your thoughts, your work...

i think it might be easier if you post your suggestions for an assignment right here, along with a link to your work...of course, i will also be reading the comments  and your suggestions on the previous post...i think i have seen all of the links sent so far, but i will double check...in two or three days i will finish making all assignments for this month,  but will be  out there ahead thinking  about future  projects all  the time...i look forward to your ideas and your new work....please remember: keep it simple, doable...

 

Comments

[Jonathan Hanson]

Hi David, Thanks again for putting forth the time and commitment to do this. I am living in downtown Baltimore and would like to do an assignment on the violence that is so rampant in this city. It has one of the highest homicide rates in the US and I would like to photograph the families, hospitals, police, social workers and citizens who cope and have to deal with the consequences of such violence. I am not able to start it until June or so as I am trying to wrap up two stories as it is with a deadline for later this month. If I am not "assigned" this story, I am still planing to work on it as my summer project.

Because my website was not working for you last time, below is a link to a small portfolio of work. I can post a link to the stories I am finishing up now for you when I have them completed if you are interested in see those. I look forward to seeing everyones work and seeing where this ambitious group project goes.

Jonathan

http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/slideshow/11097

[bobblack]

David:

gorgeous pic :)))))...where is this?..love that damn flash/moon and the masked face below it (behind the wing) :)))...

more later...

running

hugs
b

[Preston]

Anything Indian- or immigration-related in New York (though this is my comfort zone):

http://www.prestonmerchant.com/indiaworld/photos/

But, really, I would be up for anything.

[JChance]

Wow! First in line (at least when I started writing)... that is a first!! I'm usually scrambling at the back somewhere desperately trying to keep up!

Well, David you know my pitch (sorry to bore you again, but so as to fill in others...

I'm currently shooting in Manila in the cities (Catholic) Northern Cemetery, it is of interest in the fact that there are communities of families living there (and have been for generations). There is also a kind of interesting hierarchy in that some are paid to guard and maintain the nicer mausoleums (often these folks leave at 6.00pm) Next are people/families living actually living in the mausoleums but still caretaking. Beneath them are squatters who are just making the best of a stone structure and a roof above their heads.

It is interesting that the folks living here are far better off than those living on the streets or in the slum areas. Wells have been dug and more industrious residents are tapping into the cities electricity outside the cemetery's walls, which means TV's, stereos, lights, Karaoke etc. I have been told there are around 1,000 residents, but I think there are much more.

I'm sorry I don't have any of this work uploaded on my site yet. I have a text and photo blog in development which will hopefully be up soon... so all I can offer for now is previous at www.jameschance.com

David I'll send you a tighter edit of stuff shot so far in the next day or so.

Cheers all!

James

[Pete Marovich]

David,

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am traveling to Rome and Naples for a 10-day honeymoon at the end of the month. I of course plan to relax and enjoy the trip and time with my new bride, but at the same time plan to shoot a lot of images.

Do you have any suggestions on how to approach a vacation/photo opportunity? And also if I could impose upon you to give a bit of guidance or some sort of mini assignment for the trip that would be great!

Best

Pete

[Jarle Kavli Jørgensen]

Hey David,
great photo, love it!!

for my project i have been thinking that i will most likely have to do a documentary project, for an event that will happen, and due to economic reasons, i have to do the project here in berlin. i was thinking of ducumenting the karneval, from may 9-12 (link: http://www.karneval-berlin.de/de/), or another upcoming event. But what i can do with regards to step out of my comfort zone, see in a new light, and grow, i am not sure yet...

can check out my work @ http://jarlejorg.foto.no

cheers,
jarle

[David McGowan]

It's simple really—there's been an explosion of garage sales here in Michigan and it's producing two angles. One is of families selling items to make ends meet, the other is people seeing the opportunity to unload items since no one wants to (or can afford to) pay full price for anything.

It's not like it's observing a hyper-depressed culture, guaranteed to tug at your heart-strings. It's more like looking at ordinary people who often have the threat of loosing their homes hanging over their heads.

