¨yet there is still a “ballet” for doing this type of shooting….and how to move confidently but politely is the key to moving in fast..¨

yess, yess.. and avoid all elbows..
my favorite kind of photographing..
:ø)

David – I watched you do it and in complete agreement with Dallas. I wasn’t trying to be the fly on the wall and was there in anticipation of you give us the hands-on. It paid off. One of the best 9 minutes I had :). All documented as part of the class “material”.
Thank you !!!!!

DAH… right now i ´belong´ to planning a lesson in advertising photography and the tools needed..
yes… quite.

..and there is a pile of negatives on the lounge floor.. piles of files.. of parties and misdemeanors.. all of it shot with a broad grin.. shape-shifting along with the other animals until the bitter end, when they gather in the all night tea tent for the final ´quickening´.

seeing this post i could not resist, since much of my adult life has been spent accepting those hugs, talking about plant pots and wearing out my knee joints.

the left one ceases up frequently these days,
and maybe that´s why i really need to get back to this lesson plan..

or the negatives.. tempting.. even bought a new loupe today.. it´s magic.. i see photos i cannot even remember taking..

listened to you on ´listening to the music´.. one thing at a time.. and read back, about how a book is not finished until it´s on your ¨mothers coffee table¨.

DAVID BOWEN…

i am with you all the way in everything you said…i just like having you here once in awhile….come when you can and when it feels right…

cheers, david

Its interesting that you bring this up David, i was just in L.A last week and i got to visit a subject of mine who is part of a project on Arab Hip Hop that i have been shooting for a year now ( I was inspired by your book). Its interesting to look back and see how my work with my subjects has changed since i started this journey. At the beginning i was more of an aggressive shooter, you would notice me in a crowd, i wanted to get as much pictures as i could since i felt i was going to loose the chance to get some good ones. But now that my relationship with these artists has developed and we have become quite good friends especially after shooting with them in beirut,bahrain,damascus and L.A this year, i have become a more of a fly on the wall photographer, and its because they are so used to me having my camera always present. Another reason is because i am allowing myself to take my time with this project and not rush it.

For me it depends on the situation.

I prefer to be somewhat invisible when I’m shooting people on the street. Usually I go and talk to them afterward but I like finding my subjects in those moments when they are least guarded – the nuance and vulnerability seem to disappear once they know you are there.

When I shoot a wedding or other party I also try to make myself not so obvious (which is definitely a challenge!) but people are much freer and not as self-conscious when they’re celebrating, dancing and drinking so it’s easier for me – I don’t have to think about hiding myself and I can be more aggressive.

David
for me public relation work good i feel confortable and let me be close to the action but any way the pictures does not work the way i want.
Saludos

Hey David,

I read your post below saying you want to edit some of the work, and mentioned me. Good news:) Anyway, the link to the project is through my name. I believe this is for EPF? The edit Ive wittled down to for the project (now called Little Pieces of Us, formerly HSH) is about 63 shots. I also did an edit combining it with Family Ties and you can see that at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinju/sets/72157608457710550/

then again, as Im thinking now, I might submit both but as two seperate projects, emphasis on Little Pieces of Us and with Family ties as a secondary project to fill out where Im going with my shooting.

To Answer your question without the influence of other comments –
Public relations does make shots more intimate,but the intimate pr does that, i suppose, not the touch and go kind. I have experienced difficulty in building that relationship and penetrating the I- have- just- met- you -and- you -want- my- shot awareness period. That really interferes with my photography. I find it easier to shoot and get some unaware- of shots of family and friends and acquaintances who are used to my camera being around and for whom the camera doesn’t stand out of the genera background. So I guess, PR wouldnt be the precise expression. I would call it fading out.

Watch my Eighteen Twentyone( http://www.vatsala.carbonmade.com ) , I think this is the closest that I have come to in illustrating what I say above.

DYLAN…

sorry i will miss you in Santa Barbara on this trip…when i made my plans for shooting in southern California, i totally forgot Thanksgiving on the calendar!!!…so, i am headed back east tomorrow to be with my sons…
but, back Cali soonest, so keep that cold beer cold!!

cheers, david

thanks D A H …

by the way – ciara leeming hooked up with DAM in israel and had a very interesting time.. as with the rest of her month working there.

muchos thanks to you passed on from her.
david

CHRIS HINKLE…

will do…i remember some nice work when i last looked at your site…

cheers, david

Nice topic. And something I struggle with myself (believe it or not I can be quite shy around strangers, though much less so now than I used to be).

I think a large part of it comes down to trusting yourself. Trusting that you are doing the right thing, and trusting that people will trust you once they see how committed you are and that your intention is good and serious. And sometimes, when people are drinking and having a good time, it’s best to lose that seriousness – while not forgetting how to operate your camera!

Here they are. I need to edit down by about half – there are a couple of obvious this view or that view in here:
http://jeanmross.zenfolio.com/p761354049

If it doesn’t like to the right page, go to the main one and look under “rail bridge”

I need help on both editing (my nemisis) and sequencing. Remembering that this is Sacramento so I’m thinking I should keep one or two “context setters.”

I’m hoping the last couple of shots fulfill the role of an iconic Jesus (again portrait and landscape to choose from).

many thanks – happy thanksgiving.

Jean

hey all / david

about the close contact, the “eye” contact and the people you are photographing being ok with it… i’ve seen david “on” and working several times now… and it’s definitely a learning experience…

the first time i saw him work i just didn’t know what was happening, i had never even considered this way of working…

i would be either wayyyy out from a distance “stealing” photographs or way in staging everything with models, sets, studio….

it never even occured to me that one could “make eye contact” as it were, in order to make the story one was after. david definitely taught me that lesson.

(AND this is seemingly in contrast to all the hard work in preparation of being able to be at the right place at the right time… a mixture of hard work, instinct, and sheer luck :)… but mostly hard hard preparation work…)

in the workshop mexico i had the benefit of (not speaking spanish myself) of teaming op with others who could speak spanish well, who facilitated the “quick” contact with people in the streets or at certain places, something which would be near impossible for me to do myself…

like the time when i wandered off with Rachel Been and we met two lovely old ladies walking in the street with a wheelbarrow full of wood on their way home… she offered me to help, and we took it from there…

light was good, i think we stayed and talked to the family (and made pictures) for a good 20 mins. everything came together, the contact, the timing, the lovely people, the great light, the house, and the dog (who kept on humping my leg for some reason :)))

i’ve shared these images before, but in light of david’s post, here they are again:

http://oaxaca.antonkusters.com/day5-story2/

yes it definitely is a fine line of being turned on when the light gets good, being “agressive” (in a positive way) when you see the oppurtuny arise, “working your way in” without disrespect, and staying in long enough, “working the hell out of it”, and stopping before you wear out your welcome. i, for one, have to learn to set aside my natural “shyness” and just get out there… push myself…

working hard on that one as we speak….

hugs
anton

Photographers are such good flirts :) I would be lost without the art of the ‘fast hookup’ in my tool belt and in my heart. Most people out and about don’t have time for more anyway, so it is helpful to be able to connect fast and intimate, to find the love that must be there, to reveal it, to revel in it, and then to slip away with a smile..no matter how earnest and honest and pure, there is a lot of play and fun and dancing with charis/grace/charisma (which comes from ‘chairein, to rejoice’) seems to be the door in..

Well said Erica :)

I wonder what people would say about some photogs’ way of “getting the shot” (like Gilden, for example)…
I can recall such moments -it all depends on so many factors- but rarely get what I want when not ‘there, in the middle of it and in the open’…

Can you recall moments when you weren’t flirting anymore ? Were the images good/better?

Cheers, T.

AKAKY: This is interesting.

AKAKY IRL: What’s interesting?

AKAKY: DAH’s most recent post. It’s all about how to get up close to people and take their picture.

AKAKY IRL: Is that a fact?

AKAKY: That’s a fact. He uses small lenses and gets in real close and gets those shots you see in the magazines. Stands right next to people and photographs them. Great stuff.

AKAKY IRL: How come you don’t do that?

AKAKY: Well, I’m not that kind of person, I guess. I prefer my way of doing it.

AKAKY IRL: Which is?

AKAKY: Squatting behind my bush camouflage with a telephoto lens.

AKAKY IRL: So close up for you is what, fifty, sixty yards away?

AKAKY: Yeah, more or less.

AKAKY IRL: I don’t think that’s gonna fly with your buds on that blog, dude. From what you tell me, they not really the camouflage types.

AKAKY: I get that feeling too.

AKAKY IRL: As for your bush camouflage, did ever occur to you that maybe it won’t work on a city street?

AKAKY: I didn’t think it’d be a problem at first, but it was. Too many people noticed and they kept calling the cops. So I adapted the rig so I can use it in the city.

AKAKY IRL: How did you do that?

AKAKY: The galoshes.

AKAKY IRL: What are they for?

AKAKY: I wear them so the dog piss doesn’t stain my pants. If that doesn’t work I just tell the cops that the camouflage is a fashion statement.

AKAKY IRL: You really are a wuss, guy, you know that, right? You should take up something where you’re less likely to get hurt, like aerobic bowling or competitive quilting or selling life insurance.

AKAKY: Yeah, I guess.

DAVID.

It seems there was a misunderstanding. :))

When I spoke to you Friday you said that you would be unavailable over the weekend…that there were 15 people in the class and that I could “come up for a drink.” I took that to mean that I would not be able to sit in on the class, which is what I asked about and would have liked to do.

I did consider driving up and back (three hours) Saturday just to see you and have a drink but decided against it. After all the drama of the previous night’s arrest, etc… my gut feeling was to stay home. I wrote Panos about it (he said to direct all communications for you thru him) and never heard back. Also posted a brief comment to you on the blog. So that’s what happened. Oh well….that’s life. Glad you had fun.

You did not recommend I take this workshop since there was no shooting/critique involved but hopefully I will have my chance to take a workshop with you one of these days! Please keep me/all of us posted on upcoming workshops.

I totally agree with your student and Eric. I was so enthralled watching you photograph in Santa Fe at your casita that I couldn’t stop talking long enough to let you photograph me!

Sorry to have missed seeing you.

I’d guess most of us could answer the question about whether we are in-close or fly-on-the wall photogs by simply looking at our most favored lens.

As for myself, I own a half dozen lenses but since I bought my Canon 40D a year ago October I’ve used my 17-50mm 2.8f lens 99.9999% of the time. Guess that says where I like to place myself–right in the thick of things!

I like people and they know it. A questioning look, quick smile and raising my camera so folks can see it, is often all that needs to happen for us to enter into the dance. If I want to take a portrait-type shot, I’ll just go up and ask if they’re OK with my taking their picture. In that case I give them my card and say, “Email me and I’ll send you a copy.” Other times I just shoot, often from my lap ’cause I like that perspective. It’s also less obtrusive, especially if I’m in conversation with my subject. But there are the times that I go in close, look through the viewfinder, snap what I want, and scoot away without making any overt contact with the subjects.

I just follow my intuition as to which approach is called for. The main thing I try to do is treat the people I photograph with respect.

God, I love doing what I do!!! Can’t believe it took me so long to find my way into photography. It fits this old social worker/visual artist like a glove.

Patricia

thank you david for this post. for someone like me who doesn’t have the chance to see you in action this is insight enough

bj

HIGHER RESOLUTION…

GOT WOOD ???

http://gallery.me.com/innerspacecowpanos#100446&view=mosaic&sel=0

KYUNGHEE LEE..

well, my friend , you already know what i think of your work…that is, after all, in the forward i wrote..but, what you do not know , is how incredibly grateful i am to have come home tonight after a long day and have your new book “Island” waiting for me…i have seen the pictures many times before, but to finally hold in my hands your exquisite book so full of texture and mood and sentiment was just pure joy to behold..

when a book is born, life changes for a photographer…a seminal moment without equal…i trust you are feeling this now…you should be very proud…and i am very proud of you and prouder still to have played a very small part in this, your very significant artistic achievement…

with respect and friendship,

david

BjA.Patiño…

i keep trying to get to the Philippines, but somehow i have never made it…i do hope to come to your country one of these days..

i love your little birthday party essay..

cheers, david

so did anyone win that contest David?

PANOS,

When will we see the edit that you did with David? Are you happy with where you guys came out? Any key learnings for you?

Just curious….

Cheers,

Eric

What was the correct question? Or did I just ask it? Naw, that would have been too easy.

Hey Kids!

Kyunghee’s book available here:

http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/mShowDetailsbyCatAmazon.cfm?Catalog=ZD591&CFID=7546429&CFTOKEN=75264348

“Publisher’s Description

The first photo book of the photographer living in Pusan.
The extract from the postscript by Magnum’s member David Alan Harvey
‘When I see her photographs, I sense a romanticism and a lyricism coming from deep inside. (Omission) Recognition with enlightenment. Familiarity with surprise. Distance with emotion. Kyunghee Lee puts all of this together as well as anyone I have ever seen.’ ”

DAVID,

Makes sense. Will go for the surprise… I actually attended a boxing tournament last Saturday evening so I have many new pictures that I hope you will like and that I have not yet posted :):):).

Cheers,

Eric

PANOS,

I am happy for you man!!! and I will patiently wait for the book and maybe before, the final edit on the on-line magazine… I wish I could have been in a corner of the lobby of the Cadillac Hotel just watching :):):). Some sould searching and exorcism combined seems like fun to witness :):)…

Cheers,

Eric

Good job Doug. I promise I didn’t cheat off your answer!

David –

Many, many thanks. Hope you have a good Thanksgiving with whatever family you choose to spend it with.

