točka

četveronožni okokućni bestijarij

2012-01-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

Samuel Butler

the fall

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

'so much it hurts sometimes...'

To you...

love stories to be

2012-01-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

To baby Murray-Ferrari...

love stories, contd.

2012-01-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

He never failed to come home, he never forgot who his the most important woman in his life was.
This year will mark their 60th wedding anniversary...

To my grandparents...

grad bez boje

2011-12-05T07:11:00.001-08:00

Magla se spustila

i svuda jastuci od smoga.
Ti si me pitala: "Jesmo li sami?"
"Ima li Boga?"

Jer ima tamo negdje jedan grad,
gdje kiše dane broje.
Gdje niko više nije mlad,
grad bez boje.

Ti si me pitala: 'Može li još?'
Rekoh da može.

Letu štuke, Grad bez boje

tebi na obale Save

2011-12-02T10:24:00.001-08:00

little prince

2011-11-29T08:51:00.001-08:00

But on your tiny planet, my little prince, all you need to do is move your chair a few steps. You can see the day end and the twilight falling whenever you like…
“One day,” you said to me, “I saw the sunset forty-four times!”
And a little later you added:
“You know--one loves the sunset, when one is so sad…”
“Were you so sad, then?” I asked, “on the day of the forty-four sunsets?”
But the little prince made no reply.
Little Prince

burning memories

2011-11-04T03:35:00.000-07:00

'The past in Zagreb was underfoot: a soft, thick carpet of leaves, soggy from rain, that my feet sank in and out of, confusing with the present. Leaving the railway station, I walked through the curtains of fog tinted yellow by coal fires, the chemical equivalent of burning memories.'

Robert D. Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts

Brna

2011-11-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

'Nothing can touch us here,' she said.

She was almost right...

love stories

2011-10-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

she got pregnant when she was 18

he promised to marry her, they were in love

he went on a business trip to another country

he got a wife

she got a daughter

they had three sons

he also had a drinking and hitting problem

they were together for 45 years

they fell in love last year of high school

when the baby was 4 he left

a year later he came back

we never talked about that year
14 years later he left again
he didn' come back

to my parents
who taught me love

reductionism

2011-10-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

(she) was always flustered and always trying to confine things into the shape of a phrase, like pouring water into a ewer, but great gouts of meaning and implication invariably ran over and slopped about and were lost.

Vita Sackville-West

this corner of the earth

2011-10-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

Like every humming bird and bumblebee
Every sunflower, cloud and every tree
I feel so much a part of this
...
This corner of the earth is like me in many ways
I can sit for hours here and watch the emerald feathers play
On the face of this I'm blessed
When the sunlight comes for free
I know this corner of the earth it smiles at me

Jamiraquai

to you

2011-07-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

to the place that has been my home
and to you who have been my family

with love

berimbau chamou

2011-06-28T10:18:00.001-07:00

and every time...I wonder how I could have stayed away for so long
swearing to never let it happen again

obrigada por todo CBNYC...

by the river

2011-06-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

you looked at me over a table in small new york cafe (we just discovered it that day...just weeks before we're leaving) and said:
'we'll never have this time back'
tears in your eyes
I think it's the first time I've seen you cry

a few days later I was looking at us in the river
you were there, and they were too
with a tighter grip on the bottle, I was thinking 'I will never forget this'...
half of my heart jumped in the river with you

click your heels

2011-04-22T12:42:00.001-07:00

vrati se u zagreb...

p.s. thank you balkan beat box

time will...

2011-04-04T12:24:00.001-07:00

I'm just waiting for a 90-mile water wall
to take me out of your view

I'm praying for a trap door trigger...

The National

...

2011-02-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

How was I to know I was happy?

hockey season (continued)

2011-02-03T13:21:00.000-08:00

what could make more sense than hockey in the cold icy season that is winter?
or...wait...take my clothes off?! hm...

NJ Hammerheads seem unperturbed...

for my family

2011-01-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

who insist on finding reasons for us to celebrate!

and insist on reminding me that I miss them...

thank you and good night

2011-01-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

I have never lost myself like this before.

For it was not a matter of losing only to be found again.

