road trip

fame

i suppose if you walk  down the street and you see your name lit up on a theater marquee the experience could be a little "heady"....gene richards, left, and bill allard both wanted me to take this  snapshot of them in front of the Paramount theater in charlottesville...i thought it was pretty cool myself....just fun....i did not have  any desire at all to take a "good" picture....neither did they....only a snapshot was wanted...a bulletin board picture ...just a memory....nothing artful...just "proof" that they had their little moment of "fame"...

but what do you think about photographers and "fame"??  both of these men have spent their lives photographing other people...these men belong on the "other side of the camera"....so, should photographers even enjoy at all a little recognition in the form of some kind of "stardom"??

all of us,  quite naturally, want to be validated by our peers....but, should it ever go past immediate  peer acceptance?? fame is just plain good business for actors, models, and politicians...but, should photographers ever stay in the "limelight" too long??

i have some clear thoughts on this....but, i want your opinions first...

should "fame" be a logical by-product of a lifetime of earned success in a tough-to-get-ahead  business or would anonymity serve the artist better???

and, oh yes, i cannot resist asking you this question....which of these two men do you think enjoys being photographed and which one shies from the camera?? 

strong women

there is an old old song performed by tammy wynette, "Stand by Your Man"  which was the theme song for an old old movie "Five Easy Pieces" starring jack nicholson.....both the song and the movie are classics....the two women i photographed here are classics as well.... and both are unusually special women who have "stood by their men"....and rightfully, their men have stood by them..

mirrored here is sally mann  following  a presentation of her work at the "Festival of the Photograph"...sally showed her large format photographs  starting with the original body of work on her children from the book "Immediate Family" and ended with photographs of her husband larry who is suffering and deteriorating from multiple schlerosis.....sally credits larry with being a supportive husband  through all of her formative years by sharing with child raising and helping in every way he could with her talented trajectory...

sally's new nude photographs of larry in a state of decline, but also heroic and perhaps oddly erotic and beautiful, reflect both  artistry and her way of dealing with personal tragedy....larry and sally have been married for  37 years...i have  been friends with sally for  about  20 years i suppose, and i  remember  well  her  strength and level of commitment for her  craft even in those early years ....there is no doubt in anyone's mind sally's major achievement as one of the great photographers of our time...

so, when i went to see her presentation two days ago i expected to see the work with which i was so so familiar....i knew larry was ill, but i did not know of her new photographs....but, the most significant discovery for me , and i think for the whole audience, was her dedication to her husband in such a special way....to turn life into art and art into life is sally's mantra.....and there was not a "dry eye in the house" as sally bowed to a standing ovation in the auditorium on that sultry virginia afternoon...

one day before the ovation for sally, there was another stand up crowd ,above,  honoring william albert allard...when the crowd got to their feet for bill, i started to move to the stage to photograph bill with the crowd behind....i took two steps in his direction, and then made a fast decision to stop right where i was and photograph ani,  bill's wife of 24 years...i figured i already had so many pictures of bill and very few of ani who has been bill's backbone and support through "thick and thin"...

ani, who bill had met while on assignment in peru 26 years ago, is bill's second wife...ani stayed strong by bill when he was "fired" years ago by National Geographic (see story "family/friends") and was his pillar of strength when bill lost his oldest son scott to melanoma two years ago...ani pretty much stays in the background to bill's "larger than life" presence.... but without ani,  bill would be "lost".....i suspect bill is not an easy man to live with...many talented photographers are not....but ani has persevered and was the proudest of all when william albert allard received his due from this appreciative audience....

you should know that the whole festival in virginia just had a good "vibe" all way around....this was an amazing gathering of old friends and new.....a conglomeration of the respectful and the respected....a showing of work finalized and a promise of work to be done....i have several stories to write based on these three days in charlottesville, but as i sat down to write, it just seemed more than right to start off with these two amazing women...

and just imagine what is playing right now on my i-tunes catalogue......

intentions

the best of intentions....yes, i definitely had the best of intentions...and that was to keep all of you "plugged in" to the "Festival of the Photograph" down here in virginia.....basically, i disappeared from all traces of my "normal life" for the last three days...

i do now have enough material to write several good stories.....the whole festival was an amazing success and is really the first photo fest of it's kind in the u.s....but, i had no time to post....i had portfolio reviews and workshop classes at least 14 hours each day and had zero time to join you here....total overload...

