this is just a guess, but i am imagining that most of the readers here do not have children…at least not small children requiring lots of care or certainly not new babies…we do discusss so many topics involving our work and our respective careers, but i do not think we have spoken much about the effect of family or, more importantly perhaps, marriage and the decision to have or not to have children….i do often hear discussions among photographers, both women and men, who surmize that marriage/family/children could somehow alter or stop the pursuit of a career in photography…particularly if travel is involved….
Chris Anderson, conflict photographer extraordinairre, playfully holds aloft 6 week old Atlas, as his bride Marion, Newsweek magazine editor, looks on at breakfast yesterday morning in Tuscany…obviously Chris and Marion both have careers that require lots and lots of attention and yet little Atlas needs his fare share of their time as well…
there are certainly many examples of men and women in our craft who have successful marriages and raise emotionally healthy children, but there are also many stories of exactly the opposite…i personally do not subscribe to the often repeated theory that photographers in particular are particularly susceptible to failed marriages etc., but surely it takes a special combo to make it all "work"….i did manage , with the sustained help of my now ex-wife, to take my sons on so so many assignments around the world….but, i was not working in conflict zones and i was also not jumping from one two day assignment to another…i had long periods of time in one place…
Alessandra Sanguinetti (below) , also with Magnum and author of "On the Sixth Day" lives happily in New York with her photographer husband Martin and their one and a half year old Catalina….they seem to me to be "living happily ever after", but i am sure there must be times of compromise between her career and his….
both photographers are being included in my new family work and i started shooting Chris and Marion long before Atlas was born…i plan to photograph Alessandra and Martin in the coming year..(no, these are digi photos and not the REAL pictures for this project, but i love snapshots just like anyone else…)
i am curious how you feel about family and your career…..will you "wait" until your professional life is established before you raise a family , or will you just go ahead and figure out how it all blends later?
AKAKY
HERVE, Jeepsy?! Admit it, guy, you’ve waiting for years to spring that groaner on somebody.
——————–
Yes, Akaky. 5 or 6 years ago, I thought some guy doing photography would do a family project across america, IN A JEEP, at the same time that on his blog someone would post pictures of gypsies, and that just as soon, someone else’s comment would prompt me to use that pun. It took some time but I can breathe finally… No stale, mate!
I shudder at the thought of riding in a VW bug!
duh…. ;-)
Anton,
The prints should come to you at the end of next week.
Akaky,
To be, or not to fucking be,
That is the fucking quote!
:)
must run (m6 rules!)
HERVE
What a coincidence… I just found a copy of Figments from the Real World a while back at the Strand. Had been looking for a long time, thought it was OOP… fantastic… this whole photo-book detour began as I was framing my thoughts to write you a response about R. Frank’s Americans… (putting it in context… Walker Evans and The Family of Man…) Now, my brain is way too full…
BOB
Hahahaha, you are in top form today!!!!!
Just bustin your balls a little bit (insert smiley emoticon here)…. I know this argument has been going on since Daguerre slapped Fox Talbot back in 1839… and don’t even get me started about tintypes… or maybe even further back in time(I have a vision of a couple of cro-magnons fighting over the invention of the mastodon-hair paintbrush in some cave in the Pyrenees…)
I actually think that, yes, everyone should go and enjoy their digital revolution and I understand the impulse to negate or disparage or devalue the “old ways” when a new way is in it’s infancy and vulnerable… it’s how revolutions work. The good news is change is achived… the bad news is revolution tends to promote a certain cognitive rigidity.
Yes, yes, enjoy the digital… just don’t come crying to me when the grid goes down and you can’t charge your batteries or turn on your fancy electric darkroom box… I’ll be busy mixing up some collodion.(insert another smiley emoticon here)
SIDNEY
Let me set my darkroom dork beanie down for a sec… you know I think we have something in common, I remember reading something on your site a long while back… we both went to DLI in Monterey…
You say fetishist like it’s a bad thing!! I read the article, cute, very Jestsons… but Bob already answered the question of why (wet) prints are so great…
Prints may be a niche market in the future (if they aren’t already, art world speaking…) but if I were a cynical careerist I might think that that’s the niche with the money (and power and influence… and incontinence) in the photo universe…
AKAKY and DAVID MCG
Speaking of wetting oneself, laughing hard here!!
JONI
You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? (insert several smiley emoticons here)
Gear whore? What, like that’s a bad thing, too??
Hey Mike
What language did you study at Monterey? What year?
herve!
‘jeepsy’… priceless :-))
i drive a vw ‘bora’… someone stuck a ‘t’ at the end..
so now i only need my “mankini” and i can head off to venice beach and get my picture take by panos :)))
yes it’s all ‘coming together’ here :-D
hugs
anton
Sidney,
Polish in 1980-81… USAF. What an experience that was… then Germany for 3 years, Hahn AB and Berlin…
ok..
