Photography, Art, Music, Ben Hider, Food, Tibet, India
{ Monthly Archives }
The curators announcing the artists are – Francesco Bonami, 53, an Italian-born curator with an international reputation, and Gary Carrion-Murayari, 28, a senior curatorial assistant. I always attend the biennial and often wonder why, every time there are a few great moments so hopefully this coming year there will be several. February 25 – May 30th, 2010.
I’ve been trying out this paparazzi thing over the past few days. It seemed like a worthwhile time to enter into the game as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are in town. Angelina is filming “Salt” on location near Chelsea Piers so I headed over to try and get some shots. It was possibly the coldest and windiest day this year. I found a bunch of photographers bundled up on a pier jutting out over the Hudson River. I joined the group and began the long and arduous wait for her to leave the set. They were filming inside a boat, so there was no way of getting her in action.
I only really meant to stay for at most half an hour before heading home, but it soon turned into one of those mind games where I kept convincing myself that in five minutes she was going to pop out of the boat in a bikini and wave to us all in a triumphant gesture. I waited 2 hours. Finally the whole crew exited the set trailed by her in a small crowd, wrapped in a big down jacket with her hair in her face. The best picture I got, uncropped mind you, was this one (with some delicate photoshop work it gets better, but only a little!) -
Then, after both my shoots today, I got a call from an assignment editor that she had an exclusive tip on Brad Pitt playing with his son Maddox in an arcade at Times Square. I headed straight over from my New York Stock Exchange closing bell with Carson Daly (well worth visiting the NYSE if you can) to try and get some pictures. Again I was planning on getting a picture of Brad waving at me while Maddox played away on Dance Dance revolution and several other fun and wacky scenarios. I arrived at the arcade, walking around looking for someone with a big gross beard who could resemble Brad Pitt. Right as I was about to give up he walked straight past me with Maddox in tow, heading for the shooting arcade. This was my big chance… “No Pro Photographers,” grumbled his security and I was accosted by the arcades security and shown the door. Yet another failed couple of days for Benny where I felt like a perverted scumbag who stalks celebrities for the chance to make a few dollars. I should probably stick to the event photography as a means of income and go back to working on my fine art photography.
This is how the pros do it. A Nikon D3s, 600mm Lens and a ski mask (optional).
We just got back from seeing “Up in the Air” with George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. We’d planned on seeing it before Christmas and then yesterday while returning or exchanging items at the Westchester Mall I saw Vera Farmiga buying a coffee at Starbucks and later having lunch with her friends around a table. I don’t consider my current profession to be that of a “Paparazzi” but have once or twice visited film sets to get some street shots. I hated doing it, even though I made some money and kept an agency happy with the pictures. Here is my dilemma: most days I love my job and am really happy to be a working professional photographer covering events throughout NY for agencies like Getty Images, however when I see celebrities out on the street (or shopping malls) I feel the need to grab pictures of them, stalk them and ask them to pose for me. Exclusive pictures of Vera Farmiga shopping with her kid the day after her movie has been released would have been worth plenty of money, but I would have felt like a scumbag taking them. So all I got was this fuzzy iphone picture of the scene outside Sephora and I left the mall sulking about not being a perv with a big lens!
So here’s the problem… I love taking pictures and making money is pretty awesome too and recently I’ve been able to do both which is really great. It’s just that there are a few side affects:
1) I don’t ever take pictures for fun or of my life outside of work.
2) I don’t ever use either of my beautiful film cameras (Voigtlander R3A and Mamiya 7ii).
3) I can’t even go to a shopping mall on Boxing Day without thinking about work.
P.S. – The movie was pretty good. Not amazing but worth watching on DVD or maybe even HBO. The previews always show all the best parts. Bah!
