family/friends

bosses

       

i do not have a boss anymore....i never did like having a boss, but i pretty much always got along with them anyway....respect...authority....needed a job.....

you are looking at my first two bosses...in reverse order....Robert E. Gilka, left, former Director of Photography at National Geographic Magazine and Rich Clarkson, former Director of Photography at the Topeka (Kansas) Capitol-Journal...Clarkson hired me for the newspaper right out of the University of Missouri graduate school and Gilka hired me 7 long long long years later at National Geographic....

both men are tough.....they both like having "tough" reputations....they are hard on photographers...smiles were rare.....compliments minimal  (or at least they did not say so to us)....i have heard them both referred to by others  as "son of a b_____s" .... i do not ever remember being guilty of saying that... well barely... but it might just might  have crossed my mind a time or two.....

when i started at the newspaper with Rich, my only thought was to get out of that town as fast as possible...i wanted Life Magazine, Look Magazine, (National Geographic was not a goal)...i could not imagine staying in Topeka, Kansas ,at a "small town" newspaper, for very long...i saw the lights of New York....a Paris loft.....i saw my work in any other venue but this Kansas newspaper...but, i did need a job....i did have a wife and child...and i did want to shoot shoot shoot......

clarkson "straightened me out" fast....got my feet on the ground....did not try to "erase" my academic art background, but taught me how to survive in the "real world" of photography...make good pictures "on demand"....now...today...no bullshit...he taught me how to speak to editors...with knowledge and after having read the whole newspaper from cover to cover every day...in other words, before talking or trying to "sell" the editor a picture, i should know what in the hell i was talking about...understand the community...reference my work with an issue.....what i learned at the Topeka Capital-Journal in two and a half years has served me well my whole career...

but, i left Rich and the newspaper and headed "back east"...to Virginia, which was close to Washington, which was close to New York...i freelanced, starved, and worked part time for the newspaper in Richmond..along comes another baby and now i really needed to work....but, i did not want to take another "real job"...i did not want another boss....

but, i got one....enter  National Geographic and Mr. Gilka.....MISTER GILKA....i guess i should have figured that if this guy hired me, he  must have liked my work, but i was always figuring the opposite...paranoid....i swear he  liked me being paranoid....i was always in trouble of some kind...or suspect...or not going to do it right this time....i got up every  morning solely to prove Gilka  "wrong"....when i won Magazine Photographer of the Year after only 4 years at the magazine, i thought then i might get a little respect...nope....i am not so sure he even thinks much of my work now, and he has been retired for many years....

both men grumbled,  but allowed me to take this picture a few days ago at the National Geographic  annual photographers seminar...both men are pretty much in character....do they look like nice guys to you??

well, in fact, they are...total "softies"...at least as i see it now....we are  lifetime friends.....there are no men in the business that i respect more....they both gave me a career....i went kicking and screaming into it, but they gave me a whole life and career...thank you Rich...thank you Bob....you are both the best bosses i ever had.....and flat out damn good men...

but, better that we are just friends ....bosses are great guys when they are not your boss....

stay another day

                                     

"In his eyes I saw an unspoken sadness.

A silent pool of tears.

So prominent it shook the sturdy ground beneath me.

Invincible. I grew up believing he was.

But it is time. This intolerant enemy.

No always. No forever.

If only one more day…"

-Laura El-Tantawy

   

when life goes as "planned", most of us have our grandparents as our first life "loss"....often when we are in our twenties.....such was the case with Laura El-Tantawy,27, whose maternal grandfather, Labib El Husseiny, slipped away this month at the age of ninety... Laura has been photographing her native Egypt very seriously for the last year or so....with a bit of the work coming from magazines, but mostly on her own initiative....she has done it by doing little essays  here and there, but it is adding up to a rather  remarkable whole (please log on to: lauraeltantawy.com)...one of the ways she dealt with her dying grandfather was to photograph him in his last days ...a striking tribute to a man she loved...."stay another day" is  surely a part of her overall Egypt essay....