Jean

Hello all,

I hope all are well,
I believe that it is naturally made, it is one moment since I made of ” photos of street “, I never hide, I always make a smile or I ask for the permission, it depends on the context and also on my state of mind, sometimes, I do not dare, and the other times, I photograph without asking of questions and I catch myself myself… For Rose, I asked for the permission to photograph her, some weeks later, I gave her an image and it is her who insisted so that I continue to photograph her… I believe that all the meetings are important, I never know beforehand what it can give, but I have the intuition that there is something…

Best regards, audrey

JEAN…

i will spend Thanksgiving with my own family…wishing you well and do not let up…

AUDREY…

nice to have you back here….i am anxious to see soonest any new work you may have…

CLAUDIUS….

my favorite lens with film has been always the Leica 35mm 1.4 aspherical…with less than full frame digi, it becomes the 28 or the 20…

HILLARY…

off to airport, so cannot look your link now…back soonest…

cheers, david

Panos,

Dark Kids no. 3,4,6,7 and possibly 2 but not really but something like it.

Got Wood didn’t work for me too much….

Doug

Hey David!

Great post! Great shot! And great teaching! Really these are the kinds of things I love about this blog.

When I have permission, implied or otherwise, I have no problem working but I am still by nature one of those people that has to fight that inner voice when shooting people without striking up a conversation first. Charo always says I’m too polite, so little by little I’m becoming less so;-)

This posting is perfectly timed because I just did a workshop here in Barcelona with your friend Philip Blekinsop. The idea was to shoot street photography, which I have never been able to do easily. That is to say with out suffering.

In any event, the idea was to walk the streets of Barcelona with the camera up at our eye, completely in manual (manual focus also) and shoot people on the street without approaching them first.

Man did we flounder at the beginning! Everyone had their digital slr’s and no one was used to manually focusing. I too suffered greatly, until on the second day I said to Phil, can I just watch how you would work for ten minutes. Two of us went out with him and we could hardly keep up.

What an awakening! There was Phil, dressed in his patented vest, white Thai shirt, army green pants and boots with his Leica up against his eye, walking La Rambla at a brisk pace and looking for that play in the foreground, midground and background. He would come right up on people from behind, literally right behind them and then in that moment that they sensed him and felt his presence, he would turn the camera ahead and kept moving. Since he never dropped the camera they were never even sure if he was shooting them or something else.

In any event, it was a fantastic and liberating experience and eventhough I had more than a few people tell me off, including four Moroccan guys that I pissed off and followed me for five blocks, it helped me to overcome some personal obstacles.

Of course, I would love some quick feedback from you David if you have the time. This is a departure for me as far as the style goes, but I like it and think this could be the start to an interesting long term project on Barcelona.

You have two options to see it. One would be in my Photoshelter archive…
http://archive.charliemahoney.net/c/charliemahoney/gallery-show/G0000QZqVIWcdNpk

or you can find it on my site:
http://charliemahoney.net/display

Then go to Portfolios and click on “SPAIN: Corridors Barcelona”

David,

Thank you, that’s a good start to the day.

Yes, the ceiling was the clue.

Bag choice? The one I’ve seen you toting is the correct size so something like that.

Hopefully the ‘good luck’ continues for next week’s Zimbabwe trip….

Doug

CLAUDIUS,
David said his favourite with film was the 35mm lux asph. Even though I think he has an M8, I think he prefers Nikon for digi. And both in the case of Nikon dx and the M8 you have to use wider lenses to get a 35mm equivalent.

Cheers

DAH,

My “part of California” is actually…. in WA state! I live in Seattle.

Anyway, book is on the way. Hope you like it.

RE: M8

My fave lens on this puppy have been the 28 Summicron f/2 (which makes it about a 37 and the Zeiss 18 which becomes a 24.

The 35 Lux has always been my fave on film Leicas. Imagine that!

Karim,
You’re just jealous ;) Just kidding, would probably shoot film if I had some good labs around where I live, but I don’t + I like the M8. Sold it once and I don’t think I’ll do that again.

Martin,

Ok.. we’ve gotta break this habit soon otherwise its gonna be stereo here on out…

PANOS
everyTHING…

ALL
Ooops, wrong address for the reader:
http://jnss.x10hosting.com/dah_reader/main.php

NEIL,
Explain. I’m not native american you know. But if it concerns the gear talk don’t only adress me.

Cheers

but, JEAN…
I NEED YOUR HELP….
Karim insists that through the reader YOU INVENTED,
I CAN EASILY ISOLATE all the comments been posted under
my name… is this true… is it that simple ????
you are a genius… can you please send me a link???
or email me here:
innerspacecowpanos@mac.com
;-)

Dear Kyunghee Lee,

So good to get some news from you!
Glad to know my name stuck with you ;) …even if I don’t know about that traditional African sculpture you talk about. Tell me more, please.

Your name also stayed with me – with such a bad memory, it’s a good sign! But a person like you is very hard to forget, I assure you! I don’t think you’re easy to forget, nor is your work…

Panos,
thanks for talking about that Cadillac hotel editing… I can picture it, it must’ve been great! ;)

David,
Anyway we can meet once you’re back in NY ?

Gotta jet to buy that big bird for tomorrow!

TO ALL,
(even those who don’t celebrate it),
… Happy Thanksgiving!
and may you have a good time with friends & family!

Cheers, T.

DAH–

close.
that’s all i know.

claudius–

your work on ‘margins’ really moved me.
i am excited to see more,
keep going! :)

all–

i give thanks for this community.
i don’t talk sbout my work much yet.
but i will. and i know you all will
be a big help to me.
esp. you DAH. :)
and for this i am grateful!

happy give thanks day!! :))

katia

PANOS
Of course it’s possible!!!
I sent you a mail!

KARIM
Thanks for making the ad for my reader! Did you receive my mail?

Marcin beautiful work. Beautiful…. maybe you can caption some so we know a ‘lil bit more?

I still like think it would be cool to hear your voice as the pictures go from one to the other.

Keep shooting the films!

– Ryan

Thanksgiving is almost upon us again, the date on which we look back on the year and give thanks to the Lord for His many blessings to us and our country. I suppose I should be thankful, simply as a matter of courtesy; after all, everyone else is thanking Him and I suppose I should, too; but at the moment I have a cold and what I really want to do is go home and drink Nyquil by the tubful until I pass out. The Lord is from everlasting unto everlasting—I know this because I heard Charlton Heston say so in The Ten Commandments—and He can wait for me to feel better to get His thanks.

In any case, Thanksgiving has never been one of my favorite holidays. When I was a kid, Mom and Pop would pile all of us kids into the car and we’d go to some relative’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. These trips were, almost invariably, marked by parental discord, followed by my father blaming us kids for the quarrel and warning us that we’d better be quiet or we’d get the strap laid across our backsides. Then when we got to wherever we were going, we had to be polite and not run or jump or scream or knock over this particular relative’s collection of fine 18th century fine Dresden china, thereby breaking every single piece of it into pieces so small that they defied repair. But let’s not go there; there was plenty of blame to go around on that particular misadventure (no, it wasn’t my fault, really, I don’t care what my brother says, and yes, my aunt had all of that stuff insured).

The worst aspect of those Thanksgivings was not having anything to eat while waiting for the turkey to cook for fear we would ruin our appetites, and second, our parents not letting us play outside because they didn’t want us to dirty our clothes. So there we were, five growing and very hungry boys, stuck in a house full of the smells of Thanksgiving dinner, with sideboards groaning under the weight of cookies and cakes and pies of every description and we couldn’t have any of it. We hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch, so there’d be plenty of space for dinner, and so at around three o’clock we were going out of our minds with hunger. Meanwhile, the grown-ups sat at the dining room table stuffing their faces with fruit and cookies as they yammered away about politics, family gossip, and who died that year and how they knew last Thanksgiving that the deceased wasn’t going to survive till next Thanksgiving. After all that, of course, we fell on our dinners with the avidity of a flock of vultures dining on an elephant carcass, only to listen to Mom and Pop complain all the way home that we hadn’t behaved ourselves after hours of the most appalling psychogastronomical torture imaginable. Frankly, as a kid, the one thing I gave thanks for on Thanksgiving was that Thanksgiving only came once a year.

And then there was biliary colic. Biliary colic is a condition I’d never even heard of until one Thanksgiving a few years ago. Biliary colic occurs when a gallstone lodges in the gall bladder’s bile duct, causing a major back up in the gland. This usually happens when the victim consumes large amounts of fat on an empty stomach, as when my brother and me stuffed a two-pound bag of salted pistachios into our pieholes (we love salted pistachios, but you probably guessed that already) in the ten minutes just before Thanksgiving dinner. I will spare the squeamish reader the gruesome details of how biliary colic manifests itself. I will say that Thanksgiving dinner is rarely as good coming up as it was going down and that this time was no exception to that rule, and that I still think that the trip to the emergency room was unnecessary; but my mother thought I was having a heart attack and she demanded that I go. I spent Thanksgiving night having tests done and sharing a cubicle with a correctional officer who’d nearly lost an ear in an altercation, as he put it, with a shank-wielding inmate. The man bore his wounds with a good deal of equanimity and my male ego, a delicate flower like all male egos, took a truly massive hit having to admit to this guy that I was the victim of a pistachio (though it was a very tough pistachio, for the record; really, it was).

Last Thanksgiving wasn’t so bad, all in all. I went to my brother’s house for dinner and a good time was had by all and sundry. The food was excellent and afterwards we all gathered in his living room to watch football. About an hour later the tryptophan started to kick in. Tryptophan, for those of you who’ve never heard of it, is an amino acid that occurs in most living things, but is especially prevalent in Thanksgiving turkeys. It is the bird’s revenge for being dinner. Tryptophan causes extreme sleepiness in most people and we were no exceptions. Two brothers fell asleep on the couch and another went into the bedroom and sprawled out amongst the gathered coats, hats, and gloves like a beached whale and promptly went into a coma.

This, apparently, is a common reaction to tryptophan, an effect well known to the public and public health authorities alike, and one must wonder why the government does not better regulate turkeys. Users of tobacco and alcohol are ceaselessly bombarded with public service advertisements warning them of the dangers of smoking and drinking, state attorneys general cannot wait to sue tobacco and liquor companies for every dime they can get out of them, and yet no one does anything about the menace of tryptophan. I have searched the Internet and medical databases alike looking for a study on the effects of this powerful narcotic on drivers’ reflexes, and all to no avail. Millions of drivers will take to the road this holiday with several pounds of turkey in their digestive tracts, and they will be eating turkey for the rest of the week as well, thousands of accidents will occur from one end of the country to the other, and yet no public health official in this country can say for certain if the mass ingestion of turkey played any role in these tragic events. This ignorance of tryptophan’s role seems to me to be the very height of folly. Given its well-known side effects, how can anyone say that eating turkey and driving is an intelligent thing for any person to do?

And yet there are no angry parents demanding that the government do its job and order this obviously unsafe product out of the nation’s supermarkets. The sale of tryptophan-laden turkeys goes on and on and no one seems to care one way or the other. That a young child can buy a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise in any deli in the United States without a doctor’s prescription or a parent’s consent is nothing short of criminal, a burning mark of shame on the brow of any nation that calls itself civilized.

The trade in tryptophan is simply unacceptable by any rational standard and the government must do something to either control or ban such traffic outright. This may cause the traffic to go underground, and there is always the possibility of organized crime penetrating the cold cuts industry or organizing illegal delis in the same way they’ve organized crack houses, but the risk is worth it if we can prevent widespread addiction to tryptophan.

The most important step the government could take is to systematically educate the public away from its association of turkeys with Thanksgiving and to substitute some other foodstuff with the holiday. A family can just as easily thank the Lord for his blessings with a glazed ham or with a take-out pizza as with a turkey. Parents must take the lead in this matter; your children and a grateful nation will thank you for your brave choice someday. In the meantime, I’ll have the Sicilian slice with the extra cheese and Italian sausage.

And a Happy Thanksgiving to you all…for the non-US citizens here, enjoy your Thursday

MARCIN

Superbly seen and shot. I must admit, my favorite is the little boy playing all by himself in the sand. But they’re ALL beautiful! I do love your color work.

Patricia

Settling down now finally, photographically speaking. I’ve resumed my blog and recently posted three shots from my own “families” project from Iwood in northern Manhattan where I used to live. These images touch on both situations you address, David, on your post here. These images resulted from trust developed over 5 years in which my family and I became established in the community. Because I was well known to all photographed in these pictures, I was virtually invisible. Hope you like them. There are many more to come. The post is here,

http://photohumourist.blogspot.com/2008/11/friendship-community-light.html

The blog itself is here,
http://photohumourist.blogspot.com

Patricia, my parents are in Thailand at the moment as well. I’m a little concerned. They’re staying with a friend of theirs and are not expected to return to Ireland for several weeks yet so hopefully it’ll settle some before then. Scary situation. What has happened in India this evening is all together more terrifying however.

Cathy, Patricia, thanks for your concern. Well, I travel on the cheap, so I am not too concerned with the airport closures, still in Cambodia as you recall. Just to remind you that the turmoil is done by people who once cried for more democarcy and now find it does not give them a big piece enough of the cake, so would settle for much less of it, ironically calling themselves ALLIANCE for DEMOCRACY.

Of course, behind all that is simply positionning by the powers that be (and can!) as the old monarch is nearing the end of his reign.

So after all, it seems once more I could have the Angkor temples all by myself, Cambodia being most often reached via Bangkok flights….

David was correct, if not by 100%. The place in my shot is slightly off from the boxing ring he captured, People can be foirgiven for not seeing…the lights! :-)

Do you know i was hired as a wedding photographer while visiting Angkor. Many wedding aprties come here for the proverbial wedding shots, from all around the country, and as their hired photographer ran out of film, one party asked me to the rescue, and e-mail result later. No kidding!

To be on topic, case of the shootee asking the shooter in the zone, not vice-versa, and that’s pretty much run of the mill before, no need to call and make arrangements beforehand!

And well, to be even more on topic, if contrarian, here’s a shot that tells the story, and not one person is closer than 20ft. A real feat in South East Asia where it’s simply near impossible not to get close!!!

When i saw the scene, i was reminded of Renoir meeting Poussin, with grassy soil courtesy of Monet, then click:

http://www.pbase.com/image/106407056/original

PS: Marcin, not sure what they call high speed internet here, will have to wait to see yourt last uploads.

Herve

Revenge!!!

