work in progress

sidewalk culture

this picture did not really work out very well....light is not so good....and, honestly, it will not hold up in the long run as more than an average "story telling" picture....however, it did take me three days to take it....why?? because absolutely nobody in this picture wants to be photographed...not the girl earning her living "the old fashioned way", not the muslim women either...

to take/make this photograph i had to hang out, make friends with the girls pimp, smile, but hold my ground and not be too obtrusive....muslim culture clash is now a world-wide phenomena....my subject for this little project was bangkok night.....mostly shooting the bar scenes....i realized at some point that the  egyptians and the saudis lived right next to one of the night bar scenes.....it took a lot of work to just make this average shot......but, sometimes that is the way it is in the documentary world....

bar girl fixes make-up as bangkok muslims face major culture clash

bangkok night

i am just making a little headway into the "bangkok night"
shoot....access is really the only problem, but it is a problem...most
of the bar owners in bangkok put up "no pictures" warnings....so, i
have to work around this....i do this by hanging out and just being a
normal customer and gradually bring out the camera and shooting a
little....slowly, slowly......in the four or five days i will have to
shoot this subject, i think i will have very few pictures.......but,
there is no place in the world quite like bangkok.....so many
contradictions, too much to see, so little time.......

work in progress

yea, sure , work in progress.....that means all the stuff you are NOT
actually doing ......right? well, i am no different than anyone
else....my god, if i could only concentrate, i could have been somebody!!

for those of you with ads or whatever, no help is on the way.......i
have like zero attention span.....UNLESS I REALLY GET INTERESTED IN
SOMETHING AND THEN I GO NUTSOBULLSEYE....ON IT!!!  the trick of course
is to get interested....

so, the next few months i need to work on three book
dummies...."gangstas"  ......"you made me leave" and "off for a family
drive"   i am in way way over my head but i have spent years
working very hard and I have a lot to publish.....join me and we will
discuss how to get your most "artistic, esoteric and personally
authored book" published...there is only one problem with this part of
the blog.....i have no idea how to publish a book...i have done it
several times, but each time was different and i doubt that each particular
experience could be repeated......

there are two things going on here ...one: assignment work in progress
and two: personal work in progress...i need both.....i want to
financially survive , but doing it "my way"....that is the magnum
way......the selfish way.......the artistic way......the ONLY  way!!!

i often work side by side with my students.....this photograph was
made in pozos, mexico during my most recent workshop....