I'm envisioning the work being part working candids, part on-the-spot portraiture, plus conveying the environment through shots of customers, items for sale, etc. It's also likely that I'll be recording sound for use when I build the slideshow. And I've kind of been bitten by the black and white bug.

http://www.humanfiles.com/index.htm

http://www.humanfiles.com/pages/journal.htm

[Jarle Kavli Jørgensen]

ordered a book today, from amazon, after having been suggested this by a couple of polish couchsurfers, who recently stayed at my place.

Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_Lucida_%28book%29

any of you know this? according to wikipedia "It is simultaneously an inquiry into the nature and essence of photography and a eulogy to Barthes's late mother. The book investigates the effects of photography on the spectator (as distinct from the photographer, and also from the object photographed, which Barthes calls the "spectrum")."

look forward to start reading and getting inspired!!

namaste'
jarle

[david alan harvey]

JONATHAN....

yes, i know Baltimore has a very high crime rate..i have always wondered why...

i think this is a good project...my only concern is your access...will you have the ability to go with the police?? can you then also work in the most dangerous neighborhoods?

i am assuming you have seen "Police Work" by Leonard Freed and , of course, "Cocaine Blue, Cocaine True"and "Knife and Gun Club" by Eugene Richards and "L.A.Gangs" by Joe Rodriguez...

in any case, yes, give this a go for next month...but please fly slow and low...be careful...it is an important story, but it is also important that you come home...

please stay in touch with me when you get started...i may have some more thoughts for you by then....you may realize that just one part of it is enough...

BOB...

this is from a street performers festival in Certaldo , Italy...this whole thing lasted three or four days and there were amazingly very few tourists or other photographers around considering it's proximity to Sienna...

JAMES...

well, i know your work and how you shoot, so no problem there...can you work in these cemeteries without having problems with local authorities?? I have a friend who tried a similar story in Cairo, and ended up with a multitude of problems...

how long will you stay in Manila??

PETE...

well, it is pretty hard to go wrong photographically in either Rome or Naples, with Naples being a living breathing Fellini film set.....if you are in Naples for a weekend, then an obvious thing for you would be to shoot the incredible wedding photo business...i mean, you will not believe the scene...all around the Castel del Ovo and the main plaza just up the hill (cannot remember the name) you will see literally dozens of wedding photos being taken..by super pro wedding photogs with all of the reflectors, assistants etc etc.....Naples is the city of weddings and pro wedding photogs...and since you will have just had yours, why not photograph someone else's?? just be sure to make friends with the pro wed photogs doing the shooting...i never had one object once they know what you are doing, but always ask...

Naples is also the city of "watch your camera carefully"....i taught a workshop class there once and a student had his camera stolen with all of us just standing on a street corner together watching the whole scene...but, he was also being careless...i shot an assignment in Naples for three months and never had a single problem, but i was also being very "aware" at all times...

Naples is an amazing city...great pizza...great ice cream...pictures everywhere all the time...Rome ain't bad either...

cheers, david

[Pete Marovich]

David,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately we will not be there on a weekend. We arrive Naples Monday and leave for Rome on Friday. Then depart Rome the following Wednesday.

I have actually been there before, a long time ago for three years as a child. My father was in the Marines and we were stationed in Naples. I have a very vivid memory of most of it, and I agree that at first it may be difficult to decide where to point the lens.

So aside from the wedding idea, which I agree would be very cool if I was there on the weekend, any ideas for a mini assignment or way of approaching it?

This does not have to be something that you post here. You have a long line of anxious participants here. But maybe something that I can show you at the Look3 workshop.

Thanks again.

Pete.

