Category Archives: Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Street Photography

August 1st, 2018 … How to See a Horse

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Ya know that rule about eye contact, being most important? Well, I was never one to follow rules too closely. Not that there’s anything wrong with it but sometimes I like my photos to just be observed. See the girl up above, yeah, the one in the white dress? Well, if I waited a fraction of a second, we would be locked in the eyes. I anticipated that and released before that happened. Why? Well, she’s got that mask thing on, she’s all alone in her world and I just observed her and made the photo. I suppose it’s not really like a detachment. I mean if she’s in her world and I’m in mine and I make a photo of her, am I intruding on and in her world.  Stuff like this haunts me all the time because i never really get an answer that fully answers the question once and for all.

Did you ever analyze your subject matter?  Did ya ever question why certain things turn you on and other things, ya don’t give a hoot about? Sounds like childs play and maybe ya think it is but I tellya, these are life altering questions. I think the way to work this is to anylize your images and find a common denometer that inks them.  OK, shhhhhhh… we are all serious about photography and our lives, granted. If you haphazzardly spread this stuff around, next thing ya know, the one you kinda donr’t really care about,  well that one will end up in a Museum and you’ll have to pay to see the work. So we keep this under wraps and even Mueller can’t figure this out.

The novice would think we are talking about trigger mechanisms. We are in a way but it don’t weigh enuff. We all know that the trigger mechanism lives inside the photo and perhaps that made us click the shutter. Hold on folks, just a min….I am losing myself. da da la de da… there I am…  See, the difference is this….subject matter is already a choice that sleeps in your eye, heart and mind. Your job and the job of your Named camera, is to respond to outside stimulus and then and only then let the trigger set the shutter for the photo.  So I think where we need to get clarity, and I speak, no…sorry I write about this because there seems to be a bit of confusion on the area of photography.

Probably most of us can anaylize our intent ansd subject matter.  It’s like this. If we look at a horse long enough, we still see a horse. Walk around like those blind Priest and the elephant. No matter what you do, you will see a horse. Partially because we are programed to see things and apply tags to them quickly. So, a horse is a horse of course a horse will always be a horse, of course. If you don’t believe me ask Mr Ed. Ya don’t trust a horse, ask Wilber. See, our mind as powerful as it is, has preconceptions and other things in there to boggle it. If we look at a horse and see a horse, we fit in to the mass of society and we never need think any different. We are in the safety zone of no questions and need no answers. It’s acceptable and down right proper. What’s my point? ok…..

As a photographer, wait… as an inhabitant of this planet we all love and destroy together it’s socially and photographically to see a horse as a horse. BUTT!

When I see a horse, I want to know it’s name. I love the brown coat and the way he stands, so proud, even while making a dumping. I love the white patch that he has between the eyes. I wonder if he’s married and even has kids. I wonder what the horse is thinking about as he looks at me. I think his name is Ralph, Ralph the horse. So noble. Why on earth would anyone just see a horse? Hold on now. This might be crazy and from me, youse know it could be. Wait a darn minute. I just had a brain, ummm well… thought. Not very often but i learned to pay attention.

What if and I know this is a stretch, what would happen if we all looked at our subject matter and didn’t just see a horse?  What if we really tried to feel our subject matter from our Eye, Heart and Mind? What if Edmund Bacon was right? What if we looked at our scenes on the streets and the people being affected and affecting the environment. What if we didn’t see a horse at all and we just saw Ralph the horse that is smarter than I?

If we get bold enough, nah… what if I get bold enough and go out with Andre’ the Leica M240 and look for photos and break the patterns of thoughts and emotions and seek to find out there what dwells in me.

Dreamcatcher, Street, Street Photography

July 29th, 2018 … Edmund Bacon … The Haunting … The Peace

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There are times I’d like to be alone on the streets working. I don’t mean the civilians out there, I mean the ones in my heart and mind. I appreciate the company but they are not benign forces of energy. One such case is Edmund Bacon.

I suppose I should backtrack a little, well more than a little. I was working on a project of making portraits of American artist. Things were going along well, and one day one of the directors of the AIA  (American Institute of Architects) said I should do many of the architects ans other interesting people. On the list was Edmund Bacon.

So I finally got up the nerve and called Edmund. He invited me down to his home on Locust Street. We sat on these chairs made by an artist but I don’t remember the name. He invited me up to his library. He showed me these big blue books. He had the plans for City Hall, the Expressway, Logan Circle, The Acrch in Paris, something from London etc. Ed was explaining to me that people need to learn to adapt and learn to live in the environment and not adapt the environment to people.