The war photographer in the zone:

http://www.marcinluczkowski.com/photo/news/war1.jpg

:)

MARCIN,

I also like your colour work here and would hve wished to see even more. I particularly like pictures 5, 6, 7 and 10 with 6 for me being your special picture…
Please develop these other rolls so that we see more :):):):!!!!

Cheers,

Eric

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y’ALL!!!! :)))

from cold and dreary toronto, Marina and I just wanted to wish you all the best today, lots of light and love and food (healthy) and wine/water, whatever….we all have so much to be thankful of, just thinking of Mumbai is simply a reminder of that…

Panos: i am so proud of you and i am so happy that you and david sat down and did that work…shit, i feel your pain and relish in your hypnotic euphoria…this week, i had to write grant applications (marina too) and last night was sifting through my work of the last 6 years, just thinking of how to put that work into a book….a delerium that spirals like something from Dante, so i understand that fever and i am just so proud of you amigo…hard to believe the Panos now and Panos 1 year ago to this day, huh? ;)))…love from us 3…

Herve: glad to here your still ok and changing careers (wedding photographer) in Thailand…yea, that pic is cool, like manet/poussin by way of late bunel ;))…enjoy…

Marcin: love the color pics…dont surrender that…

Patricia: thankful indeed…and the Mumbai incident just breaks my heart…i hate to say it, but the older i become, the more weighted and bleak the world appears…we are a wretched mess of a species and i often feel ashamed at what we are…how to remedy this…less and less, i know….

Akaky: ok, dad, here’s a film i’ve meant to send you for a long time….It’s a film about YOU!!!Akaky Akakievich!!!!

by Yuri Norstein, the extraordinary Russian Filmmaker/animator…the quality here sucks, but if you can find the film: GET IT!!!

HE’S WORKED ON THIS FILM FOR 10 YEARS….it’s extraordinary…

OK KAY

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y’ALL!!!

HUGS
BOB

ps. to celebrate Marina and her GOLD MEDAL

Marina was just awarded a gold and bronze medal by B/W Magazine :)))))…read here

http://www.lightstalkers.org/congratulations-to-marina-black-gold-medal

http://www.bandwmag.com/spotlight2/sl2p22.html

BRAVA TO MARINA!!!!! You and your exquisite work SO deserve these international awards. Can’t wait to see them in B&W Magazine. It is such a fine publication!

Happy thanksgiving (American) to you, Bob and Dima. And have a wonderful visit with Bob’s mother…

love
Patricia

ALL

I know that the tragedy in Mumbai is on everyone’s minds and in our hearts today. I’d like to share a powerful composite that was created and posted today on PBase by my brother Rajan who lives in India:

http://www.pbase.com/prrajan/image/106421405

For those of us who celebrate this day as Thanksgiving and for all who celebrate every day with thanks, may we be grateful for life in all its manifestations. What is happening to our brothers and sisters in Mumbai shows us the preciousness of every moment.

love & peace
Patricia

Nice work Marcin, But I actually prefer WITHOUT captions. More and more as I move on I find captions to be somewhat superfluous. Could be a good topic for discussion.

Marina, well done. I’m going to try and find a copy of the magazine today.

DAVID, ERIC, PATRICIA, PAUL :)))))))

thanks so much for that…Marina (the smarter and more quiet of the Black Family PHotography Cooperative) really appreciates it, a lot :))))…and I am just so happy and proud of her :)))))…

ERIC and all: Ok, a little bit of the Old Bob black Post ;))))….as I mentioned, Marina and I just finished (actually she still has to finish another today) writing and submitting for Grant applications…both of us have big hopes for photography projects this year, but as always we’re paycheck-to-paycheck, so we submitted for some grants…one of the things that Bones has forced me to do is finally re-examine my work, and while it began as a stand alone body of work (an assignment) specifically for David, much of it fits into the basic working idea of what i’ve been trying in anonymity to do over the last couple of years…as David acutely recognized part of the work always has to do with Faces and Seeing (blindness), which would be me…anyway, so, i’ll leave below the Artist Statement for the Grant Project I’ve applied for…which is centered around my long-Term Project Faces (which along with Ordinary Things (family/friends), Disappearing Cities (Toronto, Russia, Lisbon) and Bones/Memories (of which my project last year for David’s EPF is a part)….so, anyway, here is what i wrote…

cheers all
hugs, especially for those in Mumbai…

bob
——————————————

ARTIST STATEMENT: ROBERT BLACK

FACES

“What we see is not made up of what we are seeing but rather from what we are.”–Fernando Pessoa

Faces gather time along their edges, sprockets of light pitched around thumb-bowed shadow, the way milk rims the lip and bottom-dip of a glass, the way bone sedimentizes sentiment pitched from the age and voice of the earth, the way glass and stone color from exposure. We speak of time, we speak of faces, we seldom speak of how they cauterize and coalesce into some odd unknowing. How is it that we distinguish one face from all the others? How is it that we speak of others and ourselves through an algebra of memory, speak of the faces that we have seen or known distinguished into certainty. What else is there in our knowing, at the heart of the well of our remembrance? How is it that we can ever photograph a face, for is it not the deceit (we believe we know another and ourselves by passing through the threshold of the face) that engines our operative waking? Is it not the very illusion under which we, photographers and non-photographers alike, negotiate and arrive each day we awaken and categorize neatly the arrangement of those surrounding us? How else, initially (and over recollected time) do we begin to work out an understanding of someone, let alone ourselves, then by quickly drinking up the constellation of the meaning and unmeaning in a face. Recall someone: face or action, which do you see initially? Can a person’s behaviour and character and life remain face-less? To the contrary, can we not picture and construct a face without action? Then what about the blind, what is etched upon their skull and lithe memorial imagery? You should know that I am blind in one eye and have struggled with un-seeing since I was a child. At at early age, and often to my horror, I learned that each face, while navigable, is not attainable. In fact, I have spent the better part of my life trying to decipher what is it, what exactly that we see when we look into a mirror: how is it that this chimera, this insolvable jigsaw is possibly “I”. When I became a photographer this became an ethical question: if I could not understand this revenant shell as me (my face yes, but surely not the “I” that is “me”), how then to photograph someone else, let alone their face? I have not yet solved this quandary. For several years now, I have been working on a long project about faces, a personal journey apart from my other work in pursuit of that reconciliation. The project is embarrassingly Narcissistic. You should know the truth about this project. Every other project I work on, every roll of film that I expose, involves taking a few photographs of the subjects’ faces, stripped of their context, their environment, stripped of all the surrounding earth-gravel and light-dust that we normally associate with photography, even at the risk of subverting the intent of the original projection on which I am at work. I often (only after people are comfortable) take a few extreme, close-up photographs, trying to get as close to people as I can, as if digging into a mirror. Soon, the disorienting calculus sets in: closeness, infinitely halved. Long exposures, focused, out-of-focus, short exposures, variable depths of field, all jostling in an effort to see how much can be removed in order to still retain the face of the “I’ or the “You”. And, I should add that I always photograph myself at least once each time before I unspool the film from my camera and often at the last frame. It is a diary of failure: how far away, how licked-over-distance in the print of a smudge of space: breath between a barracks of lens and light. These 6 photographs are a water-drop nub from this series, which is hopelessly large and seemingly endless. On good days, I think it’s the rhyme around which the rest of my photography and projects revolve and are resolved. On poor days, I feel that again I have failed to understand or properly photograph those faces around me. Failure is nothing new to any of us and that principle is the nexus around which these simple images, this project, should be fingered. In some sense, they are different from most of my work: less and more. I continue to photograph even when I have not yet understood how to begin.

Bereft. Beating. Brook.

Fall upon me.

Totally off topic but has anyone else heard of the new Nikon D3x?
I’ve just received a copy of Nikon Pro Magazine and there it is; 24.5 megapixels. The strange thing is there’s no mention of it in internet land. Everyone’s probably signed up to Non-disclosure Agreements.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mike R.

BOB, loads of congrats to Marina. Is she in this month’s issue or next month’s?

MARCIN…

if you can, please put all of your Thai photographs into one link , so we can see all at once…is that possible??? i saw one link, but am not sure if i may have missed another…i can comment, if you want, after i have seen everything you did on this trip…

cheers, david

Hey David,
have been back to BKK for a few days..not so easy to keep a “clear” head, but finally we did the first shooting tonight.
cheers,
katharina

And apropos absolutely nothing at all:

While rushing into a Wal-Mart early this morning, a maddened horde of bargain hunting shoppers nearly trampled a Florida woman to death as they swept into the store for the annual Black Friday sales. The victim, a heavy smoker who did not move out of the way quickly enough out of the way of the stampede, will recover from her injuries shortly, according to a spokesman for the local hospital. This is the sort of thing one must expect on Black Friday; after the mass ingestion of carbohydrates on Thanksgiving Day, millions of Americans must go to malls, supermarkets, swap meets, and other hubs of commercial activity today in order to exercise both themselves and the economy, this being good both for their individual health in particular and that of the economy as a whole. Many people have decried the growing trend towards trampling on Black Friday, reminding us all in their jeremiads about the meaning of the day before and how this aggressive attitude is not at all in the spirit of the holiday, but this, I think, is an outworn attitude, much like the demand for some form of religiosity in Christmas, and one completely at odds with the ongoing needs and mores of a modern 21st century commercial society.

In my humble opinion, not enough women are trampled going into Wal-Mart; the management should encourage mass trampling, with door prizes and possibly cash bounties given to the most energetic tramplers. Such trampling will encourage the weak-willed to stay at home and do their shopping online, while the stores cater to those shoppers best adapted to today’s Darwinian economic existence. And trampling could prove a cash bonanza in these recessionary times. What with the widespread popularity of professional wrestling, for instance, it is easy to see the commercial and broadcast possibilities in professional trampling. Reality show producers will jump at the chance to take an in-depth look into the private lives of women tramplers, giving an evermore voyeuristic public a close up look into the lifes and loves of women who will knock you on your fat ass in a heartbeat just to get the last fifty pound box of laundry detergent in the store. The giant megastore chains like Wal-Mart could organize entire leagues of professional trampling teams, with a Super Bowl of trampling held every year. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that millions of Americans would tune in to see tag team trampling in the aisles of their local supermarket. I know I would, but then again, I am easily entertained.

HERVE

I’m chiming in a bit late, but I wanted to say how much I enjoyed your ‘contrarian’ photo from Angkor Wat, an overview of a wedding party with a few odd Western tourists standing around… and the iconic buildings looming in the background. Very much my kind of photo! Yes, you often play the role of ‘contrarian’ here, which is one reason I so value your presence on the forum. Getting in close and intimate, and how one goes about it, was the theme this post started with, and that is surely important for photographers. Many people have offered great ideas, techniques, and commentary on this, no need for me to add my own repetitions, except to say I resonate with much of what everyone has said. I’ve tried most of the methods suggested. My final word has to be, how I get close (or not) just depends on the circumstances… and is a little different in each case. But I’d like to put in a word of support for also ‘stepping back’ and trying to take in the whole… without sacrificing telling and interesting detail. And I think you have succeeded with this picture. I’ll have a lot more to say about this in one of my infamous ‘long riffs’ (Hiya, Bob B!) coming soon to a blog forum near you.

FOR ALL YOU SARAH PALIN FANS

Thanksgiving, turkeys, Americana, Sarah Palin… this is as good a time as any to make a dark confession: I share some common ground with Gov. Sarah. First, we are both graduates of the same university, the U. of Idaho in Moscow, which we both attended after going to but never finishing at a number of other schools. I have her beat by a few years, however, graduating in 1979 (I first entered college in NYC in the fall of 1964 so it took me only 15 years to get a bachelor’s degree. I don’t necessarily recommend this educational plan to my younger acquaintances, but it had its good points). Second (vegetarians should stop reading at this point), I too have ‘field dressed’ and butchered a number of moose in my time. Not only moose… deer, elk, caribou, and bear. (But in my case, I didn’t shoot any of them myself… “I was only following orders…”) And finally, I have cut the throat, bled the carcass, stripped the feathers, gutted, and dressed many, many, many turkeys, as well as chickens, ducks, and geese. For several years in Idaho in the mid 70’s my only cash income was working part-time for a local and very small-time farmer-butcher-orchardist-taxidermist at $2 an hour, mostly in an unheated shed in fall and winter, starting a 6 AM. The qualifications for the job were: 1) the ability to show up at 6; 2) a strong stomach; and 3) not to cut one’s own hands off with the very sharp knives. Mostly we cut up fowl, probably 80% chickens, for local farmers, but hunters brought us some of the big game, and often paid for the butchering by giving us the skins and part of the meat… they were mostly interested in the trophy heads, which my boss, a rather mediocre taxidermist, would mount for them. But the real source of big game was road kill… which in Idaho legally belongs to the state. The game warden (there was only one for all of North Idaho in those days) brought us the road kills that were still fresh enough to be salvaged, we kept the skins and half the meat as payment, and the rest was used to feed prisoners in the county and state jails. Incidentally, for those of you who have never tried it, elk is the finest red meat you will ever taste… after eating elk for a while, you will turn your nose up at the coarse, semi-rancid, overly greasy taste of most beef.

Domestic turkeys are big, soft, stupid, and fairly docile creatures, in contrast to wild turkeys which are much smarter and taste completely different. Killing domestic turkeys really did seem like ‘butchery’ since there was little resistance. Geese, on the other hand, are ornery, mean, and very strong, and killing them is a battle that sometimes leads to real malice. For me the greatest qualms of conscience came with ducks. Domestic white ducks were not so bad, but sometimes we’d get mallards. They’d been bred and raised domestically, and so were ‘fair game’ (sic) so to speak… but they looked like wild mallard ducks. And they were beautiful. I adamantly refused to kill them with my own hands, to the bemusement and irritation of my fellow workers (I will offer this as part of my defense at my war crimes trial).

