my nice little winter vacation is over….back to work…i have pretty much been chilling out the last three or is it four weeks….only my self initiated responsibilities to you on this forum have kept me busy (i do have some new good news for you, but will save it for the next post)…but, mostly i have been hanging with family and friends….this was the longest holiday season of all time for me…but, a quick scroll down through this section and you can see i was "on the move" prior and may have needed a break….
i hit the trail on friday to India for 10 days (see post under "workshops") and then almost immediately to Oaxaca, Mexico for two weeks and then almost immediately to Oslo, Norway to join my Magnum colleagues in our first seriously organized workshop since i took on the role of "minister of education" for our cooperative….
appropriately, Jonas Bendiksen and his wife Laara Matsen have worked so so hard to get this major Magnum Masterclass workshop set up in their beloved Norway….i really think i should have said Laara Matsen and her husband Jonas Bendiksen, because i know very well who did most of the work!!
in any case, Alex Majoli, Paolo Pellegrin, Chris Anderson, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Alex and Rebecca Webb, Jonas and yes, yours truly, will slip into Oslo in March for a springtime (Norway style) gathering of the tribe…please log on to: http://agency.magnumphotos.com/about/osloworkshop.aspx ….we would love for some of you to join us….
this will be my first trip to Norway….or to any country in Scandinavia….so, personally i am very excited and curious…i just have this feeling in my gut that this workshop is going to be very very well run…the Masterclass is being set up in conjunction with the Norwegian Press Photograhers Association, Bilder Nordic Photography School and the Oslo College of Photojournalism…man, do they have their act together!!
as a matter of fact, what i really am trying to find out by going to Norway, is why oh why Scandinavian countries all seem so very very peaceful and very very organized and have very very near perfect economies and very very great health plans , while the rest of us scramble for our very very souls!!
to end up my mini all over the world workshop "tour" i will be seen on the beaches of the Dominican Republic, the green half of Espanola….please see my new post under "student work/workshops"…then, no more workshops til fall….i have a new photo project i want to start soonest and i will tell you about that once i get going…i hate to talk specifics about something until i actually start….you know, get that first good picture…
which brings me to an interesting question for you….if you talk to others a lot about something before you really do it, does it lessen the desire to do it, or does it push you forward to actually do it ???
o.k. GUESS WHO’S BACK…i’m “traveling” right now…from the bathroom upstairs ( because is stuck-??-dead!!! to the one downstairs…with the phone in my hands, posting…
Now i’m “done”, washed my hands…keep typing on the phone….I know i promised i will “shut up”.. but that was cool???
this is ROBERT, click below…
Robert, listen…this is “Socrates” right here..straight from Compt…sorry i meant Arta, Greece…
listen Robert: PANOS says: “you waisted such a nice trip to tijuana…my friend…Listen …didn’t you know that “canon” is not “pro”…especially when accompanied by a Canon flash…
try a metz flash…a nikon d50,underexpose 2 stops, and there you have it…NatGeo…I mean National Geographic…for people here for a sixth time…
people check “ROBERT”, below
…http://www.libertypictures.blogspot.com/
…ohhh i forgot to add… please let’s get positive!!!!!?
please check my photos about “KANYE WEST” for “power106fm.com”
below:
http://www.power106.fm/kanyebreakfast/photographs.aspx
…i can’t believe this magic phone can post …
now some “digital information”…
whoever is going to do an essay in “RAMIA greece…an isolated village…no internet…
“Panos” or “Socrates”, comments…
buy 20 4gb cards or if for an M8, double this..
It will cost you about $500…
Advantage: REWRITABLE HARD DRIVES easy to be re-formatted a million times…only for your photos…
ALWAYS BRING A LAPTOP,ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A “NATGEO WANNABE—WHICH, I TOTALLY ADMIT I AM…”ANYWAYS…
… bottom line… carry as many films or digital sd or flash… cards you have… hey!!!!!! and don’t forget those “extra”… and the “electricity convertors”…
now
Peace out… from the “warzone”:…L.A.
…oh last one …I hope!!!…Thank you Paul Treacy for being… “blogwise”… between me and Michael Kircher..the guy that doesn’t talk to the rest of us…but only to the “GOD” himself…
peace again
holla er’body!!!!!