I just got this bag for Christmas so am still learning all the features. It took me months of research, asking friends/photographers and poking around to decide on this bag. The Thinktank Streetwalker Harddrive retails for $179 and is NOT sold at B&H, mine was from Adorama. I only point out that it isn’t sold at B&H because I often use them as the first point of research for equipment. I’d been into the store several times ready to buy a bag but never found one that worked properly. The two main features that sold me on it were the laptop sleeve being against your back (therefore keeping the heaviest – 5lbs – weight closest to you) and the indentation of the main camera spot that allows a pro-body (or in my case a camera with battery grip) sit comfortably in the bag without making the whole pack too deep. I’m still working out how best to fill it, and am finding I’ve some spare room that I may use to carry my voigtlander or a point and shoot. I’m sure that if it was full it would quickly be a pain to carry every day for the smaller events. The space will definitely be needed for longer shoots to carry all my gear.
It will fit onto most airlines overheard carrying, but remember to make it look light as there is a weight limit for carry-on and this bag will certainly exceed that when filled.
The dividers are thinner than most bags which saves on space and weight. They appear to provide plenty of protection.
The small front pocket would carry a paperback and some of the usual pen/cards. I like the ID slot on top that I’m using as a place for some spare/emergency business cards.
MORE info…..
I forget about bands for while, it’s never for any particular reason and can often be as illogical as not updating my iphone. Here are two musicians that I think are great performing on Letterman this summer.
A chili cheese wedge california with chili cheese fries and hubba water. Possibly the greatest lunch on the planet.
“Who shot Rock & Roll” at the Brooklyn museum is being advertised on the subway right now and the ad doesn’t tell you who shot rock and roll, but who they shot. I’ll be interested in seeing the exhibit to see who the photographers are. It’s a shame that they aren’t promoting the actual photographers, but I guess such is the way with celebrity photography. It’s just odd that they call the exhibit what they have but don’t advertise any of the photographers, just the people that the photographers took picture of!? Shouldn’t it be “Who was shot in Rock & Roll?”
I always carry my camera outside of my bag, around my neck, as I don’t have a case that will fit 2 bodies, 2 lenses and all the additional doo-dads. This sometimes means that when I come out onto the street I get called a Papparazzo and asked to take peoples pictures. It just happened in the lift of the New York Pulic Library (where there’s fast and free public wifi but also a good handful of loonies… this gentleman not included).
I’ve just been hauling through youtube looking at old videos of musicians I loved in the 90’s. I remember in 1998 walking through a shopping mall in Hong Kong trying to find a CD store to see if I could locate a rare or bootleg Blind Melon, Nirvana or Pearl Jam recording. I used to go into the local Record store in Portchester and want to own the limited edition recordings so badly but didn’t feel like I could afford it on my art school/retail wages. When I was in high school in London we used to hang out at the local train station causing mischief or chasing Nottinghill girls. One day this dude (he was American) came up to me and asked “Do you like Pearl Jam.” It seemed like an amazing coincidence, as I was one of the few people in my year that did, so I bought a homemade bootleg cassette from him for 4 quid. It was full of incredible bootleg Pearl Jam songs I’d never heard before that are now available easily (on their “Lost Dogs” CD or elsewhere). That whole idea and pride of ownership must be almost completely lost on teenagers now. I’m sure that my little brother (17 yrs old) doesn’t have a big collection of music that he compares with friends, boasting about some of his limited editions or rare bootlegs. It’s all available online at the touch of a button, and why own it when youtube will host it for free for instant access whenever you want on your iPhone.
This flattening and democratization of the music collection surely has some correlation with what is happening in the world of photography. Everyone has access to a camera that will make images at an amazingly high quality. No longer is it just the die hard professionals who spend a fortune on film, developing and the latest equipment who can make an image that can be published. As magazines drop and websites become the preferred method of acquiring information, the sale of high quality and exclusive images become less in demand. Why pay $100 for the limited edition double LP when you can watch the handheld camcorder of the song on youtube?
I think when I tell people that I lived in India and love taking pictures there, they think of Steve McCurry images or stuff like Poras Chaudhary’s work. As compelling as I find these images, they couldn’t be further from the work I like to make out there.
