How Much Would You Pay?

Photo from Self-Publish Be Happy by Lucas Blalock

For this masterfully done book brimming with photographic art and originality...
How 'bout $83.00?

Lucas Blalock. Self-Publish Be Happy, 2015.

Lucas Blalock. Self-Publish Be Happy, 2015.

Self-Publish Be Happy (SPBH) Book Club Vol. VII by Lucas Blalock. Self-Publish Be Happy, 2015. - See more at: http://blog.photoeye.com/2015/03/book-of-week-pick-by-remi-faucheux.html?utm_source=photo-eye&utm_campaign=7153e953d0-API_Newsletter_Volume_2_Number_167_24_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_867a4f7ae2-7153e953d0-87968493#sthash.ZoPV47Pi.dpuf

Self-Publish Be Happy (SPBH) Book Club Vol. VII by Lucas Blalock. Self-Publish Be Happy, 2015. - See more at: http://blog.photoeye.com/2015/03/book-of-week-pick-by-remi-faucheux.html?utm_source=photo-eye&utm_campaign=7153e953d0-API_Newsletter_Volume_2_Number_167_24_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_867a4f7ae2-7153e953d0-87968493#sthash.ZoPV47Pi.dpuf

Important Analog Firmware Update!

Least, that's what I call... Daylight Savings Time! For those of us still operating with a set ISO, one that does not extend into six figures, that extra hour of daylight is one helluva glorious thing... Welcome back!!!

Leviathan

The setting is the hinterlands of Putin's present day Russia. Cold, corrupt, brutal. Save for the raw, minimalist beauty of the surrounding seaside, the reality is- it could be a lot of places throughout human history...

They say you don't see and think straight when you're depressed. One of the biggest, all time lies we constantly tell each other- just to keep each other going. When we're down and out, we basically see things as they are, stripped of unrealistic hopes or pretension- when we're not, we merrily look the other way. Most times, things don't get particularly better; for many... luck, life itself, means they just keep going.

In many places, Russia being one of them, if you don't have the connections, the money, the privilege- your existence is merely circumstantial...

Speaking Of Inequality...

  

 There's always an underlying reason, or two, or... when the pot blows!

The Scourge Of Inequality

Fukushima- Antoine d'Gata

Had I the money, Fukushima by Antoine d'Gata would be on my get NOW list... One thorough, photographic synopsis of our world in microcosm- past, present and future at the dawn of the 21st century. A B&W time capsule fully cataloging the folly that is mankind.

The Face Of Ignorance

Whether it's White Supremacist Nazis burning books, or Jihadi crazed fundamentalists- this is what IGNORANCE looks like... and it always leads to, is concurrent with, was preceded by, a blatant disregard for the value and sanctity of life itself.

Ibeyi

Man Of Valor, Man Of Honor!

Cartoon: Mike Luckovich

Being the modest, humble, utterly truthful, and self proclaimed hero, that he is- be it in the heart of the relentless Falklands War or the protest march under his hotel, don't forget this man has also shed his blood in our name in the battlefield called... The War on Christmas. While we routinely celebrated the holidays safe and oblivious, Bill has stood his ground and survived a bloody onslaught against all odds, single handedly fighting the good fight against every imaginary foe and attacker he can possibly hurl at himself, at home and abroad!

God Bless Him! There is no quit in this man!!!
(no shame or humility either- but, what the hey!)

Like A Jig... With Funny Sounds, Right?

What's everyone getting all riled up about??? When I say, "Look at that dumb ass HONKY making like an idiot!" All I mean is... "Look at that idiot in the pick up honking his horn for no good reason!"

PS- A penny for his thoughts...

American Realities...

Photo: Joakim Eskildsen

Actually, I'm not the greatest Joakim Eskildsen fan. I have The Roma Journeys, and while most of the photos are perfectly... OK, most of them really don't light my fire. I bought it primarily because of the half dozen or so photos that I saw online and imagined the rest to be as good, but (for me) the book just didn't follow through visually (purchased online). Truth be told, I bought it for the photo of the guy in the tub- I had to have the guy in the tub. He still makes me smile just thinking of him.

