i have managed to convince many people over the years that i am a photographer….but actually, truth be told, i am more of a "born again" beach bum…i mostly grew up (figuratively speaking) at the beach….my darkroom was set up in a back room of the family garage, but i often succumbed to the vagaries of being the luckiest kid in the world to live at the beach….body surfing every frisbee throwing summer day at 14, finally gave way to selling plastic viewer pictures to sunburned tourists on the beach at 19, to help pay for college, but mostly for the primary and primal purpose of meeting girls….
on sunday i will travel to the beach….i will go alone and to a beach i have never been….i have no friends in this new land….my first trip to a "new island" of blue water and palm trees , just seems like the right thing to do …it is cold and windy in New York… i also need my own space for a few days…for the last two months i have either been teaching workshops or otherwise engaged in group activities…with almost no time alone… i have a very nice room in a very nice apartment as a guest of two very good friends…two friends whose hospitality knows no bounds, but two friends who are married and would, i am sure, like to have some "space" of their own….
besides, i need a little vacation anyway….last week i sold my apartment in Washington (national capital) which i had owned for almost 20 years….i have no idea where i will reinvest…..so, i literally have no ties, no home, no material attachments of any kind, and am burning burning to get out and photograph on my new project…i am so so psyched for what i see as perhaps the most important essay of my life…..but i must wait until the first week of april to get going….so now i will just sit on the beach, collect my breath, meditate on the upcoming work, mull over the idea i have for YOU, catch up on some reading, think things over, or maybe not think at all….create a "calm" before i create the "creative storm"….
we are all "wired" so differently…we all use different methods to clear our heads before lunging into the fray…i seem to get the most energy going when i pare things down to what may seem to others like "nothing"…..which is , in a Zen way, "everything"….i felt just like this way back in 1989 when i "caught on fire" for what eventually was to become the work in Divided Soul ..ironically, i was "homeless" (divorced) then too, and literally sleeping on an office floor at National Geographic….but, this seminal work led to becoming a Magnum nominee by 1993….so, i know THE FEELING.. "the feeling" gets me out of bed in the morning with the "juices" flowing KNOWING i am "on to something"….now is such a time….
so, my question to you is, do you KNOW "avant" when you are about to "launch" or is it a pleasant SURPRISE when you see the "result" of something you have just "done" ??
David,
Love to have you back! Hoped you enjoyed your time off and came back with loads of energy for your new project…
I was just wondering about what you said about
“i really cannot think of one single photographer who “made it” ALONE….not one…” mmmm of course its almost perfect that you are emotionally supported by that someone special just like Salgado, but there are many photographers that aren’t that lucky… but still they have managed to achieve a great deal…
Beatrix
PD I also wrote you an email…
David and all-
I am just back from the week that I have spent in Antigua during the “Semana Santa”. This has been quite an overwhelming experience. No matter where you look in Antigua there is color… Colorful churches and homes, colorful buses, exhuberant native dresses. But beyond the colors of the city, it was very special to be able to witness this incomparable event that the Holy Week represents in Antigua. Throughout the week, there are rituals and traditions to witness, rituals that have been preserved over time and passed from one generation to the next. During that week, all the city joins in the celebrations from the elderly to the youngest kids. This collective show of faith and devotion is quite something to experience wuth all the senses: the sound of the funeral marches that linger after the processions have passed, the very intense smell of incense, the reverence of those on the side of the streets while the processions are passing, the firecrackers and joyful music on the day of the resurrection…. Most amazing thing was to watch hundreds at night, often entire families prepare the colored sand carpets in front of their property that will be destroyed in seconds the next morning when the processions go over these. Hours of work for carpets that are sometimes ready just minutes before the processions get there…. As you can tell, I have enjoyed every minute of this trip and as promised, I wanted to share the link to my site where I have posted two topics under the “new”. Semana santa that largely focuses on the processions and another “around Antigua” that I did with images from streets, colorful market etc. I have not had a lot of time to spend on editing and hope that some will enjoy looking at the pictures and sharing with me their perspective. I realized Panos that you were suggesting that I send images to you everyday to share but unfortunately I did not see your message in time and I actually did not have any internet connection over there. I did however post a lot more pictures than I intend to keep to give you a chnence to comment. About 65 images for Semana Santa that I will most definetely need to edit down to 20-30 images. So your and others feedback and advice is welcomed. Above all, I hope I have managed to capture the heat and soul of the people I was with that week…. For David specifically, I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of the Sicily processions that we had the privilege to shoot together during the workshop but you should think of doing a workshop there in Antigua during that Holy Week. Everything happens within one city and I found it even more magical than Sicily. I realize David that you have from all of us a lot of images to look at and comment but, as always, I would welcome your feedback and perspective on this piece of work and on what particular pictures you would keep for a tighter edit (I hope there are some)…. Anyway, enough said…Hope you guys enjoy this piece of work.
http://www.ericespinosa.com
Cheers, Eric
PS: Came back and still do not know David about what lays in front for your next piece of work…You are all making us wonder….When will the news come????