It was a process of complete destruction. (Process or an act...I can not tell)

To reconstruct is impossible. What is left is to create anew...

No, I have never lost myself like this before.

Thank you 2010! It was a pleasure...

young ones

2011-01-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

if you see purity
as immaturity
well, it's no surprise

if for kindness
you substitute blindness
please open your eyes

Depeche Mode

safe place

2011-01-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

my father's house

End of the Road, Dubranec

uncle Boris

2011-01-02T19:13:00.000-08:00

...don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.

Never tell anyone outside the Family what you are thinking...

Tell me, do you spend time with your family?...Good. Because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.
Don Corleone, Godfather I

heartsplitting

2010-12-22T22:20:00.000-08:00

she saw me enter...I was happy, she could tell

'hey, welcome back! happy to be here?
that's it, now you'll be torn for the rest of your life...'

November 1st, Zagreb

December 2nd, Brooklyn

thank you Sylvia

male smrti / small deaths...

2010-12-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

...a ja znam a ja znam da (...) ja
i ti sa povijenim ramenima tu u uglu
predstavljamo jednu malu sklupčanu smrt.

(...and I know and I know that (...) me
and you with slouched shoulders here in the corner
represent one small curled up death.)

Dragan Kaluđerović, Asizi, okrutnost trešanja u cvatu

a place for you to love me...

2010-12-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

30.10.2010, Zagreb, Croatia

snorkles, fins and...hockey?

2010-12-07T10:34:00.001-08:00

an extended version of the Newark, NJ underwater hockey story...

Last night

2010-10-16T07:30:00.001-07:00

Last night I had that dream again.
The one where you are not...

dark allies

2010-10-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.irenekotnik.com/dark_allies/

chase the invisible

2010-09-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

The advantage of black and white photos is that they remind you of this search for what can't be seen, for what's missing; never for one moment do they pretend to be complete.

The silence of the unsaid is always working surreptitiously with another silence, which is that of the unsayable.

What's unsaid at one time can be said on another occasion. But the unsayable can never be said - unless maybe in a prayer, and God would know that, not me.

Before the unsayable we are alone.

John Berger

Atlantic

2010-08-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

The Atlantic was born today

and I'll tell you how
The clouds above opened up and let it out
Death Cab for Cutie

here we go again...

2010-08-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

after what seemed no more than a blink of an eye, it was time to leave home again and give NY another year of my life...

waking up on one side of the Atlantic...

going to sleep on the other...

new fears, new hopes...

new home, new life...

and still...

grandfa/mothers' house...

2010-08-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

It is a good place to sit and remember. But you have still to create your memories...

Cathleen Nesbitt in An Affair to Remember

plima...

2010-08-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

...
sudbina gradova je uglavnom da potonu.
naša sudbina je
da je svatko od nas kapetan i
svatko mora otići s brodom.
vjetar pritišče kao skladište okova.
vezuje

vodu za trenutke u kojima se prešućujemo.
omogućuje da zamislimo gradove
obilježene svojim nestajanjem, svakim trenutkom.
iako, to je
samo jedan od mogućih svjetova.

ponekad je bolje otići bez ičeg na sebi.
kao najbolji borbeni pijetao.
umotati se
u list dolarskih novčanica na kojim je
zabunom otisnuto 'Dog save America'.
kupiti
kartu do Denvera u jednom smjeru,
preparata protiv samoće
koliko god je moguće ponijeti.

Plima, Marko Pogačar

plima...(5)

2010-08-20T15:21:00.001-07:00

plima...(4)

2010-08-20T15:19:00.001-07:00

plima...(3)

2010-08-20T15:14:00.001-07:00

plima...(2)

2010-08-20T15:10:00.001-07:00

plima... (1)

2010-08-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

motherland 2

2010-08-05T15:11:00.001-07:00

motherland

2010-08-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

the most beautiful

2010-06-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

the most beautiful from barbara saric on Vimeo.

stand in the shade of me...

2010-06-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

Stand in the shade of me
Things are now made of me
The weather vane will say
It smells like rain today

God took the stars and he tossed them
Can't tell the birds from the blossoms
You'll never be free of me
He'll make a tree from me

if the sky falls...

