sooner or later, this is called globalization… Most of the banks here invested in the sub primes and lost (and will more) a lot of money as well as the fundations taking care of our retirement… They loose money, increase the rates that we have to pay each month and start to play again, 5 years later they loose again and start for a new round… It seems that playing with other’s money is easy…

Regarding the election..
I almost think the rest of the world should get a vote in this election.
The US has such an enormous impact on the rest of the world and it’s sad to see how imcompetent leaders gets chosen in a clown election. It’s a f-in circus, that’s what it is.
I think that the world is starting to get really really tired of the US and how they act.
This is not a personal attack on anyone here.

Cheers

Oh geez Martin—let’s not start a one world government quite yet—or at least let’s hope it’s not founded in the US!!

AKAKY: Oh hell, politics has raised its ugly head.

AKAKY IRL: It always does. Why do you think I keep telling you not to bring it up?

AKAKY: It wasn’t my fault. Bob told everyone about the web site. I had to do something or everyone would think I was some creep from the FBI spying on them.

AKAKY IRL: Dude, the best way to make any given situation even worse than it is to try to do something about it. Go with the flow, grasshopper.

AKAKY: You’re channeling Kung Fu again.

AKAKY IRL: Damn right I am. Kung Fu was great. David Carradine would go into some benighted hick town and everyone there thought they had to do something about his being there when all he wanted to do was spout off fortune cookie wisdom and get some sleep. He didn’t want to do anything except go with the flow, but no, everyone else got their panties into such a tight twist about his being there that the only way he could get out of Podunk alive was to nonviolently beat the shit out of half the town. I’m telling you, guy, going down there is not a good idea. David M. brings up small government and more personal responsibility and they’re treating him like he suggested that the Army should use cute little kitty cats for target practice. You’re going to get eaten alive, bubba, no two ways about it.

AKAKY: All right, it’s official: I’m depressed.

AKAKY IRL: Me too.

AKAKY: Who are you kidding? You’re always depressed.

AKAKY IRL: Yeah, I know. It gives me something to do and keeps me off the streets.

AKAKY :))))

Master Po: [after easily defeating the boy in combat] Ha, ha, never assume because a man has no eyes he cannot see. Close your eyes. What do you hear?
Young Caine: I hear the water, I hear the birds.
Master Po: Do you hear your own heartbeat?
Young Caine: No.
Master Po: Do you hear the grasshopper that is at your feet?
Young Caine: [looking down and seeing the insect] Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Master Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?

sorry for outing you, but remember Oedipus ;))))))…but i stilllll loooooove uuuuuu! :))))))))…

DAVID MCG :))

yes, i wish the entire nation would re-consider how it lives/spends/treats others and treats the world…but im not holding my breath…..

will be sending my ballot next week….even living in canada, i still vote!!!

running
b

However I do appreciate that we haven’t been attacked again.

Herve… Whaat? ???
You prefer Dalai Lama ???
Instead of George W.B????
You crazy??

Then Paolo pellegrin would
Have no Quantanamo prisons
to photograph.. Paolo would starve!!!

And how about Abu Graib torture
chambers beautiful photos ??? All those emerging
Photojournalists/ marines…
They should also apply for EPF
next year…. Who can top of
Their photo work???
Especially the one in color..
Intimate photos, almost sexy but classy..
Thank you George we are all proud…
Emerging phitographers everywhere in
our army…

Herve — LOL — Yes..
Knowing a number of folks from the UK, and having talked politics amongst them, we never would have ended up with the two candidates we have now had the rest of the world been allowed to vote and steer the election process.
It is becoming harder and harder to feel truly represented in our Dem vs Rep system, and tends to make those of us ‘somewhere in the middle’ seem like we are on the fence, or lacking in knowledge to make a firm decision on one side or the other.
However, Akaky, IRL and David McG from last night — Photography before politics for the win?

ooh.. panos..
interesting you should mention.. there was just a documentary on abu ghraib yesterday.
scary scary scary stuff..
and the photos.. :-?

