Thursday, November 11, 2010

'At Home' with David Alan Harvey - The Finale!



Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

- Henry David Thoreau

View all photos here.

And so the week came to a close and somehow...we all managed to survive! The day (Friday) was spent working with Michael Courvoisier and David Alan Harvey to choose our final images and audio for the slide show. The hard part was over. It felt great...and kinda scary.

That evening, gallerists, curators, editors, iconic and emerging photographers trickled into the loft filling it with confabulation, clicking cameras, bursts of light and laughter.

Then, an audible hush came over the room. James Nachtwey was in the house. Photog enthusiast or not, this is a man you should know about. His work focuses on social issues and war conflicts having earned him numerous awards throughout his career, such as the World Press Photo Award  ('94) and Robert Capa Gold Medal (5 times), and is widely know for the Oscar nominated documentary, 'War Photographer'. In 2007, he was one of three recipients of the TED prize. His life changing wish was to use his photography to help stop the worldwide epidemic of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). He is a brave, humanitarian photographer and inspirational human being. I have NO idea what words I managed to fumble out of my mouth when I met him, but  I do remember his calm and quiet strength being very palpable.
'But everyone cannot be there, and that is why photographers go there – to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going on – to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference - to protest and by the strength of that protest to make others protest.'

- James Nachtwey
Amongst the likes of James Nachtwey were Josef Koudelka (uh-huh!), Antoine d'Agata, Michael Lloyd Young, David Coventry, Patricia Lay-Dorsey, Kerry Payne and Tim Hetherington (yes I finally got to meet him!).

Jason Houge, Anton Kusters, Patrica Lay-Dorsey

Emerging photographers' work (from Burn Magazine) were displayed on any margin of bare wall that could be found alongside some of the greats, Elliot Erwitt, Gilles Peress, Bruce Davidson, Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb.

Speaking of the Webbs..the door was shut and the room was shushed as we all settled in to enjoy Alex and Rebecca's latest work, images from Istanbul and Cuba...ocular ecstasy!

A tough act to follow, but now the mood was set perfectly...

David then introduced the student slideshows and talked about how he encouraged us throughout the week to look in the mirror and see ourselves...reference the past and use it for now, in our own special way.

Intro'd by DAH...a moment.

I have had a lot of time to ponder where I was at that week. It hadn't been a great year, 2009. I had been sick a lot since getting back from Asia and had gotten to the point of being  pretty unwell, more than not. I debated not going to the workshop, but in the end, thought that the 'what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger' adage made sense and couldn't fathom to miss the opportunity. I didn't know why I was sick, when it would hit, how long it would last or how to fix it. And it was starting to consume me. 


When a surf break doesn't have waves, it can feel pretty hollow...lonely. Not unlike what I was feeling at the time. Mojo-less.


When I was in Bali, I could still feel the push and pull of the waves at night after surfing all day, eventually lulling me into a deep, blissful sleep. Gliding along the ocean's memory acts as a catalyst to experiencing a unity with nature...an esoteric relationship with the cosmos while the rest of the world disappears, and one enters another dimension. It's not difficult to understand then why surfing has been described more so as a religion by surfers than just a sport, and the restlessness, even depression in some cases, that they experience in the absence of waves.
'We're all just visiting
All just breaking like waves 
The oceans made me, but who came up with love? 
Push me, pull me, push me, or pull me out'

- Eddie Vedder


Steven Kotler, author of 'West of Jesus', was suffering from Lyme disease and it wasn't until a friend encouraged him to get back on his surfboard that he realized the effect surfing had on his health. He credits the sport for saving his life. The late Andy Irons, 3 time world surfing champion, said that he would 'self destruct' if he didn't have surfing to exorcise his 'inner demons' and Laird Hamilton, famous big wave surfer, has spoken about falling into a depression when there was no swell.

'Tidal' is defined in the dictionary as, 'of, relating to, or affected by tide'. I titled my essay this as I thought it was appropriate not for the pun, but more figuratively as a word that could encapsulate both the powerful surge of feeling which surfers have described when riding a wave, i.e.: flow or stoke, and the opposing emotions that can occur when those waves are gone...the ebb.

Originally, Rockaway had appeared to me as a disillusioned, surfless town, but as the week went on, the reverential surfers revealed themselves, still beckoned to the sea...if only by mere ripples.