2010-06-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

Don't say good bye to me
Describe the sky to me
And if the sky falls, mark my words
We'll catch mocking birds

green grass...

2010-06-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me

when multitasking becomes notasking...

2010-05-23T09:32:00.001-07:00

I've been feeling like I'm slowly (but surely) losing my mind lately. I feel like the workload has got the best of me - not because of how MUCH there is to do (even though much it is) but more because how MANY things there are to do. so, rather than going through tasks one by one (in whichever order - right now, they're all of pressing importance) I spend most of my time prioritizing, reevaluating the priorities, changing, doubting, starting all over again...end of the day, brain exhausted, person frustrated and the to-do list still there in it's full glory.

well, overly sensitive already, I've began hating on the internet for putting me through the exact same thing: so many things to see, read, so many great sites to explore (Amy Stein's blog,lens culture, conscientious, to name just a few I've recently added to my regulars) ...which to do first? and once you settle on one, how to stop yourself from sticking to it and not wonder if there is something maybe just a bit more interesting under that other bookmark...a whole new field where to fight with commitment issues.
anyways :) this morning, via a great multimedia blog by Richard Koci Hernandez, recommended to us by our amazing multimeda teacher Judith Levitt, I found a web-documentary Prison Valley . and watching it brought up all the above mentioned issues. the film is very well shot (both video and stills) but the whole concept (the way it is edited, the interactive play, the social networking) draws your attention in way to many directions...and the story itself takes the furthermost back seat. while yes, everything we can do now with our work on web is interesting and seems fun, there is something larpurlartistic about it. do we want the viewer to be thinking about the small prison town residents lives and struggles or do we want him to be admiring how well we use our 5D mark II and how well we work flash...

p.s.just as a comparison, I think Danny Wilcox Frazier story on Iowa utilizes just enough of what the new medium has to offer: like on a DVD, you can choose your chapters, decide whether you want to hear about the making-of and from there it is for you to kick back and relax and let the pictures and voices tell you their story...because it is their story to tell.

Fredericksburg, VA

2010-05-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

K.

2010-05-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

P.

2010-05-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

L.

2010-05-05T19:08:00.001-07:00

D.

2010-05-05T17:53:00.001-07:00

dawning...(2)

2010-04-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

S.

2010-04-18T13:26:00.001-07:00

P.

2010-04-18T13:20:00.001-07:00

dawning...

2010-04-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Princeton, NJ

2010-04-18T12:30:00.001-07:00

Coney Island, NY

2010-04-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

Ramsey, NJ

2010-04-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Beacon, NY

2010-04-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

C

2010-03-10T21:38:00.001-08:00

A

2010-03-10T20:53:00.001-08:00

playing with the portrait...

2010-03-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

..is easy when you get a subject that still remembers how to play:)

thank you bob newman!

and special mention goes to our great teacher greg miller whose beautiful Nashville work is currently up at Kris Graves Projects in dumbo!

what happened to love actually?

2010-03-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

we all know the drama that goes on on airports...

well, at newark the only drama happnes to be exhausted photographers...they at least will never let you down;)

do porto 2

2010-02-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

do porto...

2010-02-23T19:57:00.000-08:00

stage lights

2010-02-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

Sklybox studio, Brooklyn

and then it snowed...

2010-02-16T20:07:00.001-08:00

the world from my front porch...

2010-02-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

while Larry Towell (from whom I borrow the title of this post) saw his kids, wife, grass and sun from his front porch, my view is slightly different...and no less appreciated - brooklyn :)

what's in a name?

2010-01-31T19:41:00.000-08:00

So...I changed the name of the blog:)

Is it a question of changing identities?
hm...not really
I was unhappy about the name from the very start.
I wanted it to contain the outside and the inside. the world in front of the lens, me behind the lens and the lens itself -and the whole that is more than the sum of its parts. I didn't want to pretend at revealing the "real" and "true"...I didn't even want to pretend at going for them. My photographs are my ways of placing a frame on what's in front, and placing what's in front within a frame...and adding a point of focus (more often than not) somewhere in there. And nothing more...nor less. Not pure idiosyncrasies...but then not much beyond either.
And for what I was aiming for, the previous name sounded way too pretentious.
Add to this the fact that I had misspelled "lens" (pointed out to me by a very dear friend who thought I had misspelled it on purpose as a clever joke of some kind...thank you phil for thinking me so deep:) well, the name just had to go.

