workshops

new york subway by mike berube

mike berube is the spitting image of harry potter.....no joke...everyone says so....and he even has the harry potter personality....humble yet special....

mike was in my "at home" class last fall...this was mike's second class with me..and like most of my students they are never "ex" students....mike checks in with me more than most....with his travels , with his thoughts....but for my class in new york, mike went underground.....looking for underground performers...literally...

mike has just turned 21....this means he was only 19 when he came down from his native canada  to mexico with me for a workshop in san miguel.....mike  is a sensitive young man...serious....he has the quest in his eyes....i have a feeling our harry potter look alike might just end up being a wizard after all...

casey

   

casey templeton does not mess around.....when you talk to him , he listens....but you cannot tell if he agrees with what you are saying or not....he looks at you in an intense way, but reveals nothing....no matter....because he then  picks up his camera , no more questions asked, and just goes out and shoots....an editor's dream photographer i would imagine....

for our workshop here in new york the boy did two stories....most photographers struggle to do one.....one of the stories he did was from the infamous Gleasons Gym (shown above) and the other was on the folks here in new york who raise pigeons on their rooftops (shown below)....casey was on the move then and he is on the move now....right after the workshop, casey was headed for an internship at National Geographic..right now he his shooting for AP....but casey has an even more important "assignment"...

in june casey will be married.....maybe he will log on with a comment about my "relationships" piece upcoming...he has obviously figured it out...or more likely, she has.....i do not know casey's bride to be...but, for sure, she has found the right man..... casey is just one all-around terrific guy...smart, talented, loaded with integrity, and a gentleman to boot....casey and i share a bit of history with richmond, virginia....from my richmond experience i know another thing....casey is the southern gentleman personified....in the very best sense of it.....casey is steeped in tradition and yet is moving forward like a cannon ball fired across the james river by jeb stuart....the south will rise again!!!

casey says " with my work i am running a marathon.....i do not want my career to be a sprint"

   

ben

   

ben krain has a strange look in his eyes....as if either he thinks you are going to play a trick on him or he has just played a trick on you.....it is easy to imagine ben out making photographs and having a pretty good time......or just having a good time no matter what...

this is not to say that ben is not a serious photographer....he most certainly is and his newspaper(arkansas gazette) sends him all over the world, not to let him have a lot of fun, but because they know his works resonates with their readers....his work from afghanistan is particularly compelling....

ben is also a family man and like many photographers tries to blend raising 2 children with his passion for  work...and perhaps faces the most formidable conflict and that is whether to continue with his newspaper work or jump off the cliff into the unknown world of freelance photography....this subject will be tackled  here on harveyblog soonest...

when ben came to visit my loft workshop he struggled with trying to find just the right subject....ultimately ben chose coney island which had just closed down after a long hot summer....the crowds were gone, the beaches mostly empty....ben was at first disappointed.....but he went back and back again and finally produced a wonderful little essay "the last days of summer"...

marie

 

marie just told me that what she came here to my studio to learn she did not learn, but that what she did learn  was totally invaluable..but she will not tell me what "that" is!!! those  are the  kinds of comments marie makes...marie works with me...she has no known job title....she  complains that i have never given her  a real "job description"... ..ok, i will do that tomorrow!!

i just asked marie how long she had worked with me....she said 10 dog years.....marie wants a dog, but i will not let her bring it to the office....someday i will have to give in, but in the meantime marie breaks her neck every time she sees a dog walking down the street!!

marie is a fine photographer....she studied a year at ICP, then went to costa rica as a newspaper photographer and subsequently lived in cuba,  shooting constantly...she then returned to new york..nina berman, who teaches at ICP, had previously  suggested to marie that she try for an internship with me...

pobre cita marie.....i mean working with me would make most people lose their mind totally, but somehow marie survives.....but now,  she has made herself totally indispensible, which is the oldest trick in the book for job security.....

marie is the one who pushed me to do my own specialized workshops at home...she totally ran and managed the first one and is planning several more  ....she is managing the workshop program for  nick's "festival of the photograph".....marie assisted me last year in sicily  and will join me again in either italy or spain workshops.....marie has been with me from "day one" on the production of the upcoming hip hop book and will supervise the printing of the exhibition ...and , as if she did not have enough to do already, she helps me with this blog...or, rather, maybe i try to help her.....

marie is an honest, sensitive, totally loyal woman.....we work together....more importantly, we are good friends.......her humanity shows in her daily life and  in her work  shown here from when she was a student in the  sicily class....

marie, do not leave me now!!!  and , by the way, do you have any idea where my expense receipts from senegal might be???

 

erin wigger

erin likes dead people.......her family is in the business of taking care of the dead.....actually, when you really think about it, this  is THE most necessary business in the world.....so the people in it are special....and caring......and thoughtful.....or so we all hope....

i always ask my workshop students to "look in the mirror" when thinking about an essay to shoot.....erin did......this work is from three days in a funeral home in brooklyn and is part of a larger essay.....erin is full of life and enthusiastic about everything....this is why her photographs of the dead are so compelling.......