Will Steacy Blog

Welcome To The Jungle: My State Of The Union Address

2012-01-24T15:26:00.011-05:00

As part of a soon to be released series of collages titled "Perception Is Reality" I have gathered the following data statistics. Organized into statistical groupings to provide context and a better understanding of their significance, these data sets paint a horrifyingly clear portrait of the political, social and economic crisis that currently has our country in a stranglehold. Despite what President Obama may say tonight in his State of The Union address and whatever the GOP will say in response, here is my State of The Union presented by the numbers in the form of fact checked statistics. Welcome to the jungle...

THE NUMBERS DONT LIE:

US Corporations are currently sitting on nearly $2 Trillion dollars in cash.

In the past decade Fortune 100 companies have laid off 2.9 Million American workers and hired 2.4 Million oversees.

More than a $100 Billion a year is given by the US government to businesses in loopholes, credits, and incentives.

More than 80 of America's largest 100 publicly traded companies make use of offshore tax havens, which cost US taxpayers $100 Billion a year.

60% of US businesses with profits of $1 Million are structured as "pass throughs" and do not pay US taxes.

Corporate tax collections in the US in 2010 amounted to just 1.3% of GDP, in 1952 it was 6.1%

General Electric earned $14.2 Billion in profits in 2010 and paid zero dollars in US taxes.

GE laid off 21,000 American workers and closed 20 factories between 2007-2009 and more than half of GE's workforce is now outside the US.

Mitt Romney paid a 13.9% effective income-tax rate in 2010 on $21.7 Million in reported earnings.

Newt Gingrich paid an effective tax rate of 31.7% on a reported total income of $3.16 Million in 2010.

President Obama paid an effective tax rate of 25.3% on $1.8 Million in earnings in 2010.

Under 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's tax plan, which eliminates taxes on capital gains, dividends and interest, Romney's effective tax rate would be near zero and only his speaker fees ($374,000) would be subject to a 15% tax rate.

From 2001 through 2010, the Bush Era Tax Cuts amounted to $2.6 Trillion in lost revenue and we have spent more than $400 Billion on increased interest to finance the debt created by the Bush tax cuts.

Between 2001Q4 and 2007Q4, the US economy experienced the worst economic expansion since WWII.

If the Bush Era Tax Cuts expire at the end of 2012, $3.8 Trillion will be made in new revenue in a decade.

The US national debt is currently $15 Trillion.

An average of 750,000 jobs were lost a month between December 2008 and April 2009. By the time job losses stopped, a year after Obama took office, The Great Recession had cost the economy 8.8 Million jobs.

50,000 factories in the US have closed in the past decade.

6 Million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past decade.

American manufacturing employment peaked in 1979 at 19.6 million jobs. Today there are only 11.8 million manufacturing jobs, a decline of 40% since the peak.

Private sector Union membership in America is 6.9%, down more than 20% from 30 years ago.

The US has a $500 Billion trade deficit in manufactured goods.

The service sector, for which our economy is based, accounts for only 20% of world trade.

In 2011 nearly half of America's public schools didnt meet federal achievement standards, the largest failure since No Child Left Behind took effect a decade ago.

On a state level, the highest failure rate of 89% was recorded in Florida

In 2010 Florida Governor Rick Scott cut $1.35 Billion in education spending from the state budget.

Today, workers with just a college degree and no further degrees are less likely to get work place health coverage than workers with only a high school degree were in 1979.

In 1979 the average college graduate made 38% more than the average high school graduate. Today, the average college graduate makes more than 75% than the average high school graduate.

From 2004-2009, 85% of growth in Research and Development workers employed by US based companies has been abroad.

56% of the world's engineering degrees awarded in 2008 were in Asia, compared with 4% in the US.

57% of US doctoral degrees in engineering in 2009 went to foreigners, mostly from East Asia and India.

More than 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. These companies generate more than $4 Trillion in annual revenue.

The US awards annually only 85,000 H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. More than that number have been know to apply on the first day of application.

1.1 Million deportations have occurred since President Obama took office. This is the highest number in 6 decades.

There are 21.3 Million Latino voters in the US.