Gimme a few and I’ll explain how photography is linked to this. Anyway Ed and I spent time together and sent info back and forth between us. (My ex wife Deb was with me most times and was a big help. That was then and this is now)  Ed asked me to do a project with him. It was to make a book called. “The Murder Of The Little Stream”.  We made 2 copies and I have one. No idea about the other.  WE would walk thru center city and he would show me places he designed, like Three Bears Park. I would make snaps with Andre’ the Leica M4. One day he said to me, your a great photographer but why do you never look up? I didn’t really have a good solid answer so I just said, I didn’t know there was an up.

See the buildings Don, the way they cut the sky. See the way they work together in shapes and the reflectance of light.  Look at the shades of black and gray and light tone. See the way the color works or opposes each other. See the telling of time. Some are many years old and some are young. See the difference in building materials. The windows Don, amazing how there are so many and many different shapes and styles and functions.

Ed was gracious with his patience and time with me. He looked at many of my photos and told me that the way I incorporated the environment with the people was exactly what he felt good art should do. I was nothing less than flattered. Ed had a way of explaining things that he helped extract from my mind that some was in there.  What he said was that if a teacher teaches with the idea that the student is blank, then the teacher is reinforcing the absence of knowledge.  If on the other hand the teacher teaches the student and the student realizes that they in some way know some of the info, the student applies their mind to extract the info.  This makes the student work and not feel like a tomato brain.

What could I learn from a world reknowed City Planner? Ya know I wondered about that as I walked around making photos. Funny, sometimes I’d look up at buildings and  the way they and people interact together. Don’t call me crazy if you see me stand next to a building, close my eyes and place my hand against it. Yea, yea, I bet you didn’t know that buildings talk. If you close your eyes and place a hand on a wall, you can hear and feel the energy talking to you. Bullcrap right? It’s ok, scientist detect earthquakes the same way.

There was a lot more in our time together. I’m not gonna mention Nancy Grace fro US Steel or the Compass Rose in the very center of Phila. No, you won’t get that from me. And don’t think for a moment that when Ed told me about Kevin’s Movie “Murder In The First Degree” that he cried cause he felt his son so completely invested in the movie. I’m not telling you that.

I used to walk alone amongst the civilians and make photos. Now I don’t feel alone anymore and I feel my place in the microcosm of the city. I’m an observer with a camera not alone at all but a part of life and a part of the scenes that I m attracted to. We become a total of the growing input of love and hate and knowledge that out friends and family and the world send to us.

I speak of the Moment and the here and now and it’s a life long quest to be there. Ed taught me something so much more important. Ed taught me to be in the moment of the here and now but with everything and everyone with me. Even if you don’t pay attention to it or them, they all deserve equal illumination.

Remember George Harrison   Life goes on within and without you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Bacon_(architect)

 

Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Street Photography

June 3rd, 2018 … Legend of The Girl Child Linda … Cont’d

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             ( the photos are from 10-13 years ago but they reflect my thoughts for this post)

….so as Linda and I walked away from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she asked me how I really felt about the memorial and everything going on. She asked again why I don’t make photos there also. Linda, photography is essentially for me. Maybe it’s my guide on the path to redemption. Maybe it gives me some kind of peace of mind and perhaps, it eases my heart and mind. When I come to the Memorial, I’m not here for me, I’m not seeking anything but the visual evidence of lost lives

So, once again she ask me why is my photography all work and no joy.  Ok, the thing is this. Many young people are very smart. They may even be very perceptive. Us oldens are put on the earth to advise the youngin’s about the ways of the world. It’s a natural course of being. So, when a youngin ask questions that may challenge the olden’s, worlds could shake and stuff. Not kiddin’. Well, for sure, the olden’s mind needs to wake up and start putting petrol in the thinking motor.  Maybe she is right and I need to slow down and smell the flowers. I mean I do many things for many people and I love it. I can’t and won’t stop that. I ask Linda, what she thinks I should do. (I don’t need an answer really cause I’ll do things my own way, that’s the only way worth dying for and that means it’s the only way worth living for)

Linda says, you know that little camera you have in your pocket all the time? I said, you mean the Sony? I always have that with me cause it’s so small and light and does everything.  She says, maybe you should just use that and  feel light like a tourist and just enjoy photography. (ok, so my brian is present and not on vacation. Methinks the kid just might have an idea.) The problem is that I like to work with a focused intent. Regardless of how the photos are liked or disliked, I just need to be able to look at them and stand by them as if my children.