Hi David,
Are you going to be involved with the New York Photo Festival in Dumbo this May?
BRAVO ERIC ESPINOSA…
great photos….
or should i say in L.A …. “that’s hot”…
MARCIN,
back to “what i shoot” ?… nowadays…
… I don’t know… i’m about to take my little camera and go..
in an hour… if i convince the rest of my body…
A lot of changes happening in my brain…
I feel like changing my lifestyle a bit… When i saw the Philip B,
video i felt like a loser sitting at home… watching…through
my apple “gloryhole”… if you know what i mean…
On the other side my girlfriend just came back from miami and now she needs all the attention… but what was i doing the last two weeks…. my index finger was disconnected from my brain…
i was shooting ( towards two projects at the same time)…
with a finger that wasn’t working…
the results horrible… i hated all the photos, all my work…
it seemed that my finger was clicking the shutter either ” a little before”, or “a little after”… the RIGHT moment
Good photos, but NOT GREAT…
I threw it all in the carbage…. that’s why i haven’t posted anything new in my blog… I’m exhausted by moving all the trash… into the carbage can…. ah life sucks!
I’m just coming to look again in Divided Soul and I realize I made a mistake. The photo I was talking about have not been shooted in Cuba but in Brazil. Sorry about that.
PANOS:
That is the most precise phrase I´ve ever read about how I feel those periods of time I have zero ideas…
can I use it???… please… well… i´ll do anyway…
but I promise I´ll say:
As the greek philosopher said: ” my index finger was disconnected from my brain”
saludos…
Eric,
You’ve got some very nice work there – well done. When I’ve got a few minutes free I’ll go through and offer some editing suggestions; if you want?
Hopefully I’ll get to it Sunday.
Antigua looks like an interesting place to photograph.
More soon.
Cheers,
Justin
ERIC…
from the first time we met and from the first time i looked at your work, i have always told you that you shoot like a pro…for a man who is not a professional photographer, you have a very very nice touch…
i saw many nice photographs in this Antigua take…yes, you have a whole lot to take out…some of the “seconds” will be very nice, but you do not want to have too much repetition and you have quite a few that look like quite a few others… so you have some tough decisions to make…nice tough decisions….
i am packing for a trip to Brazil tomorrow, so i cannot help you edit now and no way to edit anyway…in any case, i can communicate with you through e-mail soonest…..
thanks for the letter…it was informative and interesting for all….
CARLOS MANUEL…
all this time i did not know that you were you!! yes, i remember those times, but when i saw your name here before i just did not put two and two together….i do hope we will meet again….
cheers y abrazos, david
david… I think you’confussed…
We’ve never met before…
there is another carlos that you know…
but is not me..
anyway… me is still me!
saludos from caracas
Eric, I remember when you told us you were going to Antigua for Easter. I very simply was jealous as I still have to make it to Central america, and even more jealous now that I see the pix (was it shot with just about one prime lens?). Thanks, and maybe next year, I will JUST DO IT too!
Funny, I am not sure how others feel about it, but I look at work like Eric did, and i sense that in many ways, a lot of photography is inside of us, waiting for us to step up excatly where we are supposed to be, and I do not mean just location, but in our life.
David, do you get yourself this feeling as you embark on a project. There’s an apex where the inner and the outer meet and…Bingo! Like you know the shot comes as much from inside as from outside (in front of you)?
David,
Many thanks for your comments! I clearly know I need to edit down….Being just back, I did not have yet the time to let is soak on me and then get down to 20-30 images. It always seem to me that I do a better job editing when waiting a week of two…Somehow, after detaching myself from the event, I see more clearly what is worth keeping. Still a bit fresh now….. Hope you have a great trip in Brazil…This is another destination that I would love to go to someday!
Justin,
Would love to get your comments and editing suggestions. As David said, I have too many similar shots so will need to edit down….
Herve, yes, I always use a fix 24mm lens (with digital camera). I have to say that I use to acrry big lenses with zoom etc and that, after seeing the way David work, I decided to go very simple…one camera, one lens and to the best I can, get close to the topic….. Thanks for your comments.
Eric
Marcin,
I can’t get your picture to load. Maybe you are working on the site now? I’ll try again later.
ERIC,
Wow!
1,3,29,30….all great.
I went thru once and will look again but Eddie (my cockatiel) is on my lap crying to be fed. Back asap!
ERIC,
Now I’m the hungry one but I took another look before dinner.
I LOVE Antigua and all of Guatemala. Have always wanted to go for Semana Santa so these are images that are close to my heart.
My opinion (fwiw): Absolute favorites: 1,3,16,30,39 and 59 (that horizontal is great! I am a huge user of verticals but a horizontal division like that is rare.)
Other favorites 5,6,7,9,18,25,28,29,33,40,48
as well as 14 and 16 from the second folder
There’s 19 for you…It will be interesting to see which you select.
Excellent work.
