take your camera for a walk

I’m OK with where I am (most of the time).

RM — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:04:38 +0000

So, I’m not a very good blogger. At times, I don’t feel like a very good photographer either. I’m actually OK with that. I’m fortunate enough to have a regular job that affords my family a steady income, great health benefits, and a predictable schedule. For years I thought about trying to strike out on my own and “do photography” full time. I’m thankful that I never made that leap and that God’s given me the wisdom to be satisfied with where I am and with what I have. Now, to be clear, that’s not always the case. I’m as guilty as the next gear head of lusting after the newest cameras, lenses, and gadgets. But all that stuff won’t make me a better photographer. As corny as it may sound, I think that by trying to be a better human being, showing more compassion, listening more and talking less, by laughing and crying more, and by dealing with problems head-on instead of stuffing them down inside and hoping they go away, I’ll become a better photographer. Oh, and a better person, husband, father, friend, and neighbor.

Aside from being somewhat of a gear head, I love photography books. I enjoy looking at other people’s work, reading about what inspires them, and seeing how their work has progressed over time. In today’s era of blogs (yes, like this one), I still enjoy analog versions of newspapers (but don’t get me started about the $6 price of the Sunday New York Times) and books, especially photography books. Here are a few I’ve picked up in the last few weeks:

Reza, War and Peace
Focal Point, 2008
Hardcover | 296 pages | $13.50 (+$4 shipping) | AbeBooks.com

George Webber, People of the Blood
Fifth House, 2006
Hardcover | 107 pages | $3.98 (+.04 cents carbon neutral shipping) | BetterWorldBooks.com

Marianne Fulton, Mary Ellen Mark – 25 Years
International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Eastman Kodak Company, Professional Photography Division – Little, Brown, 1991
Softcover | 192 pages | $9.95 | Reader’s Corner, Raleigh, NC

America Now exhibition catalog
Montserrat College of Art Gallery, 2010
Features work from photographers Daniel Cheek, Ben Huff, Shane Lavalette, Laura McPhee, Alec Soth, and Zoe Strauss with an essay by curators Leonie Bradbury and Shana Dumont.
Softcover | 16 pages | $15 (signed by Shane Lavalette) | via Shane Lavalette’s blog

This week’s album: High Violet, The National

Things I’m thinking about: I’m fascinated by the relationship between music lyrics and photographs. I’m thinking about a project that involves listening to one song while making photographs, then analyzing the similarities between the lyrics and the images. No, not something as literal as a lyric that mentions light posts and intentionally photographing light posts, but something a little more subconscious. Colors, shapes, light. Wow, that’s nerdy.

Things passed down and things picked up.

RM — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:56:18 +0000

This was my grandfather’s “dinner bucket” from the coal mines. He worked for Eastern Coal Company in Pike County, Kentucky for 41 years. He passed away in 1990 from a number of illnesses, one of which was black lung. My father gave it to me on June 26, 2010. I can’t really put into words what it means for me to have it. I was 15 when my grandfather passed away. I didn’t really understand then how the work he did mattered so much to my family, to this country. He’s been gone a long time, but now I have a physical reminder of him and the work he did.

Phillip Toledano, Days With My Father
PQ Blackwell, 2010
Hardcover | 92 pages | $13.57 (+$3.99 shipping) | Amazon.com
A breathtakingly beautiful visual journal. I highly recommend this book. Here’s a video interview with Mr. Toledano on CNN.com.

GET OFF MY LAWN – Issue 1 (SOLD OUT)
Geoffrey Ellis, Noah Beil, Grant Ernhart, Alan W George, Liz Kuball, Sarah Lacy, Ian Lemmonds, Jennifer Loeber, Dalton Rooney, Andrew Martin Scott, and Justin Visnesky
Photo-zine | 48 pages | $10 (+$1.73 shipping) | sadkids.blogspot.com

Get Off My Lawn is a 48-page photo-zine, edited and published by Geoffrey Ellis. The zine features the work of eleven photographers who are 34 years and older. Get Off My Lawn is a tongue-in-cheek response to the calls for entry, contests and publications that require “emerging photographers” to be somewhere between the ages of 18 and 34. The zine showcases photographers who are working just as hard as those in the 18-34 range to produce great work. We can no longer be in your club, but soon enough, you’ll be in ours…

You may recall my post here about Daniel Shea’s print sale and the great opportunity to support his work. I ordered an 8×10 print of “Afternoon Laundry” from his 2007 series entitled Removing Mountains. You can follow the project on his blog, Digressions, and if you can, pick up a print to support his project while the sale is on.

A walk in Williamson, West Virginia.

RM — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:25:08 +0000

June 27, 2010, 9:02:41 p.m., between 3rd and 4th Avenue.

Daniel Shea is having a print sale!

RM — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:57:17 +0000

What, you ask, does this mean for you? It means you can help a photographer fund an incredibly important project. Yes, YOU! And you can get some pretty amazing prints in the process.