Special thanks to Ian Roberts of Holiday Maker (NY) who contributed the music for this slideshow: www.myspace.com/​holidaymakermusic.


I would like to thank the surfers I photographed in Rockaway Beach, for without them, my essay would have been rather thin: Kevin Blagys, Sean Bolebruch, Americo Cruz, Melissa Finch, Veronica Hendrick, Dara Lazar, Marcos Guiu Navarro, Salvador Pantoja, Ian Roberts, Scott Snelling and Douglas Wasserman

 

Everyone's slideshows were met with rousing applause. Subjects ranged from subtle glances of homo sapiens in Central Park to hip-hop in Harlem to a pagan troll collector and all the way down the rabbit hole! It felt great to share all of our hard work with people who really appreciated it and I was elated to be in the company of such talent. The bonds we cultivated throughout the workshop will last a lifetime. I'm sure of it.

 
As parties go at the Kibbutz, much of the patrons moved up to the roof to enjoy the magnificent Manhattan skyline. Many of us remained in the loft, relishing in the chance to finally just enjoy each other's company and...RELAX!

There was still a buzz in the room when we met the next morning to wrap it all up with DAH and take one more look at our final slideshows. It was hard to believe it was over. Sadness...but a sense of relief also. We looked at the work of Anton Kusters (co-curator of Burn Magazine) and Michael Courvoisier (David's assistant) who we'd come to know and love throughout the week. Both amazing photographers and their work definitely brought me some inspiration.

With the advent of digital photography, we are seeing more and more print publications die or move to online platforms and the barrier to entry lowered profoundly. Competition is cutthroat and the cost of constant upgrading of equipment vs. actual profit is certainly not in favour of the photog. Making a living as a photographer IS damn hard and the industry uncertain. But after meeting David, I was encouraged to press on.  If anyone has weathered the storm..persisted through the ebbs and flows, it is David. 

We wouldn't have Burn Magazine, if he hadn't.

Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it may be.

- Edward Weston


Workshop Attendees
Workshop Interns
 

P.S.: I have felt great for the last 8 weeks (a far cry from my longest record of 12 days) after taking  a herbal concoction for a month. Still not totally sure what exactly has been making me so sick, but parasites are a good bet. Just waking up in the morning and feeling 'normal' is a gift, appreciated on so many levels and never taken for granted. Stoke.

There is hope that this blog might actually be up to date, someday!

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. 

- Henry David Thoreau

Monday, October 25, 2010

'At Home' with David Alan Harvey, NY - Ch. 2


Every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, I assume that it isn't a very interesting photograph.  If it were, they would have more to say. 

- Author Unknown

View more photos here and here.

And so the first day of the workshop...we gathered at the loft and each had our work critiqued by David Alan Harvey (DAH) himself, discussed where we each were in our photographic lives and ideas we had for our essays. We finished in mid afternoon but I was still lost as to what the hell I was going to focus my topic on. I had some ideas of what to do but just wasn't feelin' anything. I went back to talk to David and he brought some clarity. Surfing. It was always supposed to be. So I hopped the subway to Queens.



I didn't arrive til just before dark. But at least now I knew the way....take the L, to the A, to the S and you're there in 75 minutes or less...providing all trains are running, which they were not half the time, but always made for a new challenge or side adventure. I was a bit miffed at myself for not making the decision to do surfing right from the get-go but alas, better late than never!


Over the next 5 days, I went straight from the workshop (which ended anywhere from 1 to 3 in the afternoon) to pick up my gear and head to Rockaway. There were good days and bad days. I came back on the subway some nights properly salted from the sea...damp and deflated, and others, brimming with excitement for the morning so I could share what I shot with my workshop peeps.






 

The swell was, shall we say, non-existent and the surf shops closed half the time I was there but somehow, some way I always managed to happen upon at least one surfer. When I wasn't shooting a surfer, I was looking for evidence that Rockaway was in fact a surf town? Even some town folk I spoke to seemed baffled when I mentioned surfing. It certainly wasn't obvious at that time of year.