EPSON DSC Picture

So she tells me, maybe forget all you teach to others and just let yourself make photos because it’s fun and you can. So I agree with her and myself to lighten the load physically and emotionally and try to, actually, just enjoy the act of seeing and using the little Sony RX100 v. The photos in the previous post were all made with that camera. I named it Dad when I got it cause a Dad can do anything like the Sony. My Dad died 62 years ago when I was 6yo. So, hence the name for the camera.

She told me she was meeting some friends for lunch and I was invited to go along. I quickly rejected the idea and told her, I will walk the streets a little and reflect on things. I handed her Garry the Olympus Pen-F  and told her to use it until her camera arrives on Wednesday. She said no thanks cause we never know when we will meet again. I agreed. We hit Chestnut street and 2nd and we parted company. I walked around and just was a tourist in my own city and make some snaps with the Sony. In a minute my iPhone rings, I see the name and hmmmm. Hullo,  Hi, it’s Linda, I’ll call you when the camera arrives. Ok, thanks for everything, …..silence……………

I have always stood by the fact that, We are all tourist in this world, no one gets a permanent Visa.

(a side note worth expressing. There is a Senator that’s dying. People feel sorry for him. I don’t. I hope when he dies, he doesn’t go to Hell or Heaven. I hope he goes to the place where all the POW/MIA are from every war we ever had or ever will have. I want him to face these troops and explain to them why he didn’t do anything to bring them home.)

Dreamcatcher, Inspired Eye, Street Photography

June 2nd, 2018 … Legend of the Girl Child Linda … Cont’d

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…. I’m tired and burnt out. Lack of sleep again and the nightmares that have haunted my time to rest for decades, taking it’s toll. It’s Memorial Day and I need to get down to the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial.  Hey, don’t even think about me being a one day a year advocate or supporter. I live this every single moment of my life. The POW/MIA issue is first and foremost on my agenda of living. So, don’t even think I’m a one day a memory guy.

…chuga chuga chuga, the RT67 is pulling up and exactly on time.  I get on the bus and swipe my Drivers License and the fair is paid. Bus is not full cause people are celebrating the  holiday.  I get ready to sit and I hear a voice call to me…”Don, back here”…..I turn to look and low and behold, it’s the Girl Child Linda. She’s sitting in the very back of the bus. So, I smile and slowly walk to her with the Frank Sinatra strut. Nah, kidding, more John Wayne… giggles.

I sit next to her and we greet each other and immediately, any ice is melted.  Linda sees my camera around my neck and ask me what it is. I reply, it’s the Olympus Pen-F with the 12mm sees 24mm. She looks at it and I hand Garry the Oly Pen-F to her. First thing she says is, oh my, it’s so small and light. She ask me if it’s named after Garry Winogrand. I smile and say, no way, it’s naed after Garry the fish guy at the fish store. He can can gut and clean a weakie in 11 seconds. I figure any man that can do that deserves to have my camera named after him.  11 seconds, he’s won every fish gutting competition world wide for at least 6 weeks. I’m smiling, see I love when someone just takes the bait and goes for it.

 

Linda shoves her shoulder against my side. I said, Winogrand for sure. So, I show her some things about the camera and her eyes are glistening. She loves the EVF and the tilt screen. The art filter knob kinda went over the top. So she starts looking thru the finder and ust grabs her vith the FOV and DOF. I put the 25mm 1.8 on and she sees that and now it’s all over. She ask me if it’s a good camera. I replied, ya know how ya buy a camera and fall in love and then sell it cause another camera gets your heart? She smiles, yes. Well, this is my 3rd copy of this camera. So, her iPhone goes to work and she gets to B&H and orders the camera, and some lenses and a battery. 2 minutes and she says, I’ll have it all on Wednesday.  Will you help me get it set up and running? Sure.

Linda ask me where I’m heading and I tell her the Memorials. She smiles and ask if she can accompany me. Sure. She says she’s going to see her Grandfather’s name on the wall. I know too many people on the wall but I go because it’s hallowed ground for me. There will be many there and all kinds of ceremonies. She ask if I take pictures there and I reply, not really. I bring my camera here in case of some fight or vandalism etc. Then I make photos. She looks at me as if she understands and respect my feelings.

We now are exiting the bus and boarding the train. We grab a seat and I tell her to sit by the window.   I hand her Garry the Olympus Pen-F and she starts looking thru him and I can sense excitement. She starts flippin’ thru the menu and tells me that this camera has so many options. Options, is that what you call it? I call it, Points of Confusion but your right, it has many options.