LADIES and GENTLEMEN, BOYS and GIRLS, CITIZENS and NON-CITIZENS, BLOGGERS and LURKERS, and EVEN PANOS…

Five weeks to go before the US election and already this forum is deteriorating into a political vent-fest?? To all your apparent needs to express yourselves on topics political, I say “Basta!” “Genug!” “C’est suffit!” もうたくさん！곧충분하지!太过了！
Some of us who live in or near Canada are also being forced to listen to the inanities of their national election as well.
I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from exercising their freedom of speech or rights (and duties!) as a citizen… but on this particluar forum, is that really the most appropriate or constructive, or mutually supportive, discourse? Aren’t there more than enough other places, other venues, other internet sites where you can vent your political spleen to your heart’s content? I thought we agreed that this site is preciously different. Wouldn’t somebody really rather talk about photography?

sorry…
Did I say pinholes???
I meant to say BROOMSTICKS…

but Sidney;-)
Politics is the way to see the world..
Is photography…
How can you photograph the real
Quantanamo ( pellegrin) if you don’t
see the truth and the torture??
How can you be honest ( photographically)
if you agree?? Who is going to
Expose the Chinese atrocities in Tibet??
A Chinese photog that belongs and work
with their government .. or a foreigner???
( third unbiased eye..??)

do you believe that
a republican photographer would ever expose
atrocities from this government ???or hide them???
Would a republican photog.. Even
realizes what happened ( and still happening )in Quantanamo??
Or do they think that’s another regular
county jail????
Please people visit the magnum
Website and check Paolo Pellegrins
PODCAST.. Hear it , not just see it,
but hear it..
Please

panos —
again back to comments of yesterday — there are good photographers on both sides of the fence who aren’t afraid to show the world when something is wrong with the system.. republican, democratic or otherwise.. in this wide wide world?
highlight their works when we can, even if that photographer happens to be you.. ;-)

ALL

Two photography competitions of interest to us:
………………………………………………………………………

1. 2008 Raymond Weil International Photography Prize

http://www.raymondweil.ch/club/Templates/RWCLUB/RWCLUB1/layout.asp?MenuID=877

–Submission dates: upload 3 photos between 01 October 2008 until 01 December 2008, 11h00 GMT.

This third edition is open to all photographers (professionals and amateurs) members of the RW Club who wish to use photography as a mean of artistic expression. There is no entry fee to enter the competition.

Theme: Independence

There will be two awards:
– The RW Club International Photography Prize
– The RW Club members’ special award

The RW Club International Photography Prize will be awarded by the jury:

– US $ 15,000
– Exhibit in the Aperture Gallery – New York City
– Exhibition on the RAYMOND WEIL’s booth during BASELWORLD 2009 / The World’s Leading Watch & Jewellery Show
– Exclusive interview with the international press
– Entire webpage

The RW Club members’ special award:

This prize will be awarded by the RW Club members after the first selection made by the jury. The vote will be available online from the 19 December 2008 to 19 January 2009, 11:00 GMT. A member can vote only once for her/his favourite artist.

– Entire webpage
– Exhibition of the awarded picture on the RAYMOND WEIL’s booth during BASELWORLD 2009 / The World’s Leading Watch & Jewellery Show
– RAYMOND WEIL will support the artist by communicating the artist information to the press, professionals or potential clients.

**You can register online to become a RW Member. There is no cost or obligation.
………………………………………………………………

The National Geographic International Photography Contest

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/photo-contest/photo-contest

Who May Enter

The Contest is open only to those individuals who have been selected as First Place winners in the local National Geographic International Photo Contests conducted by National Geographic publishers in various countries around the world during the period from August 1, 2008, through October 31, 2008 (“Local Contests”). For a list of participating local contests, visit http://www.ngphotocontest.com. CONTEST IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Panos

I think if someone is going to call themselves a “Republican Photographer” or a “Democrat Photographer” they’re going to favor their party, but I don’t hear a lot of photographers doing that. Regardless of party affiliation, if one has any inherit honesty, they will simply take account of the issue that exists. I’d be happy to expose atrocities in either party, given the opportunity, because such things benefit no one.

David McG,
I agree…
It’s all in the INNER human
being.. The sense of being fair..
The sense of good karma
( but not fear of god).. or fear of punishment..
The need to be honest ..
You can be embedded with any side
of the fence and still be honest..
and I agree with you..
We need less government..
Less KRATOS…

ALL

I found it was a pain to read this blog, so as i am a software developper, i work since one week on this thing:

http://jnss.x10hosting.com/dah_reader/main.php

designed to make blog reading easier.
Please tell me what you think ;-)

peace

“i’m packing an overnight bag for hospital.. charging the camera batteries.. having a shave.. beate thinks i’ll be a father this weekend may be the weekend.. and she knows much better than i..”

