self-portrait selection.....
Les
David
Suryo Wibowo
ok, we have the three best forum self-portraits as curated by Magnum photographer Chris Anderson....Chris said he chose these because of "their overall photographic quality, sense of humor, and the intelligence that went into them".....there is a link below to the 37 photographs from which he chose... these were from a "first edit" that i made yesterday....
for those three of you whose photographs are here, please confirm that you made these within the time frame i set up....honor system....and also, please give me your full name and address so we may send out your "prizes" soonest....
Les gets an archival signed print, David a signed book, and Suryo the much coveted used camera bag!!
Chris made the same comment i made when he first saw all of the work..."impossible to judge...they are all very interesting"....but, a decision had to be made, so here you have it....
i will incorporate all of the self-portraits into a new slide show as soon as there is time...there were several others that i really think are very fine photographs, so i think it prudent to make an overall presentation of your work....
thanks again for participating....i seriously enjoyed looking at all of these portraits...the revelations were endless!!!
Patricia,
You make a remarkable work, only you can speak as well about your handicap, I had in no way to think of your vision of the world, from below, as a child who evolves in a world so big, who cannot reach(affect) things it is very poignant thank you for your courage and your sensibility...
Kind regards, audrey
Posted by: audrey bardou | July 04, 2008 at 01:32 AM
Jonathan,
I like very much your images (except can be 52), they are so quiet and dramatic I wait impatiently for the continuation(suite)...
Kind regards, audrey
Posted by: audrey bardou | July 04, 2008 at 01:55 AM
I have to say that i never heard about such nice community as we have here...
and the idea with selfportraits was one of the best on your blog David..
I can not wait for some new ideas! and have fun again!
Posted by: Aga Luczakowska | July 04, 2008 at 02:49 AM
This isn't just my childhood home, it's a house my dad built the year I was born. He passed away a few years ago.
The couple sitting at the laptop is looking at my photos for this project. I can go back and shoot more if I need to.
Mundane!
http://www.humanfiles.com/garagesale/gs08.htm
Posted by: David McGowan | July 04, 2008 at 02:57 AM
Congratualtions.....
some fanatstic ideas here....
cheers
Siddharth
Posted by: Siddharth | July 04, 2008 at 04:31 AM
Oh guys! This is fabulous!! I just had time to see the selection of 37 photographs from the link and I was really shocked by all the creativity and intention I saw there.... Just great!
I missed this 'contest' because I was working and working without time for anything else. I have many selfportraits but I had no time to do a new one within the time frame David asked...
Congratulations to the winners, but also to the rest as there is a lot of good stuff there!
( Hope to get some free time and take a look to all the selfportraits and know a bit more from all of you ;-) )
Posted by: Ana Yturralde | July 04, 2008 at 05:24 AM
so David, what about this revelation, not nice to tease when I'll be off-line for the week-end and might not know what it is, if you ever plan to reveal it...
Posted by: Yan | July 04, 2008 at 05:30 AM
patricia
superb - excellent.. detroit is one place i have yet to visit, and as the official home of house it needs to be done. you have some cracking photos.. particularly like the first one.. great layers and caught the moment.. right in the middle of it, which i know you will know is not so easy with elbows flying. i'd love to visit and ...
...SOLD on detroit. it's one place i never managed to reach through commission - the event you describe sounds just my cup of tea and i'd love to have you lead me through the meandering shap-shifters.. you're something of a revalation yourself and motown, home of house.. how to resist?
as an aside - david + beate = D&B. hohoho
katia
that is indeed young beate anchoring me.. she's a dream really.. and constantly suprizes me with her acceptance and happiness.. we both had such a giggle doing the photo.. stripping in the rain and dodging the church goers.. very funny.
lisa
grandma tachno is now my grandma official.
we call her GT at home.
rafal
i think it's probably just as important to have an idea to simply shoot where you are without concept as it is to shoot with a preconcieved idea. i'm finding more and more that there are common threads to my random mumblings which are as worthy when collected as when i have chased a project.
of course i could be wrong and as yet still have to put-up..
DMc
how strange a visit that must have been.. to see people selling their lives from the porch your father built.. must have evoked some memories for sure
DAH
lets play 'whats in the bag?'
.. is it a sandwich?.. nooo
.. is it a small kitten?.. nooo
.. is it a speed-boat?.. it is,isn't it..
Posted by: david bowen | July 04, 2008 at 07:04 AM
RAFAL...
in none of my discussions here am i ever talking about "professional career planning" per se...that is for another forum/blog ...
i have always encouraged you and others to just be organic...natural...whether or not your work turns into something "commercial" or not is another matter...the "teacher part of me" is only interested in your purest development...and that is a spin off of personal experience, a sense of what makes people "tick", and mixed with the purest joy of photography...both the joy of doing it myself and the joy of seeing the work of others...
sure, from time to time, i can help specific photographers find the right editor or send them to the most likely gallery for their work...but, this is the least important role i want to play...and this is such a "moveable feast" anyway, that who among us could ever predict anything with regard to how the "market" will react to your work??
most artists in the early stages i think know they HAVE to do something, but i doubt most know exactly what it is or how it will "turn out"...whether it is Nan Goldin photographing her friends on the lower east side or Jonas exploring an obscure family connection in Russia, most just "do what they have to do" and the winds of fate take them where they may...