Linda ask me a question, why do you always call your photography, work? I tell her, it’s my life’s work and always was and will be. It’s not your life’s joy? If it’s always work, what do you do for the joy of it all? I can’t answer this so quickly because I need to reflect on it all. I need to formulate an answer that will be truth and at the moment and many moments in the past, maybe i don’t see or even know the truth anymore. Perhaps she has triggered a key element in my stance and essence of it all.

Finally we get to the Memorail and we walk to the names on the wall. I know many but interested in seeing the one that means the most to her. She walks to the name of her Grandfather and puts her hand on it and moves closer and kisses it. Many cameras are clicking away. Mine is still and just holding everything in reverance.  ….a tap on my shoulder, a voice speaks, Don, good too see you brother. It’s an old friend, Rob. You gonna introduce me to your daughter? Immediately Linda, with some tears in her eyes says, oh, we are just close friends. Rob smiles and then hugs me and then Linda and salutes and say’s he’ll call me later.

Linda takes my hand and then I say, let’s go. She ask why I didn’t make any photos and I told her I don’t need to. This place for me is a Center Point of Sorrow and Loss. Not from the people that visit and not for the people whose names are on the wall. It’s a constant reminder that the Gov’t and people of the country not only have forgotten the soldiers, lost and POW/MIA and those on the walls all over the country, not forgotten but disregarded.

So she’s smart enough to switch the subject and she ask me, again about my difference between work and joy.

The answer to her question is in my next post and hopefully no later than Monday, perhaps sooner.

Be blessed all and I have started the next post… have a blessed weekend …………. shooter out…..

 

Dreamcatcher, Leica, Philosophy of Street, Street Photography

March 27th, 2018 … The Streets … Casual Encounters

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Try as I may, I can never figure out how the visual weather effects my work. I get all excited and have a plan and location to work and the minute I get on the bus, I can’t remember my name. Another good reason to name your camera and keep it as a friend. Here’s something that happened a few weeks ago.

I had 9 people in a Saturday morning lecture. Suzanne and Polly and 7 others. They start passing prints around so we all can see what’s going on. Then Brant and that’s his name, starts sitting back in the chair, taking deep breaths and says the remark that puts rocket fuel up my butt. “I’ve seen that a 1000 times.” He looks at some more prints and makes remarks like the previous and like, “you have a good eye, you just can’t see with it.” Then Suzanne hands him some prints and he glances to me as he starts looking at her prints.

So Brant starts making commments and again states, “I’ve seen this 1000 times.” Suzanna kicks my leg under the table to come to her defense but I was anyway without the reminder. So I ask the group to turn the prints upside down and to eliminatte distractions so we can chat. So I ask a question to Brant.

Brant, do you have any books around. Have you ever seen books in a store, a shelf, a library or anyplace? He looks at me in his A-Typical smug fashion. Of course Don, I’m not stupid, so what? Books vary in in size, thickness, color, covers, paper, pages and may other things. All these things add in to make a book exciting and beautiful and interesting but…..

The essence, the heart and soul of a book is the words. The words are the lifeblood of books. It’s what makes the same catalyst become singularly unique.

So maybe you have 1000’s of books, byt each is unique because of content. Photos work the same way and so does many things in life. People are the exact same. Photos generally are on paper of a size and stock from a box from a mill that makes it. What makes a photo unique is the single simple fact that the photographer made it. Looking at photos or words is the exact same thing. The difference is in the syntax of the language.

Photography, especially street is about chance encounters. We travel around, and seem to click from time to time and find a photo or the photo finds us. The encounter is what makes our single breath at the moment of realization and exposure totally unique. Brant, if you placed your camera on a tripod and made 1000 photos without changing position, no two would ever be the same. It’s just like books, all have similar appearance and construction but no 2 are ever the same. This in fact is true with an edition. If you look closely, there are things that make them different. This is not about the details but the obvious.

 

So the conversation goes around for a bit and Brant says to me. Don. that’s all just obvious and no need to lecture about that.

I take a breath and said…. Brant, you know why you don’t have a boyfriend, because you see everyone as if you’ve seen them 1000s times and you never see the heart that makes anyone unique.

Be blessed everyone …. shooter out……

Dreamcatcher, Photography, Street Photography

February 28th, 2018 … Vietnam … Lost Souls, Humanity Found and a Leica M4

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Chu Lai beach, 112f, the scent of sally joints permeates the hot dry air. I’m lying on my back joint in my lips, the young bloods music playing loud. Most of us are in the water, swimming or surfing or just trying to forget what they remember.

