Why?

I can’t imagine a more interesting, frustrating or life altering question. Of all the questions, especially asked of myself, ones starting with why are the most difficult to answer…

Why did you just do that?
Why do I look like this?
Why is the sky blue?
Why didn’t I take that exit?
Why can’t I?
Why am I sick?
Why did this happen?
Why do I hate them so much?
Why did I just do that?
Why do I waste my breath?
Why can’t they do that?
Why do I love you?
Why can’t they just go away?

And the proverbial …

Why did the chicken cross the road?

All these frustrating why’s have now lead me to roll my eyes and ask, why did I take this picture?

Image Credits

The Photograph ‘Why” Is © Marco Zecchin

Guest Author Bio

Marco Zecchin
Father, fine art photographer for over 40 years and commercially specializing in Architectural and Interior Design photography for the last 26.

Every photograph has a story that I share on my web site and on-line gallery at www.marcozecchin.com

Blog / Website: http://marcozecchin.com

Follow Marco Zecchin on: Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin

Why? is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

It seems to me that there is an unfortunate coming together of events that seriously threaten our notion of art, culture and aesthetics. The Bush administration’s eight year pillaging of middle class assets, the proliferation of computer based artistic tools, the demotion of arts within schooling, the media’s shrinking of vocabulary and the corporations’ crocodile awareness that it is easier to sell to a consumer whose attention span is limited to a few seconds, has lead us to the brink of an unparalleled second-rateness.

If this was merely a temporary hiccup in taste, I’d be less worried, but I am afeared that we are looking at the extinction of not just the arts but artists themselves.

Whichever way I look and whomever I talk to within the arts I hear the same story. Our livelihood and income has gone, we no longer know how to make a living. The electronic environment changes so rapidly that creating work for platforms that are here today and gone tomorrow becomes pointless. Photography has become so diluted by the digital snapshot that beautiful well- composed photos are indistinguishable from the mountain of indiscriminate images produced by infinite clicking. Art, which was already suffering from the tyrannies of twentieth century doublespeak and gallery cynicism has split into two—the crafters and the blue chip traders, with gifted artists unable to find a market amongst the new order of polarized wealth and poverty. Musicians have been undercut by the internet and authors have seen the hard copy book lose its market hold as publishers stumble bum into the e-book universe not knowing how best to organize themselves.

Make no mistake, both art and artists are under a devastating assault. It is not a conspiracy or a temporary aberration. Historically we are looking at a vision that has been the precursor and signpost to the crumbling of all great empires.

Can we about-face, will the phoenix slowly arise of its own volition or is this an unstoppable headlong dash? I have no idea, I merely wish to play agent provocateur and point out that if we do not take this demise of culture seriously we will pass on to our children a world that is devoid of the capacity to exercise taste. All that is exquisite and wise will be replaced by a flat playing field of trivial distraction and bland repetition. The signs are scratched large, we can choose to acknowledge them or we can bury our heads in the sands and prey to the great god Mediocrity.

Photo Credits

Dice © Nick Bantock – All Rights Reserved

First posted at Nick Bantock’s Blog

Guest Author Bio

Nick Bantock
Nick was schooled in England and has a BA in Fine Art (painting). He has authored 25 books, 11 of which have appeared on the best seller lists, including 3 books on the New York Times top ten at one time. ‘Griffin and Sabine’ stayed on that list for over two years. His works have been translated into 13 languages and over 5 million have been sold worldwide. Once named by the classic SF magazine Weird Tales as one of the best 85 storytellers of the century. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages and prints have been exhibited in shows in UK, France and North America. In 2010 Nick’s major retrospective exhibition opened at the MOA in Denver. His works are in private collections throughout the world. Nick has a lifetime BAFTA (British Oscar) for CD Rom ‘Ceremony of Innocence’, created with Peter Gabriel’s Real World.

Produced artwork for over 300 book covers (including works by Roth and Updike), illustrated Viking Penguin’s new translation of Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’.