now i have 13% power on my laptop...i also  have a seven hour drive home to new york ...so, i will post late tonight or first thing in the morning....by the way, many of you from our forum here joined me...that was truly special..back to you soonest....cheers ....
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country roads

the drive from new york to charlottesville, virginia is about 7 hours.....but it is like going from one planet to another.....we went from gridlock traffic in the morning to a peaceful campfire in the woods by evening..i will be "reporting" all this week from michael "nick" nichols ""Festival of the Photograph" which has transformed charlottesville from a quiet university town to a major venue for serious photography..

this week sally mann, eugene richards and william albert allard are the featured exhibitors.....alex webb and rebecca norris webb, maggie steber, and i are doing portfolio revues and a 2 day mini-workshop...evening slide shows with the work of paolo pellegrin, jonas bendikson, alexandra boulat, larry towell , donna ferrato, debbie flemming caffery, and many others will grace the screen of a 3,000 seat arena....in a nutshell, nick has brought the whole photo world to this sleepy virginia town that thomas jefferson made famous by choosing charlottesville as his home before and after he was the architect of independence for the u.s.a...

i will have more material for our community here than i will know what to do with....nick has pulled off an amazing event here in virginia and i will try to present happenings here in the most helpful way for those of you who are just too far away to attend.....

nick is a "country boy"....but he has created one of the most sophisticated photography events to be now and forever respectecd on an international level...never underestimate what is at the end of a country road....

parting

yes yes parting is  indeed sweet sorrow.....i am always amazed at the bonding and friendships which are built in just a week of working together with my students  in these photographic workshops....and this morning we will all hug goodbye, promise to write , and all hope we meet again soonest....some students i will never see or hear from again.....but many stay in touch for years and we meet occassionally at photographic festivals like arles or perpignan or sometimes just random meetings in the street in some other part of the world...some stay friends for life...morning coffee for me in new york is answering student emails.......

right now all of us are totally sleep deprived but happy.....all of the Easter processions we photographed were approximately two hours from siracusa where we are based....sometimes we photographed all night long and slept in the car on the way home.....Easter monday we all slept on the beach but then had to drive back to siracusa and "crash edit" for our final music slide show which was shown publicly in a small  amphitheater just off the piazza del duomo...such fun and so so rewarding......i will post some of their work as soon as possible..my internet connections and service here are a bit of a nightmare, but the food is great, the people are just the best, so only harveyblog suffers a bit....please see new post of some of my new student work under "student work/workshops"...

what has totally interested me my whole photographic life is exactly this bonding....i have always been curious why photographers seem to bond so well....photographers seem to truly enjoy making friends with each other.....most of my lifetime friendships are with photographers i met at an early age...my friend medford taylor and i met in grad school while scrambling to use the same darkroom at the same time...he says i nudged him out so that i could print!!...probably true....but he has put up with me ever since....in this same era, i met both jodi cobb and william albert allard (stories on both coming soon)....we have been friends for over 30 years....there is a  long list of photographers who remain friends for years and years....this has surely been one of the joys of this business for me.....even this blog  community is part of everything of which i speak....

but it does beg the question......why do photographers like to "hang" with each other????
few of my writer friends do the same...few of my friends on the "outside" have quite the comaraderie that we seem to have...hobbyists share interests, but we are professional competitors with each other...if bill allard or alex webb get a particular story it means that i do not....there is only so much funding and so many book publishers and so many grants and so many  ad accounts to go around....you could imagine we would not even know each other or speak to each other, but the opposite is true.....

is it because only another photographer can relate to our strange egos, behavior patterns and the like?
is it because we are stimulated by another photographer doing great work rather than being possessive or jealous???  i do not have the answer.....i only know that this is generally true...and it is also true in our relationships with editors as well.....it would stand to reason that a photographer might strike up a postive relationship with an editor for a magazine for which he or she receives commissions....but i have so so many editor friends with whom  i do no commissioned work and never will do commissioned work....for those who may doubt this , just show up in perpignan or arles or any workshop program you will see this comaraderie, this friendship, this common bond.....

out of the eight students i just had  in this  workshop, probably two of them will push forward in the world of documentary or art photography.....over the years i have seen some  do magazine work, some  have gallery shows, some  publish books and some will enter the administrative side and become magazine editors or curators.....most will use their photographic work as a means of personal expression without becoming involved at all in any commercial ventures ....

i do believe in the "circle of life"....pay back, pay forward....however you want  to view it...all i know is,  i feel terrific right now about the past week...i hope all of my class feels the same...and i hope some of these new friends will look at this week's "grand finale" as a beginning rather than an end.....

