The Conceptual Nature of the iPhone

I recently upgraded my iPhone. This was not a planned move, but one good thing about it has been how freakin' great the camera is on the iPhone 4. Leaps better then my old phone, which I was unprepared for.

This revelation, combined with the very great need to walk around and a semi-new city to stare at has led to some "conceptual" images. Enjoy.

These images were mostly things that I found beautiful, or that I found myself staring at while trying to sort out my day.

I am compelled to record things now, to notice colors and to appreciate moments, even though it can be difficult, it is also a need, something I cannot explain. While I was aware how much I missed shooting, I did not realize how electrifying it was to have a camera again.

Small Things

I am spending a good amount of time staring at things blankly. This made me smile. Its also where I spent the weekend, but more on that later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDN-RFmJb0w

this is last years video, but it pretty much sums up the creativity, and silliness, at the workshop.

Mockumentary vs. Reality

 I'd like to comment on something that I see a lot of: television. There are several new television shows (and some returning ones) that rib off the idea of a documentary, except its complete fiction. This is not reality TV, which stylistically is far, far away from any documentary work I've ever seen (Hidden cameras? Producers prodding drama? The first is spying, the second is interference...) No, Mockumentary Television has all the benefits of good documentary, like realism, and "interviews" and generally good editing, with the added twist that it is totally fake. You start to see Modern Family as a real family, neighbors, even though its all made up. My Generation could conceivably be real, except its not. The story lines are too neat, everyone is a little too clever, and houses are a bit too clean.

Which brings me to my second point: how "real" does documentary, or indeed television, need to be to qualify as "real"? Mockumentary shows such as Modern Family can provide an insightful look into the state of American families, and many documentaries, particularly historical ones, are recreations or reenactments of actual events. This is not a new occurrence, from the time of Ancient Greece theater was used to satirize or reflect the contemporary world in a way that people could criticize without cutting too close to the bone.

So then what purpose does "reality" TV serve? While on one hand, it could be seen as and experiment in "how low will humanity stoop", on the other, particularly when producers start egging on drama for better ratings, we have to ask what limit on realism should be set before labeling something as real. Because while we can all sit back and comfortably argue that no one believes those shows, or that no one would actually behave that way, there is a disproportionate number of people watching these shows, and perpetuating the madness.

Perhaps someone will one day do a documentary on reality television, and we can then watch people watching what is supposed to be what life is really like in Atlanta, or New Jersey, or as a Teen Mom. Of course, if we satirize it then perhaps the whole point will become clear.

You were right, William Snyder

I've had the pleasure of having William Snyder as my professor and mentor. William was the first to bluntly tell me that it doesn't matter how cool the situation was, or what I had to do to get in, or how hot/cold/dark/light it was if you did not make a good photograph. The bottom line is the image. Nothing else matters.

In the process of making my new portfolio, I am going through many old photographs that I cannot justify taking, or even begin imagine why I thought it would be a great idea to click the shutter. To be fair, some not-so-great pictures are standard tourist fare, but many have no content, no composition, no light, some have no subject and all have no point. I should've put down the camera and enjoyed the moment I failed to capture on CCD.

But I didn't, because I am a photographer, and that means my life is spent looking through a lens, right? Wrong. As my long commute is (slowly) teaching me, and which many, many people have tried to tell me over the past 3 years, you cannot make good images if:

1) You are so stressed out you can't see straight
2) You are rushing, and not looking
3) You are too relaxed, and everything becomes conceptual
4) You do not accept the technical limits of your gear.

Think twice, click once, look constantly, remember to live.

And, as William often said, thinking should be done before and after taking an image, not during the process. If only I'd paused longer to think about those words.

Transmissions

I was about to write a nice long post about the sheer inefficiency of New Jersey Transit, which made me and hour late to work yesterday and then a half hour late getting home. That post would've bled into my need for a small, lightweight camera as there was another suicide on the tracks yesterday, and some very nice shots of police tape could've been made if only.

But, then I saw Airsick on MediaStorm. If you are familiar with MediaStorm, you will be expecting a beautifully shot and edited multimedia production, and this one does not disappoint. Beyond the yumminess of the photography though, it is refreshing to see a piece which not only takes a global issue and focuses on local causes, but also juxtaposes quotes and statistics so that this viewer, at least, walked away slightly relieved that she takes public transportation despite the inconveniences and yet again alarmed at our long emergency. The simplicity of the photos and the music really underscored the urgency, and the ignorance, surrounding climate change. Turn off your computers after you see this, and maybe take a walk instead of a ride today.

Check it out here: http://www.mediastorm.com/publication/airsick

Dislocated

It's been awhile. I've since graduated, moved, and started a new job. While I haven't fully unpacked yet and I still get lost, things have settled down enough for me to realize several things, to my horror: My website is in shambles, my 6-month job guarantee is half over, and I really really miss shooting, as much as I enjoy being a photo editor.

In an attempt to remedy these situations, this blog will serve as a temporary host to my portfolio until my website is fully functional, and will hopefully provide an outlet for pent-up creative energy. While my current commute severely limits how much I can shoot, I haven't stopped looking for and seeing images, and hope to soon have the means to capture images daily and post them here.