From Mr. Shea himself:

ABOUT

As any artist or photographer can tell you, independently funding a full body of work and preparing the work for exhibition involves constant financial struggle. Receiving a grant to make Removing Mountains in 2007 was amazing, but if I kept waiting for another large sum of money to be awarded, I might never make another project. In 2009, I launched a print sale to hit the road for part one of a two-part trip to Southeast Ohio. The result of that trip is the edit of Plume that is currently on my website. I was able to fund the trip entirely through your generosity.

Plume is almost done. After one more trip to the region this summer, I will be able to make a complete edit and begin showing the work. Later this year I will have my first full exhibition of the work at the Appalachian Center in Kentucky. I’m launching a second print sale effort to fund the return travels to the region this summer and prepare for the Kentucky show and future exhibitions.

If you’re looking at this page, thank you, sincerely. I know not everybody who wants to help financially can, so if you’d like to help me out, post this link on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, whatever. Send an email to your uncle who likes pretty pictures. If you help me promote this on your blog, shoot me an email, and I’ll send you a thank-you in the mail (maybe a print, maybe something else).

This sounds mostly like business, but beyond issues of funding, I’m 100% committed to spending dedicated time in a region that has been the victim of duck-in/duck-out photojournalism and media-driven, grossly misrepresented stereotypes. Additionally, politically, at the center of this work is the issue of energy as it relates to our ability to distribute power in every form. 2010 is a year where I/we can feel one step closer to this conversation entering the public arena in a substantial way.

Did you catch that last paragraph? If you did, and it hit you like it did me, head on over to his site and contribute. Thanks!

The cost of convenience.

RM — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:35:48 +0000

When we bought our house six years ago, we knew that someday “the highway” would come within a couple of hundred yards of our property. With the environmental impact study in progress (or complete), it looks like someone’s been given the green light to proceed. We took a walk through the felled timbers and freshly cleared underbrush. The smell of cut wood and overturned earth was overpowering and the silence was deafening. It was a sad walk. I guess that’s the cost of convenience.

War books and daddy’s got a brand new 5D (no, not the Mark II).

RM — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 02:28:25 +0000

So, I hoped to have this post up in time for Memorial Day, but that obviously didn’t happen. I wanted to share some of the war-related photo books I’ve collected as well as links to some of the photographers I think have done a remarkable job covering not only the front lines, but the home front as well. Before I get to the books, here are a couple of links to some incredible war reportage:

David Guttenfelder – Captured Collection and his iPhone photos from Afghanistan
The Big Picture – Afghanistan, May, 2010

Nina Berman, Purple Hearts – Back from Iraq
Trolley, 2004
Hardcover | 96 pages | $5.26 (found at a local book store 2/12/08)

I lucked out by finding this book on my lunch hour a couple of years ago. It’s moving, graphic, and very real. Copies aren’t hard to come by and I highly recommend picking one up. You can see her multimedia piece on Purple Hearts here.

Ashley Gilbertson, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT
The University of Chicago Press, 2007
Hardcover | 264 pages | $25.55 (Amazon)

Ashley Gilbertson is an incredible photographer and human being. The images of WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT speak for themselves, but Gilbertson’s writing is notable as well. Since joining the VII Network, Gilbertson has produced several other moving pieces of work, including Shell Shock. Be advised, there’s some strong language.

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Kael Alford, Thorne Anderson, Rita Leistner, Unembedded
Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2005
Softcover | 192 pages | $13.19 (Better World Books)

This book was another great find. The foreword is by Philip Jones Griffiths and the accompanying text and photos are a harsh visual reminder of the cost of war, both military and civilian.

Last, but certainly not lease (for me), I finally made the switch to a full frame camera body with the Canon EOS 5D. I traded my Canon EOS 1D Mark II, which was a great camera, but for my needs, the 5D works perfectly. I know, I know. The 5D has been out since 2005 and it’s now 2010. So I’m a little slow. I made the switch to Canon in the latter part of 2008 before going to India. I knew at the time I’d someday like to shoot full frame EOS cameras, but couldn’t afford to. Fortunately, I found a local shooter on craigslist who was interested in an even trade and we made the deal. Would I like to own the 5D Mark II? You bet. In fact, if you’d like to contribute to the Take Your Camera for a Walk 5D Mark II Fund, just let me know and I’ll be quite thankful. Sample images will be up soon.

School’s out: dealing with demons and more photo books.

RM — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:50:16 +0000

I’ve wrapped up my spring classes at the Center for Documentary Studies. It’s time to start getting in gear and planning some trips to Appalachia to make more pictures and work on my project. I snapped the above image when then kids and I visited the newly reopened and renovated North Carolina Museum of Art. Spectacular.

