Loft_2

Loft_1

Loft_3

 

all good things must come to an end….i hate writing those words….but, those words are one of life’s  little truisms….and i suppose the richness of any experience is actually enhanced by the very fact that it is temporary…so all of us, when smack in the middle of the buzz of camaraderie, just try to soak it all up as best we can, knowing full well the moment will soon be stored on the hard drives of our memory and the "reality" will be gone..

such are my musings on a clear monday morning after an often not so clear recollection of all that went on last week…"intense" is, i suppose, a reasonably good way to describe the gathering last week in my loft….i cannot recall a more dynamic, often frustrating, and ultimately rewarding workshop class…and segued into a gathering of our online forum tribe the likes of which have not quite happened before and will not likely happen again….or will it??

my apartment looked like a war zone hospital ward (sleeping guests everywhere) the night after the night after the celebration ,following the friday evening student slide show, lasting up until just a few hours ago…no joke…all of us knew something really "special" was happening with our community here, and nobody wanted to "let go"…

many of you have read all of the comments leading up to this gathering and the reports are still coming in, but i can assure you that we all felt the "surge" of a new era…the feeling that so many things are possible for us…and the promise of good things to come…

most of you, of course, were not here in my loft….and we talked about that….there is nothing worse than reading about somebody else having a good time….but, i hope the spirit of the work that was produced by the students (soon to be posted) and the general good vibes of your colleagues here will be somehow transmitted into your psyche….the beauty of the whole thing was this: our online relationship has manifested itelf into reality..both in the work many of you have done and in the personal friendships which have been built…i expect this to be carried forward into more good work by you and in personal meetings in the future…

now we must all get back to work…the party is over…..those who were here must get back to their "normal lives" and i must get out on the road on my family project  in a couple of days…but, we have all changed…a little bit of last week and the weekend will stay with us forever…treasured….thought about over and over and over again…play back the tape….this story will last….

perhaps the appropriate "truism" is that all really good things end up with a life of their own….

378 thoughts on “aftermath…..”

  1. AKAKY: And how did you enjoy your weekend?

    AKAKY IRL: Just fine, thanks.

    AKAKY: You know, I’m really starting to loathe you.

    AKAKY IRL: I know, but you’ll get over it. I’m the one with the credit cards.

    AKAKY: You really are a first class jerk, arent you?

    AKAKY IRL: It does seem to be the general consensus of opinion.

  2. yes yes… yet again a testimony that things turn ‘real’ around here…

    “Round here we always stand up straight…
    Round here something radiates”

    i do believe too that we are all setting things in motion… big things… little things… and we all are part of it… the energy that radiates…

    the stories and reports of everyone being there softened my pain of not being able to be there… thank you all for that.

    and i am sure more will happen. much more. oh yes.

    anton

  3. ok over here in europe where it’s dark and stormy and cloudy my comment sounded more ‘in place’ :))))))

    sorry for that, suffering from a case of post-posting-regret :)))

    peace
    anton

  4. Sounds like a good time, David. Good for you and the students and hanger-ons and everybody else. I wish you’d define “normal lives” sometime. I’m not sure what it is and I doubt there are many photographers who have normal lives. LOL. ‘Looking forward to dropping by your place during PhotoPlusExpo.

  5. the first picture shows me, that it looks like a book heaven…
    the second shows a celebration is going on…
    the third shows a family…

    not war hospital…

    regards
    suryo

  6. david alan harvey

    SURYO….

    well, i should have taken the “war hospital” picture…just joking of course, but it was a pretty funny site to see how many people were sleeping on my floor..

  7. never say never again David … never the same, of course, but never never :)) truly sorry I wasn’t there and I have to ask, did you and the group have time to brainstorm on next collective steps, if any?

    yassus, tom

  8. ERICA

    So much to thank you for, dear woman. The marvelous blog pre-slideshow/fiesta gathering for dinner at Mura where I had the best spider rolls of my life in addition to meeting some of the world’s most wonderful people. And your written account of what was seen and heard at the Slideshow took my breath away! I was there but reading your words took me more deeply into the experience than I had been able to go on my own. You are a MARVEL!!!

    BOB B

    My only regret is missing you, Marina & the showing of “Bones” at David’s on Saturday night. But I had already been in his loft for 7 hours that day (on 4 hours sleep the night before) and quite literally ran out of steam. Lee and I left after our Brazilian lunch/dinner and got back to the hotel about 6 p.m. Good thing too, as I had to pack and then Lee brought her portfolio down to our room for me to review (such an honor!), so I was in bed by 10 p.m. We were on the road to Detroit by 9 a.m. the next morning.

    In our brief time together on Friday I fell in love with you and Marina even more deeply than I had before we met in person, and anticipate our getting together on our own up here. Detroit & Toronto are practically next-door neighbors, after all. You, dear one, are an authentic Buddha man. Your deep love and compassion radiate from your being like rays from the sun. And Marina’s beauty comes from her soul and shines through her eyes. You two are gifts to our world.

    PANOS

    I love you, man!!! Bob and David were right: we are soul-connected. Our heart-to-heart at lunch on Saturday will always be one of my most treasured moments of the entire weekend. Your openness, love and vulnerability took my breath away. What a dear soul you are!!! I know we’ll meet again…

    GINA

    What a joy it was to be with you at dinner on Friday and even on our crazy mixed up drive to David’s for the slideshow/fiesta! You are such a marvelous blend of creative, intelligent, funny and caring. I love how you move through the world creating patterns of beauty and life wherever you go. I look forward to seeing you at LOOK3 in June.

    KIM REIERSON

    It was a delight to meet you and I hope you’ll now become an active member of our blog family. You will add so much. My special thanks for your hard work getting us to DAH’s loft on Friday night. You really kept your cool under pressure and I am so grateful to you for that.

    KYUNGHEE

    One of the most precious gifts of the entire weekend was meeting and spending time with you. I will always see your shining smile when I think of you. You have such a deep, joyful, loving spirit…and that shows in your work.

    The work you did in NYC is extraordinary! You saw the city through eyes that looked beyond the surface and penetrated its soul. You found the music of the streets. I want to pre-order this book right now! Another book I want to pre-order is your Aquarium series. Those mystical images are still floating behind my eyes.

    We must meet again, my soul sister.

    ALL WHO CARRIED ME & MY SCOOTER UP & DOWN STEPS

    How can I ever thank you folks enough??? Without your help I would never have been able to enter into an experience that has transformed my life. Preston Merchant, Andrew Sullivan, DAH, some women who were behind me so I never even saw their faces, Eric Valli, Mike Courvoisier and other workshop participants whose names I never even knew. Each of you offered me such compassionate assistance and I send my loving gratitude in return.

    DAVID

    You are the man of the hour, my friend. Because of your vision and undying commitment to Photography and the persons who give their lives to its pursuit, our world is being changed image-by-image, heart-by-heart. What you are bringing to this place and time is monumental, not the least of which is your big heart and hospitable spirit. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me be part of your world. I have much to learn from you and value every nugget you share. Please let me know how I can help move us forward…

    ALL

    The community that has sprung up around David Alan Harvey is one that is going to go down in the history of Photography as an essential piece of what happened during these times. Each of us is adding our voices, vision, hearts and minds to the creative mix, whether we meet here on Road Trips, at workshops & photo festivals around the world, as subjects of one of DAH’s essays, on in his loft at a slideshow, fiesta, small gathering, or one-on-one edit of our work. We are a privileged bunch of people to be part of this ever-evolving community of persons who care deeply about photography and our world. I am grateful to what each one of you brings. And I love you.

    Patricia

  9. Want to be sure Preston sees this…

    PRESTON

    My apologies, friend! After all you did for me–carrying me up & down the stairs & taking fabulous pics with my camera–and I STILL misnamed you in last night’s exhausted posting of pics. I know your name and can’t understand where “Prescott” came from! Please forgive.

    hugs & kisses
    Petunia (you can now misname ME)

    P.S. Thanks, Erica, for setting the record straight!

  10. Patricia, you say things so well, I hope one day we will meet, i am sorry it wasn’t this past weekend … but I look forward to your book, i will be the first in line for a signed copy! :))

    And Erica, wow, amazing work relating so much great insight, we are all greatly in your debt! It is appreciated more than you will ever know, across the globe … and you can call me whatever you like :)))

  11. DAVID B.
    Congratulations!!! Such a happy new!!!

    ERICA
    thanks for the online report!

    PATRICIA
    thanks for the photos, waiting for the next ones ;-)

    ANNA MARIA
    thanks for your answers; conclusion : nothing is impossible ;-)

    ANTON
    good luck with Birgit project! Yes, turn it into something ‘real’!!! (book?)

    For thoses using my blog-reader, this new subject is available:
    http://jnss.x10hosting.com/dah_reader/
    (Bob go there, if you like smileys ;-)

    peace / love

  12. panos skoulidas

    Patricia,
    Did you know that KIM ,
    already has an amazing book???

    GINA, thank you for introducing
    me to KIM
    :-)

  13. panos skoulidas

    BOWEN JUNIOR
    welcome!

    Super special thank you
    to ANDREW S…
    and of course my favorite
    New Yorker..
    ANNA MARY B-JESTER…
    ( thank you for last night…and
    for support.. Checking on me..
    Making sure I’m fine.. You are
    such a sweet sweet soul..!)

    .. Ok.. Going to San Francisco in 20
    minutes.. I have lots of photos to
    show you, but I will reunite with my
    laptop in couple days .. Missed freida…
    .. Tonight… Freida…
    Is there anyway to leave your door
    Unlocked tonight?????
    (I’ll be there right after midnight)
    ;-)))))

  14. ALL

    It’s 2:15 p.m. here in Detroit & I’m still in my jammies working on pics from the weekend. In the midst of a lots of snapshots–many of them pretty poor–this amazing photograph appeared. It’s of Paul Fusco showing his slides of the Chernobl Legacy. I wanted to share it right away, but, don’t worry, more pics will be appearing as the day goes on…

    http://www.pbase.com/image/104174478

    It is best seen in the original size. Look beneath the image to where it says “other sizes” and click on “original.”

    Patricia

  15. “Hi”… It was a great pleasure to meet some of you, including David, at Look 3 & the Festival of the Photograph.

    It was recommended to me by David that I start to look at what other photographers are doing so I decided to start here…. I have looked at almost all portfolios posted in student work and several links posted in the day to day. I am inspired by MANY great images I have seen in your portfolios, the words of encouragement and the camaraderie that flows back and forth. Through the blog smog, what I find here is a generous group of individuals coming together for the common good of all to experience. Something truly special is here bringing peeps from around the world together to discuss photography, their work, their hopes, fears and even dreams…. a refuge in the vast regions of cyberspace ……what I find here is truly, a community….

    I am grateful for the links and suggestions to follow for further knowledge… my nature is communal and I am so happy that each and every one of you could share in the collective experience with old and new friends these last few weeks.

    What I am touched by most is the generosity and good nature of David to selflessly give advice and a nudge (or shove) of encouragement. Never have I met someone with such tenacity, commitment and love for the continuation and sharing of passion and knowledge. You are a catalyst for others to become inspired and have created a forum for everyone to share their love for photography and for each other. It is with deep sincerity that I say thank you to D.

    Your conversations have prompted me to question my basic assumptions about life, about photography and my particular path ahead. I’m trying to allow myself to feel comfortable without knowing exactly what i’m doing next. So, I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone, photographing people instead of nature and taken on a personal project and with it a soul search for something deeper.

    I have much admiration for the people participating in this forum and I humbly offer my photographs and new website to anyone who cares to look and yes, brutally critique…. If you want to, please look at recent imagery and especially the project I just started on Hot Springs.

    http://HillaryAtiyeh.com/

    Thanx D and to this community for inspiration to be better and go deeper than I’ve tried to go before.

    PEACE,
    Hillary

  16. Patricia,
    Keep the photos coming…
    Please… We all need to see more,
    more , more… Photos..
    I promise I will do the same..
    Later…
    A Boeing 747 is waiting for me..
    Mike C & Diego…and sweet Paola…
    What can say… I don’t know how much
    help I was , but I tried hard to work
    as a team..
    You guys are the best..
    Ok…
    Flying..
    Panos

  17. Erica,
    Sorry for my obnoxious, drunken
    posts..
    Sometimes I forget that 997000
    readers are lurking daily…
    Anyways..
    I thought you were only using
    large format.. But you can definitely
    work a rangefinder… with eyes closed..
    ;-)

  18. GOING ON A FAMILY (HARD) DRIVE
    Well, i was supposed to be there…but…i don’t know any of you except for Gina, Andrew Sullivan and of course, David…but i thank Erica and all of you for sharing your time with me …I was thinking about the ‘power of david’ today and why he generates the excitement all around him…first, the personality, but then it’s backed up by his respect for photography in such a passionate way.
    ..and when you study with him, he shakes the cockles loose so the essence of you emerges. perhaps it’s that ‘ something’ a friend of mine just related to me when we were talking about feeling safe and loved…he said it may have something to do with genes we inherited from our ancestors who lived in caves…being inside, surrounded by people of our own tribe, people we trust, while the rains are pouring outside, the fire at the mouth of the cave keeps the animals away…the responsibility of hunting and gathering is taken away by the weather, and we can just relax and enjoy each other, stress free. Since i have become a photographer, that’s the way i feel when i’m with the tribes. it’s like the group where there’s someone who is the photojournalist you always wanted to be…there’s the actor…you used to think you wanted to be one…there’s the quiet one, the poet, the scientist, the risk-taker..on and on…thanks to all of you who share your work here and i can’t wait to see the latest workshop projects…patricia, what a girl you are..i look forward to meeting you and more of the tribe at look in june…gina. cool. david, you will go down…in history books…with respect and love, anne
    oh, and david bowen…congratulations on the birth of your son.

  19. HILLARY

    Welcome to the family! I can tell by your words and the spirit that shines through them that you will be a real gift to us here. I long to look at your work but must continue my feverish attempt to prepare & post my photos from the past weekend. As soon as that is done I’ll come visiting.

    Patricia

  20. Hey y’all – I have to use the Southern charm you know…

    Post-workshop, My job is killing me all the more. :(

    I’ll write more later after work.

    I miss everyone.

  21. THANKS THANKS THANKS TO ALL..

    Tor rocks like bamboo.. gurgling little beauty that he is..
    i will read all reports and comments..

    just celebrating my sons 12th birth-hour with a strawberry milkshake for me and some milky bubbles for him..

    wiull reply to all more fuller later..
    x

  22. Love ya too, Daddy David! All day long I’ve been seeing this beautiful baby boy in my mind’s eye. Can’t wait for the first pic!!! Give Tor and Beate big kisses from their extended family.

    xxxoooo
    Patricia

  23. damned, Browzed myself short again, I got stuck in the other thread again, the one before, when all of you were “here”, already.

    Panos, San Francisco? Is that a transit? You wouldn’t drop by in Fog city without telling me…. Yes?

    Do you ever answer your phone, BTW? It’s not like I call everyday, but…..

    David B, if you missed it, lots and lots of happening with this new little soul, and gift to the world.

    PS: AFTERMATH…Best ever album from the Stones, David! ;-)

  24. ERICA,
    Thanks for the report! Very well made.
    Had a look at your website yesterday and there really is some amazing work.

    DAVID BOWEN,
    Congrats! sure you’re going to do a very good job!

  25. ALL

    I’m a little brain-dead after plugging away at the Brooklyn photo project all day, so please tell me of any mistakes I’ve made in naming people. And if you can identify folks whom I did not, please let me know.

    I’ve now created sub-galleries within the overarching “Weekend in Brooklyn” gallery, but ONLY my restaurant & slideshow/fiesta galleries are complete. I still have Preston’s fiesta photos & my photos of Day 8 at the loft workshop to prepare & post. In time I’ll also add my Brooklyn street shots from Friday afternoon.

    Let me emphasize that, with very few exceptions, these are SNAPSHOTS just intended to bring you into the circle. Art they are not!

    Enjoy…

    http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/brooklyn1

    Patricia

  26. ALL

    Thank you for the amazing feedback that you benefited from my report..I am very happy to have been able to share..

    PANOS

    I appreciate the apology, but I think it doesn’t matter how many readers are or aren’t lurking, this still isn’t the place for drunken, obnoxious, sexually charged posts, especially about me..

  27. herve – thanks very much.. i read just now in the last post.. very kind.. good man..

    patricia..
    yes.. 150 photos or so.. i’m down to 36 or 37.. want to show maybe 15 here.. labour day :o)

    martin – erica.. everyone.. this is just a wonderful place to share good news..

    5 hours after tor was born i was editing.. now 15 hours since birth and i’m down to the final edit..
    will present tomorrow i hope.
    working for magazines on tight deadline has it’s benifits..

    cuddling Tor now..

    DAH

    please have another loft workshop or similar..

    :o)

  28. OK, Buddies, fiesta is over, back to work…Honest critiques….. Not addressed to any new father, needless say!

    Hillary, I think many of us grapple with that “problem”, taking any light for granted, it’s a tough nut to crack to own that too in a shot and make it ours. It does not have to matter always, but that is what struck me looking at your shots. The wonderful duo of the 2 boys in cowboy hats is a case in point:

    http://hillaryatiyeh.com/Image.cfm?nK=6102&i=69235

    Light is indifferent (or put another way, you are indifferent to the light), and I am not sure you meant the sharpest focus on the second kid behind. But I think it’s a very photographic image (its merit coming from being a photograph, not a mere subject or capture), and a good choice of. I am sure you can bounce and contrast it a bit with PS. Try mono too.

    Not telling you to do anything, really, Hillary, just my way to convey my thoughts.

  29. DAVID B – congratulations on fatherhood!!! way to go!!! enjoy these first few days!!!

    HILLARY – welcome! i am glad you are here!!

    ERICA – i can NOT believe you took written notes. you are crazy. i could barely juggle my two bottles of red wine let alone take notes too. i miss you my friend!!

    PATRICIA – thank you for the pictures – i will treasure them from this weekend.

    i was describing the weekend to a friend today and just said it was a BIG LOVE FEST… and it was!

    PANOS! what can i say that no one else has yet. Panos – you are the BOMB! i love your accent, your voice, your honesty, your flirty self… all of it. I felt like we had known one another forever! my favorite was when erica said when she was at LOOK3 and was standing behind you but was not “ready” to meet you yet, so she softly touched your back and said hello (without you knowing). LOVE it! yes, you have to be in the right frame of mind and “ready” for the P-MAN – HA HA! i know i said this about david earlier…. but they also broke the mold with you my friend! i look forward till we see each other again!! xo

  30. My first time blogging. I promise to be more succinct after this one!

    Home again after the experience that was DAH ‘At Home’. My body is more weary than I can ever remember and yet I’m filled with a feeling of being so damned ALIVE it’s ridiculous. David was right in saying ‘something special’ happened this past week – although I suspect that ‘something special’ happens most everywhere DAH and his electric traveling circus pitch their tents.

    DAH, thank you for your spirit and generosity. You are a man among men and your open-hearted approach to sharing with others is rare. Not only do you share your vision, your experience, your advice, your connections and your home with all who care to connect and learn from you, but you share yourself too – and that is something special indeed. What you are creating here will go down in the history books and if there is any way I can help you take this thing to the next level I would love to do that. I’ll send an email separately with some thoughts as soon as I’m able.

    MIKE, DIEGO, PAOLA & MARIE – thank you all for your incredible hard work in making the workshop happen so smoothly. You’re like the little energizer bunnies – going non-stop behind the scenes yet always there to help or answer our questions and always with a smile. It’s been great to get to know you even a little bit (and apologies again for the pitiful pool playing). Thank you too for returning my couch!

    MY WORKSHOP BUDDIES – I will write to each of you separately but will say now that I am already looking forward to our reunion in Perpignon – 09. You made the workshop experience so rich for me – I look forward to visiting you in your countries and hosting you in mine when you make it down under. (Kristen, can we start NYC apartment hunting now?)

    ERIC V – thank you for sharing your work and your vision with us, and most of all for your encouragement on all matters related to following one’s passion in life. I’m about to get back in the river and it’s so exciting I feel lit up from the inside out! I do hope our paths cross again.

    THE DAH BLOGGING CREW – I was so happy to meet so many of you! Lance, Panos, Patricia, Lee, Bob, Erica, Marina and everyone else I met but *may* have been too beer-impaired to connect with the blog — it’s been lovely to put faces and personalities to the names! And what better way to see in a birthday than sitting around David’s loft, weary but happy, sharing stories and anecdotes with the likes of this group? PRICELESS!

    Now as I prepare to return to some form of my ‘normal’ life, I can only encourage the ‘lurkers’ and regular bloggers who have not yet done a workshop with DAH to do it now! It is but a tiny investment that will repay itself a thousand times over in an experience you will carry with you for a lifetime.

  31. PANOS – oh yeah – i am glad you met Kim. And yes, she has published a beautiful book called ‘EIGHTEEN” by Kim Reierson – please check it out.

    and for those who did not know the history of Kim and I….. I was on this blog last month and saw Kim Reierson’s name on the right side links. i knew i knew that name… so i face booked her and asked if she went to Washington High School. Sure enough it was the same Kim who graduated with my brother, 2 years ahead of me. we were not really friends – but both knew of each other. we have been emailing a bit. i then emailed and invited her to join us for dinner and to the fiesta. friday night was the FIRST time we saw one another in 24 years… and had a great time together. See this blogs creates friendships and finds old ones….

  32. AKAKY – were you really there? should we quiz about the night to know if you were really standing in the corner watching???

  33. ANNE HENNING – I am sorry we missed you!! i look forward to seeing you at LOOK – June 11-13, 2009!!! xox

  34. ALL:

    In honor of Sister Erica’s reportage, i shall follow suit her own style….

    Part 1:

    This morning, it is cool and my bones are filled with a tender, autumnal crick, an ache that is born of both exhaustion of the body and a small, tickling exhaustion of the hum of my heart. I awake this morning at 5:00 am. and find myself unable to sleep, post-NYC/Harvey trip. I lay in my bed for 45 minutes listening to the deep and satisfied breathing of my dreaming wife and as i follow, like my daily meditation, her inhalations and exhalations, i begin to replay the previous 2 1/2 days and i feel divested, as if pulled lightly from the womb of god. Happy to be home, happy to have extended our home to New York and all those who i genuinely now hold, tooth embedded in jaw, inside my body like family and flame. I am sweetly exhausted from the trip, and satisfied that we’d done all we could do and met all we could have met and yet there is a lingering sadness inside me. I call this the ache of love.

    It would be impossible for me to recount how intense and wonderful our trip was for all of you because it was indeed, as it was for many of the workshop students, bloggers, guests, a remarkably emotional trip and encounter. For me, there was much at stage, for my trip was just not about getting together for the Harvey Fiesta and Harvey blog, for this trip also meant the future of my family, the future and direction of our art and the very real and practical things Marina and I had to do in order to pull up and away from the difficulty that we’ve had to endure the last year and a half. this trip was as much about my family life as it was about the life of my relationship with my “online” family. Many people, including David, Panos, Lance and Sister Erica (the 4 of whom I spent the most time with), had no idea at what was at stake. You see, Marina and I had not had a real trip together in more than a year. We’d broke off our relationship with the gallery that showed our work, we stopped my photo projection project (which nearly ended my life as a photographer), and changed our life in the most profound way. On top of this, I felt real pressure to make this trip worthwhile for Marina. To help her talk to galleries, to get others to see her beautiful work. In truth, i tried not to think of my own work, or Bones, for my goal was to focus on simpler issues than photography

    I had very little expectations about the fiesta, about David, about the bloggers. You see, as I told Erica, I seldom “judge” people and i seldom rely or put too much emphasis on “impressions” or my own “thoughts” about people. I am too old, at 40, to worry about much of that. I had heard a lot of stories about David Alan Harvey, on the blog, from friends, from people i’d met in Toronto and in truth I didnt really listen or countenance any of them. Many people here have seen our “friendship” grow on the blog. What many people did not know is that David and I have written many letters to one another, had spoken on the phone, and I felt safe and happy and already comfortable with David. David once told me on the phone, “bob, do you think we’ll like each other in person.”….i told him,…well, i think so, because i already loved david for everthing he was, his greatness and his failings, just as I felt that David had accepted me and marina for our greatness and our failings (no, i aint great, that would be Marina). So, when David and i met and got that first, deep, rich chest to chest loving hug and I heard david’s baritone laughter, which for a moment also sounded like a burst of sobs and release, i knew then that I was home, that I was fine with David and that even if he and I didnt talk that first night, it would matter, and i wouldnt give a fuck. I knew, since both David and I are pretty emotional guys, and pretty fucked-in the head-in-love with life and also imperfect surfers, i knew that here no matter what was a man that understood marina and I had come to be with him, and everyone else because of life, and not because of photography or bones or epf or the blog, but to make real what had been happening over 2 years….

    in new york, marina and i felt at home…long in the waiting…

    PART II

    Marina and i left for New York on thursday evening, 9 pm. only to discover we’d book the Dante-express. both of us were ecstatic, but nervous too. I was worried that we would get sidetracked, that i would hate trying to meet so many people (i have always preferred small groups of friends, talking drinking smoking late into the night instead of showmanship circus parties), especially trying to meet so many people who had some kind of “impression” of us from the blog or Lightstalkers or my photography. I also had so much to do in ny with marina that I secretly wondered if we’d overbook our plans….the bus was pimped out, double-decker, 80’s rock stars yellow cruiser and man, that motherfucker could fly….and fly she said….until 11:00, outside of buffalo, the driver put on the first of what would be 9 hours of loud, explosive action-dramas that made it impossible for us to sleep at night: hancock, then batman and then wanted….will smith, explosion, scream, batman, joker, explosion, screen, angelina jolie, explosion, scream, dramatic pause, explosion…no sleep…at 7:00 am., we arrived outside of madison square garden in pain, especially marina, going on 2 hrs of sleep and fighting with the loud buzzing…and then we were off and running….

    breakfast, and then the elation and the energy of ny came back to us like a shot of amphetemeine straight to our pulpy hearts, pulp fiction style. from breakfast we walked down to chelsea and hit the galleries. saw a great show at Andrea Meislin, then when marina tried to drop of her cd/pin, they politely said they dont accept applications/portfolios (too important for that ;) )…more galleries, a success at one gallery and then off to MOMA to meet Mike Westfall and Spencer. So, we walked (by this time i was already exhausted and had been to the bathroom 2 times with stomach problems) up to Time Life building and there I gave Mike a big hug (he was tentative at first, probably scared to death of this weird guy with frilly scarf and arms stretched out for a hug)…we walked to the MOMA and sat in the sculpture gardent and talked for an hour. all i get thinking was that I love this man, he is so gentle and so intelligence and receptive and open and i wondered why i hadn’t met him long ago. Ditto with Spencer, although Spencer seemed preoccupied or maybe tired too (i was like non-stop talking). but, spencer comes from PHilly (where my mom lives) and we new each other’s towns (my own town being nyc and bucks country, same with him)…and we had a brilliant time together. As soon as they left, both Marina and I said: god, I hope both Mike and Spencer will come to David’s they are wonderful, sensitive cool men. We walked around the MOMA for 2 1/2 hrs (marina had never been there)…..and of course, again revelations. My hero Moriyama had 6 magnificent prints on the wall…2 of which i’d never seen before…astonishing and heart-piercing. for those prints alone the trip was worth the $400. I was also happy to think too that well maybe some folks are gonna be able to put up with bones too then. later, one of the inspirations for bones, was sitting in the gallery on post-wwii art: giacometti’s sculpture “dog in the rain”…so so happy and i thought: fuck it, dont need anything more than this….later, sat and watched the entire nan goldin “ballad of sexual dependency” and got sad and broken and teary and weak in the heart and limbs…after goldin, i didnt feel much like talking, just wanted to swallow and sleep and drink…so, we walked up to look at some matisse and called Erica and headed to Brooklyn….

  35. PART III

    on the train to brookly, total exhaustion set in. we’d walked for 8 hrs on 2 hrs of sleep and now were sitting on the M train stopped in the middle of a tunnel, and it’s friday afternoon and the train is packed like a cave of chatting and anxious bats, the teens next to us are screaming “what the fuck”…and there is a beautiful blind man across from us who, in a turtz-like frenzy, keeps asking “what’s going on, what’s going on, i want to get home”….someone had pulled the emergency brake…and go almighty, i thought, no way am i gonna have words or strength to talk to people tonight, and marina looked at me exhausted and said “boba, we cant meet people for dinner tonight, im just too exhausted and i need some quiet…”…..we showed up on Erica’s doorstep 1 1/2 hrs late: 6:20 pm…..we quickly hugged and kissed and i felt as if i’d already knew Erica and need no intros….i felt immediately at home and took of my shoes and my feet were ghastly smelling. i’d worn wool socks and forgot that i’d be walking for so many hours….i think marina was shocked too and so i politely washed my feet, as if entering a mosque, within 5 minutes of meeting erica: she must of thought, who the fuck are these people…..she made us tea and i gave her a gift and she rushed off to meet the guys after we’d walked to the store to buy wine for Michael and the party….at home, marina and i just sat in quiet and showered….at 7:15, we walked to the restaurant to meet the 1st batch of bloggers….

    As soon as I saw Patricia in her pink sweater, my heart raced and i was so happy. She had her back to us at the window, but as i walked in and I caught Gina’s eye and i saw her mouth “oh my god, that’s bob”…i immediately walked over and gave Patricia a big hug and kiss as she was still not sure exactly what was happening. then the quick intros: Lee, who looked and radiated strength and kick-ass beauty as I imagined, Ed L (who’ve i loved for 3 years), Preston, Andrew, Patricia’s friend, Erica’s friend from the NYTimes (forget her name now), Gina Martin and another friend of ERica’s. I gave Preston a hug and Ed a hug and quickly told them i had to run and get wine. While we were walking to the store, marina looked worried, struggling. I knew what was going on. She was hungry and also getting overwhelmed by all the people who we’d have to meet. So, i asked if she was ok, and we bought the wine and had a quick meal in a deli and talk. I told her not to worry that it didnt matter what people thought about us, that people would have to understand that we were tired but that these were good people and we’d see through the night…

    we drove to David’s in 3 separate cars (4?) and 2 of the cars somehow made it toward Coney Island….and had fucked up and were trying to make it to the QBK Expressway (with shit friday night traffic) and we were all in a panic because david had wanted patricia at the Kibbutz by 7:15 and it was already 8:20 and they were somewhere lost in brooklyn….erica’s friend from the times (who was funny, brilliant and an amazing person, of whom i regret i didnt get to talk to enough) heroically helped erica navigate the lost cars….eventually, we took the elevator into the room without the others….