Of all the back-and-forth postings about politics today what excites me the most is the above quote from David Bowen. Could it be that baby boy is going “drop in” on DAH’s Slideshow fiesta weekend??? Wouldn’t that be a kick!!!

Know you three are being held in good birthing energy…

with love from
Patricia

DAH

Back for a moment to the topic of archiving and the need to make prints… Could you tell us exactly what you are doing these days in the way of making archival prints… what process? What kind of paper stock? What SIZE? And how do you store them? This may have been covered some months ago, but I missed it if it was… Very curious what you (and others) are doing… When you get a moment free!

Well that’s why I mentioned iChat video, which would just be turning a laptop with a built in iSight to the slideshow and linking to the account. The quality wouldn’t be that great, though.

Safe travels Bob. Don’t forget to chat up the book!

DMcG

I mentinoed live feed on the last thread – seems everyoen wants it….Skype would be easy but doesn’t allow multiple views to view the feed…AIM or Yahoo chat would work, but we need to pick one (if that way) so everyoen can make sure they have an account to view….

Not familiar with iChat…can multiple people view the feed? can people on the viewing end send feeds back (so those at the fiesta can see those of us who aren’t there?)

There’s gotta be a way!!

A.

well, maybe it wasn’t eaten after all….

:D

Andrew

iChat is what Apple uses to chat through AIM. I think it can handle multiple viewers, but that’s about all I know.

Ryan
Says that there is a way..
Using the iChat
Theater presentation feature..
But it requires everyone to have
an iChat or Gmail account..!??
Ok.. Now I’m lost..
Let me call Ryan again…!

.. The only requirement is that the
Laptop should have installed the latest
Flash player update…..!

Thanks Panos!

Thank must mean that a link to the video feed will be provided?

David,
Exactly.. We will provide one link
Only.. Just click and watch..
Brilliant!

imagine if we beat SUPERBOWL..
That means that next year we can
Have Janet Jackson and Justin
Timberlake to perform in the Fiesta break..
We can even have PEPSI or GM sponsor
us…
Or how about a commercial for the
Marines.!why not????
ALL., rich lurkers out there!!
WE NEED SUPPORT!( financial support)…
WE HAVE THE BEST BLOG OUT THERE!!!
And we will get even better..
With live shows..
Radio and now TV… Yes live UNCENSORED TV…
but we need support..
Help us out…
YOU WONT REGRET IT
peace

Herve, just show up,
and I started to feel all alone…!

DINNER PLANS PRE FIESTA

A group of us are meeting for dinner at 6pm Friday, Oct. 3rd, at a Japanese restaurant in Park Slope before heading over to David’s Fiesta and slideshow. Would love to see you there, please give a rsvp with me (erica at ericamcdonaldphoto.com) if you are planning on coming.

Mura is at 369 5th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 965-1288

JEAN

your forum template looks like a good idea.. simple to find what is needed.. would it run alongside the blog or would it need to be integrated?

BOB and PATRICIA and DAVID MC and ANTON

it’s amazing how the warmth of relative strangers is just as nurturing as the warmth of a long time friend.. thanks for the wishes.. passed on to beate.. exciting times..

NEW YORK MSSV

have FUN.. hope everything goes smoothly.. will check for any kind of video link here.. and of course post live on the blog if i can see it .. talk about the EPF and book.. see what could work out.. great..
enjoy
enjoy
enjoy

REGARDING U>S> POLITICS

colonialism fails in time, all empires have crumbled.. good luck to you, and get out and vote.

DAVID B.
thanks for your feedback! I hope darkroom teaching is ok for you!!!

It will be a good thing if my system was integrated to the blog; but i think typepad is not ok, so for the moment it will run alongside (i have made an update system which is quite easy, just click on the button ;-)

NEIL
Thank for looking my reader! I made some modifications, tell me what you think…

here is JEANS link again for those who may have missed it.
http://jnss.x10hosting.com/dah_reader/main.php

DAVID B.
thank you!
I have nothing to do to keep it running. When someone clicks on update, the comments of the selected David’s post are updated (for everybody, in a database).
The only thing i have to do is filling a form when David makes a new entry, to make it appear in the “SUBJECT” list.

NEIL
for the moment, i only added “sunday morning ramble”, as it was current post, but the next posts will be added as David adds them…

JOAN
;-) yes, new David’s post will appear, no problemo!!!

