after a few intense months of editing my masters thesis and writing a corresponding essay, i’ve finished the program and submitted the following project as my thesis. take a few moments to explore “beyond the reach”
Despite the many months since meeting Mary Ellen Mark, the experience and insights are still vivid. And I’m realizing I didn’t get too much down in the last post.
The question I asked MEM at the Texas Monthly Talks Q&A was how she got around in India during her many months in India for her Falkland Road: Prostitutes of Bombay assignment, how she met her contacts, and if she used a fixer to gain access to her subjects. She first reminisced on the luxury of being on a magazine assignment for three months and how a long and open assignment like that is non-existent today.
Mark hates using fixers and didn’t employ any for that assignment. (Although she did admit the project would not have been possible or the same if she tried to it today, as people are much more camera aware and wary than they were in the 1970s) She believes hiring a fixer changes the dynamics of her relationship to her subjects and makes them less genuine.
Mark spent days across the street of the brothel she was hoping to document before making a few friends with the prostitutes who eventually brought her in and gave full access to their lives. (This was after 10 years of trying to take pictures there, being met with aggression and anger) She befriended and listened to the stories of the madams, the transvestites, and cage girls of Falkland Road. Her images portray the honest and explicit lives of her subjects in a thoughtful and intimate way. The magazine that sent Mark out to India, GEO, decided not to use the images in their American publication as they thought they were too explicit. They did however publish 13 pages of images in their sister publication in Germany, Stern Magazine.
Following up on simplifying equipment, thanks to my fellow classmate Mark for pointing me to this article, Less Gear Equals More Enjoyment. Brian Auer speaks to National Geographic legend Sam Abell about his simple equipment approach to photographing.
And I love the comment from Rafael, sharing Sebastião Salgado’s wisdom that taking 100 images in 10 seconds was not photography but diarrhea.
within the last few months, i’ve shifted from primarily shooting with zoom lenses to shooting with two fixed lenses. and that’s pretty much all i prefer now when i shoot digital.. canon’s 24mm f/1.4 L and their 50mm f/1.2 L.
not only do i gain a simplified and expected perspective, but the images are tack sharp at 100% and have a quality of light and color that can’t be beat for this range of equipment. i used to load myself down with 2 heavy cameras with zooms and often would be fighting with my gear. i now have to physically move in and out a lot more but it keeps me and my eyes active and i like traveling light. i feel i can focus on the picture making process much more.
one of my professor’s in my master’s program, homer sykes, has frequently reminded me to slow down and not shoot like i’m handling a machine gun, to be more thoughtful and purposeful with my images. and i think the switch to fixed lenses has helped me do that. i don’t feel like i need to shoot every detail, interaction, etc. anymore. and visually, i’m giving myself a little more breathing room.
the switch to film has helped me slow down even more (partially because i pay a few dollars for each image in film, developing, and scanning) i should be getting the film back from the texas-mexico border shooting in the next two days and will share some of that shortly.
in the mean-time, enjoy two images from a recent wedding from my two favorite lenses
Canon 5D, Canon 24mm f/1.4 L:1/200 sec at f/2.0
Canon 5D, Canon 50mm f/1.2 L: 1/400 sec at f/1.8
I’ve been spending the last few days shooting an independent project on the border of Mexico, tying in to our masters program new group theme of “borders”.
I’ve joined the minutemen of Texas to document part of their October round up. It’s an interesting mix of people with a variety of motivations. The main event is night watches along the border, watching for travelers (aka illegal aliens) and reporting any findings to border patrol. It usually is a group of people sitting in the dark with walkie talkies, night vision, and beef jerkey until midnight.
The picture here is from my night vision from my current post.
I’ve been shooting this project entirely with a medium format range finder, the mamiya 6. It’s been an inspiring switch back to film, having to slow down, make each image count, and putting much more though into the whole image making experience.
I’ve also been doing some audio capture for the first time so I’ll hopefully be making a multimedia presentation soon.
It’s nice I can blog from my iPhone, maybe that means I’ll finally make more regular entries.
Well I’ve got another 3 hours on my post here so back to “protecting the border” I go.
Alrighty, looks like I need some discipline on habitual updates. Today’s update is what I’m currently preparing for printing. It’s an image I shot in 2005 on an urban neighborhood street in Christchurch, New Zealand during a five month journey across Southeast Asia and Australasia. It was shot with a classic 1950′s Leica M3 camera.
I’m having a standout mounted print made for Austin Art Garage’s Political Action Art Auction. You can read more about the cause, the event, and how to win this print here.
with only 36 hours in paris, there wasn’t much time to myself. with the little time i did have, i found some interesting images around the eiffel of the mostly african immigrants hawking their souvenirs
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the assignment for central college is to document their 6 european abroad sites, mainly for promotional usage. much of my shooting involves working with students at their universities, dorms, city areas, etc. here is a sampling from the first day in paris
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hard to believe it’s been over 3 months since an update.. apologies to any brett’s blog aficionados. it’s been a busy time of my life for a few reasons:
- I quit my job at the Austin Business Journal, as my freelance work continues to dominate more and more of my time
- I bought a house in Austin! and moved. it’s a tall modern box of a house and i’m enjoying being a homeowner so far, although it seems like another full-time job at times.
- I’m continuing my work and studies for my masters in photojournalism through the london college of communication
- i recently landed a contract for central college to photograph 6 of their european abroads over 3 weeks (paris, wales, vienna, granada, netherlands, and london)
i’m currently in granada and will share some images shortly.
so don’t fear, the updates will continue once again. stay tuned for some of my recent work and travels.
a while ago i found an extremely well presented and powerful illustration of consumption in america, the story of stuff.
i was reminded of it while going through some of the photographic work of chris jordan, who put’s our consumption into a visual scale. one of his huge prints shows almost half a million cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day. others illustrate breast augmentations, plastic bottles, cigarettes, incarcerations and more.
if you haven’t already, check out chris’ running the numbers and watch the story of stuff here.