    PART WHATEVER:

    As soon as i walked in, i saw Panos and my heart leaped. He saw me but I dont think he recognized me at first either and then i saw David, tall as a Sequoia and ring-leading the party, although at this point there were already like 200 people (more?). I caught David’s eye and marched over too him and then that hug: big, lush, warm, real. I knew the last 2 years meant nothing then, and that we’d be friends no matter what would happen that night. but i was immediately stung by the beauty and honesty of his laughter when we were hugging. It was if he couldnt believe after so much time we’d finally made it and made the relationship finally real. It is that gorgeous baritone laugh when we were in one another’s arms that I shall always remember and cherish: david’s laughter and love at the point we finally met. Then people around taking pictures. then marina’s turn and then i chased after panos and ditto: a hug and a drink and the beginning of a chat. i also felt as if i’d known panos for years and years, as he and I had shared so much privately off the blog that when we finally met i was at peace and all seemed totally natural. then i found kyung-hee and grabbed her and we hugged and she and marina and panos and i and others just talked and then it seemed like people kept pouring over and toward us….anna barry-jester and her friend (both of whom i really loved talking with trying to convince both of them to come Toronto to live)…and then like a line of people who “knew” me from the blog and Lightstalkers, the parade began. AT some point, i didnt know what to say…so many people, so much i wanted to say, especially to Panos and DAvid both of whom i’ve waited to long to talk and hug and just “keep it real” with….then Michael C popped out and i gave him a bottle of wine as a gift and David, Marina, Panos and i shared the beloved cornpipe….and all was right with the world….the beginning, the middle, the ending, it was all all good….everything david had prepared and promised me was on target…and my life was as if on a wave…and it had been 7 years since i was on a surfboard and that surfboard was the smoothest, sweetest, toe-goofy curl ride i’d had in a long long wine….and then, i think, “i wonder if lance will come”….and i see him…..and i run and hug him too….i tell him that the night before, when we received our phone bill, marina asked me “what’s this, 3 calls to Austin…” who were you talking with in Austin?…like for 3 hrs….and when i said Lance Rosenfield, she was like “who’s lance?”….talking to a guy for 3 hrs?, yea right ;))…but, it was true, and when i saw him walk in, i thought, “jeezus christ, god damned, this is going to be a beautiful night…”….after some quick talk with Lance and all kinds of people, Patricia finally arrived with Andrew and Preston and the rest and it was Showtime….

    PART NEXT:

    I wont recapture the slideshow, ’cause ERica has it down pat. Fusco’s throaty bone-rattle voice and soft-limber timbre immediately put everyone in a state of approach…when the images from chernobyl came, it was very very difficult to continue. I’d seen Paul’s book a number of times, but Marina was unprepared and she almost fainted and was very upset. It was a time also difficult ’cause people were talking and dropping bottles but there was a solemnity to the moment that made it very difficult to talk for us for a long time afterward….paul’s work was followed by alessandra, who is a genius, pure and simple. besides the great photographs, alessandra showed some videos. I said to marina: “fuck magnum, she needs to be a film maker!” her videos were brilliant, funny, wise, insightful and absolutely spot on. I dont know if they’re available at Magnum but they should be. This was followed by David’s brilliant teaser about A Family Road Trip. David showed some of his early family album shots and his first book Tell it Like it Is (a masterpiece of a book) and then proceeded to show clips from the current work in progress. As i told David, both stoned and sober (me), the work is beautiful and absolutely antithetical to most work about US or USA Road trips that i’ve ever seen. It’s irreverent, funny, infectious, beautiful and absolutely like “snaps” in a family album, only with medium format camera. it’s nearly impossible to use the square format with any kind of Looseness (that’s why i use holga and diana to try to keep the med format stuff loose) and yet David has achieved this, a remarkable feat in itself. full of humour and gorgeous light and celebration, it already alludes to the thing that seems to be disappearing in the states, in the world, which is a simple sense of pleausre, of the richness of family joy and community, of the spontaneity of the moment of light and laughter…and i am sure when david finishes this book it will one big achievement for him…

    this was followed by the Workshop shop. It was also terrific and i was really happy to see strong work and at times interesting and atypical. there was a story about one of the photographers coming out of the closet which was brave and furious and heart-breaking. there was a story about light and subways, about women and heritage, about ny…and of course, kyung-hee’s magisterial and miraculous dreams closed the show….

    after the show (fuck this post is getting long), marina and i talked to lots of people. We had a long a great conversation with Jason Eskenazi whose remarkable book Wonderland i’d bought the week before as a gift for Marina. I’d written him out of the blue (he is at LS) and invited him to the fiesta and had a remarkable conversation and hope to see him soon in ny. then, out of the blue, Vu photographer Kosuke Okahara walked up to me and introduced himself. I spent the next 30 minutes talking to him about his work and publishing in japan and i was so stunned to see him at the party….later, finally caught up with David and Panos and Lance and the cornpipe for some more mediation. From there Marina and I spent the next hour or so with David and Lance and Anna and Russel (David’s friend from the s.bronx who is also a photographer) talking and sharing stories and looking out over manhattan. it was a glorious time and i loved talking to “give them some meat” Russell, who is smart, funny and incredibly kind. He and i talked and talked and i couldnt stop laughing and i just thought: fuck, i miss being here. I wonder what if Marina would move back…Later, marina and david were talking and then we all went downstairs to talk some more. Lance gave us a magnificent print (one of my favorites of his) and i gave him a dvd copy of Bones (including images that i didnt put on flickr)….the night continued and continued and by the time erica, marina and i left, it was 3 am….and i was exhausted…i’d spoken to more than 50 people and felt as if i hadnt talked to anyone. I left a bit sad as I didnt get to talk to Patricia or Lee or Panos as much as I’d wanted to. I helped carry Patricia out the stairs when she left and got a big kiss for the reward, though Preston and Andrew were the real heros. Later, Erica, Marina and I shared a taxi with Davin E ( a nice and very talented photographer) and then the 3 of us stayed up chatting some more until, who knows….sleep breaking like chattering icecycles…

  36. PART SATURDAY:

    on 3 hours of sleep, i woke up and couldnt get to sleep. David had invited us to his loft to have breakfast and to talk about photography with his workshop students, with lance and Patricia and Panos but we couldnt. Marina and I had to go to more galleries and we wanted to spend the day in Central park too (she’d never been there). So, we left Erica’s had 10, went to breakfast and then starting in soho, went to jen beckman and then remington arms, after that to some russian gallery at 53rd street, where to our shock the work of someone we know, the great photographer from st. petersubrg, evgenia mokhorev (i posted his work here before), was showing. we immediately talked to the gallery owner and bought a book of titarenko and then were again shocked to learn that Mokhorev would be in NY in 2 weeks…so we left him a note and marina was very very happy. it’s a great gallery featuring russian photographers and who knows, my hope is that they’ll also be interested in her work. then spent the rest of the day walking in central park and then dinner and when we returned to eRica’s at 7″00 pm. both of us were flat out dead. Marina was happy and strong after the great day, but i was feeling very very sad. When i am tired and overwhelmed i tend to get depressed because it’s not easy for me to disconnect from people. I personalize their words and their emotions and i had met so many people the night before and so many people, including lots of strangers who “know” me from the blog and from LS, kept saying hi and talking that i didnt know what to do or say. Also, i had so much wanted to talk to Panos and Patricia and Gina and Lance that i just felt exhausted. I almost didnt want to leave erica’s house and i told her that…fearing that she would think i was some pompous prick, but i was so tired…thankfully, we’d all decided to have a quiet night at Davids….so we left for the loft…

    Saturday night was brilliant. I finally had some one-to-one time with panos and we talked about life and living. ….

    when marina, erica and i first walked into the loft (8:30 and we were late) there were only a few people: david, panos, paolo and some of david’s students from the workshop and a few others (forgive me, i’ve forgotten everyone’s names). I was saddened to see that Patricia wasn’t there as I had really wanted to talk to her one-to-one. I was also hoping to talk with Gina too, though she was there when we first arrived. David and Panos wanted to chat and so after 10 minutes of “waking up” to being there again, the three of us sat down, dipped into that magnificent cornpipe and started to talk. David started to talk a bit about what happened that morning and during the day with the workshop students and their great conversation, their great lunch at a brazilian restaurant and the conversation with Patricia and her work. I told david that we were sorry we couldnt make it but that we had to go to the galleries and to central park. I also felt uneasy and reluctant to jump in, because i felt it wasnt my place to talk to David about my work or bones yet, i felt all his love and attention should be for the workshop students, so i didnt press the issue, and let others their time and attention. after some lovely puffs, david started to briefly offer his opinion about “finishing bones.” I started to tell him that i would should 1 last section (when my mom comes in november) but that I felt it was finished, or could be finished as soon as i finished the essay (this week) and shoot 2 rolls when my mom comes. Then david got up to talk to someone and Panos and i started to have a real conversation, first time. i felt comfortable and in love with the moment, he wanted to know the deal about me, my life. he kept pressuring me to talk to David about Bones or to “get your time with him, you deserve it” but i resisted and wasnt interested, i just wanted to get past all the bullshit of a first meeting. and we broke and started to talk about lots of stuff. advice for him from patricia, my own point of view, my love and trust for him, etc. then gina and lance walked in and i was overjoyed. got a big big hug from both and gave kisses to gina and gina and i started to talk a bit. she lives in an area of DC i know well and spent much of my time with. we talked about her job and Look, about her life and DC. I loved talking with her and only regret that the pipe had made my thoughts so scattered. then ERica jumped in and stole Gina away ;)), and lance and i jumped in and started to talk, for a long long time…he told me about having a great day with gina and purchasing Jason’s book “wonderland” at Strand. when i told him that Jason had been there the night before, that i’d invited him and would introduce him in the future, it was all too surreal….after more drunkenness and cool vibe , Lance asked me to show him bones….so i did…

    i showed lance, gina, panos, erica, and some other people the work, i’d taken to david. the cd i brought and gave to david and lance (and i have one for patricia) contains work that i did not put on Flickr)….1/2 through the show, Eric from france wanted to show his new story on Tibet. Earlier in the night Jim Nachtwey had walked in as well. I had a moment to talk to Jim after Marina had been talking with him for a few minutes. I congratulated him on the TB project and told him that what i respected the most about him was that he lived his life lyrically and eloquently, that while i respected his work profoundly, it was the nature of how someone lived that meant the most to me. then i dashed to watched the Eric’s slideshow…..a great great and original story about a catepillar that is transformed by a mushroom and all the attendant madness that surrounds it…i later had an opportunity to talk with him about picture choice and editorial decisions, which was nice. Afterward, i returned to Bones and showed Lance the 2nd half…..you’ll will have to wait to get the reports from him or panos or erica or gina to get impressions….

    afterward, lance and i spoke some more, as well as with gina and panos. then a photo shoot broke out and david started shooting pics of people and panos and i continued to chat….

    the rest is pretty much a blur…but i remember getting incredibly tired and everyone else was tired too, so marina and i gave out hugs and kisses to david and gina and lance and panos and all the rest….and we left….

    we stayed up a bit more talking and then poured ourselves to bed….

    on sunday, after 3 hrs of sleep, we awoke and made it to the bus by 9am, and fell asleep the moment we got out of the Lincoln tunnel….

    i awoke 3 hrs in upstate new york……and started to talk to david and lance and erica and panos and gina and mike w and all the people in my head….i was exhausted…..happy because marina and i had had a great talk….

    i hadn’t showed david bones, not one picture, not one moment, and i was fine with that….

    i was full and exhausted and sweetly sad….

    and now i miss them terribly…….

  37. PART LAST: THE PEOPLE:

    Marina and i met so many people to count, and i’ll just stick to the general folk so it makes sense, but here goes:

    MIKE WESTFALL: an angel. A man who once wrote me to apologize for saying something obnoxious and mean to me, which i never fucking remembered him ever doing (Mike, are you sure you sad something bad, ever to anyone?), and i can tell you that he is one of the most kind, most gentle, most loving and genuinely caring people i’ve met. There isn’t an ounce of bullshit in his body and if i were a woman, my heart would be a puddle of flesh: he’s so caring and as if a giant bear, but beneath that warm and shy exterior is an incredibly sharp and agile mind, a smart thinker and even though he’s a bit of a photo conservative (i mean, he never mentioned the moriyama at the moma instead referring to winogrand ;))) ), he’s a great and humane person and a terrific and thoughtful photographer. my wife and i had 2 great conversations with him (at lunch and at the fiesta) and we both were knocked out…for him, i would consider moving….

    SPENCER: another terrific fellow. A man that was quiet efficient in marriage ;) who has been pulled aside by other passions at the moment, for whom i felt immediately bound (the philly/nyc thing) and he was a pleasure to talk to (and has a beautiful face i’d like to snap). he and mike made our afternoon on the first day

    PATRICIA: she is the most luminous, most energetic woman i have ever met. She is a miracle not only of energy (and david and erica and panos have a shit load as well) but she is unstoppable. I have never met a person so genuinely unselfish and genuinely optimistic. she was undeterred in her skooter and i never once heard her complain, bitch, moan or even fraun. she is the most alive, most kind, most giving person (in her positivity) that i have ever met. I was simply stunned by the nature of her beautiful, midwestern charm and tenderness and genuine love and affection for me and marina. i dont know what i did to deserve such affection, but i felt so happy to be with her and to talk to her. The biggest disappointment of my trip was that Patricia wasnt there saturday night as I had hoped to have time to talk one to one and to tell her how much i cared about her and was inspired by her. but, that shall wait for another day and place. But, above all, she is an unstoppable wave of joy and celebration and now about of cynicism can deter this. She is a meteor of blazing light and i recommend everyone bath in her luminosity…..i am a better person from the friendship…..

    PRESTON, ANDREW, ED: all three really terrific and intelligent men. I didnt really get to talk to any of them untill the very end of friday night when i gave Preston a big hug and bathe in his smile. he and andrew were incredibly helpful and open and i cant wait to talk with them more intimately. the same is true with Ed L, though i did get a few drunken words down at the end of the night. i respect all of them as photographers and hope the next time there is more time.

    LEE: as smart and strong a woman as i’ve met. again, i think i had all of 45 seconds to look eye-to-eye and say hello but it’s there, no doubt. one thing is sure, she’s a strong person and even if she reflects doubt here, i can tell, it’s carved all over her face and the way she holds herself that she is a no-bullshit, call-it-like-it-is or piss off kind of person…a southerner, not in the belle shit way, but in the you gotta call it like it is way…and we share that, and i wish i’d have had more time….

    JASON E: a gem. a gentle, humble quiet man whose head is worlds richer than most of the folk i ever listen to talk about photography, but again it is his humility and sensitivity that i take with me. someone this extraordinary has ever right to cry out to the world his genius and yet he’s humble and bashful and makes those fucking photographs sing alight…..his work is for the ages, and so is his soul…bolshoiya dusha…

    KoSUKE: a quiet and gentle guy whose work is so poignant and brilliant and yet his work on girls who cut themselves has never been published in Japan…and yet he laughs alot and smiles and thinks hard…..he’s the kind of photographer most of the world overlooks, but the world is better for his work….

    ANNA BARRY-JESTER/FRIEND: i loved talking to Anna, again, filled with so much positivity and celebration and was completely unpretentious. I could have spent the entire night convincing her and her friend to come to toronto to help build another photo world….she’s a beam of joy and a damn good photographer to boot….

    PANOS: i sing this man electric. he, like patricia, is one of the most kind, most heart-vulnerable person i know. i’ve talked to panos often in private off the blog and i tell you i often worry about him, his difficulties, his suffering, his madness, his sadness. but there are few people in this world as loving and as giving and as mother-fucker hard working as panos. In a just world, Panos would have a job, would publish his work, wouldnt have to worry about money or women or drugs or sadness. He is a beautiful man, inside andout, and none of y’all who’ve met him have a right to think he’s a shit or clown. he’s a deeply sensitive and thoughtful man and i am proud and honored to call him a friend. i wish we had had even more time, but the time i spent with him just reminded me of what drew me to him in the first place. my hope is that he will stay in nyc and take some of the “advice” i offered….he deserves to be happy because he tries so so hard to help others and to make others happy. you are in my heart brother…and too late, you owe your nephew a hat, sick and all dog :)))))))

    russell/ruckus: those boys are the tag. i loved both of them, hugged both their asses and loved laughing with russell. in a world that is defined too much by rich, white men, kids whose parents by them expensive equipment and cameras, educate them at elite schools, and talk shit all the way to their fame, these 2 are MY ny, my childhood, my hope of what makes life important: the real dealing and loving with the real….straight up, the 2 are meant to be alive and powerful and funny and down-straight up. i loed both….and hope to bark again with russell soon…..

    GINA MARTIN: :)))))…my wife and i both totally in love with Gina. Gina, i’ll do anything for you for Look. If you need work, you got it sister! both marina and I thought she was one of the nicest, funniest, no bullshit folk we’ve met. She has ever right in the world to be a prick, given her job and her experience and the people she deals with and we both found her a magnificent human being. god damn, her hugs are strong, and i always though i was a strong hugger. but what i loved about her (not including carrying wine always with a smile) was that she doesnt have an ego, not one fucking pretentious bone in her body. i’ve met so many pretentious people (im probably one too when im tired) and she aint it, she just gives and gives and gives and carries, like patricia, positivity in her bones like a lantern. I cant wait to drink with her in Virginia in the spring! :)))))))

    LANCE: ladies, this is one gorgeous guy. well, ok, make that 2: he and Panos both. I told him at the party that when i first met him i thougth: fuck, this boy could be a supermodel, fuck the photography! but, he’s as kind and straightforward a shooter as i’ve met. he and i share lots of things: both lived in california, both ex-swimmers, both surfers, both crazy about ladies, photography and whiskey…though, i think it was tequilla he fed me well with on friday. i loved our chats on both friday and saturday, but i knew from the moment he and i first talked on the phone this summer (yea, for 3 hrs), i knew we’d be bros. he really is like my younger brother and i am so happy to have in our life now. i’ve been worried about him too, but after this week, i felt comfortable to kick the worries away. he is all there, in mind and body and soul. he’s a cowboy is aint afraid to show you that his trigger finger’s been cut a few times and that though he’s been stitched up a few too, he’s not one angrier for it. i love this boy and his gentleness and enthusiasm and generosity. he gave us an extraordinary and beautiful picture and it’sl like on the wall already…but he didnt have to do that to make me sing his praises. the best thing i can say about this guy is that he’s gonna be like my daddy and what i hope to be as well: a find father for some son or daughter: his heart is that big and i am very proud to call him my friend.

    ERICA:….i’ve already written erica along thank yu letter this morning and i know she doesnt want to hear lots or praise. but she is a fountain of metta, a real special human being. i feel, marina and i both feel, that we’ve known her our whole lives…maybe we have, but i feel like she really has been part of our life forever. tirelessly, she took care of me and marina. she listened to our late night rants and she stood positive when marina and i were exhausted and breaking on saturday. she gave somuch love that i hope that she felt the same in return. she’s energy and love in one and i never heard, not once anything come out of her moth but the most positive and nourishing things and she fucking cares about people and would do anything for anyone, from DAvid down to the taki driver. she is pulled at in all directions and never, not once, looked angry or frustrated or sad. she is the definition of the 8-fold path and i will send her metta for the rest of my life. she sang our life electric and without her generosity and love and her home, it wouldn not have been possible for us to come, because we only had enough money for a bus and food. Erica made it possible for us to be with y’all and for that i am incredibly thankful. she is a radiant sui generis jewell….surely she’s been beneath the bodhi tree already…..our love big big for you sister and our thanks….

    and the man himself:

    DAVID ALAN HARVEY

    David is everything people say he is and a lot more. he is warm and gentle and lick-quick intelligent, he’s got a ferocious eye for ideas and for beautiful women. he can navigate and be aware (i think he’s a lighthouse) of a room of 300 people like nobody’s fool. i’ve never met a person before who can keep so much information and so many conversations and so many people in his ahead alive and running. he can, like a texas jackrabbit, bound from one person to another, from one subject to another, without losing his stride. he has more energy, real energy, not the fake bullshit you see so often, than any human was supposed to have been aloted. He gives and gives and gives and i saw him speak so generously to so many people of the course of the 2 days i was amazed. it takes alot of heart, outer-sized heart, to give so much of yourself so unselfishly to others without killing you. I worry sometimes that david is killing himself and then i see that he hasn’t been bent by pessimism or cynicism or jaded adultation. he could easily rest upon his photographic laurels or the lived lived achievement but to the contrary he challenges life, he threads his as if it were the bare-thread plains. I realized too that all the “negative” things that i’d heard about david were just projections that others have upon him. Like all people, he is imperfect, but because he is so incredibly giving and generous, i think people mistake his human behavior as failure. for me, it is quiet the opposite, it makes him more real and i love him the more for it. David cares about photography, good photography, good stories, hard fucking work. He doesnt’ suffer fools easily and he doesnt suffer quitters, that’s obvious, because he himself is a tireless worker. But what david cares the most about is living, being alive and allowing people, helping people BE ALIVE, become alive to the world around them and the richness inside them. I respect david immensely for his talents as a photographer and his talents as a teacher, but these are not enough for me to Love him. I love David because he has shared his life with me and he is unapologetically concerned with making this life as rich as possible for himself and for others: to alleviate suffering, to have compassion, to challenge, to sacrifice, to love others as if you were filled with love. That is david. those of you who think im trying to kiss his ass, may not know that david and i have shared personal stories, joy and tragic ones, in private, in phone calls and in emails. When i met david in person, i wasn’t the least disappointed. He was exactly as i expected….only better. The david on friday was the incredibly celebrant, loving, intense, happy person leading this parade of joy and madness, proud of his frriends Paul and Alessandra, of his students and blog friends. On saturday, i saw the gentle and quiet and playful and tired David. I saw the pain that still is there and i saw the depth of his love for those he cared about. He has done so much for his friends, for his students, for his blog friends, that for those who think of him as only a photographer have soarly missed his importance.

    He is a rare human filled with all things that simply wishes to fill others with the same joy. As a surfer, i always want to share my love of life with others, in fact, i see it my obligation. I see david the same. I think those who seek his attention all the time, get disappointed because they do not realize alos the toll this kind of life can take: all the adulation, all the students, all the hope-to-be’s , all the crazy madness. It wearies. but David has an uncanny nack for keeping his word, for respecting people, for calling it as he sees it, for being the brilliant and loving man he is, failings and strengths all out in the front for anyone to see. He aint a poser, he aint a wanna be, he is a living and loving man.

    I decided not to both him with bones because i knew that our friendship would last longer than the 2 days of the party and that i would wait until he had real time, time for himself, time for his project, time when both of us could talk one to one, friend to friend, and share and celebrate. I will turn bones into a book, a book that i will dedicate to 3 of the finest guys i know: my father, my son and david, which in truth are the 3 people (and my life) that this story is about….boys all, filled with light and shadow who’ve not given up on the fact that we must live in order to love and that this is the only thing that matters

    I love david for who he is not for what i may aspire to be.

    and now, im drop-dead exhausted….i wont comment for a while….

    work must be done…

    love
    bob

  38. p.s….

    i know i forgot people (i am so fucking tired)…

    KYUNG-HEE: I LOVED HER SO MUCH :))))…so filloed with light and joy “my head is spinning when i saw marina” she said :)))…and i was so happy to finally talk to her and see her magnificent work….a true joy and a beam of light and energy and intuitiion….one of the reasons i still love making work, is because there are people in this world like Kyung-hee…..

    and all the rest of the folks i met….

    ok, SHUT THE FUCK UP BOB….

    b

  39. DAVID BOWEN! :))))))

    CONGRATULATIONS CONGRATULATIONS CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

    I AM SO SO HAPPY FOR YOU DAD!…I WAS THINKING ABOUT YOU ON FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY THINKING: IS HE A DAD YET???

    SO SO PROUD…CANT WAIT TO SEE YOUR BEAUTY…

    ok, running
    hugs
    b

  40. LAST POST: FOR HERVE ! :)))))

    herve, amigo, i just read on the last thread you wanted tactile details, and i probably got all metta on that ridiculously long post, so here are the details:

    lance, anna, gina and i downed some major mojo tequilla (thanks to lance)

    lance, erica, david, panos, marina and i (and a shit load of others) did major major time on the cornpipe and like i caught lots of folk falling now (you’ll have to pry the names out of me in person)….

    Gina martin (after Harvey) GIVES THE BEST HUG! :))))))))))…

    Patricia and erica kiss on the lips to friends (which i like)!!!

    Panos is fucking hot looking…and also hot spirit…and was like major hot for another person at the party and well…you ask him or her what happened ;)))))…and it aint erica ;)))))

    Jim Nachtwey is a kind as can be, but definitely in his own thoughts….

    david drinks beer like i drink wine…that’s alot …

    2 guys tried to hit on my wife (i dont find at all), maybe more, but she held her own :)))))

    lance has the best fucking hair in the world!…

    ed L, well, loves to drink ;)))))))) and has a unique shooting style…

    the Kibbutz smells like a beer hall and a garden in upstate Oregon, if you know what i mean…

    Harvey is kind to everyone, not just beautiful women…

    Michael C had the biggest (ummmm) i’d ever seen a white boy carry…. ;)))) and no, it ain that….

    lots of broken bottles, 2 young girls kissing in the stairwell after comparing their work (not bloggers that i know)….learned about the worst most expensive aphrodisiac (the catepillar from tibet)….god, i could go own…

    drank alot, slept little….loved the hell out of it…

    ok, done for the week…

    hugs
    all
    b

  41. I started Bob’s writing with a full computer battery…. it has 20% life left in it….

    BOB – i am fucking speechless. can i really follow your words? MY GOD – you and Marina are true gifts!! i am in awe of your words – i laughed, cried and smiled through the whole thing (without wine too). LOVE YOU BOTH

  42. No, Bob, that was just great, i do not always read thru everything you write here (my span of attention is seriously challenged reading a text, a long unparagraphed one that is, on a screen than from a book, I wonder if I am the only one like this), but it was all so real that I did it this time (and my comp’ is plugged in…), your longest ever post, X2!

  43. BOB.

    Your “party talk” posts remind me EXACTLY of diary entries I used to make in High School! :)) It felt so personal, but not personal about YOU… personal to ME as if I were writing…if that makes any sense.

    Right up my alley. The perfect blend of gossip and self-analysis.

    LOVED IT.

  44. SIDNEY.

    Saw a TV show this weekend about guys taking mushrooms and riding in a Winnebago…thought of you! :))

    I couldn’t agree more about the importance of a good night’s sleep.

  45. BOB

    Your sharings touch me deeply. I love seeing and feeling the weekend through your eyes and heart. I love you and Marina dearly. Dima too.

    ALL

    OK, now Preston Merchant’s photos are up on my “Weekend in Brooklyn” gallery. He did a great job in low light conditions and with a cast of thousands, well, hundreds anyway! There are lots of photos in which Patricia appears which feels funny, but it’s nice for me to see who all I talked to. In situations like this, it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed and forget.

    My deepest gratitude to Preston for offering to take these photos and for doing such a fabulous job. Again if I’ve misidentified anyone, please let me know.

    http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/preston_fiesta

    And now to bed. ‘Night all.

    Patricia

  46. ok.. I’m about to depart in 10 minutes..
    From frisco to LA!
    At last…
    Re-Reading bob’s post!
    ( Akaky.. I went Firsrs-liquor shopping…
    Earlier that night..)
    Trust me we didn’t buy ANY DIET COKE..
    I can promise you that.. For sure..

    Herve…!!!
    I was asleep somewhere on the floor..
    In San Francisco airport…
    My phone is (310 425 9298…)
    I didn’t see any missed calls..
    Hmmm.. When did you call???
    Ok.. Back in the plane…
    ( bob… You must also be exhausted..)

    And a big big hug for my
    friend ERIC VALLI…
    Eric.. I will soon see you in Paris..
    Not bullshiting.. Thank you for inviting me..

    Ok.. Gotta go..
    Flying
    Panos…

    ALL, please check the book “Eighteen”
    from KIM R….
    ( link is on the right side of this blog..)
    Gotta go…

  47. ERICA, BOB, GINA, PATRICIA, PRESTON

    Inexpressible, mountainous thanks to you for making the weekend experience so vivid and tangible for all the rest of us. Big, big applause!

    CATHY

    Not a Winnebago… it was a 1951 Chevy Suburban panel truck known as the “Grey Ghost” with running boards and a wood-burning stove inside with the stovepipe sticking out the back side window.

  48. ok… Just landed to LA..
    Picking the car from Park’n’Fly
    parking lot..& drive exactly 67 miles..
    to make it to the mountains..
    Going for a warm hug…
    Going big bear..
    Tomorrow VENICE.. Time to
    start digging Venice ONCE MORE..
    & Diego yes…
    After “my” Venice I’m going to live
    A year in “your” Venice..
    The real Venice.. Venice Italy..
    Diegitooooo.. I miss you already..
    Ok..
    Baggage claim now and then…
    what else????
    Driving
    Panos

  49. david alan harvey

    BOB…

    re: Alessandra and film making…no need to leave Magnum…almost all of the Magnum photographers have made doc or feature films…some classic French features especially by Raymond Depardon and some near misses by Rene Burri….i am one of the few who have NOT stepped into film making..but, yes, Alessandra should do more with this medium…

    re: beautiful women….one of the most truly beautiful women i know is Patricia (everybody knows i have a crush)…but, she will not return my phone call!! playing “hard to get”??? oh well, the really good ones always do…

    SIDNEY…

    i just got the cd you sent today..yes, yes , i am sure it came to the studio long ago, but i just had time to get my hands on it today..will look tomorrow …are you looking for a private e-mail review, or let it “all hang out” right here???

    you had THAT car??? amazing….new respect..

    CATHY….

    i might have gotten lost somewhere along the line, but did you just accuse Sidney of doing mushrooms???

    DAVID BOWEN…

    hey dude, so so so cool!!! congratulations…for real….can i take a family portrait someday??

    GINA….

    hey, did you see what i saw???

    DAVID M…

    GO OBAMA!!!!

    cheers, david

  50. DAVID DEAR

    Hard to get? THIS Patricia? Never! I’ve tried to return your call twice with no success, and your voicemail box is full. SOOOOO…call me back, OK? Not to get personal but what the hell were you doing at your computer at 4:12 a.m.??? You, my friend, need SLEEP!!!!!!

    Patricia

  51. PANOS

    the real venice? so you’re slowly coming closer to my end of the woods….
    no ocean to separate anymore

    ha! i’ll get the beer out already :)))

    a

  52. DAH – did i see what you saw???? not sure what you mean…. send me an email if you do not want to post….

  53. I just got back to living in NYC having been away for a year and I couldn’t think of a better way to get reacquainted than witnessing ‘THE FAMILY OF DAVID’ with his past 2 fiestas.
    First – i would simply like to say “thank you” to David. It has been far better expressed by others here, so I will leave it at that. Meeting everyone was not only inspirational, but YOU ALL are the quintessential example of the “journey” – the beauty and essence …..the ” it’s not where you go that’s important, but how you get there” way of living.

    Gina- I told her in an email: ” Now I know why you were popular in high school !! besides being fun, talented, and interesting, you make everyone feel special by your individual attention…. well, 24 years later, I’m glad I can be part of your “group” :) :)

    Patricia- may your golden rays of gold cast a “manta” over everyone and your
    “La Lucha” conquer all !!

    Panos- you are so easy to talk to, which is appreciated by someone who is generally shy in big social situations…

  54. bob, jean, dah – all again.. thanks for the emailed and posted wishes.. he’s a day old now.. time..

    DAH

    can you take a family portrait?.. jesus, for the love of god, man – YES PLEASE>> we’d fit nicely into the 2 year friendship-turned whirlwind romance chapter.. with a little addition 10 months after i moved to norway ..
    yes please.