For 20 years he’s spoken and read to audiences throughout North America, Europe and Australia. He’s also given keynote and motivational speeches to corporations and teachers state conferences.

Follow Nick On Facebook

Blog / Website: www.nickbantock.com

The Blind Corner is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

A photographer doing commercial studio work spontaneously decided to hit the street with a camera and a simple backdrop taped to a wall. He learned about human nature, but he also learned about his own capacity to take risks. This article is from a talk he gave in November 2010.

By Derek Ford

Hi, can I take your picture?

I’m a commercial photographer and I’m working on a personal project.

Great, I have a backdrop set up just over here.

And so it began.

In the summer of 2009, I was working in my studio: photographing products, still life, commercial work.

I realized looking around that the summer was passing and I had barely left the studio. I wanted to get out and have some interaction with people.

I took my camera, a white seamless backdrop and hit the streets. I found a great spot in Trounce Alley on Government Street and taped my backdrop to the wall.

I began to stop people and using the introduction I just shared with you, asked if I could take their picture. Initially, the introduction wasn’t that brief but I came to realize I had to be quick, 8-10 secs at most. Sure I had straight out no’s; some people just kept walking barely acknowledging that I had even spoken to them, others wanted to know the catch. Some people stopped and we had a brief conversation but in most of these cases, they would refuse. It seemed to me that the people who stopped made a quick decision based on impulse and this was one of the characteristics they shared. The people I photographed were spontaneous, open and friendly. Needless to say, it was a pleasure to spend an afternoon with such willing subjects!

I took about five minutes with each person. Filling out the model release form probably took the most time. In some cases I had the portrait within the first two to three frames. I wanted them to be relaxed once I raised the camera. I didn’t want the portrait to be an awkward oh you’re taking my picture how do I look kind of thing. I wanted the portrait to reveal something about them. Some of the portraits were taken before the person had a moment to pose. I captured them as they were talking or laughing or sharing something about themselves with me. We would talk about how they were feeling that day or where they were going when they stopped. Sometimes they would come up with their own pose or look that they wanted me to capture. Sometimes their portrait fell outside the backdrop. I went with it.

As the light turned on the first day, I had a collection of people from all walks: parents, grandparents, friends, locals, tourists. And I realized that I was just getting started. I began to see that day as part of a larger project. I saw the opportunity to put all these portraits together in a space where everyone could come and see their portrait for the first time and meet the other people whose portraits I had taken. All these people whose lives I had interacted with at that point in space. When I began to show the book around, people would point out people they knew: friends, acquaintances, locals. One of the people in the book passed on shortly after I met him and the memory of our conversation and interaction was still fresh as I remembered his gentleness and kindness three months after I photographed him.

I returned to my street studio 4 times. Often, people who had stopped or refused to stop would pass by. Sometimes they would stop again to chat on their way by, of course if they hadn’t stopped, they more often than not hurried by, lest I ask them again! Some days were more productive than others in terms of the amount of people who would stop and sometimes in a day more men would stop than women or vice versa. People just came and went, stopped or didn’t stop but on the street that summer, 90 people did stop. The one demographic I think that is poorly represented are seniors. I recall a higher percentage of no thank you’s from this group more than any other. But regardless of how many people stopped in a day, I was enriched for the experience.

I spoke with people who talked to me about their pride for their grandson, the day out with their mother, or the city they were from. They told me stories about their lives, a cast, a shopping trip for boots and when I asked one woman to pull something out of her bag that would reveal something about herself, she pulled out a knitting needle and held it between her teeth for her portrait. There was the punk rock musician who posed perfectly as if standing in front of a mirror and the business owner with a Mohawk who posed with a threatening look on his face belying the fact that he had a huge smile and a warm greeting for me when I wandered into his store to make sure that it was okay that I was using the outside wall of his business. I photographed the street busker and the employee grabbing lunch as he delivered packages, the security guard and the couple just in town for the day. The people who posed with their eyes closed or laughing as we shared a joke. All of these people and all of their wonderful stories.