In the meantime, please enjoy the images from the recent past!

Graduation Part II

So this is it...the big transition from a lifetime as a student to joining the troubled workforce of Journalism. While journalism has long been touted as dead, I see no reason that it will cease to exist, now or in the future.

The simple reason that journalism will never die is that people will continue to want to know about their neighbors, their communities, and the world at large. Journalism, being a generally more accurate and accepted source than your average blogger, has long fulfilled this role. However, the increase in Internet usage and the ever-shorter attention spans of the population make it tempting to just throw information to the masses, whether or not it is accurate, or even important. As journalists, we must remember the critical void that we fill in the bloggosphere, 24-hour news, and Twitter and continue to provide consistent, accurate and unbiased news that is accessible to all.

I am excited, and proud, to join the journalism workforce if this continues to be its mission.

Graduation Part I

The question of the week seems to be, are you excited for graduation? My answer, to the world: no, I am not. At the moment, I am up to my ears in trying to finish final projects, senior projects, websites, portfolios and packing. That leaves very little time to sleep, let alone be excited about graduation. The sad thing is, this is the time of year that I usually most enjoy (well, when it is sunny and warm outside). And, since I am not going to grad school in the forseeable future, this would be my last chance to savor the fruits of academia: the libraries, the labs, the photo gear. But just like college, this quarter flew by and now I am scrambling to finish, savoring will have to wait.

This seems to be a condition that most seniors are facing. Our advice? Don't graduate. Enjoy school instead.

ToraCon

There are few words that can be used to describe the yearly anime convention at RIT that is Tora Con. Weird. Fun. Interesting. Educational. Geeky. Slutty. Any of these could apply to the children, students and adults that converge on campus to celebrate all things anime with lectures, performances, social gatherings and shopping. For one who is uninformed about anime, simply walking around campus was an adventure of colors, sights and crazy hair styles.

In doing so, it quickly became apparent that the primary reason for attending Tora Con was about spending time with your friends in costume, mugging for the cameras and commenting on other characters. The weather cooperated perfectly, spilling people outdoors into the courtyards and walkways to mingle.



For those not anime inclined, the event could be overwhelming with masses of costumed teenagers clogging the walkways and shouting strange, game-related phrases. The anime lovers were frequently given wide berth by students visiting or working on campus.

What has been on my mind? Migrant labor. As I found out about 6 months ago, I have been blissfully ignorant to one of the largest stories in the county. Monroe county, and the neighboring Wayne county, both support large numbers of migrant workers who come to pick the fruit and vegetables that are grown here. I have been working on immigration reform and documentary work in the area for the past 6 months, which has been frustrating, hard, intense, interesting and fun.

Not only do these people come long, long distances to work, they do not plan on staying. They do not cause trouble. They do not take jobs away: in fact, every farmer I have spoken with has said that they have begged, pleaded, and dragged American workers to the fields, only to have them quit after a few days. Despite these facts, there remains a good amount of negative press about migrant workers, and their role in society.

I am concerned that the upcoming "immigration reform" will do nothing to help, and that the debate around immigration will become bogged down in lies and assumptions. Perhaps I am naive in thinking that my own documentary and academic work will somehow effect how people think about migrant workers, and will help some see how the situation is. For those who are reading this, please check back for updates. If you are looking for more information on this subject please see:

Food, Inc. (film)
With These Hands (book)
NYCLU Immigration Reform (website)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14509724 (radio piece)

she's baaaaack!

Alright, so I took a bit of a hiatus after my (brief) debut on the blogging scene. But I am back to record the events in my life, or at least in part.

So what have I been doing? I have been working on producing a project on immigration reform for the New York Civil Liberties Union...see it here http://www.nyclu.org/immigrationreform. I helped coordinate where the photographers were going, and edited the audio and images to send to the NYCLU

I have also been photographing, like the portrait assignment (above) that I completed of a classmate of mine this morning. This was the first attempt in a long time to do a formal portrait, but I feel that it was successful. Portraiture is going to become important quickly, as I am starting work on a documentary project on migrant workers in upstate New York. Odds are though that pools and props will not be a part of that project.

Photographer for you to check out? See Leonie Purchas at http://www.leoniepurchas.com/home/ Not only are her portraits of the families in Cuba amazing, her authenticity in photographing is something to be admired. It is almost jarring in comparison of some of the "pretty" photographers whose images tend to get more play. Luckily, my professor Loret showed us her work in class.

Way to See

Best Advice given so far?? Know what I am talking about. Know the business. Seeing as I am almost finished with a very expensive J-school, you would think that knowing the business would be inherent in the curriculum, but for my year, it is not (the year behind me is much more fortunate). I feel like this is the case with many schools, which are just catching up with the identity crisis of journalism and trying to decide where to move from there.

Its exciting. It leaves you in a lifeboat, scrambling around the Internet to learn just how a photo agency works, and who's who at the top. Not to mention the difference between markets, and all the concerns of the Role of Journalism.

Top sites that help the lost and confused:
mediabistro.com
Errol Morris's column in the NYT
multimediashooter.com

My New Years Resolution:
To learn about and post a new photographer/site each day.

See you soon!