So, here's a new one. Točka is Croatian for "point". Photographs (mine and everybody elses) seem to be...and be about: points!
Points in time. Points in space. Points of focus. Points of view. They bring up points. They make points. They prove points. Would it be too obvious to point to grain and pixels?
They also defy the "pointedness" of a moment - once made, they take up more space. They endure, they go on. A point becomes a line...that goes on until at a certain point, it stops. And we're back to the beginning.

So...am I now perfectly happy with the name?
Hm...not yet...but getting there
Is it then a question of a crisis of identity?
Well, in a way. If this means questioning and restating who one is and what one is trying to portray out...then most definitely! This seems like a somewhat permanent condition though. One that is not going anywhere anytime soon (at least not until life gives up on being fun). So, would I actually call it a "crisis"? Being a firm believer in the power of positive thinking: most definitely not! It's not a crisis of identity - it's just...its very nature.

:)

if u were to...

2010-01-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

...go to outer space and wanted to show those you fine there what life on earth felt like on jan 21st 2010...

p.s. assignment by jeff jacobson. thank you for that :)

luck be a lady tonight

2010-01-23T08:56:00.000-08:00

on my birthday, well into the first semester, right at the point when tensions were getting high, tears were always just waiting around the corner and most of us were waking up with the though: where the fuck did this stupid idea of becoming a photographer come from?, my girls took me to atlantic city. they had an assignment to do and I brought my cameras more for feeling like I was doing something than I actually thought I would press the shutter at all (photographing was far from pleasurable at that point). well...good that I had them! getting of the bus, we landed in a parallel universe and we started taking pictures till our film supplies were out.
I discovered my format (the fabulous square) and we all remembered why we were photographers - because we loved it!

:)

Dorian Greying - photo style

2010-01-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

I saw the Robert Bergman show on thursday

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/12/AR2009101202981.html

It was one of those days when u feel...all wrong for some reason but u know the reason just isn't. Well, walking aimlessly around the city helps (not just any city, mind you;). And that, want it or not, brings you to Chlsea. And since u're there, u might as well pop in a gallery. And...u know it won't do any good - I mean, u're in no mood to appreciate art, if anything, other people's ups will only make u feel worse about your downs, but...well u're here and u might as well...and then u go in and u forget all about whatever u were feeling for no reason whatsoever and...go wow.
And it wasn't really all that wowish but it was wow enough to snap me out.
Some really interesting portraits, really good prints and little pieces of trivia you get when talking to gallery staff (I never did that before but I'm getting into the habit and...honestly, it would make the whole show worth while even if the pictures were not there:). So, here's what makes Mr Bergman special (besides for his work:):
All of the portraits being shown were made between 1986 and 1995. And then...it took 14 years for him to decide the work was ready for display! It was due partly to him wanting to have it perfect (prints, edit..I'm guessing) and partly to the fact that he thought, when displayed, the work should be displayed in the National gallery in Washington. So...after 14 years, that's what happened. When it opened in the National Gallery, the same (only slightly smaller) exhibit opened in New York's PS1 and then an even smaller one in Yossi Milo gallery in Chelsea (which is the one I saw). Well, cudos to being patient!

But, one thing that struck me the most, and which s actually what I set out to write about (way to get sidetracked..again:) is that I was looking through the book of said portraits A Kind of Rapture, published in 1998 and one portrait struck me as looking quite different than the one exhibited - even though it was the same portrait. Then I opened the PS1 catalog and,sure enough, the difference was very apparent there too: it was the same portrait but the man in the 1998 looked a good couple of years younger than the one in the 2009 catalog or the one on the (2009) wall. Due to difference in printing, the book "version" had smoother, pinkish skin while the newer print emphasized the roughness, the grey facial hair (invisible in the first one!) and the desaturated style made the man altogether aged by quite a bit.

