we have read quite a bit in the "comments" about the "a good time was had by all" at this year’s Visa Pour L’Image (Perpignan)…and surely this was true….at least by most…however, this year’s photo fest, which celebrates conflict photography above all, was in fact, in itself, a scene of violence and death…
Jason P. Howe (above) author of "Columbia:Between the Lines" and veteran war photographer in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, was beaten senseless by five men as he left an evening slide show … he was heading to have a beer with us at the very Cafe Le Poste in this picture…he said "they just kept yelling "money, money, money" ..i would have given them whatever i had…but they did not give me a chance..they just attacked…all they got was my cell phone..it was all i had on me"….Jason also told me that in all of his years being in and out of ridiculously dangerous situations, this was actually the worst thing that had happened to him….
worse, 48 hrs before, and ironically in the very spot where Jason stands for this picture, a local teenage woman took her own life by jumping from the top of the Castillet crashing to the ground in front of the merry festival goers sitting at this most popular "people watching" spot…
war photographer Bruno Stevens who has covered conflicts in Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon etc. said to me "i have seen everything doing my work…dismembered bodies, death all around, yet what i saw right here at Cafe le Poste was far and away the worst thing i have ever witnessed in my whole life..i cannot get over it..i am truly shaken"…..
by all accounts , Perpignan is a quiet, charming, peaceful town in the south of France by the sea…friendly locals who will remember you from year to year….good food and wine…and home of surely the very best photojournalism festival in the world…i would recommend it to anyone who may want to have documentary photography in their life…and i will return and walk without fear in the streets day or night…
but this year was a grim reminder that LIFE HAPPENS everywhere, all the time…ironic and tragic that these events happened at this event, but none of us can be spared from the realities that surround us at all times…we cannot have the PROTECTION from life that we may fantasize…all of us try, all of us fail…
this is not the first irony for me involving life around Cafe le Poste…all of the best war photographers in the world were gathered on this very same spot on September 9,2001…i remember "shooting" a couple of tequilas with the war photographer of all war photographers Jim Nachtwey and all of the VII crew since they had just "launched" their agency…laughter, hugs, merriment….48 hours later Jim watched the second tower of the World Trade Center come down on top of him and i watched it from 15 blocks away…the weather that day was perfect….
life is fragile…fleeting….never to be taken for granted…no matter how sunny the day or how good the wine….does this story sound pessimistic coming from me?? i hope not….i am always optimistic by nature….my optimism comes from knowing about the fragility of life….knowing that i should always enjoy every moment given to me and that every moment is special…i do not live in fear….
what about you?? where does your "reality check" kick in?? do you "fear the worst" or do you "expect the best"???
Was waiting for your new post, David :)
David:
read about Jason’s encounter at Lightstalkers…Perp is totally a war zone ;)))…he had great spirits in the face of all that shit…
anyway, i dont have time to write…but, as to your question, i tend to go by what Proust wrote:
nothing ever happens as you hoped but also nothing is ever as you feared
:))
called u last night…(answering machine)…sent u a long letter with some pics ;)) (your email is filled, it was returned)…
im now gone for camping trip…and much desired silence and time alone with marina and dima…
we’re coming weekend of the 3rd/october
hugs
b
by the way, i (as you all know) watched a woman jump to her death (she flew right by my class room window and i raced outside to see if i could help) in october of 2006….i didnt couldnt photograph for 6 months…i will write bruno tonight….i completely understand his reaction
b
BOB…
please get here as early as you can on the 3rd…this is the night of the student shoow with guest presenters as well..
cheers, david
http://blog.melchersystem.com/2008/09/10/respectfully-yours/
20 years is a long time for any event.. new events always have positive vibes.. older ones, certainly in music, bring other angles..
my comfort zone was set a long while ago in respect to mortality.. what i want to see and the motivation for it was a teenage challenge..
i’ll stretch it again that way at some point, although it is worth noting that the older i get the less i like climbing on high ladders..
hmm..
bob – seeing suicide i a tough one.
someone jumped of the roof of my studio a long while ago..
the studio was in a disused factory..
the old factory manager lost his job when it went bankrupt.. revisited the place to top himself.