i met Laura almost three years ago when i was giving a lecture at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida...the girl just sparkled.....and she had the photographs to go with her personality....Laura had been an honored fellow at the Insitute before joining the photo staff of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and  had studied prior in the communications department  at the University of Georgia.....

now living in London and working at Reuters, Laura struggles, as so many young photographers do, with developing a strong personal style and trying to earn a living doing it....my admonition to her, as it is always to all of you, it just keep doing it....getting a "break" may seem "far away".....but far away is better than never.....and "never" is what happens if you do not push and push and then push a bit more....

my guess is that Laura El-Tantawy will make her mark...sooner rather than later.....her impatience to do this is normal....i was definitely the same.....but, in my mind, she should take the words of her own story  title and stay another day... what do you think???

michael

i have no idea how i ever got along without him.....or , more importantly, how i could do without him now.....michael courvoisier does everything for me...manages my files, builds my slideshows, coordinates my activities with Magnum, makes my prints, is managing your uploads , and technically runs my workshops....he does this all in the most laid back way....never stressed even when others around him, mostly me, are in full "panic mode"...michael has the calm cool of a test pilot.....when things go wrong, he just trouble shoots...figures it out....makes it ok...

i met mike four years ago  when he was running the tech operation at the Sante Fe Workshops....we later met again in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico when he was the top tech guy at the workshops for this program...when mike said he was moving to new york, i suggested we work together...but, i was not quick enough on the draw and mike was hired by another Magnum photographer.....my loss...but, we always stayed in touch as he worked for two years with my colleague...then, seven months ago, i snatched mike away from his previous job and now i just try to keep him happy enough to stay with me...

i refused to do our recent workshop in bangkok without mike running the show....organizer kris leboutillier said it was the best investment he ever made....james nachtwey sings his praises....mike is just a nice guy....a 25 year old nice guy ..... i will never do any self organized workshop without him....during my last new york workshop, mike never left the studio...he slept on the sofa most nights, so that he could be up and running by the time the students arrived each morning...

mike and i leave bangkok in a few hours for the long flight home...we will be up all night, for  tonight is His Royal Highness the King of Thailand's birthday....everyone is wearing  yellow shirts out of respect for the king as they do on every single monday....he is one of the few world leaders truly loved by the people....Thailand was never colonized, therefore the monarchy is strong.....tonight everyone was walking around with candles, or in groups in front of tv's set to the birthday proceedings, or standing in front of their restaurants with candles, as above with michael .....

many thanks mike for all of your hard work and friendship.....

 

aga and lance

in the last few months it has become so so interesting to meet in person many of you from this forum...mostly it has happened on my travels abroad....but, recently many of you have stopped in to see me at home in new york...

i finally met Aga Luczakowska, one of my earliest writers on this forum, and learned how to pronounce her name correctly...Lance Rosenfield was also one of my "original" writers for this forum, but i had met him as a student in Mexico  and again later in my loft class ...both stopped by for a few days to hang around my studio class, mix with the students, and enjoy the festivities....

so, from now on, if you stop in for a cup of coffee or a cold beer, i will take your portrait just outside my door in the "kibbutz" hallway....the "impersonal net" has become quite personal....i soon hope to meet more of you as time goes on...

alexandra boulat 1962-2007

East Jerusalem 2006

who took this picture???

what old friend of mine was in the right place at the wrong time or in the wrong place at the right time?? and, more importantly, what is happening in this photograph?  and many of  you will answer correctly quickly...but, the final question is: for what type of photography is this photographer most famous??? and on the "honor system", no Google!!

earthlings

you do not want to mess with this guy....he is big....and with a very large head (and probably larger than average  sized brain)  and about 3 inches of hair stacked up there which makes him look even taller than he is...about 6 feet 3 inches i would say...more or less...he can look intimidating if you do not know him...and he does not smile much....a truly serious man with serious thoughts and, apparently, with not much of a sense of humor...

that is, until he puts camera to eye...then, and only then,  the boy just kills you with wit.....there are only a few photographers i know who can do this...make you laugh that is...maybe even out loud....you have to be really smart to be funny they say...comedians are smart for sure....and Magnum's richard kalvar is a pretty smart dude (remember, big head big brain)....