So where are the pictures, you may legitimately ask? In those days I was so poor I didn’t own a camera, nor could I have afforded to buy or develop slide film. When I got my first SLR several years later, I was already out of the business. It has been a long time since I have butchered a bird, and I have never, ever killed an animal for ‘sport’ (well, maybe a fish or two long, long ago by accident). I am not a vegetarian… when I do eat meat, I know exactly where it is coming from…

Bon apetit!

Sidney

Marcin thank you for the captions… gorgeous work man. Really nice.

With regards to this post I think there’s three simple secrets with regards to collecting images like yours David….

One, have an ethic that you can stand firmly behind if you’re going to record public life. i have what i describe as the ‘pool-match’ ethic. I ‘try’ never to collect, and i ‘do’ never publish an image of a person that i would not feel proud to confess to if one day i came by chance to be playing pool with them in a pub. I always had this ethic, but it wasn’t until i was in a local bar and this actually happened to me that i appreciated that this was actually my ethic. i think having an ethic can give you a feeling of entitlement to confidently collect images of public spaces..

Second, deliberate grace (my made-up term maybe) i think there is a certain grace in being deliberate in what you do, whether it’s crossing the street or raising your camera, framing an image, collecting the image, bringing the camera back down to your side, and walking on to collect another image somewhere else, maybe only a footstep away.

i’m convinced people love deliberate people around them, maybe it resonates something that makes them think everything is ok….i really don’t know, but i do know that you can deliberately collect an image of someone that is standing right in front of you without them taking offence, but even if you’re standing across the road from them and you have even an ounce of anxious emotion inside of you, in the seconds that it takes for you to raise your camera the entire block of people will be looking at you as if you are about to mug them!

Third, be deliberate, but also be efficient, when i see an image i want to collect i figure out exactly where my envelope of critical focus should be, pre-focus somewhere else if possible, and then raise the camera to collect the image, i think i know how a PGA putter must feel.

Anyway. This is all about candid photography. I recently took my first step at applying my ideas towards a real message while Rajasthan a few weeks ago. I would be grateful for any feedback I might collect on this edit.

http://www.RealReportage.com/CamelCrisis

Thank you in advance,

Joe

PS My deepest condolences to all those who have suffered in Mumbai and lost loved ones over these past few days – particularly to the released hostages.

Jenny

“i keep trying to get to the Philippines, but somehow i have never made it…i do hope to come to your country one of these days..”

that day will come. and so will the other one: when i go there and try to look you up :-)

“i love your little birthday party essay..”

thanks david! i wasn’t planning on being “on” then. i just had my camera with me so snap, snap. on the other hand, last night i attended an office christmas party (i know, i know, it’s only november, but here in the philippines the yuletide season begins when we hit what we call the “-ber” months) and i wanted to shoot seriously. came up with nothing at all.

sometimes the photos just come, don’t they?

take care,

bj

MARCIN:

http://www.marcinluczkowski.com/photo/news/war1.jpg

——-

Now come on, Marcin, you know very well all these dogs were coming from the front….The waterfront! :-)))))

Mumbai is all over the news here too. It is probably better that a pakistanese link be found, as this city has seen too many progroms where innocent were slaughtered (whole families) by the hundreds just for being muslims.

Just arrived in Pnom penh today. Another festival of photography is taking place here as well. Just saw a movie by and about Depardon. Mostly I am going to wander around the city. It is in a frenzy of construction and is changing definitely to become another crazy asian metropolis. You can feel the energy just entering the city, wishing to get off the bus to start snapping, and “get the feel” of it all.

definitely a different feel than 2 years ago. Coming of age, especially with its younger generation, eager to be cool and happening. Much poverty still….Contrasts. OK, let the camera do the talk, I am staying a week at least.

Last thursday in Siem Reap, kids from the Anjali foundation, tutored by photographers from the festival were showing their work done all around town, all between 9 and 13. A wonderful evening it was, Thanksgiving you wish yourself every year.

the Friday pix gang saw an early evening pix, with the Battambang circus, but here’s a shot taken a bit later, and well, here’s a contest again. prize will be a cambodian artefact, very traditional around here (not a signed pix, promised!). there is a Magnum photographer in this picture. Guess where and who, and you win the prize:

http://www.pbase.com/image/106479798

David, magnum family members can’t play, sorry… ;-)

Joe,

I like camels…why not?

Camels: 2,7,13,26,32

Man getting straight edge razor shave: 6
(sends shivers down my back)

Read your statement and disgree a bit with number three in that it seems to limit the actual number of photos you might take. But that’s me and maybe I misunderstand your point.

Looks like you were in a very interesting spot. Some of the photos had lovely colour and light. Keep it going…

Doug

And as we get ready to celebrate the Christmas season, let us look back fondly on a much less expensive holiday. This, for example, is just part of how I spent my Halloween:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akaky/sets/72157610439782088/

Have some candy and enjoy!

Bummer.. I just posted an update on what’s been happening here and I got this message:

We’re sorry, your comment has not been published because TypePad’s antispam filter has flagged it as potential comment spam. It has been held for review by the blog’s author.

Go back to basic instinct…..

Whassup with that???? Doesn’t Typepad know this is the DAH blog! No censoring! :)

ALL,
I have a new major project and blog called arne & bruno at http://www.arnebruno.com

“arne & bruno is a visual blog by Martin Brink with main focus on documenting the swedish and danish design scene.”

I will try to update as often as I can, depending on how much I have to shoot. Might not be to everyones taste as it focus mostly on design, but I’ll try to get some portraits in there as well.
Please have a look or help me link to the site if you can or want to.

http://www.arnebruno.com

Thanks for reading!

ALL, i just got this email…. from Casey

below is the final photographers names that were presented in AUSTIN…
I SEE BOB, I SEE ERICA, KELLY, I SEE LANCE, I SEE ELI REED,
I SEE PAOLO PELLEGRIN/MAGNUM… I SEE my motherfucking VENICE…. yeahhhhhh

“….BIG SUCCESS… SLIDELUCK POTSHOW IN AUSTIN

Greetings,

Thanks to the four hundred or so people that came out to welcome Slideluck Potshow to Austin, Texas! Most seem to agree that it was a fantastic start and it looked as though a good time was had by all.

We have posted some of my images from the evening on the SLPS Network site:
http://network.slideluckpotshow.com/photo/albums/slps-austin

We invite you to join the SLPS Austin group as well:
http://network.slideluckpotshow.com/group/slpsaustin

I also posted a selection of the images on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87354&id=578865428

PATRICIA…

please send your pictures to me at: Magnum Photos, 151 West 25th, 5th floor, New York 10001…

i have a feeling you already have a fairly tight edit, but i will scale things down to what seems like a good logical selection to present for a book…we still need to then make a dummy or rough layout which should also include your text…at some point we must meet in person to really do this right, but at least with this edit now we will know where we stand overall….i believe you still plan to shoot on into the spring…is this correct??

cheers, david

ALL…

congratulations to all of the photographers here who have been selected to be shown in Austin at Slideluck Potshow…Casey is definitely a friend of ours here as is Dave Keenan with the Austin Center for Photography…you guys are getting “out there” in a big way and i am so proud of all of you…

cheers, david

DAVID… no worries, I’ll try to dig up my post later.. unless you can ‘release’ it? I know it’s not you amigo!

Lance

JAMES

I’m sure I’m not the only one here who was grateful that you let us know about this opportunity to vote for your cemetery project. And I voted for it not because I know you but because I so respect this work. I hope whenever such situations arise again, our Road Trips bloggers will let us know.

DAVID

All going well, the prints will be mailed off to you on Monday. I’ll be enclosing a SASE so you can return them to me, hopefully, in a much tighter edit and sequenced if possible. When I see what it looks like then, I’ll be better able to fine-tune the text. And when the time comes that we need to work together in person, I’ll get to NYC by hook or by crook! Please know how deeply grateful I am for all you’re doing to help make this happen. And yes, I intend to keep taking photos on into the spring.

Patricia

-AUSTIN FINALISTS,

Congratulations to all of you.

-PAIGE

Barov es ekel :) – welcome – it’s good to hear from my country. Where are you in Armenia? Haven’t been back in 12 years. Gonna go read your blog now …

Haik

Harry and Doug, thanks for having a look. It’s always encouraging to get feedback :-)

Doug, if we’re talking about the same thing, your conclusion is correct, i do ‘just watch’ quite a few constallations rather than capture them, i feel if the time to focus or if a lens barrel trained on the subject while focusing will kill the moment, i let the shot go and take a mental snap and smile, why lose social grace if you’re not going to collect the image you care about?, maybe another will come because you look less opportunistic.

I’m shooting a project with a konica hexar rf that ironically has introduced the value of purposely throwing things out of focus for a more sinister look, but the reason i bring it up is the wierd sensation i get with the rangefinder over my dslr… it’s that certain feeling of zero-shutter-lag with rangefinders, i suspect the lag with dslr’s is insignificant, but for some reason i realy feel i can raise the camera, collect a shot and move the camera back to my side much more quickly than i can with a dslr.. even if it’s only phsycological in benefit i do find the feeling of no shutter lag crucial to the kind of shots David speaks about with his post.

Thanks again for the feedback :-)
..

Congratulations all who showed at Slideluck Potshow.

Panos and Paolo – exalted company Panos!

Mike R.

Haik…

I’m living in Vayots Dzor Marz near Yeghegnadzor in Vayk. Its beautifully rugged, and I’m doing well. You should come home.

hey hey all…

been away for a couple of days, grown a beard (to be shaved off in a minute :-), went to the beach for a job and some think time and just got back… now trying to get to NYC for a couple of days as soon as possible (this year still), hoping it will work out…

and now catching up here…

DAVID B
dear friend, great to see you here again… what are your plans for the eoy holidays? mail coming your way “soonest”

BOB/MARINA

such great news… many many congrats!!!!! bob bro will mail you soon

MARCIN

i like your images but yes, maybe try and post them in one link… you do the color stuff well man. can’t believe that you were there together with HERVE (shout out to you too!)

LANCE, PANOS and all other AUSTIN POTSHOW finalists

congrats to you guys… really proud of all!!!

by the way, “sugar” was included in the DC POTSHOW… Gina mentioned it was a great success over there… and i’m sure AUSTIN must have been a great success for y’all too!!!!! wow we are all becoming real and getting out there!!! exciting times for sure…

http://network.slideluckpotshow.com/forum/topics/slps-dc-iii-photos-and-list

muchos abrazos to all here, i’m glad to see such good spirits and great images and things becoming “real”

anton

JCHANCE,
I don’t know about the rules and what the other ones are doing. But if it would be a competition in true spirit I would prefer that no one went out fishing for votes. But if the other ones are doing that, I guess you have no choice.

Cheers

Marina,
Very beautiful work:)) .. I’m very glad with your winning of gold medal.
Congratulations!

Bob Black, David Lykes Keenan, Erica McDonald, Kelly Lynn James, Lance_Rosenfield, Panos Skoulidas…
Really proud all of you!

:)))

Kyunghee,

hello david and all
at first: i have to said “david i really sorry to use your blog for share my work.”

this link i try to present the faith of thai people whose have the same heart. we are thai.
the king is our heart.

if you dont mind please leave the comment for me. fy_effy@hotmail.com is my email. david if you dont maid too.

i am really appreciate that
cheers, david and all
effy

Well what I think make different between a new and fresh photographer from an advanced one, is the ability to understand that you need to create a relationship with the subject you are going to photograph.
To get in touch with a sort of feeling or whatever relation helps you to get a closer looks and to put the feeling of “what is going to happen” in your pictures. When I started to take photos years ago, I used to take photo like “shot and go”, most of the time the subject where taken by the rear side or maybe far away from me, with a long lens.. but now I believe that you really need to get a sort of relation or whatever contact to the subj… and then when it almost forgot you like a fly on the wall… there you are going to have the right moment to take the SHOT…

hugs Laredo

Hi PATRICIA, ALL

Just a quick word about SLPS and your piece.. don’t be in awe because of a Slideluck show!! :) I personally am in awe of your work, hands down. Simply put, it is a very strong stand alone body of work, something to be very proud of, which I’m sure you are. Goes without saying.

Please don’t think of SLPS as a contest, it’s a show. Which means there is pacing and variety to consider as well as strength of work. For each city the goal is to show about 70% local work, and we had several strong introspective color projects from local photographers to consider (i.e. Dave Keenan, Sarah Sudhoff’s ‘Repository’ http://www.sarahsudhoff.com, and Carling Hale http://www.flickr.com/myguerilla to name a few). There was strong work from Magnum photographers that didn’t go in the show because of the format.

Now, I’m probably explaining all of this when no one asked me to explain it. But I’m a sensitive guy and I didn’t want any possibility of someone thinking that Slideluck is a big contest, it’s not.

I hope everyone here gets to experience an awesome Slideluck Potshow in their ‘backyard’.. we had a TON of FUN! …and please continue to submit no matter where the next one is!

All the best,

Lance

I see those links didn’t work. Again,

Sarah Sudhoff’s ‘Repository’
http://www.sarahsudhoff.com/

Carling Hale (it’s flickr, so her submitted show isn’t here)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla

Here’s what I tried to post yesterday:
——————–

“Ice cream soda pop cherries on top,
how many boyfriends have you got?
Is it A, B, C, D,…”

Getting back in here is like fast rhythm Double Dutch… here I come..

James, you got my vote amigo!

I’m again sitting in my favorite coffee shop editing photos and emailing and the light outside is golden and perfect.. so I’m thinking of this community here.. it’s been a while, things got busy! So here’s what’s been happening..

Slideluck Potshow – Austin! Coordinating the launch in Austin took some doing.. and man it was a BIG success.. We had almost 100 submissions which unfortunately meant we couldn’t show everyone.. actually about half. And we had no idea how many people would show up.. we hoped for 100. So about 400 showed up! We had some local deans in the industry like Eli Reed, Dirck Halstead, Don Winslow… and a lot of young up and comers. The photo world here in Austin has been rather disconnected, but that is changing. We have momentum here now.. The Austin Center for Photography is being born as we speak and as a board member I can tell you we have big plans down here.. stay tuned. Back to SLPS, we brought in the NYC crew of Casey Kelbaugh, Alys Kenny, and Katrina Baldwin and also Kelly hosted Andy Levin who drove in from New Orleans for the event. I need to add that KELLY pulled the weight of about five people in making this a success.. she deserves huge credit.

