ever think much about rawhide?? me neither….at least not until i shared a taxi with a Norwegian rawhide entrepreneur…
this was after our plane, half full of Mormon missionaries from salt lake city, was diverted to dallas after first being diverted to tulsa because of severe storms…. and this was soon to be my second night, out of four traveling days, slumbering at an airport hotel…
now i have a rule….normally, i am a reasonably friendly man and enjoy meeting strangers….except for when i fly….i usually try to avoid conversations with anyone on the plane…most particularly, i do not want the person in the next seat to find out i am a photographer, or worse, on assignment for National Geographic…i am sure my colleagues would agree…
once you have been on an 8 hour flight with the person next to you, finding out you are an NG photog, and either telling you about all of their photographic experiences or, worse, quizzing you for 6 hours about what it must be like to be a National Geographic photographer, you will never commit "guess who i am" again….
so, i avoid this at all costs by either sticking to my reading or sleeping….
but, a shared taxi is another story…..you have to talk…you even want to talk…about the bad luck of the layover….and "ever been to dallas before?" stuff….
still, i try to steer the conversation away from me ….so, this hapless passenger, with whom i share the taxi , is from oslo…smiling eyes norwegian….got his MBA from a university in norway…. he told me that because was Jewish, he wanted to move to Israel or the United States ….now i am just telling you what he told me…
anyway, he lands a job as the CFO of a rawhide distribution firm in new york and has spent the last 22 years moving rawhide….he did not care about rawhide…a CFO is a CFO he said….whatever the company…he told me business was tough…..his best years were before the fall of communism he schooled me….he told me that all of the communist countries bought american rawhide….so the fall of the berlin wall brought hard times for the american rawhide business…
now he tells me , his main business is exporting to mexico…i was surprised at this, thinking surely mexicans had their own rawhide…he then informed me that americans eat more beef than anyone…..rawhide is an obvious by – product….so, mcdonalds affects the rawhide business…and mexicans use rawhide for everything and they do not have enough of their own….
worse still, he said , was that slaughter houses had realized they could do their own rawhide distribution…."selling all the parts" he said…they no longer needed my norwegian rawhide buyer and middleman distributor….so, times were tough he said….his shoes seemed to be of finest leather…
he seemed a happy man..for sure, a nice guy…someone you could like…i do not remember his name….norwegian names are always hard for me to remember…he spoke of his family….most important thing in his life….his wife is Danish….they met in business school…she runs something,but i do not remember what…..he has his two children in private schools….he did not tell me where he lived in new york, but i suspect it is across the bridge from me…
ok,15 minute taxi ride over…hotel looks lousy….lobby full of blank faced stranded passengers…my short time companion and i did not exchange cards…….i did not take his picture…he has no clue what i do….perfect….we will never meet again….but, importantly for me, he was the very first rawhide salesman i ever met…..i doubt i will meet another….
:)))))))!!!!!…that’s brillant story man…..just wrote about that on your beachbum post:fucking beauty of human contact: it amazes me always :))))…..
could you imagine a life without people’s stories?….it blesses us :)))
thanks d :))
love the bigtexan big eye pic :)))
cheers,
b
what would happen if I met you (and would recognize you) on the plane??? I would let you alone, but I can swear I would be very (VERY) frustrated!!! dah is on the plane and I am not able to talk to him??!!
would I be at least able ask you to take a picture of my wife and baby that are with me on that plane? (i can already hear my wife saying to me: who is this guy? don’t disturb him, let him alone…)…it would be the longest trip ever for me!!
oh well ! :)
Arie
arie….
guess what?? of course, i would talk to you!!…. and try to make a nice picture of your family too…
on a commuter flight once, i chatted with the person next to me on a flight..he had no idea of my profession or who i was at all…but he did have his portfolio on his laptop….i liked the work….he later became an “official student” in my class in florida….we have kept in touch now for about 5 years and he participated in the seminar in charlottesville this summer, and he is about to finish up his first book….
baby girl is on its way (expected due date on September 24)…will be my most precious subject forever…lots and lots of pictures…i just hope she will be patient enough to let me take billions pictures of her…
Arie
i never thought i’d let on to this.. but in the spirit of the blog and the beer i’ve been having.. why not?
a few years ago i really wanted to try to ‘take the next step’… or at least find out what it was… i was considering this workshop that david alan harvey and kent kobersteen were putting on in mexico.. but it was expensive.. and no guarantees.. and i had never done a workshop before so it was an unknown..
well i often believe in signs of three.. if there are three signs that tell me i should do something, then i’ll do it. around the time of the workshop i had two signs telling me that i should sign up… and then came the third…
i had a long layover in san francisco one day, i used to carry my tripod with me when i flew – i was always shooting landscapes then so i always had a tripod.. anyway this guy came up to me in the airport and asked what kind of tripod it was, i told him, and he said, “it looks like it would be good for the forest”… he looked like a photographer… i asked him if he was and he said yes.. i asked him what he shoots and he said he shoots for National Geographic… i thought, i should know this guy… i asked his name and he said Nick Nichols…. so i said good to meet you Nick, i’m Lance Rosenfield.
he went and sat down about 30 feet from me and got comfortable and started working on his laptop… i had a super long layover so i got the courage to go offer to buy him a beer if he would chat for a bit… he declined, saying he was totally burned out… understood. but the next two hours were hell with him sitting just there, if he only knew how much five minutes would enlighten me… so, at the end of the layover i went to him and said, “i have a feeling i’ll see you again” and wished him the best, and he wished me the best of luck.
that was the third sign for me to sign up for that workshop with david and kent and raul. what a blessing.
two and a half years later there i was at david’s loft…. and there was Nick… i mentioned the story to him and he said he remembered… i’m not out to impress Nick but i have great respect for him and david the like… i just left it at that..
but for this blog.. i guess the point is, i’m glad that nick asked about my tripod, i’m glad he was the ‘third sign’ for me to take david’s class in mexico, i’m glad that i got to ‘see him again’ like i knew i would, and i’m very glad to be where i am now and have a friendship with david because of it.
meeting strangers pays off… although it can undoubtedly be taxing sometimes, it sometimes hides little treasures for us….