But I am, very much, looking forward to American Realities.* Personal aesthetic preferences aside, Eskildsen is one very thorough photographer, who once again looks like he went into this project to break it down not just visually, but sociologically, to give us a more intimate, accurate and nuanced portrayal of how far our once common American Dream has dissipated and deteriorated. Besides, I already see a coupla photos I just have to have...  *(not yet out)

Photo: Joakim Eskildsen

The Hanging Tree Of Denial

I finally posted this tome of a comment at PetaPixel basically out of sheer frustration; it's not easy holding off all comers, one brief comment at a time when you're in the pronounced minority. In fact- one commenter actually said that I should give it up exactly because my opinion was in the minority! Not the thing to tell someone who grew up- a minority member (especially when you want to shut them down). 

"Why bother?" I'm often asked, especially when those attacking don't even know the very nature of the fight. Because it's even more ridiculous if one only preaches to the choir...

The photographic image still has power- so does history.

For the record, I do Not think that the Hanging Tree ad was intentionally racist (clear?). That said, when African Americans protested that it was potentially racist imagery, the company had ample opportunity to deescalate the situation, make peace and set things right. Instead, they chose to inflame the situation, almost hilariously so as the Wonkette post so brilliantly pointed out (must read!).

The knee jerk, White indignation and backlash of course, is always... "humorous" to behold. Blatant denials, counter accusations, reminders of all manners and instruments of death inflicted on all kinds of people for whatever infraction, in whatever geographical region of whatever time period imaginable. Funny stuff. And they make no distinctions between lawful executions by hanging, and the acts of crazed and extrajudicial lynch mobs. If I were White, if I were like most Whites, the thought of a noose as a weapon of terror would never occur to me either! I sympathize my White brethren- I really do!

Whites don't associate the threat of lynching with a noose because they weren't the ones being terrorized and lynched. They weren't the ones being strung up for not calling a White man, "Sir" or "Mister;" they weren't the ones having their head stuck in a noose for bumping into a White girl on a busy downtown street; they weren't the ones meeting death at the end of a rope from a bunch of foaming, racist savages because they dared to wear the uniform that they proudly fought in for their country- in their very hometown.

Whites don't have that visceral association of death and terror based solely on someone's mere whim- their families didn't relate those stories of woe, there's no history of this tragedy with them, no legacy of loved ones lost to a national psychosis. They just rather assume that everyone was hanging high back then, all in equal measure. Separate, of course- but equal all the same. That's why they can't bear to hear any of this symbolism, association stuff. That's why this is all a non issue, joke to them.

Nearly 4,000 black men, women and children were lynched in the Southern states alone between 1877 and 1950.

How Not To Save Yourself From... The Hanging Tree!

This article in Wonkette about the further adventures of a clueless software graphics firm called SeaSalt & Co, and their latest product called the Hanging Tree, is both hilariously funny, and accurate. They wanted to go with a dark, foreboding and maybe, just maybe... controversial image to highlight and announce their new, absolute pride and joy.

And as is so, so true so many, many times before- what do you do when you dig yourself a hole too seemingly big to crawl out of? Why... dig yourself a much, much deeper one!

Via Petapixel- where yours truly contributed "a few" choice comments of his own...

Self Serve

Earl Sampson-  arrested over 40X at the same store for trespassing... the place where he happens to  work.

Yes, I know that policing is a difficult job, one of the most difficult- no doubt. But clearly there are those who think that while the vests they wear may protect them from bullets, the uniform itself provides impunity from consequence and responsibility.

Some people to this day still refuse to believe how badly a police force can behave (with a particular segment of society). Usually they'll chalk up such "baseless accusations" to hearsay, exaggeration, ("reverse") prejudice, or the tried and true standby- "It's just a few bad apples."  

This well documented example in Florida was not about a rogue cop, or a few of the aforementioned wanton fruits of decay- this was about an entire gang of thugs in police uniforms repeatedly breaking the law to advance their own careers. And just as this wasn't a case of a covert few who did what they willed with those they are meant "To Serve and Protect," you can bet this is but one of many uniformed, criminal enterprises operating in plain sight throughout the country...

Triptych To Love

Photo: © S. Banos

Photo: © S. Banos

Photo: © S. Banos

Me And My Gun!