More than 1 in 10 Americans lack a government issued ID.

As many as 5 Million Americans will find it significantly more difficult to cast a ballot this election.

Ronald Regan won relelection in 1984 with 7.4% unemployment.

More than 220,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are out of work.

Total cost of Iraq War = 4,400 American lives and $800 Billion.

Less than 1% of American population is in active military duty.

18 war veterans commit suicide everyday. 1 every 80 mins.

22% of all suicides in the US are former service members.

With Facebook's IPO the company has been valued at $100 Billion. Facebook has 3,200 employees.

McDonald's stock is also valued at $100 Billion, with 400,000 employees.

According to labor statistics, if all current jobs openings were filled tomorrow, nearly 10 Million Americans would still be jobless.

Average after tax income for the top 1% of US households has increased 275% from 1979 to 2007. While those in the bottom 20%, income grew only 18%. (Annual income of $343,000 or more qualifies as the 1%)

In 2010, the top 1/5th of US households collected 50.3% of all the nation's income. The lowest 1/5th collected just 3.3% of the nation's income.

The richest 20% of Americans own more than 80% of the country's wealth, while the poorest 20% own 1/10th of the country's wealth.

49 Million American are living in poverty, the highest number in the 52 years the Census Bureau has been publishing figures on poverty.

Nearly 97.3 Million Americans fall into the low-income category, defined as earning 100-199% of poverty level ($11,282 for an individual and $24,343 for a family of four).

Combined, 146.4 Million Americans, 48% of US population, are poor, either living in poverty or classified as low income. (US population: 312 Million)

25 Million Americans are unemployed or without full time work.

Unemployment benefits last 99 weeks and cost the US $156 Billion in 2010.

Average duration of unemployment is 41 weeks, the highest in 60 years.

From 2005-2009, Millionaires collected $74 Million in unemployment benefits.

Unemployment in Spain is 22.8%

Unemployment in Germany is 6.8%

Eurozone countries account for 40% of Germany's exports, China only consumes 7%.

Youth unemployment in the European Union is 22.1%.

Youth without education, employment or training cost countries in the EU €2 Billion per week.

Youth unemployment in Spain is 48.7%

Black youth unemployment in America is 46.5%

Median household income in the US has fallen 6.4% since 2007, the year before the recession.

The Chinese save 40% of their incomes, Germans save 11%, Americans save below 4%.

152 Million Americans shop in the 3 days following Thanksgiving.

American holiday shoppers, both retail and online, spent a record $52.4 Billion on Thurs-Sun Thanksgiving weekend.

Credit card balances crept up to $798.3 Billion in November.

1% of small business owners have an adjusted gross income over $1 Million a year.

China has the second largest amount of Billionaires in the world, the US is first.

China invests 46% of its GDP in its future, while the US invests 12%.

In the early 1950s, US government devoted about 1.2% of GDP to infrastructure, by 2010 that amount had fallen to just 0.2%.

Federal spending on research and development dropped from a high of nearly 2% in 1964 to 0.9% in 2009.

The current federal income tax rate for the 400 wealthiest taxpayers, aka the 0.000258%, fell from 30% in 1995 to 18% in 2008.

For the past 30 years health care spending costs grew 2% faster than the US overall economy.

In 2009, 50 Million Americans under 65 were without health insurance.

In 2010 the US spent $2.6 Trillion on health care.

Medicaid accounted for 22.3% of state spending in 2010.

10,000 Americans retire everyday.

By 2030, there an estimated 80 Million people to be on Medicare.

Baby Boomers born in 1946 turned 65 in 2011. (Baby Boomers: born 1946-1964)

In 2010, CEOs at the largest US companies made on average 343 times the pay of the average worker.

In 1978, CEOs made 35 times the pay of the average worker.

In Germany, CEOs make on average 11 times the pay of the average worker.

The financial services industry spent $2.3 Billion on federal campaign contributions from 1990-2010. This is more than what the health care, energy, defense, agriculture and transportation industries combined spent on campaign contributions.

Wall Street has spent $5 Billion on lobbying efforts to deregulate the banking industry.