[david alan harvey]

DAVID MCGOWAN...

sounds pretty interesting actually...material goods not wanted anymore and being sold to keep a roof over their heads..hmmmm..my inclination would be to just go for the strong "portraits" and/or "tableau" photographs...the "story" will be quite obvious so why not just go for the gut??? you do not need to "cover" this...candids?? maybe , maybe not...five really strong pictures of people standing in front of stuff they do not want anymore but think someone else might want it, is enough...black & white, cool....

try one or two...see if you still like it...

cheers, david

[david alan harvey]

PETE...

well, ok ...and i was thinking later anyway.."wait a minute, this guy is on his honeymoon"...if i were you i would just concentrate on honeymoon and forget shooting an essay until you get to C'ville...

i can just see you telling your new bride, "hey wait a minute baby, i have to go shoot this picture for Harvey"...hmmmm, bad idea...

since you are on a limited time frame and since your priority should be your new wife, why not just shoot her...hard to go wrong with that one...but, i do not mean standing in front of the Coliseum, but natural , freestyle, in travel context, and representative of your new life...your first trip after marriage...a milestone....so bring to C'ville five nice pictures of your new bride and some text from her and from you to go with the pictures somehow...put yourself in the pictures too with mirrors , reflections etc etc..

cheers, david

[David McGowan]

I hear ya, thanks.

[JChance]

DAVID:

Yeah, there were difficulties... At first I was refused entry, but after a 3 days working on City hall and visiting (I don't joke) 15 desks/departments or more, often on multiple occasions (I know you have been there) I have the paperwork!! This was to get in...

Now, since gaining official access to the cemetery, I am very pleased to have built a great relationship with their security team. They even like to hang out and help with translation etc. which is often a real help!

(Touch wood) I really don't see any restrictions right now, bar staying over night... Will be working on that though.

Will be here until the 20th.

Cheers!

James

[JChance]

DAVID:

Yeah, there were difficulties... At first I was refused entry, but after a 3 days working on City hall and visiting (I don't joke) 15 desks/departments or more, often on multiple occasions (I know you have been there) I have the paperwork!! This was to get in...

Now, since gaining official access to the cemetery, I am very pleased to have built a great relationship with their security team. They even like to hang out and help with translation etc. which is often a real help!

(Touch wood) I really don't see any restrictions right now, bar staying over night... Will be working on that though.

Will be here until the 20th.

Cheers!

James

[Pete Marovich]

David,

OK, I have finally stopped laughing. You are right of course. The "hey wait a minute baby, i have to go shoot this picture for Harvey" would be a bad idea. Funny visual though! And I was not looking for an "assignment" in the literal sense I guess.

But, I love your suggestion! So does, Jenny by the way. Her exact response was... " I need to meet this guy and give him a big hug!"

I am sure she will get the chance in Charlottesville.... just watch your hands! (GRIN)

Again, I have to say, excellent suggestion! It will be fun! And I will being them to the workshop.

Pete

[Giulio Bulfoni]

Ciao David,
the main plaza just up the hill on Castel dell'Ovo is Piazza Plebiscito. I see you still remember Dragos and that fantastic workshop in Naples.....so exciting, so stressing, but also so beautiful, so "open-minding".......maybe to do again, maybe a remake......six years later....

Hope to see you this summer in Tuscany

Giulio

[Akaky]

A project? Hmmm. How about photographs of various and sundry celebrations of various and sundry things in a small city in the northeastern United States? That sounds about my speed, I think. In fact, I have a link (see below) to show some various and sundry aspects of various and sundrey things in just such a small city in the norteastern United States. It's amazing how serendipity works, isnt it?

http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/slideshow/12367

[Akaky]

Although it occurs to me that serendipity is not really the concept I want here, the relevant concept being synchronicity, a Jungian tenet who paid a lot less than the market value of his apartment because of the rent control laws.

[david alan harvey]

BOB AND JAY...

you boys used the word "coherent" when i was using the word "cohesive" in describing photographs in essay form....don't misquote me boys, don't misquote me!!

what i was trying to say is this: photographers should strive for primarily coherent or oftentimes incoherent photographs stitched collectively or perhaps randomly in a cohesive way which could in fact provide coherence to an otherwise incoherent assemblage of cohesive photographs in at least a more coherent way than this run on sentence with little or no cohesion....

got it???

peace, david

[lee Guthrie]

Good advise David to the newlywed! Talk about a near miss on that one!

I would love an assignment. I begin my summer travels May 15 with an assignment at a zoo in big bear. From there I travel across Arkansas, Kentucky and on into Charlottesville for Look3.