JEAN-
That is absolutely brilliant…

thank you!

anna

here is something interesting for those that think a world vote would be interesting..
HERE IT IS>>

go-bama

http://www.youcantfixthis.com/

http://www.youcantfixthis.com/
——————————-

They “forgot” Nader…

arrived in Ontario airport..
In LA.. Going to Arizona in an hour..
Transfer to JFK…
Eating a carne asada burrito…
To be continued …

Anna M B Jester…
I will call you from Andrew’s car..
Can’t wait to hear your voice again..
You make me laugh!!!
Can’t beat that…!

I wish I could bring some LA Chronic
With me.. I called that airlines..
They said it’s prohibited..
Even if you have a valid marijuana licence..!!???
What the fuck.. I’m not allowed to bring my
meds with me???? Not fair…
Why the guy with his tylenols and
all those weird medications is free to do
whatever he wants but I’m not allowed
to smoke a little Mary Jane In the airplane..
That’s super fucked up and unfair..
I think.. Fuck it ..
Another BLOODY MARY please..
It’s only 11am.. and still sober..
Is AA ( alcoholic anonymous) behind all this airport fiasco???

Lil Wayne on my earphones…
” … drinking hot tea bitch…
Please don’t shoot me Down..
COZ I’m high up.. I’m flying…”
Peace

AKAKY

Here I thought all along that this Dad-Son thing between you and Bob Black was all a put-on, but after looking at your photos, now I see the close family resemblance. Love the skull…

more useful info…
I’m in phoenix .., just ordered a BASS..
( this one for Anton)…
Still sober..,! Hmmm one of these days…

ok.. I’m about to board..
Flight 16 to NY…
Too drunk to fly this airplane..
but I’ll do my best..!

love you Lee…
They let me in…seat 22C…
I’m scared of heights , airplanes ,
Bin Ladens, etc…
They understand.. They are very
sympathetic…
I see what you mean though…!

panos I sent you a photo

but at least we know the photos would be good.. ;)

ERICA DEAR,

It’s also pronounced “Bay-jing” (Beijing), not “Bay-zzhing”, as I’ve been trying to teach NPR and the CBC for the last 10 years (without much luck).

I think by now the word “New-cue-lurrh” is almost of a badge of honor, and certainly a badge of solidarity, among a whole class of Americans who deliberately pronounce it that way just to thumb their noses at cosmopolitan elitists like you and me. These people know who their base is…

We’re here, we’re here! Brooklyn, NY! Too cool for words. Love our hotel, love the neighborhood, and can’t wait till tomorrow (Friday). Only one pic today but here it is

http://www.pbase.com/image/103998888

Lots more to come tomorrow. I promise…

Patricia

test

http://www.xdrtb.org/photographs.php

now there is a NatGeo lecture going on…
Then critique…. Of the work..,
I will jump in..
I just met K.Lee…
Hang a Buddha photo on the wall..
Amazing..
I slept next to the printer last night..
Printing all night long…
David was sleeping few feet away..
He doesn’t snore.. But even if he did ,
who cares, because the printer was..
I woke up this morning in a sea of photos…

Akaky,
I’m sending ANNA B photos to post..
Hang on..

Like I said, I could’ve done worse than to spend my last night in NYC at David Alan Harvey’s place- on rollerskates, no less! Don’t forget to send me the photos- and the limited edition prints, of course. I’ll let you know when I get an address in Prague.

xx
A.

Noon…NYC..
The editing continue…
From the 10 students…
We are done half a way…!

K.Lee’s … Photos..
Sickening…!
I wish SIDNEY was here…
Translator.. Please..
No English and we all have so many
Questions..!!!

AKAKY: So?

AKAKY IRL: No.

AKAKY: Why not?

AKAKY IRL: Because.

AKAKY: That’s not a reason.

AKAKY IRL: It works for me.

AKAKY: Everyone else is.

AKAKY IRL: If everyone else jumped off the bridge, does that mean I have to jump off the bridge too?

AKAKY: That’s not really germane, is it? We’re not talking about doing something life-threateningly stupid here, just going down to the city.

AKAKY IRL: It was the best excuse I could think of on such short notice.

AKAKY: I thought so. So you’re going to concede my point then?

AKAKY IRL: Which point is that? There were a lot of them as the cars went zipping by.

AKAKY: That there is no real reason, other than your usual stick stuck firmly in the mud attitude about going anywhere, for not going to the kibbutz.

