AKAKY IRL: Thinking’s got nothing to do with it, bubba. I know we’ve just been insulted.

AKAKY: Oh. Okay. I’m glad that’s cleared up.

AKAKY IRL: Always glad to help, guy.

and hope your house and cats are good too!

Indeed…

“Go in beauty.”
Certainly used in the context of ‘have a safe trip.’
I owe you a beer at very least!

You’ve got half the answer right.
But what is the literal meaning of ‘Sicaru Guye’?

the only line that matters, the only path that matters is the one you took and the one you’re ON….

(who knows where the dappling ‘e’ came from in my original post…;)

the only line that matters, the only path that matters is the one you took and the one you’re one….

as to the question of failure (good god), only this, 2 lovely failures to whom I owe alot of my own thoughts on failure to:

1) beckett, of course: ” Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail better”

and 2nd, part of which i left on Saturday under the Christopher’s current essay:

2) Jack Gilbert: (about marriage and the triumph of failing)

Failing and Flying
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It’s the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.
–jack gilbert

onward dasher and dancer, prancer and vixen, comet and cupid and donner and blixon…..!

bb

and the journey counts for me …not the destination”

aha…I rest my case too…:)

and as FROSTY says

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over and it ain’t over.”

MR.HARVEY, I am not a photographer …and yes,a special way to feel…!!!

Spread the love,spread the flames…civilian’s house is open 24/7…!

i have read all of these comments….and there is a bit of truth to all of them….i do find very interesting that so many conclusions are drawn so so quickly..yet of course i know also that being online and open invites exactly this type of critique….accepted, and thank you

for sure had this audience been with me on any assignment i ever did for NatGeo or any book i have every done, the comments would be the same…if you looked at me in “mid creation” of anything you all could easily be writing exactly the same…i never look good in the middle of anything….ask any editor at NatGeo…my “halfway shows” almost always have every editor scratching their heads…nobody can ever figure out what i am doing…so i am trying to show you..so just chill…wait…kill the book if you want, but just relax a bit on the process…if i was not here online, you would never know the car turned around…you would just see the final pictures/ final layout and probably think all was ok.

remember please most of all, this book will look like a scrapbook…a family album…a mix…the intent..not supposed to be a NatGeo story, not Divided Soul, not Living Proof, and not (based on a true story)…i already did those….

angst and suffering and changes of heart are with me always…and yet i think any way you want to look at my process in general on anything is that i am indeed a results oriented person…i am simply not linear…ever…linear thinkers just won’t get it….the reason i took this particular process online and to a wider audience that i might not normally do was to show exactly what is being shown…i think it will be helpful to some…the wise will learn…

i honestly do not think many in this audience have any idea what i go through on any project…this blip on the radar screen of production is like well in my world, nada….

i do totally agree with Jim at this point that a large group moving together does not work for me at all in terms of a certain type of work..ok fine…yet the type of work i am doing on this segment might just benefit..even Jim knows well Family Drive will end up in some epic way…he knows my track record..he knows i have faced much much tougher conceptual blips than this one…for me, this is an easy fix…half of our group heads home tomorrow..

i can tell you for sure that even a few days on this road trip for anyone will be an experience to be cherished for life…all of us feel this deep deep…in fact as we now put our Walmart fast prints all over the inside of La Tortuga, that none of us would trade this experience for anything…

for sure the internet “noise” is also a reality which actually drives me forward even more towards books and exhibitions…listen, there has always been “noise” for me….i think that whatever projects i have done, my single biggest attribute is doing my own work amidst “noise”…

does anyone really think a u turn in the car will somehow stop me from shooting with gusto for the next two weeks? please…the really intuitive types will realize i think this will only increase my work….the direction of a car is like well a big fat nothing in terms of making photographs…reducing the size of the group of course is maybe better, but even that i am not sure 100%…we will see.

one of the people with us, Brandon Li, who does leave tomorrow, has made a very interesting film on this process…wait til you see it…it will be a few weeks to edit, but looking at the clips i can tell this will be quite an amazing document…

quick reminder: i am sure some of you know that Off For A Family Drive is already a hanging exhibition that has hung in i think 5 different venues in Europe….that was chapter 1 (not literally) where with med format film literally made “portraits” of about 30 American families….this will blend nicely i feel with the ragtag snapshots that have come out of this trip that has been so much fun for all of us….

the very best “live workshop” aspect of this trip will come now…

it is 4am…i leave in an hour to visit a Native American family on the Ute Reservation in Ignacio…might try a tripod S2 portrait…might go loose…just depends on the vibe….

you know something, forget every damn thing i ever wrote here…right now, right this moment, you know what i feel? lucky dude…i love being a photographer. period..what a really special way to feel…same way i felt at 14…no, not a “different time of life”….i would wish this feeling for all….

abrazos, david