My teaching assignment ends next week with wonderful results from the kids again. And again I have learned something new about photography from these kids. And learned more about who I am in photography.

My focus on this road trip is to stay in small towns and talk to people about the political changes in the works, and how the recession is affecting their lives and small towns. One planned stay is the classic return to your home town that you left decades ago and see how all your friends turned out. Another is to check out areas for a possible move to the mainland US.

Another plan is 10 days of family vacation with 2 of my girls and their kids.

I look forward to an assignment. I can do the one that has emerged for me already on this road trip and/or would love to hear any variation on the theme that would push it up a notch.

I look forward to seeing you and all my photo friends at Look3.
Lee

[david alan harvey]

LEE...

you are coming to Look3?? my oh my, and just when i thought the "coast was clear"!!!

well, at least there will now be entertainment for one and all...the Lee/David sideshow should at least give a few chuckles to those who are taking themselves way way too seriously...

hmmmm, seriously, let me ponder your thoughts awhile....i am not quite sure what you want to do...returning to the small town where you grew up to see how all your friends turned out sounds like good movie material , but i do not see how you do it with a still essay...elaborate please...

here we go again!!!

GIULIO...

ah yes, Piazza Plebiscito..thank you...i would have remembered EVENTUALLY, but i also knew someone here would jump in with it...i am pleased it was you!!! yes, i am wishing to see you this summer in Tuscany...

cheers, david

[bobblack]

DAVID! :)))))))...

TOTALLY, get you: 100% :))...IS THAT A CORN-COB SENTENCE? ;)))))))...if it is it is NOT ONLY COHERENT (odd, considering it's the middle of the day, and im as sober as a preacher before a sucking of hill-whiskey) AND COHESIVE! :))..

i couldnt agree more, which is what i was trying to suggest: that coherence is often "boring"! and (more importantly): a LIE!...is life ever coherent?...and yet, oddly, beautifully, painfully, magnificently, frustratingly, it somehow gels: is cohesive...all the parts seem to fit together, even when they look totally incomprehensible...that's why I am so happy (and thankful) that you allowed us (ok, me) to do an edit for the Look3: it might not look coherent, but i hope folks when they see it at FOP will think: this dude bobblack is as out of his mind as Alan Harvey, but somehow it makes sense ;)))))....

franks's Storyline book is the most beautifully fucked up book i've ever looked at: incoherent, and yet, as cohesive as tongue spread wide by anothers lips, tooth on taffy, cock on labia, eyelash on skin, light on knuckle, brim on braun, touch on time....:))

with u all the way Pastor, believe Us YOu! :))

running

hugs
bob

[erica mcdonald]

DAVID..

so...I am hoping to still talk in person about this, as one idea is smaller and the other larger and I'd really value your input as to how they'd stand with your assignment structure. Both are important to me, but I am chomping at the bit to make the larger one manifest. If you wont be in home in time to talk before dolling out assignments though, pls let me know and I'll try to describe both, and give you a link to new work, new website which is nearly done but i'd rather not post the temp url here..hopefully will go live in a week..

[david alan harvey]

AKAKY....

whew...after the 399th football action shot, i got a little worn out my friend....and i viewed your plethora of other sundry synchronicities and decided you need to make friends with an editor....actually there are some gemstones in there, but we have to do a lot of digging to find them..however, given your intellectual but often twisted prose, i think we should have you do something with your camera more along the lines of how you write..any interest in humor? yes, i know you have it in words...but i mean in pictures?? forget an essay...just go downtown and find things that just do not make sense..put visual things together out of context forming another context...just like you do with words...can you do that??? do you want to do that??? no need to apologize if you do not want to do that...i cannot project my neurosis on you or anyone else...sorry...

cheers et al, david

[bobblack]

erica:

can u send me the url?...i promise to write tonight :)))...

....insane 4 weeks...exhausting but rewarding...

ok, running

b

[robert wiedenfeld]

david: your timing is Golden !! i have just presented work from Bhaktapur, Nepal on my blog for this month of May. i would love feedback from this community good, bad, or indifferent. to me this place was interesting to fotograph because their is a whole culture that revolves around a river and really heavy religious iconography everywhere you look. All u have to do is click on my name below..

as for a self assignment: umm thinking about the horse races and jockeys in particular. the season starts here in June so still some time to make an absolute decision.