aside from the gore i had this overwhelmoing feeling that i wanted to help… but it was too late.
a feeling i had again when giles – a collegue and music photographer – took his life last year.
and then this year.. eric killed himself after a really cool night with friends.. 5 of us chilling at his.. playing games.. talking about music… to us a noirmal night and to him a farewell gesture.. no clues in his mannor, no indication of his plan.. we left at midnight.. he had a beer.. tied his jumper into a noose and his parter found him hours later..
mid 20′s.. everything to look forward to .. good job.. beautiful girlfriend.. no drug history.. seemingly well balance..
i’m still working through it.. reasons and the like.
as i said though – alot of mortality seen by me in my late teens had me prepared for life maybe a little too young.
when i first saw corpses it used to make me feel more alive.. it felt like tripping in a sense.. and then after a while you just think.. we are all the same.. wealth, skin colour, attitude.. we all become a shell.. empty in the end.
i told a colleague at work one of my stories and she said ‘shit – that must screw up your dreams..’.. and it did for a while.. then the skin thickens.
DAH
i love the t-shirt chosen to wear with his wounds.. and read on llightstalkers too..
glad he is in good form.. tough stuff
to answer your point david – i hope to have overcome my own fears.. personal to me, they were there to protect and somehow prevented as an aside.
expect the best – yes perhaps.
the best in each moment that is.. because that is all we can hope for i think.. one good moment followed by another good moment..
for all good minds i hope for a life without the extremes .. a calmness and reasonably balanced existance where the highs are not too ‘high’ and the lows not too low..
i think i have unwittingly trained myself to live difficult circumstances easily.. or may be my parents taught me that..
now to decided how best to use this talent, since i’ll not do what i’m being doing for the last chapter of life..
David,
I lived in São Paulo for eight years and nothing bad ever happened to me on the streets.
Then on a trip to my hometown in the south of Brazil a friend and myself stopped at a small town called Lajes for one night and got mugged and beaten by around 20 young men who appeared around a corner… Life, indeed!
I usually am and always try to be optimistic and take the best out of any situation, to take it as a learning experience, to be aware and thankful, to remember that it could ‘all be over’ in a split second… This also has the effect of me not taking certain things too seriously, which also has its consequences…
My ‘reality check’ certainly kicks in when I witness something bad happen to someone else, but also when I read Jiddu Krishnamurti and experience art which inspires me. I think above all one must DO and not only keep PLANNING and THINKING. Who knows how much time you have?
I do my best to always expect the best though I admittedly have trouble with this sometimes. I believe that you make your own reality…that your ACTIONS define you and the world around you…
HOPING FOR THE BEST to see you in NYC soon!!!
Cheers,
Simon
DAVID,
It was 2001, but I think you already know that.
I sure agree about this topic. I live in Sweden which is probably considered safe and problem free around the world. But in the last year one of my friends was attacked by two people who had stalked him and jumped out of a car. This was while walking home from a mutual friend and we walked the first bit together before splitting up in different directions. Also my parents home had an attempted break in while they were sleeping. Luckily my mother woke up and turned on the lamps. I don’t feel safe and I don’t like walking around in the night by myself. Wish I could, but I just don’t feel safe anymore, not even in my parents house. Several other things has happened as well..
Cheers
and sept 11th..
thoughts to all who were affected.
One of the most disturbing things I ever saw, was when I was doing some shopping at a popular department store in London.
I was on the top floor, after just coming up the escalators that ran through a central courtyard of the store.
All of a sudden I heard a blood curdling scream, followed by more screams. It turned out that a man had jumped from the fifth floor to his death and landed at the foot of shoppers in the department store eaterie. Very very disturbing.