The connections I made became the theme of the work for me. The portrait on the cover of the book is of a woman who owns a local business that I have used many times but I had never met her until I stopped her on the street. Now we meet for coffee and catch up. That I chose to do something that could have been very uncomfortable, I mean stopping people on the street to take a photo! They have no idea who I am or what I’m going to do with it, I mean why would they agree, right? Despite these objections and the rejections (both imagined and real), I went ahead and stood out there and I came away with something very rewarding. Since this project, when challenged with doing something I am uncomfortable with, I draw on this experience.

I have put all the portraits together in a book. Every person who stopped for a portrait is included in this book and the book runs chronologically from the first portrait to the last. Although many review the book flipping through and enjoying the portraits that catch their attention, I hope that tonight you can also appreciate the book from start to finish. It is to me a book of short stories, each one connected to the one that comes before. I am proud of every portrait that I made for this book. I have respected and honored the stories that were given to me in trust that summer.

Thank you.

Where to buy Derek Ford’s book…

You can purchase a copy of Derek Ford’s book Street Portraits by clicking here.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

About Derek Ford

Derek Ford is an editorial and commercial photographer based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Visit Derek’s website at http://derekfordphoto.com

Photo Credits

All photographs © Derek Ford. All Rights Reserved.

Street Portraits: Spontaneous Human Openness is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

The Popculturist interviews Danny Santos II, a photographer with lots of street smarts — because the ordinary street is his studio and his passion.

Think about the last time you walked down a busy street. What do you remember? If you’re like most people, you were probably thinking about where you were going or where you came from. If you were with someone, you might have been engrossed in a conversation; if you were alone, perhaps you were lost in thought. But most likely you weren’t really looking around at the other people in the crowd.

It’s an odd bit of cultural conditioning, that impulse to act as though the people around you don’t exist, and it’s one that can be hard to break. But if you can do it, if you stop and actually look around when you’re out, you start to notice things. Like the way that guy’s face over there is briefly hidden as he walks through a shadow.

Or the speckling of freckles across that girl’s face.

Or the juxtaposition of images as a bus passes behind a street performer.

You start to realize that there’s a surprising amount of beauty and mystery all around you. And with that realization, maybe you want to look a little closer.

Danny Santos II is no stranger to that impulse. Danny is a Singapore-based weekend shooter who has become known in the photography world for his street work, especially his ongoing series, “Portraits of Strangers.” It was actually Danny’s photography that inspired me to start shooting street, so I was very excited when he agreed to answer a few questions for me about his style and methods”

The Popculturist: Why Street?

Danny Santos: It’s very accessible. Just go to an area where there’s good light and good people traffic and you have the whole street at your disposal. Plus, nothing beats getting that really good shot within an uncontrolled, unpredictable environment. In the streets, nothing cooperates with you… not the weather, not the subjects, not the situation… but when luck suddenly shifts to your side and everything comes together for you to capture that elusively perfect street shot, the wait and hard work becomes all worth it. And you’ll want to shoot more.

The Popculturist: Why Orchard Road in particular?

Danny Santos: I remember the first time I saw Orchard Road, I was just completely amazed by its energy and variety. It was unlike any street I’ve ever seen… although I really haven’t travelled that much. But yeah, I can still remember my excitement I felt… and this was before I even started photography. A few months later, when I discovered street photography, Orchard Road was the first thing that came to mind. It’s a beautiful street, with beautiful light, and beautiful people. What more can you ask for?

The Popculturist: What is it that draws you to approach a particular person for a street portrait?

Danny Santos: As long as it’s someone that I think stands out of the crowd, I go for it… whether I’m fascinated by their beauty, or intrigued by their mystery. I like to create portraits where you just want to get to know that person or wonder what their story is.

The Popculturist: What are you thinking about when you’re out shooting?

Danny Santos: I’m always thinking about the next keeper shot. What or who will it be? I’ve learned to always observe what’s happening around me and try to anticipate any potential keepers. I’ve missed so many good shots because I let my mind go blank, making my alertness level slump to zero — the next thing I knew, one hell of a keeper shot just passed me by.

