work in progress

still life

many of you have asked how books get developed in the first place......there is a curiosity if one takes a stack of photographs taken over a long period of time and decides to put it together as a book or if one thinks of a concept and then goes out and shoots....

i have done it both ways....i was at least 8 years into shooting the spanish diaspora before i realized maybe i should do a book ("Divided Soul"- Phaidon)..i then worked five years more...but i was 8 days in cuba and i realized i could do  a book immediately ("Cuba"-National Geographic)..i then worked 3 years  more....it is impossible to say how any particular book develops, because there are too many variables....i have also had some "amazing" book ideas, done the layout and then dropped the whole idea....and i have done a few commissioned books which really end up being nowhere near on the level of a personal book and ultimately not as rewarding....the hip hop book coming now ("Living Proof" - Powerhouse) is a direct spin-off of an  assignment  from National Geographic...i  did some personal shooting on this after the  assignment was over, but the bulk  was  funded  by the magazine...

every photographer i  know does  it differently and possibly differently with each book he or  she does...abbas, for  example,  for his  "Islam" book must  have  done dozens of short self assigned  essays until finally he had a book in hand...susan meiselas was working with grant money to do her epic "Kurds" book  which was  a complex project  making her as much curator and editor as photographer...alex webb  combined assignments and personal work together over three years to do his new "Istanbul"..most photographers who  do significant books just flat out figure out  a way...some way....any way...and each "way" is a whole new experience....most also put significant amounts of their own finances into books....and books generally do not directly bring in income...to do a book you must drop everything else....which is why i had cheerios for lunch  and yesterday's pad thai for dinner this evening....

now, you can see i am fooling around my building...starting to think that maybe this building is some kind of microcosm of new york...a changing new york...not many places like this left here in the city and this one will change drastically soon or could be bulldozed into dust...a symbol of urban development....i love to photographed things which are changing....icons that will not be around or not be the same ever again....

so, i am sketching....thinking.....not working too much....i just shoot a little on my breaks from doing so many other things...i have to hang my show tomorrow, so i am in total panic mode...so, this work is just my little "hobby" or stress release for the moment..maybe that is all it will ever be....

today i just shot these "still life" images....i hardly ever do either landscapes or still life pictures  but sometimes i am in the mood...in this case, i am thinking to mix  "building " pictures with  "people" pictures....so, if you want to know how i  think about projects you are witnessing it right now....

more "kibbutz"

everyone is telling me to keep shooting "at home".....but, i am still just "playing" and not totally committed ...yet....it could just be that the "kibbutz" pictures end up as part of the "off for a family drive" book...

many of you have asked for more stories on how to create a book, how to publish a book , etc etc..

well, the first thing is the idea or the concept...this is the hardest part (and where i am now on this one)....the second thing, is the actual shooting....this is the hardest part...and the third thing is editing your work down to something that works...this is the hardest part....and the fourth  thing is the securing of a publisher and the control over the layout....this is the hardest part.....and the fifth  thing is the distribution, the creating of exhibitions and the pr "selling" of the book...this is the hardest part (because by this time you are totally tired of these pictures and are moving on to something else)...

i am in two of the five steps right now.....the idea realization of one book("family drive")  and the final layout of another("living proof")......i will keep you updated so that you may learn....and learn from my mistakes....

please do not make the fourth  step into the first step...this is the most common error i see  among emerging photogs......securing the publisher is the least of your worries....just go make those great photographs based on a significant idea....publishers need new work.....

in a subsequent post i will  explain the different ways to get this work done.....

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 ..."

pictures from tonight

now i am just playing....this is not an edit..do not judge yet please please!!...now you can see i am not so good!!!..which i guess is the point....unless i am "on" on, i can shoot some pretty meaningless pictures...my sons even accuse me of taking the worst family pictures on vacation of all time!!

these photos come from just me going out in the hall this afternoon and seeing my next door neighbor devon and a passerby and then meeting  a few people on the roof i did not know...three women in the stairwell getting out of the wind....and then re-shooting the 10th floor door shot from yesterday i think.....one hour of shooting time, just a few minutes of finger on the button...i will know in a few days if i want to do an essay on new york...all seen from one building that will soon go away....a reminiscence...a sentiment of an age going by....passage......
just thinking...

10th floor

this is the floor to live on in my building....the 10th.....i live way way down on the 4th....my view is partially blocked by a brick wall that is the east side of the lumber company that is across the street...i am not unhappy, because i do see water and boats and seagulls.... but these folks up here on the 10th have a totally clear view of the manhattan skyline....they also have balconies that they can hang out on with their friends who must exclaim over their good fortune....

most people in new york who have any kind of view at all are paying a lot more in rent or mortgage than am i....the building i am in, the "kibbutz", will not last  much longer....i think we are all out in a year and a half....they will renovate this building....whoever has my even limited view next will have made a significant investment....

all of the photographers in this building have said they wanted to document our building...none of us have done it....one of us should....now would be the time for me since i am not leaving new york because i have to print my show...i am here at home for awhile....paolo pellegrin, chris anderson and alex majoli should be coming "home" soon and would provide good portraits....the characters in this building are endless....artists, film makers, models, sculptors and the like live here....i do not think there is anyone living here from the wall street crowd....but they would certainly be welcomed....

the social scene is so lively here that you really do not even have to leave this building to be entertained...rooftop cookouts, slide shows, music classes, raucus parties etc. could keep you pretty busy....if i leave my door open, there is a steady stream of visitors who either bring a six pack or drink the six pack somebody else brought.....i just found out today that a woman on the 10th floor has opened a therapeutic massage business....maybe she has one of those balconies....lorena ros, spanish photographer, gave me the massage therapist's business card, so maybe i will find out...

should i "do" this building as a little scrapbook???....i have a few frames already, but nothing too serious...maybe it should not even be "serious".....snapshots maybe....i made this little snapshot here about an hour ago from the 10th floor.....i will keep thinking about this one..

ok....no new pictures

some of you may come here to see what i have done lately...my big projects i have not posted here yet, but i do like to show  you  little things i have seen recently  or little snippets of larger works....well, honestly, i have not taken a decent picture since sicily over two weeks ago..i had two weeks in spain and somehow i do not have much to show for it in pictures....4 days in london...zero....well, for london, i kinda have a good excuse..i did get a nice picture of her by dinner candlelight, but she will not let me publish it on this blog...censored!!!

but, how could i have no good pictures from spain, one of my favorite destinations of all time??? no answer really, and no excuses....i mean i was out every night taking pictures, but something just was not happening for me...was i just having too much fun partying??? not a likely answer,  because some of my best work has come from me being wrapped bigtime into a social situation...

and, not so oddly, i knew i was not really getting anything special...never got "in the zone" with anything really....but, i think you "get in the zone" when you want to go there...you have to want it bad...and i guess i just did not want it bad enough....

so far in my photog life, i have never stayed "blocked" for long....but, it is something that happens......the pressure of needing  to put a new picture up here is killing me!!!