if i go back and remember how many of the photographers in my generation were at the beginning, i remember us all being very motivated to do certain things, but none of us thinking that things were going to "work out" one way or the other nor imagining a "wide audience" at all...i knew Salgado, Richards, Mann, Leibowitz, Nachtwey etc. before they were SALGADO, RICHARDS, MANN, LEIBOWITZ OR NACHTWEY...all struggling photographers...but all with very strong ideas, work ethic, and the NEED (not the desire) to make a "mark" one way or the other...but you cannot plan to "make a mark"...as you may imagine there were dozens and dozens of other photographer friends who were also "in the mix" but so so many gradually "disappeared" over time....luck/fate/other motivations, i am sure all played their part...
but, times are different...when we (the above) were starting out, there was no thought of the "fame game"(a newish phenomena)...zero...that just did not exist...or world travel....or publishing books...or any of the things that motivate photographers now right from the beginning..i suppose picture magazines were our main "goal", but as soon as we had enough experience to work for those original picture magazines, they all went away!! maybe only Annie started with Rolling Stone and pretty much kept it her support system all along...
my point is this: just do the work...period. many photographers just hate to hear this because they want a "formula for success"..there is no formula...but, i do know this..one simple idea well executed will lead to another...do your family work, finish your family work, publish your family work and something else will happen that we cannot imagine...yes, look for a gallery...yes, find a publisher...but these are the minutiae of the biz...the cart, not the horse...i think some aspect of human nature wants to turn that around backwards...the trick is to always know what is important and what is not..."editing" your life, how you work, where you work etc etc is what needs to be "front and center"..do that and you might just "make a mark"...
cheers, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 07:24 AM
RAFAL...
footnote: all of the aforementioned photographers in their minds are still struggling along the way they always did!! full of insecurity, trying to make it right, on to the "most important project" of their lives...seriously, nothing seems to have changed...funny or curious perhaps, but true...
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 07:32 AM
wow sooo much to catch up again... :)) the time difference with europe is killing me to keep up...
CONGRATS to the winners! truly strong stuff here!!!
DAVID
the suspense is killing.... tell tell pleeeeeeeaase!!
on a lighter note: two funny things:
ONE i went to the library yesterday for the first time in years and i borrowed a ton of photography books (w eugene smith, koudelka (exiles), nan golding, dekeyzer, alvarez branco, ...) to LEARN LEARN LEARN and guess what? they had YOUR CUBA BOOK in DUTCH? now how cool is that? NOTHING EVER gets translated into dutch except the most most most most important stuff... so you know what theis means... you DA MAN here....
and also, this is for me the first time to see these pictures in print, gotta say, you're moving me man, you really are...
TWO you're not gonna believe this... you know you mentioned (or was it someone else here) that you're continuously looking for ways to make little tripods out of beer bottles and stuff, and that you use any available means you can lay your hands on? well look what my brother brought me over from tokyo... a beer bottle tripod!!! http://www.antonkusters.com/beerbottletripod
i have never seen one of these before, so i fell of my chair with surprise (is this even an expression?) smiling all along. it's sooo tiny and easy, i have it in my pocket from now on!! (i can find out details where to get them if you want)
needless to say, a DUVEL bottle is the ideal vehicle for this tripod, it's a bit wider than other beer bottles so much more possibilities (besides drinking it:))
PANOS
how are you my friend!!!! i thought of you THREE times yesterday... (Duvel truck, Panos sign and music festival) will put some images together today to show... i'm going to Rock Werchter since yesterday... great atmosphere, great great music... lots of beer & spice... and really hard to take pics but i'm trying... for you :))))
BOB/LANCE/DAVID
oh, so there is conversation going on outside of this blog??? how the h*ll can anyone EVER keep up with this!!!!! i can't even keep up with the blog here....
no seriously... Lance, David, Bob... thanks for sharing the words, it gives me an amazing insight (yet again)... i'm learning here... yet again... like a sponge... and hoping i will be able to deliver someday too like you guys all here can... i feel so privileged to be able to look at all the work here and understand as well what's behind it...
MACIN
the films are on their way, posted them in the mail yesterday...
special note to DAVID B
... i have psoriasis as well... your words are remarkably accurate as to what i feel and experience continuously day to day as well... since i was a little kid i was "different"...
...for me, something has drastically changed the last five years, since i tried PUVA treatment under controlled supervision of my dermatologist... with great success... even though the treatment in itself is, i guess, quite invasive and not very healthy... and of course, it's only a symptomatic treatment, it doesn't "cure" in any way...
PUVA is essentially a radiation treatment in that you get exposed to a very high dose of UVA rays under a special kind of sunbench, after you have downed mono Psoralene pills (hence the "P") to make you even more sensitive to UVA rays. needless to say, these pills make you feel really sick and throw up and the UVA rays burn your skin... but this is the intention apparently... i have disovered that for me, after 15-20 sessions, my symptoms dissapear for 1,5 to 2 years... which, for me at least, is HUGE
i mean... 2 years of nothing (the occasional spot pops up now and then, but i resist using the cortisone as much as possible) compared to twice daily cortisone or coaltar ointment on each and every one of hundreds of big and small spots all over your body, taking care of it, the time involved, the loved ones that need to help, the... i don't wanna think about it anymore...
what i'm trying to say, david, is that i feel you, really... thanks so much for sharing. and your strong words.
and EM is on my list too :-)
peace to all
anton
Posted by: anton | July 04, 2008 at 07:51 AM
DAH: "...most artists in the early stages i think know they HAVE to do something, but i doubt most know exactly what it is or how it will "turn out"...[...], most just "do what they have to do" and the winds of fate take them where they may...