    Tors first vision of me was with a camera in my right hand.. he grabbed for my left and soaking, exhausted, screaming, confused he took hold of my little finger and squeezed it tight.. he kept it squeezed throughout.. now he’s a tight grip on my heart and i’m realising i have just photographed the most important 48 hours of my life to date..

    some of the photos are good.. the edited story may not be intended for crit – hoever – it’s the most important shoot i have completed.. the most tender and giving subjects, and probably the most respectful i have ever been behind a camera.

    the final slide-show will have urgency, laughter.. pain.. nitrus oxide (‘pass it over’) and JOY>>LOVE>>ASTONISHMENT

    good god, i’m alive..

    peace all..

    xx
    (anton and patricia have had a couple of photos advanced..)

  55. KIM – welcome to the family!!

    DAVID B – what a beautiful moment you described. Congratulations again!!!

  56. DEAR ALL,

    DEAR DAVID,

    Good morning – Good evening…

    Here in Western Australia the time is exactly 12 hours in front of NYC time.

    Here it’s about 9pm in the evening the day is winding down, kids in bed, fire ember glows… there it’s morning and Tuesday is only just beginning…

    so far away, yet so near, just a mouse click away…

    Time, time, time…

    a big big Thank you – all, for sending all those good vibes, ‘NYC the place to be, in DAH house…’

    I had some idea or was it a dream, a few months back, that I might be in NYC to be at this DAH workshop, just maybe…

    but I don’t spend much time on-line and i miss months at a time of what’s happening here on the blog and rarely have ‘time’ to follow the threads…

    TIME and how we spend it, how we value it, friendships, family…
    has been at the core of a project i’ve been shooting for some years. A travel project. I always feel time is elastic when I travel. One week away is like a month at home. One month away is like three… Time slows down, even when it flies (whatever!)

    I’D LIKE TO SHARE SOMETHING PERSONAL WITH YOU ALL.

    I don’t want to fall into the trap of a long rant about me and my past but i feel i must get it off my chest, cause it’s bugging me big time.

    It’s about travel, sacrifices, family, career, home is where the heart is… a lot of the subjects that DAH has brought up…

    Until 2002 I worked as a photographer in London. Editorial portraits, record sleeves and occasional documentary work. I’ve been a pro since 1990 when i was about 22. I love music, I love meeting people, I love to travel… and i’m IN LOVE with photography as well as my family, my wife and two daughters (8 & 4)…

    In 2002 along with my wife and (then 2 year old) daughter we arrived at the decision that we needed a lifestyle change, we had had enough of London, it felt claustrophobic and meaningless… we were looking for a slower pace and a more sustainable lifestyle. I also wanted to continue my project, i’d started looking at the daily routine of travellers, I wanted to jump in with both feet and find a different future, some place warmer, sunnier and slower than London. We headed off to India (an old favourite) expecting to travel for a year or so… to cut to the chase, after about 5 years between India and Australia and another daughter (born in a small village in India), we’re here in Australia, in the bush, well actually it’s forest, it’s beautiful, we’re truly grateful for the way things have gone.

    BUT i had to pay a heavy price for us to settle here. Something like ONE FOOT BACKWARDS TO TAKE TWO STEPS FORWARD. The only way we could get residency in Australia was if I went to collage for two years (long story) and study a ‘skill in demand’. I’m doing just that now, as a commercial cook (stupid white uniform included). It’s EXTREME MENTAL TORTURE. I’ve almost completed year 1, one more to go, then back to photography, albeit in a very different way to my London past.

    I love this blog and everything that spins off of it, it gives me faith, keeps a light shining, so THANK YOU ALL AND SPECIAL THANK YOU TO ‘THE SUPER HUMAN DYNAMO’ aka DAH!

    MY frustrations are that between collage, part time work in cafe (visa requirement) and family life with two young girls, my photography life has all but vanished, it’s very VERY freaky. I worry i’ve lost my touch, all momentum has gone, my project has cobwebs on it, it’s a difficult self imposed situation. I knew it would be tough, but that doesn’t change my day-to-day reality…

    I try and shoot from time to time but i’m not focused and it’s not what it should be, which adds to the frustration.

    So, I needed to share this, hopeful that next year I might be able to ‘Be There’, to come out of this self imposed cocoon and be born again (woh that’s sounds a bit too dramatic – but then again it’s been that kind of journey). But I can’t wait ‘till then.

    DAVID:

    It would mean the world to me, at this stage, to get some honest feedback on my project ‘Slow Motion Travelogue’. I’ve made a ‘tight’ edit and put it on-line. My next mission will be to summarise it in words… I knew what it was about when I started out, honest!

    Soon it’s the big summer break here (Dec/Jan) and I must get busy with my camera, get out there. I’ve got some ideas floating.

    I feel I could use some guidance. I don’t know what the situation is with the next batch of photographers to shoot projects, but i’d really like to be involved.

    Thanks again for being so inspiring

    you can see ‘Slow Motion Travelogue’ as well as other work here

    http://albums.phanfare.com/4955643/2793345#imageID=48457204

    just click slideshow.

    Thanks for taking the time

    peace

    Sam

  57. Dear Friends,

    Wow…sounds like I missed out on one hell of a party…and I thought Look3 and Perpignan were good! Glad to hear everyone had such an amazing time. David is THE host like no-other as anyone who has been to one of his gatherings will testify. It’ so nice to hear of friends meeting for the first time, second time, third time etc etc.

    Please rest assured, those of us weren’t there, were somehow feeding of the vibes emanating out of New York! For one, they made their way out to Hong Kong which is where I currently am in visa-limbo land. Spending some time here whilst my visa gets processed so I can get back into the good old People’s Republic. Has anyone been to HK? This is just a mindblowing city.

    Well, my best to all. Great to hear of all the fun you had with the projections and parties. Look forward to seeing the work online sometime.

    Best,
    Sean

  58. DAH

    Thank you from my heart and also please accept my apologies. Tried to call but your box is full and all is straightened out now, will explain in person some time.

  59. david alan harvey

    PATRICIA….

    what are YOU doing up so early??? exhausted, i fell asleep on the sofa at 8pm and then woke up at 3am dazed and confused…jet lag right here at home..

    Panos talked me into buying an iPhone when we were walking through Soho the other day, so i have not set up the mailbox function..will call you soonest…

    KIM…

    welcome back to New York…so pleased to have you here in town again..your trucker book has been on my shelf all along…i show it to many…

    SEAN…

    your presence here would have been icing on the cake, but you have done such an amazing job of being everywhere all the time, that you are “excused” from being absent at this gathering..but, please do stop by when you are next in New York…and you may get the keys and stay at my place anytime even if i am traveling…i will get the student work up soonest for your perusal…i have not been to HK for several years, but i would imagine it has totally “blown up”…

    SAM…

    thanks for your story and your link….trust me, you do not want me to look at your link this morning..my eyeballs are totally burned out from three weeks of heavy editing with my students…but, give me a couple of days to recover…if you think i did not get back to your link, simply re-post please, and i will be happy to take a look…do not be afraid to stay on my case…i do not want to miss any possible key photographers from this site….

    cheers et al, david

  60. DAVID

    I never expected you would look at that CD before now, and there’s still no hurry… whenever convenient, amigo. As for a response, it’s totally up to you whether to make it public or private… dealer’s choice… if you think it would be of any value or interest to the forum, by all means here… Otherwise by email. I am not thin-skinned or defensive about my photo work, at least where you are concerned. Only reason I sent you the CD instead of posting on the Net is because I don’t currently have access to that kind of storage space or bandwidth.

    Cathy wasn’t really accusing me specifically of eating mushrooms (though I do love shiitake, and the morels and chantarelles that grow wild around here)… she was bemoaning the fact that she was too young to have been a hippy in the Sixties on the metaphorical (or real) magic bus, and I tried to assure her that it was better in her imagination than in reality. Now the Seventies, that’s another story…

    Incidentally, I got a nice email in Korean from Kyunghee Lee this morning, back in Pusan (sorry, I’ve spelled it that way for 45 years and I ain’t gonna start writing “Busan” now). Many thanks for getting that package to her during the chaotic intensity of last week!

  61. david alan harvey

    HELLO ALL…

    i have tried to emphasize this before, but i want to emphasize again the REAL REASON for the gathering at my loft…

    we were assembled for only one reason: the showing of the student work….

    the last two classes were just amazing in intent and in result..and the result was NOT a PARTY, but some incredibly personal WORK…

    the party is over…the work will last….

    we will try to post today or tomorrow this work…the file for this last class is huge, so we may have to post it as a link rather than under “movies”…it takes several hours to make, so please be patient…Mike is working on the student show, but we are also scrambling on getting me out the door for my own work…

    believe me, the last thing in the world i would want here is for some of you to feel “left out”…this forum moves in different directions at different times for different reasons, pretty much paralleling whatever is going on at any given time with my shooting, teaching etc…intended solely as a way for many of you to see something that might be going on in my professional life that would relate to what you do…we are, in fact, all in this craft together…watching so many of you “grow” as photographers has been so inspirational to me…

    i want our experience here to be all inclusive, not some kind of exclusive “club”…i have actually spoken with some non-writing members who have told me they are afraid to “jump in” thinking they just are not a “part of it”..from my point of view, nothing could be further from the truth…so, JUMP IN!!

    yes, of course, there has been an incredible bonding between so many of us in real time, real life…so many others of you i have not met..but, i do hope you totally realize that if i am anywhere near your “territory”, i will sit down with you wherever it is…and, i do make every effort to answer questions from all of you…if i miss, and i do sometimes, please re-post your questions…

    yes, let’s enjoy the party, but there can be no party without the work coming first…

    peace, david

  62. BOB,
    i agree , DAH has the most beautiful, relaxed
    face in the world…
    but you dont wanna see his face when
    the MAC spinning BALL OF DEATH COMES UP in his computer…!!!
    ( short temper for a surfer boy…???
    its just a spinning
    beach volley ball after all…
    laughing..)

    OK.. I NEED TO MAKE A STATEMENT…

    DAVID ALAN HARVEY’s workshop…
    ALL, Lurkers, Readers
    PRO photogs or NOT… ALL…

    What i witnessed the last week up in brooklyn was INTENSE…
    David is not really turning a bad photog into an iconic…
    not the point…
    DAVID , just like SOCRATES back in the day…
    is not teaching or lecturing .. no no no..
    check this out CAREFULLY…
    HE UNLOCKS PEOPLE…
    HE IS SOMEHOW , in a mysterious way…
    make the student… UNLOCK HIS or herself…
    he helps YOU mirror yourself… urges you to
    FACE YOURSELF… UNLOCK YOURSELF…
    he is able to help
    ANY GREAT PHOTOG,… to literally come “out of the closet”..
    THE PHOTOGRAPHING “CLOSET”,
    that we all locked in from times to times..

    DAVID holds your spare key to unlock yourself in case you lost
    your KEY…

    Socrates ( the philosopher ),
    is the closest person i know to DAH that is able TO DO THAT…
    to unlock and teach ,
    to help and promote…

    all my respect to DAVID… the master of all masters….

    honestly, i witnessed some amazing transformations last week…
    STUDENTS , pros, ALL…
    if you want to hear my views in person…
    call me 310 425 9298…
    i will explain in depth what i saw….
    ( not talking about magical solutions… im talking about
    the method that Socrates used… DAH never argues just to
    convince you… no, no, nope…)
    he just trying to help you find your own Venice… not to force
    you be anyone else… not to copy him or Paul Fusco …
    no … FIND YOURSELF… if you really wanna copy someone…
    then copy yourself….

    peace..

  63. Oh God… I just came back from a delicious weekend that started on the 3rd with the opening of one colective exhibition where I exhibited one photo. And even if I had a fantastic time, a wonderful company and the best atmosphere, I thought of DAH’s fiesta and you all and mentioned it to some people. Now I’m still full of the good vibes of my opening and weekend after, but coming here and reading all of you (specialy Patricia’s sensibility) and seeing the pictures makes me feel even better! I wish I had been there too but I really feel like in a way, I was, as I feel so close to the excitement and words you all are writing.

    I’m very proud to be part of this community.

    Keep it up!!

    Peace and much Love!

    Ana

  64. AKAKY: I wonder why they lurk.

    AKAKY IRL: You wonder why who lurks?

    AKAKY: The lurkers at the DAH blog.

    AKAKY IRL: Christ, are we back to this damn party again? It’s over, you couldn’t go, period, end of story. Give me a break about it, okay?

    AKAKY: Stop thinking about yourself all the time. I’m just wondering why the lurkers lurk, that’s all. They must have something to say, so why don’t they say it?

    AKAKY IRL: Who says they have to have something to say? You have nothing to say and you spend hours saying the nothing you don’t have to say all the time, as far as I can tell. Maybe they’re sitting in front of their computers in their underwear and they’re embarrassed someone will notice.

    AKAKY: How would anyone know that they’re in their shorts?

    AKAKY IRL: People do strange things, bubba. In Japan, people will actually bow to people while they are talking to them on the telephone. And who sees that? People will do very odd things if you give them half a chance.

    AKAKY: I think you’re stretching the possibilities there, guy.

    AKAKY IRL: I know, but it’s a possibility. It ain’t likely, not by a long shot, but it’s a possibility.

    AKAKY: Anything’s a possibility.

    AKAKY IRL: Suit yourself. It’s just my opinion.

    AKAKY: Still, I wonder why they lurk.

    AKAKY IRL: Could be vampires.

    AKAKY: That’s about as likely as them being in their underwear at this time of day.
    AKAKY IRL: Who says it’s this time of day everywhere in the blogosphere? If you’re in Australia, you’re 12 hours ahead of us. If it’s 1:44 pm here then it’s the middle of the night there. Consequently, they could conceivably be in their underwear as they lurk.

    AKAKY: Why are you going on about underwear today?

    AKAKY IRL: I’m still trying to figure out what kind of knucklehead would actually put a button on the flap of a man’s boxer shorts. If I gotta go, I gotta go, and I don’t want to spend any amount of time whatsoever undoing a button. I damn near had a disaster because there’s a button on my boxers.

    AKAKY: Too much information, dude.

    AKAKY IRL: Sorry.

    AKAKY: Anyway, I still wonder why they sit there lurking.

    AKAKY IRL: Maybe they’re perverts.

    AKAKY: Could be.

  65. PANOS

    You, my beloved brother, are a wise WISE man. To see what you saw David do with his students & colleagues and compare his method to Socrates is inspired. All I can say is, YES!!!

    ALL

    What David wrote this morning about the reason behind, and the MOST important part of that magnificent weekend in Brooklyn, being the workshop was borne out by my personal experience of it all. Yes, it was glorious to meet my sister and brother bloggers in person and the opportunities I had for heart-to-heart talks with a few of you were priceless. And yes, the party was a real experience, one I haven’t seen the likes of in many many decades, if ever. And yes, seeing and hearing Paul and Alessandra present their work was a truly powerful experience.

    But what I will never forget, what made that LONG LONG drive more than worth it, was seeing the workshop participants’ essays on Friday night and then being privileged to sit in on the final day of their workshop on Saturday. It was those seven hours on Saturday that stretched, educated, touched and moved me forward on my own photographic path. I will be assimilating what I learned there for a long time to come.

    I now know THAT was why I somehow knew in my gut that I had to be in Brooklyn last weekend, even though it made NO SENSE AT ALL to drive 25 hours to be there for only 60 hours…not to mention having to pay big bucks for a hotel with a wheelchair accessible room.

    Today I am working on my photos from Saturday, my workshop day. They are my favorite of all. You’ll see what I mean later on. That was when my heart was most open and, for me, that is the key to making fine photos. Besides, the light was a hell of a lot better in David’s loft during the day than it had been the night before ;=)

    Today is my workout-at the-gym and swim laps-at-the middle school day, but other than that, I’m working steadily. Hopefully I’ll have a new gallery to show you by tonight.

    love
    Patricia

  66. Well David, don’t let my photos come across as a complete ringing endorsement. If elected, the honeymoon is going to be pretty short with the American public if corporate taxes keep businesses from returning, and as a result unemployment and a recession are sustained.

    However, he is a pretty nice guy, quite photogenic, and I’d never pass up the opportunity to create historic documents!

  67. .. There is a whole list of countries
    left out.. There is a whole list of
    countries that republicans forgot to
    attack and enslave..
    ALL, please vote for the bush family
    again.. They didn’t have enough time
    to finish their god approved “plans”..
    VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS..
    More babies are waiting to be killed
    all over the world..
    Peace
    ( yeah right)..
    The peace word is not included in the
    new White trashy republican dictionary
    anymore..
    Akaky….
    Is there a word like PEACE in your
    vocabulary????
    ;-(((

  68. Go Republicans, please
    They promised they are sending
    Eos mark III’s to the
    ABU GHRAIB guards ..
    so we can see their broomstick
    affection to their prisoners in a higher
    REZ..
    Patricia.. No I’m definitely not a WISE
    MAN..
    I never liked wise men..
    I’ll go with BUDDHA or 2PAC
    anyday.. That’s not wise..
    That’s suicide..

  69. for ALL…

    (and all politicians as well:)))

    i tried something for “birgit”… found music and edited a slideshow to it

    plus a bunch of new images from last & this weekend (towards the end)

    6 minutes. made it for no other reason than for all you here, for all the support and feedback.

    take some time to relax… have a glass of wine, sit back and enjoy :)))

    http://sugar.antonkusters.com/sugar.htm

    ps i have no experience whatsoever in creating sound-synched-slideshows. this is the only way i know. please have patience it’s 80mb…

    anton

  70. Hi to everybody, be back to work and to “normal Life” in Italy. It’s been a really really pleasure taking part again to DAH workshop, as I was expecting me it gaves me much more seeds in my mind to make grow.
    We had great opportunity to met importat photographer and editor.
    The party was marvelous as usually and expecially meeting people from the blog both already met in Cville and never met before.

    Now I reall want to share my new project with you to help me improving myself.

    PANOS:
    great pleasure meeting you again, send me your email so i send the pictures I toke of you and you need.

    DAVID:
    I’m looking forward to see the slideshow in your website..

    LANCE:
    pleasure talking with you after got in touch trough email before..

    PATRICIA:
    nice to met you, I was the guy who took the picture of you talking with Kyunghee.

    bye for now… DAH your really made me to love Photography more and more…

  71. Anton..
    I’m on the iPhone
    Can’t see brigit now…
    Not ignoring you..

    Akaky
    Not attacking you or DavidMcG..
    Nothing personal here..
    Just … It’s just .. I have a hard time
    to understand how to forget what
    “they” did in our country and the rest
    of the world the last 10 years..

    Hey, you internationals, lurkers or readers
    out there..
    Does anyone feel me out there????

    Bob Dylan’s “MASTERS OF WAR”???
    anyone?

    Peace( yeah right)

  72. panos my man

    yes i feel you… but you know that already… they told me i’m a strict egalitarian, remember?

    :))))

    all

    damn i notice i forgot the “streaming” option in the movie… uploading it again as we speak… it’ll be ok in a minute… sorry… hang on almost there….

    a

  73. ANA – congratulations on your exhibit!! sounds like you had a great vibe of a weekend too!!

    AKAKY – i love your posts – they are hysterical!!

    PANOS – man you nailed it! David does UNLOCK us. you friggin’ nailed it.

    LOREDO – man, i am so embarrased. i knew you looked familiar and we did kiss hello – but i could not figure out how. i forgot you stayed one night in the Festival flop house at LOOK. I am sorry i did not put it together until NOW!

    SAM – welcome. i really enjoy your project. there are some VERY strong images in there (only a few i would edit our). I like your audio and sequencing as well. I would like to write more about your crossroads in life – but am running short on time. but i always think you can “find your venice” whether it’s in your home, backyard or on the open road. yes, you may have to make sacrifices, but you should not have to give up your passion all together. welcome to the blog and would love to see future work.

  74. I’m new to this web community so I hope you don’t mind me leaving a comment.

    I was a student in David’s workshop last week. My head is still spinning. DAH is an amazing teacher. He’s also a brilliant, crazy, complex, alive person. It’s all right there when you look at his work.

    In truth though, I learned just as much from my fellow students. It was fascinating to see them look at the same things I was and get something completely different out of it.

    I left the party early friday night and miss class Saturday because I had to get back to DC for a job. The bills don’t go away when I do. I’m really sorry that I didn’t get to meet any of you at the party. It’s funny during the week, I asked DAH what Bob Black was like. BobB I have seen your frequent posts on lightstalkers and even emailed a couple times, and then noticed a couple comments you’ve made here and I was curious to meet you. I like your photography but I like your writing even more. Erica, i’ve also seen your work over at lightstalkers and it would have been fun to meet you. Next time.

    peace to everyone and don’t forget to vote in a few weeks.

  75. PATRICIA
    Wow! I took all those pictures? Who knew? Thanks for posting them.

    In photography, I frequently marvel at the sequence of events, the tides of history and culture, the simple fortune, and the sheer randomness and absurdity that conspire to bring people together in a single frame. That there can be a photo of Patricia and Ruckus is simply amazing:

    http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/104154486

    All thanks to DAH!

  76. ALL.

    Barack Obama in Espanola, New Mexico. Taken a few weeks ago. Nothing “serious”…just to get you in the mood.

    In honor of tonight’s upcoming debate and that fact that it’s getting political around here…I am adding my contribution.
    These ARE to be taken as an endorsement :))

    Unfortunately top and bottom of shots are not visible in this slideshow format. Any way I can fix that?

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/30716737@N08/sets/72157607836295661/show/

  77. Anton, really nice, and I have to take back a bit what I said about light/color to you before. Yours do carry emotion from themselves.

    I just keep her condition as footnote, not to be ignored, but somehow, there is a melancholy watching it all, that comes from less and more than just feeling for her as a diabetic.

  78. Having been one of the Loft Workshop participants I feel I owe it to the Road Trip Bloggers, who were such sincere supporters of our (the 24 loft students) endeavors, and DAH to express my gratitude and thoughts. Also, as an individual not prone to writing, it is cathartic to occasionally force (which is how it feels for me) things on “paper”. I also have a little Ben Webster and red wine to ease me in…

    (Apologies in advance for typos and poor grammar. My mind moves too fast.)

    So many have described DAH accurately…passionate, generous, committed, caring…and a rockstar. Yes, he can party like a rock star, putting this 34 year old to shame, but that isn’t what we all love and admire? It is the energy he puts into others and his genuine interest to help us succeed and I don’t mean that in the “American-way” of thinking—money, notoriety, influence, etc—I mean that he wants us to reach inside and examine ourselves and find a way to use ourselves, our uniqueness—strengths, weaknesses, desires, experiences, perceptions—in our photography. This creates not only authorship, but also authenticity and passion in our work. David made himself truly available to us, both emotionally and physically, and this was so important as we were venturing down this very personal and intense path.

    What is most important for me to express, both so that I have it to reference in the future and to share now, is the true value of the worskshop for me personally. For me it was more about the process than the end result (the slideshow). There was so much to learn from what I didn’t do or how I felt along the way. I learned so much from the other students, their work, attitudes/perspectives and their experiences.
    So the PROCESS, this is where it will get messy…

    I came into this workshop open to anything. Even if what could be deemed disaster were to strike, I knew I could learn from it and I believed it would be surmountable. I had faith in myself that I could handle whatever challenge arose. I knew that I would learn a lot about photography, but probably more about myself. I transferred this attitude from another experience earlier this summer. It was an experience that I didn’t cope with as well during the process, but at least I was able to learn from it in the end and I realized the value in that.

    I did have one expectation from the workshop. I wanted to create a beginning of a portfolio, something that felt like it had consistency and something I was proud of, something I could build on. For someone like myself, who sees so many things as interesting and possibilities, it is hard to stay focused—that was my first and biggest challenge. My “portfolio” (I didn’t have a portfolio, just a bunch of images) was all over the place. On the first day when we viewed each other’s work, David just whizzed through mine and said “we’ve got to talk, we have to get you focused.” I wasn’t surprised and I was in the right mental space not to take it personally. That was why I was there!

    So the first challenge…an idea for a project. Some of us had ideas; a couple folks had great ideas. So you have an idea, but then what… a) you need access, b) you have expectations c) you have to be able to make images that work and create a body of work.
    What if you didn’t have an idea…shit!!! That was me! Everyone had the opportunity of a one-on-one with David. So in 30 minutes of sitting in the loft looking across at Manhattan, within the first 5 hours of meting David, who sat in his wing chair (with the occasional obsessive mopping or dish doing), I was in tears divulging very personal things. This was the beginning of my week. I took what was shared in those minutes and I was off, with an idea…I was looking at a mirror. It was a start. I ended up somewhere else a bit different, but what path doesn’t lead you somewhere unexpected? There was still a lot of personal stuff going on with my project, it just felt different than I had expected.

    So access, access, access…there is so much to learn about access alone…persistence, approach, intention, time, connection, clarity, and finality. Access caused a lot of stress and challenged us in so many ways.
    Personally, I found myself having to observe/stalk, get the nerve up (and I am not a shy or inhibited person) and approach teenagers at parks, on the street, in stores and on the subway. How do you do this and not seem like a total freak? How do you explain your project coherently in a way that isn’t intimidating in 30-60 seconds? What are your motives? What kind of energy are you emanating? You make initial contact, but how do you take it further? What if you aren’t sure if what to pursue it, but don’t want to close the door either? Some of the answers to these questions seem obvious, but when you are out there with pressure, a deadline, not in your own environment, and with the expectation of bringing back 10 images the next day… you can stop thinking clearly. You lose your center and it all goes to shit. I kept a book that I wrote down my mistakes…for example….

    1) Don’t assume limitations once you have been given access. Ask up front if there is anything you can’t photograph.
    2) Get names and numbers/email. You may have stepped in a gold mine that won’t reveal itself immediately. This happened to me!
    3) Don’t be afraid to ask!!!!!

    Even once you have access, so much is going on in your head and has to happen. Now you have/get to make images… but then you have a whole new set of questions to answer…
    What I am trying to say? My own experiences color it, but I don’t want to judge I want to just be a quiet observer and let it develop. I want to be intentional with my photos, yet have a looseness to let it evolve. Why am I am being allowed into her life, what does she want from this, does she know? What does this project mean today and what could it mean years from now? Is this about one girl or a large social commentary? Am I being aware of my own personal feelings…sometimes I feel like the vulnerable teenager and she is this other force (not adult, not child). But, in the end she is a girl, a 14-year old girl…. As I continue to work with her, it gets more personal. It isn’t just about photography, it is about experiencing, witnessing, caring and feeling. It is both a beautiful and painful exploration. I know how my teenage years shaped me and still haunt me….This is just the tip of the iceberg. The thoughts contradict, confuse, and flow out of control, so this is all I could even distill. They just swirl in my head. I hope in time there is more clarity…..

    At times I have found myself being preoccupied by a profound sense of gratitude; I am so privileged to be witness to another’s private life. This girl trusts me and that is just an awesome experience in and of itself…pictures or no pictures. Many images I wanted to capture weren’t successful (or never happened) because my focus wasn’t there or I just didn’t feel right taking the picture, not yet. I am ok with all this, because it is part of the process and I am just happy to be where I am.

    I am also a relatively new photographer and I still struggle technically. This makes me feel nervous and not worthy to be there taking their photos. I had to deal with my insecurities. Shooting digital people expect to see the images immediately, so if you didn’t get it, it is embarrassing. I hate this about our culture; I am so prone to wanting immediate gratification too. We don’t have time to sort shit out….

    Now it is tea, bacon and the Kikujiro soundtrack that keep me here…

    Then there is editing…well we all struggle with this. Watching DAH do it, it all makes sense even when it hurts. This is another place where checking your ego at the door helps you to be open. It is bummer if an image doesn’t make the cut, but if you take in the reasons as to why you will be more likely not to f**** up in the future, so what is so bad about that, right? David just wants to take you to the next level. It seems like for those photographers that are already somewhat accomplished this pressure from David can be very difficult, but he does it because he wants you to be better and knows what it takes. He expects a lot from you, which is good! But you are so wrapped up in wanting to kick ass that you can’t see that from where you are, so it just seems hard and painful.

    So basically in a week…You meet and become intimate with 11 others…you share your deepest fears and expose your soul…you need to find a project that resonates with you for some reason or another…that project has to be feasible… you have to get access or find the subject/environment…you may have to travel hours each day by subway or foot carrying all your shit on like 4 hours sleep (if you are lucky)…you have to shoot in a focused way and shoot (a lot)…you have to do a nightly edit…you have to get to David’s by 9 (or so) each morning… you have to have enough work that can be edited into a tight body of work by Friday am…you have to survive your edits and learn from them… you want to be present (physically and mentally) for the lectures but at the same time you want to be out shooting…you want to smoke out of the corn cob pipe (a lot) and still be conversant… you have to think about the final presentation (theme, music, title…you want all your work to make sense…to hit hard….you have to get it together)…you want to party…you want to know what the hell is going to happen next in your photographic life, maybe in your life, period!!!!!!!

    Then there is how you cope with all these things and we all do that so differently. In our own time and in our own way—we are unique in this way too! I wish we had a group photo of each morning, of each day…to see the stress, the pain, the anxiety, the frustration, the exhaustion, the excitement…and then the relief and hangover.

    I am missing so much, the list goes on… Some of us, actually all of us, are so hard on ourselves and want so much to take it to the next level, whatever that is, that our own desires/expectations can hinder us. We have to learn how to balance this, so that our drive ignites us, not paralyzes us. Learning to accept where you are in life, but simultaneously staying committed to progressing is so valuable, it can beat the hell out of a jaw-dropping picture in my opinion. I also believe that the better we get at accepting and understanding ourselves, the better our photos can become. We all expected and wanted so much out of the week with David. We invested so much time, energy, and hope. But, look at all we learned and got!!!! I really believe that. I don’t think we got it all, some more that others, but isn’t that life? Even two weeks after our workshop we don’t know everything that will have come from working with David and each other. It will continue to reveal itself.

    Now I turn it up a bit, Architecture in Helsinki, still drinking tea. I love tea and its pot.

    One thing I am really grateful for is the emails and phone conversations that I have had in the past week with some of the other students from the workshop. Conversations of encouragement, fear, vulnerability, rehashing, game plans, and brainstorming—“coming down” from this workshop is a ride in its own, it is good to have each other for that and for the future.

    I know that all you from the blog can relate, because that is what you have created here. I think what we developed in our workshop is some of what you have done via the blog. It was fun to witness the reunion of all of you that have invested so much in this blog (and into each other) at DAH’s loft for the Friday night slideshow party. I can only begin to imagine the excitement in being able to have intimate conversations in person, to embrace each other and let the energy (and alcohol) flow.

    So this is my entry and exit. I will go back to reading and I thank you for letting me learn through you and I appreciate all your online encouragement while we were going through this life changing week.

    David thanks again…over and over.

    Holy shit, I have butterflies, I breathe…

  79. david alan harvey

    AKAKY…

    if i ever get any money, i am going to pay you for this stuff…terrific!!

  80. Hey Cathy, thanks for the obamanade, but I think you should be a bit more careful about the dirt spots showing on your pictures (against the blue sky, a killer, very sloppy…).

  81. HERVE.

    I wanted any dirt to be there…to set the mood! :))

    The Obama photos are for FUN. Not meant to be taken seriously!
    Thanks a lot for looking and glad you are taking the time to comment but as Patricia said when she posted her party photos…this isn’t meant to be art.

    It really strikes me as strange that others post snapshots here and get rave reviews and I do the same and get critiqued. Am I being held to a higher standard? If so, I don’t mind AT ALL…just wondering.