Here are some pics from the Austin SLPS by Casey Kelbaugh:

(removed for filter, see Panos’ link above)

And on Facebook:

(removed for filter, see Panos’ link above)

And on Lightstalkers:

http://www.lightstalkers.org/slideluck-potshow-austin

Personally, I made two separate multimedia pieces for the show, one of which made the cut. This was my first time to tackle making multimedia.. it’s FUN but a lot of work.. and I can only imagine how much experience and talent it takes to make GOOD multimedia. I have a lot of respect for those making strong multimedia like JAMES and SEAN.. something about those Brits!

In addition to the Slideluck Potshow effort, Austin’s 7th annual East Austin Studio Tour (EAST) took place the same weekend. I’m proud and lucky enough to be part of a new collective here called ‘Texas Toast Photo Show’ and we put together a beautiful exhibit for EAST. The three other photographers are Sarah Wilson, Matt Wright-Steel, and Blake Gordon. We had two kegs, texas toast, and a couple thousand visitors. We put a lot of work into prepping the space and promoting the event.. and special thanks goes to an angel of a designer here in Austin named Kate Iltis, who did all the logo and promo work for us for essentially no cost. You can see a few pics here:

http://www.texastoastphotoshow.com

AND, I turned 36 over the weekend and had a NYTimes assignment which took place over three days. You can see the feature here:

http://tinyurl.com/5thbho

The article ran in the paper on Turkey Day so if you still have it around the house, take a look (it’s always nicer in print).

DAVID once said he’s never had to photographed a pair shoes! Well, I can no longer say the same.. I needed the money! :)

I’m now preparing for a big portfolio review in New Orleans that is happening next weekend.

http://www.photonola.org/reviews.html

This will be my first time for one of these big reviews.. similar to Photo Lucida and Review Santa Fe… I will be talking with editors, gallery curators, and book publishers. Just getting my work out there.. I’m casting my best bait, hoping for a bite or two. PLUS, I love New Orleans!!

I will be in DC and NYC in January.. DAVID if you’re around it’s time for a cold one amigo.. Same goes with anyone else that will be around!

Basically, I’m pushing pushing.. shooting, showing, promoting.. and all that goes along with it. This industry is not very giving so you gotta push hard to get anywhere. That’s no secret!

I miss hanging out here.. I look forward to spending some more time here again!

With all that has happened in Mumbai, my thoughts and prayers go out to those of you who are there, or have friends and family there.

Peace and Best to you all,

Lance

higher rez
higher rez
higher rez

http://gallery.me.com/innerspacecowpanos#100459&view=mosaic&sel=0

peace

ohhh AKAKY…
that was DOPE……!!!
YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE !!!!!!!!!!!
;-))))))))

new dream ( new link )
new dream
new dream

21mm DREAM

21mm portraits in the forest

Sometimes i dream, sometimes i don’t…

sometimes i remember the dream,

sometimes i don’t…!

all i learned recently is that you dont need to
have a lot of money to make little kids happy…
no matter how “dark” they are or appear to be:

even a 99c store can do the trick…
tough times…

http://web.me.com/innerspacecowpanos/%22VENICE_BEACH%22/21mm_portraits_in_the_forest.html

peace

okay, very up in the discussion i talked about my current project margins and how i was working hard to get access into a group of junk collectors. Today, I finished the first part of my project (meaning: i won’t be in Istanbul in the next weeks and will continue the project after returning with other protagonists).

Editing them is a pain in the ass job. I uploaded a selection of 45 out of 951 pictures, but some more have to go… I uploaded them into the portfolio review system of my website; have a look and give me feedback!
http://claudiusschulze.com/portfolioreview/margins
many, many thanks to all!

hello Claudius.. i took a quick look.. some feedback before i have to go.. 1st edit:

2 is sweet moment because i read the caption, but doesn’t work for me b/c it doesn’t feel ‘real’
5 try to get better shot of the action.. a moment like this may be good for final edit
6
7 i like the setting but the man totally gets lost in the scene.. keep working it
9
11 i want to like it but i feel like i’ve seen pics like this too many times already.. keep working it.. find new angles, more context in the image..
12
14
16
18 work this more.. empty on the right of the frame.. maybe get lower so umbrella has ‘negative space’ or wait there for some interaction or emotion
19
21
31 almost but he’s hamming for the camera, i like the framing and light
32
33
41 nice portrait
42

i hope that helps some.. so hard to do this on the blog.. wish i could move them around.

best,
lance

@ Lance, @ DAH
one very short notice: you can move the pictures around (but need a big screen though): click on the picture, it zooms in and than you can drag it around.

okay, now i will read both your critique three more times and than i will replay to it :-)

THANKS GIVING LINK

http://web.me.com/innerspacecowpanos/%22VENICE_BEACH%22/THANKS_GIVING.html

& HIGHER
HIGHER, HIGHER REZ…. THANKS GIVING,
click here:

http://gallery.me.com/innerspacecowpanos#100465&view=mosaic&sel=0

@ DAVID
first of all: many, many thanks to you as well! 1000thx for this blog and you writing it. Even more: taking the time of giving feedback to some medium level work… where you could produce great work in the same time…
I completely understand what you mean. And both of us (and all the others here as well, i guess) know that this is the hardest part…
I don’t want to be cliché and i try hard to fight it. In addition a big downside of being here in Turkey and being a foreigner is that i have to fight orientalism as well. i think i am a bit better in this matter than in my story telling capabilities…

well, what i can say for sure: i want to draw the line (of the project) further. i want to add more characters to the story… however, since i can’t work on it for the next month, there will be some kind of break at this point. I will use the time to think over it.

And also: I think this “ghetto romantic”/ “homeless”/ “people in need” problem will get more into distance the more i work on the project. so far, i did some general work and then this one group of junk collectors. but i will continue with other sides of the topic… for example, there is that one old man who is picking flowers in the roadside ditch and collecting old flowers people threw away to put them together to new bouquets…

Actually, i think for me more important than showing these ‘poor’ people is the neighbor-part of the project: I want to get to know more about the people no body is paying attention to but which sharing the streets with me and all the others… will have to think how to conceptualize this…

okay, here it is really late now. i will have to go to bed now (but only i said another thank you!…)

David,

I really enjoyed this post! Thank you for sharing!

…as for “public relations” – creating those instantaneous relationships & long term relationships are in part why I picked up a camera for in the first place.

I also feel those “relationships” can exist with any subject, be it a landscape or object, one has taken the time to look closer, observe, understand and document- the memory is made, the relationship is timeless!

Hope to catch up soon & I really look forward to seeing the “publication” come to life!

Cheers, Jeremy

Very inspiring post !!

David,

Is there a way we can see samples of your work on families ?

I would really appreciate…

hugs

DAVID,

Forgot to mention something…Today, I was just looking at some furnitures into a local mall…and on a wall, by chance I saw lots of old editions of “National Geographic”…Just in case, I looked as I wanted for a long time to look at a copy of “your” Cuba National Gepgraphic edition that I had never seen… and it was there…totally unopened (I am sure you could get pissed off but it was being used as decoration :):):)…Anyway, after seeing it, I decided I needed this copy and there was no way I was going to leave it on this wall to collect dust…I convinced the shop owner to let me have it and with great pleasure went back home with this June 1999 edition… Unbelievable copy David! I have rarely ever seen an article with as many pictures from a single photographer… I know that some on the blog have been harsh with the magazine but I am so pleased to have that copy as I am a big fan of your cuba work (of course I have the book as well!!!)… If there was one copy of NG to keep I think I have the one now!!!!

Cheers,

Eric

@ ERIC
i am so jealous! i do not even have the book, not available here in turkey. and i am traveling to cuba in february and would love to have a look on dah’s work before…

JENNY & ALL

I’ve just visited your “Siege in Mumbai” gallery on Lightstalkers and found it to be a significant document of the tragedy, spontaneous, immediate and moving.

Did you post a link here too? If so, I missed it. Here is the link to Jenny’s work:

http://www.lightstalkers.org/jennylynnwalker

So glad you’re OK and hope your friends are as well.

peace
Patricia

PAIGE

Your blog is wonderful!!! And you, my friend, have a very fine artist’s eye. I’ve just started reading your blog and look forward to checking out your archives as well. By writing and photographing what you see and feel you are serving as a bridge for both Armenians and Americans. Good for you!

peace
Patricia

MARINA,
again, congratulations!…
i missed the cartoon link though
:-(

Eric: Thanks for your little piece on Cosmos and your kind note. Sean and I got a kick out of that too.

LANCE: You are the man. So glad to read that you got a photo published in the NY Times. I see you’re keeping plenty busy, but let’s catch up soon, dawg…you know about the more important matters in life;-)

DAH/ALL:
Regarding the African immigrant story, it keeps pulling me back in. I’ve had more than a few magazines interested but they’ve all pulled out in the end, which has just driven me nuts. It’s made me wonder if DAH was right and it needs a different perspective. Anyway, now I have interest again and I’ve added some work, so I’d like to tighten the edit. If anyone has the time to look at it, please know that although I don’t post here often, I always check in and really do appreciate your comments.

http://archive.charliemahoney.net/c/charliemahoney/gallery-show/G0000MpA2CPWwbA8

best,
Charlie
http://www.charliemahoney.net

PAIGE,

While you say you are not close with the people, it seems to me that you are fully accepted by them. Just from the looks and places you have been. Coffee and vodka says it all. Get to know them more, get close, and shoot,shoot,shoot. You are doing a great job in a place that is so different from where you are and I see your passion – show us what you see.
cheers,
Haik

PAIGE…

i totally forgot to respond to you after looking at your website/blog…you have several quite intriguing unselfconscious photographs and a loose “being there” style…of course, i would like to see more and also see how you handle the essay format..

ERIC…

i am planning my december schedule now…give me a couple more days, and we will figure out the best time for you to come to new york…i am very excited to edit your boxing work…

yes, the Çuba story in Natgeo was about as good as any magazine can get i think..and i just happen to see it the other day in someone’s home as well (i do not have a copy myself!!) and in hindsight they did a very nice job with that work…also, the paper was better back then (just 7 years ago i guess) and the spreads were much longer then as well…

MARCIN…

yes, i did buy the beach house!! this could involve a major lifestyle change….please come to visit me when you possibly can…

cheers, david

Ok. Now I am Jealous!!!!!
I always say, you are lucky man!!

I think I have to step by to your beach house someday :)
with bottle of rum for mojito.

I am scanning now, I will put link here tomorrow.

David Alan Harvey

I’m hugely encouraged by your liking what I’m doing.

I will edit hard at some point, perhaps over Christmas. Right now I’m busy trying to get my archive online and to generate some sales.

Here’s a twist on the Boyhood material made yesterday (just a minute long);
http://photohumourist.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-blue-shoes.html

Hi David,
this is one of the last photos from the hotels… am out in the streets now…
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2077853&l=89a6b&id=616940048
cheers,
K.

Hi David and all,
sorry I missed you out here in Cal, would have like to popped in and said hello, but I checked the blog the day you were heading back to NY.
I went through some changes, bailed the studio in downtown, they kept try to squeeze as much $ as they could out of me and Aug and Sept were lousy months for work. just thought fuck this, behind on rent, and bills piling up so I thought this might just be the perfect time to liberate myself.
I have been working on my photographs in the new nieghborhood of Echo Park and will be looking forward to posting them up, just as soon as we bail the shitty AT&T internet link and go to a cable connection.
anyway, looks like things are getting more interesting for the regulars, hats off to all of you. esp you David for yer stamina.
at the library now and time is up so best to all and hopefully I can bring something to the table soon.

PETE…

i am just a simple freelance photographer who spends most of his income working on personal projects…i did manage to raise my two sons in good style i suppose and paid for their university educations…i worked very hard to do that…and loved every minute of my responsibility as a dad, and still do…and i am actually quite wealthy…but not in the material sense…you have never heard any complaints from this boy about my lifestyle….but, maintaining two homes is not my fate!!

i am going to try to live at the beach house on the Carolina shore (both of my sons run their docu film businesses from the beach and live nearby..if they can do it, i can do it!!)…i will also try to keep my space in new york as an office only and will have to go in with a partner to do so…and in these economic hard times, who knows how long i can do that..but, for the most immediate future, i will keep my space in new york as an office and have all of my “stuff” down at the beach….

well, sorry, that was a long answer to your short question!!

cheers, david

CHRIS HINKLE…

what am i supposed to review?? yes, i am on to your website, but which part?? i am sure you told me once, but please tell me again!!

cheers, david

ALL….

by the way, i know some of you have been asking about the Emerging Photographer Fund grant for 2009…

for legal reasons having to do with the non-profit status of this grant, i must have a jury named and a board of advisors chosen in advance of announcing the stipend…this means i cannot do this before demember 15…so barring unforeseen complications , i should be able to announce on or before that date…in any case, you will all have at least a month to prepare your portfolios…this is NOT an announcement, but i think i will give one $10,000 grant and perhaps a smaller one as well…there will still be funding “in the bank”, but i have been advised to not give it all away at once (which is of course my inclination)…

anyway, things are cooking…stay tuned…

cheers, david

David;
Just a couple of questions about pursuing a project…. If you have the time, or anyone for that matter!!

If you are looking at shooting an overseas project (hopefully for a book etc); are you better to make multiple trips over 18-24 months using your “home” work and maybe grants etc to fund the project; or move there and spend 6-12 months shooting the project?

I’m still doing some planning and looking at different approaches. By doing multiple trips you are able to keep your domestic customers and potentially be able to do more trips (of 4-6 week duration each).

Or, simply go there to live; but possibly lose your domestic customers and have to start from scratch when you return?

I know everyone faces these quandaries when pursuing projects so any feedback would be great…. And hopefully helpful to others too….