…700 !!!
peace… lets move on…
PANOS,
Ran across an amazing book today and thought of you. It’s called DRIVE by Andrew Bush. It’s a series of photos he took driving around Los Angeles in the late 90′s. What he did was remove the passenger seat from his car and sandbagged a tripod with a medium format camera (6X7) and took pics out the window (down of course) using a strobe as well. They are really amazing, fascinating pictures and too my mind is exactly what Christopher Manos is talking about in that video on Magnum choices. It’s such a simple concept but so perfectly realized and a look at the everyday. The strobe allows the viewer to see into the car. Very Parr-ish (but also not).
I also picked up the Alex Webb Istanbul book today. Having spent a week there this summer (on honeymoon actually) it blows me away. I tried but didn’t even come close with the photos I took! Of course that only makes it glaringly obvious why one needs time (and time alone especially!) and repeat visits to make something of a place. And having the insane talent of a Webb doesn’t hurt!
ALL / PERPIGNAN
you were asking about the “right” Cafe de la Poste: It is the Castillet-one.
I had forwarded the question to Diego.
Best …
Lassal
CHARLES,
thank you… i’m torturing myself with Manos’s “last words”
myself… there is a “GONZO” smell in his theory………..
i didnt know about Bush’s book… i need to check it out…
on my way to venice today… there is a cool bookstore on
abbott kinney…
peace
“the “right” Cafe de la Poste: It is the Castillet-one.”
Thanks Lassal !! :-)
I actually think it’s a perception and pigeonholing thing that Manos is referring to. If the industry perceives Magnum as doing only one thing, such as grim b&w photos of (insert E. European subject here), then it does a lot of their photographers a disservice.
I know from my own experience of being typecast. But a lot of editors perceive me as only that. A friend of mine in NY suggested to a photo editor once that needed a photographer in Vancouver that he should hire me (it was for a cover of a music mag). He stormed out of the room with a “I don’t need blurry b&w pictures of them live!”
Honestly, the last thing I want to photograph these days is some 20 year old rock dudes against a wall, or a “nightlife” feature, and I could go on. So breaking out of that has been a challenge, but the tide is slowly turning.
I think Manos means that Magnum should be perceived as an agency where one goes for cutting edge photographers who work in the documentary “tradition” but aren’t all cookie cutter. Of course we all know that Soth is different from Majoli and so on, but a lot of people perceive Magnum as nothing but grainy b&w 35 old war shooters.
Anyway, correct me if I’m wrong but that’s how I read it. Like why doesn’t Magnum have a sports photographer, or a music photographer, still life photographer, and so on. Most likely because they would never think of applying, thinking that their work isn’t “serious” enough. Food for thought….
charles – have you approached PYMCA?
http://www.pymca.com/
places like PYMCA – starting from fresh – have a much easier time as they have nothing to live up to.. no heritage to gently nurture.. no change needs to be too subtle.
the archive at PYMCA is just about definitive within music and youth culture and while they do it so well, why try to compete?
i think too much emphasis might be placed on the big agencies.. i mean – it would be good to have that kind of base in knowledge to draw upon and grow, it’s by no means a way of making a career – we have to do that ourselves.
a good start is to photograph subjects with the widest possible base of interest.. which we’ve been lucky to have in the past with music.
i empathize with trying to break out of the music photographer moniker.. i have never perceived myself as a music photographer – just a photographer who was drawn into photographing music events.
in any case – getting into our subject with the kind of depth we have can only be a good spring board onto other things.
like you – i would happily gain work which meant i would not *have* to photograph a gig again.. although getting paid well to photograph gigs and travel while doing so is not so bad..
i’m sure we will both always pop our head back into music from time to time.. for now though perhaps it’s more about finding the other subjects with a similarly wide audience base.
not an easy task.. not an impossible one either. i have a list of subjects as long as my arm which i need to get down and cover.. just as soon as my income improves.. and putting my music work to bed is coming along nicely.. some happy times remembered.. with no regrets for letting it go.
Thanks David. I’ll look into that.
I like your audience pics. Too me that is always the best/funnest part. I certainly don’t behoove the times I’ve had and the images I’ve made and I know that music will always be a part of what I do. In fact I have a couple of large projects in mind that involve music – just not rock (or even youth for that matter). The most refreshing thing about the breakdancing book I just did was the lack of pretense and control around the whole thing (for the most part). No managers, publicists, you can only stand here, blah, blah bullshit. Kinda like the old days.
Anyway, keep up the good work. Looks like this thread is officially dead so will discourse on future ones.
Charles
self publishing seems really viable.. it’s something worth doing i guess. i’ll look down that road for certain.
PYMCA are great.. i was in touch with them a long while ago and they requested work.. but i slacked off.. thought i could sell it better myself.. BIG MISTAKE.. i’m re-approaching them these days.
DAH (et al),
I haven’t been able to keep up with all of the comments written here, but just wanted to be sure to say thank you for taking the time to look at my work, and for all of the kind feedback. I appreciate it, and hope to see more interesting discussions regarding parenthood and artmaking in the blogosphere in the future.
Cheers,
Elizabeth
P.S. Michael asked which part of the world I’m in, I reside in New Jersey, not far from Manhattan. We relocated here from Brooklyn 7 years ago, soon after our first child was born. We’re one of the many to flee to the suburbs!
Elizabeth
I’ve just seen your website. You have many beautiful works. I am impressed