Les
David
Suryo Wibowo
ok, we have the three best forum self-portraits as curated by Magnum photographer Chris Anderson….Chris said he chose these because of "their overall photographic quality, sense of humor, and the intelligence that went into them"…..there is a link below to the 37 photographs from which he chose… these were from a "first edit" that i made yesterday….
for those three of you whose photographs are here, please confirm that you made these within the time frame i set up….honor system….and also, please give me your full name and address so we may send out your "prizes" soonest….
Les gets an archival signed print, David a signed book, and Suryo the much coveted used camera bag!!
Chris made the same comment i made when he first saw all of the work…"impossible to judge…they are all very interesting"….but, a decision had to be made, so here you have it….
i will incorporate all of the self-portraits into a new slide show as soon as there is time…there were several others that i really think are very fine photographs, so i think it prudent to make an overall presentation of your work….
thanks again for participating….i seriously enjoyed looking at all of these portraits…the revelations were endless!!!
www.davidalanharvey.com/emergingphotographers/selfportraits
JAMES CHANCE…
i am rushing out right now, so i will look at your multi-media piece this afternoon…
there is no “right way ” to work…and i totally understand both the appeal and perhaps the necessity of “moving” from one thing to another fairly quickly…Martin Parr says he only has an attention span of two weeks for one place..
i move too, but i do try to move within an overall “umbrella” of context…you might have that going if you piece it together right…thinking like that does require a whole different kind of editing…let’s look at all of your recent essays together when you return…
PATRICIA…
the tech things i referred to with your work really involve just watching very carefully the light…you have beautiful light in some of your interior work and then you move out into the sun and the light fails you…we did chat a bit about this before in terms of editing out the so called “bad light” pictures so they did not spoil the others…when you go out, just try to match in mood and texture what you are doing inside…you must remember that not everything can be photographed…sometimes you just put the camera down….i.e.i work within about a 20 minute “window” for any outside work…this does not mean you have to do this, but based on the “look” of your overall work, the “outside” just needs to match the “inside” one way or another..you can do this with either composition or use of light or both….
cheers, david
Erica and DAH
I will be in NYC till the 10th of July. I got it confused with my flight to Singapore, which is on the 12th of July. Thanks guys for trying to arrange a pick up, very much appreciated. Would love to see the print before i leave for work in Singapore.
cheers
Les
Does someone here planning to be in Brasil for “Paraty em Foco” ?
DAVID
I am really thinking about enjoy Bruce Gilden’s workshop, I think it would be good learning for me even that I just got familiar with his job a couple of weeks ago. What do you tell me ?
SPENCER, am I crazy? The idea has been floated on more than one occasion, but I’ve always managed to stay one step ahead of the guys from the funny farm. They don’t appear to be terribly bright, but that may just be a dodge to help them get close to the reality challenged. As to the flugelhorn, my inability to play is based on two major factors: I don’t actually have a flugelhorn and even if I did have one, I dont know how to play it, being completely devoid of any form of musical ability; I can’t even hum a tune properly. And then there’s the question of whether any actual flugels were harmed in making these horns. I wouldnt want people to think that I was encouraging cruelty to defenseless flugels in any way.
PANOS, I have spent way too much of my life reading books; I’ve been reading for so long that I dont actually remember learning how to read; it’s just something I did, like going to the bathroom or lying about who actually broke my brother’s nose with a 2 by 4.
BOBB, I agree with most of what you wrote. Starting anything is almost always an epic pain in the ass, especially when you can’t think of anything to say. One of the things I like about photography is that you either got the picture or you didnt; there’s no going back to the beginning and starting all over again. Writing, editing, and rewriting are pernicious habits to fall into; I spend a fortune on Christmas cards every year because I rewrite them so much, a trait that drives my mother up the wall, as in “Will ye just write Merry Christmas and sign the damned thing already?!” I like Mom, but she gets on my nerves sometimes.
ASHER, I’ve applied for government grants, or rather, I wrote the first drafts of the applications and then other people have actually done the applying. Successful grant writing is a delicate balance of high-mindedness and toadying that I’ve never been able to master. About half way through any grant application I’ve ever done, I stop to consider wouldnt this whole process be so much easier if I just went out and robbed a liquor store instead?