richard is a native new yorker, but chooses paris as his home....he has been in paris for 30 years or more...but this week he returns to new york to host us at the Leica Gallery for his opening exhibition  "Earthlings" ...and with a nice new book, published by Flammarion, to go along with it....this is richard's first book as a matter of fact...

richard does not talk much about himself or about his work....and perhaps because of this, he is not as "well known" in some photography circles as some of his more "market astute" brethren...where i come from , this kind of person is called a "sleeper"....never never overlook a "sleeper".....when you least expect it, they will jump right up and snap your head around....

richard kalvar is having his moment...deservedly so....at a time when either conflict photography or art photography often seem to dominate, it is totally refreshing to see someone with a sense of humor...i do hope however that richard will at least have a smile on his face thursday evening at his opening for Earthlings.....the way he sees all of us might just  make you laugh out loud....

now you try to name three photographers with a consistent sense of humor as their main body of work...besides erwitt, parr and kalvar that is.....

ok, ok it is time to clean out my closet anyway....yes, one of my old camera bags as a prize for the first person to name three photo comedians...

not lost in translation

chris steele-perkins is physically not a large man....it is easy to imagine him gliding through the streets of Tokyo, or probably anywhere, literally being the "invisible street photographer"....slipping and sliding and tucked out of way...at least, that is what i imagine...stealth personified..

that is, unless he speaks....if chris says something, people listen....because chris has a resonant voice that would make him the perfect radio talk show host....and also  a  perfect past president  of  Magnum...it takes a powerful "voice" to keep the attention of all those photographers shifting in their chairs at our annual meeting , but when chris "boomed" for the meeting to start, the meeting started...

but chris' real "voice" is, of course, with his work...and now the man is literally shouting...currently with two books published  almost simultaneously, chris is demanding our attention .... and he has it....please read chris'  interviews on the Magnum blog regarding "Northern Exposures" , his black & white ode to upcountry England....chris chats intelligently about the relationship between his book shot in England and his new color work in Tokyo....very different motives, very different approach to both, even though the "time line" has much of the work shot simultaneous...

i am publishing here a few photographs from his most recent book "Tokyo Love Hello", because i think Tokyo is where chris' heart really lies....his passion, his love for more than 20 years....after all, chris met his wife miyako in Tokyo and a man in love  knows no bounds ...

chris always makes us think (see his book "Fuji" published in 2001)....and again here, he does not "spoon feed" us....we must work....for "straight" journalistic photographers the intention is the "dissemination of "information"...but steele-perkins cares not for being didactic in this book...while chris does shoot in a "documentary" style, the juxtaposition of imagery in his book layouts is an intended "mystery"...pieces of a puzzle...

now i ask you...are  "journalistic" photographers bound to answer questions and "explain" clearly or do you enjoy being "made to think"  and pursue a more complex reasoning???

5th anniversary

he proposed on bended knee in the back of his vw poptop van...out in the middle of the western desert somewhere....in a spot where they had camped years before, early in their relationship...

the vw "proposal" van is a classic, and my son erin loves his "californiastyle" van second only to how much he loves his wife sophie....five years ago they were married in this house ....down on the walkway to water's edge.....informal......i shot the whole thing in black & white.....that is what erin and sophie wanted, so that is what erin and sophie got..

erin makes films...documentaries mostly,  and was cinematographer on one full length feature ... http://www.autumnmovie.com ....sophie teaches film studies...she specializes in asian filmmaking and just finished her ph.d at USC....they partnered once and produced a film together on jockeys racing their way to the derby...these two are a racing team....six months ago they decided to leave their life in los angeles film world....you guessed it...they packed the van and camped their way east to set up "permanent camp" in a small town wedged between sea and bay...no career changes....just a different "set"....

this year at our reunion , erin and sophie celebrated their 5th year together....they sure seemed happy to me....strong marriages seem to be the norm in my family (with one exception)....

right there, just in the background of the picture above, is my brother gary and his wife becky....so far they have been married 35 years...i shot their whole wedding in black & white too....that is what gary and becky wanted, so that is what gary and becky  got....

