Photo of the Decade

Photo: Jonathan Bachman

Yes, I know it's gone viral and can be seen absolutely everywhere, and for absolutely good reason- I, like so many others, can't stop looking at it. And like any good great photo, there's good reason for that, basically because it works on so many levels, and does so, so very, very well. Composition- check, decisive moment- check, content- check, check and check.

What I first thought when I saw this photo was... superhero. Nefarious, super villains rising from the netherworld to wreak havoc on the lone guardian of the light. Alone, unafraid, strengthened by the very forces of the winds and nature at her command; she is secure and confident in her calm demeanor. Those advancing in attack formation are quick, aggressive and heavily armored- but overwhelmingly cautious all the same, fully cognizant of her latent power. 

And then, of course, there's real life- what seems an entire city's police force vs. one lone, very human Black female. And such has it always been, no matter the decade, when men of color have been attacked, beaten and killed by overwhelming forces. Their women have never been far behind, and in fact, often leading many of the various opposing and conciliatory forces at play. And always too... the iconic photo to remind us of just that.

The Revenant

Vivid dreamscapes, nature in its raw, natural elements... cold, wet, breathtaking in its beauty and uncompromising in its ferocity. Since the world of movies first burst forth with those audience galvanizing scenes of a moving train and a pointed gun, cinema has never ceased trying to put you in the very scene it has sought to create. The Revenant does just that- the water, wind and snow beneath your feet, against your skin and throughout your senses. 

Wide angle lenses can often look gimmicky on the big screen, here in the great wide open Alejandro G. Iñárritu has used them flawlessly, a major reason why we are seamlessly enmeshed into the environment of his making. We see arrows initiate flight, frenetically approach and whiz harmlessly by our heads, or stop full upon their deadly mark. We hear, feel and for all purposes smell the very breath of those that approach us, friend and foe alike. 3D can't touch this, virtual reality can't come close.

This is experiential movie making at its most vivid and dramatic, where even the dream sequences that occasionally manifest are just further extensions of the present reality. And DiCaprio lives up to the spectacle. There's no way a human body could actually survive the abuse his endures, but you're willing to forgive and forget... because the movie is that damn good. 

Easily one of my All Time Top Twenty, possibly even in the Exalted Top Ten... Must see on the BIG screen!

A Season Of Faith And Faithlessness...

Great little video, though I think it would have been better still minus the "faith plug" stuck in at end. While I most definitely believe in a higher power, the history of religion(s) preventing war and conflict throughout the world, and history is... well, let's just say they're a tad better at starting them; in fact, the case can actually be made that organized religions are also quite adept at making conflicts harder to solve.

I choose to place my trust in people whose faith comes in dealing directly with humanity: honestly, peacefully, without bias for god or country. Put your faith in that cause and one will follow in the best tenets of any major religion by default...

What Can One Man Do?

Lead us, show us, point the way...  but as with all the greats, they do it with the strength of will from their own two hands...

The Morgan Cowles Archive Party!

All Photos Courtesy The Morgan Cowles Archive*

The Morgan Cowles Archive

Honestly, have no idea how I wondered unto the Morgan Cowles Archive and The Center for Land Use Interpretation, but sure glad I did- despite the infuriating lack of captions that accompany their photos. These ain't "art" photos per se (more your vernacular blend), but many are pretty much just that save perhaps for the slightest difference in angle or lens selection, others still just downright funny. This collection is filled with the roadside sideshows that make a successful road trip both rewarding and memorable going to and coming from whatever main event you have had in mind (particularly when the latter just doesn't add up as is sometimes the case).

Just looking at these gets me plenty jealous and riled up to rush out, grab a rental with the Nikon, wife and Tri-X, and leave the rest behind (before global warming floods us into 100 mi squares of never ending conflict)! Haven't done that in too long a while... 

In the meantime, I'll just have to content myself with some quality time perusing these at leisure- and guessin' where the hell they were taken. 

UPDATE: The good people at CLUI were kind enough to direct me to their Database where you can access the photo locations- Thanks Guys (it'll due till the intern writes up the captions)!

* Haven't seen too many photos lately of a 'lynching' that could make me smile.
 

The Morgan Cowles Archive

The Morgan Cowles Archive

Betrayal Of The American Dream...

Pretty Damn Amazin'!