  82. david alan harvey

    ALL….

    i cannot help but be flattered by so many positive comments from my students..that is always surely my goal: to have everyone leave my workshop week knowing full well that it is more than just the week..it is the base of a whole new way of thinking, living, photographing…and all of my students are students for life…i mentor all for as long as they so desire…so, thanks to all of you for writing such positive thoughts about my relationship with you…

    HOWEVER, please all of you must know that i am also quite a disaster in many things…my tax returns are late, my filing system is a nightmare, i have never known how i was going to make a living from one month to the next, i have an out of control camera bag fetish (i own probably more than 100 bags all quite similar), i have a very short temper when there are computer glitches, i do not know how to cook, i rarely take the subway in new york, i rarely know what day of the week it is and i really have to stop and think when writing in the year when i sign a book or check, i guess at my bank balance, i do not close doors, my shirts are always wrinkled, i really have to stop and think the ages of my sons, i really have to stop and think when asked how old i am, i have no sense of dressing style for myself, i only have one suit and i do not know where it is, i only have one pair of dress shoes and i do not know where they are, i do not know how much anything costs, i do not care how much anything costs, i cannot afford to not know the previous two items, i can never find my reading glasses, i can never find my sunglasses, my socks rarely match, i just learned how to copy and paste last month, i never have a business card to give anyone and give out my e-mail on napkins most often, etc etc etc…

    so to my students , thanks for the compliments, but be sure to keep things in perspective!!!

    humbly, david

  83. BOB, ERICA, GINA, CORI, PANOS,

    Thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts and feelings from the past week-end and in the case of Cori from the overall workshop experience…. Cori, Bob your posts were so personal, feeling so true, so REAL… I am not at home, actually traveling away on business for the past week but came across a computer in the hotel lobby where I am staying and I could not get way from the computer after starting to read the reports… You all left me in deep personal thoughts…I wish I had been there with all of you to share these very personal moments. My spirit has certainly been with all of you and I am happy for you all to have lived that very special moment…. I hope that we will have many more of these as a group in a near future and that this will be the catalyst for us all to take our friendship and our work to the next level….the image of DAH unlocking us all is so spot on Panos!

    Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all for what is certainly the most moving thread we have had on the blog for long time.

    CORI, please do not exit!!!!! You have a lot to bring to this place and I hope that you continue to share with us your struggles, your aspirations and hopefully let us be companions of your photographic journey…Somehow, it is such a great feeling that we are not alone here on our paths, that we can exchange, share, grow as a group…

    Will leave for now…back at home next Thursday and will spend some quality time re-reading all the reports…

    Cheers,

    Eric

  84. HERVE…

    And yes, in general I do agree with you about showing images that look their best. I just did not think it was necessary to photoshop my snapshots.

    But maybe it is…?

  85. Ok, David, but I wonder if any of your so called shortcomings actually matter when you have a body of work like you you do (I was just going through the Magnum archive and looking at your photos from 1975 onwards)?! In fact, I imagine that your particular way of being contributes to your making great photos. I am obsessive and and organized and I always must work on relaxing. I would see it as a blessing to be the way you are.

  86. David,

    that was a great post, i started to smile as I read and then some chuckles… and a bigger smile… Brilliant!
    and thanks for reading ‘my story’, I will stay on your case…

    peace

    Sam

  87. KIM REIERSON,
    Love the Eighteen work! Really shows how important a genuine and deep interest for something is when working on a project. This is really going to inspire me.
    Not caring what other people will think about what your work will be about is important. The interest and knowledge about your subject will shine through.

    Cheers

    ANTON,
    Had a look at your slideshow and I will say what I said last time. This really has potential, but you need to edit! I liked the way you did the slideshow. The music and the transitions are good, but there was too many images and it was way too long. There’s shots I don’t understand why you include when they are not very good and you really don’t have anything to fill out. The length of the slideshow could have been 2-3 minutes instead.
    I just saw an essay by Erwitt at Magnum with shots from 50’s and 60’s and it was under four minutes and Erwitt would probably have images and funny stories for a week long slideshow.

    DAVID,
    Man, you need a bag sponsor! Don’t understand why you get so many though :) You know that LV makes custom bags, right? ;)

  88. GINA

    thanks for your comments. more (details…) are welcome.

    I have been shooting on & off at home and around. As you might have noticed from my Travelogue edit my personal life overlaps into my photography. But lately i’ve found it hard to ‘see’, i’m always late, chasing the day. My camera gets left behind in the cupboard etc.

    Maybe I should try and do an edit of stuff since ‘the change’…
    now you’ve got me thinking… hmm
    not sure what i’ve got that’s decent but i should look. most stuff is of the girls ‘just for grandma’.

    thanks, you’ve got me thinking

    Sam

  89. First and Foremost-
    DAVID BOWEN
    Congratulations! I understand your selective sneak previews, but anxiously awaiting pictures of your new papadom. So exciting to hear the trials, tribulations and joy of your nappy training.

    I think you’ve heard the tales and stories,
    but i just want to add that I am so impressed, proud, humbled, and invigorated by this week’s workshop participants. There was magic created. I am moved thinking of the dark room, plastic sheets on the windows building a cocoon for us all, the heat of so many people watching the images flow by, the stories weave or unravel stories that people really fought for. I will reserve more details for after you’ve all seen the slideshow (I hope it’s soon!!),
    but thank you to all of the students (and Paul Fusco and my personal hero Alessandra Sanguinetti), I will carry that moment with me forever.

    And you must all know, that you were there whether you wanted to be or not! There was much much much talk of the blog, and all of the characters (hidden and visible) who haunt this place…

    I missed the Saturday night festivities, but I was lucky to spend Sunday evening with 5 handsome men, remembering, philosophizing on, and consuming the leftovers from Friday and Saturday! (David-You may have a photo bag problem, but the friendly bag was a good choice!) But more importantly, what we realized on Sunday, is this isn’t a blog anymore, It’s a way of life!! Don’t think me crazy…
    The friends, insights, and passion I’ve gained from here have certainly not left me the same as I was before….

  90. Cathy, Your point is quite right (and I was wrong). Why not?

    On the other hand, i do not think too many of us want to show a slideshow of snapshots (though to be fair, see I did not criticize your images) we judge as “just snapshots”. I actually think your shots were not snaps, the angle, the choice of POV are too creative.

    So maybe, my new point is to be careful when we show something lest it’d be taken seriously (and many want us to look seriously at their work). I am talking about essay type, or event coverage, not a single shot.

    Remember David telling us about the blog being read by more than a few professionals.

    Maybe it’s better to only show stuff we can vouch for, “sign under” if you will(talking of multiple images essays), and IMO, I also think that everything we shoot says something about what stage we are in our photo-taking. The snapshot-er, the more telling, maybe!

    Though, at this point, for anyone of us, I doubt that we’d go out anywhere, hang an afternoon, check a big event (and by Gosh, with/for OBAMA!) to take “just snapshots”.

  91. “…Though, at this point, for anyone of us, I doubt that we’d go out anywhere, hang an afternoon, check a big event (and by Gosh, with/for OBAMA!) to take “just snapshots”.

    Herve…!
    True…!

  92. Cathy ,
    :-)
    nice Obama photos…

    … but Herve is right though….
    why just “snapshots”…?
    when is the “right time” to do the “other” ???? , the
    “great” photos…?
    why just “snapshots”???, for “anything”…?
    why not always “Great” for “anything & everything” ?????????

    peace

    again, nice photos..

  93. HERVE and PANOS…

    It seems Panos likes my “snapshots” better than my “serious” images. :)) Maybe because these are looser?

    Good points both of you…It’s not that I didn’t want to make “great” photos…I didn’t go to the rally with the intention of taking snapshots…

    Now you’ve got me thinking…what is a snapshot and what is not?

    I’m defining many of these images as snapshots because in the crowd shots where Obama is shaking hands (for example) I am holding the camera above my head and shooting…not composing at all. Not even seeing what I am shooting. So it’s difficult for me to “take credit” artistically for this. In other shots I was stuck in the crowd and took the only possible shot I could take…again, not feeling like I had much choice to be creative. Doesn’t mean they arent nice shots.. I thought of this as something to do for fun to pass the time.

    Hmmm…Like the shots everyone is taking at the loft parties… Can’t they just be for fun? Does everything have to lead to a book or long term project? Panos, you of all people should understand doing something for fun, no???

    Obamanade again…
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/30716737@N08/sets/72157607836295661/show/

  94. david alan harvey

    CATHY…

    your “just for fun” Obama shoot is one of your best..it looked like you were seriously hustling and getting in there….

    if you cut it down to just 1,4,5,7,8,10,15 .. i think it would look complete and a nice afternoon of work…see what it looks like to you in this rough edit form..i do not think you will “miss” the others when you look at this tighter edit..try it anyway to see how it looks..

    i just saw Barack in his duel with John…they are both good men actually…but my fingers crossed for Barack..

    good shoot Cathy…

    cheers, david

  95. CATHY SAID:
    “…It seems Panos likes my “snapshots” better than my “serious” images. :)) Maybe because these are looser?…”

    DAVID SAID:
    “…CATHY…

    your “just for fun” Obama shoot is one of your best..it looked like you were seriously hustling and getting in there….”

    peace

  96. What a love in:)

    I was in Jinju for my sister in law’s wedding and just came back and what a sugary thread:)
    I realized I suck as an event photographer though:) My wedding shots are useless. The wedding was one event I went to, the other was a lantern festival…I realized I have no idea how to shoot a lantern photo in any remotley interesting or compelling way:) LOL

    One thing I did do was shoot this little set of photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinju/sets/72157607762150085/show/ Basically people fleeing from the crowds of the festival into the surrounding trees. No lanterns.

  97. a quck one as i’m rushing off to work…

    HERVE

    you noticed! i did do quite a lot of work on the color of the images since last time… having prints made now to see how they hold up ‘on paper’…

    hey MARTIN

    i understand what you mean… but no worries, i never intended to do a tight edit, i just felt this music was appropriate, marked the ‘beat’, counted the marks and then chose that number of images… the song was 6 minutes… if i’d do a ‘real’ one i’d indeed limit to 25-30 max (and not choose the music first i guess)

    out of curiosity… i’d love to ‘pick your brain’ as to what you think are ‘best’ vs. ‘worst’ in this series… i’ve looked at them so many times that i don’t always ‘see’ that anymore…

    CATHY

    love your images too…

    running to work,
    anton

  98. DAVID,

    Opened the Air France magazine on the plane and … there you were!

    Very nice 38-page spread on Magnum photographers to celebrate the airline’s anniversary and much work I had never seen before from … Bruce Davidson, DAH, HCB, Pinkhassov, Bischof, and Steele-Perkins.

    … And by the way, loved a “summer shower in Central Park” …

    cheers, tom

  99. GINA,

    Thank youuu! The exhibit was great and a lot of fun and the vibes of the weekend remain still around. So it is just wonderful to read and feel all the vibes coming from your side at David’s end of the workshop and fiesta.

    Yes, yes, yes!

    DAH,

    That’s how you are, special and human. That’s why we love you!!! Please, never change ;-)

    Besos

    Ana

  100. ANTON,
    OOH, very hard to say and very hard to choose from the slideshow. Which do you think are the best?
    I think there’s a bit to much blurry pics without no real content. Just because there’s blur doesn’t make them artistical, emotional or anything else. They are not like Bob’s pics for example so edit those blurry shots a lot and include sme of them if there’s any real content or if some of them are good images.
    I like that it all doesn’t revolve around her sickness, but sometimes I get the feeling it’s too far off, for example some of the blurry pics or some of the shots of other family members. Think you got to decide what YOU want to tell.
    But you have the pictures. Just edit! :)
    Just my point. Others will probably feel the opposite..

    Cheers,

    Martin

  101. Cori, thank’s a lot for the sharing, I can’t wait to see your work and hope you will stay with us on the forum

    yesterday, I met, Jean, a nice guy, a newbie of vice forum…

    To photographers and photo admirers, don’t hesitate to express youself and share your work

    have a nice day
    audrey

    ps: I’m learning English!!

  102. DAH:

    I’m glad I’m not the only one living such a muddled life!

    I’m currently editing and writing for the book – I have scribbled note books and boxes of slides piled up around me. But I know where everything is. Sort of anyway!

    It sounds like a good time was had by all last week. Hopefully I’ll be able to make one of these gatherings sometime.

    Good luck on the road with your families.

    ERICA:

    You were too easy on Panos!

    PANOS:

    You were sounding just a bit too loose my friend! I was pleased to to read that you were heading to the hills when you arrived back in LA. You’ve got (or had?) an interesting woman there.

    BOB:

    I took a look at Bones on flickr a week or two ago (not sure what link I followed); you have some special photographs there for sure. I wanted to offer some suggestions on what to take out, but I just don’t have the time right now, perhaps I never well. But I’m doing my best to follow what you’re up to and enjoying it.

    Best to all,

    Justin

  103. As Audrey said, we met yesterday for a coffee, it was great!!! We speak of the blog, of you, your projects etc…pleased to meet you Audrey!!!

    HERVE
    Quelle bouteille avec Coluche??? ;-)

    SAM
    thanks for sharing your story. Good luck. I hope you’ll find your path.

    CORI
    Huge thanks for your description of the workshop ;-)
    why do you leave the blog???

  104. DAH

    had me laughing..
    at least you know that the time is NOW>

    and so..
    my life..
    thanks all again.. and for new comments.. so kind..
    my life goes like this.. baby wakes, baby feeds, baby burps, baby shits, baby sleeps.. (ad nauseum)

    fantastic.
    he does not cry.. yet.

    nearly there with photo.. but where does the project end..? it started with a pregnancy test.. ended.. erm.. it’s not ending..
    and so..
    the short cut.. will be ..
    start of labour and journey to hospital .. to end with journey home.. a baby on the bed where once beate was collapsed in agony,.,.

    it’s all there/.
    it is on the way..
    just got to give him one more cuddle before i can look again.. but then.. oh my.. something new is happening… where is my camera? clickclickclick..

    love you all.. patricia you are the grandparent i never had, and so of course you will be Tors also..

    jeeze.. i used to have a lot of free-time..

  105. For those who don’t care one way or the other…

    I am not the taco. This is always a good thing to know, of course, and it would have taken a great load off my mind had this been the sort of thing I spend a lot of time worrying about, but since it isn’t, it really didn’t make much of a difference one way or the other to me. Still, it’s always nice to know. I have to admit that I hadn’t realized that my being or not being the taco was in any way an issue until I went to lunch the other day. There’s nothing like processed meat to bring up this sort of conundrum, as well a good healthy burst of domestic natural gas untouched by the malignant touch of greedy oil companies.

    In any case, off I went on that day of discovery from the egregious mold pit wherein I labor for the biblical mite, a not nearly as interesting a bug as the praying mantis, Gregor Samsa, or the crazy guy who comes in here every day wanting to know what the last thing on the computer is, but one merchants across the length and breadth of this our Great Republic are more likely to accept in their establishments than the hoarse fly, the shagged fly, and the open fly, unless, of course, you’re running that type of establishment, down [yes, this is the main verb; my apologies for the delay in getting to it—I left it on the kitchen table next to the car keys this morning and I had to go back inside for them both] the street to the Gnocchi Deli, there to consume an Italian Combo, which is not, despite the obviously misleading name, three guys from Aci Castello with second hand instruments interested in playing the greatest hits of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie with more or less (mostly less) no degree of skill, but a definitely non-kosher sandwich made from various and sundry Italian cold cuts made in Iowa by illegal aliens from Oaxaca.

    It was a busy day at the deli; I am usually in the tail end of the lunchtime crowd, but that day the gods of lunchmeat and chronology were not kind to me, and so I was just one more body in a packed mass of bodies craving high sodium and fat. To add to the confusion, the new girl behind the counter had not, as most new people have not, fully mastered the intricacies of operating a cash register. But she was game, no two ways about it. She was all hustle and bustle, cheerfully scurrying this way and that way in precisely the way that someone who knows what they are doing does not. [Yes, I am paraphrasing D.N.A., for those of you who noticed.] I did not give her my order—I figured I’d cut the kid some slack—so I gave my order to Billy Gnocchi, the owner’s son, and while he made the sandwich we did what baseball fans in this neck of the woods do at this time of the year: argue about whether the Red Sox in their current incarnation are the actual spawn of Satan or merely a small and not terribly important subset of the mentally and venereally diseased slave army of the Anti-Christ. After he finished piling slabs of faux Italianate lunchmeat on a roll, Billy wrapped the sandwich up in some paper and left it by the cash register for her to ring up. And it was there, by the cash register, in the bright light of an October noon, that the new girl posed the existential question.

    She was confused, as well she might be, for I strongly suspect that she lied through her teeth on her application about having any experience in food service in general or in the cut-throat, dog eat dog world of retail sandwich making in particular, and because she was confused, she was well on her way to becoming flustered as well. This is always a bad sign. It became very clear to me very quickly that the only experience this young woman had with cash registers was in rifling the contents thereof during armed robberies, a skill useful, perhaps, for those happy few who choose a career in professional lawbreaking or Democratic politics, but one not entirely germane to her current circumstances. As she tried to figure out what to do next, her conversation yes I said I will yes became a Joycean stream of consciousness that flowed riverrun out of her mouth while Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the internal organs of beasts and fowls without any editing at all from her now allegedly conscious mind and a very good moocow it was too and pooled on the floor about her feet in brightly colored patterns of toxic flop sweat that positively shouted Parnell Parnell my vanquished king upon all the living and the dead. Finally, at the height of her confusion, crushed between the Scylla of orders and the Charybdis of making change, she asked me, “Are you the taco?” To which query Billy Gnocchi hollered from the other end of the deli, “No, he’s the combo.”

    No, I am not the taco, but this does not mean that I, or any other human being, for that matter, can, in light of the tanking economy, avoid the question for very long. For who is and who is not the taco is ultimately a philosophical question, perhaps one of the great philosophical questions of our time, along with what is the meaning of life, how to be just in an unjust world, and why is an old guy like Hugh Hefner getting all the hot babes? The question of who is the taco is not an easy one to ask or to answer, which renders it unpopular in our glib era, where what we want from philosophy is a thirty-second sound bite that explains all of creation and has a snappy punch line too.

    It was not always thus, however. Heraclitus, the greatest of the pre-Socratic philosophers, held that war and tacos were the father of us all, a position many Greeks of his time shared. Centuries later, Diogenes the Cynic held that Heraclitus was a dope and a dolt whose position on tacos would only make sense to a Theban, a noticeably not bright group of people much given to marrying their mothers and walling their daughters up in the rec room in order to avoid paying for a prom dress. Socrates himself had no position on tacos other than Xanthippe, whom he loathed, and Plato found the matter uninteresting to the nth degree. Archimedes the Syracusan, on the other hand, proved mathematically that the best way to eat a taco was while wearing a green t-shirt and boxer shorts, and Thucydides devotes a chapter of The Peloponnesian War to the Athenian attack on the polis of Burpus in upper Attica, which the Athenians did in order to get control of the taco traffic in central Greece.

    But none of this mostly unnecessary verbiage really addresses the central issue: who is the taco? What is the role of the taco in modern life, and how can I fulfill my taco destiny, assuming that I even have a taco destiny? Is there a life after tacos and if there is, how can I achieve this life, and will I have to supply my own Rolaids once I achieve this life? Will the professional doubters like Christopher Hitchens undermine our society’s deepest held beliefs in the efficacy of ordering tacos? Difficult questions, all of them, and I see no desire among today’s young people to even spend the slightest amount of time considering them. We must, I fear, wait for a more reflective age than this one before we can even begin to think deeply about the question. It will be a long wait, I think.

  106. BOB and all who reported on the celebration: thanks for the reports you bring it alive.

    PATRICIA, thanks for posting the captioned photographs – now we can put faces to names!

    DAH – please check out Joe Wigfall on YouTube – he lives in NYC and has just won a street shots challenge competition. What he says about making photography primarily for himself strikes a chord with me and no-doubt will with you. Please, invite him to your loft! Apologies for using your blog to contact you but I’m not sure how / where to send you a personal message: that and you probably get enough already.

    Best,

    Mike R.

  107. AKAKY

    “…in our glib era, where what we want from philosophy is a thirty-second sound bite that explains all of creation and has a snappy punch line too…”

    Thirty-second sound bite? Are you kidding? In this era of attention deficit disorder? After twelve seconds you have lost half your audience, and after 16 most of the rest, too lazy to change the channel, have forgotten what it was you were talking about.

  108. DAVID, PANOS, ANTON….okay HERVE too. :))

    Wow…this is very zen-like :))

    Your positive response to the Obama photos is definitely something for me to take note of, learn from. It seems when I go out and TRY to take good photos lately I have not been achieving my goal but when I went out to have a good time, without expectations, not so serious, you guys responded favorably to it.

    Maybe my seriousness or “intention” has been getting in the way? Panos suggested that I should always go out with the intention of making great photos but “trying” and “doing” are not the same…Hmmm maybe a faint light is coming on in the darkness…for a moment at least.

    As usual all of your comments are extremely helpful and appreciated.

  109. david alan harvey

    CATHY…

    well, as i said, it looked like you were TRYING (concentrating) as in the last frame when you were up close and shooting Obama..this is the good side of “trying”…but, you also “played” quite a bit with some loose compositions and gave us the feeling of “being there”..getting “in the zone” should be fun and at the same time you are never letting up….

    cheers, david

  110. DAVID:

    Sounds like you had another amazing workshop. Congratulations to you and your students. Can’t wait to see the work.

    I know you are still “coming down” from the week and are in recovery mode, but I just wanted to check and make sure you saw my email. There is no hurry, just wanted to make sure it didn’t get lost in the shuffle.

    Thanks in advance.

  111. DAVID.

    What can I say other than THANK YOU! One of these days I hope to make you proud :))

    I think SIDNEY cleared up your magic mushroom “accusation” question but here’s more info…It all started when PANOS wrote about the “traveling circus coming to a town near you” (your road trip) and I suggested expanding the road trip into a Magic Bus 60’s hippie experience…complete with psychedelic drugs and the works… a REAL trip…joking of course :))

    Evidently Sidney was “there” for the full 60’s experience and shared that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. That’s how our conversation started….Someday we will have to hear more about Sidney in the 60’s…Any photos Sidney?

    Don’t know if anyone has heard of photographer Lisa Law? I have her book Flashing on the Sixties…She recorded 60’s Hippie life in New Mexico…very cool.

  112. Maybe my seriousness or “intention” has been getting in the way? Panos suggested that I should always go out with the intention of making great photos but “trying” and “doing” are not the same…

    Cathy yes,
    … you see , when i go out “desperate” for the good photo..
    well… pressure…pressure…
    but, when im loose i get more than i even asked sometimes ( not all
    the times )… being too conscious doesnt work good in art i think…
    or it doesnt WORK AT ALL…

    but there is something else i wanna point out…
    ” light heart, looseness, openness, laughter, sense of humor,
    playfulness… thats what is required for a high end delivery..
    the “EMPTY” people usually say:
    “…lets sit down and talk about it seriously….”

    the “FULL” people disagree and say…
    “… lighten up , im not talking to you… you look to damn serious..
    you are acting DEEP BUT YOU ARE NOT….

    thats what i really meant…

    goodmorning y’all………….
    ( still trying to figure out about the ANCIENT GREEK TACO TRAFFICKING period….)
    loved it Akaky…. SENSE OF HUMOR…. you definitely got
    that down …. i cant wait to see that in your photos….;-)
    PERIOD

  113. …. in other words…
    yes , DO HAVE A SERIOUS INTENTION for your work…
    but once you are out there on the field…
    try to FORGET about any “INTENTIONS” or “SERIOUSNESS”…
    ;-)

  114. DAVID…

    Tax returns….Filing…..You don’t want to know. (quarterlies are sent, always…Easy part)

    Frankly I think we all succeed, advance, or simply go thru in life DESPITE…. And that “despite” does end up being a big part of the JOURNEY, our passage on earth.

    “What others find flawed about you, nurture it…It’s yourself” JEAN COCTEAU.

    Photography is also like this, no? It’s a “despite” craft, or art. Cathy, see, your Obamanade… Despite many being shot haphazard, david found something telling in it (Just like I told you!!!).

    Bob’s bones, Erica ‘s medium format essay and material mishaps, Panos driving 2 hours to Venice, so many Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moments, maybe all, were realized despite….

    One more: Capa’s WW2 Normandy landing, the mother of all photography despites? ;-)))

    I am sure, and he told us, that David has a story for many of his shots, how they came about (and maybe not like he thought them coming), and sure too that not a few of these images have a “despite…” in their story.

    As an art, just making the object itself, photography is the most adversarial of all, is what I mean.

    We have to embrace that, and never ever show an image to our peers, and say “it’s not that great, just a snap, to show you”, “just for fun”.

    After all, how many pictures, Cathy, have you taken, “not for fun”? If so, Those better help pay the rent! :-)))

  115. “What others find flawed about you, nurture it…It’s yourself” JEAN COCTEAU.”

    after this one , im done for the day..
    thanks HERVE… i woke up in a philosophical mood today…
    but after JEAN COCTEAU…
    im going back to washing dishes…
    ;-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

  116. Need to go, but about anton’s slideshow. The superfluous shots, IMO, are towards the end, with many “unblurred” breaking the spell of the pastel emotions (Anton, you made me proud of myself, I had not realized your workd that after last time, and that tells me my memory may fail me, but I am LOOKING, for Godsake!).

    I disagree that some “blurs” have nothing in them. Maybe, yes, but look at it from the POV of mood, emotions, conveyed, by shapes, light and color. That’s what our man Anton is about. Well, this year, at least!!!

    (Hald of my lovefest (no, not the loft party) shots,last saturday, are blurs, hip-shot, 1/2 a second with flash….THE FULL CATASTROPHE!. Fuck off, you new vision freaks, all this is not DAH blog, this is….THE EMPIRE. my brain has been abducted from the house of sharpness, zombied, for the sake of art and MOSTLY, poverty….Going out at night for blurred flesh……

    …..NIGHT OF THE LIVING DAH-ED!!!!!!!

  117. HERVE???

    “my brain has been abducted from the house of sharpness, zombied, for the sake of art and MOSTLY, poverty….Going out at night for blurred flesh……”

    Is this YOU talking? Or did I miss some earlier quote from Panos?

    Is there a link somewhere so we can see?

  118. i just returned home late last night.. and of course it’s catch up time when that happens. ‘catching up’ is without question the worst part of traveling.. when it’s all over.. back to ‘reality’… just makes me want to leave again is all. :)

    what can i say? you know, i used to be known as the guy who needs three reasons to make a decision.. there’s a story about that and what led me to originally meet DAVID four years ago in Mexico. but i’ll save that for now. this time around, to go to new york, the three reasons were BOB BLACK, DAVE KEENAN, and THE UNKNOWN. well of course there are always more reasons to go to new york, i mean it’s NEW YORK for crying out loud, filled with troves of unexpected treasures.

    on the long walk to the loft i picked up a bottle of one of my favorite tequilas, went in, up the stairs, wrong floor, back down, turn the corner, surprised DAVID in the hallway, big smiling bear hug, surprised MARIE, big hug, made her happy with tequila, the party had already started inside.. friends everywhere.. shoulder to shoulder.. there, over there, BOB and MARINA.. brotherly hugs.. even better than i’d thought.. MARINA is as beautiful as BOB BLACK prose.. and she’s brilliant and composed.. BOB gave me a marinablack.com button to wear.. how fucking cool is that? trust me, it’s cool. more brotherly hugs amongst the chaos. tequila people, sweet sweet tequila to share with my friends. (BONES… was one of the ‘unknown’ treasures.)

    you’ve heard so much already, so i’m going to jump to DAVE KEENAN right now. first of all, the student work overall was incredible.. just magical. i don’t think there was a single weak set in the group.. and that’s a big statement, the bar was set very high by this group in my opinion. there was one project in particular that just ripped my heart out. made me cry like a baby. or a proud friend. my friend DAVE from austin. i’ve known DAVE for well over a year now and he is a sweet man.. he is dedicated to photography.. obsessed with photography.. it’s his second life after a successful business career that he doesn’t even talk about. BUT, he’s never been really satisfied with his photography.. he’s had milestones for sure.. awards, gallery shows, print sales, etc. etc. ‘enough’ for most people, but not DAVE. i could tell, there’s something there that he’s not tapping into.. or else he wouldn’t be this hungry and wholly unsatisfied. months ago he asked if i’d send MARIE a recommendation to the workshop. DONE. accepted. excitement. i know that feeling. the next step. the unknown. the chance to have just the right formula presented to you to TAP IN.. to go somewhere that you’re just not going by yourself. i remember telling him, it will be hard. you will push yourself. you will probably cry by Wednesday. everyone does.

    let me tell you something about the loft workshop. it’s a safe place. it can be big and scary and mean, too.. but in the end it’s a safe and loving place. for a week at a time, DAVID facilitates this world of jumping off cliffs, telling you it’s okay on the way down, but he doesn’t build your wings for you.. he just doesn’t NOT let you build your own. and then you land on a cloud that is higher than the cliff edge you just came from. it takes a big human being to do what DAVID does. well DAVE jumped big time. he suffered. he found truths. he acknowledged demons. he purged. he relieved. he found a voice. he came out of the closet. he presented to a group of friends and strangers in this ‘cacoon’ as ANNA put it, a piece of work that i don’t think anyone who saw it will ever forget. he tore my heart out and he made me proud. he, too, should be very proud.

    tears, hugs, tequila, celebration. welcome to the loft.

    lance

  119. LANCE.

    “i used to be known as the guy who needs three reasons to make a decision”

    love that! :))

    Loved the new report…a great follow-up to your writing about your own loft workshop experience…which I believe was the first of its kind. (Posted on the right side of this page for anyone who hasn’t read it)

    Now lets hear the Mexico story! :))

    Knowing that you and Dave were in NY helps to explain why Texas seemed a little less friendly last week…I was in Round Top and Fredericksburg…so you can use your imagination!

  120. LANCE- I am right there with you my friend. DAVE KEENEN’S work was fucking beauitful! i just met him that night and he made me cry. you can just see, feel and sense the depths he reached in the workshop and it showed in his work. WAY TO GO!!

    DAH – your description of your life made me cry with laughter. though, i have seen you find a business card to give someone (but only a few times…ha ha).

    DAVIN – not sure why all the pictures of me from the party i am carying a bottle of wine – can someone explain that for me??

    CORI – i agree – please stay. your posting on your workshop experience was touching and personal – thank you. would love for you to continue sharing….

    SAM – i am glad i got you thinking…. now, if someone can get ME thinking – that would be great.

    BOB BLACK – Lance told me he may shave his head sometime… so we better enjoy that lovely head of hair while he still has it!!

  121. HERVE AND MARTIN

    actually you are both right… it might seem that me trying to choose between b&w and color (last time) is not the real decision i have to make, but the story i need to tell… yes i know this sounds pretty obvious :)))) but after a while one loses track of that (at least i do)

    what i want to show is what i shared in my introductory text to “birgit” some time ago:

    SUGAR

    This is a story about Birgit, a six year old sweet kiddo. She’s been diagnosed with diabetes about a year ago. The incurable kind. This story is about how, through her, I myself am being confronted with the fact that her illness is much more of an issue to me than it is to her. She taught me a lesson there. She is right and i am wrong. The things that are on top of a sweet kiddo’s list, should be on top of anyone’s list:

    Life is about playing with friends and family and having fun as much as you possibly can.