Cathy,
Thanks for the very detailed feedback…Very helpful…You should definetely go there for Semana Santa when you get a chance. You will love it! Certainly lots of tourists and photographers by now, but in the middle of this still a lot of emotion , sincere devotion and spirituality.
Eric
Garbage in, garbage out,( abbr.:GIGO ) used to express the idea that in computing and other spheres, incorrect or poor quality input will always produce faulty output…
I hear you CARLOS… please “use it”…:
“When the index finger is disconnected from my brain…”
CATHY
My server not work, I don’t know why and how long.
PANOS
“When the index finger is disconnected from my brain…”
That’s why I connected my index finger with heart..
David and Carlos Manuel…
let’s go back to this identity question, please. Carlos Manuel is from Caracas and i (Carlos Filipe) am from Lisbon. Sorry, my fault.
and now for something completely different… or should i say “six degrees” (just see the names bellow)…
this year, Visão (a portuguese weekly news magazine) chosed for it’s photojournalism awards, a jury composed by Jean-François Leroy (Visa Pour l’Image), Yuri Kozyrev (Noor), Noël Quidu (Gamma), Susan Smith (NatGeo associate director of photography) and Philip Blenkinsop.
On April 3, the winners will be announced (227 photojournalists and 6848 photos entered) and on April 5, the jury will give a conference.
You cand find more at http://premiofotojornalismo.visao.pt where you can see photos and videos from previous years and some great lessons on editing from former members of the jury like James Nachtwey, Sebastião Salgado, Ian Berry, MaryAnne Golan, Kadir van Lohuizen, Stanley Greene, Christopher Morris, Jane Atwood, Colin Jacobson and many more.
um forte abraço para todos,
Carlos Filipe
PS. i would like to see DAH in next year jury and making a connection with the Emerging Photographers Fund… who knows?
CARLOS MANUEL (Venezuala) AND CARLOS FILIPE (Portugal)…
so sorry gentlemen about the identity crises!!! i will not get you both confused again…and then, there is another Carlos, an art director from Puerto Rico, out there too..right???
Carlos Filipe…i was supposed to have already been on this for the Visao awards…maybe last year or the year before…i had to cancel for some reason i cannot remember…in any case, i love Lisbon and would welcome any chance to return…and yes, yes let’s talk about a connection with the Emerging Photographers Fund…i am setting up a presence for the photographers here on this forum for at least two other festivals, so perhaps yours would be quite appropriate as well…
MIKE…
the Dumbo photo fest falls right in the middle of when i am supposed to be out on my project….i may fly back for a book signing for “Living Proof”, but i will not be around for much else…too bad…but, i cannot be everywhere!!!
ERIC…
i will take a good look again at Antigua when i return from Brazil late next week…unless i can have the pictures in a real editing program , it is very difficult for me to “play” with the photographs, move them around, and do a “real edit”…in any case, i will do my best…
cheers, david
DAVID:
just returned from a 2 day writing/photo/silence retreat…i wont leave you or the blog, no worries…i just have to re-adapt to how i write here and how i react to what is written: in a vulnerable mood this week as i prepare for an important and emotional trip back to the US….sending u an email…
hugs
bob
ERICA:
please keep me informed as to what will happen on the tribute to Sarah…still a bit in shock, …just exchanged emails with her in december….
hugs
b
MARCIN thank you…
That really makes sense below….
Let me try your advise and use that new connection… (index to heart)
“…”When the index finger is disconnected from my brain…”
That’s why I connected my index finger with heart..
Posted by: marcin luczkowski | March 30, 2008 at 02:32 AM…”
peace
BOB,
just sent you an email…!
peace
BOB…
Maybe It’s because you put “running” at the end of your posts that some people think you want to have the last word?
DAVID…
I’m actually in Barcelona, not the US. I tend to work for companies in London… Spent the last year convincing clients that people can work from anywhere. I think you are coming to Barcelona this year? Maybe we could catch up then for a coffee.
s.
Hi steve: :)
maybe, i dont know, but i will change the way i write/comment here. unfortunately, my humour was depleted last week (personal sit), but i am tired of bombast (my own) and also being slogged off…it’s probably the style and length of my posts, which for the near future shall be much shorter and will not be directed to anyone, but the ideas/questions raised by the forum…
for now, i’ll just keep it simple from now on, and let the last word be kindled by others…when i showed my son the comment, his advice was: “dad, bag it”…but, im committed to david and this community and will just measure what and how i write, let the others write as they wish…
cheers
bob
To Bob,
please do not change anything in your writing form, your contribution is great to this forum. And we need to accept that we all have different persoalities and embrace the differences. I don’t recall that bob is impolite, he gives us honest thoughts, he goes deep to try to put some undertsanding order in his/ours lives….
A
STEVE…
i might be in Barcelona later this month….will stay in touch…
ARIE….
i agree with you completely….
david
Hi David,
Did you get a chance to look at my post above (on paris pictures)…
Thanks
Arie
Wow, the mouse problem goes over like a ton of bricks. Tough crowd tonight.