When I worked on Rose, she had just made beat up by a band of young people from 11 to 15 years old. They had also affected a couple of old persons some days before, just the free violence, all this in height after noon, I admit to have been afraid one time( asking me if they would return… the life is sometimes inequitable…
I think that the “man” can make the best as the worst, I am of optimistic nature, surement one accident which I had being adolescent, I take advantage of the present moment, we do not know that tomorrow will be made…
DAVID:
3rd, yes i know…i thought that’s what you wanted from us (to come for your fiest and hang/talk with the workshop folks)??…we’ll most likely be arriving on early friday morning…and leaving on sunday…we can always talk on saturday too…whatever is fine with you…we dont want to bother your time…
you’ll have enough with your students……
so, we’ll bleed into the background…
u want me to try calling again tonight? if yes, please advice…
gotta run
b
david,
i don’t know what people are thinking or what goes through someone’s mind to beat a man for money. i mean desperation sure… that plays a role. perhaps these men had no food, money, needed to may someone… lots of factors. but it can happen to any one of us at any time.
you cant make sense out of non sense.
DAVID B:
yes,…it’s hard to explain to others…it’s been in my life 4 times…1 stranger (the woman in 2006), 1 very close friend…and 2 family members (both survived)….
it’s made me, for good and ill, the person i am today…
like other forms of horror or trauma, it never really leaves your life or thoughts, does it…
ok, gotta run
hugs
b
bob – that it exactally.
when i think back on the moments which have most fed who i am today, more of them have to do with mortality and violence than happiness.. which perhaps the mind tries to take for granted.
certainly – it’s made for a more humble me.. with more humility and compassion.. le ego.. more open.
my ‘s’ is not working..
less ego.. not leg ego or let ego..
*smily*
here is a thought i often have since loosing my father in 91.. and other things..
it has never got easier when i think of these things – tears still come on occasion.. less though after time creeps on..
maybe that is growing up.. learning to cope, rather than things becoming easier.. dealing with what, after all, effects us all.
the video on ‘bohemians’ blog.. strange.. whenever i have seen violence it has been difficult to not step in.. in argentina when i got was bottled behind me.. in india.. and at home seeing a group fight.
once on a bus in india out of the left window were two men savagly beating another man..
the bus stopped.. the driver shouted and every man on the bus leapt off.. and beat up the two men because the fight was not fair.
negative circles.
This thread reminds me of Mitch Robbins talking to the school class in City Slickers:
“Value this time in your life kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you’re a teenager you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, “What happened to my twenties?” Your forties, you grow a little pot belly you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Your fifties you have a minor surgery. You’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery. Your sixties you have a major surgery, the music is still loud but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale, you start eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before. And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering “how come the kids don’t call?” By your eighties, you’ve had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand but who you call mama. Any questions?”
I like Jason’s T-shirt.
I recently saw someone in a T-shirt bearing the legend “Not Dead Yet”. I’d buy one but it may be a little optimistic.
Shit happens; it’s all going to end in tears – but while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance – let’s face the music and dance!
Watch your back ya’all,
Mike.
in argentina – when a guy, that is.. not me..
jesus – my typing this afternoon..
You can tell this fellow is optimistic by nature when you see the t-shirt he’s wearing. Ha, it’s wonderful that someone can make light of such an awful event. (I imagine that the fact it was completely out of his control would make it easier to accept.) Optimism seems to be one of those keys to a happy life, isn’t it? It seems people have different scales by which they judge life, what may seem an outrageously difficult series of obstacles to some may just seem like the normal way to go about living to others (i.e. the way you bounce around the globe must have a dizzying amount of logistics to manage!) I recently started running with a friend and trainer. I’m amazed that this person has taught me how to like running, I never expected to get there. But they tell me the next step is to really want to get out running. No quite there yet ;-) but you can see my point.
Yes life is fragile. I don’t think you are being pessamistic, just realistic. I do not go through life expecting the worst; however I try to be aware that it could happen. I got dropped off in the wrong part of Nairobi two years ago at night. The matatu driver said, “here is your stop.” The door slammed, it was dark, I looked around, and realized I had no idea where in the hell I was. It was pitch black, and we were forced to walk the streets of the city, camera bag, passport, money, all on our person. I was scared to tell you the truth. I was however optimistic that we would either find our hotel, or would flag down a cab that would get us back to safety. We made after almost being run over by a Land Rover in a roundabout. We were lucky that is was so dark, and that few people saw us. Had we needed to walk off the main road into the slums, I am convinced I would not be writing this today.
Do I expect the worst? No. Do I think it is possible anywhere, anytime? Yes. From my worldview we live in a fallen, depraved planet, where things don’t operate like they were designed.So…bad stuff can happen.