The Popculturist: How would you describe your method?

Danny Santos: I always mix it up. I don’t stick with one method only. Sometimes I see a good spot with good light and I camp in one place until I get that one good shot. Other times I walk around in very crowded areas and see if I can catch that one face that stands out of the crowd. When it rains, I just grab my umbrella and walk into bad weather. And lately, I started asking strangers for permission to take their portraits. I’ve tried so many methods — some worked, others didn’t. I’m excited to see what my next method will be

The Popculturist: It seems like the tendency with street photographers is to work in black and white, but the bulk of your work is in color. What is it about color photography that attracts you, especially with respect to street?

Danny Santos: I really don’t have any preference between color or black & white photography. I always try to see which treatment the subject of the photo will be represented best. Some work better in color, others in b&w. If the colors adds to story of the photograph, they stay in color… otherwise, it can potentially be a distraction, in which case its better to have it in black & white.

The Popculturist: You describe yourself as self-taught. What idea or technique that you’ve learned has had the biggest impact on the way that you shoot?

Danny Santos: I think it’s developing the right attitude for your chosen genre of photography. Shooting in the streets looks easy to do, but it’s really not. It requires a tremendous amount of patience, discipline, and a go-getter atittude that will allow you to shoot even when you’re scared. But just as anything that you invest some hard work on, when you get the results you want, it’s all worth it.

The Popculturist: What do you wish someone had told you when you were first starting?

Danny Santos: I wish someone had told me way before I started… to start early!

Danny’s photography can be seen at his personal web site, Shooting Strangers in Orchard Road, as well as via his Flickr stream.

Photo Credits

“Urban Warrior” © Danny Santos II. All Rights Reserved.

“Stranger 7″ © Danny Santos II. All Rights Reserved.

“First Good Street Photograph” © Danny Santos II. All Rights Reserved.

Shooting Street: The Popculturist Interviews Photographer Danny Santos II is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

On February 1st of last year, we crawled out onto the internet with a post that read: Life As A Human Has Begun!

It seems like only yesterday that we said:

‘To our readers, today we have launched the site with seven articles. In the days, weeks and months to come, you will be introduced to a group of excellent authors from around the world. We will also present you with talented photographers, movie-makers, artists and musicians. Through their articles, posts and comments, you will get to know them, and they will get to know you.’

So how did we do in our first year?

Check it out! Using round numbers, we have:

- Posted 1225 articles through the contributions of 71 regular authors and about 30 guest authors.

- Received 4513 comments from our readers.

- Gone from obscurity to being in the top 7.8% of the top million sites in the USA and .4% of the top million Canadian sites.

- We’ve had 650,000 page views and close to 30 million hits!

- Received tremendous feedback from our readers and were selected by the Canadian Weblog Awards as first place winners in the Group Weblog category and third place winners for Best New weblog.

It’s been a great year and it has been a privilege for us to work with such great contributors every day. We are no longer crawling, we have learned to walk!

To celebrate, we have launched another site!

Life As A Human Photography officially went live today. Our very own Christopher Holt is the Photo Editor and I know he would love to hear from you so please be sure to surf by and check it out. We are looking for guest contributors so if you are a shutter bug, we know you’ll be interested in that too.

What’s Our Birthday Wish?

We have one wish on our birthday wish list. Please share us! Most of our growth has been organic fueled by our readers sharing our site with their friends and families. At the bottom of every article, there is a share bar that makes it easy to share our articles. There are further sharing options at the bottom of your browser on every page.

If you use any of these social media mechanisms, please share us! If you don’t use social media, then please e-mail your friends about us.

We thank you in advance

Thank You!

To achieve all of this has been a tremendous amount of work. But, without the ongoing contributions of our authors and the support of our readers, none of it would have been possible. The Life As A Human team thanks you all for your support, your readership and your engagement through comments.

We know you will enjoy the upcoming articles at Life As A Human and the photography at Life As A Human Photography. Please never hesitate to let us know if there are ways we can better serve you.

Our Very Best Wishes To You!