Hey Robert, this was a great subject you treated, I must say my own favorite picture in your essay was “the park”, the ladies legs. I do agree with David, though, and that means that you’d be next on the list, which is quite an accolade already (David, can’t wait to see the many other selected essays, I am sure some will have sparkles, and more).
IMO, if we feel strong and ambitious about what we shoot, we should always be extra hard on ourselves as well.
Even on account of the essays selected first by David, that would be very counter-productive if the authors did not do just that, and were instead solely carried away by the applauses that followed their nomination. Really, all David has done is tell them and us all: “Ok, good, that’s a beginning, now back to work”. The fact he has selected for each one only a few of their twenties or so photographs submitted, tells us so, I would say.
…oh last one …I hope!!!…Thank you Paul Treacy for being… “blogwise”… between me and Michael Kircher..the guy that doesn’t talk to the rest of us…but only to the “GOD” himself…
peace again
holla er’body!!!!!
i thought it could be funny….it wasn’t…sorry…but..
HERVE i wish i could express myself like YOU…,DAH or BBLACK…
peace
David
cool adjustment on the new site, i think that was a key improvement, to create a list of the essayist names rather than the groupings.
do you have counters on the site or more specifically on the names?
whats your take on counters?
ps. Robbie…luv yer work
I talk about it and talk about until there’s no way out and I just have to go and do it because everyone expects me to.
HERVE AND ALL..
yes, that is exactly right…most of these essays are all “works in progress” and should be thought of in just that way…this will all become more clear as time goes on as there are more postings and more critiques..if i were in a room with all of you and all of these essays tacked up on the wall or projected, i would be able to make these points much faster and easier…the online “reach” is quite good for assembling us, but much more difficult for critique and certain aspects of discussion…just slow!!!
and yes also, a big YES, to self critique…you have made this point before and i have my whole life believed it…only YOU are your own judge of your work…YOU must believe strongly in it…i might be some kind of “spark” for you or catalyst, but nothing more….a “complete” photographer is one who knows what he/she wants to say and says it “come hell or high water”…
W ROBERT ANGELL…
i hope you got my private message to you on your site…we should meet..are you doing all of that with large format or are you just giving it that “look” in photoshop??? anyway, nice body of work amigo…
please tell me what a “counter” is…i know you are laughing, but i do not know…hey, this boy can barely use this computer…no joke…
PANOS…
you had a couple of interesting pictures with Kanye….and i have seen your work with Snoop etc…photographing “celebs” is always tough because of the access…i thought your “behind the scenes” pictures of Kanye could have been a little “looser”..more freestyle…i mean, you write freestyle and it would be interesting to see it in your photographs a bit more…but, as i said, i know , i know….access not easy…
by the way, i will come to l.a. this spring with my hip hip work..we meet? THAT would get this audience fired up!! a david/panos meeting!!
i did have the pleasure of working with both Kanye and Snoop (in a very limited way)….totally different kinds of men and backstage those two did not “hang” with each other as did some of the others…Kanye is a really interesting man in my opinion..something like L.L. Cool J in his overall sense of things…a class act as some would say….Snoop is just Snoop as we all see him in the press…he was so stoned when he went on live MTV the night i was with him, that i cannot imagine he remembers the show…but, THAT was the show!! anyway, he also worked very very very hard with the press…gave interviews FOREVER…he knows , he knows whazzup in the biz for sure…also spent time with Snoop and LT Hutton, his producer in the l.a. studio….one of the most memorable evenings of my life…hmmmmm, or maybe i do not remember!!!
cheers, david
AMY….
do you have a site?? you check in every once in awhile here, but i have no idea of your work….let us see!!
cheers, david
Hi David,
I sent you an e- mail.
cheers,
katharina
PAUL…
i do know what you mean about taking on a “too complex” project…i have done it and later thought “what was i thinking?”…but the “Child’s Play” concept could work…again, get loose…become a child!! go back…forget photography…show me what it “feels like” to be a child…
anyway, we will see some of your work soonest here….