It was just funny to see that, even though the photograph sets out to freeze time, to make a moment last forever, this subject found a way to grow older together with the rest of the world. Intentional or not, Mr Bergman, how very Oscar Wildish of you!
I thought it quite amusing, it made my day!

And then I proceeded to have coffee at my favorite city coffee shop Grumpy (those in New York, I highly recommend it: 20th street b/w 7th and 8th) and, on my way home,stumbled upon a small movie theater (E 12th street) with an "alternative" movie program at the cheapest price I've seen here and there I stayed to see a Chilean movie "the Maid" which was so lifelike and (I'm gonna be very politically incorrect, be warned) very European that loving it just came naturally and there was no need to question it.
Well, sidetracked again but, what I'm trying to say, no matter how it started, thursday was a great day. Thank you New York :)

dance like an gastarbeiter...

2009-12-25T13:41:00.000-08:00

well, minus the arbeiten...;)

merry christmas! :)

till we meet again

2009-12-23T12:37:00.000-08:00

the semster ended...hm, I want to say chillaxing began...but, that would just not be true so let's leave it at, semester ended:)

and a look beyond the funeral home...

2009-12-21T18:03:00.001-08:00

carroll gardens, brooklyn

...

2009-11-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

the life and times of jason duncan...

2009-11-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

jason walks dogs in south brooklyn
and one in manhattan...that one is a puppy and needs to be walked two times a day so...jason walks dogs in south brooklyn and two-dogs-worth in manhattan
he lives at the end of the 4 train
his household has a cat
he plays drums in a band
the band practices in his living room
he has multiple tattoos and hates waking up early

I loved this assignment:)

p.s. if anybody should require jason's services:
http://www.littlebuddiesdogwalking.com/

sugarcoating the underground

2009-11-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

a month or so ago, we got two weeks in our picturemaking class to do a story on the NY underground. and underground in this case was anything that was happening...well UNDER ground:)
and then of course you get the feeling something very big and unexpected is what is expected of you. and you have all these grandiose ideas that are not even ideas really but just glimpses of imaginary photographs you think somebody much better and more experienced than you would make...and then you see the clock ticking away and you realize it's time to be realistic and find something where you will actually have free hands at doing what you do, where, hopefully, you will feel comfortable enough to do a good job while still having a subject that interests you and makes you want to take pictures. and THEN you spend four days trying to think of, find AND gain access to such a place. two weeks suddenly sounds like 5 minutes
well, I was lucky enough to have spotted Veniero's bakery and pastry shop/cafe my first month in NY when I was still living in East Village (ahhh, East Village...well, anyways:). I would pass it every day on my way to school and I would catch a glimpse of the baker's feet down in the basement through the basement shaft. I had thought even then of photographing there so...this assignment came just right (well, just right after I gave up on the idea of exploring secret hallways of the Met or spending a week in Bellevue's morgue...)
in any case, I was then more than lucky to get permission from the owner family (robert and his sisters) to visit the under ground bakery as many times as I needed plus I also got the guys that actually do the baking to get used to my presence and, I like to flatter myself, even like it (to a certain degree:)
it turned out to be a lot of fun so this is for Carlo, Erasto, Mike, Segundo, Teodoro, Sacramento, Jose Luis and Angelo (who actually had no business being downstairs but I think he just wanted to work his way into the final edit...and he did!)
and special thanks once again to Robert and his family

p.s.if any of you go and visit Veniero's on account of this post (hands down the best ITALIAN cheesecake in NY!), please mention my name casually so maybe I get a slice or two on the house...

and to prove how serious I am about this cheesecake, here's what cahrles got for his bday:

I never joke about dessert...

this week I met eileen...

2009-11-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

I don't know...I just thought I should make a note of this encounter cause...I have a feeling there'll be more to say some time in the future
I might be wrong but...we'll see - at least I hope I'm not

in any case, I was shooting in the funeral home (that's a story and a half...will tell it some time soon) and, since there was a wake in one of the chapels, I was constrained to to the other part of the house. suddenly, a lady came and asked me if she could just sit for a bit in the room I was in...guess, she just needed a moment to...breathe (she was actually the only daughter of the man who the wake was for)
well, we started talking and I got to know this amazing female pastor, who lives and has a congregation in, no more nor less: Marlboro, New York.
I hope I get to see more of her...and of Marlboro:)

thank you mr learoyd!