Gotta give the guy credit for even attempting it! Hell, I'd be pretty damn proud of myself if I could freakin' do it- no doubt get a couple of photos out of it too! But just thinking about doing something so damn mundane, and monumental, makes my mind reel- and my legs ache... Don't forget folks- the borough of Queens alone* is five times the size of Washington, DC.

Good Luck, Matt Green!

*And there's four more where that came from in NYC- The Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn & Manhattan. 
PS- Only the borough of the Bronx is on the mainland, Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island.

Dreaming The Nikon Fantasy...

So Nikon heard that I've been a tres loyal user for some 35 years (Nikkormat, FM, F2, F3, FG, F100), heard that I'm still living a primitive, analogue lifestyle, and in a moment of sheer marketing genius decided to throw me a brand spankin' new D800. Throw the ol' dog a lifeline into the digital 21st. century- and watch the sparks fly as he raves about the never dreamed of image quality, the superb clarity of resolution, the intuitive ease of operation. Even illustrate an upcoming campaign with a few of his best shots. If this absolute Luddite swears buy it- who in their right mind wouldn't? An instant, win-win, guaranteed publicity bonanza!!! And I'm waiting by the phone...

Still waiting...

2012- Year In Review

Well, I gotta be honest here folks, it's not for lack of trying- but I haven't taken a decent shot all year. The good news is that at least I have one new friend from Africa who, if I just let him have his way, wants to make me a rich man, a very rich man- and from the dental bill I'm about to incur from eating a piece of popcorn watching godawful Melancholia recently, he reached out just in time.

Meanwhile, I pledge to redouble my efforts to introduce legislation banning Uggs throughout the world- particularly since I failed so miserably in having similar legislation passed concerning Birkenstocks. This time failure is not an option!

Once passed, we cannot rest, other challenges just as dark, just as threatening, await us. They lurk in the shadows today- but tomorrow? Yes- I speak of none other than the dreaded toe shoe things!!!

A Remakable Life- Oscar Micheaux

The corner stone of The Great American Mythology is that of The Self Made Man- the American everyman (usually an immigrant) who starts from scratch and with much hard work, luck, and more often than not, a willingness not to let the niceties of ethics and humanity get in the way, pulls himself up by his bootstaps and rises to the top of the heap. Whatever the heap may be that he wishes to heap himself upon. 

The very last thing those people want to hear is that there are those who struggled against even greater odds that they never had to encounter, never had to endure, never had to overcome. It makes their story just that much smaller- second rate really. No one wants to hear that someone else had to overcome everything you did... including some crazy ass X factor that has leveled many a better man low- racism.

And nothing infuriates a bigot more than deflating the very basis surrounding the delusional myth of their great American work ethos manhood.

I thought about this when listening to this NPR pesentation on Oscar Micheaux. Driven, conflicted, in triumph or defeat. His legacy endures; unfortunately, so do many of the obstacles he traversed, though ever shifting, ever morphing, and thus far ever present.

2010- Smooth Sailing!

I think 2010 will be the year when we finally get our heads on straight, start fixing the global warming fiasco in a meaningful, productive manner, realize that we can best fight global terrorism by addressing its root causes, and  sign a truly comprehensive, health care reform bill in the US.

Damn, those Ambien sure do get ya a sound night's sleep!

1,000 Cameras Solve One Crime!

Total Security and Cost Efficiency!

Civilization in a NYC Elevator I Can't Afford

Off to NYC tonight to visit the kinfolk for a week; and hopefully get in a coupla shows, a coupla shots and: a coupla beers, raspberry blintzes, potato pancakes, bagels (not some sorry assed roll with a hole), perogis (fried w/onions and sour cream), cuchifritos, egg creams and real honest to god pizza- not the sad and sorry cardboard crap of an excuse that passes for it everywhere else in the world (Italy not incl)! If I don't see ya's there, catch ya's online hopefully sometime the following weekend...

This is kinda what The City looked like to me back in the day when I was considerably younger and... well, younger. (go to full screen for this one and enjoy the show).

Civilization by Marco Brambilla from CRUSH on Vimeo.

Response!

Well, it took a wee bit of doing, but finally... a response, sincere and promising. For all those jumping up and down, salivating with their I told you so's- I can only repeat what I said in my reply: the problems are neither imaginary, exaggerated, nor resolved. Problems, which to their credit, PDN acknowledges and seeks to address- as we all need do; problems which are as real today as they were decades ago.