Also I’ve attached a link to some WOMAD images taken earlier this year. The B&W images were taken at midnight. It was nearly pitch plack, cramped and frantic I decided to use b&w and use high iso & use long exposures (1 second) to try and make it look how it felt…Blurry, and chaotic….

http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/contact_sheet/16952

Thanks for that.

David.

Thank you for that. To be honest, the WOMAD crowd work is more my usual style… Actually, the performer shots were my first attempt at concert work…

I’ve thought a lot about your and Bill’s Timor critiques. My problem was that “I” got seduced by the children etc. in the camps. I wasn’t looking for the easy option; I wore my heart on my sleeve too much…. Now I have to find a way to convert my feelings into a different way of seeing… but I don’t want to lose the humanity…

I appreciate your input, thank you!!!!

“…most of my work does come from multiple trips for financial or other personal reasons…” that’s where I’m coming from too!!!

BOB: Deadline is up i’m afraid. Thanks for thinking of us though! We will know what’s happening after the 6th.

Cheers! J

@ ROSS
i don’t know what your project is about and where it is. but one thing i can tell you from me staying in istanbul (i didn’t come because of a project, though) is that after i spend some time here, i see enough news worthy topics (=easy to sell) to do besides the work i want to concentrate on. and usually, at any place in the world are monthly meetings of foreign journalists, at least in the bigger cities. you can go there and talk with writers about your topics and the chances are quite high that something will happen… (I have some 6 possible things going on right now, mostly for magazines. let’s assume half will be put down by the journalist’s editor – that still makes 3…)

ps: i think your womad pictures are the best concert pictures i’ve seen…

Paul:

WHAT’S A VIEWFINDER? ;))))))))))))))))))))))))….

(almost never use mine any more, the reason: that would take a long post, and Dima’s waiting for me to take him for a beer…ummm, I mean a burger: man’s night)….but, another bit of advice:

JEAN: try buying a toy camera, film or digital, doesnt matter and then just walk or run around and shoot whatever catches your eye, or however you feel (up close, far away), dont look through the view finder, but act as if the camera was a ball, or stick and toss it around (ok, now im really giving away bob black secrets ;)) )…for me, view finders are cool and necessary as a way for a photographer to “frame” “compose” or ‘re-see’…i use the view finders for just that, not to compose (i feel that mostly with my eye) but to “fuck up” my eye as it sees the world, and then go from there…i dont believe in “composing for long periods of time”…to compose, yea, but go, see see see before you look through the view finder..

then run with the camera and just aim randomly..this wont make better photographs, but it will get you to FEEL how liberating shooting can be…shit, even when i put a camera on a tripod, i want my body to feel free and my eye….take a look at Harvey DANCING when he’s shooting (it’s on YouTube)…that’s what i mean….that physcial liberation will kill you with freedom and joy :))))

LASTLY: paul: i fucking love that opening of the Blue Shoes vid…the upside town camera:

lust for life! :)))))))

running
b

David –

Sorry, I sent you an email with the gallery web address to the blog email, but perhaps your not using that anymore. Anyway, for simplicity sake I will post it here and if anyone else wants to put in their two cents too that would be great. Its a project I have been working on about the sport of Cyclocross…which was born across the pond in Europe but hasn’t been that big here in the States until the last 2-3 years…so here it is here: http://pa.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000oRNC13Nh.tA

gracias a ti

~ chris

CHRIS HINKLE….

damn amigo, when you said you wanted an edit, i did not realize the extent of what you meant…you just laid several hours of work on me!!! so so many “similars” , this will require lots and lots of comparing one similar frame to another…i tried dragging and dropping but was unsuccessful…what am i doing wrong??? i cannot see how i could edit this without being able to move things around…

let me know how this can be properly edited…

cheers, david

David…
so sorry about that, I had planned on editing it down a bit more, well allot more really, then had shot last weekend and just dumped everything in before coming down here to GTO, MX, to have new stuff in there…anyhow…I will edit it down right now…

David…I just did a tighter edit…but now I realize that somehow the lightroom to archive to gallery transfer of images didn’t exactly materialize in the way I thought it did…so I need my hardrives at home…I fly home tomorrow and will have everything ready and in top shape by Wed noon…also I think there is a way for you to be able to move them around…will look into that.

hast luego

~ chris

Claudius;

Thank you for the kind comments regarding the WOMAD pics.

Regarding the project, it is in Timor Leste (East Timor) & while the travel related pieces will be scarce (there is no tourism at the moment), there are plenty of newsworthy stories….

Thank you, you’ve given me a lot more food for thought…

Cheers

David Alan Harvey

Just thought of this VIEWFINDERLESS image;
http://paultreacy.com/boyhood03.htm
which is one of my very best, I think, (I know Bob Black likes it) and it is exactly what I was after. I saw it coming but there was no way I would get so low down so quickly and so I had to sort of ASTRO PROJECT myself into the finder while holding the flash to the left and not lose my balance and keel over. It’s full frame too.

Realizing this shot actually opened the door to the rest of the material in my BOYHOOD project. It immediately opened up a universe of possibilities. I came to the conclusion that a level of awareness of the camera, angle, lens and exposure was all that was needed to get the shot and that the eye didn’t always have to be looking down the barrel. The eyes could remain surveying the scene in 3d stereo and be free to react even faster than when working individually in 2d simultaneously, one down the barrel and one surveying the horizon outside. Wow! I’m tripping myself up here. Hope you get the drift of my muddling.

I do think, however, that this sort of awareness of what the camera is seeing only comes from years of shooting, of knowing ones equipment so thoroughly. I guess there comes a point in time, in ones experience, when to see clearly doesn’t always require one’s eyes to be directly attached to the front of the head, you know? For me it’s like I can use my eyes via remote control through the viewfinder. However, the most crucial thing here, I’ve just realized, is that the camera MUST be in my hands. It must be directly connected to my body.

Enough already. This is too weird first thing in the morning. I need to test Eoin’s spelling skills now ahead of class today then walk with him to school. For that I need my eyes attached to the front of my head.

Back later.

DAH
Thanks for loading up the tank. I’ll keep at it. I also may be in New York late December or early January. If so and you are available, I can bring some prints and maybe we can do a table edit.

Claudius
I couldn’t see your selection. I’m not sure how to do that on Photoshelter. In any event, thanks for making the effort.

Regarding the story, you’re really not going to understand it until you see some text. I know everyone always says that the photo essay should speak for itself, but I think that is debatable. Even the best need text to explain the story. In my opinion, the photos are there to captivate you and make you want to read the story.

best,
Charlie
http://www.charliemahoney.net

DAH

PS, in your comments to Pete you sounded like your were channeling the Animals. Ha!

“I’m just a soul who’s intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood”

David, All

Two links to some photos from thailand and cambodia. No stories just single photos.
There will be more but not now.

http://marcinluczkowski.com/cambodia/

http://marcinluczkowski.com/thailand/

Hi David, I am always happy when I see my name on your post :)
thanks a lot for your time, tell me how can i send you the pics for the editing, here is the link:

http://www.cristinafaramo.com/casadonpuglisi/

I tried to get the point of view of the kids in the house,
I should put the captions?

Let me know
kisses
cristina

Thanks Charlie. Will do.

Perhaps you did. Sorry.

maybe to clear things: my idea of the facebook group is to create a meeting point for those of us being on facebook. just a fanpage… no competition to the blog of course… biggest advantages: to send private messages and to announce events.

Paige :))))…lovely work, and a great feel and almost melancholic weight to the images…personally, especially drawn to Armenia since (if luck and good fortune shall prevail), Marina and i will visit sometime this year or next to Armenia…in the mean time, i cant wait to see what blooms from those beautiful, sad hills or Armenia ….

CHARLIE: terrific work. I think the new photo of the two men upside down in the water is absolutely BRILLIANT…an iconic image, particularly given the context of the story…i cant tell what is new, going by the copyright date, seems like most of the work is from last year, and yet it seems almost all new to me, dont know why, but it’s rich rich and visually (your strong suit) even more compelling…great to see it :)))…and signed the petition…

Marcin: love love many of the pics, and i see you got a “John vink” in there too (the picture of the child in the hammock..prefer the color much more and as is always true with a Marcin photo, there is a sad sense of isolation and loneliness to the work which is compelling and speaks to me on a very basic level…it’s probably what im drawn to the most in your work, richly lyrical, always the draw of the lone figure against an often impersonal environment, like a poem…I defer to David’s comments too…would love to see you spent time in these 2 countries, or rather, see how it affects your work back in Poland, the work in which you’re invested :)))…and by the way, the pic from Thailand (#20, with woman on the left) looks like D’agata is sitting there having a drink? ;))…..it’s always a pleasure to drink up your pics, and i agree with David: i hunger for your work when it’s focused on a specific place (your town, your sculptors, you goth kids, even your Morocco) where you not “traveling” so much from point to point :))))…

Christina :)))))…i think david’s right (and not because he’s David, cause we dont always see eye-to-eye ;)) ), he’s got it nailed…the pictures that for me speak the most eloquently are the pics that deal with the physical nature of your very rich emotional reaction to people and place. The story (as all your work) contains great photography and great moments, but for me, strong photographs (everywhere everywhere people look) are not the point anymore, but something that speaks to me about the strength of the photographer…you have an uncommon gift for picking out moments of strong physicality and the celebration of that, that is, their physical and emotional life joined…maybe that’s why David see’s your great work connected by Love…I think he is totally onto to something…i also loved your work from Charlottesville alot, and YOUR PRISON work was magnificent…and wasnt’ that story REALLY PHYSICAL!!….this essay also has work that is equal to that (you cant make a bad picture! ;))) ), but what is the goal?…anyway…what do i know…im a sucker for all pictures and love all physical photographers :)))…im so happy you keep showing us work :))))…now, a book called Amore (in it’s entire spectrum of that word) edited by harvey: what a treat for us :)))))))))))))

DAVID/PATRICIA :))))

yes, important i think conversation. I know David always always looks through the view finder (i’ve seen it in person ;)) ) and I love that Patricia is not able to look through the viewfinder at the moment of shutter release for her shoots. This is what im suggesting :)). for me, i still look, it just depends on the circumstances, what i’m after. Looking through a viewfinder sometimes changes what im seeing, sometimes enhances what im seeing, sometimes lessens/compartmentalizes…for me, the orientation has been to be “instinctual” to the moment, to what i see. I can “easily” compose images in my head, and im constantly “composing” as i walk and see (which often annoys the fuck out of me) and at this point, i can also use the viewfinder in my head, cause i have such an connected relationship to the camera, which really happened once i used a toy a few years ago. It depends on camera (my old slr, i like often to look, cause i can “see” the different depths of field im going after), the old slr i often look, if using a range finder or lomo (which is a variation on a range), i never look, with toys and pin hole, both…the key for me as always been to see first (before the camera) and then to react instincutally…lots of shit stuff, and also some surprises, but also i’ve found, generally, the pics (whether im looking through or not) tend to be the way i’d anticipated or hoped for…for me, it’s just about liberation: the physical sense and the emotional relationship to the world outside the camera and trying to translate that into photographs…trying to stay loose and at the same time ALERT!…that’s the craziness…

and David: i loved your description of forcing yourself to feel out of sorts, like an amateur by using this big old med format camera. cause, like i cant imagine you shooting without dancing around with that small leica of yours, or small slr, and for me, there in lie the interest and power of those pics I saw at the loft: like Family snaps, that feel of the spontaneous….’cause usually Med Format always look so so composed, so still, so pre-thought…

ok, gotta run….

hugs
later
bob

Audrey, Bob

thanks, thanks a lot.

All:

This is a quick note regarding the two kidnapped journalists in Somalia. The Telegraph has asked that people refrain from using their names while they are attempting to negotiate their freedom. Unfortunately, on this blog you can not edit, but please keep that in mind in any additional postings.

Claudius: Thanks for sending me the Photoshelter lightroom. I couldn’t agree with you more. We have the same favorites.

Bob: Thanks for your generous comments. I’ve struggled with the feet in the water image as I find it as a speed bump no matter where I put it in a sequencing. By it self it is a funny image. Most def.

Marcin: Thank you.

best,
Charlie
http://charliemahoney.net

CLAUDIUS.

Cool! I joined the facebook group. Thanks for creating it.

EVERYONE…

If you are on Facebook there is now a DAH Road Trip group.

PATRICIA….

i will be in new york all week, so i will be on the lookout for your package…if at all practical , i will also call you at some point during the edit…i will have you on telephonic looking over my shoulder mode…

it will be an honor to write your forward..that is the least i can do to give total respect to what you are doing…from where we started, to where you are now, to where we will be in a few months, has been and will continue to be, a real life creative adventure for both of us…

cheers, david

MARCIN…

thank you for your comment…you told us a lot…i think what you are feeling is quite normal…that is, “normal” for someone with an artistic temperament…you want to do everything…now!! hey, we all do…but, just facing that one little reality (and we all just hate to face reality)is that you need to do one thing at a time…i will say this..once you do FOCUS and actually finish a project all the way through to book, it becomes much much easier to focus again…because seeing the “result of focus” takes away some of the pain and often boredom of focusing..even now as i am totally enjoying my family project and really really into it, i have to constantly tell myself to not get distracted…because i also want to do an essay on Rio de Janero, and i want to take a motorcycle from Capetown to Cairo etc..those are both real projects i have in development stage, but i cannot really even start on either one until i finish family…so yes yes, i must force force myself to stay focused all the time…

so finish something Marcin..anything..just finish…you will be “born again” if you do…

hugs, david

I too am feeling the distractions and excitments of the multi-prong project I am trying to embark on. I want to get it all done right now but unfortunately I can’t get started without necessary permissions, the lack of which could lead to the project’s demise.

But for now, “no” is not an option and I continue to try and forge ahead.

DAVID

When you have a sec. I sent an email earlier…

Anyone having motivation issues should read this…..

http://www.popphoto.com/americanphotofeatures/5672/the-photographing-of-the-president-2008.html?cid=10

Great example of initiative.