Your Life As A Human Team

Life As A Human Is One Year Old! is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

As the pace of technology innovation continues at warp speed, any iPhone user can make his or her own movies.

Three years ago, a friend of mine who is a film maker/animator started a commercial film production shop. He took out a bank loan to start his business because he had to buy a Sony HDV camera and some other items in order to capitalize on the HD video market. He’s gone on to make a few commercial productions and a documentary — and he’s eking out a living. Today, I have an HD video camera on my iPhone 4 that in many respects can be as useful as his $15,000 camera. Never mind that I also have HD video capability on my Nikon SLR which I use less now than I once did because I have the same capacity in my pocket.

While the quality of the HD might not quite equal the output quality from my friend’s camera, it has got me thinking about the incredible rate at which technologies are changing and opening up the world to artists.

The threshold for producing quality content now rests in the talent and not the wallet of those who want to make stuff. The same thing applies to the production aspect of music-making as well with the rise of digital recording studios, music processors and crazy music machines.

If you think I’m just writing this because I love my iPhone 4, then think about this: award-winning South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook dropped using expensive cameras in favor of the iPhone 4 to film his latest movie, says Digital Trends. Night Fishing, a film about a fisherman’s encounter with a female shaman, was shot over 10 days with a crew of 80 people and with a budget of $133,000. Ten iPhone 4s were used — three of which were controlled by Park himself — in the filming.

Night Fishing is 30 minutes long!

So just to underscore my point, check out the following videos which were all made using the iPhone 4. All I can say is that’s just very cool.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo Credits

Iphone 4 courtesty of Apple.

Rotary phone R.Lull

Making Movies Accessible – Make ‘em on Your Phone is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

I’ve always been fascinated by movement in photographs, whether it’s implied by the subject or how the subject moves the eye — or what the camera does with zooming, panning, and slow and fast shutter speeds. Movement runs counter to what photography does which is to capture a moment, a sliver of time.  The light and the energy of that absolute sliver of time is endlessly fascinating for me. I’m often in wonder at how the movement of things is really just the movement of energy through the soup of particles of our universe — waves of energy moving through the oneness creating the illusion of separateness. Each of these photos below was shot at a different speed. 1/1000 for the seagull, 1/350 for the boat and 1/125th for the beach. Each relates to movement in a different way.

Photo Credits

All photos © Chrisholtphotos.

Movement in Photography: A Twist in Time is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

If you follow my posts then you know I have a thing for cemetery photography. I went a little dark in my shots of Père Lachaise, but Isola di San Michele — Venice’s Isle of the Dead — created a much “lighter” experience.

Walking through the cemetery of Isola di San Michele felt like walking on the pages of a book, strolling between the long sentences of great literature and amidst the staves of the world’s great music. Some of those buried here include: Igor Stravinsky, Joseph Brodsky, Sergei Diaghilev, Ezra Pound and Luigi Nono.

To have the opportunity to tread lightly and photograph this historic cemetery was a wonderful experience. Space is very limited in this Island plot of the dead, and while the celebrity deceased may remain, others can only reside here temporarily. After ten years, their remains are exhumed and stored in an ossuary.

The sharpest element I noticed was the division between the Catholic and Protestant sections of the cemetery. The Catholic section, while much larger than the Protestant (or Other) area, was also much well tended and filled with flowers. People obviously cared for these graves and carried on a relationship with their dead. The Protestant side was somewhat decrepit, with grave stones tilting and decaying,  tombs broken and weeds and roots choking the resting places.

Is this division a demonstration of the attitudes towards life after death between the two Christian sects?

Photographs from the Isle of the Dead

Approaching the Isle of the Dead by boat from Venice.

A small worn plaque embedded in a wall crypt. The saddest sculptured eyes I’ve seen.

Detail at the Cappella Emiliana chapel

Children stone angels in play.

The well tended Catholic section of the cemetery.

A Lady in Repose

Offerings on Sergei Diaghilev‘s grave.

The name we went looking for. Ezra Pound, the Poet.