David: any small gifts of insights into my latest work would be a godsend. i truly appreciate your constructive criticisms in the past ie.. tijuana, italy + thank you..

p.s. i love the way this forum is shaping up as of lately. so many reasons to be optimistic and excited about all of our near futures..

[bobblack]

LEE:

I've heard through the grape wine that Alan Harvey can DANCE LIKE A DERVISH!!!...:))))...he could be an addition to your fine story on Whirling Dervish :)))

ok, now have to whirl away myself...

cheers
b
b

[Ross Nolly]

Hi David;

Just wondering if you had a chance to view the link to a project I'll be following whilst in Timor over the next three weeks?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/asia_pac_e_timor0s_angel_of_mercy/html/1.stm

Cheers

[cathy scholl]

David,

A thought...I am in the process of trying to get a press pass to shoot the Santa Fe Rodeo, end of June. It's a professional rodeo and they are very strict about who can shoot and what they will allow to be shot but if I am able to shoot there it would be good timing for an assignment.

I'll think more about who and what...

Part of the "emotion" for me about shooting this is that two (or was it three) years ago when they still allowed people to photograph there without so many restrictions I shot two rolls of film that I thought were among the best I'd ever shot and they were destroyed. :((

No way to ever replace them but it has motivated me to at least try to make good images in their honor, thus my attempts at New Mexico Rodeo photography last summer.

[lee Guthrie]

It isn't so much a return to my home town to see how everyone is doing as it just happens to be one of the stops in my journey across this portion of the states and a natural byproduct of that is to see folks I grew up with and haven't seen in decades. This road trip is another journey with a camera coming along. I like to drive and I like to shoot so taking a road trip in the area I am going means lots of small towns like my home town or boring interstate highways. I choose small towns and curvy roads.

I am extremely interested in the climate of America (in this area big time issues are GMO, corn vs. food, large producers of fowl and all the branches of that) and want to talk to folks about issues that are affecting our lives big time right now, one being imported oil and how rising costs that affects their energy needs. The political season is a good forum to approach people for this kind of interaction. Small towns are a great format for sitting down with locals and spending a couple days living with them-you know what I mean, you do it all the time. Not sure how an essay would form around that but I feel it would be revealed and/or some variation of it.

Bob, whirling dervishes don't drink.

Lee

[robert wiedenfeld]

David and Community: viewing instructions for Bhaktapur, Nepal is as follows- scroll down page on the left hand side u will see Blog Archive on cover page. Please click on the current month it's actually April and then u will be able to see all fourteen images. For a closer look click on any of the images individually and use your toolbar arrow upper left to go back to where you started. peace & love..

[david alan harvey]

ERICA....

i totally want you for one of these first assignments....and , yes, i will talk to you in person this week..however, i do have a family to shoot down here in Carolina...i might also drop into the Federal Village for one night...in any case Erica, i have not forgotten you....my mother still tells me that as i kid i was always late to come home and as an "adult" i never come back to wherever i left at the time i "promised"...but, she also said that i always kept my promises...see you soonest!!!

BOB...

hey amigo, just messin with you anyway ..."word" dude....however,no corn cob pipe....we need to talk soonest about what you want to do...i see something truly unique with words and pictures and pictures and words...

PRESTON....

will i see you in person soonest??? 15th?? we need to talk about what you should do...

cheers, david

[erica mcdonald]

DAVID..all is well then and I won't try to scramble it into words here, will wait for your return..you make me think about songwriter Greg Brown and the concept of 'adult dark', as in 'supper's ready everyone come on in..and it's dark outside anyway'.. but the kids playing outside can still see perfectly well, eyes adjusted to the gradually dimming skies...so tho maybe you just don't respond to adult time, you are still perfectly on time..promises kept

[david alan harvey]

ROSS...

it was taking a minute or more to load each of your pictures...i gave up after three...back to it later...must be on overload or whatever...