28% of American mortgages are underwater.

In 2010 there are 10 Million vacant properties in America, up from 7 Million in 2000.

Only 11.6% of Americans moved between 2010-2011, the number of Americans who moved in 1985 was 20%.

Households with more than $1 Million in income claimed more than $27 Billion in mortgage interest deductions.

90% of the 115.9 Million homes with TV in the US subscribe to basic cable.

$12.5 Million was spent on Iowa Caucus television ads.

Rick Perry and his super PAC spent $4.23 Million on television ads in the month of December.

Perry earned 10.3% of votes in the Iowa Caucus, costing him $332 a vote.

Minimun wage in Iowa is currently $7.25. A 40 hour work week before taxes at this rate is $290.

The average American collected $295 in weekly unemployment benefits in 2010.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning rose by 5.9% in 2010, the largest amount on record.

Land temperatures have risen 1.8 degrees since 1950.

The total economic loss of global natural disasters in 2011 was a record $380 Billion.

House Republicans voted 168 times (as of Oct. 15, 2011) this year to undercut clean air and water laws while blocking efforts to limit global warming, protect public lands and guard against future oil spills. They have been called the "most anti-environment congress in history."

The cost of 100 Senators and 435 House of Representatives is about $2.2 Billion a year, $7 per capita.

There are 249 Millionaires in Congress and the estimated median net worth of a current US Senator stood at an average of $2.56 Million.

76% of Americans say 2011 was the worst year of their lives.

69% of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Congress has a 9% approval rating.

Newspapers: The Voice Of The People

2011-10-31T20:10:00.002-04:00

The Bumpy Road To Fiscal Sustainability

2011-10-28T13:59:00.007-04:00

So I was wrong about Europe. My doubts about the ability of Europe's leaders to actually come up with a realistic debt solution were averted yesterday with the announcement of a plan to take the necessary steps to avoid a Greek default with immediate, yet temporary and uncertain, relief by ordering Europe's weak banks to raise more capital to protect against future payouts to investors via credit default swaps and ease fears, for the time being, about the possibility of bailouts for Italy and Spain with the $625 Billion bailout fund called European Financial Stability Facility. The stock market was eagerly awaiting the outcome of this decision and the announcement of hard numbers to be thrown on the debt crisis fire which in recent weeks was verging on an uncontrollable wildfire. All a result of bickering amongst Europe's leaders about which wealthy country would bare the brunt of rescuing its debt crisis and investing in the E.U.'s future....sound familiar?

And boy did the market respond upon hearing the numbers that came within earshot of what every economist and financial reporter said were needed. As better than expected third quarter reports from American businesses recording unexpected profits and exceeding quarterly expectations coupled with signs that our economy was growing amidst recession fears (GDP grew 2.5%, consumer spending rose 2.4% in 3Q, as jobless benefit claims declined last week) the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 339 points and October is on pace to be the biggest monthly percentage gain in nearly 25 years. The very definition of Bear to Bull. The Euro also rose yesterday to $1.41 on the dollar from a low of $1.31 earlier this month.

But here is the biggest news and most important thing to be aware of. Private sector big banks, who originally agreed to 21% "haircut," agreed on Thursday to accept a 50% loss on their credit default swap holdings of Greek government bonds. This is fucking huge. Big banks actually being held accountable by European leaders and agreeing to take a loss. While Greek losses are relatively small in comparison of other credit default swaps this is still very significant and one can make many broad conclusions of where things can go from here. For one, this will cause investors to seriously consider the value of European bonds and the security of payouts should they default. Which in turn, if our Congress (with a 9% approval rating) and the super-committee can actually put country over politics in a lame duck season and come up with a bold debt plan by the Nov. 23 deadline, the implications of its success take on a whole new meaning and coincide with the momentum of the European debt plans and could potentially be turning point for our own economic recovery.