The discussion has started- do we continue to deny, or do we face it full on and affect the change necessary to make the medium that so many of us truly love more representative of the people it so often depicts?

HooverVille 2009

Coming soon to a city near you...
photo: Genaro Molina

Even in Japan!

Photography- The Lowest of Arts

My wife was watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona when I heard it. The movie heroine was experiencing some vast measure of artistic, creative angst. Rather, she doubted she had any artistic ability whatsoever. She couldn't draw, she couldn't paint, couldn't play an instrument, couldn't... but wait! Hadn't she been snapping photographs on her vacation? Is it possible, could it be? Could photographic technology provide this young, clueless artistic wannabe the last possible recourse for her budding creative juices? Of course, says her world famous, sculptor, lover, mentor-muse!

Wouldn't we all be busy with brush or guitar neck in hand if we had any real talent? Why else would we settle for some so called, alleged art form that Susan Sontag repeatedly reminded us couldn't even achieve the very minimum for which it was most often credited?

And so, we persist...

My balls, my balls, my kingdom for my...

After repeatedly discarding them about whenever the need arose for him to hold them aloft and have them work whatever magic they may have once possessed (instead of just capitulating on each and every issue imaginable), it seems a certain senator has unwittingly stumbled upon his lost and not so prized possessions. I'm still betting that when push comes to shove however, this is all the good Senator Leahy will have to show for his new found "assertiveness".

Detroit, MI- Art Capital of the World?

Whenever I see pictures of the waste and devastation that was once the great city of Detroit, I'm instantly reminded of an article that asserted that the key to neighborhood gentrification (at least in NYC) was the introduction of artists. In fact, the writer called artists "the shock troops of gentrification." Of course, that is, no doubt, an over simplification, greed (as in the hearts of real estate developers) being the major ingredient in the toxic aftermath that so often results. Artists, no doubt, are in turn victimized by their own success and neighborhood altering effects, almost as much as the "original" inhabitants.

But here we are in what, despite everything, could still be an age of hope, change and new ideas... And I was just wondering, has the city of Detroit ever made a concentrated, concerted effort to lure artists on a national basis with sweetheart deals on housing, work and exhibition space, etc. to help rejuvenate and enliven their dying city? Surely they wouldn't be the only contributing factor, but artists do have a proven track record of generating change and transforming their environment from the most meager of resources, and in record time. Wouldn't it be great if for once in this country's history we actually gave artists the rights, privileges and accommodations afforded corporations throughout this country- or artists in other countries.

If you can transform a desert into a megalopolis by throwing money at it, why not revive a city by throwing together the most creative, productive people anywhere to be found? The money always follows. I can't think of a better time, or reason to try...

Detroit, MI- Art Capital of the 21st. Century! Why not?
Photo: Sean Hemmerle

Why You (or I) Shouldn't Relax with Obama...

The guy's brilliant beyond belief, and is our best, last, and only hope... but it's issues such as the three elaborated here that prevent me from joining the absolute love fest (not to mention how he totally backtracked on the FISA bill).

This man has the capability and the opportunity to become one of our greatest presidents ever- I just hope he's both up to the task... and lives long enough to achieve it. This is the first time in recent memory where certain members of our citizenry from Maine to Mississippi have no qualms of making their intentions known- and in public!

Extreme Travel Photo Competition (A Proposal)

I was thinking of once in a lifetime places to photograph and experience, so I got to dreaming about a travel photo competition where top prize would not consist of some lame cruise or vacation resort, but more like an all expense paid trip that puts you in the driver's seat (make that the passenger's seat) of the ultimate road trip... Bolivia's Road of Death!

Here you have a place where people literally risk their lives simply to get from point A to point B on any given day, and they're not even in a war zone! Not to say that it doesn't exist, but I have yet to see the quintessential photo essay documenting this infamous sojourn. Regardless- I sure know I'd love to give it a shot! Personal risk? You bet (part of the challenge, part of the reward), and although not quite on the level of The Wages of Fear, we're still talking 2-300 deaths per year. Of course, with my luck, if such a competition actually existed, I'd probably take second prize- a lame vacation cruise... from which I'd probably drown in drunken boredom.