---
I like that one...
Posted by: Katharina | July 04, 2008 at 07:52 AM
CATHY...
the Venice Beach workshop will be good for some people...Julia Dean is a friend (and former student of mine) and she runs a great program...just knowing you here online, i suspect strongly that you need a "full on" one week shooting workshop with daily critique and editing...the weekend workshop programs are better for a portfolio review etc and are stimulating, but quite different than the more intense "one weekers"...
now, my dear, you live in Santa Fe...why have you never taken one of their workshops??? or have you?? so many good people coming through town all the time...right at your front door..
as of yesterday, fate brings me to Santa Fe later this month....i must be in Colorado for a family reunion (my own) and Reid Callanan has asked me to fill in for Joe McNally, at the NG workshop, who must run off to do an assignment somewhere...now this class is full and is another thing entirely anyway..no, you cannot crash this class!!!...but, i will be in town, working on my family project and teaching simultaneous...
so, a smart girl like you could probably figure out a way to help me find an interesting family or two and at least get some editing help etc. from me in return...yes, the old "barter system"..
any interest???
cheers, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 07:56 AM
ok...something for a Friday...thinking sucking upon the bones of time work, thinking about Lance's True Grit, the exchange with David, the dialog between david and rafal and patricia....and yesterday with Marina who is soon about to launch her website (david, i'll send u the link later today)...
maybe, one of the embodiments of what has driven me, what has defined my own life, as a photographer, as a writer, and much much much more important and long lasting, as a person (husband, father, son, brother, friend)...is this:
"We only really face up to ourselves when we are afraid”--thomas bernhard.
Posted by: bobblack | July 04, 2008 at 08:10 AM
ANTON...
yes, i use beer bottles both for use as a tripod and for a flash filter...a half full bottle makes a great bar tripod and an empty one makes for a good filter...dark bottles work best...remove the label of course before firing your strobe through it..Guinness bottles work well, Heineken do not..Corona, when full, can work miracles when there is a lot of red neon in the background..and, of course, you already know how to use the bandaid over the strobe head to warm up the scene without ever having to go to photoshop...styrofoam coffee cups are pretty good strobe "softeners" too, but best used in conjunction with the bandaid...only "flesh colored" bandaids work well..well, we did try firing the strobe through a tortilla chip once...the look was terrific, but then the temptation was, of course, to the eat the filter!!! ok, no more "tech talk"...
cheers, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 08:18 AM
WOW
ANTON, DAVID B
Different continents but the same skin...
Both so sensitive...
Beautiful, beautiful...
Posted by: lisa Hogben | July 04, 2008 at 08:24 AM
BOB...
yes, yes...i should have mentioned this long ago...the FEAR FACTOR.....i live in fear, angst and pain...facing all of these is just part of the deal...your Bernhard quote is eloquent...mine less so..."when you meet yourself coming around the corner, it is time to take a picture"
PANOS...
your dildo picture was terrible...ass kissing only gets me to perhaps pick up the bar tab, but does not make me like pictures!!
well, the problem with your "self portrait" was mostly just because when Marie and Mike and i looked at it, we could not figure out whether that "object" was a bong or a dildo...in your case, we figured it could be either...there was some discussion about this and we finally gave up and moved on to the next picture...
peace,david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 08:40 AM
DAVID BOWEN....
welcome!! nice way to start with us!!!
i think we chatted a bit on Lightstalkers about a year or so ago..is that correct?? but, i thought you lived in the UK...am i way way off???
cheers, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 08:45 AM
RAIN!!
in the forecast for the next 6 days..I need a shooting solution..lots of umbrellas and bravado??
Maybe today will just be a passing shower..I need to work, this is a bit maddening. Especially because I adore this light, my favorite, light a giant softbox from heaven..
Posted by: erica mcdonald | July 04, 2008 at 08:48 AM
inspiring on so many levels.. my first time visiting the site...
bouncing around to get a handle on what is going on here.. very uplifting... and just makes me want to go grab my camera and run....but i think this is what most of us photographers want to do a large part of the time...
wonderful self-portraits each in their own right.. they all made me smile..
jonathan.. some nice images as well.... the way you framed the mother with her baby... and a few others.. my heart skipped a beat.
love what is going on here.. the dialogue.. the comraderie...
I will try to spend more time reading..getting a feel for the flavor of things.... and eventually hope to participate.. but i got to admit. i often shy away from things like this... group bulletin boards ..i tend to be more of a "voyeur".. reading,viewing.. rather than posting. but truly the best way to get out... is also to put in.. what makes the community work here...so i will make an effort... in time.. lol
kudos david.. for all that you do here. .and elsewhere.. your energy .. open heart shines.....
can't wait to see some of your images from being on the road.
happy 4th all to those who will be looking up as the skies turn dark..
Posted by: nina | July 04, 2008 at 08:53 AM
ERICA...
yes, the perfect light for you unless it is just pouring down...
can you please call me???