CATHY....

well, what is good about the rodeo for you is that it is a continuation of work you have done...how many days is the rodeo?? and are there things before and after that might be interesting...in "event" based photography, my best pictures are never from the event itself...always, or almost always, the EDGES have it all...think about it...

cheers, david

[Jay Sinclair]

DAVID...
Oops, got properly nailed by the word quote police!

Definitely with you!!!

Yes, total coherance is boring, too literal, loses magic.

Cheers,
Jay

[david alan harvey]

ROBERT W...

can't you make this easier for guys like me???

one time when i was just chatting with James Nachtwey and David Griffin of Natgeo, we all agreed that photographers really needed to simplify their websites...we also agreed that we tended not to even look at anything even slightly complicated..there just is not enough time in the day to try to figure out someone's website...

not trying to give YOU a hard time!! this is for everyone to read...

anyway, i never did see all 14 images from Nepal...but, lost as i was, i did see a lot of other interesting work of yours, so all was not lost...i did follow your directions (i think)...

i think it was Michael Kirchner who gave us the best presentation of his work...remember?? Paris vacation?? anyway, we all clicked on the link and nice big pictures, scroll down, easy to read and navigate etc...can't everyone do that???

cheers, david

[Preston]

Hi, David. Yes, will see you on the 15th. Looking forward to it!

[Preston]

Hi, David. Yes, I'll be there on the 15th. Should be fun!

[robert wiedenfeld]

David: it's actually quite simple once you delve into the blog archives which are at the bottom left hand side of the cover page. For said month ie. Jan, Feb, March, April, May, etc just click on any month and that will enable u to see all images for that particular month. In this case put your cursor on the month of April then go to the right side of the page assuming you have an apple book then scroll up or down. Thats it although probably i'm making it sound more difficult than it really is. bummer i really wanted u too see this work as a whole.. anyway my tray at the restaurant is calling me- Waiter - there is a fly in my Soup ? (sesame street anyone )

p.s. i wish i had more control over the simplicity of my blog however it's FREE and well you can't beat FREE !! Thank You Google 4 EVER. Tonight i will look into how to simplify and streamline my Blog liberty pictures..any ideas ? David i sympathize with your position as my computer skills are totally inadequate o.k. computer.

[david alan harvey]

ERICA..

well, you struck a chord with that one...who doesn't remember summer nights, fireflies and yes yes that light you could barely see in, but you COULD see!!

cheers, david

[david alan harvey]

ROBERT W...

i did just as you said...but, i was looking for 14 pictures of Nepal..did i have that part wrong?? anyway, i will go try it again..

[Ross Nolly]

David;
Not my pictures, just a news piece that describes the work being done by the Sister.

Cheers

[wrobertangell]

Rob,
I think if you want David to look at your work, bring the set to the top of your blog. so thats the first thing you see. make it easy otherwise people will get impatient, and rightly so.
time is dishes and dishes is money.

[bobblack]

DAVID:

Ok, but here's a teaser for you.....i still stand by what i wrote on friday:

give others assignment, those who hunger, crave, long, need it...i feel extremely priviledged to have you show my pics at Look3 during your projection, and lots of folks will see those pics, including the ones not seen here, under your EPF link: im excited enough about that and waiting feedback when folk see it in charlottesville, so, i am in no rush (but always ready to produce an assignment of words and pics, pics and words)...

i've got 2 upcoming shoots: 1 involving more students: time spent photographing them (and my wife, who will also photograph them, so i'll also photograph her photographing them) while they eat (traditional korean restaurant) and drink and later go photograph them at a karaoke bar....for a number a reasons....1) my korean (and others) spend alot of time in karaoke bars, and this transforms them...2) the experience of korean students in a karaoke bar are very different than "westerners" experience: this was a great revelation to me....and 3) I want to do a series of photographs that is a dialogue with Chien-Chi Chang....Chien-Chi did a series (a roll i believe) of pics in a Karaoke bar in Taiwan...I LOVE CHIEN-CHI's work and since Taiwan is a part of my past (childhood) and i have always admired him so much, it's my own "conversation" with him from afar...

