yes, yes i was taught in my childhood that there was a Santa Claus…it was pretty confusing even then, because the story of Jesus in Bethlehem, and wise men and angels and fat Santa showing up at midnight in my home and then somehow wriggling down my chimney and leaving toys under the tree (if i had been a good boy that year), was a story or a combo of stories that left me totally perplexed…however, as i rushed to open my packages with my name on them under the Christmas tree, i just left the stories alone….i had my new electric train or baseball mitt, and that was that…
a camera came into my life at about 11 years old, and by that time Santa was "personified" as my father…i always figured….. anyway, at this point, i only wanted a roll of film in my stocking hung by the mantle with care….i did not realize at the time, that this very camera would lead me around the world to ask many more questions than just whether or not there was really a Santa Claus …and much more than finding out whether or not our red and white Santa was the end game of a Coca Cola ad campaign in the 1920′s…
december is a special month for all faiths…particularly for the sons of Abraham, with Chanukah and Eid-Al-Adha and Christmas all rolling around on top of each other…now, the Buddhist and Hindu moon based calendars get complicated for me, but when i saw the full moon on Christmas Eve and early Christmas day i knew it was a good omen for everyone….
in all of my travels certainly religion and politics come into my mind a lot…most of what i have photographed for thirty years is a by-product of one of the two or a combo of the two….the mixture of the two usually bringing about results that i do not condone nor understand….i continue to be totally confused about the human animal in our various incarnations of amazing grace and simultaneous amazing willingness to self destruct….and yet and yet, i lean towards photographing the light…the hope …the moments when it has all gone right…realizing that surely all is not really "right", but this little moment to be shared has a real "rightness" to it…i keep thinking mankind should be getting better…learning from past mistakes and moving "forward"…however, it often does not seem to be the case..i see this in the work of many of my colleagues…great work……but my "belief" is in the ultimate dignity of man ….not a religious belief….just belief, albeit often flawed…
as i drove along in my mother’s car on Christmas Eve morn , i saw the almost full moon going down between the foot hills near durango…this is just the kind of picture that would make me cringe if i saw it in a student portfolio (below)…but, i took it anyway….obviously, i did not even get out of the car….just a snapshot…a memory….nothing more….never to be printed or published or archived…..just a Christmas 2007 memory…..a poignant memory for me because my father died on Christmas morning in 2000 at home with our family at his side with these peaks in his view…a rather beautiful passing of a life…..
i wish all of you a blessed holiday season….i would wish for you happiness above all with your families and companions….and i know i know i know this sounds perhaps trite, naive, etc etc.., but i just cannot help myself….if each of us puts one little daily "brick in the wall" towards "understanding" or "sensitizing" then we will have made our contribution to the elusive "world peace"…leaders and organizations will not do it for us….it is only us, and each of us counts…
your thoughts????
sorry herve, I was generalizing a bit too much. good is not the same as pretty; the photos I was speaking of as “desktop wallpaper” are at fault precisely because they don’t say anything. They may be technically well executed and geometrically composed as nearly perfect as I can, but they’re empty. They don’t say anything to anyone wasn’t there (if you were there, and they do say something to you, then they’re worth keeping, even just as a journal); they’re just pretty, you know? Pretty doesn’t mean good to me. (seems like I remember a fable to that effect). I don’t have any hard and fast rules for how to judge a photo, though.
I meant “good” in an overall sense, though: work for social justice, recycle, that sort of thing. Making good photographs counts (to me of course), or I wouldn’t be making photos at all. What is good in a photograph is a huge subject, and since this isn’t my blog, It’s not my place. I think I will go write about it on my blog, though, and if you really want to know what I think, that’s what’s linked as my web site right now. Just click my name. later, matt
Hi David,
This is the first time a write but I’ve been reading your blog for almost a year.
I just found out you’re coming in february to Mexico for a NG workshop and I was wondering if you could tell who I can contact to present my self in case they need a mexican spanish-english speaking assistant.
thanks
best,
grm
Hey David…. happy new year !