NINA...
welcome...please run through the "archives" a bit and you will get the idea...i know what you mean about the downside of online chat, bulletin boards etc etc...but what we try to do here is stay away from the "tech" talk and concentrate on "motive"...and after you scroll around for awhile , you will also see that even though we are often "here", most of us are also all out shooting all the time...and, of course, when you are "ready" please link us to your work...there is actually a place to put your link where it will stay...go to the forum "student work/workshops" and you will see the post where everyone has their links...
cheers, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 09:14 AM
DAVID....
the tortilla strobe filter! this one is bound to become a classic... they have an expiry date of "1"... hehe... "use once, then eat" :))) yes and the band-aid is GREAT...
ok time to study some more great books now... have "americans" here from robert frank... with a coffee... humble and hoping to learn... need get much much much better myself... not much self-confidence nowadays (black doggy thingy)... see you later...
PANOS king of the bongo bong :)))
this is why my pictures of yesterday at rock werchter are pretty crappy: "pounding pounding techno music" :))) i'm a pretty lousy video maker (sound is awful), but you'll catch the energy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-m6L2AxzU
hugs
anton
Posted by: anton | July 04, 2008 at 09:15 AM
Congratulations to the winners!
nice to have partecipated and waiting for the next "challenge" ;)
and btw, happy 4th of July to you on the other side of the ocean...
Posted by: Abele | July 04, 2008 at 09:23 AM
DAVID ,
the purple DILDO ( now confiscated by the EX )...
was not a BONG... it could be... it should be...
but honestly that dildo could NOT
BE MY BONG!!!
NOT LONG ENOUGH!!!
ok... let's get serious for a sec...
i just got an email from my great friend SEAN GALLAGHER...
FROM BEIIJING.. f*****g CHINA...
enjoy below:
"...Panos!
How are you my friend? I hope this email finds you well.
Hey, I need you to post again for me on David's blog if you don't mind. It's a message and link to a new story that I have recently shot.
Thanks in advance mate!
Sean
"Dear All,
Many congrats to the finalists over the self-portrait competition! Many of the images are truly hilarious and brightened up my day immensely.
I hope everyone has been well. I have been a little quiet as of late, since Look3, mainly because my Chinese server doesn't allow me to post, only read the blog. Annoying, but easy to circumnavigate now with the help of my good friend Panos posting for me!
Needless to say, I am still working hard. I have a new link that I'd like to share with you all. It's a small project that I have been working on recently about air pollution in Beijing. Anyone who has visited Beijing will testify to the poor quality of the air here. I wanted to try and capture the problem in my own way.
Please check out the link
http://www.gallagher-photo.com/content/popup/airpollution/index.html
It's a vitally important issue and serious problem, especially with the Olympics approaching.
I'm going back to look at some of the self-portraits again!
Best,
Sean"
Posted by: panos skoulidas | July 04, 2008 at 09:24 AM
DAVID ,
the purple DILDO ( now confiscated by the EX )...
was not a BONG... it could be... it should be...
but honestly that dildo could NOT
BE MY BONG!!!
NOT LONG ENOUGH!!!
ok... let's get serious for a sec...
i just got an email from my great friend SEAN GALLAGHER...
FROM BEIIJING.. f*****g CHINA...
enjoy below:
"...Panos!
How are you my friend? I hope this email finds you well.
Hey, I need you to post again for me on David's blog if you don't mind. It's a message and link to a new story that I have recently shot.
Thanks in advance mate!
Sean
"Dear All,
Many congrats to the finalists over the self-portrait competition! Many of the images are truly hilarious and brightened up my day immensely.
I hope everyone has been well. I have been a little quiet as of late, since Look3, mainly because my Chinese server doesn't allow me to post, only read the blog. Annoying, but easy to circumnavigate now with the help of my good friend Panos posting for me!
Needless to say, I am still working hard. I have a new link that I'd like to share with you all. It's a small project that I have been working on recently about air pollution in Beijing. Anyone who has visited Beijing will testify to the poor quality of the air here. I wanted to try and capture the problem in my own way.
Please check out the link
http://www.gallagher-photo.com/content/popup/airpollution/index.html
It's a vitally important issue and serious problem, especially with the Olympics approaching.
I'm going back to look at some of the self-portraits again!
Best,
Sean"
Posted by: panos skoulidas | July 04, 2008 at 09:25 AM
or, let me repost it using Sean's full name
panos
peace
"Dear All,
Many congrats to the finalists over the self-portrait competition! Many of the images are truly hilarious and brightened up my day immensely.
I hope everyone has been well. I have been a little quiet as of late, since Look3, mainly because my Chinese server doesn't allow me to post, only read the blog. Annoying, but easy to circumnavigate now with the help of my good friend Panos posting for me!
Needless to say, I am still working hard. I have a new link that I'd like to share with you all. It's a small project that I have been working on recently about air pollution in Beijing. Anyone who has visited Beijing will testify to the poor quality of the air here. I wanted to try and capture the problem in my own way.
Please check out the link
http://www.gallagher-photo.com/content/popup/airpollution/index.html
It's a vitally important issue and serious problem, especially with the Olympics approaching.
I'm going back to look at some of the self-portraits again!
Best,
Sean"
Posted by: SEAN GALLAGHER | July 04, 2008 at 09:28 AM
DAVID
will call you now..
