work in progress

bangkok portraits

bangkok nightlife...this was my assignment for "9 Days in the Kingdom", a group effort to be published in a large coffee table book this fall...an international collection of photographers were spread out all over Thailand to "do their own thing"....when my colleagues heard i was doing "nightlife" they all said "oh david, just perfect for you"....

but, there was one little catch...almost none of the people in the "nightlife biz" wanted to be photographed.....so, i did what i always do...i stuck mostly to one club so everyone would get to know me....but, even then, they were skittish....finally, i realized i needed to hang around before the club opened....these pictures were made about an hour before "showtime" when the girls come in to get dressed and have their dinner....i left before the show....my girlfriend was waiting for me....she does not like to be kept waiting!!!

nairobi portraits

i had never before been to africa......i had never before tried to use powerful strobe lights in the noonday sunlight.....the challenge i gave myself was to see if i could combine my so called "street shooter" style with power light portraiture of some of the people  who make up  nairobi....the works here are  from kibera,  a slum neighborhood  squeezed right up next to a wild game park at the edge of town....

sunday morning is just an amazing time in kibera....almost everyone is off to church....despite the ramshackle nature of this neighborhood, somehow everyone was wearing clean, pressed clothes...their sunday best...pride personified.....my jeans and shirt were surely wrinkled....

this little taste of africa only whetted my appetite for more....but, i never got out of nairobi.....i only saw, and became mesmerized by,  this too crowded, too noisy, too dirty, too dangerous city.....most tourists land in nairobi , spend the night, and head out the next morning for kenya's  spectacular game parks....one day i would like to do the same....but this trip was to photograph  the people who endure this city....looking for work, looking for salvation....

11 yr old mary akinya said " i am reading a story about a cheetah, elephant, zebra, and lion..they are fighting over who is  strongest..but the  zebra is the smartest and he  wins"

the reverend christopher mwenama earns his living as house servant..."i was called to the ministry in a dream" he says......

all of the 800,000 people who live in kibera  have a story.....i only know two of them....

portrait of zaida

i never do not have a camera with me.....at the dentist , my camera bag sits in the corner....i do not always shoot every breakfast , lunch and dinner in my life....but i do have coverage of a lot of them...the picture below i shot at lunch the other day....light was terrible , i was bored, and then i saw my course assistants  zaida (read her story under "road trips") and cristina hanging by the doorway of the restaurant....from boredom to the temporary insanity of being  "in the zone"...maybe 30 seconds of shooting time...made my whole day.......6 frames.....2 nice.....here is one of them..

 

how to publish a book

well, there is one little problem with this title....even though i actually teach a class in book publishing, the first thing i must admit to my students is that i have no idea "how to publish a book".....martin parr is the only photographer i know who actually seems to know how...the man has 35 books!!! or is it 36??  who can keep up? 

the rest of us suffer....each book undertaking is a whole new experience.....the wannabe new author has new "work"....there is oftentimes a new pubisher.... we are mostly working with new editors....but here is the most formidable/fundamental problem:  we photographers  are asking a publisher to take on our projects, spend THEIR money on production and distribution and yet WE want the book to be done OUR way!!

you have heard me before stress authorship, authorship and authorship.....let me please tell you why this is so important....i have published six books.....i will not even tell you the titles of three of them....why? because they are not books i am proud of...and there is nothing worse than having a "bad book" sitting on your mother's coffee table....

a magazine piece that does not live up to your expectations can be explained away....."well, they just did not run the right pictures.....i had a much better picture than THIS...what were they thinking?"

with a book you have no such excuse or , at least, you should not have...you are standing there absolutely naked when you publish a book....who wants to be the "emperor without clothes" ??

this afternoon i will look at a preliminary dummy for my yet untitled hip hop work to be published by "powerhouse" for publication this fall....between now and the fall season, i will be living in some sort of  artistic anguish......so many things have to go right.....i am going to take you through this as an educational experience....but, as i said, whatever this experience will be is a "brand new" experience for me and for my publishers.....there is a  "ballet" between the photographer and publisher that requires diplomacy and honor and integrity and sometimes raw courage.....and, sleepless nights...

there are TWO truly wonderful moments in book publishing:

(1) the day you realize you actually have the material for a book, the concept is there.....at this point you can "high five" anyone in sight.

(2) the day the book actually comes out and arrives on time at the exhibition you have been working for weeks on...you can "high five" anyone in sight on this day also.

BUT IN-BETWEEN!!!  well, that is the world that is hard to describe in a sentence or two, so i will just take you along on this process....but, i will say this now.....the "in-between" is "creative" in almost the same way that painting the whole outside and inside of your house is....it is nice to have it done!!!   