“Hey, I’m looking for jingles” I answer, what for. I open my eyes and this guy looking like Brad Pitt before Brad Pitt looks like himself is leaning over me. I been assigned to 2 squad and I’m to bunk next to you. Says his name is Ken. I’m jingles or Don. I tell Ken to get to his boxers and enjoy free time cause 2 days, we in the shit again. Ken goes to the hooch and comes back in a few minutes and has a Ricoh TLS or something. He ask if it’s okto take pictures. Now I know why they put him next to me.

Some girls are working the guys and one comes over an lays on top of me. I know her well. Ken is looking at her cause she’s French Vietnamese and about as fine a woman as ever was. She whispers in my ear. “he baby”. I smile and tell her I pay. The fee is $5.00 and $2.00 credit fee. The girls know us and trust us to pay later in the day.

She slides over to Ken and climbs on top of him. Slips her hand in Ken’s boxers. I looked at his face and saw the sun in one eye and the moon in the other. It took Ken about 30 sec to release. She hugs him, kissed his neck, kisses his lips, lays close on him and tells him, I love you baby. About 15 min later, she takes her silk dress off and Ken’s boxers. A few guys and me watched as she took his boyhood away and made him feel like a man. She rolled over to me and said 10 dollar baby.

Ken said to me Don, that’s the first time I did it. Ken, in your life you will never find a woman that can be your angel like her. He looked at me like, a lost boy. Ken, we are walking corpses. Our souls are lost, humanity is a word. At 20, I learned there exist things worse than death. That girl makes me feel like I am alive, like I want to be alive.  That girl accepts me no matter who I am or what I do. She is the angel of love and mercy, for all of us.

Ken told me hid dad owned  a few banks. He wanted Ken to come to Nam and be a hero so when he came back to the bank, it would draw a lot of business. Ken made me promise something. He told me that if he didn’t make it to mail the letter in his pocket to his dad. I wonder how he knew he wouldn’t make it and how he knew I would.

A few days later we had to do a sweep of the village. It was just our 2 squad. We at the time were 11. We were looking for activity by VC. So we sitting smoking cigs and breathing. Then we heard a girl crying and screaming.  We all ran to her defense. Then we stopped in our tracks as this girl squatted  and gave birth to a baby. We were all so used to the taste, smell and feelings of death that this miracle took hold of us and unarmed us. Chuck, our medic went to her aide. He also was on his 4th tour and could speak Vietnamese. He talked with the girl and she said she was 14 2 days ago.

She said the VC came to the village an killed her 2 brothers and father. They took her and her sister and 4 of them raped them many times. She never saw her sister again. Her mother told her to leave because she can’t afford to take care of her and a baby. Mother told her to go and never come back. Kissed her good by and that was it. (14, dammit, 14, she delivered at 14, what does that mean?)

Then we heard a shot ring out. We all hit the ground. Chuck covered the girl and the baby. One shot, we knew it was a sniper. Roger had the M79 and looked up in a tree and fired. The canopy exploded and something  fell with the leaves and branches. The partial remains of the sniper. Medic,  Medic….calls out we run over to where the call comes from ….. son of a bitch, first out 10 days in country, first sex with an angel, the sniper chose Ken because no helmet on. East target. I looked at Ken humped over, head and face mangled. We stood around and kinda hurt and maybe saying prayers privately. I reached in Ken’s pocket as he asked me and put the letter in mine. It occurred to me that we found what we were looking for. VC activity, Ken paid the price and the girl, the aftermath of the VC rapes.

We got back to home as we called it an and we put the girl and baby on Ken’s bunk. Chuck said that we should call the girl Gai, meaning sister. For everyone of us, Gai was our sister. We took care of her and the baby and she took care of us. She would come lay with one of us after a while. NO SEX EVER! It was finding humanity and she needed to as much as we did. We got the MPs to give her ID as a civilian worker and she was safe on base. When we came back from a mission, the hooch had flowers all around, was clean, and a real feeling of life.

I sent the letter to Ken’s dad and I wanted to write my letter to him also. I couldn’t, because I had never with all I been thru or would, ever hated anyone as much as Ken’s dad. I wrote a small note that said….. I hope your satisfied that now you have your hero back home.

If you need to ask what these memories have to do with my photography, well……..

….oh, my Leica M4….. no film for  2 weeks.