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
DAH & BOB – I will come up for the student show on the 3rd too! Thanks for the invite David and looking forward to meeting you Bob annd Erica (I hope). I will probably stay for the weekend…
Yes, there was some crazy shit happening in Perpignan this year – but I do not think this was the norm. However, no place is 100% safe – no matter how many people and friends are there. You can not live in fear – you just need to be aware of your surroundings.
ALL:
Regarding Jason Howe – I met him one night and talked briefly. I bought his book as well – it is excellent. Lance had bought it the night before, so I tracked Jason down to purchase one. The book is beautifully made and SELF published! I am all for supporting photographers who self publish their own work – so check it out…
http://www.conflictpics.com/Book/index.htm
MARTIN…
yes, of course…i made the correction…
YOUNG TOM…
i owe you an email..coming soonest
do you “fear the worst” or do you “expect the best”???
And that was THE question for me today. As today I had to do “a tough call”. I prepared in my mind all the possible reactions, activated all my fears and all my best expectations…. and reality gave me the best answer: Life is easy and simple if you forget all those fears and go there just “naked” and with the heart on your sleeve.
To fear the worst is definitely the worst actitude as we can provoke the negative result. The best option is to trust life in all senses. Everything occurs for something good. Even the worst.
But a different thing is what happened to Jason P. Howe. That makes no sense at all. I don’t want to live with the fear that something like this can happen to me or anybody at the next corner, but we should be aware that in this crazy world senseless exist. Still, I will keep on walking feeling free and breathing as much fresh air as I can.
Most of us in Perpignan where right there when David took this picture of Jason. He sat with us for a while, showed us his book and briefly talked about this attack. An anecdote that could have happened to any of us in any place in the world. Senseless.
Cheers,
Ana
war photographer Bruno Stevens who has covered conflicts in Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon etc. said to me “i have seen everything doing my work…dismembered bodies, death all around, yet what i saw right here at Cafe le Poste was far and away the worst thing i have ever witnessed in my whole life..i cannot get over it..i am truly shaken”…..
——————
Bob, since you will be in touch with him, can you ask him why? Does the cultural distance, a definite otherness, immune a P. more than if it happened in more congenial, familiar cultural surroundings?
If not the otherness of far way locales and people, is the camera a shield?
I’d really love to know why he was more affected by the teen suicide than seeing so much death, agony and suffereing in (seemingly) distant theaters of war.
errata: Immunize, not immune…
hmmm …
I’ve knowingly narrowly escaped death so often now, that I kind of adapted to the thought. Sometimes now I am even a little careless … at least when it comes to myself only – somehow it is a concious decision to be able to let go at any time, but I know I should not be careless about it.
Life is not fair and one simply does not have everything under control, so I try to see the positive parts that this implies … because it means it generates not only dangers but also chances out of nowhere … And one has to be looking out for those too.
So if I am alone, I am completely fine with things. But I worry to death when I am responsible directly or indirectly for others.
By the way… Knowing how fast things can be over made me a very restless person … There are just sooo many things I want to finish up to then … When I was younger I was the calm center of the family. This changed 100%.
GINA
I bought Jason Howe’s book too. Amazing work. Very dedicated.
He told me he spend 30.000$ to publish this book and was thus very happy for each one he could sell. Glad you bought one too.
I even made a picture of DAH taking that picture of Jason … Unfortunately I cannot focus manually with what I had there and the camera went for the background which I only noticed later.
Would have been a nice one otherwise.
GINA :)))
great. looking forward to meeting you at the shindig…i expect it to be a wild night :)))…i’ll be the quiet one in the corner with the smart and funny and beautiful wife :)))) see u then….