Posted by: erica mcdonald | July 04, 2008 at 09:33 AM
"...Well Papa go to bed now it's getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
I'll be leaving in the morning from St. Mary's Gate
We wouldn't change this thing even if we could somehow
Cause the darkness of this house has got the best of us
There's a darkness in this town that's got us too
But they can't touch me now
And you can't touch me now
They ain't gonna do to me
What I watched them do to you
So say goodbye it's Independence Day
It's Independence Day
All down the line
Just say goodbye it's Independence Day
It's Independence Day this time
Now I don't know what it always was with us
We chose the words, and yeah, we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind
Well say goodbye it's Independence Day
It's Independence Day all boys must run away
So say goodbye it's Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day
Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted clear down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone
Well Papa go to bed now, it's getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there's just different people coming down here now
And they see things in different ways
And soon everything we've known will just be swept away
So say goodbye it's Independence Day
Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But won't you just say goodbye it's Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FmUU-y7Nk0
is that PATRIOTIC enough or what???
peace
Posted by: SEAN GALLAGHER | July 04, 2008 at 09:43 AM
ok... time to start posting AGAIN USING MY NAME...
the last "SEAN GALLAGHER" comment about
"INDEPENDENCE DAY" its of course mine..
its just that i was posting his last comment through my laptop
and i forgot to switch back to my "signature"..
sorry.. the "patriotic thing" was for me ,
not Sean...
Sean is british ( you know what i mean???), would make no sense...
ok.. one more from "THE BOSS":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i10EZ2y6q6k&feature=related
Posted by: panos skoulidas | July 04, 2008 at 09:50 AM
DAH
gentle honesty.. great words made out of little letters.
yes.. i was drunk on white russians and posted a picture.. magnum ice-creams and all that..
i believe you had a moving dragon to play with.
ireverant irrelivance which, one year later, brings me here..
thanks for the welcome.
i moved to norway on an instinct which has paid off handsomely.. it's a fjord fiesta .. hohoho.
i still intend to travel and will be in london at some point this year.. you, sir?
anton
puva, uvb, betnovate, dovonex, dovobet.. i've tried them all... 8th of green and 2 ltrs of water a day.. giving up red meat and dairy products.. as you will know, it's tought to look after.
there is a new drug (to europe at least) called raptiva which has a good rate of remission, although the best is still a month at the dead sea clinics, from what i gather. 97% rate of remission.. at 2000 GBP it's well out of reach.
i've only had it for 7 or 8 years.. it was a shock at first.. it must have been tough as a younger man.. respect to you for replying to me.. it means a chunk to share some darkness..
still - with humour it is possible to cope.
beate and i had a giggle last night.
i'm her cadburies chocolate flake... 'only the crumbliest, flakiest lover.. tastes like.. blahblahblah'.
Posted by: david bowen | July 04, 2008 at 09:57 AM
SEAN...
what an interesting , and unpredictable, way to show air pollution....anyone would get "choked up" just looking at those cars...
ok, now i am thinking....for you....now i know you are interested in China's environmental problems...everyone is...in the news daily...so, what can you do that is special??
now, what would happen if you started thinking book...but truly non-traditional....say 5 parts...with say 10 "plates" each....10 desertification, 10 dirty cars, 10 smoking coal plants, 10 traffic jams, 10 people wearing masks etc etc etc....50 "plates" total....an art book that is also a journalistic book...perhaps a "rollout" accordian style book that is also a mini- exhibition that could be set up anywhere..the "repetitive" 10 of whatever would be powerful....everyone is doing the China environment....you could do it different...and if you got it well placed in museums or galleries or whatever it could really have an affect...i can also see another show...big prints..an experience...video too....art and journalism coming together....you may have better ideas already....i am just thinking out loud and off the top of my head...
you are always working my friend...keep it up...you will make "your mark" one way or another...
cheers, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 10:00 AM
congratulazioni a tutti....
grande david!
baci
Posted by: cristina | July 04, 2008 at 10:08 AM
OK, confession time.
Longtime readers and contributors to this blog may remember that until about 4 months ago I was a prolific (yeah, verbose) contributor, and then I stopped, except for the occasional short note. Partly this was due to very real pressures of 'day-job' work to pay bills, completely unrelated to photography. Partly it was my realization that I was 'shooting off my mouth' more than I was 'shooting off frames' in the camera. I figured I'd better come up with a current body of work, that I actually really cared about, to show (and not mediocre stuff from twenty years ago) or I'd lose credibility (especially with myself!). And for a while the forum seemed to me to become a little bit like Fox News (ALL PANOS!!! ALL THE TIME!!!) When the music got turned up loud, I started feeling my age (61) and knew it was already way past my bedtime. But everybody else seemed to be having fun at the party... and why not? I had some personal reservations, philosophical questions, and downright heretical views about some things that were being said on the forum, but had no desire to be a wet blanket or a spoiler- or worse, to become a troll.
My 'commitment' to photography has always been less than total- more like chronic ambivalence. I didn't start taking pictures at all until my late twenties and early thirties, and periodically I have laid the camera aside because it seemed to get in the way of what I was doing, because I couldn't afford film or good equipment, or because I never seemed to be able to transfer my vision to the image effectively. And I'm still basically there, going "... in and out the window, like a moth before a flame." So what I have to say may be, probably is, irrelevant to the many of you who are serious, committed photographers focused on building your careers.
