Photography, Art, Music, Ben Hider, Food, Tibet, India
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These are screen shots from my phone of an application called Live Cams. Some of the cameras I can move around and some are fixed but they all show real time video footage of different places around the world. It’s sort of creepy travel photography from my own couch.
I was in Washington DC yesterday for the tree lighting and this was as close as I got to the President or more importantly Jordin Sparks.
This was the most incredible Burger King I’ve ever seen.
Foamhenge in Natural Bridge, Virginia with Dario giving an over the shoulder
The Enchanted Studios (creator of Foamhenge)
“…pointing to a road sign that read, ‘Slow Down! The Life that you save might or might not be your own’ I’ve never been to a country where nonsense is the norm. It’s like a big joke – life, death, rebirth, Enlightenment – it all amounts to nothing, play on words, a crazy puzzle that can never be solved. No wonder they came up with the idea of maya, or illusion, you know. In the West things are taken so seriously. Life is a serious matter. Tomorrow is a serious matter. Here I can finally breathe: there is no pressure to stay alive! Whatever happens is okay. Dying is okay, begging is okay. I don’t have to plot my life. I can sit back and actually enjoy it.”
I’m only on the third chapter of this memoir about a young man (Nikolai Grozni) who travels to India to become a Tibetan Monk and I can tell that I’m going to enjoy it. He studies in Dharamsala and some of the description and stories bring me right back to my time there. I even know one of the characters he talks to, this old guy called “Vinnie.” He would always want to play chess and would always think he knew you from previous games played in chai shops. I first met him in 2002 and have seen him every time I’ve been back. Not once have I dared challenge him to a game. Hopefully this book challenges some of the conventional ideas of the “Shangri-la” community at the foothills of the Himalaya’s. It seems like it will as some of the monks have already smoked a few cigarettes and talked about nuns doing the naughty. As a more serious read I also picked up a copy of “The Photograph as Contemporary Art,” a book I should probably have read during my MFA. Don’t ever go into St. Marks bookshop unless you plan on buying a couple of books.
I love a large portion of Joel Sternfeld’s work and was even excited to see some older prints of his at the recent MOMA exhibit. His work is always impressive in its fresh outlook but familiarity. His new book “iDubai” is from a recent trip to Dubai where he shot in malls with his iPhone. What surprises me most about this book is that a photographer who shoots primarily large format negatives was able to travel all the way to Dubai and make images with such a low resolution. I guess with this kind of idea for the book, you have to let the idea of ‘quality’ or resolution fall under the larger idea of documenting consumer culture with “the consumer fetish du jour, the iPhone.” It will be interesting to see if he gains anymore intimacy or distance by shooting with a more discrete piece of apparatus
I can’t seem to find any images from the book, other than the cover. (Which is enough for me to want the book already)
I’m sure that everyone’s happiest memories from childhood are the summer vacations. My parents always managed to pull off a trip to Europe. Mark would wake us up at the crack of dawn with a glass of chocolate milk and a sugary doughnut, and we’d speed down the motorway to the first ferry to France. We went to Greece on year, Spain a few years in a row and France a bunch, with a few epic drives across Europe in the middle.
I’d love it if I could still get prints this size with rounded corners and the same color shift, then you could throw pictures at people and not worry about taking out an eye! I’ve always wondered whether that color shift has happened over time or if it’s just poor printing back in the day. My guess is that it’s a bit of both. Either way I want all my snapshots to have this feel, then I could post them on flickr and have loads of friends and awesome comments!
Where were we here mum? What was I so upset about? Could you imagine the panic if you watched Mae paddle out to see with your grandchildren?
I was reminded of this image by my recent emailing with Chris, an old friend from McLeod who I’ve kept in touch with. When his friend came to visit him in 2003, I took away Chris’ obligation to trek out to Agra to see the Taj for possibly his 100th time. It was only my 3rd trip, which is insignificant compared to how stunning and inspiring that building is. It’s one of the few buildings that is actually more impressive in the flesh – once you’ve gt past the daylight robbery of charging tourists 750 rupees compared to the local fee of 20 rupees!!