PAUL T., unfortunately, I can’t tell myself that writer’s block doesnt exist, anymore than I can tell myself that the flashing red lights behind me dont exist when I blow through a red light. Reality has a way of forcing its attentions on all of us, I’m afraid. On the other hand, while thinking and commenting upon your brand spanking new edition (available at Blurb Books, everybody) I thought of the following:
We live today in an age of ever-increasing market specialization, with niche markets pullulating like so many phony tax shelters on a millionaire’s quarterly return (not to get off the subject here, but can anyone tell me why Bill Gates, a man with a personal income larger than the gross national product of any seven Third World countries you could name off the top of your head, a man who makes more in the time it takes for him to go to the bathroom than I will make in my entire life, needs $600 from the United States government in order to stimulate the economy?). Where once consumers had to take what goods and services corporate America offered them or do without, in today’s Internet driven market more and more customers can indulge whatever taste or interest they may have, content in the knowledge that someone somewhere will have what they want to buy, no matter how strange that purchase may seem. Nowhere is that more true than in the market for sex toys, and if you are interested in this sort of thing then you should stop reading right now, because this is the last mention of sex toys in this particular bit of business.
No, I am speaking today of the publishing industry, where the smaller, boutique publishers, the specialist presses that may only handle a few books every year, are challenging the industry’s giants for a share of the market. One need only go into bookstores and public libraries from one end of this our Great Republic to another to see the effect of these digital age Gutenbergs. Shelves strain today under the weight of new books, an odd phenomenon, given that vast numbers of the citizenry are now too illiterate to understand the pictures, much less the words, in what the trade nowadays refers to as graphic novels, which in another time and place were simply known as comic books. Cookbooks abound today as never before, with books on French and Italian cuisine growing more and more narrow in their focus. Where once Julia Child could produce a cookbook that contained all anyone would ever care to know about French cooking, today’s culinary scribes feel a constant pressure to come up with something new, something more cutting edge, something no one else has, the demand driving them to concentrate on smaller and smaller areas, to the more regional and village cuisines, going deeper and deeper into the countryside for their subject matter, until these harmless drudges of New Grub Street are describing in exquisite detail for the gastronomically deprived wretches of the New World just how the coq au vin of Madame Defarge differs in style, taste, and texture from the coq au vin of Madame Dubois, the grouchy old bat who lives two doors down from Madame Defarge in a Alpes de Haute-Provence village so remote the villagers spend a fair amount of time wondering what numeral the current Louis is up to. The discerning critic will note, however, even after a cursory examination of newly published cookbooks, that nowhere in this ever-expanding pile of culinary prose will he or she find a cookbook describing the best way to prepare and serve a missionary for the socially conscious savage who wants to impress their family and friends.
This dearth of cannibal cookbooks seems a more than a little ethnocentric to me, if not culturally arrogant to an extreme degree, privileging Western gastronomic concepts over those of other cultures. How else will the environmentally concerned cannibal learn that Roman Catholic missionaries should be thoroughly washed and dried before eaten, as they may contain artificial preservatives known to cause cancer in laboratory rats? Or that the intelligent host should never serve Methodists, Episcopalians, or Mormons as the antipasto, reserving these denominations for the main course? Most up to date cannibals already know better than to consume Presbyterians or Dutch Reformed missionaries raw, as Calvin’s doctrine of predestination tends to give the flesh a slightly bitter aftertaste that the cook can remove by first marinating the missionary in beer (Heineken works the best; Bud Lite the worst—even the most ignorant and benighted of savages know enough to regard the vast majority of American beers as little more than slightly insipid imitations of the real thing) for several hours before cooking, but where is the anthrophagous Jacques Pepin who will tell today’s hip, with it upwardly mobile fine young cannibal that they can whip Pentecostals, Fundamentalists, and Southern Baptists into a fine frothy lemon meringue just by mentioning how much most cannibals support sex education in the schools? Alas, here is a niche market if ever there was one and apparently one that no publisher in the Western world wants to touch with a six foot Pole (Come on, admit it, you didn’t think I had the guts to use any pun that awful, did you?)
