Back in 2000, when I was on my way to Pine Ridge to start work on a photo project, I was advised to take tobacco as gifts, the rationale being that any member of the tribe who accepted such a gift would then feel obliged to do me a favor.  It was a way of bonding.

Tonight, while attending my first meeting of a camera club in Minneapolis, I got to meet this man.

Sean Higgins is an impassioned photographer who is also somewhat of a loose cannon.  He started shooting professionally in Ireland at age 16 and has been shooting ever since.  He joined the military as a war photography so that he could learn to shoot in conflict situations.  He worked for Nat Geo for six months before getting fired.  He joined Magnum for another six months but quit for personal reasons.  He has been working on assignment for years for Paris Match and Stern.  Several years ago he was beat up so badly while shooting in Kosovo (I think), that he ended up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Epilepsy, and a myriad of other life changing ailments.

Earlier this month he found himself on the Gaza Strip after the Israelis closed it to journalists.  When they tried to arrest him to make him leave, he started fighting, smashed his camera over one of the soldiers’ heads and woke up 4 days later in a hospital.  Some of his photographer buddies paid his way back to Minnesota where he has family.  Paris Match, for whom he was shooting, is paying all his medical expenses and paying for him to have live in nursing care.

He told me most of this during two trips outside to smoke.  Part of the damage to his person was to his brain.  One of the effects is that he can’t sit still, so outside it was.  I can relate to the brain problems, having experienced similar damage from past experiences.

After getting off the elevator to come back to the meeting, we met up with a young ROTC man who wanted to ask his advice about being a war photographer.  Sean made a major point that working on assignment for a major international magazine was not romantic.

I will be getting together with Sean in the next few weeks, and we have discussed working together on my project with the African refugees.  It will give him something constructive to do and provide me with valuable insight. I hope to learn as much as possible from him .  Beyond that, all I know is that Sean has a long row to hoe, and I hope I can be of some small assistance.

The light this time of year in the twin cities is remarkable.  There is a glow coming from the buildings as the late afternoon sun hits them. Photos of this interaction between sky light and man made structures fit into the project I started last year. The Skylight of Man (soon to be posted in “projects”) started in earnest as my reaction to all the things that we as a culture have built that intrudes into or blocks our view of the sky.  The project has morphed to include how the light plays with those structures.

When I first started thinking about moving to Minneapolis/Saint Paul, I imagined shooting a long term project that involved family life among the immigrant cultures in the area.  Finally, after close to six months, I am starting the project.  Back in June, on the 10th to be exact, I stopped to photograph a little grocery store, called Little Grocery, and went into talk to and photograph the owner.

Muhammed is from Djbouti, a small country in eastern Africa.  When I finally stopped back in, to deliver a couple of prints, his brother Shaehem was watching the store.  He says there are only about 100 people from his country here in the twin cities but that most of the African immigrant population here are from Ethiopia, Somalia, West Africa, and Ghana.  There are about 20,000 from Somalia.

Shaehem told me where to find a concentration of Somalians who would be willing to be tell me their stories and to be photographed.  Soon I will be trekking over to Minneapolis to start digging around and making contacts to start this project on immigrant families in the Twin Cities..  I will also start looking for publications and organizations who would be interested in publishing and subsidizing such a project.

I just re-watched Eddie and the Cruisers II, in which the main character says, “if we can’t be great, we should quit.”  Part of me agrees, and if I felt that I’d already exhausted all possibilities for and definitions of greatness, I would have to re-evaluate my endeavors, but I haven’t.  I have a couple of photos that I think might be great, at least in my eyes and as objectively as I can manage.

As I look at the images, I notice that the best are black and white.  I started shooting color about three years ago (more on that another time) trying to break free of my often compulsive traditionalism, and I’m still going to work with it and, of course shoot color for clients, but when I want to make “truthy” (to quote Steven Colbert) photos, I make them black and white. No matter what I think about marketability, I have to do what feels right, what will give my work the best chance to be great.

This one is certainly not one of the greats, but it kind of reminds of Tom Waitts.

I’ve been intending to keep my promise and post something “fatter” since the last post in June, but here it is August. I’ve been busy but not in the way I planned. About six weeks ago I found out that Blurb was hosting a book contest to be judged by Darius Himes, the owner/editor of the new publishing house, Radius Books. Not having any plans to make a book just yet, I still managed to pull together a cohesive 80 page book of 95% new work. I was impressed when I saw a finished copy. I must thank Betsy Dollar for her incredible editing and sequencing work.

Since moving to St. Paul, I’ve been doing a lot of street photography, including buildings, alleys, and people. Often, I shoot for design with people as elements. It seems as if there is a street dance always in progress. Sometimes it is a slow dance, sometimes fast. Occasionally, there is even a break, but it is just between dances. Beyond that, I’m working on portraits and on my cafe series.