James Estrin, NY Time Lens Blog Editor
David Griffin, National Geographic (left) and Rob Clark, NG Photographer (right)
Meanwhile at the workshop, David Griffin, Director of Photo Editing at National Geographic; Rob Clark, National Geographic Photographer; James Estrin, NY Times Lens Blog Editor; and Scott Thode, Editor-in-Chief, VII Magazine (formerly of Fortune), visited the workshop and joined in on the photo critiques and 'jam sessions'.  Tim Hetherington came by to talk about his 'Sleeping Soldiers' project the ONE morning I was late (out shooting surfers til 2AM)! Bollocks! I saw his exhibition and lecture at the NY Photo Festival '09 earlier in the year and had no idea that he lived in the building and would pop in on our workshop (one must love NY for that kinda thing). Regardless, I was still overwhelmed and grateful for who I was able to meet to that point, along with everything I was taking in from the critiques, my peers and of course, DAH.


Time and time again I see how subjective photography is. How one image can stir up completely opposing emotions in people. There is always room for growth. My love for the medium expanded exponentially with the people I met, the amazing images I witnessed being created throughout the week and just simply being in the Mecca of photography, NYC.

But it wasn't over yet....

...just wait til you hear who was at our slideshow party (photo geeks will appreciate)!



While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.
Dorothea Lange

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Featured on BURN MAGAZINE!

Many thanks to David Alan Harvey and Anton Kusters, for putting Stubby the Pigeon up as a single image on Burn Magazine today. 

It definitely made MY day.

Click image below to check it out on burn.

  
 


Burn is an evolving journal for emerging photographers and is curated by Magnum photographer, David Alan Harvey. 



WARNING – QUICKTIME MOVIE – LARGE DOWNLOAD (112MB)
THIS PRESENTATION CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT
Source: http://www.burnmagazine.org/about/




Thursday, August 19, 2010

'At Home' with David Alan Harvey, NY - Ch. 1


And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.
- Richard Avedon - 1970


Only 12 students are invited to David Alan Harvey's 'At Home' Workshop every year, which is held at his loft in Brooklyn. Celebrated editors and publishers as well as distinguished photographers pop in for jam sessions whilst the students shoot their own personal photo essay over the course of a week. At the end of it all, the students' work is exhibited in a slideshow format in front of the NY photo world.  DAH's goal with the workshop is to help emerging photographers move to the next level.


I purposely arrived a few days early so that I could contemplate the subject of my photo essay. I had done some research on surf spots around NY prior to leaving but the closest was over an hour away in Queens and I knew shooting time was going to be crucial. I had hoped when I arrived that I would stumble upon some topic or person magically and that would be it. Uh, not quite so easy.


Cait had been back in NY since I last saw her there in May and Marj (from San Francisco) also happened to be there checking out grad schools. What a treat this was! Cait and I had travelled in Thailand, Cambodia and NZ together and Marj was my surf sister in Indo. I had yammered on about how amazing they each were to both of them and was so happy that they would finally meet and we were all in the same city at once.


We met at a veggie restaurant in the East Village called 'Yummy House'. Cait had taken me there in May and I was almost as excited to eat there again as I was to meet David Alan Harvey. As I suspected, Marj and Cait got on like a house on fire and I could barely get a word in edgewise! I was elated to be with them both in my most favourite city.



Marj and I met up again the next day to go to the Brooklyn Bridge and planned to find cheap tix to a Broadway show but as per usual, the two of us shooting together in an 'exotic' place does not help us do 'on time' very well. So we ended up taking in a late comedy show instead.


I ventured on over to Harvey's loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that Friday eve for a casual meet n' greet pre-workshop. It was on the way there that my camera REALLY started acting up. I had bought my Canon 50D when I was in NZ in late '08. It had randomly been giving me the dreaded 'error99' when I clicked the shutter. Of course, it would do this always at the worst possible time and I would miss the shot..now it was throwing out errors like candy at kind of a mega critical time!

So I arrived at the loft in a bit of a huff. Fortunately for me, Marios Savva had brought a 50D as a backup to his 5DII and said I could use it for the duration of the workshop. A-maaazing. What a lifesaver! This alleviated some of the stress and I was able to stop worrying about my camera and start meeting the rest of the workshop cronies who hailed from all over the place: Italy, Germany, India, Australia, Canada and the US. We lingered on the top of the building, affectionately referred to as the 'Kibbutz', and marveled at the spectacular view of Manhattan.


