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Have you ever reminisced about how awesome MTV was when we were kids? I remember coming to America when I was 12 and seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More videos being played over and over on MTV. The whole idea of being able to watch the latest music videos from my favorite band was what made MTV special. And then they ruined the whole thing with shows like “Road Rules” and “My sweet 16.” Thankfully the interweb wins again and MTV has started using its brain having just released its new ‘youtube-like’ website - www.mtvmusic.com. (It also features all of the pop up videos!!)

Getty has sponsored Helen Tapping to travel to McLeod. She seems to be helping at the TCV in Dharamsala for a photography course with Bridges to Understanding. Here’s one of my favorite image from their blog.

Pipilotti Rist is showing in the main atrium at MOMA on the second floor. It looks pretty impressive, although any video projected onto walls that size would. I look forward to seeing the final work as I’m sure it will get a lot of attention. (she has a son named Himalaya)

I can’t believe I’ve spent the past 2 years not making contact prints. I’d look at my negatives on a light box and assume I could guess the good ones. I’m sure I was normally right, even though I plan on buying 5 boxes of paper to contact it all.. I’ve spent all afternoon contacting all the images from India, and only got through about 1/3. Depressingly, it’s been nearly 9 years since I’d projected light at sensitive paper to create an image. It’s probably surprising that someone who’s about to get his MFA in photo hasn’t been involved in chemically altering light sensitive materials!!!

It’s become a tradition for me to take a picture of myself as soon as I arrive at my hotel. I’ve got the image every trip outside of the US. Here’s the contact sheet from the last trip. I like the image of myself watching TV. I never get an amazing image though! Probably looking at the past 8 years of images would be interesting.

I had met Manuel Bauer in Bodhgaya at the 2003 Kalachakra ceremony. He’d contributed a large amount of images to the Tibet Museum and was very friendly to all of its staff. We were occasionally working side by side taking pictures of the Dalai Lama during the 3 week cremony. However, it was my first experience meeting a real photojournalist and one of the first of many times that I watched another photographer have better access and therefore make better images. He was working alongside the Dalai Lama, following him around the world trying to capture Him in normal situations. I remember Manuel telling me how hard it was to get images that show Him doing regular things (such as playing sports, watching TV, etc…). Apparently he really is just a monk, and has very few situations that are outside of that. Here are some from his website that I thought were different than most Dalai Lama photographs.

Manuel Bauers book is for sale here. I have a copy and enjoy flicking through it sometimes to remind myself how access and commitment to a single subject can really help a project.

Apparently they are getting the wax figures ready for Madame Tussauds so that they can have the next president as soon as one is chosen. I always found the Madame Tussauds museums to be kind of creepy. The figures were never quite perfect, and always represented some kind of death mask. It’s now funny to me as I walk past the one in NY and watch tourists take their picture with the ‘fake’ Samuel L. Jackson on the sidewalk. We would have entire events of a statues unveiling posted on wireimage.com, without a celebrity in sight.

You may have a sense of dread and fear over the economy and the pending election. But you know you’re really in trouble when even the Dalai Lama seems to have given up all hope. (For more info go here)

Dharamsala (HP): Hinting that he was planning to retire, the Dalai Lama has said he has “given up” on efforts to convince China to allow greater autonomy for Tibet after having led the Tibetans’ struggle for half a century.

“I have been sincerely pursuing the middle way in dealing with China for a long time now, but there hasn’t been any positive response from the Chinese side,” the Tibetan temporal head said at a function here Saturday ahead of the third round of talks between his envoys and Beijing.

“As far as I’m concerned I have given up,” said the 73-year-old noble laureate, according to excerpts of the speech of the Tibetan monk provided by the office of Karma Cheophel, Speaker of Tibetan Parliament in-exile.

Minox, who originally made spy cameras that took 8mm movie film have come out with a 5 megapixel camera that’s tiny. Aren’t they just making something that should come with your cellphone?

I have to admit to actually wanting one of these silly contraptions though (a spy camera belt)!

5 - Don’t sell on ebay

I tried to sell some Free Tibet stickers to this Italian guy and his package got returned twice. It ended up costing me more in shipping that the sale, and he would never return my emails for another address. This is how he responded. He refused my final attempt at a refund, telling me I should try and save my ‘charma’ and donate the proceeds to charity.

“You are simply a thief, no money back, no item no answer.
Fuck off idiot, this is what you’ve learn about buddism!. Shame on you. Shame”

then….

“Thief and liar. I don’t like discussion, only fact. I have riceved every kind of things from all over the world, except your item! My address is wrong…. don’t make me laugh. You wrote me 4 email I wrote you 10 email. I asked you, if you need a contribution for post service, i’m here, read my email….no answer. I saw your feedback, i’m not the only one that don’t receive the stichers. It is incredible that someone like you would gain over the tibetan tragedy. Wash you mouth every time you name tibet. Keep money, it is not a problem, the real problem is your behaviour. Anyway, this is your charma.
Hope never to heard from you again.
mario“

1. Life means suffering.

2. The origin of suffering is attachment.

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

Here are four reasons that I travel to India. Being among the complete range of life that coexist on their streets reminds me of these four facts. People need to remember that this is not a dismal view on life, but a refreshing and liberating way of seeing. It’s a good thing to not live in the state of denial I find America is all the time. Plastic surgery, owning Gucci handbags or drinking organic wheatgrass shots aren’t going to negate any of the four noble truths. I lose sight of this in my own life when I get into stupid TV shows, spend more time surfing the interwebs rather than talking to Amanda or drinking fine whiskey instead of finding out what my friends really think. Somehow when I am in India all that washes away and I gain a sense of awareness I never have in NY. It is this sense of awareness that I am trying to talk about in my Thesis statement and ultimately try to have throughout my life. Not easy!

Mitch Epstein is probably my favorite photographer. I’ve found his writing about his work in India to be more than useful for my thesis statement, and I’ve now actually written something. I didn’t realise he had married an Indian woman and been involved in a few Bollywood movies back in the 80’s. Justin had bought me his “City” book for my Birthday, and although I already owned it, it reminded me to look through his work again. I don’t look at his books very often, eventhough he is probably the photographer that my work looks the most like (but I am not as good).

I was taking photos at a studio the other day, and this is how my iPhone caught the flash.

Photo by Albert Kahn

I had no idea color travel photography went back this far. I can only imagine that people were enthused by the whole thing. I can’t even begin to fathom how incredible this must have looked to westerners. We’ve become such a generation of people who just expect everything to be possible. It’s hard to understand how insane this must have been.