Into Every Life...

If not for the passing of a very good friend, this would have been a very good year indeed- from a purely selfish point of view. Copublished an online magazine, helped initiate a much needed conversation on race and photography, and even managed to take a few memorable keepers for good measure.

Also made a point of posting daily at Reciprocity Failure, and pretty much succeeded (though I don't know how much longer that can continue). I hope to Blurb my first book this summer, so am currently in the process of editing around forty 35mm silver neg scans- no fun feat. I've got a dozen in the tank thus far, and although familiar with the trials and tribulations of Blurb quality, what "reasonably priced" alternative is there? Truth is, I've seen plenty of monographs by name photographers where the quality was considerably less than exemplary...

And while I'm definitely looking forward to participating in the interblog web Symposium on Race & Photography come this Spring, as well as contributing a few posts for Bag News Notes- the thing I treasured most this year was being privileged to make friends and/or correspond with the likes of: Benjamin Chesterton of Duckrabbit, Mark Page of Manchester Photography, Peter Brook of Prison Photography, Jim Johnson of Politics, Theory and Photography, Mike Johnston of TOP, and Michael Shaw of Bag News Notes, in addition to quite a few photographers ("virtual" though they may be, it's definitely preferable to operating in a virtual vacuum). And certainly don't mean to name drop here- these are all busy people who simply made the time to treat a stranger on equal terms. Of course, there are always those who simply choose to look down on one for whatever reason, always have been (met plenty in NYC), always will- but we're gonna keep this upful and bright, there's enough serious shit to go round the planet.

So I'm hoping everyone a good holiday season as we get through the godawful, prerequisite, commercial blight, and remember those forgotten and those in true need- and, as ever, thanks for dropping by!

Good Night, James...