All is not lost, though. Self-publishing has been around for a long while; Proust self-published the first volume of A la recherché du temps perdu, for example, and Whitman brought out the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself; but over time many people, perhaps influenced by the publishing industry itself, which stood to gain financially by such an attitude, came to look down on the practice, calling those publishers that still did it the vanity presses. This, today, is an antiquated attitude; modern digital self-publishing has made the process much more available for the common person who may not have access to the centers of bookmaking power in New York, Boston, or Churchill Downs. Today’s publishing software makes it possible for any budding Rachael Ray to tell the struggling young working mother the best way to juggle the often conflicting demands of demands of work, family, and how to get and prepare the best cut of Congregationalist they can afford quickly and easily. And it will not be long before she does, I think. The possibilities created in our digital age are endless and endlessly fascinating. Bon appetit, everybody!
And now my brain hurts, so I am going to stop. That’s another thing photography has over scribbling: it very seldom gives me a headache.
Someone here posted a link to a boxing story that they were working on… I cant seem to find it again… I know it is a few hundred posts ago…
Can someone send me the link?
Thanks!
David,
I read more than I write here, and ultimately find answers/direction in your comments to others and through the “Conversation” in general. Granted many more questions are also raised..but that is the beauty of it!
In Jackson you told me to take on a personal project, something close to home, something I could dedicate my self to. Looking through my work flow on the Mead Ranch essay you mentioned that my work was “all over the place” and that I should “draw focus” – stop jumping around. In the big picture…I am still “all over the place”…still jumping around. I feel as if I am shooting everything..and yet no one thing! Should it be so hard to find my own direction? I am not looking for a “formula” so much as an outside perspective. I have not forgotten your advice!
Last winter I took some risks, spent money I did not have, and made my way back to Africa. I felt strongly about furthering my work in Lesotho and I wanted to come home with a “story”. I also think some part of me wanted closure and perhaps a sense of perspective to my own experiences there. I wanted to test my self as a “journalist”. I wanted to come back with images that were more complex, maybe even open the doors to future projects as I realize my work there has just begun. I still very much want to tell that Story…
But……
That is not my “personal project”. your were right David. My “personal project” must be in my own backyard. I am “home” now, in the four corners..sorting out my thoughts..ready to dedicate myself to “something”..searching my heart and weighing out my options.
I have touched on topics from Chaco canyon to cattle branding, Native American culture to “western” landscapes, elk hunting and most recently the Narrow-Gauge Railroad. I am attracted to the “old ways” – I think I understand the “old west” and the “new west” equally- I prefer the old. I want to tell a story, it must involve people, a sense of culture and ultimatly I would like it to have an “Impact”.
Do I weave these topics together to create a story..or do I need to single one idea out and develop it further? Should I consider starting from scratch? Do I ask myself ‘Will I eventually get paid for this?’ or do I just dedicate myself- keeping it Pure/Malleable like your own current “Family” endeavor….without any strings attached. great potential- no “definite” expectations?
I have ideas, I could use some insight/direction. Any chance we could catch up in Durango around your reunion next week? are you seeking a “family project” in this area? something I could help you set up…. the old barter system! Let me know. 970.769.2939
Cheers – Jeremy
TO ALL: Self Portraits look STELLAR on the final slideshow! Enjoyed them very much……Congrats to all.
JEREMY…
i am headed for the southwest this weekend…first Santa Fe and then on up to four corners and Durango…so, since we have a good chance of meeting soonest, let’s just have this conversation in person..make sense???
cheers, david
HEY DAVID (in case you missed my previous post…)
in the mirror, white, flowing upside down… That would be me!
I’d originally posted two options, then chose to go with my original entry, the first of the following two links. The picture was included in David McG’s gallery… Not sure what happened after that, though I am bummed the picture never landed in your court.
http://bp1.blogger.com/_d-l72iXjdjs/SFqHVFCB1lI/AAAAAAAAAFI/kf2UkTu4n-8/s1600-h/ANNA_B.jpg
http://bp0.blogger.com/_d-l72iXjdjs/SFs3AQ-6TjI/AAAAAAAAAFo/-LLjOLrU56E/s1600-h/ANNA_B2.jpg
Curious which of the two you preferred.
