Friday 10-30

Halloween-eve. I walked past this guy in a delivery truck applying a mask. I assume he planned on driving around all day as a devil goatboy.

Really old woman standing next to me on a corner in Chelsea. Fuchsia socks, snazzy sandals and yellow-green tennis balls on her walker. She could barely hobble across the street.

Snaps #2

I can't sleep....

Flipping through photos I found these of an old friend who was a makeup artist. She was tall, dark and beautiful. I was worried her earlobe might rip through just as I was shooting.

I was standing in Nemo's barn and his horse kept sniffing my camera. I pointed it up, snapped a photo and noticed in the viewfinder that the horse's nose looked like some sort of alien face. Those big nostrils turned into eyes. It was creepy.

Fall has fell

Just back from Nemo's farm in Pa. Had a lovely time hanging out with his wife and 14 month old twin boys. Though, I have to admit, I never could have imagined the time involved with caring for twins. At that age you literally have to watch every single move they make. It's exhausting to the outside observer much less the one doing the watching. While they were busy I spent my time taking long walks either with their golden retriever Doolin or alone wearing "wellies" and squishing around in the soggy fields and bottom land. Once stopping to watch (and shoot) dew hanging on spider webs for 2 hours. One afternoon was spent shooting my expensive pellet gun and reading a few chapters of a book sitting on a very large fallen tree trunk. Another afternoon I walked the fence lines hammering exposed nails that had popped out of the weathered boards so their horses wouldn't gouge themselves. For a brief moment I felt like a ranch hand out there all alone. I even put together a child sized plastic shopping cart. A possible replacement for the upside down table and small metal trash can the twins are currently pushing around now. Nemo and Carol cooked great dinners every night and Sunday morning french toast. Every morning I grabbed both film and digital cameras and took a long walk snapping whatever caught my eye... The mist on the pond, the fall colors, the sky, various twigs and branches. I was in full "Eliot Porter" mode. Google him, it'll make sense. I shot mostly film which probably no one will ever see.

Yesterday my beloved Sony R1 crapped out. No power, no nothing...it's dead. I tried everything to no avail. These are a few of it's last images..... That little Sony was good to me. I'll have to go back to lugging around the heavy Canon until I can afford a new "snapshot" camera. Perhaps the cosmos will smile upon me with a brand new Lumix GF1 with a 20mm pancake lens. Now wouldn't that be nice?

Wake up and smell the pot roast!

Here's an entry likely to piss most everyone off.

Sometimes I'm embarrassed to be a human being. Sadly, this photo sums up the mentality of most people. Coney Island.

Humans are inherently selfish, destructive and greedy.

Here goes:

The single two worst things a you can do to the planet are: A. Have a child. B. Eat beef. This isn't really debatable except from a religious standpoint because facts are facts. Now, if you're overly religious like that moronic family in Arkansas "The Duggars" (who are about to have their 19th child), then there's no sense in even talking to you about kids and the impact they have on the earth. These "sheeple" are obviously too stupid and "bible brainwashed" to believe that having children is bad. Remember, "God told them to have all these kids".

Think having kids isn't bad? The earth has 8 billion people on it and it's growing rapidly. Go to this site and read. Scary stuff!

http://www.overpopulation.org/

Now let's look at some "meat" facts shall we?

* More than one third of the world’s grain harvest is used to feed livestock.

* The total cattle population for the world is approximately 1.3 billion occupying some 24% of the land of the planet. (these are 2004 statistics)

* Some 70 to 80% of grain produced in the United States is fed to livestock.

* Half the water consumed in the U.S. is used to grow grain for cattle feed.

* A gallon of gasoline is required to produce a pound of grain-fed beef.

* For every pound of red meat, poultry, eggs, and milk produced, farm fields lose about five pounds of irreplaceable top soil.

* The water necessary for meat breeding comes to about 190 gallons per animal per day, or ten times what a normal Indian family is supposed to use in one day, if it gets water at all.

* Hundreds of thousands of acres of tropical forests in Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras, to name just a few countries, have been leveled to create pasture for cattle. Since most of the forest is cleared by burning, the extension of cattle pasture also creates carbon dioxide, and, according to some environmentalists, contributes significantly to global warming.

* Beef is terribly inefficient as a source of food. By the time a feedlot steer in the United States is ready for slaughter, it has consumed 2,700 pounds of grain and weighs approximately 1,050 pounds; 157 million metric tons of cereal and vegetable protein is used to produce 28 metric tons of animal protein. … Beef in the quantities that Americans consume it is unhealthy, being linked to cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, breast cancer, and osteoporosis. Yet Americans are among the highest meat consumers in the world and the highest consumers of beef.

* McDonald’s has about 28,000 restaurants world wide, opening around 2,000 new ones each year.

It is the nation’s largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes, and the second largest purchaser of chicken.

It is the largest owner of retail property in the world.

