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
svgallery=paris1
With the opportunity to shoot some spot news, I tried to find some interesting relationships during a restaurant fire. Apparently, the Short Stop hamburger joints are prone to grease fires. The manager later told me that one started 8 months ago but they were able to put it out quickly. This time the flames and smoke forced everyone out and eventually caused the hood vent to drop through the building. I arrived before the firefighters to find the manager’s daughter, who was working at the time, and a co-worker taking pictures with a cell phone and holding a piece of chocolate cake they rescued from the fire.
svgallery=rel3
The 2nd relationship I focused on was a group of homeless people near my neighborhood. It was a mixed reaction when I approached them with my intent. Fortunately, I started speaking with the woman first, who was originally from Honduras. (She left her country with an American man who quickly kicked her out upon arriving to America 20 years ago) Since I had spent some time in Honduras, she was enthusiastic to hear about my travels in her country. One man wanted cash, the other didn’t “give a f*&$” if I photographed them. I offered food, but no money. The greatest concern from them seemed to be that they didn’t want it published in a newspaper, I was told that hypothetically some homeless people are on the run from the law.
I was grateful that they let me shoot, and they quickly continued on with their conversations, trips to the gas station for beer and cigarettes, and toilet stops behind the bushes. They all were talkative and friendly toward me, telling me some of their history and daily struggles. The shoot ended when another homeless man ran up and told us a hamburger joint was on fire. It was 20 yards away and that fire turned into my 3rd relationship exercise.
svgallery=rel2
Our 2nd exercise for the masters program was to visually explore 3 different relationships.
The first relationship I found was a former high school teacher Steve, who visits his mother Betsy a few times a week at her assisted-living facility. The resident cat, Wink (who has one eye sewed shut), has made Betsy’s room her permanent residence.
svgallery=rel1
Little Miss Austin Beauty Pageant was in full effect this morning. It was a new experience for me. But I thought the unique nature and culture of the pageant would make for an interesting Person At Work set of images. I was focusing on Miss Annette, the owner and emcee of the pageant.
There were two difficulties for me while shooting:
- I kept wanting to document the whole event, the variety of people, reactions, details, etc. It was counter-intuitive to focus on one person and one style of image.
- It was difficult pacing myself. We’re expected to spend a few hours on each subject and have a total of around 72 images. I’m used to shooting as much and as quickly as I feel comfortable with and editing later. I realized that I had to keep slowing myself down. I think this will be helpful, as I was learning to be more patient and creative in trying to find those decisive moments.
And so ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for our latest contestant, Miss Annette:
svgallery=lcc2
The first masters assignment has been a helpful exercise in getting back to the fundamentals of the classic editorial photojournalistic piece. The assignment is to document three different people at work. Our equipment is pretty limited–fixed focal length, manual focus & exposure, black and white, no flash, 400 asa. So it’s been refreshing getting away from the technical aspects and exploring the image making process a little more. I’ve realized that I’ve gotten out of the habit of putting sufficient time into my newspaper assignments. Once I get a decent picture I’m usually ready to move on. But this assignment has helped me appreciate the art of patience. And developing a composition and an idea.
So the first subject is Matt Boyd of the Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas. As a phlebotomist, he was extracting blood at a local drive.
svgallery=lcc1
I was pleasantly surprised to have David Steadman contact me for another shoot for the UT publication, Focus On Science magazine.
The assignment was for another portrait of a professor. This time it was Lili Qui, a very sweet computer science professor who is working on a solution for wireless networking signals. Instead of having many central routers, her algorithms will allow a computer to pass on the signal, so one connection could serve an entire campus or village.
I took some inspiration from Loretta Lux for the portrait.
Al Gore was making a brief stop in Austin tonight to share his famous presentation on global warming–I’d seen the documentary but was still moved and informed by the end of the evening. During the presentation, I digressed somewhat and was thinking how America never would have invaded Iraq if Gore was elected inaugurated, and we’d be out by now if Kerry was elected. Not only that, we’d be tackling more noble challenges rather than becoming fearful and myopic on terrorism. But without getting too political, I’ll leave it at I think there are serious mounting issues (environmental, domestic, foreign policy, etc.) that demand more of our attention.
Also, I’m working on overhauling brettbuchanan.com. Here’s a sample of what a gallery may look like–a little more aesthetically pleasing and much quicker load time. I’d appreciate any feedback on the new look.
The ACL Fest was a great experience–my first time to shoot it–and loads o’ bands I was excited to see.
Throughout the three days, I managed to see/shoot: Blonde Redhead, Joss Stone, M.I.A., Spoon, Gotan Project, Bjork, Arctic Monkeys, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Arcade Fire, The Little Ones, Yo La Tengo, The National, Ben Kweller, DeVotchKa, Lucinda Williams, Regina Spektor, Wilco, Ghostland Observatory, and Bob Dylan. Whew, enjoy the images.
svgallery=acl
President Clinton was in town yesterday for a book signing at Book People.
I read the first 50 pages of his new book, Giving, between leaving my photo equipment to be searched and being pat down by The Secret Service. It seems to be a great resource for realizing that anyone can have an impact on the world’s problems. Clinton illustrates this with examples ranging from Bill and Melinda Gates to 6th graders organizing a beach cleanup.
His dedication to right is confirmed by Alan Greenspan’s new memoir, set to publish tomorrow, where he portrays Clinton as the hero of the Age of Turbulence and has less kind things to say about George W.
I’ve also been busy with ACL this weekend and a shoot for Kathy Hamrick Dance Company this afternoon.
svgallery=bill
