singers, sleepers; fortunes, trinkets

A night out on Temple Street, Hong Kong wong uncle uncanny predictionxingqi-chinese chess
open air karaoke, every night of the week
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her own idol
four men and their chairs–tarot card readers every woman’s fantasy for their mansellers at their stalls, with everything ranging from lighters to socks to knock off Polo shirtsin the kitchen

WTC: From the Inside Out

Back in March as I was working on the documentary arts project on the World Trade Center, I spent some time near the Church St. fence looking out for some while at the scene from the inside, looking out. Every time you pass by the site there are point and shoot cameras abound, foreign and American tourists and New Yorkers, too, curious to get a glimpse of what goes on at the site. In fact, I found that any insight the public gets readily excites them, and fair enough– it’s a 16-acre site completely fenced off and the only view you can get of it are through the ripped canvasses on the fences or from towers surrounding it. Few people really grasp what is going on at the World Trade Center– it is rebuilding– save that there is just a whole lot of politics and seemingly nothing else happening. Here’s a little glimpse of what Church St. looks like from inside of the site, curiosities and passersby, all day, everyday.

showtime

These past two weeks have been pretty busy to say the least, intensely busy, made the richer with seeing old friends, making new ones, and having far, far too many late nights. My mind is just a little hazy, but at least our exhibition on the World Trade Center is being put together as I write. I really look forward to seeing those of you who can make it, there tomorrow evening (Thursday July 23)– it’ll mean boat loads.

One for the road: this is Terry Coyote Murphy– part Cherokee, part Irish. Union Square Park, July 22.

the world trade center … in panorama

down near Tower 1, 29.06.09

new york in panorama

see, feel, aim, think, shoot. finish roll, get processed. get contact sheets. look, see, think a bit. scan negatives, scan contact sheets. …a lot more labor than digital, but with so many more exciting, interesting results.

a building in Tribeca, New York.

in the East Village

cristian

from the archive: navajo in color

I went back to some photographs I hadn’t seen in a few months, from the Navajo reservation when I was there back in December. I’d become so used to seeing my story on Navajo war veterans in black and white that I’d almost forgotten the other images of the beauty and magic that this place held… the vibrancy and strength in its colors. Why I decided to have my veterans story in b&w was because I wanted to show a consistent idea or concept throughout the images and the story itself, and felt the colors would disperse the concentration away from that for both myself, the person seeing these images, and the subject on the whole. But otherwise, I love these colors in a whole other context outside of the veterans story– the reservation is so rich with it, it’s hard not to.

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Blue Gap, AZ– 12.09. A matriarch in this community, this elderly woman had injured herself pretty badly that week after falling off a ladder and bruising her face. She had barely enough hay to see her sheep through the winter too. It’s intriguing to see that the oldest generation continue to keep to their traditional ways of life for the most part, whilst the youngest, in their 20s, aspire to a different kind of life, one generally not involving the care of livestock. Women well into their 80s will walk several miles a day, chop their own wood, and tend to their beloved cattle or sheep– their resilience is really quite awesome.

Colors and shapes: a view of Canyon de Chelley near Chinle, AZ. 12.09.

on site : documenting the rebuilding of the WTC

from the archive…

As I (very slowly) put a proper portfolio together I’m coming across all sorts of photos I’d never properly given attention to in a post, so here starts the inaugural ‘from the archive’ photos– some are random photographs, others from mini-stories, still others from things I’d picked up seemingly long ago and have been meaning to pick up again.

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Back in April, a friend and classmate approached me to ask if I could photograph her and her best friends, who were also dorm/room mates at NYU. It was about the last time in probably a long time they’d all be together, as some were graduating and others stayed, and they really wanted something that they could remember their time by: a ‘family’ album of sorts. I only spent a few hours hanging out with them on a rather blazingly hot Spring afternoon, and only having just met them as I walked into the door, I was totally embraced and given a fair share of the cookie dough they were in the midst of making… I’d never had that group of friends to share something so intimate with during college, it made me actually yearn for the group I used to spend my time with back in high school, but it amazed me and made me very fully happy to see how much love there was going all round. This one goes to friendship and the bonds we vow never to lose.

quintessentially New York: the view from room 602 at NYU’s Broome St. dorm. April, 2009.

from left to right: Arianna, Namrita, Foram, Kaysi, and Michaela

Namrita gets ready for the senior formal

making of the very, very scrumptiously buttery cookie dough.

lately

It’s about time to get this blog back on track… some revamping is on its way, pages out, other pages in. Things have really started to pile up and it’s all working chaotically, beautifully. A weekend down in Charlottesville, VA at the Look3 Festival of the Photograph provided for some new insights, inspiration, and of course new friends. I have to say, no place radiated a more fun loving atmosphere than did that wonderful host-town. Some photos might be able to explain it all better. Currently, working on getting an exhibition together for the end of July, which will feature some photos from the World Trade Center project I’m working on until August. All is up in the air thereafter, all TBD… some daunting prospect in a rather more exciting time. 