Anna B.
LISA….
perhaps staying involved with a story concept and seeing where it goes is a bit like getting married….although i have succeeded at the former and not at the latter!!!
for sure , on any story, you will get bored…you just have to stay focused and get through it….
as i have actually told you before “seeing there” is not at all like “being there”….
the feeling of a final essay, when hanging on the wall or sitting there on the coffee table in book form, bears no relationship at all to what went into making it…in other words, the viewing experience is not likely to be the photographing or “production” experience..
CATHY….
i would love a Española family..maybe a low rider family….
in Santa Fe itself i am looking more for the Thousand Waves crowd…or, maybe those folks really are only in L.A….but i do like the tattoo on the daughters chest concept…
but, if i had to choose one over the other, i would go for the descendants of the Spanish conquistadores in your area….i can always do hot tubs in Marin county or wherever…
cheers, david
ANNA B.
i do prefer the full frame, original, un-cropped un-manipulated photograph…not that i would mind either cropping or a photoshopped photo, but just not on that one…
cheers, david
SPENCER, DAVID B.
likewise for me, going back to film feels so so good….digi is USEFUL…film is DELECTABLE….
cheers, david
DAVID
Thanks so much for clarifying your technical concerns re: my project. Since we spoke last I’ve been doing my best to stay out of the bright sun–at least with my camera–and find some way to take outdoor pics that will sit more comfortably with my interior shots. Not easy, that. But I’ll keep at it.
ASHER AND NEIL
You guys are great! I can’t imagine anyone taking the time to go through that mishmash of 73 images, much less try to pick out the strongest! But you did it and I am eternally grateful.
I’ve pulled together the favorites so far noted by you and some others here, and have posted them in a new gallery. It really helps me to see things more clearly this way. Thanks again.
http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/for_review7
PASSWORD patricia
peace
Patricia
JAMES CHANCE…
ok, i watched your av piece on the cemetery….i still think your BKK work and your Cambodia Aids work is so so so much better…
i think you are locked in on the cemetery story because of the obvious…yes, it is unusual for people to live in a cemetery…then what???
your have 4 or 5 basic situations here in this cemetery…and you then proceed to repeat those situation so many times that they totally lose their power…i mean James, you lead off your slide show with 3 of the very same picture!!..that is 3 or is it 4 overall shots…one is enough….you repeat the woman with the glasses and the cross.. why? it will be seen as a mistake….and , well, just so so many examples of repeated scenes…
out of the whole take, i finally came down to 5 pictures when i was trying to make the Emerging Photog slide show…i could not make it work..you haven’t either!!! BKK, on the other hand, though not unusual like a cemetery, had so much more depth and many different pictures , each one saying something different…
the other problem with the av show is that you do not need “talking heads” or at least not that many…if you go video you should try to show something that you cannot show with the stills…and the rapid sequence entering the cemetery does not work for me…
the other thing is this….you telling a story of the “facts” of this cemetery just becomes tedious…just imagine if you had told the story of the cemetery through that one little girl..one person’s story…or at least something that goes beyond the oddity of life in a cemetery..
James you are a fine photographer….you know i am a big fan of yours overall..i really like the Cambodia work…and i know many on this forum seemed to love the cemetery story…but, i am not sure why….however, just as they gave their opinion, i am giving mine…
safe travels amigo and i look forward to a heavy editing session with you when you show up in New York…
peace et al, david
AKAKY ;))))
Now dont u go knocking Madame Dubois coq au vin….there’s a great deal of vin in her coq… how the hell do you think she ended up au provence?…or is that aix en provence? ;)))))))….
