ending/beginning
i am almost finished tinkering with my "living proof" layout....because now i am just "messing"...fooling around any more would blow the whole spontaneity feel i want with this particular book...this is one is to be loose , freestyle, a little reckless....just like the subject...not "coffee table" material....not even about pictures really...i only have about 5 stand alone "good pictures" in this book....for this book i am just looking for "totality" ...not "gallery"...
i have no idea how this book will "go down", but it is happening anyway...this book will not be seen until the fall....but it will be gone in my mind by tomorrow...done, finished.....start something new...
it is way past time to finally take the prints off the wall that have been up there for months...i need something fresh to look at...so i have been trying to decide between two upcoming books that have been rolling around in my head for years....my women portraits project "you made me leave" which i may show you someday soon (one below)....or "off for a family drive" which is a "scrapbook diary" lifetime of material for which maybe even exerpts from this blog would be appropriate...who knows...
tonight i decided to put "family drive" up on the wall in the next few days and start playing with sequences etc etc..."you made me leave" can wait....just seems right now for "family drive"....i can still do a few portraits and also shoot my building since i want to spend as much time at home figuring out "family drive" as possible....the buiding shoot and "family drive" layout will feed each other...
i have no clue how i will pay for this time...for time not shooting generally means time without income...this will be the most important thing you will ever learn when doing a book....you just have to drop everything else....gene richards told me once that the reason he had so many books was because he did not get so many assignments....this is easy to believe...the two do not go hand in hand....
when i shoot one assignment right after the other , there no way i could get a book out....you have to "drop out" for weeks at least...so this is my dilemma....get the next book going or go make enough income to keep the fires burning....
most likely i will have to figure out a way to do both....sacrificing one thing , juggling another, embracing this and rejecting that...eye on the prize...name of the game...
as roman emporer philosopher marcus aurelius foretold:
"if you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you might be bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this , expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with your present activity according to your nature, you will be happy, and there is no man who is able to take this from you ..."
David- If it helps keep you going at all, I am eagerly awaiting to buy more of your book(s)!!
That Marcus Aurelius was some kind of Zen master. I think it's true in any profession/vocation: persistence, focus, and committment always pay off in the long run.
Posted by: Asher Schachter | May 25, 2007 at 10:29 AM
David: just a quick note, as im getting ready to teach, but strangely (beautifully), the cloud photo reminds me of one of my favorite filmmakers: Tsai Ming-liang.....
soon you'll be able to see his new film "I don't want to sleep alone tonight" in NY...and you'll absolutely be able to grab a hold of his other films on dvd "goodbye-dragon inn" for me is one of the most profound movies about being a photographer (though it has nothing at all to do with photographer per se) I've ever seen: ghosts, rain splitting light and sound, sadness, love, disappearance: rent it, you'll see....
as a child, i lived in Taipei, and so, taipei films (and some photographers) have had some pretty physical impact on my body and since what i love about your photographs (the stillness of the color, like sound expanding; the brightness of figures moving through color (inside and out)), i've meant to suggest Tsai Ming-liang to you early....so too the mad-brillant Hou Hsiao-Hsien and the remarkable Edward Yang.... ... ...
Hou and tsai are my favorite among the 3, 'cause it's about the "pleasure" of allowing stillness to unsettle and replant inside...
like planning a book.....
incidentally, my own advice (colleague to colleague): go with the road/family pics...here's the reason: I've been sucking upon late R Frank (and we've been fortunate enough to have a few things here in TO in the last few years) and I can't tell you how ESSENTIAL all his late work is....
yesterday, wrote Chris Anderson about his book about lebanon "Come Again" (taped polaroids on line-notebooks), or Storylines...or the sad-broken songs about his weathered island in the mouth of the Atlantic.....
also a fan of Aurelius ("Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear"), and would suggest the same:
that by which you navigate is the map by which the stars are stretched and charted along the skin of the sky...
you quote me, i get a free book! ;))))))
go with the family, every time :)))
cheers David
bob
Posted by: Bob Black | May 25, 2007 at 05:38 PM
self-edit of my own quote ;)))) (from an essay/photo project im writing/shooting about blindness)
that way by which you navigate is the same distinct map by which the stars are stretched and charted along the skin of the indistinct sky...
sorry for pompous correction ;)))...
running (go get some good wine and watch "Goodbye Dragon Inn"...
or anything else) (Wayward Cloud (!!!!) or what time is it over there or...whatever ;))))
Posted by: Bob Black | May 25, 2007 at 05:46 PM
Hi David,
It's interesting to about parts of the process of dreaming about, shooting and constructing a book. You asked me in a previous message about whether I had thought about doing a book from out here in China. The answer is a definate yes but I'm not entirely sure of the way it should be done to be honest.
There are many questions but here's 1 in 3....
Do you generally come up with an idea first and then pitch it to a publisher, with just the idea and no photos? OR do you shoot 50% then approach them with the photos + idea? OR do you shoot pretty much all of it and then hope a publisher will pick it up?
I do have one good idea for a book that would be a kind of road-trip here in China. Taking a route that disects different parts of the country, showing the immense diversity here. It wouldn't be just random wanderings though. My route would be planned and for a reason. Don't want to give too much away just yet. It's all thoughts, dreams and imagined photos now but will happen as soon as I have (a) saved more money (b) organise a few months free and (c) get my Chinese a little better. It will happen though!
Any thoughts though on the whole book process will be enlightening.
And thanks for taking a look at my story about the blind orphans. I feel this is maybe the best work I've done so far, in terms of getting close, as you always say. I got into one place, with one camera, put in a lot of time, stayed loose but worked hard and most of all, really cared about the kids/issue I was taking photos of. It's set a benchmark for my future work and the direction I want to take I think.
Right....this post has gone on longer than intended!
All the best David,
Sean
Posted by: Sean | May 25, 2007 at 09:53 PM