It was hard to believe where I was. And David Alan Harvey just hangin' a few feet away. He has contributed images to prestigious publications such as Sports Illustrated, NY Times and Life Magazine and to over 40 articles in National Geographic since 1973. His book publications include 'Cuba', 'Divided Soul' and 'Living Proof'. He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1997 and counts Magazine Photographer of the Year (NPPA, 1978) as part of his award collection.

He is well known for mentoring photographers and one of the ways he does this is by bringing emerging and iconic photographers together through Burn Magazine, which he curates, edits and publishes with Anton Kusters. Burn Magazine won a Lucie Award (the Oscars of the photo world) for best online photography magazine this past year.

So...he's KIND of a big deal. Meeting him was as I suspected. Not only is he taller than the average human, his presence is larger than life and when he walks into a room, you know it! The guy is madly in love with life, photography, humanity and the arts. In short, he is a sweet combo of teacher, mentor and drinking buddy.

Sleep took some time to set in from all the excitement. I was nervous about what the week would bring. Would I find a compelling topic? Would I get the shots I wanted? Flounder or flourish under the pressure? And the critiques...not nerve wracking at all! Regardless, I knew the experience would be rich and I was happy and grateful for the opportunity to even be there...and hellbent on giving it my all.

Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself. You may be surprised at how easily this happens. Your doubts are not as powerful as your desires, unless you make them so.
- Marcia Wieder, Author and Speaker

Sunday, August 8, 2010

My First Magazine Cover (Ketut from Eat, Pray, Love)!


"I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on the water."
— Elizabeth Gilbert
For those of you who haven't heard of 'Eat, Pray, Love' by American author Elizabeth Gilbert yet, well just wait a few days, and you will. Her story takes readers on a pleasure, spiritual, and fate seeking journey through Italy (Eat), India (Pray) and finally Bali (Love), that many of us have marveled at  (envied) since she released her bestselling memoir in 2006.

'Eat, Pray, Love', the movie will be released next week (August 13) starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem. If they aren't already, it's only a matter of time before Ketut Liyer, the medicine man and Wayan, the herbal healer, both from Ubud and very influential in the Love (Bali) portion of the book, will be household names.

MG Photography

In Bali for the first time in July '08, I had dragged my new friend and fellow traveler Marj along with me to have a vitamin lunch and Traditional Balinese Massage with Wayan, followed by a reading of my destiny with Ketut (my fortune was almost exactly the same as Gilbert's in the book BTW, but a good one nonetheless). Of course we took many pictures of both experiences not knowing that they may come in handy someday for...oh let's say, a feature story in a magazine? 

My friend Mike (bless him!), a writer currently living the life in Bali, wrote a compelling article about Ketut and asked if I'd like to submit some images to accompany the story. I got word in September from the Editor of 'The Bud Magazine' that they'd like to use one of my photos for the cover and a selection of both Marj and I's photos within Mike's feature for the Winter 2009 Issue.

Holding a magazine in your hands with an image that you took published on the cover is a pretty cool moment in one's photography career. But even better was to be able to share my giddiness with one of my favourite people and the very friend I experienced Bali with, Marjorie Green.
"we must take care of our families where-ever we find them."
— Elizabeth Gilbert

Read more about our visit in the original blog posting with Ketut and Wayan here.

These are the images used in the article:

TT Photography

MG Photography
"But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a little while? Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to...nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then to do it again the next day?"
— Elizabeth Gilbert
MG Photography
"You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight."
— Elizabeth Gilbert
TT Photography
MG Photography

To see the rest of the images, visit my Eat, Pray, Love: Ketut and Wayan Gallery or view the slideshow below:

"

I'm sure watching the movie will make me ache for Bali, as I do often, but more than anything, I'm grateful to have gotten to go there at all. It is a magical and mysterious little island. Those of us who have been there know exactly what I'm talking about and those of us who haven't, should go and see for themselves!

Gilbert's book contains an unexpected plethora of insight and wisdom, causing many of us to question if we are really living the life we're meant to. Why not seize what you want from life (not what others think you should want) and find your destiny now (if you haven't already!)? I know it sounds cheezy but you never know what will happen tomorrow, in the next minute or even the next second that might forever prevent you from getting to take that leap...

...don't let  your dreams, just be dreams (ie: magazine cover, check!)

Let yourself go.

"Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be."
— Elizabeth Gilbert