The last 45 days have been tough for me (and my family). I’ve had to confront some demons that I’ve just chosen to not deal with for a long, long time. Like nearly three decades. For me, there’s hope in Jesus Christ. He is the only one who could possibly take my wreck of a life and use it. Healing can only begin when things are truly dealt with at a core level. I realized that at 35, I’d never really let anyone into my life. Anyone. For me, healing has begun, but it’s a s-l-o-w process. I’m encouraged by knowing that I don’t have to rush to get better, but that I can choose each day to honor God and serve others or serve myself. I much prefer to honor Him and serve Him.

OK, so there’s that. Some new photo book acquisitions over the last month or so:

Builder Levy, Images of Appalachian Coalfields
Temple University Press, 1989
Hardcover | 124 pages | $56.49 (with shipping)
Stay tuned for an interview with Builder Levy right here on Take Your Camera for a Walk.

Rob Amberg, Sodom Laurel Album
A Lyndhurst Book, University of North Carolina Press in association with the Center for Documentary Studies
Hardcover | 192 pages | $13.02 (with shipping)
Rob Amberg is a graduate of the Duke Center for Documentary Studies and there’s a gorgeous print from this book hanging there.

Daylight Magazine, Issue 8
Daylight Community Arts Foundation, Inc.
Magazine | 62 pages | $13.88 (with shipping)
Issue 8 includes images from Tim Hetherington‘s series Sleeping Soldiers. Beautiful, brilliant work. I got to meet Mr. Hetherington at the Full Frame Documentary Festival last month before the screening of Restrepo. Oh, and he gave me a free pass to the film. And I had a picture made with him.

If you’d like your very own promotional card from my current project, just send an email with your address to rogermayphotography[at]me[dot]com and I’ll drop one in the mail. They’re approximately 6.5″ x 5″, ink jet prints on Inkpress fine art matte (220 gsm) paper on an Epson Stylus Photo R1900. There are 15 cards available. (Mom, thanks in advance for requesting one.)

I hope to start posting more. Let’s use this as a start. Thanks for stopping by.

“Your yellow hair is like the sunlight.”

RM — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:54:49 +0000

(From November Blues as sung by the Avett Brothers.)

WEEKS 7/8 – Seminar in Documentary Studies

RM — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:09:01 +0000

I’m a horrible blogger. Just plain bad. Class ended about three weeks ago and I haven’t posted anything about it – or anything else – in eons. OK, now that that’s out of the way, on to the task at hand.

I’m lumping weeks 7 and 8 together as one was sort of preparation for the other. Our final class was the presentation portion of what project we plan to undertake. It was great to see and hear everyone’s ideas sort of start to come to life in such a short period of time. Some of us came to the class with an idea already in mind, while others weren’t sure of what they wanted to pursue. I found that the idea I had in the beginning changed over time into something I feel is more true, more refined, and will ultimately reflect the human element of my subject. I’ll write more about that later as the project matures.

To the three people that may even be reading this, I have to suggest Joy’s class to you. The Center for Documentary studies, through Joy’s class, does an incredible job of show and tell with documentary work. This class will help you think about things in entirely different ways, some more challenging than others, and hone your vision and ideas as a documentarian. I felt like I grew a lot in a short period of time and now it’s time to continue that growth as I plan and work on my project.

Do the work.

WEEK 6 – Seminar in Documentary Studies

RM — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:52:48 +0000

Lehman Brady Visiting Professor, documentary performer and playwright, Mike Wiley in the CDS Library performing Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till.

Our class had the pleasure of a visit from Mike Wiley last week. I’m sure I wasn’t the only student in class wondering what a documentary performer actually did. I mean, it’s not as obvious as film making, photography, oral history, etc. I’ll admit, I even had somewhat of a “really?” outlook on Tuesday’s class. That instantly changed when Mike began to share about the kind of work he does, how he works, does research and interviews, and ultimately performs his work. I was blown away by the whole process. We were then treated to a roughly 10-minute performance of part of Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till. It was incredible!

Mike’s work includes Blood Done Sign My Name; Life Is So Good; Tired Souls: The Montgomery Bus Boycott; Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till; Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart; Brown v. Board of Education: Over Fifty Years Later; and One Noble Journey: A Box Marked Freedom.

Mike’s Web site is here.

One of the things I’ve appreciated the most about this class has been our exposure to so many different forms of documentary study. As a photographer, it’s easy to have a narrow field of view on documentary work. I’ve always liked documentary films, so that was easily adaptable to my relatively short list of what documentary studies were. For whatever reasons (and I’m sure there are many), I never really evaluated all the other forms of documentary work (most certainly not documentary performance). Throughout the six weeks of class thus far, the variety of assigned readings, and the exposure to the incredibly generous visitors we’ve had (thanks to Joy, our fearless leader), so many doors have been opened and I’ve begun to see an interconnectedness I was unaware of. Perhaps I’ll write more about that later.

For homework this week:
“Knowing Your Rights” legal terms overview
“Is It Legal?”
“Concerning Releases”
Prepare a five-minute presentation about our project.