AKAKY IRL: You know, that’s a valid point; I hadnt thought of that before. There is a certain bias in favor of the familiar around here.

AKAKY: Tell me about it. And you know that travel and new experiences broaden the horizons and expand the mind, or so I am told.

AKAKY IRL: That’s what I hear too.

AKAKY: So then you agree that going to Brooklyn would be a positive experience that we would benefit from enormously.

AKAKY IRL: Yes, I do.

AKAKY: So, can we go?

AKAKY IRL: No.

AKAKY: Why not?

AKAKY IRL: Because.

AKAKY: Oh, for crying out loud, why do I even bother?

AKAKY IRL: Beats the hell out of me, guy.

AKAKY,
Fucking , come over..
Leave IRL at home..
Or even better shoot him…!;-)

AKAKY IRL: You mean, he has the car keys.

AKAKY: Yeah yeah yeah, that’s what I meant.

AKAKY IRL: It’s just as easy to get these things right as they are to get them wrong, you know.

AKAKY: Oh, go pound salt.

JEAN-
Not a stupid question at all…basically it took a while. I had to get to know a few people in each community, spend time there, etc. I’m not sure anyone ever understood WHY I wanted to photograph them, but so it goes. In some ways the access was easy, found a few people, found some more, but it was also a lot of leg work, over several months in Nicaragua. And it’s still not done! For me it always starts by getting yourself there, then finding someone you connect with. I won’t say there weren’t issues…I am not evangelical, and I did sit through many conversations about why not….hope that helps. If you have more specific questions feel free to email me!

ALL

It’s 4 pm here in Brooklyn and my friend Pat is taking a nap, which is where I should be too. But first I wanted to share just one of the 150 pics I took today on Brooklyn’s streets. What an amazing place this is! Interesting people everywhere you look. Much more diverse and a trillion times more real than Manhattan. I love it! Here’s a link to my favorite photo of the day…so far that is. Meet Sergeo the barber

http://www.pbase.com/image/104024365

And now for a little nap before the BIG NIGHT…

Patricia

in another limo , this time with DIEGO..
cute Italiano … From the real Venice,
Not My Venice…
Just got 24 cases of beer…
Need to carry them to 6th floor..
Any help???

The photos are hanging at the wall…
The slideshows almost ready..
Beer is here..
Almost ready..
Waiting for YOU to show up!
;-)

ALL.

Just walked in the door…from FIVE DAYS IN TEXAS. Could be the name of a movie…it would have to be a horror movie though. :((

Glad to see politics being discussed here. Let me add this…

Don’t know about Lance or any others here who may live in Texas but I would highly recommend that Akaky or any who are of the Republican persuasion to go there immediately. It is your mecca.

FOX news RULES there!!! And let’s not forget about “Christian values” but…where is the tolerance? We could not get CNN turned on in any hotel, bar, restaurant…public place. Evidently all TV other than Fox news is banned in Texas. YUCK big time!!!

Happy to be home. LET’S PARTY Y’ALL :))

David McG..
Bummer… All the speakers want to
Speak uncencored ..
I didn’t take the ok for “free”.. Transmission..
Paul Fusco is speaking right now…
I was ready… But… The people here are more
famous than I thought …
Bottomline…
I do not have permission..
Sorry.. Nothing I can do at this point..

patricia…
Photographed me extensively..
She made me feel like a super model..
Pat is great..

KATHARINA…
Yes , bob & marina..
Are right here next to me!!!
Ready to smoke..

BaRock Star fans—here’s another party you might be interested in:

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

david MC

that man just looks like a good man.. good vibes.. not a trace of the narrowed, dull and cynical eyes politicians practice..
some great snaps.. hope you’re selling a couple.

14 stuck me.. love the disjointed arm with the camera..

Thanks David B, but what the word from Camp Bowen and your exciting few days?

DMC

no word as yet.. aches and pains and no definite signal..

:o/

soon enough all hell will break loose i’m sure
:o)

SIDNEY / ALL

Just waking up..wonderful bouyant evening and a very late night..will write SOON, I took lots of notes :)

Bob and Marina are already out at the galleries..

I finally met sweet Panos

Patricia took lots of pictures

PANOS

AM home for now..making pancakes with peaches..

What’s the schedule for the day? I want to stop by later..

more…. more… please… anxious to read…

:))

“and finally there was a hush….”

A cliffhanger! Erica, you are good at this.