HERVE: :))..
important and good question.
yes, i’ll write Bruno tonight. I cant speak for him but i will ask. i dont have time to write at length (one leg out the door) but i know when i watched the woman fly by my window and ran outside only to hear a bomb (that’s the best way i can describe for you the sound of someone plummeting into the earth, it’s earth shattering and an unforgetable sound) and then to be confront by this and to be unable to do anything…something, oddly, about the “intimacy”, seeing that…i “talked” to this woman in my head for weeks and weeks (i didnt sleep for 4 days afterward)…maybe because in war, one “prepares” (sort of) themselves for this expectation and like a doctor in an ER room, disconnects or anesthetizes or comparmentalizes,…it’s a complicated thing, but for me, this event was in many ways even more traumatic for me than when my friend killed himself…it wasnt that i felt a bigger loss or felt more sad (no comparison to when i lost my friend) but i felt even more helpless with the stranger, plus i SAW it, i witnessed her dying (falling) and her death immediately and maybe because i didnt know her, it seemed, i dont know, more universal, or rather, i could “feel” her death and kept trying to understand the pain pain pain she was enduring (the emotion which caused her to leap, the falling (she never screamed), the crashing, the last breaths)….i still think of her everyday i walk into our building and re-live it in my mind…especially if i look up…but maybe in war, one decides to expect to see death and often one encounters it secondarily, when life has gone already…or rather, one thinks: someone did that to someone, instead of she/he did it to herself/himself…
interestingly, all week i’ve be ready Jean Amery’s book (do you know him??) “the limits of the mind”…he was a survior of auschwitz, but he is also a philosopher…he has a lot to say about this…
but i will ask bruno…i suspect the reason is that in that moment, he was not “disconnected” he was living when all of a sudden….maybe he’ll read this (he does) and answer….
but i wish that on noone,not ever….
ok, that’s it for me for now…disappearing into the woods…
running (literally)
b
“do you “fear the worst” or do you “expect the best”???”
I expect the worst and fear the best, the former because that’s what usually happens to me, and the latter because it usually involves a serious outlay of money I don’t have, thereby proving, in a sideways sort of fashion, that the best and worst are but two sides of the same wooden nickel.
ooops… the Typepad “swallowed” the rest of
Akaky’s post…
… i think…
;-)
I have a very positive outlook (almost unrealistic) I also have the knowledge that things can get fucked up quickly and always get worse.
The important thing to remember is how totally amazing life is. To be alive now when you can go to the dentist, fuck how lucky is that.
I wonder if that girl had thoughts of fame and immortality by killing herself at the feet of the worlds finest PJ’s. Surely it must have been a heavily documented death. I wonder if she will make it to a show next year?
Harry said:
“…I wonder if that girl had thoughts of fame and immortality by killing herself at the feet of the worlds finest PJ’s…”
… Harry,..
the “real” tragic part of the story is ,
that the FINEST PJ’S weren’t even there..
they were sitting on a chair , watching slideshows…
of other fine pj’s …,
sitting on another chair on another room giving
a fine lecture…
All , have a fine day
;-)
For the 43 years I’ve lived in and around Detroit, people have been cautioning me not to travel around the city by myself at night. “It’s not safe,” they say. “People don’t care anymore. They’ll do anything!”
Yes, I know Detroit is a violent city with lots of crime. Yes, I know a woman alone, especially a disabled white-haired woman scooting on the sidewalks by herself, is not safe. So why do I continue to drive down to the city at night alone, scoot from my parking place to a club, outdoor concert or wherever it is I’m going…and not be afraid?
Am I a fool? Perhaps. But I’m going by 43 years of experience in this city I love, and in that time the worse thing that’s happened was one time some teenaged boys decided it would be cool to “rock” my car while I was stopped at a traffic light. No big deal. I just drove on when the light changed. Of course my doors were locked.
Maybe someday my luck will run out, but if it does I would still say it was worth living a life without fear and expecting the best from everyone I meet. Because the best is what I receive from strangers and friends alike, and that is the energy I try to send forth wherever I go.
Fear is the killer not a fist or a bullet.
Patricia
thoughts of fame and immortality by killing herself at the feet of the worlds finest PJ’s.
(harry)
_____________________________________
thats the thing.. perhaps why suicide is such a disturbing event.. we’ll never know.
seeing death resulting from injustice.. accident.. nature.. these things can be comprehended..
but why did my mate erick kill himself? giles? the guy from the roof of my studio?
beate and i chatted on this the other day.. tough times.. we all have them.. what enters your head that makes a sunny day not worth living for.. a cold beer.. what can possibly make someone want to die so much that they make sure they do.. we’ll never know.
for me – that is what disturbs me the most.. more than other instances i’ve witnessed. no where to direct the anger.. no means to understand… the crippleing guilt that we did not see it coming.. second guessing ourselves that we missed vital signals.
we cannot ask those who were intent upon gaining their choice and speculation is useless.