Now, all this time I have been lurking in the background, I have been shooting a bit, have thought a lot, and have developed several 'screeds' that I will attempt to unload here in several installments. This forum is now big enough and varied enough so I hope there's room for the occasional heretic-curmudgeon such as myself. Nobody has to read my long-winded posts, after all- just skip down to the next one when you see my name! (I don't necessarily read all the posts carefully all the time any more either).
And I will have some recent photo work up and viewable soon, if only to verify that I am hopelessly old-fashioned, conventional, second (or third?) rate, and very much out of step with just about everybody here. No more hiding or dissembling!
But first, before I get to all that- I want to start with a little book review. I just got my hands on the Nat Geo-published book 'Inside China' (though I see it was published in 2007) which I find very interesting. Now I know that if this forum has one single theme, it is "AUTHORSHIP!" above all else, and this book is a grab-bag compilation of work by a wide range of photographers, just the opposite of the personalized, developed vision David is always pushing, so it may seem beneath your attention. But I think it's worth a good long look. For one thing, despite the fact that NGS have their own vast photo archives on China, this is mostly not a showcasing or recycling of work by NGS photographers. There are a few from their archive- (stuff by Mike Yamashita, Fritz Hoffman, and a few others)- but the editors (Rebecca Lescaze and Jane Menyawi, names I don't know...David??) have heavily mined the Magnum archive, both older (HCB, Marc Riboud, Rene Burri, Hiroji Kubota) and younger (Raymond Depardon, Alex Majoli, Paullo Pelligrin, etc), and then a number of prominent current photographer 'names' associated with China like Ed Burtynsky, Marc Leong, Macduff Everton, James Whitlow Delano, Robert Glenn Ketchum, etc. There are a couple of shots by Nina Berman. And then some photographers whose names and work I didn't know before (remember, I'm an amateur, over the hill, out of it, live deep in the provinces, and have borderline dementia) but whose names and work I will certainly pay attention to from now on: David Butow, Michael Wolf, Allessandro Digaetano, Gilles Sabrie.
Over the years I've seen dozens of China picture books, and hundreds of 'travel' picture books, that were cobbled together from a range of photographers by picture editors. Often photographs are treated essentially as illustrations, but what impressed me about this book is that the pictures are meant to stand alone as photographs, and the layout and pacing seem to preserve the authorship, style, and individual vision of the separate photographers intact. Compared to most of the picture books that Nat Geo has put out over the years, this one is different in that regard and much better.
At the same time, the book is about China, not about a particular photographer or style of photography. Having all these highly individualistic photographers' work in the same place seems to me to advance that goal. I studied, and then taught, geography and area studies long, long before I got 'serious' about photography, and I have always been interested in how 'places' get represented, especially visually. With a place as old, huge, complicated, and rapidly changing as 'China' it becomes nearly impossible to 'represent' or 'show' the place with any accuracy, and usually what we get from the mass media are rehashes of the same old cliches which tend to reinforce the images we already have (and this is what 90% of travel picture books are all about). The blind men describing the elephant is a good metaphor for this process. Now, some may say, since all description and representation are 'subjective' anyway, why even try to be 'objective'? Personally, I think the elusive goal of a wider, deeper, more rounded, but still nuanced vision of what is actually 'there' is always worth pursuing, even if it can never really be achieved.
So this book offers, I think, a little insight into both 'authorship' in the individual styles and approaches of the many outstanding photographers it showcases, and at the same time it tries to show 'China' and not just 'some photographs of China'. Why do I think that is worth thinking about? Because the 'authorship' and 'personal vision' which David pushes as being necessary for recognition and career as a photographer (and I'm sure he's right) is not the whole story. Photography gets seen, used, 'consumed' by the wider public in a variety of contexts, for a variety of purposes, most of which are not about the individual photographers (however you may wish otherwise). Maybe it is helpful to see the place of photography from the outside, as well as the inside??? (Then again, for someone trying to establish their own identity and personal vision, maybe it's a distraction. It seems to me sometimes that we spend the first half of our lives discovering all the ways in which we are different and unique, and the second half all the ways in which we are all the same).
Ironically, the single image in this book which I think may be the strongest, was not taken by a professional photographer, but by a historian-scholar-print journalist (and later target of McCarthy blacklist wrath) with great access: Owen Lattimore's portrait study of Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, and Bo Gu in Yanan in 1937.
Posted by: Sidney Atkins | July 04, 2008 at 10:11 AM
CATHY...
You sell out, you! I thought we were the true "straight" shooters in here! You switched up and went "loose" and voila! You're in the slideshow! I'm sooo disappointed!
(All of the above is just joking, of course! Or is it? ;^})
Seriously, nice shot girl. And congrats!
Posted by: Michael Kircher | July 04, 2008 at 10:15 AM
.
.
Dear David and all friends here
I'm happy to read your posts. ^^
It takes long time to read for me but i try and participate to be with you.
Our work of self- portraits is very beatiful and joyfull. Whenever i enjoy self-portrait slide-show, i smile and i'm full of happiness.
David,
I have posted some works of 'Re-Tour'.
Would you please check it out and give some mentors?
http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/contact_sheet/13146
I always respect your mentor.
Thank you very much.
p.s. David,
please send my hello to Chris Anderson. And send this , too....I was very impressed by 'Capitolio'. It is very beutiful and sad and awesome.. i love the sounding space in his photos..
.
.