It earns most of its money not from selling food, but from collecting rent.

It spends more on advertising and marketing than any other brand, replacing Coca Cola as the world’s most famous brand.

It operates more playgrounds than anyone else and is one of America’s largest toy distributor.

The number of people in this country [the United States] who are obese doubled from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Over one quarter of adults, and more than 12 percent of children in the US are obese.

President Bush signed a $190 billion farm bill. Under the 10 year program, taxpayers will pay farmers $4 billion a year to grow more corn. The people who benefit from the production of corn are not the farmers, but the processors, factory farms, snack and soft drink makers, who have switched from using sugar to corn sweeteners.

A study published a few years ago in Preventative Medicine notes that in Arkansas alone, 3 million pounds of chicken manure were fed to cattle in 1994.

Vegetarianism (or a large reduction in meat consumption) indirectly would help free up land for other uses such as growing food for others to eat as well—or in the case of beef consumption, help to reduce the pressures on natural forests such as the Amazon.

Vegetarianism (or a reduction of meat consumption etc) in an indirect way, could be a choice for those wishing to play a part in helping combat world hunger, environmental degradation etc.

Meat production produces more greenhouse gas emissions than transportation with direct emissions from meat production accounting for some 18% of world’s total. (This includes emissions generated from clearing forests and land, making and transporting fertilizer, burning fossil fuels in farm vehicles, and the front and rear end emissions from cattle and sheep.) By contrast, transport accounts for 13% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

You need 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat—2,500 gallons to generate a pound of meat.

Now, if you've actually read any of this you'll realize how horrible eating meat is. Personally, I haven't eaten beef or pork for over 30 years. If you do eat beef I suggest only eating it once or twice a month. Your arteries and the planet will benefit greatly from it.

Pretty-Scary

My friend LW called the other day and said she needed some new shots for her commercial portfolio. Today she came up to Stinkwood (Inwood) and brought a wedding dress and a business suit. My two LEAST favorite things to shoot on a woman. We took some pretty bridal looking snaps in front of my building in a nasty $20 dress her mother found at a thrift store. Then it was my turn, (we take turns, a shot for her, a shot for me). The thought of shooting wedding related photos gave me the dry heaves so I decided to take it to a darker place. I told her to lie on the ground like she had fallen down the steps. Much more interesting. I'm sure her agency will love these.

Pretty

Scary

Signs

A fast food restaurant in the village was closed down due to issues with vermin (rats & mice). The health department posted a sign and the locals added their own fun comments.

Click on image to enlarge:

These are the rules one is supposed to follow when riding New York's subway system. I see almost all of them broken every day. Especially the ones about lying down, begging and panhandling, riding between cars, carrying liquids, and most of all littering.

My day

I went to meet my friend Caroline and her son Oliver in Central Park yesterday. A crisp, blue sky, fall afternoon. She's a photographer as well and we sat and talked mostly about cameras and lenses and gallery shows. It's always nice to catch up with her. I took the train down and snapped a photo from the platform. I couldn't help think that this very scene, from this vantage point probably hasn't changed much in the past 50 years or so.

Late in the day the shadows were getting long and I snapped a photo of myself. Then I looked to my right and noticed a pigeon who appeared to be looking at his own long shadow. Ya think?

Black & White

Many scenes only seem to work in B&W. The flat, greenish tone of fluorescent bulbs in a diner robs so much of the beauty and mood of the image. One can't imagine an Irving Penn or Avedon portrait in anything other than black and white. Have you ever seen Ansel Adam's color work? Neither has anybody else. There's a reason, it's lifeless.

Speaking of beautiful black and white images, my great friend, mentor, and gifted photographer Nemo Niemann has a wonderful book entitled Vanishing Ireland available through Blurb. One glance makes you want to hop the first plane to Dublin. A wonderful coffee table book.

Diner, around 168th street

Laundry, Chinatown

Snappin Liberty

Smilers

Three Statues of Liberty. Battery Park, NYC

Uncomfortable sitting position?

Pastie reattachment while checking text messages. Coney Island

Bills bills bills. Stop the bleeding!

The Photos:

Recent editorial shoot. Excuse the poor reproduction quality.

The Rant:

I finished my taxes yesterday and thankfully 2008 sucked so bad I didn't have to pay as much in taxes as I had expected. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I did have a few disturbing revelations while looking over various bills searching for deductions. AT&T RAPED me for $1440 last year on my cell phone. Most of that was because I ran over my minutes and they charged me 45 cents for each additional minute. 45 cents? Doesn't take long to rack up a huge bill. They especially raked me over the coals when I was on my trips to WV and Vancouver and I called NYC. I was hit with exorbitant roaming charges. Such a ripoff. Then I looked over my health insurance bills. I paid out $320+ a month and never made a single claim. A month ago I went to the dermatologist. He did a basic exam and squirted some liquid nitrogen on two small sun damage spots on my cheek. I was in the waiting room longer than with the doctor. I paid my $50 co-pay and later got a bill from them for an additional $71. A routine checkup with insurance and I still got boned for $121. Great healthcare system we have.