PART 2

(had my pancakes, with fresh raspberries and maple syrup, again, all my apologies for any errors in words actually said by anyone being represented here.)

DAVID opens with..

“This may be my last workshop at home here in my loft..”

“I’d like to introduce PAUL FUSCO, a gentleman and a great photographer, and I don’t know in which order to say that. I can describe him in one word..he’s a humanist.”

DAH gives PAUL a big deep hug..

PAUL..

“My voice is leaving me..”

(and indeed he spoke in a whisper)

I want to explain a little to put in to context what I am showing you..what is important is the photographs, what is REALLY important is the people in the photographs, because they are living their lives affected by the 1986 fallout from the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl. The experts say this problem will remain for 2,400 years. Chernobyl had LOTS of victims, people who were living peacefully when tons of radiation, caught up in by a storm system over Europe that picked up all this stuff, was moving toward Moscow..The higher ups chose to seed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding) the cloud system and 90% of the radioactive particles fell on Belarus, though they had ZERO to do with it.

The effects didn’t go away..everyone eats it in their food, drinks it in their water..The areas were condemned but the people didn’t trust their country, they thought the government was trying to steal their land, and they were happy to move back, to grow their own food.

I photographed one man who told me “You get strong, it doesn’t affect us..” (And you could see the pain that this man’s naive and hopeful thought caused Paul, just remembering it..)

(The photos start..we see a building in black and white, It’s Reactor number 4 of the Lenin station, I think)

It’s covered in a shield of lead and steel, the building filled with leaking radioactive material, in a rotting abandoned city filled with poisonous radiation.

(we see heart ripping stunning grainy grays of imagery, bathed in telling light, the slight framed man wit his tired compassionate eyes and weak voice doing his best to make us understand..we see a photo of a man..)

The man told me “I fell unconscious when a cloud of black smoke covered the moon. I woke up the next day in a hospital.”

(Paul tells us of a man photographed who chose to return to the contaminated areas who is a strong man, someone who thinks of himself as someone beat the system. He is self-sufficient, grows his own food, so everything is radiated. We see a photo of a fisherman among his polluted fish, head down. We see another image of a man who worked to clean up “the mess” who has lost his leg because of it.”)

They saw their houses being taken by by trucks down to the Black Sea, being resold..they thought this must be a lie that they were all radiated if the houses were being resold, everything must be okay, it must be safe to go back. Nothing works in these villages. The river is loaded with radiation. (We see a photo of two men poetically dipping into the river, with other worldly light falling on their car parked on the bank.)

(must take a break..more to come..)

PART 3

PAUL

The government is small, the government is poor, but they do take care of their people. The poor parents give their kids to the state. (we see children drastically and permanently affected by the disaster, living in an institution)

Now, for the kids who ARE very…(Paul seems at a loss for the right way to say this)..who LIVE very difficult lives because of the radiation..these kids are helpless. They are kept clean, they are fed, but they are just breathing little robots. They crawl, they slither, they roll, but they don’t walk..At the age of 20 they go to the insane asylum .

There is an incredible commitment of the nurses working very .. to me, it seems hopeless..

(and we see an absolutely unbelievable image of 2 children..and then we see gorgeous emotional tearful light falling on the head of a 10 year old victim, who Paul said was devastated when she first came to the institution, that she cried all the time, who now welcomes the new children, telling them it’s going to be better..We see a 3 year old with a tumor as large as the child himself growing from his lower back, the child is sitting on a table, completely encumbered by this behemoth..Paul starts to explain the photo, stops, and then looks back at the image of the boy as if he is looking for an answer of how to do this..)

The doctors had no plan to operate. They didn’t know what to do. They thought his kidneys were in there, in the tumor. The nurse said that she sometimes thinks she loves these children more than her own children.

(We see an image of a woman with a child, a single strong tear running down her face. Paul said this was the first time he saw a parent at an institution.)

There is no evidence that the daughter is aware of who the mother is. Everyday she comes and everyday she leaves knowing she doesn’t really have a daughter.

NEXT.

(We see a boy he had photographed earlier, now in worse condition.)

That’s him, again. While I was photographing the interpreter told me a story about a friend of this boy. The friend had asked, “Why am I dying?” (The answer to the child from a nurse?, which Paul now yells, his whisper gone for one moment) “Because of Chernobyl, what else could it be?” (And this story was told in front of the boy we see on the screen now..) I think she’s telling this boy he’s going to die, and I think he already knows..