sicily good friday

i cannot stay with you long now, because i have 8 students who will be expecting me in just a few minutes to  go over all of the work they shot yesterday....on the first day of shooting , i ask them to edit loosely and i will probably look at about 25-50 pictures from each...after today we will edit tighter and tighter so that for the final slide/music show that we produce each year, each student will have from 5-10 strong photographs from the hundreds of frames each shot...i will be posting under the "students/workshops" portfolio the work of my students this week as they progress..

this editing must go quickly this morning, because we then have to jump in the cars and head for the town of enna where we will shoot all afternoon... by 10pm we will go to an even smaller village, barra franca, and photograph perhaps all night long..i was in sicily for the first time last year and the passion of the men who carry the Christ figure is like nothing i had experienced before...it is actually quite violent underneath  the figure as the local men all fight for the chance to carry Christ....photographing this event requires physical and psychological dexterity....

my photograph here  is of simona ghizzoni who was one of my assistants last year in sicily and who assisted me several times in tuscany....simona is not with me this year.....i really miss simona  because her energy and spirit and hearty sense of humor energized our students and me as well...this photograph was made in one of our favorite night hangouts here in siracusa where all gather after a long day of working.....students always agree that the late night lively discussions we have are as much of a learning experience as anything we discuss in class.....i said yesterday it was always a little awkward meeting a new group of students....but we are starting to get to know each other  now and by the end of the week we will all have shared an experience together that will bond us for life....come back someday simona!!!

new class

in about two hours i will meet 8 new students.....for some reason, this is always a bit awkward....because all i can remember are the students from the previous workshop...i tend to think, where did they go??

the rest of the afternoon will be spent looking at the portfolios of this new group....the students are from spain, italy, u.s.,u.k.,and malaysia.....pretty eclectic crowd and all are in the 25-35 age group....the main thing for me to find out about them is what they want photography to do for them...their dreams and their goals....i will spend time with them as a group and i will spend time with each one individually to dig a little into their psyche...find out what makes them "tick"...without understanding their personality i cannot be a good "teacher"....

even though we will all be shooting the Easter processions together, i want each student to be thinking about  his or her own style and choice of expression....in other words, i always look at a class as 8 totally different people, not "group" of 8 people all expected to think the same way or even do the same thing...i do not teach my students to be like me or think like me....

ironically, giving emerging photographers total freedom actually is what scares them the most...even very young people are too used to being told what to do or shown what to do....my biggest challenge and their biggest challenge is in finding out  who they really are....to unlock their personality and find out what they REALLY think...to get them to be "authors" of their own life....everyone says they want freedom to create, to be themselves, but when you actually give it to them, they can feel lost because so much of their young adult life they have been "boxed in" one way or another....

my job is show photographers how to be free and yet then have the discipline to make photographs which are truly expressive ....freedom combined with hard work.... poetic thoughts but  with "pen to paper"....my photographers must face themselves....they must look hard and they must look deep....

i will keep you updated as to this class progress and showing some their work and my work along the way (as soon as i can get my laptop somehow into the internet!!  no small task here!!) hopefully this will  be of interest to many of you and i welcome comments or questions along the way....

from sicily

hello from sicily...

nice full moon, but it is 1am my  time , so i will crash....i will post early tomorrow....

ciao, david

off to sicily

dear readers,

i leave for sicily today to teach a small class  built around the Easter processions which are oh so passionate in italy...during this week, i will photograph side by side with my students....i will post as often as possible while i am in sicily, but my primary obligation will, of course, be to the students who are in this class....i must give them my all...i will be operating from internet cafe's which are only open "sometimes" and during Easter week probably even less....

i do ask your patience please...i cannot delegate to anyone else  the duties i have put upon myself for our little "diary" and the community that is being built...

all of that said, i will make every attempt to blend what my class does in sicily with this photoblog...

peace and happy Easter,

david

now i have a surprise trip to brazil and.....

i need an assistant....someone who lives in salvador, bahia and can work with me next week for about 3 days....wishing for someone with good people skills and digital photo processing and transmitting skills

please post your telephone or any contact details here.....i arrive in salvador tuesday evening march 27th......

now, this sometimes happens to me....i think i have a whole week free to work on things, catch up etc...then, i end up in full "panic mode" as right now....this whole scramble is because of an ad shoot...i do very few advertising shoots, but sometimes i have the right style for the right campaign and these things pay for all of the other things i do that bring in no income for me...things like this blog and various little personal photography projects that i do just for fun....

besides, this is a good one...they just need pictures in my own style...i have worked so much in bahia and so this is an ideal commission, albeit a bit rushed.....

come in, come in bahia!!!!