    These intimate, close images, are freeze-frames out of her daily life. Random. Lots of different moments. Almost no visual context. Bare essentials. The images are more about feeling the moment than looking at the moment.

    There is no beginning and no end. A collection without order. You will recognise inside, outside, darkness, light, a bike, a bed or even a beach. But they are all irrelevant…

    Just try to hear the laughter, hear the playing… Remember your own childhood… Feel like you’re there up close with her, her brother and sister. Sometimes she will notice you and say hi. Sometimes she will play and laugh with you until her stomach aches. Sometimes you feel like you need to let her be, dreaming.

    She stares into the sea.

    Martin, does the above text place the images that you saw in a different context? i’m feeling i would “lean” towards herve’s opinion, stating that individual images might seem to lack context, but the whole of the story is kind of more a collection of feelings, light and shadow and movement…

    yes and reading your words again, i believe too that there are images in this edit that “damage” the overall “fleeting moments feeling”… but i have difficulty seeing which ones :)))

    as well, one could argue that the time at the fairground i “tried too hard” to get the images out… and i would agree… i left in the evening feeling sad that it didn’t work…

    so yes, i agree with you both Martin and Herve, that there is a lot of editing work to be done still… but i will prevail!!

    thanks so much for both your feedback

    and you’re very welcome Herve my man, to make you feel proud… i’m equally flattered that you noticed it at all :)))

    hugs
    anton

  122. ANTON.. i am not familiar with all of the posting regarding this project, but let me tell you, I will write down or print this excerpt of SUGAR and put it where i can read it. thank you, thank BIRGIT, for the profound reminder of what’s important.

    man, this blog.. it’s like Sunday Gospel around here sometimes!

  123. hey akaky

    yes sorry for my inaccuracy

    i might rephrase by saying “type I” diabetes

    her body simply fails to produce insulin

    (as opposed diabetes caused by insulin “resistance” – type 2)

  124. Lance

    yes this is like Sunday Gospel sometimes… Praise the Lord!

    :)))

    ps if you need the links again when you are looking just drop me a note…

  125. ANTON,
    Good text, but at the same time I feel that a good and clarifying text shouldn’t be needed to explain good work.
    But as I said before.. The work is not bad at all and has potential, but you need to EDIT.

    Regarding the blurry shots I love these kind of shots if done right, but your shots doesn’t do it for me. Sorry.. They are just blur to me. Just because it’s blur you shall not leave out shape, content, form, composition and light.. I’m not saying all your blurry shots are that bad, but just becuase the shutter speed is at 1 sec or the lens is defocused doesn’t make the image..

    Have a look at Lorenzo Castores work Paradiso http://www.agencevu.com/stories/index.php?id=359&p=131
    All shots are blurry, but the quality in each image is amazing.

    Hope you are taking this the right way and don’t only listen to me. I’m just being honest and objective. Some will probably think I’m harsh..

    Cheers,

    Martin

  126. hey martin,

    no worries, i won’t take it the wrong way :)))

    i mean, if i wouldn’t be able to take it, i shouldn’t put it up here at all…

    eventually, i will complete the project and have the story exactly as i want to tell it… but in the process, i do value people’s opinions here (and definitely yours too), be it agreeing or disagreeing… they contuously make me look ever so slightly differently at my own work and discover new things. and up till now this has always been for the better…

    … or at least, i believe so :))

    again, really appreciate your view on this… i will let you know when i’m done editing!

    (and looking at Lorenzo Castores now, learning…)

    cheers,
    anton

  127. ANTON, ANTON, ANTON…. ok missed the link and went back and found it. i personally LOVE THIS WORK. it has grown since i last saw it. i love the writings in the middle, i love the music and i LOVE the images. they speak to me – about her and i feel like i am living her sweet life with her. there was 1 or 2 images i would not include – but that is about it personally. this project truly truly touches me.

    can you send me an email – i need to ask you something as well…. gmartin@ngs.org

  128. ANTON AND MARTIN.

    This feels like Deja Vu…didn’t I butt in on another conversation of yours recently? :))

    Finally had the 6 minutes to watch Sugar and now that I’m ready to comment I see Anton already answered one question and said some of what I was going to say…

    MARTIN.

    HONESTY is not HARSHNESS. I wish everyone here could feel comfortable expressing their true feelings. It’s not always easy. Please keep it up…glad to see Anton feels the same way. Thanks for the link. I do share your views regarding the use of “blur as art.”

    ANTON.

    I was concerned when you posted the show that you were “done” with Sugar. Glad to see this is not the case. Only the beginning hopefully. Don’t take what I said to Martin about blur personally…I do like your use of blur in many of the shots. The opening shot, the needle in the stomach, the other portrait, etc. Keep going! :))

  129. GINA

    just sent you mail… and many thanks for the kind words… i’m blushing here :-)

    CATHY

    yes don’t worry, i’m not done at all… birgit is only seven… still so many lovely moments to witness… but on the other side i do feel the strong urge to tell the story, to turn this into something tangible, something real, set the bar as high as possible and go for it. i will make a strong edit, design a book comp, get my text right… start “floating balloons” here and there… (dutch expression)

    i will be stumbling, falling along the way… and i will shamelessy, tirelessly be asking all of you here to look, comment, help… because i trust it’s ok to do so here…

    the Power of the Gospel!

    peace
    anton

  130. ALL

    Finally..my photo gallery from Saturday is up! It shows Day 8 of David’s loft workshop, at least from my perspective. Since I was simply sitting in, I could only identify a few of the workshop participants. Please send me names and I’ll be happy to add them.

    Here is Saturday…

    http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/workshop_day8

    By the way, you will notice I call this a “photo” gallery not a “snapshot” gallery. Sorry Herve, but I stick to my calling my images from Friday night, snapshots. Except for a precious few, I would never have posted them except that I wanted to do my part to bring everyone into the circle. But Preston’s were photos for sure. Terrific photos under tough low light conditions. Thanks, Preston!

    Again, the link to the entire series is:

    http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/brooklyn1

    And now I can finally go for a scoot on this lovely autumn day, Ed’s & my 42th wedding anniversary!!!

    Patricia

  131. PAT dear

    happy 42nd…. wow and that on a lovely autumn day…

    sending you & ed BIG hugs all the way!!!

    (((((you and ed)))))

    love
    anton

  132. Patricia,

    Thank you (again) for posting all the images you gathered on your camera from the workshop/fiesta…so nice to see the spaces and faces of those who participated…

    AND HAPPY 42nd! Wow….you’ve been married almost as long as I’ve been alive. Very encouraging…I thought I was “getting up there” in anniversaries at only 17…

    best to all.

  133. david alan harvey

    PATRICIA….

    first of all, HAPPY 42!!!! that is no small feat mi amiga… secondly, many thanks for all of your enthusiastic photo coverage of our loft doings…your energy and good spirit picked us up when we were all exhausted….by the way, i found another set of contact sheets of you and Ed…do not know how they got separated, but i think the new ones came out of the Fuji 6×9 and they were in another place…i will send them to you soonest….

    all my best to both you and Ed on this very special day….

    hugs, peace , david

  134. david alan harvey

    LANCE….

    you are right on….i will post a special link to the Dave Keenan piece…in all of my years of looking at student work, i have never seen a story done that was so personal and moving….a classic to be sure…a MUST SEE for anyone…

    so please you were here amigo…i cannot even think of any gathering without you as a matter of fact…and i am rarely disappointed!! you are the man….

    hugs, david

  135. Thanks everyone for the images and commentary from the weekend. It makes the world seem a lot smaller, even though NZ is a long way from New York!

    I’ve just returned from spending 4 days in the complete opposite of New York (for a mag story), at a place called Marakopa; a little fishing village of about 100 people. No internet, no cell phones and rain every day.

    What a wonderful place; down to earth locals (lot’s of them retired) whose lives revolve around fishing the river and sea, and roaming the hills hunting wild pigs for the cooking pot.

    Even though I stayed an extra day after I finished the story, I’m definitely returning to follow up on contacts. It’s the side of New Zealand I love, a little seaside village that hasn’t yet been ruined by developers building $500,000 “holiday homes” for the chardonnay set.

    Here you still find an old car being worked on out the front of the house, while the cousins are singeing a freshly caught wild pig over an open fire (to burn the hair off before cooking), or smoking fresh fish in an old 44 gallon drum home-made smoker.

    The river and tides are the clocks that decide what gets done and when, especially for the 4 or 5 families who live over the river, some only with generator power. One family I met lives a mile up the coast, the diminutive mother rows her kids across the river each day in a dinghy to catch the school bus.

    A far cry from New York, but wonderful nonetheless…..

    David, I could imagine Bill Allard having a ball at Marakopa!!!

    Cheers.

  136. ANTON,
    Glad to hear you take it well. And it’s funny that Gina think it’s great! Just shows how subjective photography really is! That’s why I think you should listen to yourself :)

    SIDNEY,
    Yes, I love his work and especially Paradiso. I have a photography blog at http://www.shutterwatch.blogspot.com where I post photographers and some other stuff. Was reminded of Lorenzos work when writing about blur. Glad I was reminded! :)

    CATHY,
    Thanks! glad to hear you say this!

  137. Thanks to all for your anniversary wishes. Yes, 42 years is a long time. Amazing, even to us.

    Kerry sent me an email with the correct names for my workshop photos, so now everyone is who they should be ;~)

    I appreciate all the positive feedback on my photo sharings of the weekend. It was my pleasure. I loved reliving it in this way.

    David, yet more contact sheets? Cool! Send them along when you have time. Ed and I are so honored to be part of your Family Drive project. I know you’re getting anxious to get back on the road…

    Patricia

  138. I don’t get here as often as I would like but when I do find the time there is always someone’s words that linger in my thoughts.

    I liked Cori’s account of the workshop. It validates that photography is torment. I think of nothing else and even when I try it seems the Gods won’t allow it. I go to get my nails done and the small television in the corner plays a show about paparazzi. I read the paper and don’t see the words but scan the images. I work all day at a job that teaches me nothing and have my camera under my desk. My best friends are photographers…what does that say???

    I am a weekend warrior lately…getting assignments from a weekly newspaper, usually three to be completed in two days and then Monday morning comes and I still want to be shooting. It has been seven weeks since I have had a day off!

    Torment…I tell ya…but dam it is the best kind…

  139. JEAN,

    Bob’s photo (looking a bit like coluche) with ze bottel is at:

    http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/104182614

    PATRICIA

    Happy 42nd!

    I love snapshots. One of the best books I borrowed from the library this last season was a big monography on the “History of the american snapshot”, a terrific read.

    Yours may be snapshots, but I see people keep complementing you for many qualities they find in them, over just being there to catch a scene, and so, they are not “just snapshots”… ;-)

  140. PATRICIA, HERVE, CATHY, SNAPSHOOTERS

    First of all, Patricia, thanks again for all your work in sharing the pictures of David’s Fiesta and Workshop and letting us all feel like we were almost there… Likewise to Cathy for the Obama rally in Espanola… which among other things reminded me that somewhere in the world there is blue sky and intense sunlight, even now!

    Which is what I guess snapshots are meant to do… I mean, let’s go back to the original urge to take photographs, the one that still motivates most people… just to have a little visual memory of a time and place to keep for oneself or show a few others to help share an experience or tell a story…

    Yet I get the feeling on this forum that ‘snapshots’ has some hidden encoded meaning, which Herve alluded to a bit… like, “These are only SNAPSHOTS…” i.e., don’t judge them by the same standards as art photography or serious photojournalism… or maybe, “these are really good, for SNAPSHOTS”… Is it possible that this is also a way to avoid criticism and gain approval cheaply? Or slip in under the wire of a double standard… a kind of photographic “affirmative action”? I’m not trying to put anybody on the spot about this, I’m just as guilty, I say it all the time, “these are just snapshots” (meaning of course, “Oh, I could do a LOT better if I were seriously trying…”) and to prove it, here are MY snapshots from another recent foray into Vancouver’s Chinatown:

    http://www.telcomplus.net/satkins/photo4.html

    My excuse this time: I was squiring an elderly Japanese lady and her son around Vancouver in the pouring rain, I could not neglect and ignore them while I got “in the zone”, I only had a few stolen moments to snap off a few… but what the heck, I can’t go there without pulling the camera out, and an ‘event’ appeared before my eyes..

  141. Nancy Paiva, yes; you have the photography virus: let’s hope they don’t find a cure.

    Patricia, congratulations to you and Ed my wife and I are almost six years behind you!

    DAH – what’s a corn pipe? Did you get to see Joe Wigfall on Flickr? I’m not his agent but what he says strikes a chord and his photographs are good too. A prime candidate for your attention.

    Good light to all,

    Mike R.

  142. david alan harvey

    NANCY….

    yes, that is the “addiction” for sure…are you also working on any long term projects??

    SAM….

    i liked your show…i only saw it once and would like to see it again…as usual, there are a couple of things i would have taken out, but overall very nice little travelogue with some very strong images…mostly what i liked was the “feel” or the diary aspect of your “journey”…i am rushing out this morning, but just wanted to acknowledge that i had seen your work…oh yes, there was one page in there where you had approximately 6-8 pictures…some of these deserve to be more prominent…i was frustrated that this page went by so fast just as i was getting into each image…anyway, thanks…i will look again later today…

    SIDNEY….

    i looked at all three of your shows…twice….as i told Sam above, i must rush out now, but i will be back soonest for a review….

    first impression, fast review: very good, very Sidney, but can be improved with 10 minutes of judicious editing and sequencing…wish you were here…i could move things around just a bit, take out a few, and you would look truly quite good…

    running, sorry….back soonest…

    cheers, david

  143. Good morning! You all are amazing people – photographers, writers, souls…
    I have been skimming over this incredidble community – although it’s hard for me because I prefer just being present with people like we were in the workshop. I miss it all. Part of me wants to move to NYC right now, or CA or France, but I have to figure out where I am supposed to be and the whole world is struggling right now…Here’s my lyrics dose for all of you from the Tracy Chapman album: New Beginning -that I’ve been listening to on my commute to work…
    “The whole worlds broke and it aint worth fixing
    Its time to start all over, make a new beginning
    Theres too much pain, too much suffering
    Lets resolve to start all over make a new beginning
    Now dont get me wrong – I love life and living
    But when you wake up and look around at everything thats going down –
    All wrong
    You see we need to change it now, this world with too few happy endings
    We can resolve to start all over make a new beginning
    Start all over
    The world is broken into fragments and pieces
    That once were joined together in a unified whole
    But now too many stand alone – theres too much separation
    We can resolve to come together in the new beginning
    Start all over
    We can break the cycle – we can break the chain
    We can start all over – in the new beginning
    We can learn, we can teach
    We can share the myths the dream the prayer
    The notion that we can do better
    Change our lives and paths
    Create a new world and
    Start all over
    The whole worlds broke and it aint worth fixing
    Its time to start all over, make a new beginning
    Theres too much fighting, too little understanding
    Its time to stop and start all over
    Make a new beginning
    Start all over
    We need to make new symbols
    Make new signs
    Make a new language
    With these well define the world
    And start all over”

    and other song…

    “I want to wake up and know where I’m going
    Say I’m ready
    Say I’m ready
    I want to go where the rivers are overflowing and
    I’ll be ready
    I’ll be ready
    I’m ready to let the rivers wash over me
    I’m ready to let the rivers wash over me
    If it’s love flowin’ freely
    I’m ready
    I’m ready
    If the waters can redeem me
    I’m ready
    I’m ready”

    and if you are in NYC – you should go and photograph here – i wish i was :( (dailycandy.com sends this stuff out)
    GO
    Wölffer’s Harvest Party
    What: Twentieth anniversary fest at the Italiante villa with grape stomping, barrel rolling, BBQing, and plenty of fresh fall air.
    Why: Wolff down local varietals.
    When: Sun., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
    Where: Wölffer Estate Vineyard, 139 Sagg Rd., Sagaponack (631-537-5106). Tickets online at wolffer.com.

    SEE
    I Kiffe NY
    What: A festival with all the fixings (music, street dance, gritty cinema) from France’s urban underground.
    Why: What’s the French for “ghetto fabulous”?
    When: Thru Oct. 28.
    Where: Various venues. See schedule.

    Popular Culture
    What: Mixed-media from Haitian artist Jean Patrick Icart-Pierre at an ABC Carpet-esque hidden gem.
    Why: The pictures pop.
    When: Thru Oct. 31.
    Where: The Gallery at Exotic Homes & Gardens, 1213a Atlantic Ave., b/t Bedford & Nostrand Aves., Bed Stuy (718-230-1536).

    DAH – What is your plan – especially for NC?! Can I come to the shoot or visit the beach house haha?
    I have been brainstorming more photography ideas and trying to figure out where to go from here – not floundering, but definitely trying to get settled – and then be realistic about the next steps…

  144. Had crazy photo dreams all night..

    one that I had posted on LS looking for an affordable copy of Koudelka’s Gypsies, and that everyone replied with images that were color contemporary snaps as if to say..you are too old school in your adulation of this work and your willingness to pay large sums just to be able to sit withthe work..and then I dreamt that the men who pick up the trash found a 5D and asked me if I wanted it, I said I’d try to find the owner, and looked back through the photos, they were all mine, it was my camera, but I guess i had forgotten about it or thrown it out..clearly am battling old / new in my subconscious, I spent the day yesterday scanning 35mm bw that I have been shooting and really enjoying, and then looking at a little book of R. Franks’ work; just ordered The Americans yesterday, I haven’t ever even seen it..I move so slowly / digest visuals so deeply I can only take in so much if I am to do it completely and embody it in my understanding and awareness. But now the 5D is lurking, I find that annoying, but I just shot an editorial job with Preston’s 20D and without it, there would have been no images because of the light and conditions..ugghh

  145. DAH…

    thanks for taking a look. I really appreciate you taking the time, I can imagine how busy you must be…

    Naturally I have some questions, but perhaps I should wait…

    btw. the images on my website represent about one third of the edited material and are more excerpts than a summary of the project.

    Also, you can pause the slideshow, or just view the images one at a time without entering the slideshow.

    I look forward to continuing our dialog…

    cheers

    Sam

  146. SIDNEY,

    You made me smile. As always there is truth in what you write … calling them “snapshots” like we are hesitantly leading with false humility to spare our egos a withering. The “wanting” is the wall.

    Likewise, and here is my mea culpa, calling them “postcards” amounts to much the same as calling them “snapshots,” although I did spend one day consciously making postcards of Greece for Panos, those were the only ones I called postcards. I could hear David in my head with every frame saying, “but is Greece just a pretty place to hang out?” Bloody hell Harvey, get out of my head will you and let me enjoy my “vacation.” ;-}>

    But postcards and snapshots do not equate with “not trying,” at least for me. I always try. But I do stand in certain places and do snap the shutter in situations where I never intend to make a more “meaningful” frame, sometimes almost obsessively (but certainly not obnoxiously obsessive – see below), to create touchstones or studies of a place for future reference or frames to show friends or to make new friends or to just get me going and find a groove. And even when I do try to make something more, I end up with a LOT of crap photos. I remember David mentioning in his workshop a very famous and beloved photographer who made a LOT of terrible images between his iconic masterpieces. Sometimes the real bitch is in knowing the difference, although this is getting easier for me with time … and very frustrating!

    Someone said recently, “if your photos suck, you are not reading enough” … this is Capa for the new age of photography where the world is now known and where “get closer” and “f8 and be there” are not enough. Where as everyone here knows, the excitement lies within turned out.

    So I am working on the within as much as the act of photography itself, as if the two can be separated. I have my first back-to-college class tomorrow. I have been pondering this crazy notion i had, now set in motion, of going back to college at 41, wondering if I have made a terrible mistake. And my conclusion is no, it’s not a mistake for a variety of reasons because I have specific intent, not the least of which being to reconnect with great ideas, learn new skills in sound and film, and get some good energy from people not so worn down by life. I also have a special long-term project to do … so college too i guess can be like a snapshot, or a party, or be something more. Intent matters.

    It’s been 20 years since I left the Virginia classroom for the summer, hit the road, hopped trains and thumbed my way across the continent, skipping my way across Canada and western U.S. like a rolling stone tumbling across the surface of a pond, to never return to eastern shores or college. I wish there had been a DAH back then … of course there was but you know what i mean … I’m sure I would have dove a bit deeper in my travels. Yet, I still have a few wonderful “snapshots” somewhere in my mess of slides from that journey and the fact that they are not photographic masterpieces in no way lessens their importance for me now.

    And perhaps that is the point … are you going to skip across the surface, which is all fine and well, or dive for deeper depths through often murky waters? Or both? Sometimes I just try to breathe and let myself sink slowly. I actually did a lot of that this trip, sitting for hours without making a single frame and then having something wonderful present itself like a gift from the gods (forgive that overblown phrase but it was Greece after all, the gods are everywhere).

    It’s interesting that during my second week in Greece while in Santorini, perhaps the most photographed and one of the most beautiful islands in the world, and well on its way to western ruination, I put my camera down for most of the week. To be sure, partly it was to spend quality time with my wife, to be there now with just her for the 18th anniversary of our being best friends, but it was also because of what I saw in the many, many photographers there which I have come to dislike, intensely dislike … “stealing” photos, obsessively snapping frames, being outside the moment and in the camera, unaware and uncaring of people around them.

    I can say with certainty that I am in many, many photos and not once did anyone even look above the camera with even a questioning smile before snapping away with their latest canon markIII’s. I literally had one guy 12 inches from my face taking my picture while I was trying to enjoy my favorite old quiet spot … a precipice overlooking the Aegean now overrun by a photo workshop, tripods everywhere, gadget and gear porn run amuck, and hardly anyone enjoying the moment. Sigh.

    Our friend and host Rena on the island noted the obsession with picture taking, particularly by Asian tourists, and I believe she meant predominantly Japanese tourists. Okay, so it is an unfair broad cultural generalization but there is certainly some truth in it as well. She noted in her observation that the obsessive photographers rarely ever just sit, hang out at a cafe, drink coffee or just enjoy a sunrise or sunset. They are instead taking pictures every second, and I mean every second. It is their social interaction, nearly exclusively. And in my observation this applied to many American tourists as well. It drove me nuts … bloody, bloody annoying. Such a contrast to the island of Syros where I saw very, very few cameras and taking pictures was a dance of finesse to not be an ugly American tourist.

    (… As an aside, my wife remarked in Santorini, “why do all these photographers look like they are going on safari?” Made me laugh … and look at my shirt … i’m okay, i look like me … rumpled and unshaven )

    And this is how digital has changed the way we take pictures isn’t it? For many it has fueled obsession to the detriment of intent and perhaps even respect for others. A few snapshots have become a few thousand snapshots … of everything, all the time, living inside our technology instead of just living. I’d rather have “the sisters of the sun rock me on the water.” (hmmm, Jackson Browne was my high school senior quote and I seem to always come back to that somehow).

    “Do you think any of those photos are even any good,” Rena asked me in exasperation. It was a rhetorical question. “When do they live?” Another rhetorical question … a very good one.

    So I guess the difference between a snapshot and something more can be in the intent, and perhaps the final edit ;-}>

    Perhaps I am just stating the obvious here, all of it, for readers of DAH land but obvious for some is not obvious for others I guess. Would this have been obvious to me 2 years ago … I’d like to think so … but honestly i still feel like i’m making snapshots most of the time, skipping across the surface of the pond, even if that is not my intent … but my waters are getting perhaps just a bit deeper all the time, slowly, too slowly, never happy, where knowing and doing are two very different things … but I just have to breathe, let it go, and grow at my own pace i suppose because, in the end …

    … the “wanting” is the wall.

    … And Sidney, you were right of course, the weather here in Washington State is bloody awful but it is good to be home nonetheless. I missed my Golden Retriever … who just licked my foot … and my home, my garden, my rainforest and my salmon stream, my foggy mornings and my coffee. Tomorrow I will miss sunshine, wonderful Greek food, feta and Mythos beer.

    Sidney, I like your photos from Vancouver’s Chinatown, a wonderful place I would like to visit again, and I see David is going to comment so I will just say thanks for showing these :))
    And you can look at a few of my photos from Greece … I won’t categorize them … by clicking on my name below. They were often posted the same day I took them, an unadvisable practice perhaps … or am I just making excuses to spare myself a withering ;-}> … straight, too straight, right Herve?

    yamas, young tom

  147. SIDNEY.

    Nice snapshots :))
    You have added a few good points to our earlier snapshot conversation…and I think your “excuse” is valid.

    EVERYONE.

    Feel free to jump in on this…
    Does every image we shoot have to be held to the same artistic standards? OR…Is there/can there be a difference between a snapshot and a serious artistic “image”?

  148. HOME with a nasty cold..can’t do much or think too clearly, but at least I will have caught up here..

    KIM R

    It was such a pleasure to meet you and to share some conversation; I find you to be inspiring and hope we can talk more..I admire the way you are doing both personal and paid work in a streaming cohesive vision..

    SAM

    Somewhere somehow I saw some of your work before, and it has stayed with me. Thank you for sharing the challenges you are going through so honestly; most of us come to crossroads but few take the initiative to implement changes that require the temporary backstepping in order to fly ahead. I know you will come out of this whole..I do want to see more work from you, and maybe there is a way to keep at it now, you say ‘i’m always late, chasing the day’, perhaps there is something to be gained from shooting in these mad moments, on the fly. I think it is fair to say that you and I share a shooting temperament to some degree, from feeling but also studied, and I am finding that it is liberating to have times of abandon in photography..

    ANTON

    Is it true you are going to Oaxaca or am I making that up? I find some of the images of B to be fantastic..but I am in accord about the need to edit.. if there is a way to see them without the slideshow and if you are interested as it sounds as you are about knowing which others (I) find to be the strongest, I’d be happy to offer my view, as there are some I feel strongly about. In truth, I am less interested in the diabetes aspect and more drawn to the girl herself because of the way you show her in some frames..

    JENNIFER C

    Sounds as if you survived stunningly..wish we had met, but indeed, next time.

    CATHY

    A very interesting topic about feeling like you can’t take credit for some of the shots..to some degree I feel similarly about shooting with digital. But I agree this is among the strongest of your work and the key might be because of the sense of freedom and joy and play..

    CORI

    excellent report..I really enjoy the way you write, please don’t only ‘lurk’..

    ERIC

    I woke in the early early morning wondering about your project..I see you and I as working steadily, alone on these projects but I find comfort in knowing we are traveling parallel roads..

    RAFAL

    Your no lantern fleeing shots made me think of the work by ??? of people having sexual encounters in the park at night..do you know what I mean?

    JUSTIN

    not a can of worms I wish to open but thank you for the nod.

    TOM H

    OHHHH> I really want to see that copy of Air France, you didn’t take a handful home did you? Any idea if these circulate somewhere?

    AUDREY

    wonderful you are learning English!!

    DAVID B

    I think you are right, there is no end to the project..you have a built in subject now for the rest of your days!

  149. ERICA, you going digital? Just part-time, right? Sorry, stupid question. 5D is good but still too big. The new one looks impressive though. I’m going back to film, part-time :))

    tom

  150. Also…
    Not to say that snapshots aren’t an art form or to diminish them.

    TOM HYDE. ALL.

    I see you already jumped in on this. Thanks and welcome home.

    Can’t tell you how much I have LOVED Jackson Browne :))

    I met him once in front of an LA restaurant…pretty funny I was hugging my husband’s friend goodnight, looked over the guys shoulder and there was Jackson. I immediately grabbed the friend tighter and started whispering in his ear “Oh my god, I’m so in LOVE.” (meaning with Jackson) The friend looked at me and said “With ME?” (not seeing what was going on and fearing I was revealing some dark secret to him) :)) I said “No, with the guy behind you!” :)) Then after meeting him I told Jackson that my favorite song of his is LOOKING INTO YOU…to which he replied “That’s an old song” :))

    Now you’ve got me going…here it is on you tube. A GREAT road trip song and a pretty darn good photography song too:

  151. ERICA.

    Feel better.
    I avoided digital for as long as I could.
    Wanted to wait for a somewhat affordable full frame sensor.
    Bought the (original) 5D when it came out and LOVE it.
    Great camera.

  152. HERVE.

    I like it! What the heck is Lovefest anyhow and what is Santa doing there? Are there more photos from this? Or even snapshots? :))

    I don’t know if anyone is going to see your photo because you posted it to me only…try reposting for all with some background info.

  153. TOM H / ALL

    NO, NO, I am not actually ‘going digital’, I still don’t even have a camera on my phone..but it may be necessary for me to shoot it on occasion, it is just interesting to see how the issue is doing battle in my subconscious. I do think digital is a fantastic tool..

    THANK YOU!!!! for the copy, a smart man you are, and 3 sounds like a very judicious and respectable take :) Will email you now.

  154. Hey Cathy,

    If I did post it only for you, I would not post it here, would I (remember, I have your e-mail adress)? ;-)

    Lovefest is for San Francisco what techno parades are in Europe, a once a year big day of fun, dancing to a lot of loud music after everyone paraded on garish floats. Tons of sound system, all going at once.

    Cathy, I do not think it has to do with art vs taken not seriously. Everything speaks for itself. Just bask in it (taking photos), and make no excuse for it, one way or another. Where will most of our “art” be in 20 years? Who says the picture we will cherish the most then won’t be a shoddily shot that points to a special moment in our life (memory), rather than the essay on a rodeo come to town, shot with, ouh la la!, extreme intent?

  155. HILLARY

    I am absolutely enthralled by your Hot Springs gallery. It is the only one I’ve looked at so far and I’ve gone through it 2-3 times. There is a magical quality that resonates deeply within my body & spirit. The images that gave me that special jolt in the solar plexus were the two body spirits of light rising out of the body lying on the shore, the first surf splash photo in which the small tattoo on her lower back shows, and finally the b&w of the old man standing in the hot tub with the child beside him. That is utterly haunting.

    Sorry but I have no “brutal critique” to give. I’m too mesmerized…

    So glad you’ve joined us and hope you’ll be an active member here. I’d love to hear your take on things.

    Patricia

  156. TOM.

    No we won’t! :)) Don’t know what that was all about! :))

    HERVE.

    I know you did not intend for the photo to be seen only by me but I was concerned that no one else would see it since it is in a comment addressed to me. I was acting as your PR agent :))

  157. ERICA

    yes yes going to oaxaca… and getting pretty excited about it too :))) you goin’ too?

    i’d definitely interested in your view of B… really… only i wouldn’t know how to go about this practically… via email? i’ve been looking into Photoshelter so i can share lightboxes for exactly this reason, but i’ve yet to sign up… is it any good? it sounds like it is…

    cheers,
    anton

  158. I remember your Photo Friday shot of Lovefest from last year.
    ——————–
    Now, 19 more years to go…….! :-))

    Really, thanks, David McG, saying this means something to me.

    PS: Er….. What was it? :-) The “Matisse”?

    Anyway, I promise you will remember my friday pick for lovefest 2008. Sure!

  159. Tom H —
    Wishful thinking, but any chance of doing a group “pass-around” of your last copy of the Air France issue?
    Maybe we could do something similar to Lassal’s new project with everyone adding a “snapshot”, photo, or postcard of where they live..