(We see a photo of a child from a more affluent background who had played in the black rain all day..then the girl is in the hospital..)

This girl has had care all over the world. She said, I don’t want to be photographed in my hospital clothes. Fine, I don’t do anything people don’t want, so I arranged to photograph her the next day in her own clothing. During the night, she got very sick, she was in a coma, she was dying.

(We see the photo of the girl in the coma..Paul had asked the mother if he could photograph, and the answer was “Yes, I want everyone to see what they’ve done.”)

It was a terrible day. The mother cried over and over “Daughter, daughter, don’t die, don’t leave..daughter, daughter, don’t die, my love, my light..”

(We see sequential shots of a mother’s abject anguish, undesirable except for the photos and images themselves..)

(The slideshow from Paul is over now, DAH salutes Paul with big wide applause, starring the man in the eyes..)

DAH

You’ve probably already figured out it is going to be a very special night.

(And a man who I believe is Ruckus from DAH’s Hip Hop work Living Proof, gives up his seat to Paul, and says “You put a lot of work into that, and touched my heart.”

(Taking a break..)

TYPO

certainly NOT undesirable, I meant indescribable..

erica–

you simply rock. :))

all–

many of the photos that erica is describing can be seen on paul fusco’s website here:

http://paulfuscophoto.com/

under ‘chernobyl legacy’.
incredibly powerful, heart-ripping work.

Go/See MAGNUM in Motion . . .
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl three essays by Paul Fusco.
Erica, thank you for your report.-
Reading your comments and hearing Paul’s voice
together with his images make it even for those of us “at home” a very special event.

Gerhard

PART 4

DAH

In my workshops I try to impart (access to one’s own) authorship, and caring about something or THINKING about something, or at least looking in the mirror. Tonite there are 2 photographers speaking, both are in Magnum, one for a long time, one new, and they represent diversity.

I’ll tell you this Alessandra, On the Sixth Day is my favorite new book.

(Alessandra stays in the middle of the room, by the projector, instead of coming up front..her voice is small and laced with an Argentinean accent)

ALESSANDRA

I am going to show some videos I took while doing a story on farm animals, when I met Guille and Beli. I met the girls when they were very little, but they were 9 and 10 when I paid attention to them. It was their voices that attracted me to them, it wasn’t visual, it wasn’t an idea of a project. I just enjoyed being with them. Since I was 9, whenever I enjoyed something or was afraid of something, I photographed it.

(We see a homemade video, the quality of which Alessandra is apologizing for, saying she never meant for these to be used for anything..)

The girls at 10 are talking in Spanish, I asked them to imagine what your life would be like at my age, at the time that was 30 years.

I filmed many many hours, not to make a video or a documentary, but because I needed to. It made me think and it also set them (the girls) free a lot. They had a privileged childhood; they were healthy, they were free, and they were loved.

(Guille and Beli at this age are unabashedly genuine, they reveal to Alessandra’s lens a range of best friends forever type of intimacies and glimpses of the adults they will become, encapsulated in their magical but transient childhoods. We see them role playing, dressing up, acting in dramatized ways that show this transition into women, we see intimacy and play, we see the girls own pleasure with themselves and their performances.

BELI

I dreamed I was a princess, and I married a prince, and I had a lot of jewels..

GUILLE

It scares me to have a boyfriend..that he leaves me. I am abandoned..nothing more.

(Guille is in her underwear, comfortable in her flesh despite her fullness, and is singing a wonderful full throated song. Beli is wearing just her underwear bottoms which reveal her tiny frame; she is sporting a painted moustache, and she is dancing some sort of flamencoesque gyrations..the footage is TOO GOOD, too amazing in the sense that it could not be conceived, it has been realized because Alessandra had followed her heart and her life into this rich reality, and it made me think about how DAH is talking always of making your life and your photos ONE…the girls are dancing now a coupled dance, and are staring intensely into Alessandra’s camera..this is a good image, but more so a powerful acknowledgement of the connection between Alessandra and the girls, I look behind me to see if I can see this recognition of the moment now in Alessandra’s eyes..and i see patricia, beaming in the the lamp light of the projector..)

(MUST go enjoy the day for a bit..more to come..)

Order a caiperenia for me Panos

ERIC V..
The great French film maker..
Is presenting…

His new work!!!
James N… David… Bob.. All…
Is watching!