Here's why. The result of these actions abroad will now cause the default insurance market to plunge, vindicating our own 2008 predatory sub-prime mortgage housing crisis which was the result of big banks like Citibank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase selling investments, made out of mortgage securities, to their own customers and then in turn betting against them via derivatives, and making huge profits when the housing bubble burst and homeowners defaulted on loans.....as the taxpayer picked up the tab on the bailout payments. This whole system is flawed and the SEC, thanks to Congress, has barely been able to implement any real regulations on the banking industry. So by the simple act of the big banks agreeing to the 50% loss (which I assume was made because the result of that minor loss would be negated by the profits made with the success of Euro bailout news and plugging the hole in the dam of continued Greek debt losses which would only grow larger) all in the name of a short term solution. This will have a profound impact for months to come (and I imagine send the market back down soon enough) and will end resulting in a symbolic self-regulation domino effect ultimately making these investments no longer profitable and eventually fade away into a long list of financial crimes of the past.

However, in the short term, before the flame completely extinguishes, I imagine a quick flood of investors flocking to 10 and 30 year U.S. government issued bonds which are at all time interest lows. Despite the recent downgrade, U.S. bonds are still a gold standard. Even if inflation rises in the aftermath of this recession, the long term yields and profits will out weigh any inflation caused by further potential government stimulus, as many foresee a third round of quantitive easing. And this is a great source of much needed revenue for the U.S government....but pulling back, it's a bit troubling that the only way our government seems to be able to generate new revenue is by selling its own debt.

So the fourth quarter has a lot to offer and surely will impact not only the 2012 election but also the pace of our economic recovery...like there actually is a difference between the two. We shall see how this affects American companies 4th quarter holiday season profits, jobless numbers, 2012 GDP forecasts, how banks react to finding themselves caught between a rock and hard place, but most importantly we get to witness how this impacts our politicians. The actions of Europeans leaders calling the banks' bluff and playing hardball, refusing to bail out the banks and call for further measures of austerity, is a source of great promise and hope for the prosperity of the taxpayer and middle and working class families. Their actions will surely fire up the Occupy movements at home and hold our own leaders to a new standard.

As Europe's leaders flirted with the high-bar of ineptitude firmly established by our politicians this summer, the great seed of fear was planted in the garden of nightmares. Not of a double dip recession or tumbling stocks, but something far worse, a rapid spiraling downfall of Medieval proportions into the depths of our own ignorance and selfishness—human beings not being to learn from their own mistakes, repeating failure after failure and allowing cannibalistic human greed to consume our own future as we merge into the fast lane on the highway to hell. Left turn merge diverted for now, but we still cruise along in the middle lane, well over the speed limit, as the holes in Europe's sovereign debt solution remain to be filled. With plans to reduce Greek debt to only 120% of GDP by 2020, we shall see what curves and bumps remain ahead on the road to fiscal sustainability.

Perception Is Reality

2011-09-28T16:26:00.002-04:00

....And Our Disconnect As A Society Grows Deeper

2010-09-28T02:01:00.029-04:00

If you are reading this blog, I will go ahead and assume that it's probably pretty safe to say you read several other blogs on your Google reader or whatever feeder, you have a Facebook page, Flickr account, and maybe even a Twitter account. Depending on the commas in your bank account and what kind of pictures you take you probably have a 5D, or at least some kind of digital point and shoot. iPhone for sure. Do you have an iPad yet? Now I ask, as I get to the heart of this blabbering tirade, how do you access your information? And with the seemingly infinite and over saturated amount of information that is just a mouse click away, what do you filter through and actually read on a daily basis? There is a lot to sift through these days. At times it seems, despite the Twitter updates and breaking news text messages, that no matter how connected we all are, we are never really up to date with anything except a headline. The world is broadcast in nearly real time. Boom....earthquake in Haiti, 20 minutes later there are pictures on some refreshed website of people hurt and the massive destruction.

At what point has the Internet destroyed us? At what point has new online media and technological advances made the news abstract? Are images today of so called "news" ultimately abstract as the story, the before and after (aka content), do not have time to catch up before there is another barrage of brand new images or headlines flashing on some screen? Shit, nowadays, everyone is a photographer, you got a 5D and a Flickr account, you good to go kid. Literally. With 14 year old paparazzi and however many thousands of images being uploaded a day to Flickr, I can't help but to think that words and in-depth stories have been replaced by pictures and 140 character constant updates and that our lazy "my brain stops working at 2:30 so I have a 5 Hour Energy" society could care less. Our celebrity obsessed para-social culture could seemingly care less about long term stories, such as how lives are transformed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 6 months down the road, "yeah man, I get it, I saw those pictures of the flood waters on the evening news, but, hey, by the way, did you see last night's American Idol?"