KATHARINA…
i may not have time to read your mail before my trip today…scramble mode…..anyway, it is nice to hear from you and i will check my email when i get to Rajasthan, which might be 48 hours from now…who knows?? long trip…but, i will get back to you as soon as possible…
cheers, david
ok. Thanks !
Just checked the gallery site for the first time in days. Looking really good now… more like real gallery experience – although nothing will ever beat that :)
Talking ideas out for me is completely necessary. Hearing/thinking/ talking about a project outside of my own head-space creates questions, solves some doubts while creating others, new angles…. etc . Ultimately, for me, it leads to more “sound” ideas. That said…sometimes I just have to zip it and get on with it.
Thanks David. Here’s more Child’s Play material…
http://paultreacy.com/ChildsPlay.html
This will have to be a short note….i’ve made a promise (to myself and wife) to keep my web activity to a limit (the energy of talking/writing thing ;)) )….so, just some quick reflections for everyone :))
I’ve read (this morning) all the comments, and have a few quick thoughts:
DAVID: I will write u this weekend from acta est email ;))…and the new site changes look wonderful! :))
PANOS: I do love your style and breadth, though i of course don’t also wave the dip of your melt…im old school man, i spent time with Qtip (that generation) and one of my best friends in university (from sbronx) got gone from a bullet in my 3rd hear of university, and that (if there ever is) a lesson in rhymes…i understand ur and wrobert and davidmc and others need to shake it up to kick the brickbitch down of what seems to be precious righteousness, but in truth brother, we’re all fucking lost in the funhouse and not amount of scatter changes those mirrors: the better tune is this: to know the mirrors for what they are and that’s about looking at our own mug in the mirror, licking off our own paws, dog, get it?..
this also goes for all the interesting and not-so-interesting judgments about the essays…im always amazed by others insatiable comparison with that, judgment and reduction…i’ve never compared my own work or my own life with other, in stead the opposite: trying to understand how little i’ve grown, or how much i’ve failed, how far it has or hasnt come…the gaze against the other is infact a deceit and a pretty (although understandably human) empty one…the moment someone tells me their work is more interesting, better, worse, etc, is the moment they’ve told me more about their own failure than any amount of photography can reveal…we sit in judgment, and squalor, mostly ’cause we’ve failed ourselves to embrace our own failure and just dig that bone as the chew-bit it was meant to be…
ok, and this small story for now: appropos of something or nothing…
something once, a long time ago, an old black woman told me when i was a sad and lonely young man: i was on a bus returning to my mom’s home for christmas break (i was 19) and sitting next to me on a greyhound bus was an old and talking-to-herself woman, going back to Philly to bury her granddaughter (who’d been killed by a straight bullet in N.Philly) .. she and i had a long conversation (7 hours) and at the end, when we both got off in Philadelphia she said to me: “child, remember, what u r given is what u have, cherish that and no it was meant only for you and dont be saddened by it cause everyone is saddened cause theyre blind.”….something like that: i think of her (now more than 20 years later) often knowing she probably isnt even still alive…it gives me understanding…
light on the back, ….
we’re blind and that blindness is our way toward sight and only meant for us….
dig it?….
david: fly safe….
the rest: love in, real…
Asher, I’ll write u this weekend…
hugs
running
bob
o.k this is a little SECRET ,im not sure i could get in trouble for sharing this in public…but i still have the copyright…its in a form of a movie so nobody can extract photos…SNOOP BACKSTAGE…enjoy…this is a link -backdoor to my private .mac account…i took away the password…please come in…but dont steal…or grab anything…some photos are old…some boring…sometimes i only had access for 1 minute only…I lost one of my cameras when i shot “THE GAME”…somewhere in montebello…a girl behind me passed out…and what’s worst…when AGORAPHOBIA…kicks in:
http://homepage.mac.com/innerspacecowpanos/iMovieTheater17.html
ALSO…check my other little secret place to see my last photos of rapper 50CENT below..also LUDA,BEYONCE ,BUSTA RHYMES,THE GAME…FUZZY…is there
http://web.mac.com/innerspacecowpanos/Panoblogomania/50cent.html
DAVID…L.A warzone, david/panos…meeting…i cant wait…let’s burn this mother…..