Sometimes I just can't help myself. After reading all the PRO-GUN hype and hysteria commentary on this particular piece of Yahoo journalism... couldn't help adding my own $0.02:

 

Why can't people understand that you can't be a MAN in America unless you have a gun? Is that too hard to understand? American men can't feel safe, secure and masculine without having a bigger gun than the guy standing next to him. It's all there in the Constitution! 

And you have to have one to be a good Christian, Jesus was all about his guns! He never backed down- always brought his piece, and wasn't scared to use it either.

I mean, come on, take away our guns... And we're nothing!!!

UPDATE: Anytime I leave a comment anywhere on guns, it's always followed by insults, threats, and more threats. This time... crickets!?!?

An Assistant's Tale

In the late seventies I had one very brief career run as NYC's least illustrious photo assistant. One Sunday after straggling in around 6AM, I got a call some two hours later from this studio photographer I worked for once before. Of course, no amount of money was gonna get my sleeping, still drunken ass all the way back into Manhattan. N-F-W. But he pleaded, and pleaded, and pleaded some more, and not having any solid work dates lined up, I gulped down major aspirin and dragged my sorry twenty year old butt back into the subway.

Long story short, I go to collect my forty bucks at day's end (the going rate then for second assistant) and the SOB tells me he's only going to pay me... thirty. After begging me to come in, on a Sunday no less, the guy's actually gonna stiff me ten miserly bucks when he should have been paying me double! I look at the guy incredulously, ask for my money again, and get the same response.

Clearly, I had lost this argument. Leaning into his desk, I smiled into his self satisfied mug, yanked the cord and repositioned his office typewriter onto my shoulder (that's right kids, computers were just a gleam in your mama's eyes), walked out the studio, and slept soundly every Sunday morning since.

Solid Gold!

And So It Goes...

Writer's block? Don't know, particularly since I can't exactly call myself a writer. Am I a better writer, or photographer? Wouldn't know, particularly since I don't exactly get compensated for either, save for that which I reward myself.

Most likely, it's more that I've said most of what I've wanted- save for what I've yet to... So until those times occur, however infrequently- tomorrow I'll do what all aging, has been bloggers do- revisit my youthful past (and I mean just that), and repost an all time, personal fave...

Anxiety Of Seismic Proportion...

You might feel a slight pinch.

Translation:  You are about to experience a piercing, penetrating pain in an extremely sensitive area.

You may experience some pressure.

Translation:  But you'll definitely feel a very pronounced and prolonged pain- so don't say that I didn't almost warn you.

Those are the inevitable and oft repeated threats I have accustomed myself to after year upon year of: cracks, crowns and fillings, et al.  But there's one I haven't quite conquered, the one far back in those reptilian recesses, the one that comes inexorably forward with every succeeding visit- because it could, just could, manifest into reality... 

What if THE BIG ONE just happened to hit right when he's plunging in the needle, or powering up the drill as you open up your widest so he can reach all the way back there?

Honestly, I try not to think of such things...

All Ahead, Impulse...

This SOB cost me endless hrs, days... probably weeks to finally get right- Photo: © Stan B.

It's winter, and I usually undergo a quiet panic round this time each and every new year. When will I take my first worthwhile photo(s)? Every year, same story, guaranteed. And here in San Francisco, it's not even cold, so the pressure's even greater- in New York, you could always blame the weather. Fortunately, I've learned the photos will come on their own time, of their own accord (provided, of course, you do your part).

In the interim, I try to keep myself occupied, amused and somewhat productive. I explore my most recent monographs that I have yet to familiarize myself with, get busy with Photoshop, order my now traditional, 20in, annual print (see left)- and just generally try to hurry up and wait, and somehow calm the nerves. Addressing the latter, it's a guilty pleasure to catch up on: Shorpy,  Tokyo Camera Style,  In Your Bag,  Burn...

With the added realization that I probably won't be posting on Reciprocity Failure as regularly as before, comes both relief, and anxiety. Together with some serious familial obligations I'll have to begin attending to this year, well... I just ain't gonna can't sweat it.

And we'll go from there... Meanwhile, as someone has dutifully reminded me on a very timely basis, this is also the season when the opportunity to humiliate oneself is most nigh...