But let's not completely dismiss the words. In fact, the words are a monstropolous beast of their own. The age of the Internet has allowed all of us a platform to preach our gospel. And depending on how loud you can yell and how fucking deep you can reach into the depths of your own retardation and pull the ugliest rabbit out of the hat, you just might get yourself national media attention for a week. "Yeah, Billy Bob let's burn us some of them Korans, we'll show 'em Muuzleems whose boss." And so in an age when voices, that 20 years ago would have been dismissed as the schizophrenic in the park yelling to himself, are brought to you live via the holy Internet and served up as breaking news with sprinkles on top, we can't seem to get enough. And us Americans can barely decide between a number 2 and a number 5 combo meal at McDonalds for dinner, we don't need all these loud voices telling us about Tea Parties, why it's ok to make exceptions for religious freedom, and why we should repeal health care reform.

We find ourselves, as Americans, as a society, in an interesting place right now. As technology has begun its take over, we are amidst a transition. Facebook has not yet taken over America, which it will in 5 years...or sooner. Instead of logging on to Safari or Firefox, everything you could ever want and need will be through Facebook: shopping, news, social "interaction," games, movies, etc etc etc. 13 years olds today spend more time in front of a screen than anything else except sleeping and so our future inevitably will become a Facebook world. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about it all. As I dive profoundly deeper into my research about the newspaper industry, the Internet, social media, I have come away with a unsettling feeling about our society as a whole. Now let me interject here before I go any further. Don't get my wrong, I am sitting here typing this on a new computer, I have 3, in addition to one of these phones that buzzes incessantly and requires the same attention that a small child or pet demand. Yes, the Internet is a glorious machine, perhaps the fire and wheel of the 21st Century, but when something is gained there is usually something sacrificed.

The newspaper industry enters that equation as we march into a digital era. I come from 5 generations of newspaper men. My great, great, great grandfather started the York Daily in 1870, and this tradition has continued down the line. The newspaper industry is my family business. And journalism will never die and will adapt to new technology amidst the erosion of print as it has done with the advent of radio, television and now the internet. But the transition has been difficult as papers have been struggling to recover from decade long consolidations into national corporate chains as new owners have stripped newsrooms to skeletons of their former selves in an attempt to boost profits and in the process reducing many great papers to mere satisfactory papers. The pressure and stress to produce a daily quality product with depleted staff and resources is nothing new for many papers across the country. But the bleeding can only last so long as the fight to hang on creeps toward an ominous prevail or die deadline. As we lose reporters, editors, newsbeats and sections of papers to buyouts, layoffs and bankruptcies, we lose coverage, information, and a connection to our cities and our society, and, in the end, we lose ourselves. Blogs like this that serve a specific audience written by fools like me somehow just dont sit well right now. I have a conflict of interest as full time professionals compete against unedited, unreliable amateur online outlets and citizen journalists for readership. My energy and my voice and this thing that I do, dont belong in this platform right now. As our connection to the buzz of our cell phones and refreshed web pages provides the latest developments on the marital affairs of famous golfers and young actresses' court appearances, our disconnect as a society grows deeper. And so I am disconnecting from this connection and pulling the plug on this blog.

Thank you for reading my lunatic ramblings over the years. Come find me at the bar.

Raise Your Glass To The Good And The Evil

2010-08-29T15:58:00.011-04:00

New Orleans, I raise my glass to you, the greatest city in the world, have a cold one on me. It's been a long 5 years. Let's have a drink and a laugh, sometimes that's all we can do.