2009-11-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

Richard Learoyd, Anne

ok...let's start at the beginning:
there is an exhibition currently hapening in ICP museum which I went to see a few weeks baclk. it's a cool exhibition, lot of different stuff, yada yada...but! then you come into the room in the back of the 1st floor, you turn right and there is a big big print of a girl in a red dress (hence the name: Agnes in Red Dress)sitting on a chair.

Richard Learoyd, Agnes, Red Dress

you like it/don't like it, find it interesting/not interesting, whatever but whichever of these it is (I both liked and found it interesting but let's leave it at that), something maes you want to come closer and take a better look. there is something off about this print...the girl looks...too alive almost - if she weren't slightly bigger than most people, you would assume she was sitting right there in front of you. and then you do go closer and the feeling is still the same...details, shaaaalow depth of field...everything is there and more so than you ever saw before. and then you, which you usually don't do, feel the need to read the sign - there must be some sort of an explanation. and there it is:
mr learoyd does his work in a room-size camera obscura! that is, he uses two rooms with a pin-hole in between them. and in the one is a model while in the other is (and this is the best part) direct positive paper!!! there are no negatives, there is no camera, there is though, a movable wall which is there to determine, not so much the size of the reflection but to focus (if I understood correctly) and there is a hiiiigh quality lense in the hole.

so...I talked abut this photo for days, tried to get everybody and anybody to go and see it so, you can imagine how exciting it was, the moment i realized there was actually a whole show of richard learoyd's work!
so excited that, in the excitement I almost missed it:)
luckily, that didn't happen - I went to see it on the very last day (the same day I was moving and also shooting for a school assignment of my own) and...oh, so good that I did!

all the works on display in this fancy shmancy 5th avenue gallery are, hard as it is to imagine, even more impressive than the one in ICP museum
the models are ready to walk out into the room and thier faces show more detail than you would get when looking at yourself in a mirror. sound like it would be a bad thing (all the tiniest of tiny imperfections being there for all to see) but it actually makes these women (and an occasional squid) as beautiful as it gets.
and the depth of field is so shallow that, with one eye in focus, not only is the other eye but the base of the nose already, loses sharpness. or, to illustrate the point better, in the nude version of this image of agnes (I couldn't find the nude but the position is the same), her shoulder is in focus and so is her hand but the rest of the arm is not!

Richard Learoyd, Agnes B

and to think I almost missed this!

try that position and take notice how little distance it is between the shoulder and the arm...I mean, to make a camera (roomsize!) taht can note this distance...wow!

so...thank you mr learoyd, this show made my moving day 10 times better than it would otherwise be!
well, mr learoyd and these awesome friends of mine...but that's another story...:)

j-No on flickr

how big is your big idea?

2009-10-28T08:44:00.001-07:00

we had a workshop (Big Idea) with Bob Sacha and it was...awesome!:)
really got us thinking in a different way about our work and the assignments that we choose. his idea basically is to find your Big idea - whatever you feel most interested in or passionate about (it should be as broad or narrow as you want it) and then try and stir all of your work form this moment on in that direction. so that, after, hopefully, many a happy year of being a photographer, all of your individual projects will still be able to be A body of work (we're thinking books, galleries, life-time achievement awards...:)
the idea could be as simple as driving around America (Robert Frank), recording your favorite bar (as Anders Petersen did with Cafe Lehmitz), taking pictures of trees around the world (Stuart Franklin) to as complicated as recording migration (Sebastiao Salgado).

other important lesson: try an go multimedia!
won't get into details but, suffice to say, after coming into class on saturday morning, most of us hard-core multimedia opponents, we left on sunday evening rushing to find a store still open to buy sound recorders. and, I must say, taking pictures has only become more fun since then! how fun it will be once we start editing...well, I'll pull a Scarlett and think about it tomorrow. or, better yet, I'll think about it in december (that scarlett was not the smartest after all...)

anyways, for inspiration, here is an amazing multimedia site:

www.mediastorm.org

and then,on my way home from the workshop:

more waterfront

2009-10-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

that day I went to the Far Rockaway
and...well, it's far, they're not lying!

Jewish holiday on the Intrepid

2009-10-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

our first picture making (with Nadja Masri and Jonathan Torgovnik) was "NY waterfront"
I know, water, waterfront...it gets repetitive

anyways, the assignment was, in my case, pretty unsuccessfully executed but, I like to believe it wasn't a total waste

for instance, the very first day of shooting, being all frustrated and ready to give up on ICP, life and all that, my then only just acquired friend Akshay (who, btw is also a photographer and an amazing one at that!) took me to the Intrepid aircraft carrier (a US military ship that is parked of the pier on 49th street and has recently been reopened as a museum) to search for funny shots of tourists admiring their country's glory in arms and...well, in arms
anyways, getting there, a treat to famished eyes: it was the Yom Kippur week and Intrepid was just swarming with Hasidic Jewish families. we ended up having a great time taking loads of candid photographs while managing not to upset anyone.

that day I learned two important lessons:
1. a story could be anywhere or in anything - you just have to give a situation a chance
2. with the right attitude you can walk into a 20$ entrance fee place for free...even if that place is a US battle ship!

thank you Akshay!

p.s. by the way, Akshay's work is very much worth checking out so here are the links
http://www.akshayphoto.com/
http://trivialmatters.blogspot.com/

water

2009-10-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

our first seminar assignment:
water!

fun ha? it might just as well have been "people", "love" or..."automobiles and automobile landscape" (he just said it so well, I thought it worth repeating:)

well, I ended up going o a dog water therapy place in Downtown Manhattan. Water4Dogs takes care of dogs with various injuries, rehabilitation issues, overenjoyment of dog cookies...or human cookies...chocolate chip ones...freshly baked...with coffee...where was I? ah yes, there's also dogs that are in professional agility sports and are there for conditioning training and then there's those...that just have too much energy (why is that a problem...have you been to Downtown Manhattan?!)

in the words (worlds) of Walker Evans - instead of an introduction

2009-10-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

photo: Walker Evans,Havana Cinema

when asked what he chose to turn his camera to, Walker Evans replied:

“People, all classes, surrounded by bunches of the new down-and-out.

Automobiles and the automobile landscape.

Architecture, American urban taste, commerce, small scale, large scale, clubs, the city atmosphere, the street smell, the hateful stuff, women’s clubs, fake culture, bad education, religion in decay.

The movies.

Evidence of what people of the city read, eat, see for amusement, do for relaxation and not get it.

Sex.

Advertising.

A lot else, you see what I mean.”

Walker Evans in G. Dyer, The ongoing Moment

photo:Walker Evans, License Photo Studio, New York, 1934

here we go...(a kind of preface)

2009-10-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

so...apparently you're nobody since Google thinks you're somebody...

I know, I know, you're sitting there with a big "duh" on your face.
but, well, I never gave putting myself out there much thought...before I came to actually give anything (u know, life, universe, jobs...the whole 42) much thought and realized: wait, other people can NOT see the photos sitting on my hard drive!aaaaaw, that's why I'm still not working for Nat Geo...oh, good, now it makes sense...
and after realizing this, it took then coming to ICP to learn that we "can't rely on Facebook!" NOT rely on Facebook?! now, who does this guy think he is and why is he talking crazy?!
well, the guy was Nayland Blake, the head of ICP's MFA department so, hard as it was, I had to accept the fact: not only was having photos on your hard drive not enough but, now it was no longer enough even to have them on Facebook for all...of your family to see!
strange world, but that's the way it is...

anyways, this is supposed to be a photo blog (I still think I should have been a professional rambler, I'm so good at it!)and this kind of preface is getting too long and colorless so here's all you need to know (well "need" might be a bit strong, feel free to take it as loose as you wish...or tight...however you prefer...):

the following will be mostly work for assignments I (will) have as a student of Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at ICP, New York.
also, along with my work I will try and keep up with all the amazing works and photographers I keep discovering on a daily basis (this will be very incomplete, I won't even try and fool myself to the contrary but still, I guess something is better than nothing)

I hope you enjoy it and...if it inspires you to send me some money, please don't be embarrassed to do so!

:)