Serving up brunch at the party pad

before the finale; with an incredibly talented and heartwarming group of people. clockwise from top left: Brandon Thibodeaux, Brenda Bravo, Mustafah Abdulaziz, Matt Craig, Blake Gordon, Tim Hussin, Alex Welsh, Jeff Enlow, myself

downtown Charlottesville, maybe around 1am on Saturday? it’s all a little fuzzy

down by the lake

toast to a perfect day: a late awakening, driving under blue skies, a cold swim, getting groceries,cooking in the kitchen commune, good conversation and great company all the way through. 

more updates coming as more gets under way, that’s promised…. 

’so, what are you going to do now?’

It’s the question I’m sure most college graduates were getting, and still are getting– ‘So, what are you going to do now? What’s next?’– Sometimes it’s asked with a mixed look of varying sentiment: mostly of curiosity, and often tinged with suppressed sympathy.

On my graduate end of things, giving an answer is obligatory, even if I myself am totally unsure of what’s next. I’ve been saying, for the most part, that I’ll be here in New York for the summer, looking to run away in the fall, to halfway across the world where I’ve never been, but am fascinated by, and it will be akin to a rebirth of sorts. Those particular plans are still very much afloat, amorphous, and totally, seemingly, utterly impossible at this given time. I’m coming down from the high of get-your-act-together-before-graduation, then actually graduating, and not remembering much of how I felt because it was a blur. Over the past few weeks I’ve silently been a nervous wreck, worried over how I wouldn’t actually make it to commencement because I’d miserably fail a required math course (which I of course left to the last semester of college)– but hurrah, I passed. Now that it’s over (and am relieved to know the extent of math I’ll have to do is calculating risk of death and taxes), now that I know I’ll be receiving my diploma in the mail, and that the euphoria of those celebrations are passed, here comes the reality. 

For all those riding the similar wave as I, this post is for you.

Despite the walls that seem to be crumbling down before our eyes, in the economy, in the world, that begets many more social ills that we’re possibly willing to endure, that often begets social chaos in certain places, I wholeheartedly believe there’s a place for us to look at adversity in the light of an opportunity. After all, what is a lesson without a challenge, and what is a life without learning from (stupid) mistakes. 

I have been told by photographers and journalists who are quite a bit older than me about the journalism industry lately, ‘it’s pretty terrible, pretty bleak’, and while I take it in, I won’t absorb it. This example I’m using in journalism can be applied to pretty much any aspect of the current labor market, and here’s my musing for the day, idealistic by far, hopeful at best: I know there will be many obstacles, many frustrations, things that will make me wonder what the hell I’m doing, why, for whom, and maybe even how best to get myself out of it. But this is what I’ll keep reminding myself until I’ve succeeded an inch: part of the joy of being young is having ideals, having the mind for opportunism and optimism (albeit cautiously, where it’s warranted) and having the flexibility to embrace the forcefulness of bad news, bad times, bad attitudes, and making it into something useful for oneself. More importantly, I’ll keep reminding myself of the personal purpose I’ve come to focus on, that it’s about the need of others, and the necessity to reveal a truth I might find. 

I truthfully have no forecast for what my infant career will look like in the next few months, even years, and while I am nervous, I am not fearful. There’s something we all want, whether in life or work. Strive enough for it, and you’ll attain it. Maybe I’m only speaking to those who aren’t currently with a guaranteed job or salary, but I hope this relates to those who are lucky enough to have that: if you find yourself being bored with it at any given time, take a risk, do something else you love– something you genuinely care about (that hopefully also helps pay the bills)– and I think there’s never a time that’s too late for that.

Now that I’ve just written a self-help (perhaps a little self-indulgent) blog post, completely unintentionally, I am going to trawl through the list of crap that I’ve left to do last minute, as usual. Note to self: stop procrastinating.