5/22/11 I’m going on an Adventure
5/21 San Francisco
5/23 Sacramento
5/24 Los Angeles
5/25 Phoenix
5/26 Marfa
5/27 Houston
5/28 New Orleans
5/31 Tuscaloosa
6/1 Atlanta
6/2 Chapel Hill
6/3 Charlottesville (LOOK3)
6/12 Pittsburgh
I’m off to meet the wizard! (And if you happen to be going to LOOK3 this year, I’ll see you there).
This entry was written by , posted on May 22, 2011 at 6:22 pm, filed under Industry, Personal, Travels. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
5/20/11 SOMA Fire
Earlier in the month, after helping Ross Mantle set-up the gallery show he was in town for, the two of us were walking to dinner when we came across a large 48-unit building fire in SOMA. Ross was a little more reluctant than I about going to the site and taking pictures. Neither of us have any interest in “spot news” but we were both curious about what was happening. So we went to the fire and after a few minutes, standing in a street filled with smoke, we realized it was a serious situation. I had just started shooting when the camera I was using completely malfunctioned. I was pissed. Of all the times to have a camera fail me, why does it have to be when I’m witnessing such a dramatic scenario unravel.
As frustrated as I was, it was a moment of realization that in hindsight, was more valuable than the photos I missed. If I had been alone I would have felt a sense of failure, that I had lost something important. But because Ross was there, photographing (with his $100 P&S), it was okay because the event, the memory, the trauma, the tragedy, the sudden re-arrangement of life – it wasn’t disappearing into the ether, it was being recorded by someone whose vision I trust.
Finally, after deleting all the photos I had on my card and resetting everything, the camera started working and I was able to photograph the later part of our experience. A crowd had formed of a hundred or more people. Some who had lived in the building were in shock as they watched their home and all their possessions burn down. Some were simply curious or fascinated by the spectacle of it. There was even a group of guys playing basketball that seemed completely unaware of the situation. I wondered how I, as a photographer, fit into the drama. Was I like the firemen, trying to help and make things better. Was I a spectator? or was I just some kid playing a game with a camera, disassociated from what was happening?
The whole experience made me, once again, criticize why we do what we do. I know that at times in my life, I have completely exploited situations and people for the advancement of my vision and chronicled perspective. I’ve convinced myself mentally that I really cared for people when all I really wanted was to photograph them and not get too involved. That was what going to college for photojournalism felt like to me, being forced to care on a weekly basis. Perhaps I lack the empathy that others have, or that I’m not meant to be a documentary photographer. Or maybe I just see the big picture differently. Since my foray into social documentary work, I’ve yet to feel comfortable working in the genre again. The only way documentary photography makes sense to me is if I document something that I am living through, something I’m experiencing first hand, or something that I really believe in. This is why I’ve turned most my attention to street photography. I’m allowed to be anonymous or confrontational, honest or slanted, spontaneous or deliberate. I’m allowed to stay inside of my own head and not be discounted for it.
The fire reminded me of these issues and the the ones surrounding voyeurism and the “taking” of photographs. It reminded me of the many roles photography can play in a person’s life. It reminded me that I have a vision and statement to make, and that, really, I am taking pictures for myself. I believe the very act of photography is one of theft. And after a lifetime of stolen pictures, I am hoping I will have something to give back. Something that could make a difference; Or not. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I am being honest with myself, my vision, my philosophy. Photography gives me the ability to communicate why I’m not losing my sense of wonder and passion for the life that unfolds around me. And the times I do lose my excitement, it helps me find it again. I’ve learned that photography came into my life as a personal necessity, and when it’s not that way, it slowly loses its original value.
“I told her that I was a pervert, voyeur, and flasher all rolled into one photographic monster, but that I felt close to the people in the Subway.”
-Bruce Davidson, Subway
“Tough meant it was an uncompromising image, something that came from your gut, out of instinct, raw, of the moment, something that couldn’t be described in any other way. So it was tough. Tough to like, tough to see, tough to make, tough to understand. The tougher they were the more beautiful they became.”
-Joel Meyerowitz
“Some seem to think my work is drawn from an expression of horror, which has never really concerned me. Pleasure is impossible to define. But I feel horror occupies much the same territory. But you see, I’m optimistic by nature. I’m optimistic about nothing.”
-Francis Bacon, Love is the Devil
This entry was written by , posted on May 20, 2011 at 11:34 am, filed under Leica Project, Personal, Street, Writing. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
4/29/11 Untitled 104 &105
This entry was written by , posted on April 29, 2011 at 12:06 pm, filed under Personal, Portrait and tagged David Lynch, face painting. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
2/18/11 Sacramento
This entry was written by , posted on February 18, 2011 at 12:23 pm, filed under Americans, Personal. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
1/3/11 New Year’s Hike
Spent New Year’s Day exploring Muir woods and on the way home stopped to look at the Golden Gate.
This entry was written by , posted on January 3, 2011 at 7:38 pm, filed under Landscape, Leica Project, Personal and tagged Golden Gate, Muir Woods. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
1/2/11 New Light
I’ve been doing small watercolors the past year as a form of meditation. I’ve found it to be a very beneficial practice. This year I’m hoping to do the same with painting. This is the first acrylic painting I’ve done, and I enjoyed the process very much. Photography has its unique feelings but there is a satisfaction I feel from putting paint on canvas that photography will never be able to offer. I hope to find a way to combine my photography with painting and I think with enough experimentation I’ll find what feels right.
This entry was written by , posted on January 2, 2011 at 2:11 pm, filed under Personal and tagged Painting. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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