by the way, you have almost as many links to blogs (on your blog) as the number of titles in the public library i once dwelled for too long upon before i charted my way up to toronto…by the way, im also majorly keen on rechere, of all kings and kings, not only the Proust, but the ditto on the dandies of 19th Russo Lit…imagine being a lover of 19th cent russo lit (not to be confused with 19th cent kitty lit) and married to a russian krasivaya, who happens to be a reader of great breath and writer and photographer to boot…u gotta get away from the vampire state my friend ;))))…and the quaint hamlet befor you do a hamlet notsoquaintly on yourself….:)))…brothers k or c&P??…why potaaaym but not u??, overcoat but not deadsouls or Taras Bulba, lermontov but not pushkin, sound&f or abs-abs? ;))…we gotta talk someday :)))
now, im FRICKIN HUNGRY, your fault akaky,
and for those who havent read it yet, here is Akaky’s hilarious and wonderful contribution to the blog-O-sphere! :))))…much here is priceless! :)))
http://passingparade.blogspot.com/
and i always loved your rants so much, im inclinded to think Dali had u in mind when he scibbled:
“Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making….”
hyugs
running,
b
For chrissakes, Bob, why are you telling everyone where to find my blog? Everyone here is going to find out that I’m a REPUBLICAN, dammit! No one will want to talk to me anymore and if they do deign to notice me, they’ll spend all their time demanding that I explain Dubya and his policies (no, I can’t, most of the time) or what part of the Constitution the vast right wing conspiracy is planning to undermine next (I dont know; meetings of the VRWC are long and boring and the lemon danish is usually stale. I stopped going after they started playing Jerry Vale records with the volume boosted way up so the older members could hear them). You know, I dont remember going around pointing you out to people, you know, except for the deli man, of course.
PETE
the work you are looking for is by eric espinosa
http://ericespinosa.com
ERIC
too much reading to catch up on here, but just wanted to say this: found three bouncing balls today, labeled them “family” “bread” “photog”, and practising juggling them as we speak…. :)))
thanks for the insights…
cheers
anton
DAVID…JONATHAN!
Just quickly checking in…pulled over in front of some houses to catch their wireless signal. A car passed by and coincidentally it was the woman I was writing to tell you about…THE SAME WOMAN JONATHAN MENTIONED ABOVE…Nathalie…..French cowgirl…married to photographer Jim Arndt.. (Dennis Weaver type) .old chevy pickup truck. She is gorgeous, former French Vogue editor in her 50′s super long hair in a braid, covered in turquoise…cowboy hat and boots, etc…lives in a bohemian compound…owns store on canyon road.
I told her I’d let her know if you were interested.
10,000 waves crowd are pretty normal looking…yuppies more than hippies…don’t have a hit on that.
The sikhs all live in Espanola too…not just lowriders.
Reid last night said he’d put me on the “party list!”
Hi Bob,
We have arrived in Toronto. Unfortunately, my eye surgery is at 4:00 PM tomorrow, so that I will not be able to meet you with Mike. Too bad, I was looking forward to a very good discussion with Mike and yourself. oh well, enjoy your meeting with Mike. Or maybe tomorrow lunch? I am trying I am trying :)
Arie
Arie
DAH – Not only is film delectable… it’s delightful, delicious and divine! Also, I have several friends who lived for many years in Sante Fe. One was a school teacher there. If you’re still searching, I could probably get you some contacts there.
Patricia – I love several of these images, but I adore IMG_3182d.jpg. This for me has the most emotion.
Akakay – I’m sick of you bleeding heart liberals. If god didn’t want us to make horns out of the flugels, he (or she) wouldn’t have made them sound so glorious once made into a horn. Oh, and the great thing about musical instruments is, you don’t have to be able to carry a tune. You just have to push the right keys or hit the right strings with your fingers on the right frets at the right time, and the instrument carries the tune for you. 6 months ago, I couldn’t play the flute, but now nobody can massacre Bach like me! It’s never too late to learn!
David,
Perfect! Lookin’ forward to it. -Jeremy
ARI: OHHH, that’s too bad :((…problem with tomorrow (thursday) is that i have to meet a student at 3:30 pm….
can you meet later today?? or is today (wednesday) off completely?…..i cant do lunch sadly ’cause i teach until 3:30…what time do you leave thursday, or do you leave friday?…would be such a shame to miss meeting…i can go later today (thursday) because my wife is eating dinner with a friend…as long as it’s not too late, cause i have to shoot later too and write…keep me posted…
email: bluewordsme2@gmail.com
hope we connencts…
b
DAD (AKAKY): …well, that’s what you get for being such a genius…remember, we live in a confederacy of dunces, right left and center, and remember, we’re pinholed by google from the day we were tossed behind the deli stand ;)))))…besides, did the blog say you were an Elephant?…i mean i used to be an ass (well some still might think so), but now im an Orange (NDP in canada) with a milk-teet of green (GREENS), so, dont worry, by dad well all agaga and cause quite a hullbaloo when he mysteriously went Repub in the last years…still breaks my frickin heart, but he’s my dad, and just like you, i love him no watter what form of superbug infects his political (or your) thinking ;))))…
and besides, you’ve got too much brilliant stuff on that blog to hide forever ;))))..
hugs dad…
remember the yiddish proverb:
the son remembers what the father wishes to forget…
:))
HUGS
B
James Chance,
I finally got a broadband connection working (I have to piggy-back on some neighbor’s wireless) so I could watch your Multimedia version of the cemetery story. I don’t have David’s authority, of course, and I haven’t worked with you as he has, but for what little it’s worth, I thought I’d offer a second (or sixth?) opinion.
First, I really really like your b+w photography, you are a wonderful photographer. I’m not a b+w man myself, but your photos almost make me want to be one. There are many outstanding individual images in this essay. Second, I think this is a great topic for a story, both significant and interesting (maybe because a lot of the translating and editing I do as a day job relates to housing conditions of the poor in Asian cities- recently I translated a book comparing public and private policies for dealing with the homeless in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Osaka). For me the story is already interesting enough, but maybe as David suggets you could make it even more interesting by telling it through the life story of one or a few residents.
I have to agree with David on a couple of points… too many establishing shots, for one thing. The first one is fine, the next two are superfluous, not nearly as strong. In general there are altogether too many similar photographs as well throughout the piece. As David says, the weaker ones and the repetitive ones detract from the impact of the really good ones. I think you may need only half or even a third as many images in the show to make all the same points- just pace them a little more slowly.
I think the video really distracts and detracts from the impact of the still photos in this particular presentation- you really don’t need it, I don’t see what it adds, in fact it subtracts from the mood created by your rich b+w photos. And if you want to do the still image ‘talking heads’ thing (which I also don’t think you really need) then it would be more effective to have them say more than just …”my name is…” and not to group them together in a clump like mug shots.
About the cascading images along the streets approaching the cemetery… I am not quite as harshly critical as David… I think the idea is interesting, but for me it’s a little too long and repetitive and the sequencing is too fast. I think the similar ‘motion’ sequence of carrying the casket to the burial site works much better.
I have to say I think the Gallery ‘slide show’ version of this story works better for me than the Multimedia show, although I saw a few images in the latter which I thought belonged in the former. The organization seems more cogent in the Gallery. In the Multimedia show, you start showing the social interaction of the kids before you show the actual housing conditions, which I think is backwards, and at times the commentary doesn’t seem to relate to the pictures or vice versa.
Believe me, I can appreciate what an enormous job it must be to put something like this together and polish it, and I hope the criticism you’re getting from David (and from me and possibly others) doesn’t stop you from continuing. With the wonderful stock of photos you have (and what I maintain is a great story), it would be a shame to not bring this together in a really polished piece. I think you’ve got a lot of polishing and editing work to do, but I’m really, really looking forward to the further evolution of this piece.
Good Luck!
ARIE: ????
can you still meet today at 4:45??…or will you leave by then??…im wobbly after sipping on gin last night while writing, but if you havent left, i can meet you??…
by the way, your hotel is really Ritz :))))..hope the surgery went well…
running
b
DAVID
Maybe you did not see the link of my new work in the last post about “mixed heritage”. So I post it again here what I posted there.
____
DAVID, ALL…
This is the link for my project:
http://www.photosjsbreault.com/Project/simpleviewer/index.html
Please, tell me what you think about. I did it more personnal than the previous and it is the only six I like, and I’m even not sure I’m in a the right way. I edited with a machete !(http://www.photosjsbreault.com/Mixed_Heritage/simpleviewer/index.html).
I was in Cuba last week for family vacation. I did not read the previous post. The last four week before have been hard. 3 jobs for pay the bills and the family vacation.