ERICA:
Left you an email, somewhat time-sensitive, take a look.

PANOS:
Thx for the email and snaps while I was in SF…I was feeling rather disconnected and the email made me smile.

ALL:
Haven’t had much chance to post lately, having a hard time just reading between the new job, travel associated with the new job, and shooting.

Love the facebook idea – was goign to join, now definitely will.

Many thoughts on being loose and also on the theme of this post, getting in the groove, so to speak. I greatly empathized with whoever it was who said she knew, sometimes as she was walkign out the door, that it would or would not be there that particular time….I think the secret is to push to get back into that “groove” when it is not there, finding something within oneself to “key” off of, to regain the feeling….

Anyway, still lurking and trying to learn – hope everyone is truly doing well.

more soonest
A.

XXX

XXX

XXX

BOB: Thanks for caring and big congratulations to Marina!!!

PATRICIA: Thank you so much for your lovely comment on my Mumbai story.

Re: David’s shooting style. I saw it once and don’t want to ruin the memory i have of it by seeing it on u-tube: a constant fluid motion at any height and in all dimensions, a melting of the physical form in harmony with ‘that other level’. 100% concentration to that point of ‘disappearing’.

love and peace,
Jenny

xxx

xxx

xxx

EDUARDO…

what is with the “bad guy” reference to yourself?? i saw no “bad guy” part of you in any way…i saw you suffering at times, but i knew what you were going through…and as much as mentoring is a part of my life , there is an often painful part to it as well..i knew what you wanted but i could not just “give it to you” which would be by natural inclination…

i hate to give anyone bad news or tell them their photographs are just not working..but , in order to “give” something of real value for the long run, i must be totally honest in the short run..i have seen so many aspiring photographers “hit the wall”…this is not a “pretty picture”…only teaching experience tells me that if the photographer can get past that invisible barrier that confronts all of us when we get up in the morning and IT just is “not happening”that life on the other side of this damned “wall” is a sunny sky…my job is to help you get past the wall…i cannot tell how rewarding it was for me to see you face your fears and come in at the end with some very strong work…

our web site on the Oaxaca Day of the Dead workshop should be up by the end of next week …this turned out to be a bigger job than any of us thought and Marie is working on it all the time… it will be a pride and joy for all of us when finished…if you have any text that you want to go with your essay, please send it soonest to Marie..one of the holdups as been students just not sending us their text…

i continue to wish you well in your new projects in Chile or elsewhere..please consider me someone who will look at any new work you do with the same enthusiasm i did in Oaxaca…

stay in touch Eduardo…our journey is not over yet…

saludos, david

Hey all…

I recently emailed DAH about book publishing and he sent back a great response to the questions. We decided that I should repost the questions and his answer here. I had not asked on the blog because I figured it had been discussed before.

Transcript is below:

To: David Alan Harvey
Sent: Tue, 2 Dec 2008 6:49 pm
Subject: Books

David,

I thought I would ask you this off of the blog since it has probably been discussed and I just missed it.

You have been talking recently to Christina and Marcin about book projects. Now I know that books can be very hard to get published and very expensive if you self publish. And we all know how cool it is to have a book. But my biggest question is, in the long run, is it worth it?

What are the benefits other than self-satisfaction, since from what I have heard, they almost never make money. Is having a book very valuable in getting your name out or attracting more paying work?

I guess I am just asking for the DAH primer titled “Why publish a book.”

I remember Allard saying at the Look3 workshop… “Its all about the book.” Why?

Can you elaborate?

Thanks

Pete

DAVID’S RESPONSE:

hi pete…

well, you should have brought this up on the blog for sure….

i mentor/produce many books for photographers…this year alone: Mike Young’s “Blues, Blues and BBQ”, Anne Henning’s “Dancing in the Afternoon” , Kyunghee Lee’s “Island” and Anton Kuster’s “Sugar”..

the reason i am a photographer is because of books….when i had polio as a child my grandmother and mother loaded me up with everything…..reading was my escape from the death and crippling around me…books were my first and actually remain my best education to the world…i have always had books in an exalted position… ..the highest…..when i was a newspaper photographer i hated the temporary nature of newsprint and longed to see fine photographic work where??? only in books…nothing in the daily or weekly or monthly media appealed to me the way the classic photographers were presented in books…so, i love books…you can hug a book…

money from books??? no…but, who cares?? a book is a photographers only benchmark…..sets you apart…i have been “out there” without a book and my life changed when i published my first…..certainly in Magnum we are all about books…books, books and books…exhibitions too, but books stay…give you a “place at the table”….perhaps even a place in photographic history….

the financial spinoff from books is however just as real as the lack of it from book sales… a photographer’s print prices are going to go up…all of my great ad jobs come from an art director loving what i have done in one book or another….my books are my only “portfolio” that i show to an art director or gallerist…

in my photographic life i am only always thinking about the next book…magazine assignments, ad jobs, print sales, stock sales, online exposure etc.. are only a means to an end…and the end is the BOOK!!! what other medium shows our work better than a book??? i can see quite literally nothing else but my work between those hard covers….sure , more people might see my work in an article in Natgeo..but they just see Natgeo…but the “right people”, discriminating photo book buyers, knowledgeable photo curators, buy a book because of the authorship of the photographer….for the photographer’s vision, not the vision of a magazine or newspaper…sure, communicating with millions a la Natgeo has it’s rewards too..but, nothing beats that quality book sitting on my mother’s coffee table….

i was actually quite surprise by your question pete…i just have always ASSUMED since i was a teenager and moved by “The Decisive Moment” and the “Americans” that a book was every photographer’s goal and dream…in my peer group that is certainly true….but , i am also aware that we all march to different drummers…

by the way, i have never self published..never had the money to do so…some very respectable photographers, like Sally Mann, got their “break” self publishing, but i just go after the best publisher i can find and present the work…period…

i hope this helps pete….allard was right…it is for sure all about the book….

cheers, david

oh, my post about books just disappeared???…

i cannot imagine my life without them…books…our sin our soul! :))

ALL

I’ve been looking at the work of Mark Cohen – Grim Street..and in light of the discussion here both of the ‘fast hook up’ and of not looking through the lens, I thought I’d share a link to pics/ an interview.

http://colinpantall.blogspot.com/2007/12/mark-cohen-grim-street.html

http://colinpantall2.blogspot.com/2007/12/mark-cohen-grim-street.html

testing..

Why books?

“The paper burns, but the words fly free.”

Akiva

OOPS :)

SORRY

Guess I am back to being able to post

Just a last message to thank you, David, for your words and understanding, and to you all, Akaky, Paul (love the blue shoes animated frames!), Bob, Patricia, Michael…for your kinds words and advices (i promise i’ll try no viewfinder – going loose…).

Ok this is really my last message!!!

LOVE

SRINI

Damn it, man – you are good. Kamathipura and Dance Bar – the style, the story, _the_color_ – they made me speechless for a while.
… and looking at “high risk” story – you did earn these people’s trust. Applauds.

Haik

David –

the selects are all set…there are still quite a few but I tried to organize them but similars to make it easier…there is no way to move the images within the gallery for “virtual” editing/organization purposes, it would be great however (Grover + Photoshelter if your listening this could be an interesting feature for working with editors/mentors/clients/publishers/friends). I can however give you download capabilities – the gallery is low res so it would be fast and easy – within a private password gallery in which you could then download and load into your own editing software. If that works better just send me an email, chris at chris hinkle dot com, and I will send you a password for a downloadable gallery.

This is a bigger project and so I’m not sure your attack in the way of an edit but if it makes more sense to give feedback in likes/dislikes and then shooting more that is fine too. I have lots of racing shots so my focus is shifting to crowd, portraits, and culture in a bit more loose fashion as well.

the address again is: http://www.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000oRNC13Nh.tA

Thanks!

~ chris

Patricia

Sorry to butt in, but I think that is a pretty high fee for a review. Sounds like a money maker for a sagging book industry. Maybe I am wrong. Interested to hear David’s opinion.

Bye bye, Jean. Good hunting to you.

Hi Erica,

We don’t know each other but recently you were talking about Anders Petersen on LS, or maybe it was here. I had never really seen much of his work but after your post I started researching him and was so blown away by what he has produced that I decided to buy his book “French Kiss”. It’s such an amazing book. So, thank you for that recommendation/post.

~Srini
http://www.srinivaskuruganti.com

DAVID

You are great! Thanks for bearing with my premature worries. I do have a tendency to get ahead of myself sometimes. There was something about holding all of those prints in my hands–the ones I mailed to you–that made it all seem SO REAL. And I guess the economy has been very much on my mind for lots of reasons.

My gawd, man, I had NO IDEA that when you said you’d mentor me on this project that included seeing to it that publishing houses like Aperture, powerHouse & Phaidon would see my work!!! I guess that shows what an innocent I am about all of this.

And don’t worry. NOTHING stops me from keeping at it, photographically speaking. In the last two days I’d say I’ve taken 120 shots for the project. My friend Pat–remember my buddy who came to your loft slideshow/fiesta?–asked Ed and me to take her cat Tito for four days this week, so I’ve been using the opportunity to add cat pics to “Falling Into Place.” Here are my two favorites so far:

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/106661577

http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/106661575

PASSWORD FOR BOTH: patricia

This project has become so much a part of my life I have trouble imagining life without it. I’m always trying to come up with new ideas and/or notice photo opportunities when they arise. You may not have realized it ahead of time but you hooked up with a bulldog when it comes to her art. Passion is my middle name!

hugs
Patricia

DAH and PETE.

Good conversation! Thanks for including us all.

speak of the devil… just now they delivered the blurp book comp which i will use to show to a publisher… it looks great… feels good in weight, in thickness, in size, the layout makes sense… i’m happy

Hi Patricia,

I hope you don’t mind, but i checked out your images. I must say your photo-essay is the first in a while that i’ve been excited to know could be committed to a book.

It’s such a great story, it’s a great story to motivate photographers to rethink concepts like negative space, camera angles, and creating images with subject matter that is right under our noses.

I also think it’s got all the makings of a cult following book. It’s got a great vibe to it and it’s got a great message to it, I typically hate self-portrait projects since they always look so narcissistic, but maybe I’ve never seen a self-project that had such a likable star actor ;-)

Anyway to avoid just being some empty gushing, i looked hard at the first fifteen images and more generally at the ones that follow. Here’s some of the things I thought of when I looked at them, please take these thoughts as just that…. ‘thoughts’ from someone looking at your images for the first time and REALY liking them, but also someone thinking out loud as a photographer as well.

Best wishes, i look forward to seeing this book in Waterstone’s or Borders and then on my coffee table :-)

Img (1) I really like how you use negative space and graphics, great tonality; i think the colour temperature is a bit cold here Patricia, but I think it’s coming from the blanket’s colour cast, look at your elbow, I think you could warm this image up a bit to reduce the colour cast and make it a bit more emotionally warm as well. The tonality is just stunning, borderline medium-format looking skin-tones. Upon looking at the rest of your images you have a great command of negative space and you don’t seem to be over-using it.

Img (2) It’s a palatable image, but I think it’s too one dimensional Patricia, the hand-language doesn’t seem as honest as it should, not enough digits are readable to make it as human as a hand should be, sorry to be harsh, but it looks more like a hook than a hand Patricia. Look at the difference between this hand, and the hand-in-action on image (20). Also this image here (2) does offer some context but it’s without any real narrative, just loads of yummy tones… it’s a clear example of limited dof tone abuse ;-).

Img (3) I really like this image Patricia, there’s some very nice geometric graphics, with just enough organic ones to forge a relationship between wee-little you with the curved fixtures and the curved sink. This is the first bold and deliberate departure from level horizons in this essay and I love it already, as matter of fact I think it may be crucial to its ethos. As I looked at the rest of your essay the wonky horizons are part of the magic, I’ve not seen them over done yet.

Img (4) If you’re going to make an image like this work ‘really well’ Patricia, you need to make sure there is a stronger recognition of the object making the shadow, a strong sense of anatomical shapes or other relevant features recognized only by their outline, this image can be improved I’m sure. It also helps if you have the shadow fall on something that is crucial to the story; otherwise it’s just a shadow for the sake of a shadow. This holds true with reflections, the benefit of both shadows and reflections is they fold visual information on top each other essentially giving you two canvases for the price of one.. Painters exploited this technique ages before photographers ever caught on to it. Image (23) is a perfect example of using dual/canvas to your advantage. Having looked at the rest of your images I’m thinking you only seem to be collecting shadows when the dynamic range of your camera struggles with them, if the shadow is really harsh, then it’s well.. maybe too harsh.. there are shadows that happen on cloudy days that are equally as punchy when collected by a camera as the ones that shout out at your naked eye.. think shadows even if they don’t shout, because these are the ones best caught without breaching the dynamic range of your sensor.

Img (5) Great stand-alone image independent of the story. If it we’re not for the wheels of the wagon I wonder if it really helps the story. Maybe wheels could be a good theme to tease in to the story though.. sorta like Frank’s jukeboxes. Love the comp on this image though.

Img (6) Fantastic idea for a shot Patricia, but I don’t think you made the best order of it.. It’s all angle and not enough read.. The agile lifeguard and the idle sun-bather are good elements to this image, but I don’t think you framed this in a way that best serves them as features of this image. Looking at some of your other images Patricia I don’t think you always take the best advantage that you are very in-control of your composition, if you can avoid key features in the frame lines from being muddled by each other then you give them more individual gravity, if they have individual gravity they can forge visual relationships with other stand-alone features in the image. just something to think about when you have so much control of your composition.

Img (7) Nice image, your implied gaze, the sense of place, and the object of the gaze feels very pleasing with this one Patricia.. the ropes do well to make us feel pushed up into this view and the ropes archetypal vibe are helpful for the story. If we like what you look at it’s easier to like you, if we like you we want to know more about you and your story, the more we want, the more we guess and this is where the juice comes from Patricia, in that the story becomes more things than the literal images have to show, it become a bit of a mantra. This image feels very mantra-ish. Upon viewing other images I think I never get tired of your juxtapositions of you and widely dynamic and expansive back-drops (e.g. img 38).. please do more Patricia, the more I see the more pathetic I personally feel for not practicing the carpe diem philosophy that you have so much evidence of… again do more.. this is the soulful tone of your story… that deliberate feeling of ….‘just get on with it already!’