BOBBLACK: Like i said before couple of times…you are an amazing writer…Your posts i usually read them at least twice…I learned a lot and keep learning from you..im not kissing your ass..but your photos are not bad either…not bad at all…I will learn way more if i find a way to fineI need to discover more about your work…
Peace out…
ps:Jonnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiii, Karanka i mean…i need to see more of your work…
enough hip-hop for now…im craving a beer at Joni K’s pub….
Paul,
I understand that of “epic endeavors”… if you want to explore all aspects of some subject that is just too big, is always difficult in special if you have to do it in a period of time that results too short…
This has made me think a lot, because all the projects I have are long projects, and is difficult to keep a “pace” through the whole process…
One of my large projects is religion in Venezuela, the traces of “mestizaje” that are present in all religious manifestations here. This is a large project but it is easy to divide it in small pieces to complete. You need to have in mind the calendar of religious celebrations and this does the job of planning.
But in other projects, such as one I have in mind that is about people and their occupations here in Caracas, is difficult to keep the pace. You have to cut in smaller pieces so you can chew it but normally is not so easy to figure out which these smaller pieces are and if they are following a logic. So, normally, I finish shooting street photography as you mentioned.
I was once in a project share by various photographers, and this is an ideal solution if you want to make an essay in short time and cover different aspects. And is always interesting to gather all the essays and to see how the others “resolved” their piece.
By the way, you mentioned something about the rivers that sound very interesting. The relationship between the city and the river. Thinking about that I wonder if the rivers could be seen as mirrors of the cities. I mean, there must be a relation between the state of health of the river and the quality of life, the general mood of the people, the culture.
David,
Talking to people about our own projects is not the problem. To me the problem is when you communicate it and you are not 100% committed of what you have in mind. So, you are vulnerable to be shaken and persuaded that the project doesn’t worth.
If you add to the recipe skeptic people as listeners… then you are lost.
I try to talk to people about projects that maybe are not 100% conceived, because people in general gives me ideas, and it feeds me a lot and helps me to finish the idea.
But you have to be careful about what people you are talking to. There are persons that can feed you with a lot of energy and others… well, others…
It also depends of your personality. I have a sister that can communicate and over-communicate all she has in mind, to any kind of people and you can count it… she’s gonna make it… She could be perfect for a Nike’s add, but unfortunately she doesn’t like sports…
By the way… some friend told me once, that when you have an interesting project in mind an you’re going to tell a magazine or publication about it, you can’t tell them too much details, because you risk they are going to explain the idea to some other photographer they know better… and you know…
I almost know what could be your answer but… what do you thing about it?
un abrazo,
@Panos: central bar in cardiff one wednesday a month, plenty of photographers there… trying very hastly to arrange this thing again…
bob b
I saw my name on your comment, but i could’nt get the gist of it. what do you mean?
wrobertangell :))…quick :))…I meant other robert: the one with the interesting essay about zona rosa…, i made typing error, confusion: sorry :))…
what i just meant: it’s interesting that others have created ideas about the discussion about what is “worth” and essay: so i was kind of sending a general comment about that type of discussion…i’ll answer more specifically later :))…i meant: it’s important that others discuss what constitutes (for them, only) an interesting/successful photograph/story/essay, but only within the context/framework of what makes their own work successful/faling:
i often find the use of “comparison” a tedious one, because it often escapes the more difficult work: in other words: “what about my own work should i be tunneling into”, instead of “how is my work different/better/worse” etc ;)))…
no offense to any: just an observation based on language generated above :))
ok, i boned by daily quota for the day ;))
running
cheers
bob
right on Bob B,
David, just saw that you mentioned that you will be in LA in the spring, maybe we can meet then?
anyway just posted up on your current post.
Rock on bobblack. Jesus you can write. You make smoke and blog nonsense worth the effort to follow it. Thanks.
Hi David
Good to hear you’re back in Asia. Are you in Delhi this week? Enjoying the city? It would be great to meet and catch up on your travels since Bangkok. I’m in town until Thursday 24th so do get in touch. And let me know if you need a Indian Gade – I’ve a couple of people here who (almost) match her ability to smooth things out.
Tom