Sad News: MCP (Minnesota Center for Photography) has closed as of July 31. There were budgetary problems that seemed insurmountable to the board of directors. I sincerely hope that George Slade, the center’s creative director, continues to make his presence known.

I was fortunate to see the Friedlander show at MIA a couple weeks ago. It was inspiring and permission giving. Lee is certainly an icon in the history of photography. Hmm, MIA, no permanent photo curator, George Slade…?

Anyone interested in previewing or purchasing a copy of the new book, Culturescape I: City Clicks, may do so here.

Well, maybe a little “wow.” Since I last wrote, I have sold my house and found homes for dog and horses, and I have moved to a loft in downtown (Lowertown) St. Paul.  This is major.  People in the building are artists; they think like artists; in other words, they’re tolerant of each others’ divergent and occasionally spacey thinking, and they are encouraging to each other.

My move has allowed me to be out shooting almost daily without having to get in my car to drive 30 miles.  In fact, I’ve only used one tank of gas in the last month.

Since there is so much to discuss, since I haven’t posted for six months, half a year, and since I have to put together a book proposal within two weeks, I’ll just call this post a restart.  I promise to write later with all of the ideas rambling ’round my brain, including some new work.

Later.

Cheers,

Michael

Happy New Year. It is winter here in South Dakota. One often thinks of it being cold, below zero, with the wind howling off the prairie, and snow drifting to the rooftops, and that would be right, sometimes, when it is that way. Anyone who knows South Dakota, though, knows that it might also be 70 degrees and sunny, all the snow melted into mud. The truth is, right now, it is somewhere in between, but it is winter, and the days are pretty short, and it’s a bit too chilly to run around shooting projects outdoors. It’s a better time to sit in a warm house and drink mulled wine.

About a week ago I went shopping for some glüwein or at least the spices to make it, but the spices were unavailable, and this being the state that’s trying to pass an abortion ban and always votes republican, the wine was not for sale because it was Sunday. Still, it is a good time to mull, if not wine, then ideas, concepts, plans.

I am planning a website remodel to show better what I do, what the common threads are in my growing body of work. Various professionals, photographers and curators, have said I have to limit the scope of my work to accomodate the thinking of editors and other curators, and, while I understand and appreciate the advice, I just can’t accept that I should ignore any avenue down which my photographic urges want to lead me. This is part of the reason that I am letting the body of work age and develop - watching the various directions curve toward some meeting points.

I am shooting much more color than I once did. I like it, although I still have a deep appreciation for the beautiful shadows and highlights in black and white photographs. Should I abandon the black and white work I’m doing? Probably not. Should I stop putting it in my portfolios (whatever they are)? Maybe. What about all the older black and white work, the essays, the series that have been such a substantial part of my portfolio (here used in perhaps another sense)? Should I put them in some archive type category? Perhaps “classic?” This is not just a matter of black and white versus color.

It is a matter of moving on, if in fact, it actually is moving on. Do curators and editors want to see what I have done in the past or what I’m doing now. In one respect, I suspect it is up to me. Do I still consider some earlier work as commonly thematic with newer work?

So, as I said earlier, I’m mulling, though right now, it is morning, and I’m drinking brewed coffee, not mulled wine. Incidentally, the latest batch of Nouveau Beaujolais is great.

Halloween was low key but fun.  Late in the afternoon, I heard about a party at some friends’ 1860’s cabin.  Here are a couple photos from that night.  Question: What is the weaver in the red costume dressed up as?

The Saturday before that, I dropped a heavy shelf on my foot which swelled and hurt, so I walked around very gently thinking I had bruised it.  After two weeks though (yesterday), I figured out that my right  foot is broken (for the third time).  So now I’m laid up with the same air cast and crutches I had the last time.

It’s been raining for two days, just enough rain to feel like a blanket wrapping you in softness and security.  Two days ago, I drove 4 hours to Des Moines to photograph Senator Clinton addressing the Sisters on Target banquet.  I wanted to get close and actually interact with Hillary, but the wall created by her blanket of security, the secret service and personal staff determined when and how I would shoot.  I was happy enough with what I brought home and sent off to Sipa.

I have a new show coming up in February at a wonderful gallery, Nuance, in Beresford, SD.  I’ll be sharing the show with a sculptor friend of mine, Mary Selvig.

I am in a period of photographic and professional growth, having met with Mary Virginia Swanson for two hours last week, followed by a portfolio review with George Slade, director of the Minnesota Center for Photography.  So, I am in the middle of revising my website and my portfolios.  It is giving me new perspective on editing for stories, print sales, portfolios, and books.  There is much to think about and consider.

Is this photograph emotional?