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink of the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Spare a part for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

And when I look into the this faceless crowd
A swirling mass of gray blue
Black and white
They don't look real to me
In fact, we all look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let's drink to the uncounted heads
Let's think of the wavering millions
Who need leading but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And when I look into this faceless crowd
A swirling mass of grays and
Black and white
They don't look real to you
Or do we look too strange

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the salt of the earth
Let's drink to the three thousand million
Let's think of the humble of birth

-The Stones

Found New Orleans Rhyme Book, 2005

2010-08-17T06:59:00.006-04:00

Extra Extra!! Down These Mean Streets Newspaper Now Available Online

2010-06-15T13:44:00.024-04:00

A million thank yous to all who came out for my opening and have supported this work. I owe you the world. For all those who were not able to make the opening and want a newspaper for $5, CLICK HERE.

Down These Mean Streets Newspaper
16 page Tabloid Newspaper
8 color pages, 8 black & white pages
Featuring images, journal entries, maps, and notes.
Signed by the artist.
$5.00
BUY HERE

THANK YOU!!!!!

Tonight Is Finally Today!!!

2010-06-10T13:09:00.015-04:00

After many weeks of sleepless nights working, planning and preparing for tonight, I am very excited for the opening of my first solo show at Michael Mazzeo Gallery. Please join me for the opening reception tonight! You don't want to miss this one folks, I promise you.

Tonight!
Thursday June 10th, 6-8pm
"Down These Mean Streets"
Michael Mazzeo Gallery
526 West 26th Street, Suite 209
NY NY 10001
212.741.6599
www.michaelmazzeo.com
www.willsteacy.com

On display will be:

-22 photographs, some of which I have never exhibited before.

-An installation that highlights my working process with journals, contact sheets, maps, research notes, newspaper clippings, found objects and the wrench I carried in my back pocket.

-A signed newspaper made specifically for this exhibition that will be available at the opening for $5.

-A special limited edition print will also be available with a signed newspaper for $50....get em while they last, these have been flying out.

Edition Details:
$50
"Tony, San Francisco, 2010"
Edition of 50
Signed and numbered on back of print
Archival Pigment Print
Image size: 6.5" X 8"
Paper size: 8" X 10"

To learn more about Down These Mean Streets please check out these recent online features:

-Daylight Magazine Podcast

-Conscientious Extended

Solo Show At Michael Mazzeo Gallery

2010-05-28T11:49:00.013-04:00

I am very pleased to announce a solo show of my project Down These Mean Streets opening at Michael Mazzeo Gallery on Thursday June 10th, 6-8pm (526 W 26th, NYC).

The exhibition will include brand new photographs I have never shown before as well as a special limited edition newspaper (available at the opening) that is part of a larger installation on display exploring my working process through journals, research notes, contact sheets, shot lists, influences and maps.

This 3 year long project in which I have walked at night from the airport to central business district of American cities examines the collapse of a post-industrialist American inner city as years of neglect have left our cities with limited resources to fix themselves and neighborhoods to crumple. By addressing the overwhelming loss and despair that prevail in our urban communities my intent is to reveal an intimate look at what our cities have become and provide a foundation from which change and plans for the future can be made as problems and issues cannot be solved if they are not first identified; we must look inward at ourselves.

Back To New Orleans

2010-04-26T22:41:00.006-04:00

The picture some dude drew of me on the V train today. I smiled, said thanks and gave him 5 bucks. Off to NOLA for a while.....I just may never come home.

Watch Treme Tonight!

2010-04-11T11:02:00.007-04:00

Don't forget to watch Treme tonight.

Very excited to have a bunch of photographs in the opening sequence of the show and when David Simon says things like this you know it's gonna be fucking brilliant. There are only a few whom I trust to dive in and tell the story of a post Katrina New Orleans and David Simon is surely at the top of that list.