‘So play the game “Existence” to the end
Of the beginning, of the beginning
Of the beginning, of the beginning
Of the beginning, of the beginning
Of the beginning, of the beginning’
(tomorrow never knows.. beatles)
I expect the best (except when it comes to my in-laws) but wow this sounds like quite a disturbing series of events. It certainly makes one pause.
Nope, the comment really was that short, hard as that may be to believe
Good morning all,
When I started taking road trips thousands of miles by myself my friends and family were so scared. How can you drive by yourself? What if something happens? Nothing did.
On one occasion I had my knife ready in my purse when I came out of a bathroom at a rest stop. The guy standing in front of the kiosk made the hair on my neck stand up. In retrospect he was probably too obvious and was probably a sweetheart.
When I was in NYC for DAH’s workshop I was staying in Washington Heights and one day while shooting on the street at 3:00 in the afternoon a boy runs by and throws a machete on the ground right next to me. Another young man, supported by his two friends came by next, his butt bleeding from an injury received from the man who had just raced by and thrown down the weapon.
On the corner was the ambulance with another victim whose hand was badly chopped and bleeding profusely.
The amazing thing to me was the acceptance of this violence. Not that the people on the streets and the shops condoned the violence but just accepted it as their life. Sure, everything was all a buzz for 20 minutes or so but after the ambulance left and the police had picked up the machete life picked up as if nothing had happened. And I wasn’t scared or worried and just kept shooting and taking video with my point and shoot. I uploaded some video and stills on this subject on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27850900@N03/
Early one morning (2:00 a.m. or so) I was awakened by a gang fight on the street below (I was staying on the 6th floor). The fighting started just out of view of the video camera but I could sort of see what was going on. A gang of men were beating the sh– out of some guy lying on the ground, with baseball bats. When the cops finally arrived baseball bats hit the ground as people ran off. You can hear it on the video, the bats hitting the ground. (Videos too large for Flickr) One of the things that amazed me was not so much that there was a fight going on but the individuals who were not involved that just continued to walk through the neighborhood, looking at what was happening but not even running or acting scared. Just accepting what was going on like it happened all the time.
The woman I was staying with had lived in that apartment building for four years and said she had never witnessed anything like it nor had she been witness to a street fight. She felt very safe in the neighborhood, and I did too, even after witnessing the fight.
One of the things DAH wanted me to shoot was a very old barbershop on Bedford Avenue because they were closing down and moving to a new and improved location off the avenue. I was shooting late evening and one of the men in the barbershop didn’t really like me taking his photo (I could tell from his looks but I did have permission). I left right away after seeing his look and felt like I was being followed and stayed around people and light and grabbed the first cab I found. Was it real? Who knows. But do you follow your instincts and intuition about these things. Absolutely.
I think that fear is the killer of all things living. I have two acronyms for fear:
False Evidence Appearing Real
Fart Every Altered Reality (This is one I came up with about W)
However, there is a reason for fear, it is to warn you of danger. Heed fear just don’t become a victim of fear, is what I have learned running these highways of life.
Lee
FRIENDS
I’m off for the weekend to sing with a circle of women on the shores of Crystal Lake in Northern Michigan. I’ll be home late Monday afternoon. Have a great weekend, and may David’s workshop be the grand experience everyone expects…
Patricia
It really surprises me when i read a story like this in a place that is supposed to be sure.
My hometown Caracas, is a very insecure place and you are used to look around always.
A lot of my friends have left Venezuela and insecurity is a common word in their reasons to leave.
But the most strange is that many of them have been assaulted or robed in the places they moved in Europe or the States.
Maybe we think that the only place that problems happen is here, and when we go to other places we have for granted that nothing will happen. And as you said, life happens everywhere.