originally, before you brought up this "assignment post", i wanted to actually photograph a Magnum Photographer this week doing/leading his/her group for Magnum Workshop...originally, i was going to write Chris, and pitch it to him and to Bree, but sadly, i returned from NC emotionally interested in something else...and i thought Magnum wouldn't go for it, and i didnt get a chance lunch with her about discussing....and i had no time to write Chris before he came up....someday, i'll do that (shoot a story about all these workshops), ....but anyway.....

here are some old pics about students....they were scanned last year on our old poor quality scanner., but u get the picture...anyway...im tired...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/2469403200/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73821181@N00/2468574533/

emotional....i will make at least 1 picture that isn't "blurry"...though, it will still be broken by all the grain...

have to run...

u take care of your assignments first...i am still digesting NC and my family pictures.......

ok, and some words:...i wrote a long essay-poem for your project last summer...about the immigrant students....here is part of that...will write something else, eventually too, whatever i do for your Blog Assignment: parts of this i've left here before...

running
b
--------------------------------------------

“Fiction for him was never representation…It was rumination in narrative form."-Philip Roth

I
Arisen then:

II
When the shift occurs in the morning, the exact weight of the knot behind my 42-year old knees, reminding me that I have to begin, not yesterday, nor tomorrow, but today: a recounting, a snagging of the departure of things, of thoughts that have saddled for too long. Look. Their grain, corralled and telexed, weaves upon itself like emulsion beneath a print of skin, spreading and pneumbered. How is that I can begin to convey to you why now it is not the grasping but the telling, jack-split-gone, why now not then. Not the photographs. Not the words. Not the precision of light stacked against the algebra of my life's grammar. But something more light, spawned beneath a tree's damp roots at the base, at the base of languages, the winsome spine of movement, the memory at the base of my son's languorous words. The pop of memory.

III
Baited bone beat back, tipping. So: begun. Sung.

IV
Distill this life and swing-sing it wide, allow it to circle, swell, pivot and drop inside and sit for time and then ex-pell it as if a child's winter breath, gathering heat in the gallop of joy, the sacked-packed step of snow under thunderous foot: swung up through the earth's canopy, there, widening.

We hunger for memory, for pit of image, print of time, photograph as hieroglyph disappearance. I am photographing a group of students who have come far from their homes, carving up and out a new memory and in their steps and their tossed moments of doubt and capture, I myself begin to doubt what I am doing. To photograph someone, for what: recall, distillation, homing-hope?

The roaming, far typed and shuttled, long settling away our loam and pottery-bone life. Have what I seen what I have seen when I have chosen to photograph you.

A fecund muck of breaking.

V
I have, like moss'd age of dropped loess upon bone, been spotted by a silly propensity for quotation. Is it no wonder that I continue to shape and sting things away with a little box filled with silver and chemical and sprocket-tongues of black and grey? I can share with you that I have in the scattering time of my dalliance with middle age begun, cowardly really, to ink-blot my life with clinging: a hieroglyph of memory. Far strung across the wide and buckling place behind my eyes, this sea of memory that does not yet exist but that I wish to weary and wrestle from its place. A preposterous and pretentious act. And then there is this: a night holding two cameras, one dropped, a wind-arm broken, and I think: this, there, so it goes. There is nothing but the carve and shape and sent-scent of you amid the winding, focused-skeletal world, licked up, chewed up, taken inside like sulphur dust and phosphorous. I buckle: let that armature break, if nothing else….

Later, another memory: pivot of sadness, a far-aching sibling of words and images and flirtation: all the broken-tooth, wobbly selves, hobbled by a lacking and a quivering. Me: the he ensorcelled.

VI
Faces gather time along their edges, sprockets of light pitched around thumb-bowed shadow, the way milk rims the lip and bottom-dip of a glass, the way bone sedimentizes sentiment pitched from the age and voice of the earth, the way glass and stone color from exposure. We speak of time, we speak of faces, we seldom speak of how these cauterize and coalesce into some odd unknowing. How is it that we distinguish one face from all the others? How is it that we speak of others and ourselves through an algebra of memory, speak of the faces that we have seen or known distinguished into certainty. What else is there in our knowing, at the heart of the well of our remembrance?