Initially this appears to be the standard shot of the Taj Mahal, but what are those tourists looking at??? To get a clear shot of the building from this position, you need to stand in line for a spot at the bench that Princess Diana sat. David waited with me online and then when it was our turn, we counted to 3 and I dropped to the ground for his clear view of the building. I don’t think either of us thought that the tourists would remain in the frame, but it definitely makes a way more interesting picture, and a good idea for more tourist pictures!!! (I guess they shut the place down for royalty!)
And here is proof that Chris is the ’size of two men’ for those of you who I’ve talked to about this fine fellow.
I went to Chelsea again today as I was in the neighborhood shooting pictures of peoples shoes and handbags for this Italian studio. It’s a mindless task, but it can be entertaining, and certainly keeps me busy which is a plus! All the galleries were closed (again) so I did some window peeking, and saw this interesting sculpture by Rauschenberg. I had seen his final show before he died last year, and was completely under-whelmed as I have been with most of his recent work. I’m only really interested in this work because of the subject matter.
It seems like in 1987 he did a few sculptures based on Tibet (and earlier some on China). they are works made from images he took on his ROCI trip to Tibet. “Rauschenberg officially announced his Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI – pronounced “Rocky”), at the United Nations in 1983. It was a self-financed project that had as its mission the promotion of international peace and cultural exchange through collaborative art making. Under the auspices of ROCI, Rauschenberg visited and worked with artists in countries around the globe, using materials and skills found in each nation to create arworks that were donated to and exhibited in each host country.”
Larry is the owner of the luxurious house we’re dog sitting in out in Stanford, California. His dog Charlie Brown is a bit of a handful, and has even chewed a fixable hole in the lining of my favorite jacket to try and get some gourmet licorice I’d bought. In general though he’s a well mannered dog that just wants some attention. We’d only met Larry briefly as we’d arrived at 2:30am and he left for LA the next day at midday. Here’s his long list of achievements: a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, founding co editor of the Journal of Democracy, and co director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. He has also advised the U.S. Agency for International Development (whose 2002 report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest, he coauthored), the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations. On top of all that he’s presently a Professor of Sociology and Political Science at Stanford University and has written two books – “The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout The World” and “Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq”
Larry’s not someone I plan on talking about politics with (I’d probably stay away from religion too).
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!
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.
I went to Tampa for a day to assist Scott Gries on a portrait session with some cops. Someone had shot a show called “Rookies” where they followed some fresh faced police officers in training, and now they needed some portraits. We did an afternoon of posed shots and now Scott is following them around on duty for the next 2 days. It was some celebration for the Devil Rays and they were giving away free food in the park opposite the station, which meant we had a crowd of homeless people on the benches watching us (and our equipment) for the whole afternoon. This one guy wanted every officer to “pull out your gun and stand like Dirty Harry.”
On the flight home I was served a Woodford Reserve that contained Coca-cola instead of bourbon. The flight attendant looked very embarassed and rushed to get me another. The strange part was that the seal of the bottle had not been cracked. Somehow someone had worked out how to replace the bourbon with coke that was still fizzy. No police in the world could solve that mystery!
It was amusing for my parents to recieve the first package from India from me in 2002. I had mailed them some Christmas presents and it arrived wrapped in cloth and sealed with red wax. They attributed the strange packaging to my recent BFA degree, and dismissed it as their strange ‘art school’ son. Actually, that is how every package leaves India. Enterprising young business men set up a tailor shop next to the post office, and charge 10 to 20 rupees for a parcel. The speed and accuracy that they make these parcels is to be admired and I have yet to have one go missing.
It took almost exactly 3 months for my shipment to arrive, which for 3 dollars is a great deal. If only the USPS had an international version of media mail.
This small cut in the side of the package is required to prove that it really is full of books (not elephant statues or charis???)
It was great to be away from cable TV and to read some books instead. “Shantaram” was a long and very entertaining read, although its autobiographical integrity is a little questionable and Johnny Depp has taken the lead roll in the 2009 movie. “Wolf at the Door,” was not my favorite Augusten Burroughs book, eventhough it completes a few gaps from his previous memoirs. Pico Iyer takes on the most honest and critial view of the Tibetans in exile I have ever read, he should be applauded for seeing the situation as it is. I am yet to write my indepth review of the “Denial of Death,” but I still think about those first few chapters every day and recommend it to as many people as possible. The rest were not amazing books, but kept me sane and out of trouble (I might even argue that the “Alchemy of Desire,” was infact a terrible book).