Dear Sean,
Your new works about air pollution in Beijing are like portraits of ghost of air-pollution... very interesting and strange.
Thank you for your works.
.
Posted by: Kyunghee Lee in Busan, Korea | July 04, 2008 at 11:47 AM
Hey all,
After being offline for a couple of weeks, while in Charlottesville and then Mexico City, I've finally returned to Barcelona.
In the meantime I've got a new site redesign with some new projects up. One, Ancestral Calling, will hopefully be a long term project about the traditional lives two relatives of mine live in Southern Ireland. The second story is on urban tribes in Mexico City. This is a project I did in 48 hours. If anyone has any feedback on the site, I'd love to hear it, publically or privately (you can email me through the site). Oh and DAH, I did take your advice, all be it kicking and screaming, and dumped the travel stuff.
SEAN, LANCE, ERICA, BRENDAN and DAH:
It was great to meet/hang with you in C'ville! Sorry it was such a brief visit. In hind site, it was really stupid of me as I just tried to pack too much in to too little time. I got in Thursday night, spent all day Friday in the Project Critique and Saturday morning I was on my way to the airport to get to DF. I didn't even get to see any of the exhibitions! On top of that was the nearly $300 taxi I had to take to get to Dulles on Saturday, while JN was speaking! C'ville is a great town, but if you don't have a car in America, you are nothing. At least you can get to Perpignan by train!
Next time I'll organize myself a little better. Hell, next time we'll be in Perpignan and since it's practically a DC commute away from Barna, I'll likely be there all week this year, so I'll have no excuses!
BOB, ERIC & JAMES:
Thanks for the feedback on the Ancestors story. If you want to see what I went with, it's now up on the site as well.
Self-portrait stars:
Deadly work;-)
cheers all,
Charlie
http://charliemahoney.net
Posted by: Charlie Mahoney | July 04, 2008 at 11:48 AM
DAVID
Totally off topic, this morning I think I subconsciously shot the "Anti-Cuba", vs. the cover photo of your Cuba book...
http://www.asherschachter.com/anti-Cuba/
Posted by: asher | July 04, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Aloha
Settled into a nice hillside house, it's raining, really cute guy singing on the TV keeping me moving, house to myself. The draw of this essay with the bachelors keeps me in one position in one place for long periods.
My Mac laptop is saying it needs some TLC with backup and downloading and relieving its little head so although anxious to show you the gun toting bachelor right now I better be wise. On bachelor #1 I went back to my contact sheet and pulled out totally different ones, the ones that tell the story.
I will post both under the special page for our work. Thanks guys for the fun posts. I will alert you all when I post the link.
Lee
Posted by: lee Guthrie | July 04, 2008 at 11:55 AM
SEAN...
Haunting stuff. I do hope you've invested in a couple particulate respirators!
This should be a real confidence booster to the athletes arriving soon!
Also wanted to say that I'll be first in line for that book David mentioned above! Hope that comes together for you someday. It'd be well deserved, my friend.
Peace.
-M
Posted by: Michael Kircher | July 04, 2008 at 12:27 PM
SIDNEY....
welcome back!!!
your views are just as welcomed here as anyone else's...i always read what you write and try to respond accordingly..
your point about the NG "China" book is well taken...i am sure it is a very good book..well researched and, yes, by many different photographers...personal vision is not a part of it, but i never said that "personal vision" is all that there is and surely there is a "wide audience" that has no clue about personal vision, does not want or need to have anything to do with personal vision or authorship etc etc...these readers and viewers of which you describe are, in fact, the audience of National Geographic!!!..not photography students, or purveyors of fine photography, just appreciators of what Natgeo does and does very well..yet the very individual photographers you mentioned who were published in this China anthology are very much personal vision photographers...there work may have been taken out of context of their original quest, but still can find another appreciative audience on the pages on Natgeo...
but, i still submit that you can't get those pictures on the pages of Natgeo in the first place without the photographers themselves believing and living and immersing themselves in the pursuit of something much much more than Natgeo...
the photographers i know who had only Natgeo as a goal have totally disappeared from photoworld in general and even from the anthologies Natgeo themselves publish!!!!...
none of them are even in the book you so described!!!
so, the context in which pictures are created can be quite different from the context in which they are published...
i doubt that a single photographer you mentioned in that China book has that book on his or her coffee table...i would bet on this...
good book for the masses...yes, of course...but, of what value would it be for me to teach or mentor a photographer for the purpose of appealing to the popular status quo???...there are teachers who do that, but not me!!!
without trying we get to the status quo mass market anyway.....we are all published in books and magazines who do just that..the NG China book is an example..the status quo is all around us...but should that be held up high!!!
i think you have to differentiate between photographer "motive" and the "use" of pictures by picture buyers such as Natgeo...
i am absolutely NOT suggesting some kind of photography elitism...the photographers i admire are humanistic by nature....and i know for sure that all of my colleagues want and expect their work to go "out there" to a mass audience...not just have their work hanging on the walls of the wealthy...
but, photographers who are authors and who see themselves as such will automatically capture the "mass audience" and if they are careful will also appeal to a more select audience of decision makers and supporters of the arts..
as i have said many times before, as time passes, and all turns into dust, it is only art/literature/music etc. that survives our time on this earth...
by the way, i loved your self portrait ...you flat out look like a really really nice man..i hope we will meet sometime soon....
please stay with us this time!!!
peace, hugs et al, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 12:27 PM
KYUNGHEE said:
"...David,
I have posted some works of 'Re-Tour'.