Then what about the blind, what is etched upon their skull and lithe memorial imagery? You should know I am blind in one eye and as a child struggled with un-seeing. At at early age, and often to my horror, I sailed over the lakes and seas and gulfs of my own face and eventually learned that each face while navigable is not attainable. In fact, I have spent the better part of my life trying to decipher what it is that I see when I look into the mirror: how is it that this chimera, this insolvable jigsaw is possibly me. When I became a photographer this became an ethical question: if I could not understand this revenant shell as me (my face yes, but surely not the "I" that is "me."), how then to photograph someone else, let alone their face? I have not yet solved this quandary. How to properly remember, how to remember you when hopelessly stuck in the teeth of me. How to write about this? How to right the writing?

Soon, the disorienting calculus sets in: closeness, infinitely halved. A diary of failure: how far away, how licked-over-distance in the print of a smudge of space: breath between a barracks of lens and light. We continue even when we have not yet understood how to begin. Bereft. Beating. Brook. Fall upon me.

[david alan harvey]

ROSS...

ok, yes, i did not see the photog by-line first time around...and did not read the text..anyway, are you going to follow this one Sister???

[david alan harvey]

WROBERT...

thanks, yes, this is what i wanted to say earlier...by the way, i see from the site that you two are friends...maybe i kinda remember reading that way back, but i had forgotten...

so, what have you got on your mind?? good idea?? i would imagine that you would....

cheers, david

[Ross Nolly]

Yes, I have already contacted her and she is keen. I don't know if you remember but I mentioned a long time ago about an elderly Sister (Sister Loyola) I completed a story on? We became good friends.

Well it so happens when I last called in to visit she mentioned that there was a Sister from Timor that I should meet, who had recently stayed at their convent. By chance, this was Sister Guillermina who I had been attempting to contact. Serendipity, maybe??

The only work done on Sister Guillermina has been “once over lightly” news coverage (eg the link I gave you). I think it’s important to sometimes focus on the positive. I also want to go more than skin deep on the photo/writing coverage.

I will be doing one story on a permaculture project at a remote village aimed at helping IDPs get back to their villages. I have four mags wanting a story on that and it will only take 2-3 days shooting/writing- more news type work really.

The rest of the time (I’ll be there for 3 weeks) I’ll be focusing on Sister Guillermina’s work, and the life of IDPs in Timor (about 110,000 out of a population of around 500,000).

Sister has over 2,000 IDPs living in her convent grounds (about the size of two basketball courts). She has had a knife held to her throat 11 times and a gun to her head 3 times protecting the people from gangs wishing to kill them.

A very inspirational person, she even takes gang members in to help them.

There is one other story I may get a chance to work on, it is following a man helping street kids (11 & 12 years old) from Oecussi, who have been sent to Dili by their parents to work and send money home to the family. This story is a bit sketchier, as I haven’t been able to contact him.

Anyway, I have only 3 weeks and don’t want to spread myself too thin.

I feel very lucky to live in a wealthy, stable country.....

[david alan harvey]

ROSS...

yes, just stick with Sister Guillermina...not just pictures of her, but what she stands for...the people she helps etc etc..and since we have been talking lately about strong single picture seeing instead of overdoing the "link" pictures, just go for the strong imagery...we can fill in the blanks...then, if you have four or more of those, then you will actually have a strong essay...we just do not need to see every little "point"....ok roll with it and let us see what you do....

this should be good....

cheers, david

[Jonathan Hanson]

CATHY,

Maybe you should check out the Rodeo in Galisteo, NM if you run into problems with the SF rodeo. I think it is in July, you wont have to deal with any of the PR and coverage issues you mentioned and you will be able to roam anywhere you want. I got some great work there, a single for my portfolio actually. I had a lot of fun. It starts mid day so early shooting can challenge you to work with high contrast light, maybe bring a flash and dial it down, I did not and in some of my pics, I wish I had a little to add some fill. By the time you are pulling your hair out, the beautiful NM light is glowing and will provide ample time to get some nice images. Good luck.