The music in the spheres. Igor Stravinsky‘s grave right next to the grave of his wife, Vera.

Another angel.

A section of the wall.

A view from the beyond.

The very strange story of Princesse Trovbetzkoy.

Brodsky’s Place.

A final thought….

Photo Credits

All photos © 2010, Chrisholtphotos.com All Rights Reserved.

Photographing Death in Venice is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

Life As A Human Likes is a weekly feature of blogs and websites we love. This week, we share a few links to some amazing web sites that focus on our sun, our solar system, the wonders of the universe and an amazing new telescope set to launch in 2014.

SOHO

Our star the sun, just like our planet, has its own weather. Central to our solar system, our sun sustains us and has allowed life on our planet to evolve. SOHO, the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory, is a project of international collaboration between ESA and NASA to study the sun from its deep core to the outer corona and the solar wind.

This fantastic web site features daily updates on space weather and sun spot activity. There is a lot to see here so I suggest you bookmark it. Be sure to check out some of the video clips which are quite simply amazing.

JPL Photojournal

If you ever want to know anything about our solar system, space missions, the galaxy, comets, asteroids and so much more, this is the place to start. Each link provides you with wonderfully detailed information and high resolution images. For example, if you click on Mars, you are taken to an archive of stunning images which include links to the missions that captured them such as the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. Clicking on that link will take you to the MER website.

You can link to Voyager, Magellan, Venus Express — all the space missions are there. If the exploration of our universe is your thing, you could spend months surfing this site and never get bored!

Hubblesite

Since the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was carried into orbit  by a space shuttle in 1990, it has captured thousands of images that have changed the way we think about our universe. Most of these images are absolutely stunning. Be sure to check out the high resolution versions as well.

As with the JPL Photojournal, there is so much see here. I suggest starting with the Picture Album and surfing from there.

The James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope is NASA’s next orbiting observatory and the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. A tennis court-sized telescope orbiting far beyond Earth’s moon, Webb will detect infrared radiation and be capable of seeing in that wavelength as well as Hubble sees in visible light.

This incredible new telescope will be launched in 2014 and represents, IMHO, science at its best! Be sure to check out the multimedia link which shows some great images and details about this amazing technology.

Photo Credits

All thumbnails above come from the respective sites they point to.
Article Thumbnail and Feature Pic – Light Echoes From Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis – HST Image

Life As A Human Likes…7 is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

I love cemeteries which I suppose is a good thing since I’ll probably spend eternity in one. I love their serenity, their history and their art. One of my favorites is Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. It’s the most popular in the world for checking out graves of its famous dead like Jim Morrison, Chopin, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein and, of course, Oscar Wilde. There are so many folks buried there —300,000 at last count — it can take you a lifetime to explore…

My photographic tour of this Disneyland of the dead.

Père Lachaise is filled with winding pathways through neighbourhoods of those who’ve passed on.
Apparently living people sleep in some of these mausoleums. Some do it so they can hang out
near Jim Morrison’s grave in the early morning hours.

As with most older cemeteries the graves are not necessarily kept up,
and roots and rain do their entropic work.

The quiet eternal sleep of Abélard and Héloïse,
perhaps the two most celebrated lovers of all time.

And for celebration here’s the resting place of Chopin,
one of my favorite musicians — and a true poet of the ivories.

There are many haunting images to be found at Père Lachaise.

…and some cute ones like this kiss for Oscar Wilde whose tomb, by the way, is covered
by a thousand lipstick kisses of fans from all over the world.

Raphael has been giving “unofficial” cemetery tours and keeping watch over Jim Morrison’s grave for
30 years, every day. He works by donation so give him one when you visit Père Lachaise. Let him show
you the graves and light your fire.

And last but not least, is Jim Morrison’s place, possibly the only grave in the world with its own
security guards who watch over the grave so visitors don’t steal it, piece by piece.

Photo Credits

All photo© chrisholtphotos.com 2010. All Rights Reserved.

To Be Dead in Paris: A Photographic Tour of Père Lachaise Cemetery is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN