David

And what about your “women” book? Do you still work on??
you are good writer, I suppose, because I am not good in enlish, You know…

I photograph what’s around me, which has its good and bad points, as almost everything does. I dont get a lot of people shots; unlike photogs in the city, I dont have an always convenient crowd to disappear into when I fire the camera, but on the whole, it’s not such a bad place, as places go.

DAH

I love that the sneak peeks are starting to come to the surface. The Colorado snaps are great. I needed a creative boost today!

Are you mostly/only shooting film for Off For A Family Drive?

I think the key aspect missing from your balance question is whether these photos “pay the bills”. If not… I take snaps from a camera that only leaves my shoulder to be place bedside, till morn. There aren’t too many rules, from the “street”… sans the airport… of course.

Happy swimmin’!

I posted this on the other thread here it is again:

I took these a few hours ago, I just felt like sharing:

http://tinyurl.com/55m73b

Ok. Morpheus is calling me.
I want get up early tomorrow.
Kepp going my friends, keep going…

peace

Firstly… Cheers guys! (Ana, Patricia, David, Ari, Anton Good to be back)

yes ANA! Perhpas by Perps next year SOMETHING may have sunk in! (I really hope so!)

DAVID. Yes, will be in touch… Loved family analogy btw. Oh, and Matt “always being out there”, you mean like that weired feeling when you are being watched? Is that Matt…!? ;)

(Hope your´re doing well Mat “The Butcher”)

Hey ANTON, Jess is fine thanks! And far better at Spanish than me!!! (grrrr)

ARI. Yes you are right about some music, it was sort of always a plan, but never got around to it, these recent projects have been produced on the fly so time and resorces have been a little limited. I´m also unsure as to how to deal with copyright issues for music. I guess some royality free music is the obvious choice.

BOB I realized i missed the premier of Bones!! I have been looking forward to seeing it for a long time. Do you have a link? Or can wait until the DDR links go up I guess…

Katharina. Couldn´t belive it when I read it has almost been a year since BKK!! My god things have gone fast. Scarey!!

As for the post question… A little difficult to answer really as this year has been rather unique. But the reason for doing this extended travel and multiple projects was to get in touch with stories and work that I am passionate about and push in these areas.

Before leaving in April most of my work was “obligatory shooting” It was rare that I would get a shoot that I REALLY enjoyed or was passionate about, mostly day-to-day stuff you know. Please know i´m not knocking that, it is absolutely necessary and i´m grateful to be able to do this at all, but i felt I was getting bogged down and that if I was ever going to work in areas that interest me more, now was the time to break away and do it! So made the jump…

Good idea, bad idea I dunno, There have been sacrifices with shooting multiple short projects, but it has been a great experience and I am glad to have extended my portfolio. I just hope that this proves useful in the next year.

So I guess in a nutshell it would be wonderful to work professionaly only shooting the things I love, but this is a real privilage. A happy balance is the key to life. So i´m more than happy for that!

Cheers!

James

David
Online I prefer Karim… I think¿
On topic… I shoot for a portrait studio everyday with the total opposite creative flavor that I love… I think it helps to show what I don’t want to be in a few years. I’ll post examples… When I was hired I thought I could bring my style too. BIG MISTAKE l!! I’ve given up on them and try to move in a seperate direction more each day.

Marcin
Witaj… Please judge me on any basis you see fit. Thank you for looking.

Sorry guys totally off-topic but have you tried slydial? Call anyones cell voicemail directly!!

James

One year since BKK (hard to believe!) , and three Matt’s to contend with in that group, it’s easy to get us mixed up. There is only one “Butcher” and he’s kickin around Tasmania. Always good for a laugh and a beer he was.

Good to see how busy you’ve been this past year. Best to you!

Ah shit! my bad Matt (Holloway) I was confused as “The Butcher” posted just one or two before davids responce… nice to hear from you though! What you working on these days?

james

To answer David’s question, I feel very fortunate to be in a position to take whatever photos I want. I do the occasional commission, but generally speaking they are what I’d want to be photographing anyway.

The only job I almost died doing was last March. I took 3 days of location shots here in Detroit for an Oscar award-winning Los Angeles documentary film producer. The pay was low, the pressure EXTREMELY stressful, and the work uncreative as hell. But I learned a lot, mainly not to accept such a job again! The assistant producer I dealt with was very nice, but she was caught between naive, perfectionistic me and her deadline-obsessed boss. They’d predicted the job would take about 5 hours, and it probably would have for a photographer experienced in taking location shots, but for me? 30 hours in the field & on the computer! But, hey, my name will be in the credits for what they’re expecting to be a blockbuster documentary. Check out

http://www.nme.com/news/the-white-stripes/39041

Patricia

Speaking of Shark shore feedings..when I was in college I was dating a windsurfer, and we left NYC very very early one morning to be on the beach in Montauk before the sunrise. As he was setting up his stuff, I went for a walk to the other end of the beach..as the sun was rising, I ran into the ocean with abandon and swam out as far as I could. The water tasted very odd, but the moment was too good to care, and then suddenly I was caught in a whirlpool and the more I tried to get out, the more I was pulled down..I really thought I was going to die, getting weaker and feeling helpless, gulping this disgusting water. I prayed, I surrendered, went limp and it was exactly the right move, the whirlpool rejected me and swirled me out.

As I was swimming back to shore, I saw an old man frantically waving to me..finally I could hear his shouts, and when I was on shore he told me that I was in ‘dead man’s pit’…no kidding..after awhile I asked why the water tasted as it did, he said he was shocked I didn’t notice the color, it was blood, the water was heavily bated for a shark hunt that morning..so it seems that my number could have been up on a couple of counts that day..but thankfully, that wasn’t in the cards.

DAH, be safe out there, and have a swim for us..

more on topic later..

Still struggling to find the time to make pictures of “meaningful things”. I spend most of my weeks shooting real estate to pay the bills and occasional weekends shooting for local papers. But at some point I have to spend time with my fiancé, no?
So I pick and choose, and there are moments where I drop it all in the office and sit and read or watch tv and stop trying to figure how to fit it all in.
Any meaningful pictures are done on my own dime and during my time off. Sustained effort on this part can yield exhaustion and/or neglect of my better half.
I think I just need to get better at finding work that pays more, so I have more time to shoot for myself. Working too hard for not enough scratch is tiring and frustrating.

DAVID,

i just got home tonight to many changes i see … i really do hope you will look me up if you are up this way and of course if there is anything i can do to help with logistics, etc., i would be honored. You have friends in Seattle and surrounds … i’d love to meet Katia too, i think i may have already met some of her kids :))

“my take,” yes well, i did get a chuckle out of that.

tom

It took well over an hour for the Loft Workshop 2 movie to download on my piggy-backed sureptitious wireless connection, but yes, when I finally got to see the slide show (using Firefox), it was worth the wait. Quite stunning work, as others have mentioned before me, but I was particularly bowled over by the incredibly layered and textured dream images of Kyunghee Lee’s, which capture for me the essence of the New York experience as few others have.

Karim

Yes, show some examples you are talking about.
You work for portrait studio, so you know that your portraits are good. I was thinking you learn in some photo school.
Panos is right. I like unexpected little dark pictures. But I don’t do unexpected pictures myself, so I can’t be any judge. I like many kind of photography and I don’t think if pictures are not dark it’s mean i dont like it. I think you hide some other photography.
But for me pictures you show are just good.

what you mean “recording your voice as you caption your photos?” ??

Patricia

I really mean if you will be ready print some little book I wish to buy one. So keep working and don’t forget print one for me.

peace

Photographers do always seem to attract beautiful women and David is no exception. Has anyone else been to Perpignan?! There are all these famous photojournalists around with women in tow and one wonders if these are their assistants or are they photographers themselves. . . where did they all come from?!

JEREMY

Its interesting you felt so disconnected from the people of the First Nations… Them being Indigenous to America and you living ‘amongst ranch lands and pickup trucks’ gives me a few clues as to why you would feel that way…

It does show in the images as well, sorry but its often the way with people in Australia with Aboriginal people too. In fact I know how closely connected the First Nations are to Aboriginal people and I know what people just don’t get is that Ceremony is Culture and Religion and Family and Land and Life all wrapped into one.

David Suzuki said

“Aboriginal people are key because they have a different sense of where we belong and how we interact with nature”

In lots of instances with loads of different cultures and situations I think you can get away with being a casual observer and just take nicely composed images, but with Indigenous people it HAS to be much more than that….

If you have ever seen a ‘corroboree’ its not just like a religious or ceremonial event, its an experience that doesn’t really have a whole lot of logic attached to it, it really takes you places that you can’t see, you just have to feel and if you don’t feel then you haven’t learnt and if you haven’t learnt- well in some parts of Australia you could easily get eaten by a big old crocodile.

Now this possibly sounds totally scrambled but I know that Aboriginal people just KNOW….Its very difficult to photograph Indigenous people because the response you get is totally a reflection of what is going on inside yourself, you can’t have any lingering fears that you may end up with a spear in the leg.

In Australia there is this big lie that has been circulated ever since white invasion that if you take photographs of Aborigines that they will think that you are stealing their soul. What a load of crap.

What that is about over here is the fact that if you don’t have evidence then you can say no wrong has been done, Australia was declared ‘Terra Nullis’ when Cook originally declared it a new part of the English Empire. This effectively put in place a series of events that have relegated Aboriginal people to non-citizenry of their own land.

Now as you can imagine these kinds of things and thoughts just do not disappear over night and even though Australia might seem like this great bland untroubled country there has been a war going on here ever since the first English colonialists arrived.

What I am trying to say that is that it is a similiar situation to the First Nations. I mean the Pilgrim Fathers just rocked up and took over, they thought that ownership of the land was everything. Indigenous people know that the land owns them.

So there is a huge gulf between the First Peoples and the rest of us really and to be able to photograph people effectively (any people) I think you have to be able to have some sort comprehension of the kinds of feelings people have. Imagine if you had a lovely little life going, enough food and water and shelter and some beautiful First Nation girls to hang out with and discuss the meaning of life and then suddenly along came- in America’s case a whole bunch of uptight, strung out religious nuts and in Australia’s case a whole bunch of dirty, ignorant criminals and tried to tell you what to do and then proceeded to murder your family, rape your women and destroy the land you cherished. And then in Australia just to make the genocide almost complete they took the children away (often from Aboriginal mothers who were raped by white men)

I think that all of the guilt of this is pretty easy to see on the faces of many white Australians and I am sure there is a bit of that in Americans as well. Perhaps not so evident because well you guys had slavery as well…

But you can see what I am getting at?

Its loads about trust and that kind of works with everything really…

That said I think you really nailed it with one photo, the one in the night where you have a blurred figure in the foreground (in pinkish outfit) and you can see one of the elders in the background through the movement of the younger fulla…

Anyway lecture over but I hope that helps….

Cheers

by the way..
i was sure the title of this post would be concerning CHRIS BICKFORD and his excellent surf pictures.. latest post in his in-progress room.. he’s on the EPF page on DAH’s mainsite.
http://www.chrisbickford.com/wp/

badass stuff..

Hi David

This is first time that I post a comment even if I’ve been reading this journal since 2007. Incredible topics lasts months, cheers.

Good swimming,

WOW!!!!! Chris is obviously NOT up there on the beach with all the other photogs & their 4-foot lenses hooked up to tripods…he is OUT THERE among ’em! Magnificent captures, especially the one David B highlighted. I am in total AWE!

Patricia

PAUL

Your photos of your boys have stayed with me. They truly show life through the eyes of a child. I’d encourage you to submit your work not only to parenting & family mags but to children’s mags as well. Googling such mags should get you started…..

Best wishes!!
Patricia

First off to Patricia,

I just read your letter, and I have to agree with Sam. Waw! Yes, it really works for me : strong and personnal, yet very very touching. You feel it all. It could’ve been very dark or desperate, but I feel your strenght and your desire to LIVE LIFE ! To the fullest…

I knew, reading this blog off&on for a year now, that you were quite a wonderfull giving strong and dedicated person, but I didn’t really understand it as I do now…
Patricia, I just finished a very exhausting 3weeks work and am feeling exhausted (need a swim, like David…). Woke up feeling the blues, and your letter did the trick. Truely inspirationnal, thank you.
I’m only sorry that I didn’t barge in on your swarming friends at Davids Workshop/fiesta but your smile was enough that time. Next time…

David,

I started taking pictures because of travels and bad memory and used to shoot for fun and play. Nowadays, those “shooting times” seem to disappear more and more. I’m in this new crazy city but cannot seem to find a way/reason to just “go out & play”… And the work takes too much time as it is: “obligatory work”. So hard to balance, as is life I guess.
Does it get any better with time, this “balancing act”, or do you just hold on and manage the different winds ?

Erica,

Those whirlpools or under currents are well-known, especially along stretches of beaches, but I’m surprised that one has a name ?!
Glad your brain “stopped fighting” to let your body react – I know strong under-currents swimming (not whirlpools). It’s scary, yes, but the only way out is to stop fighting then swim parrallel to the shore until you get out of the currents…
But when you also have shark feeding frenzy at the same spot, you call yourself lucky! Glad you got out of the “dead man’s pit” to talk about it…

Davin,

All good for that pint next time.
But is that why you got into photography?
I guess the Maramures aren’t a paradise for girls?
“Take me down to… where the grass is green & the girls are pretty”
(this one for Panos ;)

Bob,

I too briefly chatted with you and Marina but I was glad I did. Too many people around you as well but you seemed as interesting and bright as you are on paper. true, you live in Canada ;)
And I understand your need to get away more from the computer and this blog, LS and teaching, etc… I don’t know how you kept such a pace the past months! Damn, you seemed to be living here at one point, always writing long interesting dedicated positive posts that I enjoyed reading. But you’ll need to pop out once in a while… your point of views are important (as is the wit of Akaky) ot this blog/family.

Lance,

Great to meet you last in NYC at DAHs! Sure are a cowboy chick magnet bro! If I ever manage to haul my ass down to Austin, Texas, let’s have a few brews! And you’ll show me a rodeo (dreamed of being one as a kid in africa :)

Kyunghee Lee,

Thank you very much for our little talk at DAHs workshop. I know Davin and I were impressed an

…NY ocean is too cold now. Wish I could get on a plane and just go surf then swim in warmer waters (sharks or no sharks)… I even love the name: “Outer Banks”… So yeah, as Erica said: have a swim for us all!

ps1: After a few trips CAN-US, I finally got my visa to stay in the US for up to 3 years! Yeeee!
ps2: for those drunks who forgot, amidst the many people “just saying Hi”, half of me is on left: http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/104198127 (hope Patricia& Preston don’t mind)

All the best to everyone,
and “GO Vote, it’ll make you feel good”
T.

last year i shot 4 weddings to make some sorely needed $ – god, it drained me. that’s really the difference for me – paid work nearly always drains and shooting what i love always ALWAYS energizes. so no more weddings for me. i do volunteer as a photographer for the ‘Real Change’ newspaper here in Seattle. They (we) advocate for the homeless and other social justice issues. i might not be crazy about a particular assignment (say, a posed portrait) but just knowing that i’m contributing to a publication that helps people who really need help is worth it to me. and i only shoot maybe one photo a week for them.

tom hyde–

are you in seattle now? yes! let’s meet! :))
and you’ve met some of my kids? who? when? tell me more!! :))
smiling Big..

CHRIS

I like your monochrome material but it’s your colour work that moves me. It’s sumptuous plus plus. So deep and syrupy that I just want to climb in and feast on those hues. Visually voluptuous.

Hi Patricia,

After reading the text that accompanies your photos, I have a few impressions. I think you should eliminate the first paragraph and open with, “It all started with a fall…” I didn’t feel the first paragraph connected with the rest of the text. The second has powerful imagery that the reader can feel. Within the second graf, though, you mention five people: yourself, a friend, your internist, a neurologist and Kubler-Ross. You might consider cutting the friend and the internist and get straight to the neurologist because it gets a bit confusing with all the different characters without adding much to the overall message. The Kubler-Ross reference adds also a degree of tragic foreshadowing that adds to a sense of triumph when the reader finishes the text. And I enjoy how you’ve provided examples of each of the stages.

In the third paragraph, your first two sentences are great, but I think you could give the third more power. The phrase, “I mean how could…” weakens the details you list. Instead of listing all the sports you once enjoyed, maybe you could give one or two examples of the feeling of athletic accomplishment that you had realized you wouldn’t be able to experience again. The sweat and glorious pain of running, the way swimming makes your lungs conquer an element they’re not meant for..

In #4, I love the intimate detail of “The fact that he seemed unable to get past denial irritated the hell out of me.” That verbal peek into your life parallels the visuals of your photography.

The crow looking for a place to land is a great metaphor. Do you have a photo of one? It might be interesting to echo some of the details you’ve written in your pictures. Within the same graf, “I did my best to scare it off by staying super busy, but every so often it would catch me unawares,” I think you should cut did my best, super busy, every so often, and catch me unawares. Those are all cliches that dilute your meaning. There’s another way to phrase it, I’m sure.

The acceptance graf could perhaps use the original opening lines, “Photographing my life, the ordinary everydayness of it, has become my spiritual practice. As I write this I hear my southern mom’s voice in my head saying, ”Don’t be so hifalutin, Miss Smarty Pants!” But it’s true.” Try it, might work…

The next two grafs read as if you’re rushing to finish writing. Not bad, but I know you can do much better. And your final metaphor (this might be nitpicking, but a thought nonetheless), rainbows don’t ALWAYS appear after harsh downpours, they need sunshine! ;) And you’ve certainly provided many people with that brightness and light. I cherish our brief meeting at David’s and I look forward to seeing you again.

Warm regards,

Andrew Sullivan

DAH – i’ll try not to be insulted that my name was not mentioned in the beautiful women in perpignan….. ha ha! guess who will NOT be stocking your fridge with beer at LOOK next year!! xo

PATRICIA – your text is almost there. very personal and intimate. i would maybe work on the political part – not sure it flows… as i said at the end of the last post…. YOU LIVE OUT LOUD my friend!

KARIM – i think your portrait work is very strong – would like to see more…

JEREMY – NOT because I live there… but i liked your DC gallery work. thanks for sharing.

AMERICA A – welcome to the blog!

PAUL – you have a great eye and very talented. maybe you should shoot for parenting magazines…. nice work!

Patricia, my friend!

There is no problem with your text, but I see it as totally separated from the photographic work itself. As you can see, save David, everyone has replied in terms how it affected them, but not in relation to your picture style and essay stance.

I would see it more as epilogue than prologue. Give your photographic work a chance to impress as much on its own. Lest it all falls in the trap of descriptiveness, which your images are certainly not about.

This said, there is something your situation is begging for, when writing about it. Do you see your plight (or blessing in disguise) as a hazard fallen upon you, or do you get a very personal sense of why it happened to you? If you sense you “own” your MS (as everyone owns his/her karma, meaning it is no one else’s), do you think that could be the most important thing to convey, with, but also over the 5 stages, and elements of your daily life?

Thinking aloud…

—

“Famous” photographers (men) and women…

…DAH Giovanni?

;-)

HERVE

YES!!! Your idea about the text being Epilogue instead of Prologue feels JUST RIGHT to me. I’d worried about giving too much descriptive material at the start. I really DO want the images to tell their own story. My description of/reflections on my life path should be secondary to the REAL work here, and that is the photos.

Regarding your bringing up the idea of karma and my feelings about how this diagnosis has helped me find my proper place this time around, that is what I’d hoped the title would connote. I feel certain that I have fallen into my place in the world with the help of my disability. I would not be who I have become without it. A curse? Hardly! More like a gift. I’ll try to get that across in the text. Thank you so much for bringing it up.

love
Patricia

Patricia

I agree, epilogue’s the way to go. Will study the text again. I almost always prefer text at the end of a book. Yet it never occurred to me to put the text a the end of my own project. I’m learning a lot this evening.

Gina

Thank you.

PATRICIA

Your work will have to sit with me for awhile before I can formulate a response. I think the pictures and words are inseparable, however. Perhaps they should be together throughout your book.

Such bravery. Such experience. Such wisdom. Such humanity.

Ahhh, Paul you were quoting David, missed that! Well, i’ve got David quotes up on my wall with Roosevelt and Mamet and many others …:)) There have been so many memorable ones here, from many people, enough to fill a book, just quotes, like sunbeams.

Well, concerning PATRICIA’s photos and text as an epilogue, I have to say that, with no premeditation, I took a look to the pictures before. Then I wrote my impressions to the essay: it really told me the story without reading the text! And got involved in the feelings, emotions and daily life of her. Then, after that, I read the text that just added not the story (it was told by the pictures), it added her fight, her psychological states, her lovefor Life…. it just added.

That’s my personal point of view, of course….

tom–

you’ve met inde!! :)) he is one of my closest street sons and one of the most intriguing and complex boys out here. sadly, at 20, he’s become quite an alcoholic. i just spent 6 hours in the harborview emergency room with him. his right eye had a gash in it and he has no recollection of what happened to cause it. scary. i’m actually on my way to his squat right now. (him and about 15 others are under a bridge in georgetown). last week a woman gave me $200.00 to buy blankets for them so yesterday, me and 2 of the other kids went to goodwill and bought a truck load of big comforters and pots/pans/plates/utensils since they have started to cook there now. the kids have cleared out all the garbage and today we’ll lay tarps down and all the new bedding. then tonight a big cook-out – chicken, hotdogs, chili, smores, etc. and i’m hauling all my drums down there for a big drum jam. we’ll just be eating, drumming, singing and loving all weekend. i can’t wait!!

sorry, didn’t mean to write an essay here! :)
just thrilled you know my boy.
jynnxy, yes, she’s a doll but not technically a street kid. she’s a ‘housie’, lives with her mom.

yes! talk with them! they are amazing kids!
to them, i am ‘mama dread’ (not because i invoke fear, hah, but because i have very long dreadlocks. ;) )if you ask if they know ‘katia’ only a few will say yes. if you ask if they know ‘mama dread’ – they will ALL say yes. :)))

please tell me when next you’ll be in seattle. i’m very excited to meet you and introduce you around to the family. :)))

GINA….

i so so totally forgot at the moment i was writing you were in Perpignan….i had you in my mind at Look3 and New York..it is all kind of a blur as you may imagine….

apologizing to women (and men) is one of my specialties…i am sorry!!!!

hugs, david

ALL

Sorry… not trying to interrupt, just trying to catch up…

DAVID

I know going back a week on the blog is like digging up ancient history, but I am very curious about your take on The Family of Man… and it’s role in the history of photojournalism. Are you thinking about this book, in particular, as you are working on your family project? Could The Family of Man be the subject of a post some day?

We are planning a Christmas break vacation… might take a road trip and I wonder what the outer banks are like in winter…

KARIM

I noticed the link to your wiki… wonder what your plans are for it, did I miss something? Do we have a wiki now? Right on!!

ERICA/ALL

Enjoy the Robert Frank book…. a fun game I like to play with it is to edit pictures against it… for instance:

http://workprints.blogspot.com/2008/04/hats-fifth-avenue.html

with picture #16 (yom kippur, east river)

Right now I’m thinking about the narrative structure of the book… three acts and the denouement of the last picture, the photographer alienated, in the end, from his own family… his move to film so perfect…

Which reminds me, the Anthology Film Archive is showing a bunch of Robert Frank films next month, including a rare screening of C********r Blues… which I’ve never seen.

Next fall, I think, is the Frank Americans blockbuster at the Met… I’ve never seen all the photographs together… also DC Jan-April, SF May-August…

Also going back a week or longer… and reminded by the A. Soth links… regarding the subtle differences between medium and large format… I see three major differences (and all just my opinion…)

First is space and the optical properties of the focal length of the lens. Normal for mf is around 80mm, for 45 is 210mm and 810 is 300mm. The relationship of foreground to background is a function of the focal length… the shorter the focal length, the “wider” the look, the more the background seems to “fall away” from the foreground… the longer the focal length, the more the space seems compressed… I see Soth’s (or Sander’s, etc.) subjects “in” their surroundings, and this is one (strictly technical) reason for that. Also, depth of field goes with focal length… Second is time: the world looks very different at 1/60th of a second compared to an exposure of several seconds. The world moves and breathes.. though camera immobility is not exclusively large format, it is (for the most part) enforced. Third is hyper-reality and smoothness of tones in a large negative, though this is probably not much of a factor when compared to digital… camera movements are a distant fourth…

These are the sorts of things I’m thinking about as I try to get my own large format deal off the ground… not making the progress I would like, but I hope to be making 8×10 platinum prints by the end of the year… in the mean time I should get back to what I was doing, now I’m just slacking….

Oh, and speaking of films…. tomorrow Andrzej Wajda himself is introducing Popiół i Diament and Katyń at Lincoln Center….

GINA , said;

“…DAH – i’ll try not to be insulted that my name was not mentioned in the beautiful women in perpignan….. ha ha! guess who will NOT be stocking your fridge with beer at LOOK next year!! xo…”

GINA ,
please dont be insulted,
coz , I FOUND YOU HOT….HOT …;-))))))))))))))

… but, hey ,
let my moderate my own comments…
otherwise i’ll be kicked out of Freida’s cabin,
once again…..

ladies & gents… i overslept this morning…
its noon…
( but HOW can i leave the bed with that hot beautiful female
creature naked next to me ???????? …
damn, i love that scent of a woman , early in the morning…
i love how the piilow smells from her hair….i love….)

I HAVE A FEELING THAT THIS GONNA BE A BEAUTIFUL DAY…
peace y’all…

mike

I started a little wiki just to see if we could do the October project in a way where everyone can contribute all at once… the wiki style allows for writing and essays to go along with and anyone can write what they want. I don’t think however that everyone agreed on using it though…

Marcin
I will try and give you an example of pairing the audio with a picture on Monday when I get to the Office.

All
Wanted to share another photo from yesterday

http://tinyurl.com/69whun

DAVID, 360-432-9439, here all weekend lost in the mist and the green and the wet of Sometimes a Great Notion, an absolute “must read,” or read again, before heading to the Northwest. Funny, i can put real names with all of Kesey’s characters … got me thinking …

MIKE! ALL … Family of Man … funny, a birthday present yesterday from my wife along with other books ranging from a collectible 1970 Avant Garde Portraits of American People to Walker Evans to Gilden to Hamburger Eyes … she just picked what she found interesting and compelling without knowing much history or “what’s good” from the community bookstore where we have credit … and she did great!!! :))) And last night we watched City of Angels … i think she loves me ;-)

…someone, please post the WIKI link again?
pretty please.. missed it
;-)

DAVID & ALL

Here are 11 new possible images for my “Falling Into Place” project. If you have time, please check them out. But there’s no rush. I so appreciate all the time you folks have given me yesterday and today. Hope I’m not becoming a pest…

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/for_review13
PASSWORD patricia

love
Patricia

MAMA DREAD!, I will absolutely let you know when I am next in Seattle. We have wonderful friends with an open bedroom there in Ravenna so it’s easy to come and stay for a few days. I keep meaning to hook up with Charles Peterson too … he put in some nice unsolicited words for me with an editor and we have never met. I will miss the serendipity of this place.

Katia, I would be honored to meet your friends! Contact you soon :))

Patricia, so happy you included #1 which i saw before … and you ARE #4, and i love #8. I don’t often comment because i don’t trust my viewpoint or rather, it’s just changing/evolving so much all the time but i’m starting to “get it,” and yes, my wife totally gets it already but as we all know, “women are smarter.” :)))

tom

patricia
I agree with panos on that Patricia. However I would also add #4

panos
it’s just a temporary wiki that can be moved to a real server if we are all in agreement to use the site.

WIKI SITE
http://tinyurl.com/6zcxpo

What’s that WIKI SITE? I guess I missed the explanation somewhere in the comments….

GINA,

Lovely dinner with Lassal :-)

And you are right, thanks to this blog family we will have the chance to enjoy frienship and nice moments all over the world!!

Great that your last night in Germany was so special. Safe travel back!!

Trying to stay on topic, I’m about to do another family shoot for the studio I work for, I’m going to do the standard stuff… but since no one else is here I’ll shoot a few in my style and post :-D

Off Topic
Here are the photos I shot yesterday

http://tinyurl.com/5ltu2u

PATRICIA COMMENT PART #2

and lastly, some of my favorite images that you’ve cut out:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/101617022

and although i PREFER the painting photo you’ve included in your slideshow, i also like this:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/102857750

and i like this bike

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/103475655

i also like: and would (gently) encourage yu to think about these :))))

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/104470897

PATRICIA PART #4

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/97086197

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/96869901

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/93116649

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/92274457

(well, i love all the self-portrait nudes, but most are in b/w, and maybe b/w doesnt make sense with all the colors….)

Well Patricia, i could go on ;))))….

I know you got a great handle on this and an even better eye and Editor in David than me, but you have so much that is powerful, i would ask you this:

your Day-in-the-life-of….as seen from your perspective….is it possible to include and shoot also how YOU HELP ED as well…like the picture with you two at the piano (that is not included in your edit but i found on your daily blog)….that’s part of yu too…

anyway, i love this book and i think a great book will be 80 pics, 100 pics…i cant wait to see what you do and how it goes….im already standing in line to purchase! ;))))

from love with marina too :)))

hugs
bob

BOB

I am speechless…and that’s really something for me! First of all, you have been a HUGE support to me from the start of this project. If I remember correctly, you wrote an enthusiastic comment about my first images before David had even seen them. And you’ve been with me edit-by-edit, always honest and often bringing attention to photos I hadn’t even included in any of the edits. I don’t know where you find them all, but I thank you for doing so. I’m so prolific that I forget what I have, and that’s the truth. You’ve really done some digging this time and I’m going to look more closely at your suggestions and ask David to do the same. I totally trust your artistic eye.

Thank you for giving me and my work so much of your very precious time. Our friendship is a real treasure to me, my dear brother.

DAVID

When some time opens up in your busy life would you please read Bob’s most recent comments to me? I’d especially appreciate it if you would click on the links he’s posted. There are some images you’ve already seen but several that will be new to you. Thanks so much.

love to you both
Patricia

LAST POST….

DAVID (dah) and ALL:

first, david, great story on the single-mom :)))…terrific pic too, what a bunch of surfer beauties indeed…and Im with Marcin, cant wait to see that book (Women) someday too :))))…and this morning, i revisited the Insight-Magnum page…and love all the work…i particularly enjoyed putting your 2 family stories (Colorado and Va) together in my mind with Alex W’s brilliant story on the steeltowns in Ohio/Pa…both of you are approaching this project from opposite ends (he with a wide eye, scaling the communities and you with a tight-focus on individual families) that make up a very important and interesting cross-section of america…can’t wait to see more reporting from the road amigo :)))))

ok, as to the question about work:

this is a critical question that racer-runs both my and marina’s life. both of us balance essentially 2 types of work 1) idea-inspired and 2) environment-inspired. Both of us shoot friends and family alot, especially when it’s related to a project we’re working on, not to mention the heart of probably both of work involves memory and family, russia and the us, etc….

for me, it’s always been a balance. I tend to walk alot, run, write alot and observe first, for long periods of time until a place or person or idea captivates me and then i try to shoot and see what happens and then words (i begin to write) and the images build. This has been how i’ve think about and organzie the 3 major projects that i’ve shot over the last few years (FACES series, INVISIBLE CITIES project (toronto, moscow, lisboa/albuferra) and Memories Brief as Photos (immigrant students))….

BUT…

often times something new happens:

Last year’s David’s EPF series inspired me to try to do something different: shoot for only 2 weeks, 2 rolls of film, 1 group of people: the korean students (part of the Memories Brief series) and submit it as part of EPF (part of which was shown at Look3 with david’s EPF group).

Same happened here with Bones. It began from a visit to NC to see my brother and dad and then an idea came to me about time and memory and family, and when my son was attacked, a new idea (panic) came….when David wrote that he wanted to create a “magazine” with ASSIGNMENTS, i thought: ok, what can i do, what should i do, how can i pitch this idea to David as if he were a PE. Originally, i wanted to do a story on Chris anderson (who was in Toronto running a Magnum Workshop) and then i changed my mind and came up with the idea of photographing Dima and the Dinosaur bones….as soon as i shot the 1st day, and then looked at the negs, i realized something different would happen with the story…and then i went crazy…became about fathers and my own memories as a child, david’s struggle with polio, and my mom’s hopsitalization…all this as a way to try to tell my son the story of my own childhood and that we were connected, bones, memory, sadness, all this coming…that i couldnt give him my dna (because we dont share t his) but that I could give him my memories, because they were a part of him now….and so, bones progressed….i’ll finish the last part when my mom comes in november….

so, now 2 new ideas for work, a project on Water and a project on Russia (both here in toronto and in Russia proper)….

i actually always seem to have too many ideas…too many photographs…and i dont shoot everyday…but work in series, work on specific ideas/projects, usually born of a feeling or idea or person or place….i always tease Dima that im never gonna publish a photography book/books, only written ones, and it will be his burden to put together my archive so it makes sense ;)))))))))…..

but in the end, the way i manage the 2 (to shoot what i love with what i need) is to try and do both together. I started to shoot Korean and bones for David, for this blog, and with time, i felt connected to it and then all else too over….

the problem or balance for me comes from figuring out what project will make sense, which work is the good work, is the work that will help feed my family….that’s still a mystery to me….

in the end, i end up shooting what i love, because for me it isnt so much about “what” i shoot but that I am photographing, the same way i write, about something that matters a great deal to me, be it my wife, son and friends, or the city around me, or a specific idea, because i’ve invested my life in things around me, people, places, books, words, ideas, sounds, smells, faces, shadows, memories all fill me with wonder and confusion, all of which inspires me to continue….to not forget, to build stories, as Herodotus reminds, as a way to know “who your neighbor is”, and that, for me, means understanding this ineffable world , which disappears so quickly, as if mercury plaited, and soon all those thoughts and memories and joices and joints wil be gone….

to balance: for me, to try to make sure i pay attention to that part of the world, that part of photography that still animates my 40 year old bones….

running
hugs
bob

p.s i realize i totally didnt answer David’s questions….oh well…

AKAKY

I saw you! I saw AKAKY!!! Check out the blond-haired guy with the camera to his eye in the bottom left of image #16 (“Taking pictures of shoppers”). There he is, the famous, illusive Akaky.

Good set of images, my friend…loose, spontaneous, true street shots. BRAVO!!!

Patricia

P.S. I missed the earlier link to your Hispanic Parade pics. Could you please post it again?

Thanx Karim and Patricia, and it’s not blonde, it’s just graying. And here’s the return of the Hispanic Day Parade set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akaky/sets/72157608149509394/

Akaky…
listen,
all my love , but…
if you really wanna mess with black n white…!
then…
your mannequin below is the WAY TO GO….

… but you totally missed it in all the rest
of the photos…;-(

good work , but the B&W broke my heart…
Again , the b&w mannequin is the way to go..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akaky/2952126785/in/set-72157608148529398/

peace & hugs

PATRICIA,

After an annoying attempt to post, with the same results Bob had, here we go again (after more than half an hour trying…).
From your lates list: 1, 4 and 7 are my favorites and I agree with Bob on the following links:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/101617022
http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/102857750
http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/104470897

PANOS
…but HOW can i leave the bed with that hot beautiful female
creature naked next to me ???????? …
—————

Wow, this blog is something else. Last I talked to Panos, he was from his own words, homeless, shooting his way into the sunset (hours), and 2 days later….Do I understand that he is now a….. Famous photographer!?!?

:O)

KARIM

L-O-V-E the collarbones on that last shot!

Cheers,

Cathy:

Thanks for the note..I checked out your “lightstalker” link, not sure how we have crossed paths, I am based out of Durango, I have indeed posted here before, and a couple years back I was at the “Summit” workshop where I first met David…most likely you recognize my name from here.

On another note, I would love to see your Powwow projects when the time comes! Zip an email my way when you post! There is also a small Powwow here in Durango every year called “Hozoni Days”…perhaps you will make it out here some day! The door here at my home is certainly open for you and your husband! Keep me posted.

Cheers, Jeremy

DAVID,

This last picture of the mother and the three daughters is beautiful, very sensual…Love it!

Eric

QUESTION NO2 ( to Eric , of course )…
what made you choose that ( your ) light,…?

QUESTION 3:

Do you have DAH’S “flash -strobe- obssession,
when you shoot???

does the slow speed gives you what you need ?

QUESTION 5:

… fuck me for a second… ( although, in my life ERIC, its all about me, and feel free to blame my mom for my bad self …)

but.. honestly, im asking..
HOW DO YOU RELATE with them.. boxers…???

I dont see you at all… in those photos…
WHY?????

PANOS:

Got the link. I will email you tomorrow. Time for bed here.

Thanks!

OH ONE MORE THING TO ALL:

Please feel free to comment on the work on The 37th Frame. Especially if it is yours that I post. I think readers would be interested in your thoughts and motivation for your work.

Thanks all!

PANOS,

As you may know, last year, for the first EPF submission, I had started to do a small essay in the Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati. Somehow, I started approaching some of the kids from the ghetto but, at that time, somehow, I never had a chance to penetrate “inside really”. One day, I came across an article on Rau Shee on a local newspaper. Rau is one of the boxers I have met who has represented the US in the recent Beijing Olympics… I heard for the first time that there was a real boxing tradition here in the city… This is when I proposed to do this essay for David… At the time, I knew nothing about boxing, did not even know if I would be accepted in these local gyms… The more I have spent time there, the closer I have become to these young boxers… They have accepted me immediately…no question asked… I somehow felt at ease with them… As strange as this may seem to you, although you suggest that you do not see me in these photographs, I feel in many ways incredibly similar to these kids… I was training like crazy when I was a young kid to actually become professional tennis player… very different sport vs Boxing, a priviledge sport but I have found memories of this hard discipline and daily routine, the sacrifices done to get better, the competition, the disappointment when you cannot reach the top, strange feeling of adults pushing you around… Importantly, I have also been a relatively lonely kid, in many ways, I still wonder if I have completely join the adult word… The tension between the kids world and the tough reality of the adult world outside, the ghetto, the drugs etc is something that I feel deep inside. So, I think there is more of me into these photographs that you may think…that loneliness, sense of despair sometimes that is so close in these kids and in me as well and, at the same time, the need to fight whether on the ring or for your professional life… All I can tell you Panos is that this work has had an impact on me profoundly… Yesterday, I left my day job where I was hassled and went to a bar with Riccardo Williams Sr, father of the Olympian who won that Silver medal but was then sent to jail for 3 years. We talked about life… the struggles… He is broke, has sacrified himself for his son… sometimes comes across as carrying the world on his shoulders… I had just left hours ago some excutives of a consumer goods company and let me teel me that I felt more myself in that bar…

Eric

BOB T,

Interesting comment… I have actually photographed also the gyms, the environment… When we met with David back in Perpignan for an initial edit of my work, we both felt that my best shots were the very close “Action portraits” that I had done and we agreed to focus on that. I did worry myself that this may turn out to be more repetitive but eventually, I felt that these close portraits could be a could way of caputring the soul of these young boxers and I tried to further go into that direction by sharing their words…

PATRICIA,

I am so glad that you have enjoyed the essay. Your pov matters to me a lot!

Thanks,

Eric

PANOS & ERIC

I would not FEEL what I do when I look at these photos & read the words of these men and boys if Eric weren’t in EVERY picture and word himself. Yes, he’s a superb photographer–one of our very best–but that isn’t what grabbed me, what made me catch my breath time and time again. It was the TRUTH of what he shows, its SOUL. And I knew before having read his response to your questions, Panos, that Eric has been changed by this work, by these people. I could FEEL it. It doesn’t surprise me in the least to hear him say he felt more comfortable at that bar with Riccardo Williams Sr. than he did with the executives at the company where he works. Of course he does. They’ve become his people.

I don’t know if my words help answer any of your questions, my dear brother Panos, but, believe me, they come from my heart.

Patricia

And I love you too, dear Panos

xxxooo
Patricia

KARIM

I’m off to bed right now but will check it out tomorrow. Can you please post the link again? Thanks for sticking with this. It’s going to be a cool project!

Patricia

AKAKY,

I believe the key word for your essay on the parade is composition, as mentioned by Sidney. Something is missing…
And I also liked the mannequin and the overall B/W pics.

KARIM,

I like the balance between light and shadow and the delicacy of forms it brings up.
And the model helps! ;-))

HERVE,

I visited your gallery and left a post.
Liked the after church portrait.

ERIC,

Really like the subject, the colors and the lighting. It’s a wrong impression or did you mix flash and existing light?
In my humble opinion more editing will strenghten your work. Some images are a bit repetitive.

Cheers,
Ari B.

Ari, thanks for your note, it’s not your first, I think. People have no idea what taking the time to write a few words can mean.

By the way, I am adding one photo as a single, didn’t fit the mood of the gallery, or maybe it did (a la October 2008!!!), I dunno… Anyway:

http://www.pbase.com/image/104737012

Its interesting Peter you chose Family Ties…I had been focused so much more on Home Sweet Home that sometimes I overlook FT as a project. Though I wanted to mention that I recently won a small contest with a 6 photo edit from Family Ties, and a nice little bundle of cash.

Cathy, I feel your frustration. I get left behind all the time. I’m trying real hard to keep up with this thread.

Akaky, are you scanning monochrome prints? They come up a little flat. Or are you shooting monochrome in camera digitally? Curious. Much potential if you can spike to contrast some.

DAH and Bob B. too. Exquisite word smiths both.

ERIC, I think it’s time for you to turn pro. A sumptuous (there’s that work again that I like so much) colour shot maker like you should be paid to do it.

Lords of the Ring is a highly accomplished piece of work, for example.

Has anyone else said this to you? Perhaps on this blog? I may have missed it.

DAVID ALAN HARVEY

From where the fourth siren?
Lovely, lovely portrait.

KYUNGHEE,

I am catching up and had not yet seen the slideshow from David’s loft workshop. REally strong work by many but your work was simply amazing. I love your vision, the complexity of your images… In a way, it reminds me of the complex rich composition that you find in Alex Webb with your own Asian sensitivity… I cannot believe you did this in just a week. I think you have heard this from many before but you are a very talented photographer!!! You made me want to go out and shoot!!

Cheers,

Eric

ERIC,

What a BIG essay!! Really great job!! I can feel a touching closeness in these pictures, effort, sensibility, preassure, action… wow! You got it, man!! I liked most of the photos and # 37 bewitched me for a while. By the way, I love the color of those photos. How do you get it?
Looking at this essay I just realized that I need to get closer to my subjects. Much more close!
I wish those Lords of the Ring pictures where mine ;-)

ALL,

Still really confussed. Everybody mentions something called the october project . And what’s that WIKI site for? Are both related?

Peace to all

Ana

and # 40!!!

Ok, I stop now :-P

Depression hovered over the house of my soul like a black crow looking for a place to land.

____________________________________________

beautifully represented.. anyone whos felt that edge will recognize well the metaphor.

patricia..

you have a real talent for writing.. the introduction to photos is, in your case, essential i think.. the context it lends adds tremendously to the poignancy of the images and knowing you previously, yet not knowing what you are writing of, has illuminated us to a side we do not see.. adds to the strength which which i p[personally perceive you.. strength to be honest.. press on.. show vulnerability..
to me the text is an illustration of the most private part of you, which you also show with your photos..
the edit is looking great by the way, and now seeing it with the flow of conscious text it is easy to see a book preparing itself right under our collective eyes..

lovely stuff.. will read it again shortly.

karim

your fashion / portrait work is good.. funnily enough i am teaching fashion right now with my students..
one of the first lessons concerns the genres of fashion.. or more to the point the way in which fashion itself does not constitute a genre.. rather it borrows from other genres.. portraiture.. reportage.. also the exoticism and ‘otherness’ of travel and ethnographic photography..
with shooting fashion it can really free up our minds to consider the theory.. allow ourselves to follow other photographic genres in order to create a story, an angle which a magazine would find fresh and new..
since this forum is mostly concerned with storytelling and the narrative you are in great company to shoot in this way, be it studio or otherwise, and add a style to your work – get a head-start – which many commercial photographers are missing..

jeremy

some great snaps in the inter-tribal selection.. it is very difficult, as i’m sure you know from africa, to get ‘into’ a subject such as this.. village life..
i really like your style and i’ve no idea if anyone else has mentioned it but i’d love to see you spending more time with the subject.. the style is comming along and i’d love to see the more mundane activities of the people concerned.. the day to day to day to day.. if thats a possibility i tghink it would be great.
and.. a study over 2 days.. i think it’s possible.. if you become a walking camera and photograph incessantly without end.. much better, i believe, to carry on over time.. but thats just me, i know..
sorry if i repeat other thoughts or misunderstood here – i’ve been away and no time to catch up on comments properly..

pete m

really like the site and the inclusion of EPF.. once my edit of music work is nearing completion i’d love to be featured.. emailed you..

patricia again

i love 1, 8 and 12 from the possible new photos.. if they fit in to your mind, of course..
you can see i’m reading posts chronologically :o)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM

so many births around this time.. must be the new year lovemaking :o)

akaky

i liked your day parade phots..
i think the problem i have with parade photos is that the subject is there.. taking photos can become something of a formula.. the crowd.. the action.. covering all bases.. like sports photos, which are difficult to do in a way we have not seen time and time again..
did you do some jazz photos? i liked those more in a way..

eric

looking great.. some of the better work on here.. well edited..
i don’t think you have to become what you photograph and as far as your style – you are a very strong editorial photographer to me.. squeeze a bunch of this kind of study out every year and the relationships between each chosen subject will emerge.

nice one.

all

apologies for typos.. typing one hand and rocking baby with the other :o)

bob

no time to read all – will do so later..
you are the perfect choice for an ed in chief.. no question.. big-ups

sorry ERIC, need to clarify..

don’t know where “rally” came from, except am watching Meet the Press in the background..the sentence should stay in the plural, as I wrote it above

slide 5: “can match it” may sound better as “has matched it”, as you are talking about something in the past

slide 7: “older” would work better if it modifies something, for example, older men, older boxers

mike

if you cannot wait to see cocksucker blues, it’s on youtube..

bob

storylines at the tate was magnificent.. understated as well, with relatively small frames.. and a booth.. a lovely booth rotating screenings of the films.. wonderful afternoon spent with a friend wandering through the work.. i still look at the book once a month or so..
one of my two fav exhibitions of all time, along with salgardo at the southbank center, which was awesome.. quality of printing.. arrangement of epic, large frames.. something else.

ALL

balance has to be one of the most important word to understand well..
a pertinent post for all..

here he is..
KURT – stop lurking.. please :o)
http://flickr.com/photos/29966115@N02/sets/72157607459517897/show/
http://flickr.com/photos/29966115@N02/sets/72157607454731898/show/

ARI, PAUL, TOM & DAVID B

Deep gratitude to each of you for taking the time to look at my most recent edit of “Falling Into Place,” for reading the text and for checking out my newest “possibles”. Your comments & suggestions will definitely help me keep moving forward with this project.

Tom’s email suggestion is a powerful invitation for me to drop ever more deeply into this subject as I write. David B, you chose three of my favorites from the possibles. #12 was taken and added just this morning. Ari, you shared links to some of my favorites too, and Paul’s enthusiastic response to my writing gives me a warm feeling. After eight years of daily blogging, writing has come to feel quite natural. As we all know, if you practice something every day, you’re bound to get better at it.

Thanks to ALL! Again the links are:

1. My most recent edit with text:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/daily_life
PASSWORD patricia

2. Twelve new possible additions:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/for_review13
PASSWORD patricia

Patricia

(ie reading it as “many a cat and dog have walked the streets”) not as “many a furry and sweet cat has walked the streets”)

ERICA,

Sure! But, ERIC’s Slide #3 actually reads: “Many a troubled and troublesome youngster has embraced..” and there is nothing wrong with that.

…. the key of NOT being hangovered:
“lots of water and eat HUMMUS first thing in the morning…
then force yourself to the bathroom…
as simple as that…

… haven’t been hangovered since i was 18 either…

;-))))))

peace

I think it’s time for you to turn pro. A sumptuous (there’s that work again that I like so much) colour shot maker like you should be paid to do it.
—————————

This is a great sentence on a subject we have not really approached. David, can you, before blog’s end, start a topic on what makes the difference that will have someone “turn” pro?

I have a feeling that, no matter the talent, lest it is shining like a lone star shines over billions others in the sky, one does not TURN pro. One tries to make it, with dedication and then…. well, that’s what we could discuss about.

I often ask myself, who here will in a decade or rather 2, look back and see they had a career, and their craft came to be more than answering commands, that their photography was their career.

I ask myself,but I don’t answer it, not by cynicism, but because there is so much unlikeliness in achieving one’s photography thru a career, that talent is just what puts you in the starting blocks.

ERIC
—-
What if everyone was wrong, and the perfect vehicle to convey what happens in “RINGS…”, was hihly contrasted B&W?

On a side note, I see you are congratulated for your color work, but I also remember that’s what people say about Mc Curry, to end up saying they prefer edgier, to summarize, photography (like Webb over McC for David.. And just about everyone I know, including me).

On a more general note, and it is not just about what people have told you here, but a reflection on 4 years of net-reading what people say about another member/peer’s photography, we should feel always encouraged by someone paying attention to what we do, and we do all I am sure, but we should always beware of praise/critisim that does not truly show it picks out (some of) what we tried, if confusely many times, to convey, of the subject and of ourselves even.

AGAIN,
ALL..

I’m pretty impressed by mr.P Marovich’s
Amazing web hosting magazine… High end
Gallery or whatever you wanna call it..

Great work..
Now featuring RAFAL
And ANDREW SULLIVAN…

Again, I’m so in love with
Andrew S’s colors..
Just like Eric Espinosa’s colors..
Those two ( AndrewS & Eric E)
are the color maestros here..
Lot to learn from them…

ERICA

You’ll have to ask Eric what his intent was (ERIC??). Maybe you’re right (about his intent), that he meant two distinct types of youngsters. All I’m saying is, there’s nothing wrong with his sentence as it stands (which does imply that the troubled youngsters are also troublesome).
My day job includes a lot of translating, editing (mostly text, not photos) and proofreading, and my personal policy when editing is to give the writer the benefit of the doubt, that he or she means what they say, and change as little as possible… unless it’s clear that there is a problem with the meaning or the grammar. Some translators and editors are much more heavy-handed and interventionist than I am. That’s a question of style and philosophy.

SIDNEY

I think I am reading the text while thinking of how it sounds en francais..you are good to change as little as is required..I want you to edit for me!

Anton is doing very poetic stuff with color too, and IMO, just starting. Erica ain’t “shit” either….

..or Paul..
go to the previous page..
and click on my name .. Once it’s
Highlighted ..
Thanks bro.
;-)

PATRICIA,

It’s a real pleasure and a privilege to contribute to your project!

ERIC,

I’ve noticed but I wasn’t really sure. The results are great in my opinion, but the suggestion from Herve is interesting. Don’t you think about B/W? Maybe it’s a different direction for your project but, well, it’s your call and as he also said (if I understood correctly…) let’s not all diiferent ideas and oppinions confuse you!

PAUL,

I’ve been visiting Chris Bickford’s site today and his approach on surf is really beautiful. Different from most surf pictures we see on magazines (covers mainly. I am not a surfer…).
I was also impressed with his street portfolio. Really stunning pictures!
Yours is on my list to visit.

AKAKY,

Another quick note: I really enjoyed your smart (witty, spirited?) captions on “after the parade”!

ALL,

I keep visiting some of your websites and blogs. Imaging overdose!
Checking Jeremy’s, Erica’s, Kyunghee’s, Paul’s…
Also trying to work on my portfolio. This blog is very, very addictive and we end up spending more time than we should…

All the best!
Ari B.

ALL

There’s a live showing online right now of the results of the 2008 International B&W Spider Awards. Interesting to see a variety of excellent works.

http://www.thespiderawards.com/livegala.htm

I entered some stuff. Did anyone else?

Patricia

DAVID B., thank you for posting KURT’s links …. whoaaa, county fair, mennonite (old world or actually Amish?), and the recent barber shop jam is hot too.

KURT! Wow … love it, love it all. Where is this, some looks north, some south … which means midatlantic? ohio? I missed an apparent previous post about this … fascinated to know more, especially since I will be working with anabaptists this year.

tom

p. s. David B., have you a new self-portrait, perhaps with your new son? Huge, huge belated congratulations … i’m catching up. ‘Cause, to be honest, whenever i read your great posts i picture your naked butt with a balloon in hand … and it’s a little disconcerting :))))

PATRICIA/KARIM/PANOS/MIKE/ARI/ SIDNEY/DAVID/PAUL/DID I MISS SOMEBODY?

Thank you all for the comments and the advice; it is much appreciated. Now, as to questions:

PAUL, no, these are scans from film. I shot the Aftermath sequence with Arista Premium 400, which I think is actually Tri-X, pushed to 1250, using an orange filter (most of the time) on a 50mm f/1.8 lens and shot at 1/1000 whenever there was enough light to get away with speed that fast (no flash). I don’t develop and scan my stuff myself.

MIKE, no, I don’t know Les Krims, and I suspect it will be quite a while before I am in the city again, but thanks for the offer anyway. ;-) I don’t know what it is about Mr. Softee that seems to unleash driver aggression; I suspect it must be the high sugar content and the frustration of dealing with clamoring kids all day long.

As to the question of contrast, it seems to me that if I make these things any more contrasty then they’ll be unrecognizable. Am I missing something here?

DAVID, the jazz pix are still up at LS; I never bothered to take the gallery down.

If I missed a question, my apologies; I think I got them all, but you can never be too sure about these things.

ALL

am preparing to be away for a couple of weeks… going finding myself again, hopefully through making images

will try to report along the way

just for the record: if any new initiatives become reality in the meantime (DRR – David, 37th FRAME – Pete, follow up for OCTOBER – Herve,… and anything else i missed??), i’m signing up for it all right now… :))

see ya’round, and love to all
anton

ERIC, your work just demoralizes me sometimes ;-))) You’re not the only one here who does that to me, and of course in reality i just do it to myself, but you are near the top of the list … and Kyunghee … wow … if, could, one day maybe i just, just touch, brush, feel the strings like that, once …

Seriously, your work … some of your photos … it’s just, there are a few photos i carry with me all the time in my head, that i cannot forget, that swirl around like an unconcious cloud of mist undefined waiting to be queued up and burst forth like a friend jumping out from behind a tree … surprise! … trumpets and color and light blinding to wake me up as sure as any violence of breaking glass, lifetimes in a fraction of a second … DAH ( wood splittin’ round the corner three-dimensional thirds, hat bench, horse porch, cigar rollin’ over the shoulder, dog tail arm girl, magazine holdin’ peruvian, fish fog, boy through umbrellas, etc), Webb, Towle, Nikos P., Morris, Bendicksen, Parke, Autio (oh Autio!), Stanmeyer, Parr, Majoli, Greenfield, Nachtwey (those scream), D’Agata, Soth, even Soth, more many more, Kyunghee, Erica McDonald’s priest, Panos’ Morrison and girl in RV, Mama Dread’s kids, Bob Black’s dreams, Bowden’s naked backside floating balloon (i find it vaguely disturbing that this photo keeps popping up in my head ;-), more, more … and …
… so Eric, get that friggin’ bubble gum machine photo out of my head wouldya? You can have it back, seriously, it keeps screwin’ with my ego ;-))))

Okay that was the sesame bun, here’s the meat …

I think David may have said something to the effect that you are one of the greatest natural magazine photographer he’s ever seen come through his classes … and that certainly seems true … and this work is spectacular but you already set the bar so high for yourself that it just seems like there is something missing … context maybe … and there were some shots you took out that set that so well i thought. Did I miss those? The runner, the kids coming out of the door, the classic Espinosa slices of light and color and juxtaposition that is both classic DAH and Webb-like but somehow your own at the same time …. it’s like you ran out of steam perhaps … lost your sense of wonder … tried too hard perhaps … or tried to be someone else … your best work is controlled and loose and seemingly “happened upon” even if it isn’t so which just pulls me right into the sense of wonder of the moment right along with you. The space between the camera and subjects is gone … but it is more there in the boxing photos somehow. The look at the camera pictures don’t work for me … there are a couple of exceptions … and looking at your previous work these have the same surface aesthetics but not the same depth to them. It’s really hard to put my finger on … there is a lot of repetition which doesn’t help and too many photos of course but you already know that … this is the rough cut, i know …

I like the text with a little editing … it’s powerful … but the photos somehow do not convey the power of the text. If, if, and this may not be possible, if you could have just a few photos of home life juxtaposed with the ring, that could change everything I think. Hmmm, what would dyptychs of text and portrait (your chapter headings as it were) followed by home life and in the ring photos intermixed look like? And I’m missing the contextual setting photo … wider shot … and the look down, or away, or exhaustion, or more pain, or more muscle, at least one with negative space, the kids walking to the gym, or away, layers … or all, or none, of these but at least something else, a bigger mix, a broader story … the power of the punch mixed with the quiet of thought, paradoxes and juxtapositions of life for these kids.

Take all this ramblin’ with a grain of salt my friend … i really do not feel competent to comment on your work but i am just a viewer with an opinion as valid as the next i suppose. I hope i made at least a little sense and it sparks something helpful.

I’m sure David will be 180 of where I’m at ;-)) It is just so good, it could be so great … i’m such a fan.

ANA, JEREMY, DAVID B, AUDREY,

Thanks to all for having looked at the work and for your kind comments…

HERVE,

I am certain that using contrasted B&W would certainly work for such a boxing topic but this has been done before and very well by many authors including Larry Fink who David had previously asked me to check. David’s challenge was to do something different, of my own…I am not sure if I have fully succeeded or not in this case but I tried to stick to how I see, and I see in colours… Colours have always attracting my eye… When I first started photography, I could spend hours admiring the work of colour photographers… Interestingly, I started with Steve Mc Curry like “the masses” but rapidly discovered Alex and David and few others who indeed have taken this to a completely new level in my view as well… Bottomline, I think I will stick to colours… For some reason, I cannot see myself do B&W… As far as possibly needing an “edgier” look in my photographs, I can see why you could think this. I may have had other topics that I have done in the past that you may have preferred in that regard… In this particular case, I agree with you that I have used a more “classic” way of doing portraits…. Who knows what is best… Thanks for sharing your thoughts…

SYDNEY, ERICA,

This is hilarious… When I would wish to be remembered by a few good photographs, it looks like my poor english and typos will become more notorious :):):). If I tell you that my mother is teaching litterature in France and has pent her life correcting my typos… I wish this was only my english that needed correcting…. Having said that, the funny thing is that the very first sentence of my boxing essay is actually NOT from me. I was actually planning to indicate this when I have time to redo the first page as the first sentence actually comes from writer Bert Randolph Sugar who wrote a lot about boxing. I need to credit him and add his name to that first sentence but I went back to where I found that sentence and, it IS written exactly the way I captured it with the exception of the typo I did on “fists”… If writers do not even speak good english, I am losing by the minute any hope of getting there myself :):):)…

Anyway, thanks so much for taking the time to go through the text in such details and letting me know what typos etc I have made… Now clearly, the fact that my portraits “maestro” Erica has commented about my english and not my photographs makes me think that she may agree with Herve :):):)…. If only I am able to get a few portraits as good as the ones of Erica, I will be a happy man!!!! Challenging task I know… cannot wait to see your essay!!!!

Cheers,

Eric

eric

o ;pve the colours and textures equily in your work..
one question – have you tried looking at the current photos in black and white?
it does not need to be a changed to consider for any final show – just for fun..
i changed my music work into black and white to edit (so it opens faster on my computer) and some of the photos have surprised me..

i think, in a sense, you shoot black and white already – in so far as what you seek our photographically could easily be shown in either way.. a good photograph is a good photograph in my book, and while a change would change the feel of a photo, it will remain a good photo whichever way it is shown..

some photographers say they think in black and white or colour depending upon what they are shooting.. although i’ve always just thought about good photos.. regardless.

personally – i prefer colour for your work..
and mine.
:o)

eric

first sentance needs to start ‘i love’ and not ‘o ;pve’… i’m typing in the dark..

all

one thing i have learn’t about being a photographer is that a kind heart and being who you are goes a long long way.. the furthest way, in truth..
with that in mind i want to share something about ANTON..
his kind heart has led him to find a small gift for Tor, my newborn.. and it’s really touched both beate and i..

DAH ???????? >>>> (? to get your attention)
push uncle anton HARD.. he’s a real talent.. a real gem of a soul.. and he has eyes which work..

David Bowen, yes, well, ahhhemm, sorry about that! … laughing at myself …. i owe you a pint …

hillary

thought i’d click your site and i really like some of your work.. the splas page (children underwater) is ace.. great.

your website though – the formatting is coming out wrong on my browser.. firefox.. the thumbnails accross the bottom are fine, it’s the images in the main frame – they are cut in half and at the lower half of the page..

wondering – how did you make your site? is it with photoshops web application? (i used that as a template for mine)..
if so there may be an easy way of showing the work..

anyone else have and ideas?
all my ‘geek’ is taken up with photos and i have no spare brain cells for web unfortunately.

ERIC, don’t let the English thing get you down! English is easy: put the noun first, then the verb, then the object of the sentence. Go light on the adverbs and the adjectives; write in short, easily understood sentences using the nouns and verbs to drive the point you want to make home before her parents find out that she’s not at her friend’s house doing their homework and avoid the passive voice as if it were the plague. And never, NEVER, put an i before the e except after c. If you do not adhere to this rule, a nun will appear out of nowhere and hit you with her ruler. Trust on that one; I know. Do I actually follow any of the advice I have just given you? Not really, except for the passive voice thing and the i before e rule. And remember, discreet and discrete sound the same but do not mean the same thing. They are not interchangeable, despite the best efforts of MS Word’s spellchecker.

Wow it has been a long time since I have posted, the tides shifted a little and I went back to observing and reading more so than posting.

To respond to David’s question, I think for me there is obligatory shooting, sometimes the best paying jobs are the least interesting and its balance, like David mentions, that keeps everything in perspective. Even though a job may not be that interesting, its the approach that can keep it interesting. I really enjoy working with people and since I am a people photographer, not a product, most of what I shoot is pretty enjoyable. When thats not enough, personal work is here to the rescue, reminding me why I shoot.

I did a 6 month internship at a newspaper as a photographer, and that was the most trying for me because you dont always pick your assignments and you dont have the choice to turn it down like you do when you are a freelancer. I remember feeling really run over at times, shooting bad assignments, some how making good images from it, and then having an editor publish the worst of the take while giving me a very unconvincing reason to their decision. In the end it was a wonderful experience, pushing me forward visually, so I guess thats the balance or trade off. Maybe the idea of balance comes down to attitude and approach or the ability to walk away with something??

David,

I knew you You knew I was still out here !
Sometimes I’m not sure if I am : )

A year since BKK, Its amazing it all still seems so fresh on one
hand and so very far away on the other.

Below is a link to a small selection of new work.
I have deliberately kept the edit very tight.

I am starting a new project soon based here in Tasmania I will have some images from that shortly.

All good things,

Matt

http://www.matthewnewton.com.au/newwork

David Brown, Guilty as charged I have been lurking in the background.
As for the Mennonites I am afraid that story has crashed and burned.
I made some major mistakes and learned a great bit about humility along the way. I also managed to meet some wonderful Mennonite friends. Unfortunately I single handily managed to upset an entire community of very gentle piece loving people. Though this was 180 out from my intentions, that was the out come.
All my life I have hoped my photography could bring some good to a community, such as Eugean Smiths Nurse Midwife piece on Maude Callen, that resulted in a new clinic for her, or Bill Allards photo of a young boy with his entire sheep herd being killed by wayward truck resulting in enough donations for a new school. I sure did not expect it to end with a knock on my door at one in the morning from a Sheriff Deputy stating that I was to leave the community alone. It was at that point that I knew I had crossed the line, not so much as the law was concerned but as the trust of the people. These people only wanted to be left alone and I should have respected that.
I am including a link to a piece I did On the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. I like to call it the Barber Shop of Blues. Archie Edwards was a Barber in Washington DC. Up until his death in 1998. During the Blues revival of the 1960’s he was just on the fringe of making it big. He had a respectable following around Washington, but never quite made it as big as he should of.
As the story goes on Saturday’s when the clock reached 1 in the afternoon, the cutting shears would disappear, out would come the guitars, along with a brew or two. It was at this time Archie would pass down to a enter new generation, his knowledge of the Piedmont Blues.
After Archie passed a group of devoted followers started the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation, and the managed to keep the Saturday jam session alive until early this year. Unfortunately they lost the lease, and a Dental office no resides in the former home of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation.
The foundation still exists but without a home I am not sure how long it can keep going.
Here is the link as always comments welcome. http://www.flickr.com/photos/29966115@N02/sets/72157607495566359/show/

TOM,

Many many thanks for your in-depth comments that I have just read. Even more valuable to me Tom because you clearly have looked at some of my past photos and were able to compare, provide guidance as to what you see missing… I just hope that I will, over time, be able to stick a few more shots in your head… I am already glad :):) that this “friggin’ bubble gum machine” photo is not getting out of your head :):)….

Also great that you remember some of the previous shots that were taken away such as the runner, the kids coming out of the door etc… and thanks for the comment of “classic Espinosa slices of light and color and juxtaposition”… Not that this is an excuse for me but let me tell you a little about the journey and this may explain why the final pictures selected may be somewhat different vs past work … As you know, I love the light and colour juxtaposition. I usually always go for that late afternoon natural light with shawdows etc… I was only able to shoot once in similar conditions for that essay… one day, surprisingly, the boxers went out of the gym to run and the light was magical…. there are several pictures that I did that day that I care very much for but I only kept one (the opening close-up portrait). When David and I looked at the full set of pictures I had back in Perpignan and we started to lay these out on the table… somehow, the few more distant pictures with my “usual” light and shawdows did not seem to come from the same essay and, somehow, we rapidly converged to take these out… maybe we should have kept some…who knows…

To be frank, there were also some additional factors/ points that influenced the way I shot that essay, which again may have made it look less “typical” for me. First, the 2 to 3 gyms where I have been going really have nothing special as a building or environment. With exception of one, the two gyms I have gone to are very small, very poor artificial light, a modern building without much past or history (not like Gleason gym in New York), small un-interesting places really without much ability to construct more complex images. The real interesting part are the people that go and train there… Naturally, as I was not finding much to photograph what I typically go for, I started to get closer and closer and closer to the boxers at the gym… Let me tell you that, as I shoot with 24 mm lense, I got real close in some cases :):)…. But bottomline, what started to really interest me was these kids, their faces that look like the one of my 6 years old son but at the same time already look like the ones of adults with their nose, lips already showing that they have taken a few hits… I found those faces moving, beautiful and rapidly felt that this was the angle I was going to follow and again, it seemed to make sense when we talked with David… Final point that influenced me… when I started to initially show these pictures of juxtaposition of light, shadows etc, David at the very start also challenged me to go beyond that, probably because he had seen many similar images from me. He pushed me to show how I felt about these kids, why I was interested into boxing… again, all in all, this pushed me to focus on these kids, their look etc as opposed to doing “pure” imagery type of work… So you may say that I have left myself being influenced here as opposed to shoot with my own style… I would answer maybe but I stand by the direction we took together when talking with David (although I am sure he will probably agree on many of the points that you shared). Overall, this essay is indeed somewhat different, but I wanted to explore something different, get into more closer portraits which is something I really had not done… I promise I will not only do this from now on and will do some more “juxtaposition”, if only to stick these dawm pictures in your head :):):).

The final point that you made on the text is so true I think. I had shot most of my pictures when I started to record the voices of these boxers, talk about their life etc. Let me tell you that it was amazing how they are opening up and what they are sharing. So yes, I agree, in many instances, some of the quotes may seem going way beyond the photographs which were taken before…I had no idea sometimes what they were going to share and say. I am totally useless for doing a MM piece but I will learn. A few of the conversation I have had are real “jewels” and there is no way I know how to share these yet. These conversations have made me want to shoot more, show something that speaks more to what they shared….

So, apologies for the long answer Tom. Bottomline, I have not tried to be anyone different but certainly tried to push myself into a slightly different direction for that piece of work.

Thanks again for the quality of your assessment.

Cheers,

Eric

ERIC – Great work Dude! Most of my thoughts have been covered in previous posts , The kids are great , but sometimes I get the feling as I scroll through that I’m just seeing the same photo at times but I’m thinking that those older Guys have the faces that tell the story of boxing ,those tragic dreams that fuel a hard way to live.
Have you ever been smacked about in the ring yourself?

ERIC

I know you said you were going to ask Tom to advise you about incorporating your audio interviews into a MM piece, and I’m sure he knows WAY more about it than I, but let me share with you what I’ve just started using. It’s MM software called FotoMagico that allows you to create slideshows using audio (any mp3). It is VERY user friendly especially if you also buy & download the tutorial. I first learned about it here on the blog. The URL is

http://boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/

Good luck! You have a fabulous body of work and I can really see and hear it being even stronger with the voices of the boxers incorporated into it.

Patricia

PATRICIA,

Thanks for the advice…I wiill certainly look at it. By the way Patricia, I am still catching up and just read the text that goes along with your essay. Very moving Patricia. I hope we have a chance to meet sometimes. You radiate with positive energy. It is great to have you here!!!

Eric

KURT

I’m so sorry to hear that things turned sour with the Mennonites. They’re such private people that it somehow doesn’t surprise me. I suspect it had less to do with you and more to do with intra-community dissension over the advisability of allowing a photographer access to their families, especially their children. But I will not soon forget some of the images you shared with us from that series. They were quite special.

I love your Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation jam series! I’d seen it before but found it even richer this time. I saw and felt more in it on a second viewing. For me image #14 stands out as the iconic heart of it all. Such soul!!!

Please stay here as an active member. You have much to offer us.

Patricia

ALL…
GO TO MAGNUM BLOG..

ALEC SOTH just asked what is the recipe for a successful blog…

i logged in, i politely answered : come visit our blog here…
witness our freedom… we are uncensored , honest and lots of fun…

.. and of course.. as you expected… they censored my comment,
they threw it in the garbage…

they said… your post needs approval…????????

Approval?????? by whom??????
whats so fucking threatening ?????
the truth , maybe……..

people, ALL,
please help me out… go to the magnum blog,
and explain to them… “TELL IT LIKE IT IS”
god damn it… tell’em… because they just asked…

…Herve,
i hear you.. but how can you be spontaneous and free spirited
when you you are WAITING FOR APPROVAL ?????
such a joke………!!!!!!!!
Wasnt Soth that got overwhelmed by his own blog and shut it down????
Why so interested in a blog success… now??? a year later ???
what happened now????
such a joke…

my opinion:
people stop copying us… laughing…
or better…..you know what????
yeah… keep copying us…
WE OBVIOUSLY ARE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT, dont you think????
People are DESPERATELY trying to do what we did…
THEY ARE TRYING TO START… what we are about to FINISH…
sooooooooo funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

… i’m sorry , i meant A PROPHET,
not just a PHILOSOPHER…?

…”what would you do to make the blog successful ???? …”

what a joke !!!!!!!!

i would say call AKAKY, BOB & HERVE to begin with…
lol

PANOS

You have a point about waiting for approval over there on the Magnum blog… bloggus interruptus is no fun…

But, don’t you think they could (and should) have a kick-ass blog over there and wouldn’t that be great for all of us?

Panitos, I get you, yet we have been spoiled here, DAH blog is not the norm for such craft as photography.

I doubt anyone can duplicate what has been happening here, warts and all. The magazine won’t. Something else, altogether.

why do they have to CHEW on our bone if they have no TEETH???

sorry mr. Soth you are way too HYPOCRITICAL
for my taste…
( again, didnt you fail in your blog last year??? why messing with the same stuff again??? what did you change in the meantime…?)

Let me tell you what changes have you done:
NOTHING…

again, dont sit on the table IF YOU BRINGING NOTHING TO IT…

… but i know… there is no instant money to be made here… no cash…
why waste HIS time with us… why help us…
who cares about a bunch of dreamers , idealistc idiots like us…

let me tell HIM who cares…

DAVID ALAN HARVEY cares…
in case you didnt notice mr….

… DAH cares….
now try to prove the photo world that you care too…
laughing…
c’mon malaka…
give it a try…
PROVE ME WRONG !!!!! ( if you can )
or better IGNORE ME !!! ( if you can’t )

love you ALL…
i had no idea how strong we are…

panos
“the monogamous blogger”

panos

i’m listening bro…

anton

me too. And I even understand you well. Somehow.

kurt

nice one.. shame about the Mennonites.. the blues thing is good.. can you still photo it? i kind of want to see more of the lives of people who go there.. wonder about the longest standing members who are keeping it alive?

chris

good to know my 12.5% is sorted.. :o)

panos..
welcome to freelance photography :o)
it is a very tough path to follow, and without the benefits of workmates, as with musicians or actors, the loneliness of ‘the road’ bites much more than most – perhaps even you – know..
the monotone and balance presented by many photographers words conceal just what you are detailing.. and more.. loose a house to it.. loose a relationship.. spend ALL of your time away from friends and family.. isolation.. poor.. tolerate the industry you apply your photography to.. challange people who steal from you.. see more than most.. see more..
caught in thought-circles on long journeys without the escape of companionship to bounce the idea’s off..
there is little more pathetic than crying in a hotel room thousands of miles away from anyone who cares.
pieces of life.. moments to take home and organize into a life.. a way of representing yourself without words as, perhaps, words are not your thing.
whatever.
the rewards are worth it or they are not.. for me they are.. and for many they are..
music photographer, friend and college Giles killed himself early 2007.. it does happen panos, so please – try not to dwell on that here.. whatever you feel right now, it could get a lot more challenging..
all i know is that when i got what i wanted it was tougher than i could have imagined, more interesting than i could have dream’t and more difficult, socially, financially.. personally.. than i’d been taught..

on blogs.. i don’t really think this is a blog.. davids blog posts are minimal compared to the responses and conversation, so it’s a forum.. and a great one.
good blogs have a lot more photos.. like this one :o)
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

HEY PANOS

No don’t you go thinking like that, OK… I have lost too many people over the last few years…

There is something invaluable that you do, you speak your mind and I respect that more than a lot of self congratulatory back slapping…

Don’t worry I have made a load of erm, not enemies really, but definitely a load of people that really don’t like being around me…

And I don’t give a shit either, its important to be true to yourself… and when you figure out how to say all that stuff thats going on inside in a way that causes other people to go, yep I know what he means, then well you know you are not actually alone…

I mean I am on the other side of the world going, yep I know exactly what PANOS means…

So you are not alone at all, I think loads of people reading this blog probably get it, but just are not quite brave enough to yet to tell everyone to go get F*&^#3D!!!

Besides you must know by now, I think every girl reading this has a big crush on you!!!!

So as we say in the world of bastardized English from Australia- ‘Give yerself an uppercut and wake up t’yerself”!

Love you bro…

PANOS:

WITH YOU…listening…

sent you an email….

running
b

DOUG / PANOS

exactly..this too shall pass..till then, Panos, do the therapy, go shoot…

ANTON / all OAXACAites

have a wonderful trip and a journey to remember..we are waiting to see where you went..and what you brought back

/\ spot on from young tom..

the tihng that strikes me KURT is that you did it.. in the moment.. you saw opportunity and you gently eased in.. at the time – in the moment – you did the job.

there will always be people after the event who may raise problems.. whatever we shoot..
acting in the moment.. being aware of opportunity.. that really works..

we’re trying to drag you into the blog.. you know?

fresh meat..
:o)

Panos, there is much power in challenge too :))) The most dangerous guy in the room is the one who feels he has nothing to lose … people fear that, try to put it down, build boxes and stuff sacks and try to cram round pegs in square holes … instead of trying to understand … to understand would be to see, and most people just do not want to see. Be proud you are round in a room full of squares!!! :)))

And then there’s the advice the old grizzled newspaper veteran told me when i had just pissed off a whole town … he asked me, was the story the truth? … to which i said yes … And he smiled and said, you ain’t bad Hyde but nobody’s got a corner on the truth … was the story accurate, he asked … and i said, hell yes … then, he said, sometimes you just have to say fuck ’em.

Panos, you’re doing great important things with Venice Beach, catching the last of the real, the true grit, in a bottle against time before the whole place is wall-to-wall condos and completely gentrified … coming very, very soon i understand … put all you got there man, it’s a great American story unfolding and time is short. It is happening everywhere … the world is flattening and WalMart is king … Venice Beach is an allegory for all the wonderfully funky American diversity being laid to waste. All the rest for you is just trivial … who gives a crap … you got some history to write and YOU are the only one who can do it! Show me more!

peace, tom

PANOS

If shooting is your therapy, what is editing for you?

I find it to be one of the things that makes me crazy!

After shooting do you notice that you are happy for a couple of hours/days????

ALL
Shooting Therapy really or is it the cause of the insanity?

-={ ( .)_(. ) }=-

After shooting do you notice that you are happy for a couple of hours/days????
—————–

Oh, that’s an old S. Pailin quote!

:-)))

Busy week, ‘later….

PANOS,

You are larger than life and have a burning inner light – it’s plain to see for all who meet you.

Take a look at this –

http://www.kerrypayne.net/photoessays/essay1.php?id=1

Don’t bother with the images – you’ve seen them already…

Select the thumbnail with the text and read that — then pick up your camera and go make some pictures. Tap into this feeling and see what comes of it. Share it with us, if that helps.

And Panos, please, please remember that light always does follow dark. And that you have many friends here.

Hugs,
Kerry

Hello All:

I would like a bit of feedback if you don’t mind.

At this time I have a section on The 37th Frame on the right side of the page called Readers Forum, but there has not seemed to be much interest in readers commenting on it. And the idea of posing a question such as thoughts on the state of the newspaper industry or any other topic, may be too narrow for such a broad audience.

Today Andrew B. sent me a single photo to post and it gave me an idea.

What about replacing the Forum with A Photo of the Day Critique section. I will post random images for comments. These will be images I find on the net or that are submitted.

I think it may be interesting to see what others thoughts are in images posted there.

Any thoughts?

Feel free to email me at petemarovich@the37thframe.org. Posting here is fine, but I don’t want to hijack David’s blog.

David, if you are reading, I would also like your opinion.

Thanks all, and thanks for the support!

David,

Ideally the images will be submitted since I think it would be nice if the photographer included in their caption, why they shot it and why they like that particular image.

Otherwise there may, from time to time, be a published image that I use for discussion. This would fall under usage for purposes of education, illustration or comment as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. (Fair Use)

David:

The 37th Frame has taken off beyond my expectations. We are at just under 10,000 page views and the site has only been up for about 10 days. So I think there is a good chance that we can get a dialog going.

If you have not visited the site, please stop by. http://www.the37thframe.org.

As for invading peoples sites for photography, the only images that I would consider using that weren’t submitted where images that were published online in places other than a photographers portfolio or archive.

ughh david why’d I click that youtube link… why?

Hey Pete–that sounds great, “Crescent City Blues” is a little incomplete IMO, most of it is from a single day of shooting, but it would be great to get some exposure for it. I’ll send you an email later in the day. Thanks for the invite!! The site looks killer.

Patricia:

Silvia Roitman 24-Sep-2008 04:02
great!
Char 24-Sep-2008 03:53
Hi Patricia,
Excellent shot! Great lighting. \/
pr_rajan 24-Sep-2008 03:52
…beautiful composition!

I don’t see Panos’ comment anywhere.

:-=(

David, David, David

Watch that chill. I got hypothermia once after a river rescue and it was most unpleasant. For a couple of hours I actually lost my mind. It has taken me since 1991 to finally take a dip in chilly north Atlantic waters in 2006.

A brief encounter with insanity, however, was an extraordinary experience though I wouldn’t care to go through it again.

PHOTOSHELTER may well be the way to go. They have just rolled out some fantastic new features including their VIRTUAL AGENCY facility which is now FREE. I would encourage everyone to consider this. I’ve been with PS for a long time now and it has always been a flawless, efficient and elegant experience.

The virtual agency facility would be PERFECT for this endeavour we’ve got happening here. And we could even help ourselves a little by selling our prints. I’ve got my eyes on some of Eric’s and Chris’ work which I would LOVE on my walls. Those syrupy rich hues just ooze sensuality for me and when I’ve got some ducats to spare I’ll try and fetch me some.

Seriously y’all, let’s talk about this. I’m certain the PS people would love to be involved. This could be evolutionary.

My youngest is hungry again so need to go.

I’m back. We cannot keep up with our Connor. He has copious appetites at the moment. The largest of which is for FOOD!

Please David, when you have a moment and fancy a giggle, please peruse http://www.photohumourist.com which is now DONE, finally. I appreciate that you are snowed under with requests etc.. but just knowing you had a look would feel good to me.

Scroll down to Virtual Agency here and have a think, folks. Also, keep in mind that there is a free account option a PS. Storage is limited but for the purposes of this blog and what we are doing here, you only need upload screen res files and so the FREE ACCOUNT would stretch a very long way.

Enough from me. Too much to do. Two books to finish and promo cards to dispatch.

‘Till later.

Paulyman

Paul Treacy

Free is always good and I’ll try it along with Panos.

Looks very good.

Sorry Hi Quality link here:

DAH

take really good care of yourself; I have had this thing that started as a cold for 10 days now, and I am not over it yet..kick it out of your body now..

David B.

SHIT! Yes I have your email and I remember getting it, it just somehow got buried in the onslaught. I have been getting a lot of emails lately.

But I do have it and I will reply tonight.

1/2 hour audio interview with Susan Meiselas..scroll down the page to:

Documentary Photography

Photographer and MacArthur fellow Susan Meiselas is best known for her work covering political upheavals in Central America in the 1970s and 80s. The International Center of Photography (ICP) is hosting the first U.S. overview of her work, “Susan Meiselas: In History.” It’s on display through January 4, 2009.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/10/20

6 min 50 or soto 7 mins of the interviews hits nails on heads for me…

PANOS,

Unfortunately, life isn’t perfect and after all that was wisely said by Chris and the others I only want to repeat you are not alone and, cliché I know, but we can make the difference, we don’t need to bend our principles, we can change things.
AND WE ALREADY DO!!! Be in peace!

HILLARY,

I had the same problem described by David with your website. Using a Macbook and tried Firefox and Opera.
Anyway, really liked the Western United States landscapes and the underwater pics. The opening picture is the best!

KURT,

Your pictures put me in a time machine and brought back memories of years ago when my wife was studying classical guitar and I used to watch her rehearsals.
You captured the mood! Sad part of the story is they are homeless now. Hope they find another one soon…

CHRIS,

Despite being a color guy your B/W are amazing and, as I posted before, your approach on photographing surf makes it much more interesting than the regular pics we see around in surf magazines. BTW, I am not a surfer…

AKAKY,

Why don’t you think about a book of chronicles? Your dialog with Capa was superb!

Cheers,
Ari B.

Hi PETE,

I was visiting 37th Frame and tried to include a comment, but it says the comments are closed…
Lack of ideas right now to help you improve something else but I really appreciate your initiative, liked the look of the website and am willing to contribute.
Congrats!

Ari B.

PETE M

I just sent you a candidate for the “Photo of the Day Critique” on the 37th Frame. Hope you can use it!

Cheers,

Thanks Pete.
The confusion was made when I clicked at the topic “A Photo a day – Your opinion please…” and was looking for a comment window.
I left a comment there and will submit something to you soon.

Cheers,
Ari B.

PANOS…

Here’s a job opportunity for you. In VENICE no less…working for LAUREN GREENFIELD. Oh wait…it says you need strong interpersonal skills…nevermind! :))) Just kidding…you should apply.

http://www.lightstalkers.org/lauren-greenfield-studio-seeks-photo-assistant

Gave you a “review”, Pete (37th frame), Pat too.
I forgot to say the loft WS slideshow was quite special. I keep forgetting the names, some of the work was really amazing, each shot adding to the other, and I was not disappointed by David Keenan’s “faggot” story. Funny, for years I thought the word meant a bunch of fire wood (fagot in french)…
Panos, next time you go into the woods, don’t forget to bring some faggot for our fireplace! :-)))))

the 37th Frame…..has a new photo to critique….don’t leave me commentless!!!

I’d hate to be the one that silenced the crowd right after the show started!

:D

And back on topic…balance…I am fortunate that I don’t rely on photography to pay the bills…so there is no “obligatory” shooting…but I am discovering I want to focus less on snapshots and more on developing my own perspective and style…

good morning light to all out there ….
A.

Tom, you reminded me of the Clouzot movie : the “Picasso mystery”. Picasso himself said and knew of course that “questions are more interesting than answers”…

… Which is why I always thought David rarely asnwers mine!!! They stand as testimony of the greatest, unattainable mysteries in our lives….

:-))))) (remember, I am just a house painter, and…. Well, Off to work!)

i know where everyone has gone…

http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/10/should_magnum_do_fashion.html

AHA!!! I felt like I was one of only a handful still in the room. Thanks, David B. for explaining THAT mystery!