Img (8) Nice idea for a shot, still feel it could be improved Patricia. There’s not enough critical mass in the far to forge a relationship between the near and the far.. and this next thing may be a totally ‘me’ type of thing, but Patricia, I’d stay away from any literal signals that ‘life’s not easy’, the illusion is already strong before this visual queue introduced this.. for example the camera angles introduced this and the car introduces it. Let the visual queues do this without the text-based ones.. they’re simply too literal. I’ll even be so bold to say I wish img (31) wasn’t included as it’s the under-tone of the whole essay, I started feeling it from the first couple of images of the essay, and to see the feeling spelled out literally with image 31, well it feels at least a bit deflating with regards to the invisible message and at its worst it is a bit patronising to your audience. Just my opinion of course ;-)

Img (9) I’m not a fan of it. I Like the idea of including your partner, but this image lacks energy, I really don’t like him squinting in the image, it reduces the life that I’m sure he has, but not evidenced in this image. Good call on graphics though. Those lanes create some nice framing attributes. Your partner is a very appealing component to this story, not ‘thee’ story, but important to it’s architecture, since I saw him in the living room shot (img 11)

Img (10) Love the image, but I cringe at the literal text, it’s the first time I’ve noticed the text with the images. Patricia, my opinion is to give your audience a chance to connect these mental dots themselves, trust that they will. If they don’t make the mapping the first time, that’s good!!, that’s why we return to books that seem cryptic, how many times have you returned to the Americans to figure out why each image was so relevant? This image is one of my favourites in a dark way.

Img (11) There’s nothing not to like about this image Patricia, I love best the mixed light-temperatures creating two distinct atmospheres with two distinct personality-like struggles. In other images further on I’ve seen other examples of using colour temperatures to create a honey-comb of spaces, subtly explore this more if you can.

Img (12) Again, great use of negative space, but if you’ve got the chance to create these images Patricia, I would introduce as many clues as you can without cluttering up the image… being really picky I wish there was more separation between the objects in the bottom of the steps letting the each item breath a little more and thus making them stand-out a little bit more. I think the colour temperature is a bit too warm here as well, It looks like the artificial light of the stairwell is over-powering the natural light at the bottom of it.. take advantage of this by cooling the image down and thus making the bottom of the stairs more separated, much in the same way you did with your living room. Img (11)

Img (13) I like this image when I first read it, and liked it more ‘before’ I read the text. Sorry to keep banging on about text Patricia, but keep in mind the illusion and keep in mind that images can mean all things to all people. There’s loads of song-writers out there that regret the day they told people what their song was about, simply because it smashed the illusion people had before hand. You’ve got loads of visual evidence to let the messages reveal themselves; I hope you lose interest in captions at least for this story.

Img (14) Nice idea, but this camera angle is getting a bit over-used Patricia. it’s like you get this subject-object, north-south feel from feet pointed and with lines pointed back at you from the ‘object’ part of the equation. If your legs came in to the frame-lines from an angle other than the middle-bottom of the frame the compositional energy would totally change, and I think it might be improve, for example img (18).

Img (15) I’m feeling very daft with this one as I don’t get enough visual queue that this is part of your story, sorry ;-(

Again, just a load of thinking out load, take it purely as that from a fan of this story!
..

Just finished this; a newer and lovelier Woofers.

http://www.lulu.com/content/5162138

Please forgive my shamelessness.

Almost too late for Christmas. Almost.

Petteri just out of curiosity, whats the best advice you can give for distribution?

BOOKS AND BOOKS AND BOOKS

Thanks to David..i did produce a book. I’ve been trying to be quiet and let others more talented with words than i am ‘speak’, but i have to tell you a book is like a room. You’re in that place and those walls prevent you from leaving. In producing my book, i saw it crumble and fall apart a few times before i attempted to put it back together until it could stand up on its own. It took a long time. David’s input, Alex and Rebecca Webb’s input, all very important, but, it came down to who I am, why i was doing this book, and what am i trying to say, which turned out to be my personal way of seeing the world. From the fierceness of the flamenco and the way i feel about dance to the gentleness of light caressing that rough hair on a horse’s back. the book is the thing.
You don’t walk by it once it’s in your hands. And, it’s very hard to let go of your book. I self published, but worked out a deal with the printer/publisher so i did all the scans and design. i borrowed money and only did 250 copies. So many glitches, like a page was missing after all 250 copies were printed…
when it’s done, you’ve really accomplished something. it made me feel shy to have myself out there, but it also helped me be realistic and humble. i’m working on another one; i feel more confident, and i’m going to try to go after those publishers this time because now i know what it entails. Before this, i honestly had no idea about how complicated it is. Thanks to someone on this blog who mentioned where to get Kyunghee Lee’s book; i sent for it and can’t wait to see it. do it. you’ll feel good.

anne henning

SOMEGUY

I’ve now read and reread your comment several times–always going back to the image to which you’re referring–and I have to say you have an exceptionally discriminating eye. Your comments about negative spaces, color temperatures, camera angles, framing, visual narrative and written text show your high level of aesthetic, technical and documentary knowledge and experience. My guess is that you chose to remain anonymous because your name would be well known to most of us.

I feel as though I’ve just received a professional portfolio review without having to pay big bucks or travel to NYC, London or Paris! And I hope you know how appreciative I am to you for taking the time to look so closely at my essay and share your response in such detail.

I will take all of your suggestions to heart, explore their validity for me, and move on them accordingly. One suggestion I’ve already enacted is to eliminate captions on individual images. Your response to the text resonated with my own discomfort at feeling I had to explain ANY images in words. Sure, each one has a story, but, as you so aptly said, it’s MY story not the viewers’. Let them bring their own stories to my photos. Mystery is an essential component to an essay such as this.

Thank you so much for this gift. Not only your excellent critique but your positive response to the essay as a whole. Thank god it doesn’t come across as narcissistic. That has been an ongoing concern of mine. Focusing on oneself is tricky business!

If any more ideas, critiques or suggestions come to mind, please feel free to email me at croneart@comcast.net

in gratitude & peace
Patricia

Its a rollicking, rolling event this blog when it works like this!

DAH

I have been working up a book/exhibition/multimedia idea for sometime- as always interconnected with what I have been doing and the major themes of what I work with, but this one is stretching out into really universal areas I think. (Well as universal as you can get on earth!)

I guess one of the things that I can add to this discussion on the viability and intrinsic worth of books is that books will always be something tactile and sensuous, they may not be for everybody, but they are such a delight to feel in your hands…

That said the reason I want to do this particular book for this next body of work that I am now embarking on, is because its to do with the subject matter, its a much more intimate reading of the things that interest me.

Of course now, what I would like is a publisher to give me loads of money up front but hey thats probably not going to happen and I would like to keep everything creatively independent as well but really my reason’s for doing a book are about the importance of the stories…

Isn’t that why we all want to do books, because they are important stories to tell? Like Patricia’s story, one of real courage and hope and just a really beautiful person dealing with adversity in such a fantastic way…

BOB

Did you and Marina ever get my best love and wishes for your sucesses? I haven’t heard from you so I guess you are busy?

DAH and ALL

I don’t know about you but well Christmas is a big thing in Oz and people tend to be very quirky with their decorations, whose up for a ‘Best Christmas Decorations” photo thingy?

What do ya reckon DAVID?

Should have been IS, not are. Tired.

… i also missed Paul!….
;-)

PAUL,
Love your dog images! You’re making one of the hardest things – making people laugh! Good luck with the book!

Cheers

PETTERI..

besides distribution and distribution, the main thing anyone thinking about regarding book publishing is control and control…and two other things to think about are control and control…self publishing automatically gives you this, but even if you are taken in by a reputable publisher you must have control over your layout, sequencing, choice of pictures, cover, type and well just EVERYTHING…this is not always easy..it easier with some publishers than with others…but the really good ones assume the photographer is doing a monograph and only assert themselves in a helpful way or may reject a photograph they feel could be libelous (a really rare case, but it happened to me with Living Proof where i had a celebrity with a shotgun and smoking a joint)

i learned all of the above the hard way of course…i did a couple of books where i did not have full control…for years i could not even look at these books, did not display them and generally hated myself for “bending” just to have a book…it is tempting to roll over..you tell yourself “well, i will get this book out and then do a better one later”…always always do the “better one” NOW…

no book is way way better than a bad book…

only because i have since published a couple of books where i did have full control do those older “bad books” have some kind of kitsch appeal to some collectors….for example, HCB did a really bad color book on France…i saw it, but i do not own it..wish i did…what a weird kind of “collectors item”…i think the executors of his estate have destroyed all copies of this book by now…

all of you should make books that the executors of your estate will not feel compelled to destroy!!!!

cheers, david

ALL:

Re books:

Having been fortunate enough to do several books, it’s now the way I think about photography.

I urge any of you that are working on longer term projects to learn Adobe Indesign and actually sit down and design some projects as “books.” (whether that’s the end goal or not). It will teach you about how photos flow together (ie sequencing), how two images side by side affect each other, etc etc. I use Indesign to also layout my “commercial” portfolio.

My recent book, Cypher, I laid out myself over a period of a six months, setting up a style first, and then just playing and playing (at one point the book was 300 pages long!) and then reducing and reducing and shuffling and shuffling. Even if the project never sees the light of day it will teach you loads about how your photos work together. It will also help with your editing – sometimes I had a great picture but knew I needed to find something to complement it and that sent me back to my files. Books are great because one can use and access images that may not necessarily stand on their own. It’s a good way of ordering one’s thinking and figuring out whether something is actually going to work (and/or how) as a book (without bugging your designer friends or spending lots of money on one).

I don’t bother with typography (I leave that to the pros), just how to place images. It also can teach you a lot about cropping your images, something I was adamantly against until I saw how dynamic they could be when cropped for a book (though I prefer to retain the original format(s). That horizontal pic can sometimes become much more meaningful as a vertical and so on.

MARCIN:

I remember the first trip I took to SE Asia (Vietnam) back in 1996. Everything was so fresh and new and a bit overwhelming. Honestly there’s really only one or two pics from that trip I truly like. But going back and back again and again one becomes more comfortable and can delve a bit deeper (if one wants to). You may also want to stick your pics in a drawer for six months and then come back and edit again, minus your fresh memories and sentimental connections. You may discover pics that have nothing to do with your feelings as a “tourist” and are much stronger. My ten cents.

DAH:

Did you get the book (you may not yet if you aren’t in NYC)? I’m curious as to what you think, as it was shot on medium format as well. Breakdancing is not something that one would think of picking up an MF camera for, but like the subject, I needed a challenge, I needed to sweat as the subjects sweated. Sure, it would have been much easier to machine gun digital, but having to change rolls every 12 shots really sharpens the senses. Of course I may have missed a lot as well, but I wanted the work to be different from what I’ve done in the past. Which it is but isn’t. No matter the gear one can’t escape who you are (and why would you want to?). And like you, I wanted to challenge the medium, bring my looseness to a traditionally stiff way of working. I’ll be really curious to see your work.

Take care,

Charles

Yes sir, heavily armed stoned celebrities are wandering the streets of the big city! And people wonder why I dont go down there more often than I do.

MARTIN B,
that is SUPER DOPE !!!!!!!!

Thank you, dear Eric, for sharing James’ mother’s message with us. James and all his family remain in our hearts. We are grateful to you and your “Lord of the Rings” essay for bringing him into our lives. I anticipate the day when I will hold your book dedicated to James, with its powerful depiction of life among these young boxers, in my hands.

Patricia

Aaah thanks David. Sounds like it was good timing too!

Yeah, there’s something about nailing it with medium format that gives you a totally different feeling than with 35. I’ve been out shooting bboys since with digital but it’s just not as satisfying an experience (but a whole lot cheaper!)

FYI for those of you out there that are curious about these things: I used Mamiya 6 and 7II cameras (with 50, 65, and 75, 80 lenses) and a Hasselblad SWC ,all with flash (Quantum and Vivitar 285) and Neopan 400. I scanned everything myself with an Imacon. There are three 35 shots with a Leica.

And I looked through the viewfinder not so much (esp with the Superwide)! Talk about dancing with your subject!

Take care,

Charles

Akaky IRL: So, are you doing a book?

Akaky: What?

Akaky IRL: Are you doing a book?

Akaky: No, not that I know of. Why do you ask?

Akaky IRL: Apparently all your DAH blog friends have book projects.

Akaky: Really? How do you know that?

Akaky IRL: I’ve been reading the DAH blog, dumbass. How the hell do you think I know, for crying out loud? I’m not the Amazing Kreskin, you know; that whole mind reading thing is way past me.

Akaky: I’m sorry, it’s just the idea of your reading the blog at all amazes me. You have to admit, it’s pretty unusual for you.

Akaky IRL: I had nothing else to do. Keeping up with the Kardashians wasn’t on yet.

Akaky: Why do you watch that swill, anyway?

Akaky IRL: I have low tastes. And Kim Kardashian looks like a Hittite fertility goddess.

Akaky: And you’re too cheap to pay for the Playboy Channel.

Akaky IRL: That too. All of which brings us back to the original question: why aren’t you doing a book project?

Akaky: Books are for people with something to say.

Akaky IRL: Yeah, and? You’ve never let not having anything to say stop you from running off at the mouth before.

Akaky: I don’t have any good pictures and I would just as soon not have everyone in the world know it.
Akaky IRL: Well, that makes sense. No one likes being humiliated…well, almost no one. You have to wonder about the car company guys. Begging for money just after you get off the corporate jet is just asking for it.

Akaky: No argument about that here, guy.

AKAKY & AKAKY IRL

You crack me up… car executives hehehehe…

HEY PANOS

Nice to know you missed me. I am generally here but not always talking (strangely enough I can be quiet sometimes!)