  160. anton

    photoshelter is expensive for what it is – a backup system.. it does have the lightbox and gallery options, searchable database.. which can be good.. flickr works and is free.

    also – photoshelter collection was closed as an ongoing business last month.. disappointing many thousands of photographers who had, like myself, dedicated hours to labelling, keywording and uploading photos.. they only gave it a year and could not get the revenue to bring about second phase of their funding..
    so – they dumped it and all of our hard work.. a tough decision for them, perhaps, but also a telling sign perhaps of the companies approach..
    have a brilliant time at oaxaca..
    another great knees-up i’ll be unable to get to :o/

    SOOOOOOOOO TIRED>?
    Tor Capa wants it all.. my time.. my love.. my eyes.. and he’s getting it all.. sleepless, heady, light, long nights of cuddles, comfort and gentle feeding.. he’s a JOY>
    photos nearly – nearly there..

    AS a NOTE – check this out..
    >>
    my friend erick killed himself back in february this year, after a really cool night at home with five of us.. drinking, laughing..

    he’d done this during the early hours after we had left, and i found out through a phone-call the next day – a couple of hours after beate and i found out we were expecting a baby.
    then.. early monday morning..
    Tor Capa was born on ericks birthday..
    only a 365 to 1 shot to share a birthday.. but to find out on the same day as well?
    coincidence.. love it.

  161. CATHY!!!!

    YES, I DO NOT WANT PEOPLE TO SEE MY PICTURES, I PREFER THEY REMEMBER THEM! ;-)

    …… I mean, good, great, bad work, I do not remember so much of what is shown here and with links. I hope on my upcoming trip, i will share more, but I can’t swear.

    JE SUIS UN PHOTOGRAPHE BUISSONNIER!

  162. ERICA…. i do not have a phone on my cell phone either….

    I too am home today – not sick, just working from home.

  163. erica

    oh that way… no problem, here it is…

    http://sugar.antonkusters.com/contactsheets

    david b

    yeah i noticed they closed down half… yet still contemplating what to do… safe online storage is important, and i don’t have any right now and it feels ‘risky’ :-/

    tor capa

    dude get your dad off that computer and make him cuddle you even more!

    david b

    i think someone’s calling you :)))

  164. Yeah…David has me thinking and even though my photographer friends say that I am a writer…I won’t bore you all with my potentially long winded thought process. Instead I can certainly do a short breeze….

    I don’t have a long term project. I feel that I need one. I imagine that it will somehow reveal itself as I make the rounds but what usually ends up happening is that I just keeping make the rounds…and the ideas keep sitting on the burner simmering.

    Just a tormented photographer wandering with potential..that is me. Thanks for making me think David ” )

  165. marcin!

    thank you for your words. they mean a lot to me. i tried hard to put a positive message of “life” in the story.

    am i wrong or have you been away for a while? how are you these days?

    cheers,
    anton

  166. ANTON

    it’s the light and the feeling that grab me most..my favorites..exclamation is wow!, ? is maybe, straight number is solid..

    3, 6!, 7, 9!, ?12, 13, 14!, 17, 22, 23!, ?24, 26 ! (magic), 27, 28! (love), ?29, 30, 31!, 32, 33, ?34, 36, 37, 38!, ?39, 40, 41!, 44, ?46. 48!, 49, 50, 54!, 57, 58!, 60, 61

    Am so excited for you for Oaxaca..I was talking with one of the workshop participants (Dave Keenan) and I asked “did David do that to you or did you do that to yourself?’ regarding the powerful emotional breakthrough, and the answer of course was ‘a bit of both’..but my point is that it will be incredible to see what comes of your experience..

  167. SAM

    I sure hope you’ll find your way clear to picking up your camera and getting on with it! I’ve just watched “Slow-Motion Travelogue” twice and found it fascinating. You so obviously have a good eye for life’s strange juxtapositions and these come out most effectively in your diptychs. Maybe it’s my own love affair with the diptych, but I found those to be the most intriguing images in the series. And when I say “diptychs,” I’m including the ones with multiple images.

    I’m glad you’ve joined us and hope you will be active here. You have lots to share…

    Patricia

  168. erica

    o wow a detailed list what a treat!! now you really got me curious i’ll go check straight away… so great that you’d take the time to do this…

    yes the story of Dave… i’m sure his and the other students’ work must be amazing… can’t wait to see it posted

    ps how on earth did you manage to take notes and write up those great reports… it felt like i was there. you’ve got superpowers for sure…

    thanks again!

    woops notice it’s 1am here… sleepy time

    cheers,
    anton

  169. ANTON,
    Looks great. May have underrated your work yesterday. Some of the “blurries” are actually quite good. ;) But there’s still editing and processing to be done.
    Are you in Europe and if so, where?

    Cheers

  170. hey martin

    last post before bed… tired now.. gotta get up in… yuck… 4,5 hrs… i’m in belgium, about an hours’ drive from brussels (come to think of it, anything in belgium is max an hours’ drive from brussels… we’re *that* tiny a country :)

    you up north in europe?

    oh and… glad you like some of the “blurries” :)))

    cheers,
    anton

  171. ANTON,
    Yeah, a small country, but hope you’ve eaten some of their great food?
    I’m in the southern part of Sweden.
    You need to sleep more! ;)

    Cheers

  172. ALL

    Just uploaded a few images, 6 actually, that I took a few weeks ago on a brief road trip. I shot 10 images in all with the 4×5, i know that isn’t much but still, I didn’t think it would be SO !! hard to take this puppy on the road and make something interesting..anyway, this was a first go, an experiment..it has raised a few questions for me about how people who shoot this way do it with some grace and poignancy..not sure if I will pursue this tack at all or not.

    http://www.ericamcdonaldphoto.com
    private galleries
    login erica, password erica (case sensitive)
    american 4×5

  173. ALICIA W., a brilliant idea!

    You are first … I need to make a photo for this and then will send to you. You can email me your address at binghamhyde@gmail.com. Yes, yes, i have too many names :)))

    Do you have a final destination in mind for the magazine with all the postcards? Perhaps the nexus himself? This could be a very long-term evolving project ;-)

    tom

  174. ANTON- my favorite photos from your work on sugar are frame #7 and #8. those two shots sum it all up for me: in shot 7, the beauty is in the fragile details caught in a moment of perfection: soft tousled hair lay in playful curves above a delicate spine…and shot 8 brings you back to reality – though still in an intimate way; a seemingly giant watch to serve as a constant reminder…
    there are many more i like in the slideshow, but these two really spoke to me.

  175. ERICA,

    I hope you are feeling somewhat better now… I love the thought of you and I working steadily on parallel paths :):)… However, I have to confess that my project has been progressing at a slow speed over the past 10 days…not much shooting at all as I have been away for my day job while all of you were enjoying New York…I actually just came back… I did however order however a few prints of some of the new shots I did since last seeing David and I will try to sort these out this week-end and do the tough exercise of seeing if some are “keepers” and can add something above and beyond what I had already done… From my conversation with David in Perpignan, I am focusing on “action portraits” of these kids rather than try to document all sides of boxing that has already been done very well by many others. Hopefully, the final essay will not be too repetitive… I should be able to complete this shortly… The piece that will take me forever will be to try sometime to do a MM and use these interviews that I have done of these kids… Considering I have no software and given my love-hate relationship with computers…I might be done by the next decade :)! Whenever you have learned all the tips, I am counting on you to educate me :):)…

    Cheers,

    Eric

  176. PATRICIA,

    You seem to have been the queen of this last week-end! Thanks so much for all these pictures that I finally had a chance to look at when back home! You are shining on these images! I can tell you were having a special time!

    Eric

  177. GINA,

    so what is the deal with Mexico? When can we see??? Did I miss a link or you are still editing and deciding what to show? We want to see the BUSES!!!!

    Eric

  178. ERIC….

    i was hoping you all forgot about it….. ahhhhh. I am working on it – I promise. i am in frankfurt next week – I PROMISE i will post something when i get back. I did show KIM at harvey’s house. thanks for kicking me in the butt eric….

  179. KIM

    I just looked at the photos from “Eighteen” on your web site, as well as googling it and reading reviews & the press release for your March 2007 exhibit at the Robin Rice Gallery.

    What a monumental work!!! And I’m not just talking about the size of those rigs either. Your views into the trucker’s lives, as well as the amazing shots of these 18-wheelers out on the road and at truck stops make this so-often ignored part of our culture come to life. This is such an inspired project and portrayed so beautifully. And I am deeply moved by your personal reasons for tackling it. BRAVA to you!!!

    http://www.kimreierson.com/eighteen.html

    Patricia

  180. KIM

    thanks for taking a look… funny you mention the picture of her spine.. it’s the image of which i have the most ‘shots’ and had the hardest time editing them, because i felt (and still feel) they’re all strong even though nearly identical.. it’s the killingest image of killing my darlings :))

    by the way the images on your site are really really good.. they speak to me as a serious ‘body of work’.. and the color/tone in the series “18” is very fitting for the subject. and being a motorcycle rider i especially love the first three images of “speed”…

    ERICA

    took a look at your edit and you know what? you couldn’t have known this, but for every day of shooting you marked two “!” images :)) they’re nicely spread out throughout the whole story… so funny, i noticed it straightaway

    PATRICIA

    how are you these days? still recovering from the intensity of NYC? i’m sure i’d be… seemed so intense… thanks a million for so many images making me feel like i’m there

    love
    anton

    whoa i overslept… should’ve seen that one coming :))

  181. Hi everyone,

    greetings from HELSINKI!
    Searched and found an open WLAN from a carless neighbour of Riitta’s and am posting something quick in the hope of getting it to you before the signal disappears (it is not very stable).

    I am very late today. Should be on the road for hours but had a terrible night of no-sleep with this project of mine hounting me to the furthest corners of my mind.

    It is as it is. Problems come up along the way, as soon as things get started. Situations change and you (I) notice, that what was easy before, is damn hard now. So changes of culture, light (it is getting dark outside), infrastructure (= how to get from place to place),and… not being able to communicate in one of my fluent languages … god it just adds. On top of it all it is just not me to hurry along but I simply love to spend time with people. It is important for me NOT to be the jumping stone on the watersurface but to imerge. So I was quite unhappy in Slovenia.
    I was happy because I go my 16 Portraits and Cards in 2 days of “work”, but it was different than what I meant to feel and take with me. I did not take much more than a feeling of wanting to go back there from Slovenia. It was not enough time. It was not me. And I just had two days between Slovenia and Finland, two very busy days. So I was really somewhat worried about Finland and about wasting this chance.

    I did again my 16 Portraits / Cards in the first two days here (5 on the first day and 11 on the second) and then I stopped to think. Which was good too … This talking to stranger’s thing is quite exhausting :) … but I had started to change the way of taking portraits here a bit, and I needed to reflect. Also I was having problem with my gear. From now on I will take additional lights. Or a tripod. But … I’d hate to take a tripod with me. I really want to go minimal.
    Had a Mamiya 6 in my hands yesterday. Beautiful. But film. … Gosh, I have to find a solution for this.

    Yesterday I just drifted throughout the city. Did not want to “work”. Did want to think. But I just got a void-signal in my head…
    I have been having bad headaches here since the flight – they somehow had to little oxygen in the cabin. Everybody was falling asleep, it was hard to breathe. These things give me headaches.

    But it was easy to connect to people here anyway. Standing at a red light on the street, talking to the supermarket cashier, speaking to a hairdresser that was having a cigarette break outside the salon (Helsinki is FULL of hair dressers!!), women soccerteam … then the owner of a bar where I was having my lunch (a perfect lasagne for a starving traveller), the “janitor” from the olympic stadium … It is not difficult to connect here. Thus I was feeling even worse with the thought that I might just be doing portraits for the waste bin right now.

    So … even if I really want to get along on a fast pacing with this postcard project, I will allow myself more time now. And I will connect it to my other project “Meaning”. Thus I will have to prepare better from now on. I have not being preparing anything until now. I wanted to just jump into the cold water of every countries day-to-day life. It felt right to my mind. It does not feel right to my heart. So … Heart wins.

    I will try to make a portrait over today – and to get me another lasagne. I was having trouble with the portraitsession. I was not leading people but let them stand as they wished to stand. It was a matter of seconds. The max amount of time I had for a portrait now (if you omitt Tuscany) were 4 minutes. Mostly it is something about 30 seconds. Amindst a busy street or so. I do not think it will get much better. Maybe once in a while. But I should not start dreaming. And many people feel uncomfortable in front of a camera. It shows. Last night I had an idea of how I could maybe improve the situation a little. I think it could work …

    But for today I got me a tram card. Will be travelling around and having a closer look at the place. And think about how to optimize my project organization.

    Will visit some strange place someone recommendet me, and tonight there is a finnish photographer’s meeting where I can go to too. I will not understand a single word though, so I might just take another drift along the harbor. So much to see here, sooo little time.

    Leaving now.
    Looking forward to check back in here with you in 2 weeks or so.

    Keep it up and have a nice time.

    Baby Bowen should have “arrived” by now. Could not check. Hope all went well and you are enjoying the first days of being a little family now. Was thinking of you, David B. Kept my fingers crossed!

    Bye for now,
    Lassal

  182. ERICA,
    Not bad shots. Regarding taking a lf camera for a road trip I don’t know. If I’d shoot lf it would be for highly planned shots. Maybe at locations I’d seen before. Have you brought the mf camera for similiar shots?

    Cheers

  183. david alan harvey

    ALL….

    i am heading back out on the road today…down to Virginia to shoot military families and then to North Carolina, a “swing state” in the upcoming U.S. elections…i am not sure where i will drive after that….open road…maybe to Texas or ????

    in any case, it will be refreshing to be out shooting….up against my own creative demons….the struggle, the joy….

    incidentally, please check the Magnum website soonest to see our new daily blogging of the countdown to the election…Bruce Gilden is shooting in Florida, Gilles Peress and Alex Webb in Ohio, and i will be as aforementioned…all “swing states”…since the documenting of history is one of our primary motivations at Magnum, now seems to be the time to document a limping America…several other photographers will be out shooting soonest on the same project..my family project, by coincidence, falls right into our overall goal of chronicling the last 30 days of one leader and the first 100 days of the next…we will either launch our new site today or by monday at the latest…we will be posting daily pictures and stories from the photographers out crossing the country…stay tuned…

    ok, i must pack my bags…flying to Richmond, renting a car , and driving from there….

    my window faces west towards lower Manhattan..often great sunsets…but , i am now seeing the sunrise reflected off of the buildings down on Wall Street…looks pretty from here..even spectacular….hmmmmmmmm

    i will be back here as soon as possible with a new post….take good care…..

    peace, david

  184. ERICA

    Thanks for all that you said…

    and you’d like to see more… thanks!

    On my website there’s also some material from my ‘archive’ – back from my London days…

    http://www.samharris.phanfare.com

    also I have a lot more edited material from ‘Slow Motion Travelogue’. I put about a third onto the web site. Perhaps I should think about putting more of the project on-line…

    I can agree with you that ‘it is liberating to have times of abandon in photography..’ An experiment i tried during our travels was to just be totally spontaneous using only a digital point & shoot. I wanted to work on the ‘diary’ aspect (whatever that means…). I got real loose and got some great shots, but I also shot way more crap than I would have otherwise, especialy shooting digital instead of 6×6.

    cheers

    Sam

  185. david alan harvey

    PETE…

    i have already photographed quite a few families in C’Ville…now headed for Norfolk and the military viewpoint…Norfolk should be booming where the rest of the country is in crises because billions in defense spending end up there…anyway, this is what i want to discover..are these military families feeling the “crunch” or are they shopping away??? do you know any military families??? wishing you all best amigo…

    cheers, david

  186. KIM – WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! You really have a feel for the road sister, the Rig as landscape is what i’m loving the most , somehow more real and now than pristine views, a monumental work.
    SIDNEY – thanks mate for your comments on homelands, I’m not working with any one writer on this work , I don’t quite trust or believe that this work is anyway on the way to being resolved,your pic’s to me seem to be loosening up majorly especially # 11 and #18 , but I can’t help being drawn into the still landscapes and slices of habitat in the first few pictures and thinking that your experiences in asia have given you a certain ammount of zen , a singular eye for detail that mirrors those classic works from Japan – so much happening in a still scene that the mind boggles.
    PAT – in answer to your question on how I gain access to the communities I visit , simple – I am there to take pictures and every one knows it , there is no where to hide and no room for being a bullshit artist, so I try to carry myself with as much dignity as i want to show in the folks I shoot and talk to , I am only interested in their story and I want them to know it as soon as we meet.
    OMG Pat you have been married for longer than I have been alive and looking at your photo’s , reading your posts makes me think that I should really stop being such a cranky bastard – you rock Pat!
    ERICA – loved your dream – my photodreams usually revolve around camera malfunctions or legs going out from under me any thing happening to stop me getting a shot away – I sometimes dream about pictures I’ve taken and how things might have progresed if I had’nt been there , But I have never dreamt of 5D ( but I do have 2 on order).

  187. ERICA, I presume that you are familiar with Bruce Davidson’s East 100th Street photographed with 4×5? I’m not a fan of empty spaces photography myself but you do take wonderful photographs of people. With 4×5 I suspect that doors will open for you as anyone carrying that amount of gear must be one serious photographer! Would love to see some people 4x5s plus. – in an increasingly me-too digital arena it must distance your work from the crowd as far as editorial work goes.
    Do you really want a copy of Koudelka’s Gypsies or was it just a dream? I bought a copy many years ago just for the front cover photograph of the old man in bed holding a photograph of himself as a young man and a large medal that he had been given. I love that cover.

    I’m currently considering a return to Black & White after at least two decades of colour and if so digital or film?

    DAVID, will check out the Magnum website: Bruce Gilden in Florida – can’t wait!

    Best to all,

    Mike R.

  188. PATRICIA

    I can guarantee I will be picking up my camera and getting on with it! Promise… it’s just a frustrating matter of time…

    Thank you also for your comments. It feels so good to share my work FINALLY after quite some time…

    The diptychs have been a strong part of my photographic life for some time.

    Back in the day, before internet and digital my work would always be in ‘portfolios’. So apart from the front shot and the back shot i’d be dealing with pairs of images. I know some photographers just placed a single on one side and a blank page opposite, but I kinda liked making pairs.

    Many a night would be spent with prints all over the kitchen floor, working out a new portfolio. I really got into the balance or harmony between pairs of images, sometimes the click was just spooky… anyway it’s just an evolution of that really. Although every image should ‘work’ on it’s own, no doubt, creating diptychs can ‘say’ a bit more, or give dynamics, movement to a sequence, kinda filmic perhaps… but thats just my view. Having said that, some shots just HAVE to be alone.

    The pages with multiple images derive from my edit books, which I used to do with rough edits from jobs, a sort of diary scrapbook. Anyhow, glad you liked them.

    Cheers

    Sam

  189. Tom H —
    Didn’t get back to the blog last night (work and a presentation/exhibit by Joel Sartore)..
    Glad you liked the idea. :)
    Will email my thoughts and address.
    ~alicia

  190. Dear David and all

    I have come back my usual life at my clinic.
    Sometimes i miss the scenery of the Manhattan and East sea seen from David’s apt. and his sofa with many books…

    I really want to send my respects and love to mentor,David…Please take care of yourself and have safe road trip for ‘family’ works. And send my heartful thanks to Michael, Paula and Diego.

    I had a great time with the workshop friends, too. They helped so much for me and heard me out with patience… thank you.

    And I was very excited with meeting blog f
    riends…Panos, Patricia, Bob, Marina, Lee, Mike, Glenn, Erica… maybe I’m afraid if i missed some names …
    you all are very special to me…i’m very happy to meet you… amazing…

    Now i’m preparing my solo exihibition of ‘Island’ on Nov.3th and am going to Paris(8th Novem. – 16th)…so i have very busy time.

    I hope we all will keep going our photography and have very nice relationships.

    Best wishes,
    Kyunghee

  191. Erica,
    just scanned over some of your images…the 40 days piece in nyc is incredible.

    Kyunghee lee – I wish you the best with your exhibition and have a blast in Paris – I haven’t been since I was nine- dying to go back – I’ll go with haha :) and to London to visit some of my family!!!

    In reference to the dreams thing – the night before the workshop – I woke up freaking out because I had slowly been walking into the ocean with my new D300 in hand and then the current took me out so there I was struggling to stay above water with one arm holding the baby d300 straight up into the air and then finally I had to give up and watch it fall down into the ocean – I was realizing what a precious investment I had made and was anxious about having anything happen to it…have not had the opportunity to go near the ocean with it yet…

    have a good weekend all!

  192. ERICA
    your work is breathtaking. I’ve looked at all your images. what’s most striking i find is the “timeless” quality they inhabit – best exemplified in the “New York City Portaits”

    PATRICIA
    thank you for the kind words. did you get my email i sent to your blog? After i met you, I said ” THIS person i have to know better..” so i’ve been catching up on your amazing life.

    GINA
    i can’t believe you didn’t show your bus work to the others!!!
    Strong body of work and I’m excited for you and the challenging/learning process of turning it into a book and along with its headaches…and its rewards.

    DAH
    after all these years, i still can’t manage to do those “responsible things”…
    my perfect match…aahh.. if only you weren’t taken… and/or didn’t have a long “wait list” to boot..

    ALL
    thank you for the feedback, it’s encouraging and has motivated me to work on being more “open” in areas I am not that confident in – like documentary film. I will soon post a link to a short … as soon as i figure out how to do a quicktime compression with subtitles….

  193. Lassal/All

    Does anyone have the link for Lassal that has her address for sending postcards? I lost my link to the thread and have a card to send to her…

    off to the races…
    A.

  194. Here in the ‘Biggest Little City’ snow is falling lightly and it seems to be more than the seasons that are changing. In talking with my workshop colleagues it’s clear the DAH ‘at home’ experience has changed us all a little…

    KYUNGHEE,
    I will be in London & Paris at that time — can you post details of your show? I would love, love, love to come see you!

    ERICA
    I took a look at your site and I really love your people images. You have a gift for going further than skin deep in a portrait. I especially love your Grateful Dead series – so free and filled with sweet spirit. I can almost hear the music. Good luck with the 4 x 5 journey…

    SAM
    Your slow motion travelogue is beautiful — look forward to seeing more of it. I look at your pictures and think you’d be right at home in Byron Bay, which is where I’m based when in Australia. Look me up if you make it to the ‘other side’ of Aus.

    DAVID B
    I don’t know you yet, but congratulations on becoming a dad! And the coincidence of your friend Erick and Tor’s arrival – probably not such a coincidence after all. In my own experience of suicide, the person you loved and lost will do many things to let you know they’re ok… you just need to be keyed into receiving the messages. Looks like you just got a big one from Erick.

    PATRICIA
    Belated congrats on reaching 42 years – and thanks again for your wisdom and advice on how to pursue happiness with a view to AND instead of OR…

    KRISTEN
    I’m still looking for a NYC roommate – great deal – I’ll only be in town 7-10 days out of every month… Remember the words in your Tracey Chapman song – “Make a new beginning…. start all over… I’m ready, I’m ready…” maybe Jan 09 is the time to do that?

    AKAKY
    Who ARE you? I am intrigued by you. Highly amused and very intrigued…

  195. CATHY & ANTON

    Off running right now but am looking forward to seeing the work both of you have been sharing with the community. Hopefully my life will settle down soon so I can spend time with Obama and Birgit. Until then…

    love
    Patricia

  196. KIM

    Yes, I was so touched by the message you left in my PBase guestbook. I’m late responding to my messages there but that too will happen in time ;~)

    I’m glad my story is offering you some glimmers of life. I’ve been so fortunate to find adventures along the way…

    love
    Patricia

  197. D A H

    godspeed and fun on your journey again..
    there is a double room for you and yours waiting in norway if the mood were to take you..

    anton.

    yes – too many callings.. they are all good..
    today we listened to fuson jazz, deep house.. a little amon tobin.. a little squarepusher..
    tomorrow we are moving on to classical.. stops him crying.. good boy he is..
    not had the chance to check your photos.. will do mate.. look forward to when i have a moment.

    lassal

    your memory puts me to shame :o)
    thanks for the thoughts and much love returned to you from the new family bowen..
    yes.. lots of love to all.. feeling it.

    kerry

    hi.. such a lovely first message to say hello and you’re right.. coincidence has it’s own magical ways and it’s always a pleasure to remember friends who have left us..

    all..

    still editing photos from the miracle.. right now.. with you very soon.. i cannot wait to share..

    BIG UPS TO ALL THE HEADS HERE AND THERE

    with pea’s and many chips.

  198. patricia

    our email friendship is growing..

    everyone..

    patricia is everyones ‘cool mum’.., no?

    it’s a little love affair, to be sure..

    patricia patricia patricia..
    (all together now..)
    *standing ovation*

  199. ALL

    Hi, and sorry for being toatally away from keyboard lately. I`ve been photographing, alot. Alot of work, school, the part-time job in the photoshop ,my own business and my “mom” project is all going excelent.
    And for you who don`t know me, I`m quite new to photography, and even more newer to this forum.

    BOB AND PATRICIA

    Thank you very much for the feedback. I`ve done some new, I have used alot of your tips and tricks. I`ll put up a new link soon.
    New, and interesting things that I`m photographing now is my mother`s trial – her late husband`s kids want the house she lives in, for money. My older brother came home yesterday, after beeing away for 6 weeks, with no mail or phonecalls to us (recovering drug addict) and came home totally free from drugs, don`t know the english word for it. Haven`t seen him like this in many years.

    And once again congratulations to the father of Tor Capa. I r happy for ju.

    – I get really excited every time I hold a camera ;)

    Alexander

  200. I’d like to hear about your creative daemons, david, or did I miss here when you may have talked about it before?

    Patricia, I looked at the loft shots last night. I like David Keenan’s presence thru-out the set. A soul with a lot of thoughts, both present and absent, here and there… I feel kinship! ;-)

    Can’t wait to see his work, and the WS results.

    Marcin, 4 more weeks……

  201. marcin luczkowski

    Herve

    you will be there four weeks?
    sorry my engish is still disaster, sometimes I am not sure what I read.

  202. AKAKY: So, who are you?

    AKAKY IRL: Come again?

    AKAKY: Kerry wants to know who you are. She’s intrigued by you.

    AKAKY IRL: There’s nothing to be intrigued about.

    AKAKY: I know that, but she doesn’t, so she wants to know who you are.

    AKAKY IRL: Beats me, pal, I’m a stranger here myself.

    AKAKY: I thought so.

  203. david b

    squarepusher!!! amon tobin!!!
    dude the little fella is gonna ROCK!

    okay TOR CAPA, this one’s for you (and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!):

    marcin

    in just 4 images you are capable of telling a story. this looks good… the atmosphere is almost “serene”, the expressions and the body language very real

    anton

  204. I will be there in 4 weeks, Friday 7th, then staying for the season in the region.

    Marcin, your english is OK, I think it’s our minds, we are all screwed up inside!….

    You will see my own english is a lot worse than written, thick accent (worse than Panos, I bet), and plus in Thailand, I do as the thais, dropping all articles and do not use tense with the verbs. Very bad. But it’s the contry of no-thought! Bob’s nivrana! I hope he goes someday, Panos too. And ALL (not just for Cathy)…. :-)))

  205. All

    I have question, very stupid but very important to me.

    I try make my photography easy and simply. I need it. That’s why I use M6 and one lens. I know why my photography is not best on the world. But still try do my job best I can. I love many kinds of photography. And my own looks like one big mess. I am useing diapositives negatives B&w and color.
    But I have to make it easier.
    My wife prefer my colors photos (she is a peinter). But color is very hard. I need good light, good backgroud, something have to inspired me, I have to be in good mood even. It is easier to make one good picture than good story. There is no sense to shoot in color in poland also.
    B&w is only positive. I don’t need special light and special conditions. B&w is easy and best for story telling.
    But B&w is not color…
    Well, the truth is I can’t decided wich one choos and I dont have right mind to use both. I have to focus I have to choose.
    Small camera one lens one film.
    simple.

    Please look at this link;
    http://marcinluczkowski.com/scans2.html

    What do you think, what should I choose?
    To be focus…
    I like Larry Towell and Alex Webb at the same level, unfortunetly…

    Thanks

    Marcin

  206. Just as a matter of curiosity, has anyone shot the Hispanic Day parade and the Columbus Day parade on 5th Ave? Which one is the more colorful? I may be able to go to one but not both and I was just wondering which one is the better to take pix of.

  207. Hello David and All,
    I believe I have finished my work about recovery women’s house in Sicily.
    It was a very difficult work because many women were not friendly and not collaborative at all, so I tried to get inside the project with kids, and I would like to express what a kid feel inside the house.The little kids spend most of their time inside the house, waiting for the mom’s get back from work.
    I tried to feel like they feel on this long waits, spending time in the house.

    what do you think?
    http://www.cristinafaramo.com/casadonpuglisi_/
    http://www.cristinafaramo.com/casadonpuglisi
    tnx

    also if you wants to try the choccolate,this is the link:

    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E3D81331F937A25755C0A9609C8B63&scp=1&sq=foodstuff%20chocolate%20don%20puglisi&st=cse

  208. 4 weeks… hmmmm… I am jealous!!!
    ———————-

    Marcin?!?!? You are also going in 4 weeks!

    The Kibbutz, what a grand old building (AND IT’S AFTER IT’s BEEN FIXED!!!!), I hope there are more shots of the place. Ceilings without ceilings, a whole universe up there?….

    Can’t look now, Panos, but will, later.

  209. – I get really excited every time I hold a camera ;)

    Alexander

    _________________________________

    ha – brilliant.. i had to show that in class today alex.. such a cheesy photographer.. all talk and no trousers..
    very funny..
    and thanks again..

    anton

    brilliant.. Tor has really got into inrainbows.. something about the base and rythem.. compelling.. really calms his boots..

    panos..

    brilliant.. want to see.. just no time.. baby crying.. thanks for the photos.. tomorrow tomorrow..

  210. CRISTINA – what a lovely project you have been working on. such intimacy and beauty in these images. i am very drawn to #1 and #3 and many more- but those pulled me in.

    PANOS – love the pix – thanks for sharing.

  211. ANTON….
    if you edit down to 6 photos…
    no music , no slideshows, no bull…
    your work is AMAZING, AWESOME, DA BOMB….
    no need for, movie crap… voiceovers & decorations…
    stay simple… EDIT HARD..5 to 7 photos…
    that will stay in anyone’s memory for good!
    hope DAH will edit… you got STYLE!

  212. ERICA:

    Thank you for writing and sharing the workshop notes!!

    DAVID:

    “HOWEVER, please all of you must know that i am also quite a disaster in many things…”

    **Laughing out loud at all the above!!!**

    I sent what you wrote above (and many other pieces of your writing) to my father, who needs some inspiration right now. His problem, I believe, is that he never found and pursued a *passion* when he was younger, and now that he is two years into his retirement, he seems lost…depressed… Anyone have any suggestions on how to make a VERY stubborn person start photographing and finding himself in older age?

    DAVID BOWEN and PATRICIA:

    Warm regards and congratulations to you for your respective celebrations!!!

    ALL:

    Anyone know financially wealthy people who love photography and the internet?? About time I introduce the Generous Alphabet Project here:

    http://generousalphabet.org/journal/who-why

    Comments, criticism appreciated!