Katharina
@Herve: at some point I started to think that bad pictures might not follow the rules, but great pictures just break them! There’s nothing more boring for me than a well executed pretty image. I mean, what is there to take home or to chew? And if the picture is –even worse- completely finished? Why would you look twice at something that unambiguously delivers a message? I realized a while ago that when I’m drunk I experiment less with the framing of the shots, there are less strange tilts and everything is sort of stereotypically safe. Hum. I hate many of my “better” shots because they were shot in that safe way. Oh well.
Happy new year in advance to everybody!
Feliz año David…gracias por el tiempo que nos has dado y lo que hemos aprendido, pero más que nada por tu amistad sincera.
un abrazo. Carlos Rubín
A good photograph is a photograph about which someone has said, “Hey! Good photograph!”
A crappy photograph is a photograph about which someone has said, “Yikes! What a crappy photograph!”
And, of course, paradoxically, that can be and often is the very same photograph!
Pretty cool huh?
Hoping all here find many reasons to smile throughout 2008.
Paulyman.
blessin’s for the year 2008 to all and sunder…
HELLO ALL….
i am STILL scrambling with your uploads!!!! but by this evening or first thing in the morning i will at least show a list of the essaysists who will be featured and the recipient of the dah stipend..
i am a bit of a prisoner to the tech side of the new website…suggestion for all in the future: do not try to do what i am trying to do over the Christmas holidays!!! seriously, all is just fine, but i do just have to wait for certain things to happen which i do not understand to open the new site where your work will be shown…all of you have been so patient….just a little bit more please…it is really out of my hands at this point….
i do hope all of you have had the best of holidays….and now the days are getting longer!!
peace and happy new year!!!
david
Wishing everyone a great 2008. Happy New Year!
Speaking of being a prisoner…David, are you being held prisoner by the snows of Colorado? Back in the NY kibbutz?
Whatever the case, have a great New Year’s celebration!
HELLO ALL….
still in colorado..not prisoner of snow…good skiing!!!!….back in nyc by the 5th….
BIG LAST MINUTE GLITCH!!!
in looking carefully at the metadata of some entrants we noticed many pictures shot outside of our stated time frame…the time frame of july 15-november 15 was set up so that editors etc who viewed your work would see what you could do in a realistic time period….we also found one entrant who had in the metadata a picture credited to a magnum photographer!!! we are assuming these are all honest mistakes, but just want to make sure that everything we publish here falls into the very few “rules” and limited structure we had set up…
cheers, david
David,
I find it highly dubious that someone could mistakenly send a picture shot by someone else… and I’m pretty sure you do too but you are diplomatic… But, are you sure it’s not one of your Magnum colleagues who, for the fun, took part in the “contest” under a pseudonym ? ;-) It could also be someone who just wanted to test if the picture in question would be “detected”. Regarding the time stamp of the pictures, I think it may be the case that the camera is set to a wrong time. Not everyone pays attention to these things.
For example I have a M8 and although I now know most of the settings, I don’t know how to set the time and I have never checked the time of my pictures. So it could be completely off without my having noticed.
Happy new year!
Intriguing plus plus.
hello david… hello everyone,
just a quick message to wish you all happy new year. may it be what you want it to be! saludos,
I must say that even considering oblivious mistakes to change dates or do it wrong on the camera clock, I have had problems with the Canon reflex this year, so that coming back from my winter trip, last April, some shots were dated November 2007!?!? there is space for honest mistakes, definitely.
Of course, as for my own participation here, no problems, lovefest happens only once a year, late September, and due to computer crash, having lost all summer work, I had welcome david’s extra time, but make it a one day shooting “essay”, as if sent by some agency to cover this cool, fun and happening day in SF’s calendar.
Be safe in celebrating the NYear, everyone!