Would you please check it out and give some mentors?
http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/contact_sheet/13146.
Posted by: Kyunghee Lee in Busan, Korea | July 04, 2008 at 11:47 AM..."
DEEP COLORS KYUNGHEE LEE..
right on!
bravo
peace ( for Tibet as my friend MARCIN keeps reminding!)
Posted by: panos skoulidas | July 04, 2008 at 12:45 PM
SEAN
Your pollution essay has really opened my eyes to what it means when we read that the cities in China--and elsewhere--have terribly unsafe air. Somehow the photos of those cars and motorcycles made it real. I echo David's idea for a book. Timely and necessary...and you, my friend, are the one to do it! In making your "mark"--which you are sure to do in any case--you will be helping our planet survive. We must first recognize the problem before we can change it, and that is where photojournalists come in. Thank you for your vision, heart and dedication. You're making a difference already.
SIDNEY
I welcome your voice back to this blog. I wasn't here when you were an active participant before but can already tell you are a man who thinks deeply, says it like you see it and has a delightfully quirky sense of humor. Besides, I like having another 60+ buddy here! We're in the minority so that makes it all the more important that we speak up and share our perspective. Long life may suck in some ways (body stuff) but is a pure joy in others (being comfortable with oneself)!
Patricia
Posted by: Patricia Lay-Dorsey | July 04, 2008 at 12:54 PM
David
I anticipated much of your response, and of course I agree... how could I not?
I realize who the majority of your community here on the forum are, and how you are trying to mentor them. My own situation is quite different, and I can only write and respond from where I am... 'natch. Sometimes that may seem off-topic or counter to your main intent... when that happens, I hope it's never seen as a criticism, only an additional dimension. And of course you are welcome to use me as a negative example or straw dog!
In a freshman college English class (in 1964!), after the first writing assignment, the instructor read aloud to the class his pick for the 'worst example of a paper he'd ever seen' and tore it apart. It took about two paragraphs for me to realize it was my own paper. You can imagine how I squirmed, shrank down in my seat, my stomach churned, and my face turned crimson. However, I heard his criticisms out, took some (but not all) of them to heart... and even though I failed the class, I think it greatly improved my writing.
Posted by: Sidney Atkins | July 04, 2008 at 12:57 PM
SIDNEY...PATRICIA
laughing...
well, i see this as nothing more than good discussion....and amigos, not one single negative vibe to it!!!
Sidney, you are not a "straw dog"...you have good points all around...keep them coming...
Patricia, i am not sure what you mean by having a "minority" voice and by needing to "share our perspective"
after all, i am older than both of you!!!
el viejo, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 01:15 PM
KYUNGHEE LEE
Hauntingly beautiful work. Your abstracted views, deep, rich colors and sense of motion give these underwater scenes a cosmic quality all their own.
ANTON
I can SO relate to your YouTube video!!! Wish I'd been there...
Patricia
Posted by: Patricia Lay-Dorsey | July 04, 2008 at 01:16 PM
Giggling now too..
But, dear David, I beg to differ. If your bio is correct, you were born in 1944. I got you by 2 years--1942. Besides, you are one of those ageless creatures, rather like a character in some fairy tale!
Patricia
Posted by: Patricia Lay-Dorsey | July 04, 2008 at 01:22 PM
speaking of AGE...
I use to believe the opposite but when i met DAH,
up in C/Ville, i realized that ENERGY has no age..
especially good energy...
there were times that i was praying for a bed to crash and
an empty restroom to throw up, but....
but... DAVID was... " ok... party's over...! let's all get in the car!!!..
WAFFLE HOUSE...! let's meet there, let's go from there!!!... party's ON"...!
age ???? what age???
Posted by: panos skoulidas | July 04, 2008 at 01:29 PM
PATRICIA...
laughing again..
well, i was just guessing and trying to make a point as i am sure you know...
i remember a lot of my friends getting really really old when they turned 30...lost every ounce of idealism etc....this was a wake up call to me...i was shocked....couldn't believe it...i.e. the very best actor in our drama school was selling insurance by the time he was 31....
point is, some people grow narrow early, some expand as they go along...
viva expansionistas!!!!
hugs, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 01:33 PM
David,
Now that I've got you here...can I re-ask that question again? The one before C'ville. You know about where or how or in what direction you'd push me at this point? Can be done in email or here if you like. Many thanks, brother.
-M
Posted by: Michael Kircher | July 04, 2008 at 01:37 PM
MICHAEL K....
listen ....you love nature....consumes you...so i would not take you from where you are already...i would only suggest that you look at some of the work from non-nature photographers and incorporate this genre into your work...do you know "Last Place on Earth" by Michael Nichols?? he is consumed by nature too...yet , he manages to blend people with nature as well or better than anyone i know...and the aesthetic of Nick is the aesthetic of a European street photographer...so subject is not important, but approach is...what about James Balog and "Wildlife Requiem"...know him?? same thing.....Chris Johns, now NG editor, was the same...check out "Wild at Heart"...
you should probably move in the direction of the photogs above...different from them in style, but with that kind of commitment and advanced thinking about "nature photography"...
cheers, david
Posted by: david alan harvey | July 04, 2008 at 01:50 PM