  213. CRISTINA,
    A very beautiful and moving story. I adore 13, 16, 21…there is a story within those beautiful images…I think that it could use some moving around the photos to tell it a bit better, but I think it’s really nice.

  214. MARCIN

    You say that there is no sense to shoot in color in Poland.. man i look at your EPF project, and the prints you sent me, and I have to disagree with you amigo. I love the subdued and moody feel to your color work. You say it’s harder, so maybe you have to think more when you shoot? Like anything, with practice it becomes easier, more natural, no? I think maybe you don’t give yourself enough credit for your color work.

    I also love color and black and white (Webb/Towell.. Luczkowski/Luczkowski… whoever).. I say you are shooting well with both, just shoot which one speaks most to YOU. Maybe use the difficulty of color to push yourself. Plant yourself where there is good light and wait for the characters to appear.

    And allow yourself to change on a project by project basis. But I do think there is merit in sticking to one for a period of time instead of jumping back and forth sporadically.

    When you visualize a project, or before you go to a place, how do you visualize your photography? In color or b&w? Take that into consideration as well.

  215. TOR CAPA

    Welcome to this world of heartbreak but love, depair but often joy, sadness and always hope …Know always that the purpose of your being here is to delight in each breath you draw and the breath of all of those you love and sometimes the ones you don’t…Here is something just for you…

    ‘The Irish Blessing’

    May the rain fall softly on your fields
    May the wind always be at your back,
    May the sun shine warmly on your face,
    And may God always hold you in the palm of his hand’

    Welcome Tor Capa and good luck…

    DAVID B

    Congratulations to you and your partner!

    Is it possible that Tor Capa is the first baby born on a photographic blog?

    YOUNG TOM

    Yes, yes… a million snapshots, a million wasted emotions…

    ALL

    I am very proud to announce that ‘Beautiful Music’ was selected to be screened in Reportage Photo Festival here in Sydney. You can see some of the work here http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5035019-5007150,00.html and it runs til the end of October.

    You can see the follow up to ‘Beautiful Music’ on my website (its not quite finished yet no captions) but its called ‘Murri Gubba Yougal’ (Black-Fulla, White Fulla Song)

    Anyway I hope everyone is well and it sounds like I missed a great party, just one question when do WE get to see the latest student work?

    Cheers

  216. PANOS,

    Best ones for me in your “dark kids” are 1, 10 and possibly 2. I continue to like this topic… You should consolidate with your other pictures…

    Cheers,

    Eric

  217. The Kibbutz, Panos. Ok, sorry, but my fav’, by far, #26, “Brooklyn street”.

    Is Anna Anna B.? Was she still around? She was not in others K. galleries, no?

    DAH’s Army. Looks more like a day at the race or a tight 100M at the Olympics. First, Kyunghee, second David, who forgot to bend forward, and held to the medal by the width of a…Hair, Lance’s hair that is!

    Not entirely in your Kids portrait. Maybe the content (and intent) more than the photos themselves. It’s a tough subject, kids. you can’t please evryone, I guess. Just like me, I can’t. I won’t!

    :-)))))

  218. ERICA

    I’ve just had a look at some of your work, you’ve got some great portraits. They have a sensative nature as well as being strong with a lot of depth.

    I think I read somewhere back in this thread that you’ve just tried working with a 5×4? If that’s the case can we see these shots? (sorry I might have missed somethng – maybe you’ve already posted them?) . Anyhow, whilst it might have been a struggle I think you should go for it, try more… I once had an idea years ago now (that I never followed up on) that I would try and hand hold a mono rail 5×4 on the street! Point & shoot style…

    see what would happen…

    never did try it!

    I used to use a 5×4 when I started out. Loved the Polaroid Type 54? (the one with the b&w neg)

    Have you seen Avedon’s ‘American West’ work?
    (please forgive me if you have) In 1979 he set off ‘on the road’ with a 10×8 to document the working class of the American west.
    I love these portraits, they blew me away when I first saw them. In fact they still blow me away.

    Another dude with a 5×4 that inspired me a lot was Weegee.
    1930-1950’s hand held press style. Weegee used to prowl the streets mostly at night and documented a New York marked by mob violence, poverty, prostitution and unemployment.
    Gritty B&W flash photography. Great stuff…

    cheers

    Sam

  219. KERRY

    thanks for your comments.

    Funny you mention Byron Bay… we were heading for the Lismore area when we did our campervan trip (started from Darwin), but only got as far as Balingup (South West WA) and feel in love with the place/people…

    I’ve always wanted to get over that side, once i’ve got the Residency sorted out, it could well happen…

    So where are you when your not in Byron Bay?

    cheers

    Sam

  220. PANOS – lovely light. when did you shoot these… today? i agree with eric – I like #1 and #10.

    ALL – i went to the Avedon exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery here in DC… EXCELLENT. it’s on Power & Politics – focusing on his portrait work from many administrations, activists, writers, poets, military, etc. if you can get to DC before January 25 – it’s a must see!!

  221. GINA , ERIC, THANK YOU…
    shot those yesterday…
    HERVE, the Anna in the photo is ANNA M B J…

    ALL ,
    STAT TUNED… IN A couple of minutes i’m bringing a new
    gallery… a new LINK…
    ITS NUDES & LANDSCAPE…
    shot the last 4 says…

  222. TO ALL-

    I had bought Time Magazine last week and came across another topic from James Nachtwey…For the past months he has documented the resurgence of tuberculosis in seven countries around the world. Only few pictures into the magazine but you can check it out on the VII website… Sometimes hard to look at some pictures… worth checking.

    http://www.viiphoto.com/

    Eric

  223. PATRICIA.

    Congrats big time. That’s a real partnership you have. I’m excited about Rich and I celebrating our 20th on November 3rd…the day before the election.

    It’s looking like you’re going to have LOTS of time to spend with Obama…(for real, not just in photos) like the next 8 years :))

    HERVE.

    I may have liked it better when it was “just for Cathy” :))

    Never been to Thailand believe it or not. Gotta get there. 2009 doesn’t look like a time for travel…unless I win the lottery. I was on a roll for so many years…buying a house in New Mexico may not have been such a great idea after all :((

    BYRON BAY CROWD. SAM/KERRY.
    Lots of my India buddies live there. Have planned to go for a long while. Sam, we’ll have to compare notes on India one day soon.

    PANOS.
    The forest set is very dreamy. Seems UN-real.

  224. CATHY

    sounds good to me! any time…

    but I warn you, once I get started on India it’s difficult to stop…

  225. Panos, Gina and Anna Maria, thanks for appreciated my work.
    I would like to know if the story works or if I need to change the editing, what do you think?

    Thanks a lot
    Baci

  226. DAVID

    I can’t conjure the words to thank you enough for your generosity. Thank you. That’s all I came up with.

    GINA

    It was so wonderful to meet you… a woman who travels a party with a dedicated bottle of wine is thinking several moves ahead, and earns my eternal admiration… You had me in stitches with your Look3 stories… thank you!! I’m going to every future Look3 until I’m overcome by my dotage, so I’ll see you next Spring, God willing!!

    AKAKY

    Can you trade your current imaginary parasitic twin in for a greener model? Or at least a less petulant model. :)))

    n.b. use of emoticons indicate jocosity

    PATRICIA

    It was so nice to meet you… I’m glad you enjoyed Brooklyn!! and thank you for the photos.

    PANOS

    What the fuck, man… I thought we had a scientific expedition planned at the Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge… I brought a flashlight, a notebook and everything. Next time for sure.

    BOB

    Sent you an email… thank you for your kindness and your kind words. Love to you and Marina.

    KYUNGHEE LEE

    It was a pleasure to meet you, and I can’t wait for your book… you speak my language. Good luck in Paris!

    TOR CAPA BOWEN

    Happy birthday.

    MARCIN

    I don’t have an answer… though I think one of your gifts is handling color. “Black and white” is color too, a restricted palette… do you show the mechanics of your pictures, en grisaillle, or do you seduce with color, tromp l’oeil… one is part of the other… maybe you are stuck, schizophrenically, to do both, until one or the other prevails??

    CORI

    Thank you for your workshop report!

    ERICA

    Two things… first, I’m really curious about your opinion of The Americans… for me it was a life changing experience, but I was at an impressionable age… I have too many thoughts about the pictures to write on a blog… they would either seem incoherent or excessive…

    Once you know the pictures, though, I think you will see them everywhere… their influence was the air that photographers breathed in the 60’s and 70’s…

    Second, I do think your American 4×5 pictures are a fantastic start… I hope you do pursue the tack!!! Difficult, sure… but with time, you’ll be able to exploit it’s gifts/treasures… and they are rich.

    ALL

    Larry Fink has some pictures in the current “Entertainment Weekly” (?!?)… a Tina Fey profile.

    I have no new photos posted… still figuring things out for my view camera project… it turns out the camera needs a new bellows, and while the elf at Lens and Repro is hand-crafting a replacement, I’m doing some research, looking at photos, and I’ve pulled my watercolors out of storage…. I’m fallow.

  227. SAM, KERRY, OTHER OZZIES and OZ-ophiles

    I don’t know how much names like Byron Bay and Lismore mean to other forum members, but they mean plenty to me… this is one part of OZ I know pretty well, I have slept and eaten and lazed around in both places… spent some time here in the mid 90s, explored a lot of NE NSW and SE Queensland, have good friends in Murwillimbah, Canungra, Nimbin, Brisbane, and Moreton Bay, thought seriously about emigrating there. And I felt quite like Alice in Wonderland in Armidale… it is a southern hemisphere doppelganger for Moscow, Idaho, which is one of my main ‘hometowns’.

    Anyone who hasn’t been to Australia… you don’t know what you’re missing! Find a way, and go!

  228. LISA H

    Speaking of OZ… congratulations for having some of your photos chosen for this classy exhibit. I had seen a few of the ‘Beautiful Music’ pictures before, but not the whole series… really well done, Lisa! I can see why the two that are up on the news website were chosen, they have good ‘tableau’ ensemble composition and I quite like them as images, but there is more telling emotional content in some of your other photos in the series. Kudos to the choir director Peter for his dedication, passion, and compassion.

  229. Marcin, I know what you mean; I too like Larry Towell and Alex Webb. Many of my photography books are in B&W – probably because many photographers choose to shoot with the medium – although I have many in colour including David’s Cuba and James Stanfield’s Eye of the Beholder. Try to see the book Circle of Life which includes some good colour work.

    I noticed that almost all of your colour photographs just posted are were not taken in Poland and again, I understand: I live in the North of England and right now it’s as if someone has turned the lights out outside or rather has turned the colour of the light out! Colour is rarely vivid in northern climes – more muted.

    Have you seen the work of Ernst Hass? His use of early Kodachrome (ISO 12) is wonderful and his style, which included long exposures was often a requirement of the slow film speed. We would now call it “loose”. He did some work in New York as I remember and it was (and is) wonderful. Colour is harder because it can affect the mood of a photograph. Susan Meiselas (can we have her attend a loft party David) photographed war in Nicaragua in colour and at the time some said that it would have been more “serious in B&W. Of course now almost everything is captured in colour even if it is subsequently converted to B&W later. For me, when you get “the” colour photograph it can’t be beaten – but they can be few and far between. It is easier to build a volume of work in B&W because you can choose a look for your photographs and carry the same look to subsequent shots where with colour you have to take what you get to a certain extent.

    I like your work Marcin.

    Mike R.

  230. Christ Sidney? Armidale??? I once had my heart broken by a girl from Armidale , walking beneath the jackarandah’s , let me down hard , rather go with a footballer she said , but then fell into the arms of a stoner girl from Mullimbimby ,, did you know that it was on the HMAS Armidale thatr leading seaman Teddy Shehan won his postumous Victoria Cross for strapping himself to his okeleron gun and was still blazing away at the attacking zeros as the ship slipped beneath the Timor sea?
    too bad you did’nt emigrate we need more sanity in the gene pool!
    Sister Lisa – congrats on reportage I hope you have a fine night and knowing a little first hand of what you went through , I hope the ABC does an Australian Story on you.

  231. Guys

    Many thanks for advise. I know it’s stupid question, but somehow I feel I should choose one medium for my work. And I still have no idea which one.
    Hmmm. decision in not my strongest point…

    My photography have one big problem. It is sitting in my head and it’s called “interpersonal reltions”. For me exist only photography of people, but I have problem to create situation for shooting.
    But I am working on it.

    Right now I have little breake. I am working for hospice documetaring events. Must run.
    I am late.

  232. “PLAIN” MIKE – good to hear from you. look forward to seeing you again at LOOK.

    PANOS – dig the new work – very inviting, seductive and lovely.

    CRISTINA – let me look at the link again…..

  233. CRISTINA – i think i would take out the chocolate images. i understand why they are in there – but i think it breaks up the flow too much. or try by interspersing the 3 chocolate images in the story – not together. try that and see how the flow works. if not, i would edit them out.

  234. It’s beautiful in NYC, and I still have this evil cold..forgive my less than coherent ramblings.

    ERIC

    “considering..my love-hate relationship with computers…I might be done by the next decade :)” exactly..we ARE on parallel paths!

    GINA

    you showed Kim you Mex work, right under my nose? unfair!! :)I am looking forward to seeing it…no pressure though, not from this compassionate slow moving snail!

    ANTON

    2/day is a good take I think..

    LASSAL

    I hope your head is improved. It’s so hard to work creatively with a headache.

    MARTIN and ANTON

    re 4×5 on the road /empty places..this is what I am trying to sort out; if it isn’t that hard to make equally strong shots with MF, what is the point of the 4×5 for this type of image? It should be more powerful, more stunning, more commanding if I am to go to the expense and bother of shooting 4×5. My guess is that there are quiet secrets about the format that I just don’t know yet..I actually got the camera for the assignment street portrait project, and learned on the fly to use the camera, and considering, there are some strong images in 4×5..are they better than the MF? I don’t think so, but they do fit in equally, while offering a slightly different perspective. So Anton I don’t really have a good answer, other than I felt the need to see in this way, or rather, to see if I could see in this way for the places..it’s not so hard for me with people, but it’s another story to find the emotion of a place, even tho it is right there, empty, sad/ forgotten, left behind or unused..

    SAM

    The experiments in looseness I was talking about weren’t intended to generate final photos per se (“I also shot way more crap than I would have otherwise”)but to inform and serve future work in your (my) traditional working method. The link to the empty space stuff in 4×5 is below, but this isn’t what I normally do..I bought the 4×5 for my recent street portrait project..and yes, I too am deeply inspired by Avedon and that series..I still find it to be a testament to what is possible…and a bar of achievement set very high to keep reaching towards..

    MICHAEL R

    Funny you should mention Bruce Davidson’s East 100th Street; I think I am more in awe of that body of work than any other. I feel as if grace and discipline came together perfectly in that series..and it will never again be doable in the same way. It’s absolutely perfect I think. Yes, he shot a lot of film, and worked for quite some time on this, but that is what it takes..

    I would (very, very, much) like to try to use the 4×5 this way, shooting people in their spaces or as environmental portraits, as social documents, but it seems at this moment a herculean task, one that will escape the reach of my time and money constraints, and perhaps my talent too. But life can be long, will many opportunities unknown..

    I don’t really like empty places images either! Yes, to some extent I do, but only if they are excellent, and my 10 frames certainly are not that. Still, I am intrigues by the POSSIBILITY of gaining insight into this way. I am drawn to this side of America, and think there is room for me to explore this, if only in bits over time. I am not sure why I even shared my first foray into this, who in their right mind shares the first 10 frames of anything new, except that I did it in the interest of community and in learning..

    Despite the cost, I ordered a copy of Gypsies..I couldn’t see a good reason to live without it for another moment. This too is ‘perfect’ work..

    KYUNGHEE

    It is good that you are safely home, thought you must be tired!

    KRISTEN

    Thank you..I think 40 days is close to what I intended, though it was, production-wise, absolutely ridiculous, so there are many shortcomings that I can see..the images were taken in one spot in the doorway of the church, and the only time parishioners were there was to enter or to leave church, meaning a big rush of people. So even tho it was taken over the Lent season, 40 days, I had just seconds to stop people and gain their cooperation and then keep a bunch of other people from entering / leaving the church through the door or stepping into the frame. I shot the TLR with one hand a lot, using my other like a football player to ‘bounce’ people out of the frame..it was quite funny really, and would have been more so if it wasn’t so frustrating..

    KIM

    XO, really..I’m going to email you to see if we can find some time to get together..am VERY interested to see your short!

    KERRY

    I was just a wee gal when I took the GD pics, but seeing as they are no more, I thought it was ok to include them on my site, glad you feel them..

    AKAKY

    I have shot at the NYC Columbus day parade..not very colorful, but easy enough..

    ERIC

    did you see the MM piece that went along with this? from TED? http://hub.witness.org/en/node/8902 On this link there are things people can do, sign a letter, circulate the mm piece, etc.

    MIKE

    Though I haven’t seen the whole body of work, I’ve seen enough of the Americans to KNOW I will love it and if I give it time to sink into me it will forever change me..I’m still (and hopefully always will be at “impressionable age”). :)

    MARCIN

    why do you feel you should choose one medium? Yes, it helps to focus, but it is also very freeing to do different things, each can inform the other..this is what I am doing right now, shooting 35, MF and LF, and I guess digital too :( and it feels right for me..and obviously this is what DAH is doing with his Family project, mixing formats..but if you confused by shooting many mediums, just close your eyes and feel your images, quietly, deeply..sit with the feeling for a long time, and then move to seeing what they look like
    on the surface..the surface needs to serve the content and the intent..

    The link to the above mentioned 4×5 experiment is here

    http://www.ericamcdonaldphoto.com
    private galleries
    login erica, password erica (case sensitive)
    american 4×5

  235. ALL

    everything has it’s good sides. Even headaches and sleepless nights.

    After my photo-marathon on the two first days of Helsinki, that left me somewhat empty and unfulfilled, I changed my method and the concept for a try for the remaining days and did just 1 portrait a day!
    It is not about just taking one portrait a day but it is about spending more time with the people there where this is possible. I do not always have the chance of doing so but sometimes I do. And I will use it from now on, to make the encounters more special.

    So the janitor of the Olympic Stadium has a brother who runs one of the two only left public saunas of Helsinki: a marvelous little place. And he led me to yet another person and place…

    Love it!

    And to make changes complete, now I ask people not to write about what makes the place on the postcard special, but to choose a postcard, where they can tell me a little personal story about (the place). So it is almost the same but the other way around. I always buy whatever different postcards I can get for my “encounters” anyway… And this approach not only works better – thus is easier to be understood, but it makes the writing of the cards easier too. People dream, laugh, tell a whole lot more of stories, wonder which one they should write… To make it short: it makes a memorable NEW story to them. And to me.

    And I love this too.

    It even get’s easier to do the portrait afterwards (until now I always did the portrait first, now I swiched).

    Better to have less portraits and better “content” than the other way around.

    It now is getting really funny and interesting for a 3rd party too – I mean for someone who is not directly involved to read the cards and to see the portraits that go with it.

    So I am happy as can be! :)
    Just the gear problem left to be solved …

    And now I am going to a finish party. Let’s see what this is all about. :)

    BTW Anton, and all the nice strangers from this blog who announced a postcard (hope you have not sent it by now), I am gathering all the major information and links on my homepage of DARK. Just to make it easier.

    http://dark.lassal.de/
    Adress is either in the general description of the project:

    http://dark.lassal.de/projects/a-strangers-wish/

    or under “contact”
    http://dark.lassal.de/contact/

    Really hope you will join in now!!! Bob, Erica, Anton, David B … looking forward to hear from you!!!
    And everybody else please feel welcome too.

    All my best from Helsinki,
    Lassal

  236. ANTON

    SUGAR IS A DREAM!!!!!!!! I am in AWE of what you have done here. I swear, man, to my eyes (and heart), you are done. I can’t imagine what more would need to be said. The flow of the images, the perfect use of text, the music that does not intrude but moves the story forward. I have only one suggestion: I’d omit image #1 and let image #2 start the piece.

    You have the most amazing eye, my friend. How you see and capture what you do in the midst of an “ordinary” life is astounding. I want to see this shown on a BIG screen at a photo festival like LOOK3. May it happen…

    love
    Patricia

  237. CATHY

    Oh, sister! You have really captured the energy, excitement, optimism and beauty that seems to surround our next President wherever he goes!!! And I agree with the rest–this is an essay to be proud of! You go, grrrrrl!!!!!

    Patricia

  238. AKAKY: Did you know that?

    AKAKY IRL: Did I know what?

    AKAKY: That emoticons indicate jocosity.

    AKAKY IRL: Is that so? Can you get shots for it?

    AKAKY: For jocosity? I imagine you can, unless they’ve something that keeps it under control the way insulin controls diabetes.

    AKAKY IRL: Is that so? My my my, well, you learn something new every day, dont you? I hear you’ve been asking about color down at the Columbus Day Parade, too.

    AKAKY: Where’d you hear that?

    AKAKY IRL: I get around.

    AKAKY: Like hell you do.

    AKAKY IRL: I get around enough to hear things every now and then. What do you care about colorful, anyway? Weren’t you going to shoot this thing in black and white? If you’re doing monochrome what difference does it make if the parade is colorful?

    AKAKY: I was thinking about black and white; I hadn’t thought the whole thing through yet.

    AKAKY IRL: I’d go on Monday. Sausage and peppers beat empanadas any day of the week.

    AKAKY: Says you, and if we’re going, it won’t be because of your culinary preferences.

    AKAKY IRL: What do you mean, if we’re going? I thought this parade thing was set.

    AKAKY: I thought you might change your mind. It wouldnt be the first time you’ve done that, you know.

    AKAKY IRL: This is true, you got me there.

    AKAKY: And you should stop being so damn petulant. Everyone has noticed your damn mood swings and they’re starting to rub people the wrong way.

    AKAKY IRL: No kidding? I thought they were talking about you.

    AKAKY: Like hell they were.

  239. PANOS

    Excellent work, my friend!!! Your depiction of “The Kibbutz” captures the feeling of both loud & quiet, day & night, solitary & crowded times. Oddly enough, the photo that grabbed me the most was the Hasidic man walking on the street below. But that is not to say there aren’t a whole lot of other winners. You are damn good!!!

    “Dark Children Revisited” is stunning. You manage to capture the true faces/feelings of these youngsters with no artifice. They must recognize you as one of their own…

    love
    Patricia

  240. CRISTINA

    You have created a poignant, powerful essay where feelings come through your images and grab our hearts. You have managed to avoid all sentimentality and stayed true to the moment. I salute you for doing this important work. Brava!

    Patricia

  241. panos..

    dark kids and forest snaps have some great ones within them.. i think they leap out and others have already pointed you there.
    also – the DAH fiesta photos have something about them.. good, good.
    i’m guessing this is a project you will run with.. christmas on venice would be interesting to see..
    are you going to do an edit soon?.. would be great to see how the work is going to come together as a final piece..

    cristina

    lovely work.. very interesting perspective you throw onto the subject.. great.

    alexander

    any new snaps ready to post?

    ALL

    i am utterly behind on catching links here..

    ANTON
    could you repost your link? really want to see … no time to look..
    BABY BOY
    i’m down to 168 photos from Tor Capas labour and birth.. getting there.. trying to add a little humour.. show a little of the love affair which led to his being.. once the birth and labour photos are down i’ll show them.

    right.. leaving now..

  242. LISA

    BIG CONGRATS TO YOU & BEAUTIFUL MUSIC!!! I have loved that essay since first seeing it several months ago. I am so happy for you and for the people in the chorus that their commitment and transformative efforts will be seen and felt by so many. This is exactly why we do what we do…

    love
    Patricia

  243. ERICA

    The equipment may be awkward to schlepp around but the results make it worthwhile. Beautiful clarity & color…not to mention your wonderful artist’s eye! Look forward to seeing more.

    love
    Patricia

  244. david alan harvey

    ALL….

    i will be photographing particularly heavy all weekend and for the next 10 days…i will try to do a new post by monday, but please understand my absence much of the time…

    some of my work, and the work of other Magnum photographers covering America right now will be up on a new blog linked off of the Magnum website starting tomorrow i think..we are scrambling to make this happen…most of us will be posting pictures daily….

    before i go to Mexico on the 25th, we will have the Digital Railroad all set up for you…for those of you shooting stories, please try to have your work edited down to 50 or fewer pictures if possible…if not, i will help you….your presentations for the jury of EPF will probably be around 30 photographs….we can work together for the best presentation…

    as the financial world crumbles we must not stop….we must all figure out ways to keep doing what we do….

    please have a great weekend….i will be back as soon as possible…

    cheers et al, david

  245. Inspired as always by my friend ERICA McDONALD, who said above, “I did it in the interest of community and in learning,” I’d love to get feedback on a new gallery on my site http://www.andrew-sullivan.com/main.php .
    I was recently in Brazil and managed to get five days to start a project I hope to continue on the origin of samba.

    An aside to Cristina’s story above, a shop here used to sell the chocolate from casa don puglisi. My fiancee and I were addicted to its rustic texture and pleasure-inducing qualities. The shop’s now closed and we miss that incredible stuff. Now with Cristina’s photos, I couldn’t be happier to know that by feeding my chocolate habit, I was actually supporting a good cause too!

  246. For me exist only photography of people
    ————————————

    Marcin, I agree with all that you have a thing with color, whereas black and white might be very well fitting a subject, and be “the” feel-right medium, not just for you that is, but from everything I see, a lot of black and white is just that, B&W, aptly processed and better, but there is not often such a personal mark as to the handling of the mono chromes and grays. Then, it’s up to the strentgh of the subject to make that mark.

    I think there is something of a visceral struggle within you, how to best express yourself. Maybe the choice is not so much about the comparative esthetics of B&W vs color. there is at the same time no, and too much comparativeness.

    I am truly curious what effect Thailand/Bangkok will have on you, as a photographer. There is an effervescence, an exhuiberance that seem, on the surface, anti-thetical to your many approaches to places and people, as I have seen it.

    Of note, I do not know so far anyone who has given from thailand, the kind of pictures that David has done with Divided soul.

    For our defense, Buddhism doesn’t recognize the existence of a soul…. ;-)

  247. DAVID

    try to have your work edited down to 50 or fewer pictures
    ————

    50 pictures?!?!? All, we have been at it with this editing thingo for 2 years. Time to show some result.

    Come on! Make David proud, edit down to 12 to 20, and that’s too much already (20). We are not talking book here. I am trying to edit 3 years of LOVEFEST so I have a little shit to show you, and 16 will be plenty. The problem is not editing, it’s tying stuff together. Mine won’t, but Patricia ordered me to share, and you always obey your….Mom! :-)

    50!!! That’s stuffing, not editing… :-)

  248. MARCIN,
    great first bubble photo!!

    ANDREW S….
    do i need password… ?
    cant wait to see your photos… you are probably the finest
    photographer in this blog… i didnt know much about you…
    till i briefly met you in NY…you are one of the finest…
    its just the layout of this kind of website that creeps me out…
    you have nothing to hide… and a lot to reveal…
    fuck passwords or fears… like i said… unless its
    my sis Patricia or You…
    im not dealing with anyone elses paswwords…
    let them hide…
    im tired of PHONIES AND SECRET , DOUBLE FACED-
    double life password junkies..

    god damn… people, stop putting passwords..
    it gets annoying… what do you have to HIDE ????
    i swear to god ( except for Patricia’s site ),
    when i see a password request i navigate away

    ALL , reveal yourselfs… do not act that you are so GOOD for the rest of us… thats not “private”, thats rude, elitistic and uneducated…
    i’ve had it with all those fake photo “rock stars”…

    ps: again, ANDREW S.. i will never forget what you did for me
    NY… I DO OWE YOU…

    ALL,
    today i woke up and i find my car BURIED IN SNOW…
    im far from LA… my phone doesnt work… no phone calls or
    texts accepted … no reception…but i can steal some internet connection.. so people please email me… i will try to retrieve
    messages tomorrow night…. i live in a complete isolation for
    the moment… so different , right after the crazy NY experience!!!

    peace…
    gotta go , find wood for the fireplace…
    GOT WOOD????

    David B,
    the editing will be done by the MASTER…
    im not even gonna try , for now…
    ;-)
    how is THE BABY ???

  249. ANDREW SULLIVAN

    Love your samba photos from Salvador. For many years Salvador has long been among my favorite ‘places I’ve never been,’ and I can’t see how anyone can go wrong with this subject… but you are really doing it justice. The pictures in the slideshow that had the most impact and interest for me and seemed to tell the samba story the most directly were numbers 1, 3, 7, 10, and 12. Especially 3, I’m crazy about this picture. Very ‘Allardesque.’ Hope you can get back to Brazil soon… I have spent many years in long-distance romances and I know their sweet sorrows…

  250. PANOS

    Almost missed the link to IN THE FOREST. So glad I didn’t. It is beautiful. Tender and respectful…just like you.

    Patricia

    Hey, Pat…
    i hope you liked your “SMILING” portraits of yours in the Kibbutz..
    you are RADIANT..
    i love you!

  251. Herve

    I am courious also. Im morocco I was blocked. So we’ll see how it will rok in Thailand.

    Erica

    Your 4×5 very interesting. I like this kind of photography. I’ll be waiting for more.

    Lance

    I have to choose because when I work in color I don’t think about project/essay I think about color only.
    Color of wall is more important than story for me. When I shoot color I miss for story. But when I shoot B&w and I see some colorful scene I think myself “fu..k why I don’t have my color films”

    Yes I know, I am hesitated.

    Panos

    Fuck! Your dark kids! outstanding!!!

    Mike

    Thanks. Your words are always important to me.
    Yes I feel schizophrenically…
    I have to find solution…

    Cristina

    very nice photos. Number 10! Amazing!!

    Anton

    Color? ehhhhh… still have no idea… shit…
    :)

    Michael

    Yes, Susan Meiselas’s works are great. Last time I just fall in love Lise Sarfati’s work. heavens! I wish to have work like she have. And this color!
    Hmmm… yes…. this color…
    I am working on velvias, but maybe I should work on other films? We’ll see…

    Erica

    Thanks, You are always wise in your words.

    David Bowen

    I have problem with comment frist time but I hope it not too late for congratulations!
    Tor Capa… excelent name!

    all
    one more thanks for advice. I have all puzzles on place just have to close all of this stuff and feel free.

    David dear friend,

    Photography is most important, but don’t forget about us!!
    I am courious what you did last time. Well I am sure it will be great masterpiece!

    peace for all

  252. marcin luczkowski

    Shit… my english is deteriorated… I have no time to keep it used… I apologize… All of you…

  253. PANOS

    I guess I do have a rather LARGE smile. Goes with my big mouth ;~O
    Thanks for the pics. Saturday was a very special day…especially our time together at lunch.

    love you,
    Patricia

  254. PANOS

    Now settle down, dear bro. There are lots of good reasons for password-protected galleries, none of them–in this group anyway–having to do with being a phony. I know I use them for works-in-progress that I want this community to review. I also use them for galleries that I only want to share with a selected few. Not everything we post on the internet has to be laid open for the entire world to see or read. Can’t we exercise our right to have a bit of privacy? Of course we can.