HELLO ALL….
sort of strange that in the last hours of 2007 michael and i are catching a combo of honest mistakes and perhaps flatout deceit…
one of the essays i liked the most, turned out to be shot over a year ago….this could easily have been an honest mistake or a misinterpretation of the rules because one of the pictures was shot in the correct time frame..
and the photographer who i thought only had one picture entered shot by a Magnum photog, upon investigation had his entire essay “borrowed” right out of the Magnum archive…yes, it could be a joke by the Magnum photog, or not a joke by someone else…in any case, it took up a lot of time to figure it out and did not have michael and i laughing at the end, if it was intended as a joke!!!
now, you may ask, why are we just catching these “errors” now??…pretty simple really…we just we not looking for this sort of thing…we had our hands full just going over all of the material….neither michael nor i caught these discrepencies because we both were assuming “honesty” all around…
stay tuned….
cheers, david
Well, it would be fun to see the essay in question, if only to see if I would have been able to recognize one of the pictures… I’m sure fellow fans of the Magnum website would like it too :) Could be the next game for winning one of your camera bags ;-)
HELLO ALL…
ok, wrapping it up for the night… i am sure you do not mind if i take new years eve off!!..back first thing in the morning with at least an announcement of the best essays…and there are some very very nice ones!!!
happy new year!!! david
As difficult as this is for you, at least you are catching it. Better than finding out about it later. I guess this sort of thing, joke or not is not uncommon. I fell in love with the portfolio of a “foreign” photojournalist last year on a photo sharing website and then discovered he had taken the entire thing from Emilio Morenatti, a great PJ. When the “officials” of the site found out about it they tried to contact the guy, thinking it might be Emilio using an alias but the imposter was never heard from again. Needless to say, the portfolio was taken down. Oh well…Good work guys! We will all celebrate together tomorrow.
You know, I (and I suspect others) was/were willing to give some leeway here regarding the announcement and all…you said first week of January, I didn’t realize you were going to end up with first DAY of January! Good for you, man! You really do rock. One last time, thanks for all your hard work. You’re pretty crazy…but we love you for it!
Enjoy your celebration…of course by the time you see this you’ll probably be “suffering” your celebration! In either case, peace!
-M
–For MICHAEL C.
Hi Michael. I just sent an important e-mail. Let me kow if you receive it.
Thanks.
Mike
10 minutes till 2008…taking a moment between a party and ringing in the new year to send thoughts of a very good year to you all..
with regard to the mistakes, as my sister says ‘even boundless compassion has its limits’….I’m sure you have to draw the line somewhere..I wish you well with it~!
peace and joy to all!
10 minutes into 2008. Happy New Year David!
Happy New Year 2008 David and ALL THE PEOPLE HERE………
Sanchez
David,
Since I will likely be in the train when you make the announcement, I post a last question now… I think you once said that you would publish all “good essays” regardless of the number of good essays there would be. A few days ago, you said that you were going to publish 6-10 essays. This leads to the question: are there only 6-10 essays that you consider good (of course an essay might contain good pictures but might not be cohesive enough to be a “good essay”)? Or are there in fact too many good essays so that you chose to publish only “great essays”?
Cheers
A bit wobbly this morning and blanketed lightly by the fresh-white new year, itself blanketed lightly by the fresh-tonguetip of a newyear snow last night, i’ll try to make this shot-short…
DAVID ALAN HARVEY AND ALL HIS BLOGGES:
HAPPY YEAR YEAR! I wish each and everyone of you a simple thing: a year, though it may be full and absent, turned by joy and sadness, wealthy and slightly bitter, dreamed upon and ached for, wet and bone-carveddry, i wish for each of you something quite simple:
that you are given the wealth and grace of time to spend more time with those you love and who love and seed you than you do away from them, as my wife’s mother said to me in russian: more time at home than at work……and for that, whatever is your home, and in whatever manner that shelter make take (spouses, children, friends, photograpy, travel, rested like a dime upon a palm), let it shelter and enrich you and pace out the calm of your days, above all else…
and yes: some drunkeness and some silence and a swelling heart and a diminishing waist….
where distance of all things didnt yet matter too much….