Dreamcatcher, Philosophy of Street, Street Photography

January 23rd, 2018 … Finding the Un-lost … or … (put your title here)

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….. don’t start that crap. It’s real easy to go out there and look for new places to work. It’s stimulating and exciting for sure. It’s like everything is seducing your senses and all you can do is see the magic in front of you. We are like virgins in front of Mother Light. Standing proud and tuned into the oneness of it all. The photos come to us as we become more and more aware of the newness of seeing and feeling. The camera, (you do name your camera, don’t you) ready to make the exposures just as perfect and articulate as can be.

Your a street shooter, there ain’t nothing better in the world. After a walk around, you breathe deep knowing that there, there on the card in the camera, lives the images you saw. made and are excited about to bring to life. Maybe Frankenstein felt this way making his creation come to life. You did it, be proud of yourself, you made photos of the easy side of the street.

What shooter? You best explain yerself old man. What’s this easy side of the street? Well, we all have mental blocks to deal with. Everyone. Maybe you don’t like to address it, or allow others to know you have a block, or maybe be in denial, but we all fall to the cutting edge of the executioner of our creative self.

I remember being 13yo and working with my Grandfather doing hardwood floors. We would come home for lunch and pop would sit in his big chair with 2 arms so he could rest. I’d sit across from him on the sofa and pop would say as he watched television, look at this Donald, it’s like being in Hawaii and in 10 min we will be in Japan, and never have too leave the chair.  Now I’m 68 and I often wonder what I would have done in Hawaii, which I have been too, and Japan and a number of other places that I visit thru other shooters and television etc. I often wondered if I would have made a great body of work and been happy enough to die for.

Then, my mind wakes up and my feelings stir and that itch in my eye gets going and my finger longs for Andre’ or on other other family members…… to be close by. My feet kinda vibrate, it’s not the tremors but the energy that is building. I sit resisting the call and trying to stop myself from succumbing to the call of the streets. My heart rate raises some and my breathing is getting rapid. My thoughts of Hawaii and Japan leave my mind. I start to get peace and tranquility in the knowledge that soon, in just a little while, the exhaust of the traffic, the junkies and the working people, the young men walking around talking together, the woman, seemingly frustrated and inside abused somehow, still radiate the beauty Mother Nature has instilled in them. The homeless that most know me by now as I share what funds I have so we all can eat a little. They trust me because I respect them and don’t care if they respect me.

I am home on the streets. I am home in Philly. I am a tourist thru life, we all are tourist thru life. No one gets a permanent visa. I make photos because otherwise I’d be watching the world go by and not even know I was a part of it.

I admire tourist. They come to Philly and most follow the beaten path set before them for many decades. They find the photos that keeps the memory alive for them when they leave and move on.

I wonder how many photos have been made of the Liberty Bell. I wonder how many variations on a theme there is. I wonder how it’s possible to think that anyplace but home could be better to live and work. Even if you move, in time the new place becomes home.

I guess in my own silly way, I wear ruby slippers. When I go to work, I just have to tap them 3xs and say,

There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home, ……….. it’s not about saying it, it’s about living it with a camera in my hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreamcatcher, Philosophy of Street, Street Photography

January 16th, 2018 … The Eye, Heart & Mind … and something else but I forget

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Suzanne called me and wanted to meet. That’s always a pleasurable experience for me, well both of us., and I was anxious to see her.  So I went to her home on Spruce Street and  we sat and had coffee. Now. Suzanne is a Starbucky kinda lady and has a few of their rot gut dead burnt beans in the house. She also has Pure Natural Organic Kona beans cause I gave it to her for when I am there. She makes me a cup of kona and  she makes herself a cup of rotgut starbucky crapola.  Then she says….Mr Don…at tihs point I know I’m there to work cause when she addresses me as Mr Don, it’s work. She ask me to sit at the dining room table and brings over a box of prints.  So the box has around 120 prints with sizes from 8×10 to 16×20. She looks me in the eyes and says, “your my mentor, my friend and my teacher, make sense of all this”. Ain’t enuff Kona in my cup to get me into doing this, but I have to.

So, I tell Suzanne that we need to re-experience the frame of heart and mind from exposure to now.  Now THE LORD blessed Suzanne with aa amazing heart, brilliant mind and a very clinical way to look at things. She’s a Heart Doctor and excellent at that. This causes her to look at photos more as her patients than the new reality that they are.

We start going thru the prints and I’m curating as I go. I know her and she’s a gentle lady with the heart of a Tiger. I also know that I don’t want to hurt her feelings in a ny manner. If I do the edit hard, she maybe gets upset cause photo’s she cares about are not selected. If I go to easy she will know and thinks I was just doing this to satisfy her. So I decide to just be myself and edit the way I feel it should be.