By the other hand, insecurity here in increasing everyday and is very weird to see how we are used to hear tales about assaults and assassinations all the time and not to be surprised. Is like there is a false illusion that things won’t happen to you. And you continue living…
un abrazo…
Hi David and all,
I guess when I consider how tough some people have it, like famillies in crisis, abused kids, homes going into foreclosure, bankrupcy, pain and suffering, etc etc, and I reflect upon my own circumstances and station in life, compare and contrast, I have absolutely nothing to grumble about. you know I am not some high brow dude with all kinds of dollhairs stuffed into my wallet, far from it, I am what you might call in brittish terms, skint! and when I cross refernce my own woes, fears etc with some of the shit out there…no complaints from me!
I think we can all suffer from anxiety, but thats human nature.
anyway, things seem to work themselves out…generally…but I am an advocate for prayer, esp when overwhelmed with stress.
also, on another note, started a new project of documenting a street in Los Angeles, all street portraits with the view camera, walking up to random folks, throwing the pitch and if a strike…taking the shots. its going well, but I have nothing posted yet, the material is starting to accumulate. I would love some critique when I got the shit ready to look at though!
also, dropped one of our blog-ites, Robert, at the airport yesterday he is off to Argentina, should be there now…lucky bastard! we should be seeing some beautiful work from him at some point!
thats it from me for now,
best wishes to all!
I’m Sure that Jason will ( or allready has ) dust himself off , have a beer and move on , after all who has’nt been given a touch up every now and then?
What I sense sometimes is the utter suprise and shock that some people feel when shit happens , But why me? Why Not?
If you did’nt have the knocks and bruises ,how would you appreciate how fucking unbelievably precious life is the very fact that Bob and Bruno are still haunted by the suicide of strangers shows how utterly selfish the act is.
As observers of humanity we have the privelige to witness the gammut of human existance , moments that others don,t get to see , private grief ,private joy and we responsibility to our loved ones to try and not bring it home with us.
DAH in answer to your question “when did reality set in ? ”
Hard to say – so much can have either a positive or negative effect on life and the way we live it, personally I’m a fighter by nature , a striver , a never say die sort of character , I find it the only way to cope.
whoooah.. now pages of comments.. just one column.. is that just me ?
PATRICIA>>
just got your email – going to read it.. and reply.
have a great weekend
x
HERVE…
good question…and i wish i had asked Bruno at the time why this suicide was, in effect, “worse than war” for him…
i can only guess that it probably was, as you suggest, just the “context”…a peaceful , quiet, non-threatening scene, suddenly gripped by death…and the death of a young woman no less..16 i heard…a girl who had hopes and dreams and had somehow in that moment just not been able to COPE with life, or a fight with her parents or boyfriend or whatever….for Bruno, this certainly was not an event comparable to war , but watching the traumatic violent ending of a life would surely , i think, be just as psychologically devastating regardless of circumstances…
Not to be too trite here, but my biggest fears are mounting debt and loosing my dog. Other than that, I usually expect the best.
I was walking around the base of the Arc d’Triomphe when a man launched himself from the top of it and landed at my feet.
I won’t forget that in a hurry.
Its the 12th of Sept today.
Three years since my Mum died.
Shit just happens y’know…
Amigo,
Long time. . .but I’ve been keeping up with you on the blog. I was on my back porch after an evening with some Austin photographers (including our friend Kelly, but we missed Lance) enjoying a cigar and reading with great admiration and appreciation the beautiful entry you wrote in the face of tragedy. It was some of the best and most thoughtful advice about life I’ve received in a long time.
All’s well down south as I can see all is with you. I hope to make it to NYC before year’s end and you’ll be one of the very first to know.
I hope to see you soon. Take care and keep in touch.
Your amigo,
John
It’s the moments that fall on either end of the imaginable spectrum that come to mind. A small part of me teeters on the edge of that next overwhelming confusion, disaster, shared pain or experience. The chaos of the world overwhelms sometimes and how can you anticipate?
But on this day of reflection, remembrance, quiet moments…in a city breathing in the unspoken, I am thankful for the unexpected friends that live down the hall, that call after we haven’t spoken in two years, that happen to be in the same place at the same time, that have stuck by for years, and that have popped up from this here blog.
Best wishes to you all…