all and only that for each of u (and for akaky to publish a fr*cking book!) :))…
big wet white hugs
bob
ps. as to the weird thing about the submission with Magnum stuff….well, maybe it’s a test my one of David’s buddies: if so, just use it for another contest: guess the magnum photographer/story whose pics from the archives they came…im an optimist on the first day of the year and wouldnt trouble too much: what’s a life without shit stirring anyway ;))))
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!
running (wobbly)
Bob
To: Aga, Alun, Akaky, Ana, Arie, Asher, Bob B, Carlos, Cathy, David McG, David U, Eric, Erica, Glenn, Gunnar, Herve, Joan, Joni, Kelly, Lance, Liam, Martin, Mike C, Mike K, Mike S, Pablo, Paul, Rafal, Rene, Sanchez, Wendy, and many many more, but especially to David Alan Harvey:
Thank you all for the wonderful community you have created here over the last year by putting your thoughts and feelings into words we can all share, and best wishes to all of you for a new year filled with the bounty of friendship, experience, and discovery! As they say in Korean, ‘Chaemi manhi posipsio!’ which literally means, ‘Please see many interesting things!’
In gratitude and appreciation,
Sidney
Happy new year everyone.
Wishing you all the best in 2008.
And like lots said before me, thanks for this amazing community. Everyone makes it with the comments and great conversations. And I just love it to bits.
Thanks!!
Hope my submission somehow went through at all. I shot mine this summer in Palestine, when I was working on a long term project. What I submitted is not really finished yet, since I didn’t have a lot of time over there to spent on it, but I loved the challange of getting a new idea on the spot and working in a certain timeframe, next to my own project. That alone was great about this whole assignement.
Sorry to hear some people didn’t care about this at all and cheeted good or badly intented. For me it was the only reason to try.
And I’m curious about the whole Magnum megadata thing as well. Very strange thing to find out.
Wendy
Thanks, Sidney, all I can say is: likewise, this is the only site on the net where courtesy in conversation and communication is upheld at all times. There is an incredible feeling of thoughtfulness, kindheartedenss about others, as a community, lurkers and post-ers, Which is new to me since I have been net connected.
Happy New year, indeed, all, while following David’s first post lead by adding a little sunrise “allegory” from unfree Burma:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2032/2154736037_330fec2077_o.jpg
Right back at’cha, Sidney!
Sidney! :)))))
thanks so much….and ditto to you too mate (love the Korean saying! :)) )…
you couldnt have expressed it any more eloquently :))
the reason, for me too, to hang out here is the incredible and stimulating and ultimately embracing conversation that has been unearthed…dah’s commitment to commitment and sharing ….
it’s what has made this place such a haven for me too here these past 10 months :)))
running to play in snow :))
cheers
bob
Throw a ball for me, Bob.
paul :)))
u got it brother! :))))…i always think of you and your sons when im with dima :))…ok, he’s tugging at me…now off and running, snow balls in hand :))))
cheers
b
Hello David,
Christmas must be a time of very mixed feelings for you. And reading your opening statement made me realise how much I’m missing family and home at this time of year – it’s been 2 years.
I love your image of the mountains, partly because it reminds me that all my memories of Colorado are good ones – and often the photos that mean most to me never make it into print. Paul’s falling leaf as a for instance – I see he’s on your forum here.
I have a couple of wishes. For you, may the year be filled with success, joy, contentment and good health.
And, at a time when so many focus on conflict, that many more will focus on peace. I believe we create the world we see on some level, and in my book, this extends into photography.
Take good care, best wishes to you all and thank you for taking and propagating so many images of peace.
Jenny
I have been recommending a book called “My Stroke of Insight – a Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey” by Jill Bolte Taylor and also a TEDTalk Dr. Taylor gave on the TED dot com site. And you don’t have to take my word for it – Dr. Taylor was named Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People, the New York Times wrote about her and her book is a NYTimes Bestseller), and Oprah did not 4 interviews with her.