Speaking of healthcare, this country has to do something fast, right or wrong. We have the best doctors and hospitals in the world but sadly the worst system. A close friend of mine said the other day that he didn't believe in a national health care plan because he didn't want to pay for everyone who doesn't pay for insurance. I sort of agree with that BUT, personally I don't want to pay for everyone who has kids. I chose not to have kids and don't want to pay for anyone else's. Parents run to the doctor every time little Noah or Emma sneezes. Not to mention the countless unneeded vaccines and examinations. The kid's temperature goes up 2 degrees and they're off to the doctor. I don't want to pay for that. I'd RATHER pay for some poor old man who lost his job rather than some stupid kid getting an unneeded antibiotic for a sore throat. I've made ONE claim in 10 years...I should be rewarded for that record by paying less. And parents of sneezing kids should pay MUCH more. The more kids you have and the more claims you make, the more you have to pay. Sliding scale. That'll put an end to all those stupid frivolous visits. Such bullshit.

Sadness

Remember: Click on photos to enlarge.

I aim my camera into the tangled textures, set the exposure and squeeze the trigger. Nature imitates Jackson Pollock....or vice-versa.

Sadness

Today I was on the A train and sitting across from me was a teenage Hispanic girl with red puffy eyes. She would reach up and lightly brush away each tear before it traveled half way down her cheek. She glanced from side to side to see if anyone was looking at her. I put on my sunglasses so I could watch without her knowing. If there was a vacant seat next to her, I would have sat down, offered her a Kleenex and asked if she was okay, hoping she would open up to a stranger and tell me why she was crying. I was so curious. I see someone crying on the street about once every two weeks. So far, they have all been women, with the exception of one drag queen on Christopher street.

Last year I experienced the deepest sadness of my life. It was a horrible time for me. One day I suddenly and unexpectedly started crying while walking down the street and I quickly ducked behind the pillar of a building. I was very self conscious and wondered for a millisecond if anyone who may have seen me was curious why a middle aged man was there alone, in a corner, sobbing into his hands. Had someone asked me, I would have gladly told them why, hoping that doing so would have alleviated some of the horrific pain I was feeling.

As I watched her I couldn't stop wondering what brought on such sadness. Did a relative die? Was she given horrific news regarding some medical procedure? Or, was it something as trivial (comparatively) as some high school boy breaking up with her, or some evil girl telling her she was too fat. Perhaps she was fired from Baskin Robbins. I guess sadness is all relative. I couldn't stop watching her, I was just so curious. At 125th street she stepped off the train and walked off into the crowd. Every time I see someone crying I wonder the exact same things.

Snaps

Scary blob, Staten Island ferry terminal

Migrant housing, cherry orchards Newfane New York

Sadly, it's come to my attention that apparently there are millions of male fish swimming the oceans without testicles. Please contact your local congressman.

Thak you

Paying my bill at a little Asian place in Soho I noticed this little dish near the cash register. I took out a small piece of paper and wrote "Here's a tip, learn to spell". I put it in the dish.

BYOToast

Sunday morning I walked to a restaurant about 7 blocks from me. It's more of a dinner place, but it has a nice brunch. It's sort of dark and funky with with big clunky wooded chairs and good food. Sadly, they play crappy elevator music that sounds like Kenny G, or smoooth jazz which makes me want to throw up pretty much everything I just ate. I really like the place but I need to wear earplugs while eating. I order 2 eggs over easy, potatoes, coffee and toast. I ask the waitress if I can get rye. She replies "No, sorry, we only have whole wheat". I said that was fine and waited for my meal. Quickly enough she brought my food. I looked down expecting some grainy, crunchy, thick, organic homemade whole wheat bread all buttery and hot. Nope, it's regular old bland whole wheat, like a loaf of Arnold. I'm perplexed. Why would you only offer whole wheat and NOT make it special? Who ONLY serves one kind of bread? And, not even white? I don't even like whole wheat, it tastes like cardboard.

I only like REAL maple syrup. Whenever I want pancakes or french toast I bring a small container of it with me to the restaurant. People stare at me in awe like I yanked a badger out of my bag when I pull it out, but I don't care. Aunt Jemima and Mrs Butterworth's are just flavored corn syrup and taste shitty.

Now, besides the syrup, I guess I'll have to bring my own bread everywhere and ask them to toast it for me. Does anyplace have real syrup and hearty good hearty bread? Maybe I need to move to Vermont.

More pictures please!

People don't read blogs.

If they see over 3 sentences their eyes glaze over.

I received an email request for a "pretty" picture.

Here's a nice photo of my painters pants and sandals....and my bathtub...and my friend.