 

well, this is old "work in progress" which is totally related to my new
"work in progress" which is totally related to my old "work in progress"

we must go back a few years......picture me in grad school.....22 and
married with new baby bryan.....summer comes and i have an opportunity
to do a "test shoot" for national geographic...blew it....i mean blew
it....here are the first three sentences of  the letter i received
after my test from robert e.gilka, director of photography:

"Dear David,

You are young and strong. That is good. For what I have to tell you,
will make you feel sick and old."

the letter went on to detail my mistakes and why i was inappropriate to
work at national geographic magazine....

i swallowed hard.......walked around the block.....eyes moist....kicked
a can....second time around the block, i said to myself..."wait a
minute.....i hate color.....i hate those postcardy pictures i just took
for those editors......i hate national geographic....i will "show them"
and everyone what i really will "do" with my work!!! my true intentions!!

so, i head back to virginia beach ....tourist town where i lived.....no
art museum, but good waves sometimes...only thing was, i was a really
bad surfer ....decided i had to do what i had to do...4 weeks of summer
left....and a bruised ego to heal..so i powered  my '54 green hand
painted ford 16 miles to norfolk, drove into the "ghetto",  and did not go back
home for awhile...my goal....save the neighborhood....thus, i ended
up living with a black family for the rest of the summer and did my
first "away from my own culture" photographic essay....

15 rolls of film was more than i could afford....i slept on the
family's sofa...set up a little darkroom nearby and carefully made my
own prints.....with my friend charles hofheimer (who was headed for the
peace corps and whose father loaned us the money to publish) we printed
i do not remember how many copies of "tell it like it is"...the layout was elegantly done by my college roommate, masaaki okada....there are
now only 4 known copies in the world....when i went back to grad school
i think we dumped the copies that had not been sold!!!.. bruce davidson
says i should re-publish...but every once in awhile i dream of finding
a forgotten box of these now priceless jewels somewhere in my mom's
garage..

we priced this little soft back book out at $2. per copy..the money went to
the baptist church on the corner....in order to "save the
neighborhood"...i figured awareness was the key to saving society from
itself....i was wrong....that neighborhood is now about the same as it
was way back then...

but, i did secure a small exhibit at what is now the chrysler
museum.....the norfolk virginian-pilot ran a picture page.....i
received a grant from the virginia museum of fine arts....i never looked
back after that....i told myself from then on that i would always be
true to myself...never do work that i was not proud of....never do
something  "for someone else"....or worse, shoot in a style that was
not my own....at this same time, i was studying the work of gene smith,
robert frank and henri cartier-bresson and i wanted to be in their
world...

this is not to say that i did not and do not work very hard for my
"clients".....i do....i flat out need the funding to do my work, to
live, to survive, to get my sons through college....but, i stay very
artistically "selfish"....i turn my work projects into personal
projects......"divided soul" was created mostly from a series of
assignments....i knew i was doing a book...national geographic never
knew , never cared...appropriately the editors just wanted solid honest coverage of that particular story....it would not and should not be their role to be thinking about my "master plan"...they just want what they need for their readers........one assignment at a time...so, i keep my "funders" happy, but i keep myself happy too
and make sure i own the copyright on every picture i make (including ad
shoots).

ok, so how in the world is this blast from the past "work in progress"
for today?? because it is part of one big circle...i have been involved
with photographing african descended cultures ever since....now , all
the way to "hip hop" where i just spent months shooting the south bronx
projects for a story coming up next month in national geographic titled
"hip hop planet" with a brilliant text by james mcbride  author of
"color of water"....robert e. gilka, the author of the "dear david you
are young and strong letter" will be around to see this in print....and,
well, by the way, he did eventually give me about 20 assignment for
the magazine during his tenure...thanks bob, you will always be young
and strong!!

my experiences from the norfolk 'hood helped me recognize the "moves"
from the south bronx "gangsta rappers" i had chosen as my new friends this
past year....when my brothers  "uptown" and "ruckus" visit my new york
loft, they pour through my photography books...they each have copies of
my books and "magnum stories" and i have made them be very aware that
they are collaborators with me in this hip hop work...my dream is to be
at a book signing somewhere with "uptown" and "ruck" signing
away....how cool would that be??

please come to the exhibtion opening  june 14 at the "powerhouse arena"
in  "dumbo" new york and there will be a  hip hop book in the fall 
published by "powerhouse books" ....i will not dump any unsold copies....

       

hip hop essay

   

coming soon...

loving italy

italy has been a second home to me for about ten years......great friends, the very best cuisine, and amazingly theatrical warm people...all of them belong in films!!! want to take acting class to learn gesture???...just go to italy..

now, i do love love italy  even if most of the stores are closed most of the time...i mean you can buy apples on monday, but not on tuesday and get a haircut on wednesday only  but the store to buy AA batteries is closed for the next three days....timing , timing and timing......italy is number six in world ecomomy.....their philosophy must be, "is the stress to gain those first five spots really worth it??"....hmmmm, well, come to think of it, i can't imagine why......

time with family and friends is the number one priority......mine too, but the italians pull it off as an entire society like no other....first prize......now,i have been talking about publishing a book of my work in italy for years.....but, come to think of it, what is the hurry????

sicily