gary is a born aviator turned born trial lawyer...he was "my pilot" once on an east coast book shoot....so much fun we had working together...i do not want to work with him now..i do not want a lawyer for any reason...but, if i had to have one, gary would be the best..i know this because i lose every "argument" we get in, and i am pretty good at arguing.... but he beats me every time...well, almost every time...like i said, trial lawyer....becky flies too..as an attendant for a commercial company...but becky cares not about career....she is a family person....her children and gary are her life....

recently  in a few posts, i have shown my family having coffee on the porch, standing under rainbows and in nice afternoon light....can this be real?? well, it is certainly part of our reality...but, like most  families we have had more than our share of pain and loss...the pain made us stronger.....but surely, i do "idealize" the family in most of my pictures , because that is actually how i see them...

do you take pictures of your family  in  perhaps  an  "idealistic" way or do you let "reality" dictate???

morning coffee

there is so much going on at our family gathering, that it is often busier than "real life"...while at any given time you may find a couple of people reading books, you might find another group of 3 or 4 rigging up the kite boards or going to play tennis or jogging or setting up the volleyball net or body surfing ...at night we all have dinner together and then the "games" begin...like charades or  dominos or taboo or parcheesi or pictionary or scrabble or whatever......i mean, vacation is exhausting with this group!!

but, for me, the highlight of the whole two weeks, is coffee with my mother  in the morning...we are both, by nature, early risers...the sun comes up, we are up....so, while the rest of the family sleeps, my mother and i are usually sitting out on the deck having our coffee and talking about the same things we have talked about my whole life...eventually the rest of the crew shows up for the early morning "philosophy" chat, but my mom and i  are out there first...

my mother, maryanna (above),  has been hands down the single most important influence on me as a person and as a photographer...her incomparable youthful energy, her attitude towards life, her spirituality, her interest in others, and  her teaching  have all been incorporated into my sensibility...and, oh yes, my mother is the family  chronicler...she keeps a daily "journal".....whenever one of us disputes a date when something happened or who was where when,  we just consult my mother's journal...it is all right there...

my father, alan ,  who literally died in the warm arms of our entire family on Christmas day  in 2000, was the pillar of strength for all of us and one of the reasons we all get together now both in summer and for Christmas holidays....my parents were married for 59 years.....high school sweethearts from farm families in iowa.....solid.......my mother tells me she named me in her imagination  four years before she actually married my father....she said he was tall and handsome by his junior year and besides he had a car!!  and , best of all, their mothers were friends...what a setup!!!

world war II took my father away almost  the day i was born... my mother gave birth just as the american marines  were landing on  normandy beaches (june 5, l944 , d-day in san franscisco)...i did not have any real contact with my father until he returned from the war and for me he was a 5x7 photo that i took to bed at night...so, my early bonding was with my mother....my mother "understood me" from the beginning...and helped me recover physically and emotionally from my early polio affliction...

from my father i learned much also....integrity....honesty...discipline?? (well, i have some)....work ethic....family first.....we moved around a lot when i was growing up and my dad always made sure we (i have two brothers and a sister) lived in the best possible places, even though often inconvenient for him as a commute....he also built me  darkrooms in every new house ...once my mother single handedly built me a darkroom too!!

so, the whole point is that our family "vacation" is not so much a vacation as a celebration of our precious temporary time together....we have had just enough tragedies and sadness among us  to make us want to appreciate every  healthy moment we have  on this fragile planet...we even call it our "family reunion"....we do not even use the word "vacation"....

i asked all of you about "family influences" a couple of weeks ago.....it was very interesting for me  to see how so many of you had similar positive family experiences...however, i am sure this is not true for all....for those of us who are blessed with family we deeply love, we know there can be nothing else placed in a "higher" position...i am totally a "workaholic"....i love my work.......but, i love my family more....and they are obviously  the resource and the energy for the work...  my "mirror" of ,  and my "window" to , this complex world....

rainbow photo by michael halminski...........a very hard working beach bum