    Now just chill out, dear one, and sit in front of your fireplace with your sweetheart at your side. Isn’t snow beautiful?

    love
    Patricia

  255. PATRICIA…
    yes, totally… some of your words still echo in my mind…
    special day.. our lunch…
    you are no fake, no phonie, no double face…
    ONLY MIRROR…
    THATS WHY YOUR WORK…. is superb…
    REAL… you are no hiding behind fancy leicas or LARGE medium elitistic formats or cameras …
    or lame excuses…
    i hope everyone will “discover” Patricias honesty and strength…

    LOOKING AT THE MIRROR WITH NO MAKE UP????????

    how many of YOU (OR US ) are able to do that???
    huhhh???
    everyone is trying to show us their philosophy about the world,
    their ARTISTRY, how well they can FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS
    and develop a freaky film in the dark…big deal…
    chemists , not photographers…
    THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE… CHEMISTS…
    well, i got news for you..
    stick your chemicals to your fancy white asses… elitists,
    phonies…

    PATRICIA,
    thanks again for teaching them a lesson…. keep doin it…
    keep teaching them,
    lets see if they ever GONNA GET IT…

    once again Pat..
    you are an OASIS up in this motherfucker…
    you are an OASIS in hear…
    you heard …???????????????????????????????????????

  256. Patricia does have a beautiful smile. In fact she radiates even more warmth and kindness in person. Great to meet you, Patricia, and your co-pilot Pat.

    PANOS- don’t fear, my friend, no password needed for the gallery I was talking about. It’s at the top of the page and is viewable even on your iPhone!
    Andrew

  257. MY BRO PANOS

    PULEEZE…I pick my nose, lie when it suits me, can be a real bitch to Ed, arbitrarily dislike folks with McCain/Palin signs on their front lawns, etc. etc.

    TRUST ME, Patricia can be a real prick so please don’t put me on any pedestals. That’s a set-up for a fall…

    Patricia

  258. gotcha Andrew …
    Pat, sorry i got frustrated for no reason…
    i just cant stand private galleries or private people…
    although i love privacy and i’m more private than you
    can imagine…
    but im working on it…
    ;-)))
    thats why im angry… im angry with my own “private” side
    of my own life…
    ( sorry, but once again im using this forum AS A THERAPY
    SESSION… only GOD knows how much i need it…
    peace

  259. ANDREW –

    your opening and closing images are wonderful. and i like your use of color – very strong! nice work my friend!

  260. PRESTON

    Wanted to thank you for your words of encouragement at the DAH party…

    ERICA/ALL

    One of the many things I love about The Americans is the sense of narrative it has as a whole. While any one of the photographs could be pulled out as a specific statement, there is also a complex web of associations, resonances and foreshadowings and restatements that tie the work into an almost mythic, or psychological, narrative whole. It somehow operates just under the (my) conscious, occasionally breaking that surface. I see the cars and jukeboxes and crosses and flags, but there is also the decapitated man and light as redemptive force… symbols and proxies and little leitmotifs that move the narrative somewhere else, and still surprise me even now, emerging from nowhere. Things begin to change… the flag is a shroud, gas pumps are tombstones… and he does this simply by arranging photographs.

    And almost by accident, as if it’s unavoidable, he indicts a racist, fractured, alienating, hypocritical society and this I see as a byproduct of another facet of the book… as a rebuttal, or response to The Family of Man. I’ve just recently been thinking about this… Frank was Steichen’s assistant at the beginning of his project (Frank’s portrait with his first wife is on page 9, and he has some photos in the book, most notably, to me, a group picture of very happy, smiling hamburger eaters… amazing, a very R. Frank photograph and very not, at the same time.) As a post-war political piece, the Family of Man is a brilliant piece of propaganda… doesn’t it set America and the West in a benevolent, parental role… doesn’t it define a normative “family” and its roles, and he benefits of “buy-in”?

    The two books are interesting to compare. The imprimatur of the collective voice vs. the individual’s critique. Sandburg vs. Kerouac, Pictures grouped on a page vs. one image per page (direct vs. ambiguous equivalences), where does art stop and propaganda begin, where is the “truth” in each book, does photography define reality or is it the other way around, etc….

    But the elephant in the room, the final question the comparison asks is: How do you reconcile the Family of Man with Jim Crow America?

    MARCIN

    Wonderful series… last picture of the child with the bubbles in the rynek is beautiful! I was thinking about color and black and white some more…. Many years ago I did a project in a bowling alley (Kenmore Bowladrome in Boston… I’m sure it’s long gone now) I did this with a view camera, portraits in black and white w/flash and environmental pictures in color available light and it worked, I think… somewhat of a jolt, but color (sickly flourescent/daylight/incandescent mix) was a break in the portrait repetition.

    AKAKY/AKAKY IRL
    If you’re in midtown on Monday around lunchtime would you want to shoot the parade as a team of three? Oh, the jocosity!

  261. ERICA – kim and i were sitting in the stairwell – i don’t know how you missed us. friday was so crazy to show my work and i did not have it with me on saturday… sorry.

  262. DAVID

    I cant think of any military families off the top of my head, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that my father is a retired Marine. He when in the service at 17, my grandmother had to sign for him. And he was in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He is living in Beaufort, S.C. Of course you would find al lot of military families in that area since that is where the Marine Recruit Depot (Parris Island) and also a Marine airbase.

    If you decide to head that way let me know… I will help out if I can.

  263. MIKE

    Interesting reading your take on ‘Family of Man’ in comparison with Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans.’ It reminds me of how differently different generations see things. In the early to mid Sixties, the ‘Family of Man’ exhibition and the book which came out of it were seen as very liberal, internationalist, left-wing stuff… on a similar wavelength with people like Pete Seeger, Henry Wallace, the Progressive Party, Eleanor Roosevelt… and it was the one photo book that almost every liberal intellectual in New York owned… I’m not saying your analysis is at all wrong, but it shows how far we have come… that was before the civil rights revolution led by Martin Luther King, before the gender revolutions, before gays came out of the closet, before the hippy movement or the anti-Vietnam War movement. It certainly was a piece of gross propaganda, but I never thought at the time that it was extolling the virtues of American consumerist capitalism… rather, it was the holdover of a rather superficial (in retrospect) popular ideology of a United Front against Fascism that had defeated Hitler, Mussolini, and Imperial Japan. In some ways I see ‘Family of Man’ as something of a throwback, something of a retrospective for the mood of an era that had already passed or was passing, an era exemplified by the films of Frank Capara 10 or fifteen years earlier. Well, there’s lots, lots more to be thought and said o the subject, thanks for bringing it up

  264. marcin

    &

    panos.

    WORD.. thanks for the kind wishes marcin – always a pleasure and less than a week old – just in time.. his 1st (week) birthday on monday.. cake and ice cream all round.
    panos – he’s doing great.. such a good natured baby.. we’ve been out at a dinner party and he slept thoughout.. not a grumle, and only a coupl,e of mumbles..
    hopefully he was dreaming of flying on a dinosaur through castle shaped clouds, although more likely he dream’t of the inside of his pram.

    he does’nt know what a dinosaur is yet.. poor chap..

    ANTON the great.

    love the mixture of words and thoughts..
    ‘barbie dolls and trampolines..”
    rockin.. just great.
    i like your style of snapping very much.. pieces of the whole.. energy.. colour.. some interesting layering and a gentle flow to the story as it moves alone.. the turbulent life of a child interspersed with the somehow adult interjections of medical needs..
    well done mate.

  265. patricia

    somewhere in among the dirty nappies i missed your good news..
    42 years.. i’m blown away.. fantastic.. you beauty.. wonderful.

    really hope i get over in may to meet you guys.. inspiring relationship.. lovelovelove..

  266. mike & sidney

    i think i have always looked at the family of man in much simpler terms.. as a collection which shows the majority in the west who could not afford to travel to these locations what the rest of the world was like.
    it’s a product of it’s time, for certain, and would appeal to the left and liberal mind like ice-cream to a child.. and thats why i like it.
    it is without cynicism.. lacks irony and although with modern eyes that can make it look twee and obvious, i think that adds to the collections charm.

    a school friends mother had the original catalog – and it inspired me greatly as a teen.. which makes me wonder – does it not still do the job?
    if the intention was to inspire minds and educate on the nature of relative reality then i think it succeeded and succeeds to this day, up to a point.
    illustrate the common themes through nature which bind all humans together is classic, – produced at a time when the world had been ripped apart that only adds to the books power, for me.

    in places it may pander to stereotype.. as a collection, though, with the multiple photos on each page, it overwhelms me with it’s diversity.. hectic photos illustrating the chaos of the planet.. with all beings undergoing the same relative strains and troubles in different ways.

    the americans i love to read, and as a narrative it’s all there.. the american life arranged on plates which just blend from page to page.. mirror each other.. flow.. lovely stuff..
    looking at franks exhibition at the tate a few years ago was compelling, as his narratives became more challenging.. more complex and much less obvious… knowing the ‘story’ of storylines makes the work far more accessible for me, and lends an explanation to the feeling which the exhibit-book inspires.. reflections of my own family and history..

    it was storylines i had in mind when i wore my late fathers dress coat to bring my lover and newborn son home from hospital on wednesday, as a matter of fact.

    although completely at odds in terms of subject matter i would have loved to get martin parr and robert frank together for a beer.. parr’s ‘home and abroad’ dissection of the english middle class and franks on-the-road inquirey of the american dream draws comparisons in my mind.

    guessing parrs gentle manor and franks no-bullshit or frills attitude it’d be great to hear what they get from each others work.
    i’d even buy the beers.

  267. lassal

    i’ve been remiss and not yet sent a postcard.. will do .. will send a photo i have taken..

    erica..

    utterly agree with you regarding the use of different formats..
    i think i learn’t more from building obscura cameras and pinholes than anything else withing photography.. lucky to take one photo a day.. a great fun.. if you’re me.

    convenience became key for me.. i have used medium format in nightclubs.. it was a nightmare.. the results were adorable 6×6 colour slides, mostly portraits, although practically speaking i could not do what i wanted to do.. and so 35mm had to be.

    i admire anyone who pushes the boat out with larger formats.. only yesterday i was chatting with a friend about nick waplingtons
    ‘living room’ book.. documentation of the love and times of 2 working class families in nottingham england, much praised by avedon, which was shot on a mamiya rb…
    now then.. that must have been a right pain in the arse.

    superb book by the way.. i’ve a tasty first edition on my shelf, now my junk is over form england.
    http://www.amazon.com/Living-Room-Nick-Waplington/dp/0893814814

    as it happens we’re training students at collage in the use of RZ’s right now.. as well as darkroom workshops..
    now seen as ‘vintage technique’ it’s amazing that only 8 or 9 years ago things were so different..
    photography is so young.. digital in it’s infancy.. these ‘old’ techniques and formats have made a comeback i think.. and a new generation is keen to enjoy them all.. give it another 100 years and been if the ‘electronic eye’ currently in development has gone to market, there will still be a demand for the equipment i think.

  268. MIKE / SIDNEY / ALL

    No time now for personal commentary on the above, but certainly this has been long discussed, and am happy to see the discussion continuing here..an excerpt from a paper by Timothy Roy Gleason, gives more background to those new to the discussion..more of the paper here..sorry for the long post, but I agree this is interesting /important..
    http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9810D&L=aejmc&P=786

    To understand how photojournalism continued to
    develop in the 1950s, it is useful to understand it in the context of photography in general. The tensions within photography-especially photojournalism-can be seen by examining an exhibition, “The Family of Man,” and a book, The Americans. The former was initially successful but later criticized, and the latter was initially unpopular but became a model for many for many
    photographers. “The Family of Man” took an American view of the world, while the The Americans was a Swiss photographer’s view of America.

    John Szarkowski, curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, identified three important events of the 1950s which have impacted American photography the most. The first event was the founding of Aperture magazine in 1952. It was an outgrowth of the formalism which survived the 1930s. Next on Szarkowski’s list was “The Family of Man” exhibition, which was the creation of MoMA in 1955.[21] According to Szarkowski, “The Family of
    Man,” directed by Edward Steichen, marked the tension between photographers’ creative visions and the demands of editors and curators. “Although delighted to see photography so demonstratively appreciated, many photographers were distressed that the individual character of their own work had been sacrificed to the requirements of a consistent texture for the huge tapestry of the exhibition.”The exhibition was widely popular with Americans who did not normally visit museums.

    Steichen, who was Szarkowski’s predecessor, created a body of work accessible to the average American but excluded aesthetically experimental photographs. Instead of contemplating the popular abstract paintings of the time, visitors
    went to see many journalistic-style photographs which they were already familiar with. Many of the exhibited photographs were borrowed from the archives at LIFE, and many journalistic photographs were on display from other sources.

    The third event Szarkowski identified was the publication of Robert Frank’s book, The Americans, which was first released in France in 1958, then in the United States the following year. Born in 1924, Frank was raised in Switzerland
    and came to the United States in 1947 looking for work as a photographer. With the support of well-known photographers Walker Evans, Alexey Brodovitch and Steichen, Frank was awarded Guggenheim grants for 1955 and 1956. His project was to travel across the country photographing what he encountered. The wealthy, average and poor were all worthy subjects for Frank. He saw an America different than the one advertised in movies, newspapers and magazines. He was well aware
    of how people could become marginalized in a country. While Hitler was storming Europe, the native Frank had to gain Swiss citizenship by losing his Jewishness.

    His citizenship was granted days before the war’s end.[23] Later, his odd accent, appearance and foreign camera equipment led to his arrest in Arkansas. State police suspected he was a Communist spy and this experience did nothing to counter Frank’s critical outlook on the authority figures of America, who were presented with their impurities on display. The Americans, his most famous work, has been regularly reprinted and favorably reviewed by critics, despite the
    heavy criticism it received upon its original publication.

    “The Family of Man” consisted of
    503 photographs by 273 photographers.[31] The exhibition was both good and bad for photography.
    Its popularity was so great that the United States Information Agency sponsored a seven year international tour. On the negative side, it downplayed the individuality of photographers in favor of a meta-narrative of humanity. For Badger, it was “the embodiment of fifties photo-journalistic values, their zenith. It was also the last great fling of this mode, a mode that was becoming less relevant both to photographers and, though more gradually, to the communications industry.”[32]

    The reaction to the exhibition, and the spinoff book and touring exhibition, was favorable for years but dissent began to be heard as the U.S. got farther away from the 1950s and into the 1960s. The body of work became a “counterpoint for rebellious comment.”[34] Steichen’s theme may have worked in the mid-1950s, but as more and more people recognized social inequalities his theme seemed more like an act of American propaganda. His goal for the unity of images–that no image stands out but contributes to the whole experience–may have been the flaw of his work. Independently strong images were eligible for exclusion if they
    gathered too much attention. One such image which was initially included but later removed was of a black man brutally restrained to a tree. It was removed because so many people stopped to examine it that Steichen felt the flow of the exhibition was being lost.

    Szarkowski argued “The Family of Man” marked an important moment in photography:

    In this sense “The Family of Man” was perhaps the last and greatest achievement of the group journalism concept of photography–in which the
    personal intentions of the photographer are subservient to a larger,overriding concept. The exhibition thus ran counter to the ambitions of
    the period’s most original younger photographers; and in spite of its artistic quality and enormous success, it had little perceptible effect on
    the subsequent directions of American photography.[35]

  269. *tumbleweed*

    reason i’m awake at 3.28am on a saturday night.. with time to post long mumbles of drivel and loose opinion.. is that i’m baby watching.. he’s on the couch next to me.. while mum in bed gets a solid deep-sleep for as long as possible.

    between posts i have changed three nappies, leafed through two photo books and sung the made-up song,
    ‘it’s a chore being a boy called tor’, whenever he has woken from his slumbers..

    who’s the daddy?

  270. ”The exhibition was widely popular with Americans who did not normally visit museums.”

    and that was the joy of the family of man.. it was the work of one photographer working as curator and as such more accessible.. it lacks the vision of a single photographers work, apart from in the manor of a single photographer curating.

    i think they are right to say that it was the last successful collective photo journalistic approach..
    you know..
    the national geographic ‘oddessy’ book is okay.. b u t..

    it’s disappointing that a less palitable photo was removed.. i didn’t know that.. product of it’s time..

    tanks erica.

  271. SIDNEY AND DAVID

    I certainly don’t mean to overly criticize The Family of Man… I do think the intentions of the creators were noble and the book includes some marvelous, iconic, powerful photographs. It is a product of its time…

    Sidney, thank you for your perspective, how interesting it is that I see the book as I do… and I’m cut from the same cloth as (spawn of) those New York liberals! What a difference a generation makes.

    David, to expand somewhat…. I do understand that the book aspires to a utopian world-view, but I do think it operates too, as a projection of “American Dream” type values…. at a time when there was an ongoing ideological battle between Western capitalism and Soviet-style communism… I can’t look at the book without seeing a political statement, and as a document, it shares the aesthetics of soviet and german propaganda of the 30’s and 40’s, which I think may account for some of its power… it was, too, as I understand it, conceived unapologetically as appealing to an absolute lowest common denominator, by which I mean meant to not offend anyone… on the planet.

    But by no means do I dismiss the book as mere propaganda, or an evil tool of capitalistic coercion… if anything, your views are well taken, and I do think The Family of Man is a very complex piece of photographic history indeed…

    A wonderful, interesting facet of its complexity, to me, is the role it played in the creation of The Americans…

    ERICA

    Thanks for the post… interesting essay, still thinking about it…

  272. “family of man”. A throwback? Are we talking the pictures or the exhibition’s subtext?

    It seems to me, without judging the content of each, that so many books and photographic best-sellers, since then and to this day, are an embodiment of much of the philosophy behind FAM.

    Examples abound, but “a day in the life”, natl geo coffee table collections, come to mind. Steve Mc Curry (the most popular Magnum photographer alive?) is quite within this very humanistic type of photography. And of course, the FAM book has been re-edited regularly since the first exhibition.

    Maybe none of these above have to do with “american photography” or any photography as defined by Szarkowski and historians? Yet people relate as much to such photography as they did then, and I think, in the same frame of mind.

  273. I googled a bit. The exhibition went to Moscow in 1959. It would be interesting to read what was the reaction in the soviet Union, both Kremlin and visitors.

    Funny also, just found these words (1), and frankly, they are very much pointing at a philosophy many of us are caught more than often agreeing to, on this blog, the oneness of all things. Maybe oneness meant americanness back then. I don’t know.

    (1) It was conceived, in Steichen’s words, ‘as a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world’.

  274. HERVE

    When I used the word ‘throwback’ yes I definitely meant the exhibition’s subtext and not the individual photographs. Your point about the enduring popularity of this editorial approach is well taken… and I am quite sympathetic to views that say what is popular and what is ‘art’ are not necessarily different…

    I am probably a very inappropriate person to talk about this since most of my own work is terribly cliched and old-fashioned, but I recognize a significant difference between craftsmen and craftswomen trying to please established taste, and true artists who are exploring the boundaries of their own and others’ perceptions… a commercial gallery or publishing company has every right to want to please an audience… an institution like MOMA probably has to do that to some extent too, but it also has a responsibility to explore new frontiers and push out boundaries, to stake out new territory. ‘Family of Man’ is filled with great photos, but the editorial ideology which curated it was rooted in a world-view that was more nostalgic (that’s what I meant by ‘throwback’), than exploratory, I think… (of course, maybe I’m wrong!) In other words, it was ‘safe’ in the same way all those ‘Day In the Life’ books are safe… safe in the way that Thomas Kincaid’s painting is safe. (OK, that’s going a bit too far…)
    ‘Safe’ does not necessarily mean ‘bad’ to me… but after a while, maybe it means ‘not as interesting as possible.’ I thought David Bowen made a great point when he said that ‘Family of Man’ was devoid of irony or cynicism… to which I would add, on reflection, yes, for the viewer… was it devoid of irony or cynicism for the curator, the museum board, and the photographers as well? Apparently not…

  275. HERVE

    Me again! I just read your second post above, and I realized that one could easily argue just the opposite of what I wrote… that the idea of the essential ‘oneness’ of all humanity was in McCarthy Era red scare America quite a revolutionary (and potentially threatening to some people) idea and not a ‘throwback’ at all… it just depends on your perspective.

    This topic actually raises endless questions about editing, the contexts in which photography is used, etc. We tend to talk here a lot about intent when making the individual images, and not so much about what happens to photos once they are ‘released’ in the world. I think you are quite right to raise these issues… DAH’s normative, optimal scenario is of course the one-artist book or exhibition that shows the photographer’s intent, but the reality is that most of the photography that gets paid for or seen in the world isn’t that at all, but something put in editorial contexts that may have little to do with the photographer’s original intent.

  276. LASSAL!

    yes of course i’m “applying”…. i went over to your site and re-read the concept… am a bit confused… do i now have to send the post card or just hang on to it until you pass by (IF you decide to pass by of course :-), do i have to prepare the story linked to the city already?
    oh and just so you know, there is plenty of place for you to stay at the house…

    PATRICIA rockin’ gramma

    thanks so much for the kind words and email… gives me great strength…

    CRISTINA dear criss

    yes you have a great series… a lot of “feeling” in it… and i agree with gina (i think i mentioned the same in an email a while back) about the “chocolate” part of the story….
    powerful story… love it.

    BOB bro

    you’ve been gone for a couple of days i think… starting to miss you… get back here :))

    HERVE/PANOS

    editing down… the most difficult task… will do the exercise for birgit: edit down to 7… oh jeez what am i getting myself into? but, like you panos, i will do the final real edit together with the master :))))

    ANDREW SULLIVAN

    how come i have never seen your images before? they are… wow

    MARCIN

    yes i understand you… difficult to look for a ‘language’ in the color as well as in the photographs, it feels like you have to make two pictures at once…
    but the three color images you showed i thought had a very powerful color, one that you should not deny existence… explore…

    DAVID B

    thanks for the kind words mate.. the words are indeed important too… looking for a way to interject them even more… but not “too” much..

    peace
    anton

  277. MARCIN

    hi there!

    I really like your colour work
    it has stayed with me,
    i can remember looking at some of your photos
    many months ago when I had a brief visit here
    on the blog.

    I can understand your dilemma and in the end
    only you can find the answer (but I hate it when
    people say this to me… still it is true…)

    I understand that in a way it might be more easy
    to use b&w because you are looking for special light
    with your colour, but sometimes we must push ourselves…

    Like i said, your colour has a special feel and I like your
    photos a lot, so i guess i am saying that I think you should
    continue with colour.

    also, if you still think about b&w then you can always turn your colour into b&w on the computer… okay it’s not tri-x, but you have this option. With b&w you can not add colour….

    all the best

    Sam

  278. Anton, Sam

    Thanks for advice.

    I think I will shooting both. I just have to use more provias than velvias (velvia is more unpredictable). But I want shoot b&w also… schizophrenia?
    Now I save money for films for thailand. I like feel free so I think it will be half to half. And m6 and mamija only. It will be big holyday of photography for me.

    Work, work work!!!

    peace

  279. anton..
    with the words i loved the passage i mentioned particularly because it began with child-like concerns and ended quite diffrently.

    mike / herve / sidney

    mike – totally understand what you are saying mate.. it is, in a sense, a more relevant book today than ever.. with the american empire struggling to maintain it does stand as an interesting document which pins the u.s. perception of the rest of the world at a time (after ww2) when many there will have been inquiring about the rest of the world for the first time… relevant today perhaps because again many amercans are questioning the nature of the rest of the world.. this time rather than wondering what the rest of the world is like may be the concern is how the americas are percieved.. certainly a new ‘family of man’ would have the u.s. and u.k. flags, although perhaps this time they would be on the streets of dehli of bagdad being burn’t.

    spot on regarding the use of photography being just as important as the original motivation for shooting.. control of works copyright and the trust of people who syndicate the work is essential..

    enjoying this discussion very much.. has had me flicking through FOM and STORYLINES books over again.. one thing i notice, with all my books, is that as i change the books change for me.. over the years they have become more interesting.. as life has become more interesting / terrifying.. the ideology of the FOM becomes even more altruistic for me.. storylines becomes more familiar.. living room more full of love and home and abroad more.. well.. more funny. :o)

  280. marcin..

    if you want to shoot a lot of BnW i’d seriously recommend getting hold of a bulk film loader and loading your own film canister.. it reduces the cost per film significantly.. and if you’re developing your own as well it becomes a viable method on a low income..

    bulk loaders on ebay are very cheap.. although i have yet to research the bulk film roll market.. do they still make them?

  281. CRISTINA

    CASA – The women being unfriendly with you doesn’t come through at all, I think it is great you found an angle to show (that of the children) that allowed you to keep working. For me, you show the children in powerfully, and there are some gorgeous images there. I know you feel done, but I’d love to see a few more frames that tie in the chocolate aspect, maybe the moms departing from the house (walking out the door, waiting for the bus, etc.) or of them heading into work (if someone will cooperate)..but what you show is very well done..

    LISA

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    ANDREW S

    It is very interesting to see a continuation of your exploration of music in a different culture..and I think this is a very sound (sorry for the pun) start to a separate body on Samba. With the challenges of getting to Brazil, I started to wonder if you couldn’t seek out Samba in different places and have a holistic look at how it thrives around the world, including here at home. I think you have already made some very strong individual images for the series, but personally am not sure you should be presenting this on your site as something that could be viewed as a completed body (and I say this as a friend, because I think the series will be fantastic, and I wouldn’t want it to be diluted. Alternatively, if you wanted to show the best of the samba work now, I’d somehow make it part of a wider category of music..it isn’t that what you are showing isn’t good, but if you plan to continue it as a story, I think you should reserve the best images..I hope you understand what i mean, if not we should talk on the tele).. Which brings me to a point..

    PANOS

    you raised a question about the appropriateness of password protected galleries..while I feel that they are something of an inconvenience for the viewer, the reason I started doing it was because of a conversation I had with DAH. It is so lovely and wonderful that we have a community here of people with whom we want to show our experiments, beginnings, mis-steps and musings, as well as our completed work. But, if a site is being visited by editors and others who are seeing what is presented as representative of the photographer, it may be better to save work in progress and experiments for the eyes of friends and family. It isn’t about being elite at all..actually I see it as the opposite, a way to be inclusive to this community when there is something to share that isn’t appropriate to be shown as final work.

    MARCIN

    Love the last soap bubble image!

    MIKE

    Yes..am looking forward to digesting the gestalt narrative of the Americans..I wonder if this exhibit still travels as a whole? Have you ever seen it?

    I don’t know where the truth in each (FAM/AM) book is..to some degree each is the vision and perspective of one, and in that would be subjective. The fact that the FAM exhibit was only 10 years prior to the (formal if not practical) end of Jim Crow laws makes me think that there is no certain reconciliation between the two.

    DAVID B

    uhh..running out of steam..I may live, if only by honey and lemon juice :) Thank you for the link to Living Room, I remember seeing this for a second and now of course I wish I had spent some time with it..will have to stalk ebay..

    about mixing formats..”although practically speaking i could not do what i wanted to do”..well that’s it, right? You do what you can to be as close to your intent as is possible, given the tools that apply..

    About a new, contemporary family of man..check this out..http://www.freshmilkphotos.com/# “Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship). Inspired by the 1950s landmark photographic exhibition, ‘The Family of Man’, M.I.L.K. began as an epic global search to find unique and geographically diverse images on the themes of friendship, family and love.” They did this in 99, and are doing it again..somehow I think there won’t be any images of burning flags..Though Erwitt is hands-down amazing, certainly the intent of the organizers is to keep the spin on the upward turn.

    I love your made up song to TOR

    SIDNEY

    Very funny about the Thomas Kincaid analogy..
    “Kinkade uses his gift as a vehicle to communicate and spread inherent life-affirming values.”

    Steichen’s intro to The Family of Man..

    “We sought and selected photographs, made in all parts of the world, of the gamut of life from birth to death with emphasis on the daily relationships of man to himself, to his family, to the community and to the world we live in…Photographs of lovers and marriage and child-bearing, of the family unit with its joys, trials and tribulations, its deep-rooted devotions and antagonisms. Photographs of the home in all its warmth and magnificence, its heartaches and exaltations. Photographs of the individual and the family unit in its reactions to the beginnings of life and continuing on through death and burial.”

    But I too value the endeavor, and am extremely grateful to it as it may have been the only photography book in my house for many years when I was a child, and one I used to look at in attic (it had been relegated to a box of extra / in the way stuff) when I was a bit older..

  282. last comment for me on the blog….

    appropriate in light of all the discussion:

    “Nous sommes, nous tous, les pèlerins qui se battent le long de différents sentiers vers la même destination.”-saint-exupery

    those who dont know french:

    “We are, all of us, pilgrims who struggle along different paths toward the same destination”-s-e

    до свидания

  283. ALL

    i had several issues when updating comments on my blog reader, but now it works!!!

    http://jnss.x10hosting.com/dah_reader/

    MARCIN
    i like your color photos. I’m asking myself the same questions…wanting to make everything simple…not easy…

    ANTON
    i looked at Birgit presentation, love it!!!
    I’m happy for you, that you achieve to make something ‘finished’, even nothing is never finished…
    Congratulations.

    PANOS
    i like your Dark Child #2, i prefer it to the first serie.

    ERICA
    I think your 4×5 work can lead to something very interesting, good luck!!!
    Just a question, you seem to use a lot medium format, does it bring you something that digital doesn’t have? Just collecting answers to my own questions, to make my decisions about hypothetical projects…thanks!!!

    HERVE
    you made me laugh a lot :-)))
    Coluche!!!

  284. David Bowen,

    I think I will have problems to get roll films of tri-x or hp5.

    Erica

    Thanks, It was just documentary of event non profit assignemnt, but great pleasure also. I just love time when I can take pictures at ease.

    Jean

    Yes, simple…
    I think simplicity is key to best photography.

    Peace

  285. David Bowen – yes, made up songs are the best. Wait a few years and you’ll be able to play photographic I-Spy ….. “I spy, with my wide-angle eye, something beginning with”…

    If the subject is distant you spy with your telephoto eye!

    Congratulations to you and mum.

    Mike R.

  286. DEAREST BOB

    You will be sorely missed here on the blog. Your voice has always been one of intelligent wisdom and inclusive love. It’s hard to imagine this family without you here among us, but I know your spirit will always be with us. And there are many with whom you will continue to travel through emails and phone calls. I am grateful to be among them.

    Journey in Light & Love, my friend. Thank you for the gifts you share through your spirit, words and images.

    Patricia

  287. JEAN
    I love St Exupéry!!!
    ————————

    “l’ essentiel est invisible aux yeux”…

    St Ex knew something about photography! ;-)

    Bob is not running…. I believe he is actually very still, focussed, in full Monty…..Er, metta… ;-)

    Off to work(samsara)

  288. Bob. this last was posted lightly, as I did miss your goodbye post. Not in response to it.

    Pat’s post drew me back to your post that I missed. Wether you are particiapating or not, your presence will always be here, my friend. I hope you can break the vow from time to time, but having entered our lives, I am sure everyone agrees, you will not leave them.

    Your aura, buddy, is a permanent metta. Yes, no need to send, but if ever you change your mind, no knocking on the door, no explaining.

    You do have a home here. Your home.

  289. MIKE,

    My apologies for the extremely late response. As you have no doubt gathered by now, I wasnt anywhere near a computer yesterday. I went down yesterday to do the Hispanic Day parade; I could either do one or the other, but not both, so I did yesterday’s parade. Thanks anyway; maybe next time :-) ?

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