Patricia

Thanks for that quoted passage, Tom. I’m making dinner now and that quote is rolling around in my head as I cook. It’s wonderful. Tomorrow I’m going to allow myself to go in search of some mysteries. Time to hit the streets again. Afresh.

Did Einstein say all those things? Wow!

Hi all,

Here are new photos
http://gallery.me.com/audreybardou#100536&bgcolor=dkgrey&view=mosaic&sel=0

Best regards, audrey

Great texture on that pictures, Audrey!

AUDREY,

Nice builds! I particularly like picture 29 and 31.

J’espere que tu vas bien!!!!

Eric

Let’s try that again, shall we?

ERIC, I think the reason so many of those young athletes get into trouble is that the world that makes sense to them-the boxing ring, the baseball field, the basketball court, the hockey ice, the football gridiron, the soccer pitch–has definite rules and regulations, whereas the rest of society just seems to make rules up as it goes along and they are never quite as sure of where they stand.

Mistery, Life, Questions, No answers, Diversity, Freedom…
I go thru these words (among others), take a deep breath, smile and, inspired, start shooting!

AUDREY,

Keep going girl! I see your work like Patricia’s but with a different approach, a “french” approach. Different circumstances, different characters, same game, life, family.

ERIC,

Do you believe is there a way to be in a project as you are and not be emotionally involved with your subject, I mean the people?
I don’t think so, or at least I think it’s hard to stay away, and sometimes when I stop to think about what we are doing I get a bit scared, facing the responsibilities we put on our shoulders…

Cheers,
Ari B.

Ari, thank you very much, I hope that you will share very soon your images!!

ARI,

Hard indeed to not be emotionally attached. I have started to build a relationship with some of these young men especially more recently when we have started to talk about their lives etc as opposed to me just being there to take pictures… I obviously wish them well, would like them to succeed and stay on the right track but you feel so unable to help…

By the way, I am curious about your comment to Audrey on “doing it the French way”…. Being French myself I am just wondering what you would mean by that…

Eric

AUDREY,

I am trying to find the easiest way to show my pics. I have a portfolio at http://aribaiense.viewbook.com
But after the feedback I’ve received in the last few months, plus some new work I’ve been doing recently, it needs to be updated.

ERIC,

Don’t be worried! ;-))
Actually, it was just a way I found to show the difference from her point of view to Patricia’s, with a different background, culturally and geographically.

HILLARY and TOM,

Thanks for the quotes. Very interesting indeed.
I’ve being too lazy to read books in english and sometimes the translations, no matter how good they are, don’t give you the precise author’s idea or thoughts (I don’t find better words…). I must give up on my lazyness! (Even if i take an year to read a 100 pages book)

Cheers,
Ari B.

Due to circumstances I don’t get the time to post very often, but I try to read every day. The entire life/work balance is an interesting one, & one that I seem to deal with every day. Especially so at the moment.

It has now been exactly 12 months since I gave up the day job at the supermarket to go freelance. Ironically, I’ve probably accomplished less personal work in that time than before.

When you have a guaranteed income (full time other job) you are not relying on your photography sales for income. When relying on the photography, the income related work must take priority. The problem is trying to incorporate personal projects into your other work, & it’s a hard balance to maintain.

I’ve put up a link to some of my Timor cock fighting images on Lightstalkers. I’d be interested in any comments. I attempted to concentrate on the surrounding atmosphere. The light was very contrasty so decided to work with it, rather than against it. Hopefully it helps with the atmosphere.

There are twenty images. I know which ones I prefer, but am keen for feedback. I’ll eventually cut the images back to 6-8. Some of you may have seen some of the images before, but I have added some and deleted others.
http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/contact_sheet/12635

ERIC.
Respectfully, I think you may have fallen into the same trap that I did on my work in the Timor IDP camps. The critique I received from Bill Allard was pivotal for me. He thought that I went in too tight and ended up with images with too much “sameness”. I didn’t tell the entire story; the images were technically fine, but needed to go up another level.

I think you said that the gym helps keep youths from troubled pasts out of mischief? If so, I’d love to see some interactions/quiet moments, with their trainers/mentors etc.

Here’s the link to my pics, & if you missed the critique I’m quite happy to re-post it, or email it to you if you like. It may help put my words in contact. As an aside, I loved your use of light for “Semana Santa”
http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/contact_sheet/15197

PANOS;
Stick to your guns, just be you. Eventually the heavy grey clouds will part and you’ll feel warming rays upon your face. Just keep looking up……

And regarding following your own course…here’s a short poem from Sam Hunt. Sam’s New Zealand’s best known modern poet. He’s always followed his own path, never deviated, come hell or high water…

Beware the Man.

Beware the man who tries to fit you out,
In his idea of a hat,
Dictating the colour and the shape of it.

He takes your head and carefully measures it;
Says “Of course black’s out”,
He sees himself in the big black hat.

So you may be a member of the act,
He makes for you your special coloured hat,
Beware! He’s fitting you for more than that.

Cheers everyone

Audrey

Nice additions….I keep coming back to 29 and 31….all of the different textures and undertones of meaning…

There is something interesting about 29, as well….

best, A.

audrey

31, 32, 35, – – – and, and, and, 37 and 38 are just wonderful..

i know you will be aware of some duplicate photographs, and i think that’s okay..
it’s really great to see you carry the project forwards..

eric

if only it were the case that one profession or set of life experience led to stupid behavior, eh? :o)

patricia /ari

i’m not sure i see a national trend in the style of photography – just a human one..
i do see a subject choice which makes me think of nationality.. however not with yours and audreys work.. if i knew neither of you i do not think i would be able to guess which work was from which country, apart from references within the photos themselves.
i see the relative styles within photographers work more as a sign of the relative challenges, pleasures and struggles which they have experienced..

for me photography completely transcends geography these days, although i understand that this has not always been the case.
with the references being taken across the globe from the internet, i think it is more difficult to pin a style within a geographical boundary.. and more difficult to designate a movement to a country..

ari / eric

on caring about those we photograph.. may be it is the case that some of us care about people who enter our lives.. even if only through a project or random meeting..
it’s certainly true that i respect the shop keeper where i buy my newspaper equal to the people who commission me, equal to the people who i photograph.
any ones stress within the circle of people encountered cannot help but become our stress as well.. surely that’s the case even more if you are carrying out a project which binds you closer to a person than you are bound to the newspaper shop :o)

Yes, David. And I’d say “strange” is an understatement!

Patricia

David;

When I was mostly taking nature photos I used to notice a major difference in styles between UK & US nature photography.

I used to subscribe to Outdoor Photographer (USA) & Outdoor Photography (UK) and there was a major difference in style. The UK photographers seemed to have a “softer” more impressionistic style. Maybe it was a quality of light issue too??? I’m not sure, I haven’t visited either. I always seemed to naturally graduate more to the UK style.

Regarding “down” times… I wouldn’t mind a dollar for every time I’ve woken up in the middle of the night wondering if I was right to quit the day job/whether I can pay this month’s bills… But mostly by morning I’ve gotten over it…. Or pushed it to the recesses of the mind…..

Cheers

ALL,
I’m not acting hard to get…
This celebrity bullshit is simply bullshit..
I’m always here.. Right here..
Ready to jump in..
I’m Reading everything..
I got all the emails.. All the love.,
Overwhelmed.. I will respond to all
that really care.. ( that means to ALL)
I’m ready to take “charge” sooner or later..
But for now let me please enjoy this
Burrito…

.. Wait for me…
I didn’t forget you ..
Yeah right .. Like I can .. Anyways..

AGAIN .. We just started..

Sindey, well of course you are right.

I did allude to Sailor Song which was his first and only novel written by him alone some 28 years after Sometimes a Great Notion. (Last Go Round was co-written with Ken Babbs). But, for the most part, he did withdraw from primary authorship of novels preferring often for more collaborative works with students (we have a copy of Demon Box) or more experimental works (and The Further Inquiry too). But Kesey himself said he could never write another book like Sometimes, it just wasn’t in him.

It’s interesting, I think one reason the book isn’t more highly regarded outside the West is that it doesn’t translate well for those who have never spent a winter on the Northwest coast or been around logging or loggers and Kesey’s style and rich sense of place isn’t as accessible to those without first person experience as say, for instance, Barbara Kingsolver’s Congo in The Poisonwood Bible. This was true for me at least having first read Sometimes in Virginia before ever visiting the Northwest. The first 150 or so pages were then a mystery to me, almost alien beyond my capacity to grasp, now they are my favorite … he just absolutely nailed it all for all of us out here, especially those who headed west, all the way west, now just jammed up against it.

It’s interesting, Friedlander grew up in Aberdeen, WA, a pure logging town on the Washington coast. I worked with a woman who went to high school with him and she said he was always taking pictures. I wonder how growing up in a small logging town, not unlike Kesey’s coast, influenced his work or outlook. I know what it did to Cobain.

Audrey, i love your work :))) these are all great and yes, 38 is special!

Did somebody say 38 Special?

‘This video is not available in your country. ‘
:o/

Audrey, #36 for me, wonderful shot, love it.

Still, I am intrigued by #35. Ok, what the hell is on that plate, I’ve been looking, looking, but je donne ma langue au…Chat! And don’t tell us he (le chat!) really drinks from that glass, by gosh, a cat watching TV at the dinner table, that’s plenty of animal tricks already! ;-))))

from the DICTIONARY….

what is the definition of a “classy woman”…????

….. “ROSEMARY”……. is the answer…!

HIGH END POETRY…

“…..I’ve created a monster, cause nobody wants to see Marshall no more
They want Shady, I’m chopped liver (huh?)
Well if you want Shady, this is what I’ll give ya
A little bit of weed mixed with some hard liquor
Some vodka that’ll jump start my heart quicker
than a shock when I get shocked at the hospital
by the doctor when I’m not co-operating
When I’m rockin the table while he’s operating (hey!!)
You waited this long, now stop debating
Cause I’m back, I’m on the rag and ovu-lating
I know that you got a job Ms. Cheney
but your husband’s heart problem’s complicating
So the FCC won’t let me be
or let me be me, so let me see
They try to shut me down on MTV
But it feels so empty, without me
So, come on and dip, bum on your lips
Fuck that, cum on your lips, and some on your tits
And get ready, cause this shit’s about to get heavy
I just settled all my lawsuits, FUCK YOU DEBBIE!

[Chorus: Eminem]
Now this looks like a job for me
So everybody, just follow me
Cause we need a little, controversy
Cause it feels so empty, without me
I said this looks like a job for me
So everybody, just follow me
Cause we need a little, controversy
Cause it feels so empty, without me

[Verse Two: Eminem]
Little Hellions, kids feelin rebellious
Embarrassed their parents still listen to Elvis
They start feelin like prisoners helpless
’til someone comes along on a mission and yells BITCH!!!
A visionary, vision of scary
Could start a revolution, pollutin the airwaves
A rebel, so just let me revel and bask
in the fact that I got everyone kissin my ass {*smak*
And it’s a disaster, such a catastrophe
for you to see so damn much of my ass; you asked for me?
Well I’m back, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na
{*bzzt* Fix your bent antenna tune it in and then I’m gonna
enter in, endin up under your skin like a splinter
The center of attention, back for the winter
I’m interesting, the best thing since wrestling
Infesting in your kid’s ears and nesting
{*bzzt* Testing, attention please
Feel the tension, soon as someone mentions me
Here’s my ten cents, my two cents is free
A nuisance, who sent? You sent for me?

[Chorus]

[Verse Three: Eminem]
A-tisket a-tasket, I go tit for tat with
anybody who’s talkin this shit, that shit
Chris Kirkpatrick, you can get your ass kicked
worse than them little Limp Bizkit bastards
And Moby? You can get stomped by Obie
You thirty-six year old baldheaded fag, blow me
You don’t know me, you’re too old, let go
It’s over, nobody listen to techno
Now let’s go, just gimme the signal
I’ll be there with a whole list full of new insults
I been dope, suspenseful with a pencil
ever since Prince turned himself into a symbol {*knife slices*
But sometimes the shit just seems
everybody only wants to discuss me
So this must mean I’m dis-gus-ting
But it’s just me, I’m just obscene
No I’m not the first king of controversy
I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley
to do black music so selfishly
and used it to get myself wealthy
(Hey!!) There’s a concept that works
Twenty million other white rappers emerge
But no matter how many fish in the sea
It’ll be so empty, without me …”