I pull the 4 16×20’s and look closely. I tell her that the size is wrong for the image. We don’t make large prints cause we can. We make the print to preserve the intimacy and content of the image. We are going deep into the box of prints. They are calling to me for attention. Suzanne sees me diving into her heart and mind and ask me if I’m hungry. My ears perk up and I calmly tell her, of course. See Suzanne makes amazing sushi and it’s better than any restaurant I ever been too. So she’s making sushi and maki and I”m being diligent with her work going thru it very carefully. There are like 10 photos on the third pass thru that continually call attention. We stop to eat and sip some saki at exactly 105F because she’s true Japanesse and insist on tradition.

Now is the moment of reckoning. It’s the moment that she has commissioned to me and the moment of truth for me that shines if I flatter her or get real.  We sit together on the floor. We are looking at prints. I lay 10 in a pile next to her. She looks at me and has that Suzanne loves don as long as don is kind and doesn’t hurt her feelings. That’s not exactly true, more like I have a fathers look to his daughter and just wants her happy.

That’s really the issue here. Do I just paint a pretty picture or do I stand my ground and as a friend, explain my real thoughts? I opt for the 2nd scenario.  She ask me which pile of prints is really worthwhile to represent her. I  point to the 10 and she kinda gets set aback but not visually upset. She ask why just 10 and what do they posess that the others don’t? I explain that when anyone looks a a photo, if you see the scene or whatever is in it, then it may be a great photo but not representative of the eye, heart and mind.

If you look at a photo and see and feel the shooter in the photo, that’s it! She gets quiet for a few moments. Then she says, Don I remember these 10 specifically and how present I was in the moment. It’s like I was in a state of consciousness that was heightened. In my country and my family, we would call this Zen. When this happens to me, I feel like BUDDHA is with me. Well, that is an amazing observation and experience.

I told her that was the reason I selected those 10 prints. She smiled and said she understood completely. I knew that she did. She mentioned to me that she wanted to work how I work. I said she is too young and too refined and elegant to do anything like me. Not in the visual elements but in the intent. My intent is that I am me, I work for me, I show photos because I like to. I am not trying to impress anyone. I am a photographer all my life because I have to.

Suzanne is a fine photographer, 28 years my younger so I feel she needs to experience all that her life will bring to her. The experience was very rewarding to both of us. I love to learn what I teach and I love to gteach what I learn. Most of all, her sushi is amazing……

Peace all, be blessed and never, ever doubt yourself.

Dreamcatcher, Philosophy of Street, Street

January 2nd, 2018 … The Journey To The Land of Inspiration … Thanks to Marie Laigneau

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Happy New Years everyone, may you be blessed and have good light.

It started around mid December last. I was kinda just going along but not really inspired and not really caring either. The weather is changing and it’s bitter cold. I hate the cold but love to work in it. Go figure, My elder friends call this an elder moment. That’s a good excuse as any and I seek not to improve that. Anyway, when I get this winter doldrum going, even in warm weather, I kinda have a bug up my butt.  That’s the get your lazy ass out and go work bug.  So the issue is, not that I am aware that I am having a dry season but that I can’t dock in the slip of complacency. The boat of fruitful, emotional, and productive travels, will not rest nor will it ever seek port at the island of lazy and discontent.

So the journey for personal inspiration was under way. I suppose youse alls noticed my absence. I have been on a journey with no destination or goals. I know enough at my age to realize that any journey really is within oneself. I traveled thru the land of lost creativity, the land of sorrows of forgotten images. As I moved forward on my journey for inspiration, I came across the vallet of tears. Here, in the valley, the cliffs on either side are covered with the photos that have escaped the moment of capture. I saw a shadow of Andre’ the Leica M240 in between the boulders. I felt sad. He was just there with no love, no use and he cried out to me….”Shooter, we all love you, we all miss you”..and he faded into the unknown. I needed the guidance and the sheer strength of heart of Atreyu….but alas, he was busy fighting the nothing. I thought I was on my own.

I ventured into the library of forgotten thoughts. It had been a sourse of nourishment for my heart and soul for decades. I felt empty and untrusting of what could be.  I sat back and thought about how to solve the riddle of inpriration. I started to look at the Inspired Eye magizines. See. as co-publisher of the mag, I have every issue. Yes, it’s made to inspire and it was doing that with me.

Now get this straight. It matters not where your inspiration comes from, just that you recognize it and activate it. I saw an interview that I did with a woman shooter. I realized she was my….

Childlike Empress (Moon Child). There was a time when this woman was unjustly juudged by some shooters. I was enraged and came to her defense immediately. This was some time ago. I am not saying she is a hero of mine just a woman that makes photos I relate to. In fact, at this time I related to her work more than my own. That’s inspiration. Her name is and I hope she doesn’t get upset with me is Marie Laigneau marielaigneau.com The nice thing about being old is that I am not uptight about giving credit to others. Anyway, I saw some recent photos she made and the there was one like a selfie with her Leica in the reflection. Don’t ask wy but all the sudden, I felt a weight lifted that was bearing down on me for weeks.

 

The point is that regardless of what we feel or believe, we really are not alone. In this time of isolation and dispair, Marie came to my rescue and she never even knew. We need to keep an open mind, heart and eye so that we continue to evolve as humans with a camera. We all, well we all that are real with things have down times. I even teach this in my private workshops. I find it delicious that a person I never really met and have had little web contact with can throw a life raft to me in the sea of sorrows and lost inspiration and not even know she did it. That is poetry of living.

So I thank you all for being here and wish everyone a Blessed Happy New Year. Marie, maybe you will never know how you saved me but I wish you all the best and a safe journey thru your life.

Take care my friends and if you get lost or bored or even tired, someplace is your inspiration and you need not go to far to find it.

Dreamcatcher, Fujifilm

December 15th, 2017 … The Street Shootin’ Bluez

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Try as I may, I am unable to get thru the street shootin’ bluez. If I was jammin’ my Strat, I’d be happier than a pig in, um…dewdoo.  But the truth of the matter is, I’m on my cameras and not my guitars and the music I’m seein’ ain’t too sweet.

Many years ago, I was with my friend Paul in NYC. We were out shooting and Paul said to me that the streets were like Jazz. Many teach and believe that but I don’t. The streets to me are more like Rock, may Classical at times but I never felt Coletrane out there. Paul thought that was an interesting observation and we continued on our journey to find some photos. Myself, I’m a bluezman and rock is maybe secondary. When I was young my younger brother Jerry, got me into Pink Floyd. Next to bluez, Pink Floyd reached deep inside of me and grabbed a hold of my soul.

Why do I mention all this? Well, in my interviews, I ask about music and if the participant listens to it while working. Here’s some of what I’m trying to express. If I watch CNN or BBC etc and then go out to work, can I really assume any of that info willl not have an effect on my responses and choices in my work? How about if I listen to Sibilius or Vaughn Williams or Copeland or Respighi, will that classical music not have any effect? How about Pink Floyd or The Stones, or U2 or anyone, will that not have an effect?

I think what I am dealing with is, Information Implanting.

Here’s how I see it and maybe some others will agree, probably high end advertising execs. Info etc gets planted in our brains. It activates when there is a trigger that forces a reaction. It’s the old action/reaction that is at work. You have info in your brain and the when your working, something triggers that receptor and it seeks to equal or at least tickle the info inside.  So I often wonder which is the stronger influence, the trigger or the effected.

The issue here is not just the music or the visual elements or anything that is inside us. In fact, emotional impact is maybe the strongest and that we can’t define very well. If this is influencing the selection and aqusition of our images, well then what of the streets? This phenomenon is not limited to the streets. The ony genre’ of photography that it does not effect is Porn. With porn, the subject matter reacts to the camera and the camera get’s it’s drive from the lower head of a man. With a woman, the jury is still out and I spent over 60 years trying to figure that out.

So it seems to me that if things off photography like music and movies etc, have a draw oti fluence on the triggers that give us the drive to make photos, so does the scenes, people, light, sounds, smills etc on the street of life. For me, I am in center city Phila more then anyplace else. What happens and OI became aware of this maybe 35-40 years ago, is that I am oversaturated with the commonality of my environment. I remember the mens clothing store at 11th & Market. I remember the beautiful lady that decorated the window displays. I remember making a photo of her doing that and giving her a print.

Now when I get to 11th & Market, it’s totally different but my triggers are working and longing for that blonde and the clothing store. It seems that everything moves on and we are plagued as photograohers to seek new vision, nnew triggers and new thoughts and ideas for the present.

Maybe the point is, that all these things are special and all these things both past and present live inside us. Not only do they live inside us but they make us and they make our journey thru life with a camera, most notable and most worthwhile.

We as photographer’s have the ability to show what the world looked like while we were here and the ability to show it thru our own unique vision.

Let not others, regardless of their intentions, and ability to steer you from your vision, have that much effect on you. It’s the world as you see it and when your gone, your photos will effexct those that follow you and your photos will be implanted in their mind and vision and so on and so on and so on…..