“New Orleans to me … it’s a triumph of American urban culture. It’s the best an American city can be, and also the worst in a lot of ways. It has created a culture that has gone around the world. If you look at what our greatest export would be — culturally or politically or socially — from the American experiment, you’d have to put African-American music probably at the top of the list. You can be anywhere from Katmandu to Johannesburg and you walk into a bar and if they’re playing a tape machine they’ve got Michael Jackson or (John) Coltrane or Otis Redding or something (playing). That whole notion of African rhythms and the pentatonic scale meeting European instrumentation and arrangement comes from about 12 square blocks in New Orleans. So this is a city that’s essential in the American psyche, and yet we all witnessed the near-destruction of it. It was the closest thing to the destruction of an American city since the San Francisco earthquake. It’s coming back on its own terms as best as it can, with a lot of concern from some quarters, but a lot of indifference from much of the country. And that’s a fascinating story to me. In a way, ‘The Wire’ implied what was at stake with the American city, but ‘Treme’ is actually an examination of what it is — what living as disparate, different people compacted in an urban area can offer.”
-David Simon

5'10" 215 lbs.

2010-03-31T17:35:00.010-04:00

Treme

2010-03-26T10:31:00.012-04:00

I am thrilled to have a bunch of photographs from my work in New Orleans featured in the opening sequence of David Simon's new HBO series Treme which premieres April 11. Everyone who reads this blog probably knows how much of a Wire fan I am and how much I admire and respect David Simon and it is a great honor to be a part of his new series. Everyone who reads this blog probably also knows how much New Orleans means to me. Sometimes it is difficult for me to express in words the way I feel about New Orleans without going on and on, but I tell people who have never been there before that I have been all over America and New Orleans is unlike any other city I have been and every time I am there it feels more and more like home and gets harder and harder to leave. Simon eloquently describes this feeling in a recent Times article and it is fucking dead on:

“There's a thing about being capable of a great moment. This city is capable of moments unlike any moments you’ll ever experience in life. To see an Indian come down the street in full regalia on St. Joseph’s Night on an unlit street of messed-up shotgun houses and one burned-out car, and he’s the most beautiful thing on the planet, and everything around him is falling down. It’s a glorious instant of human endeavor. It’s duende from the Spanish, chills on the back of your neck, and then the next minute it’s gone. Lots of American places used to make things. Detroit used to make cars. Baltimore used to make steel and ships. New Orleans still makes something. It makes moments. I don’t mean that to sound flippant, and I don’t mean it to sound more or less than what it is, but they’re artists with a moment, they can take a moment and make it into something so transcendent that you’re not quite sure that it happened or that you were a part of it.”

A big thank you Karen for making this all happen.

The New Yorker Fiction Image Request

2010-03-24T09:03:00.010-04:00

Happy to have an image in The New Yorker fiction section this week.

I love getting The New Yorker fiction image request emails. The descriptions of the image they are looking to accompany the writing are always so much fun to read and so often the most perfect and beautiful thing I will read that day. Here are some of my favorite New Yorker image request descriptions from recent years. I originally made a story out of the selections which perhaps I will post later, but there were just too many good ones to leave out. Winogrand once said, "There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described."

-A man walking a white pit bull in the city – ideally with one front leg missing
-A woman hiding behind a door - ideally with a red umbrella
-A charred grilled cheese sandwich – the bread is blackened, but the cheese hardly melted.
-A man smoking a cigarette outside looking at the stars
-A woman’s shoes covered with snow standing on a braided rug
-South end of the strip where there are cheap motels, fast-food, pawnshops, bail bonds, storefront churches, sprawling parking lots – kids hanging out there
-A table with handmade animals for sale – including a giraffe, and a Noah’s arc.
-A woman in her 40’s – details of aging skin on the face, pale, drawn, covered with too much makeup – heavy blush, dark lipstick – deep reds and purples
-A boat crossing a lake (ideally Prussian blue), either in rain & rough weather or good weather
-A chainsaw in a forest
-Details of female hands drinking coffee in a diner
-A cigarette extinguished under a silver high heel
-A sexy scene seen through a keyhole
-A woman’s hand extended with a blue pill
-A tall, skinny red head outside in the snowstorm in the beams of a trucks headlights – the snow catching in her red hair glowing in the backlight like a halo
-The hotel receptionist behind the bright green glow of the computer screen and with blue lacquered fingernails
-A woman in a wraparound red dress & red heeled toeless sandals on a dusty Irish road
-A Holiday Inn sign in a snow storm on the side of a road – both with and without a “No Vacancy” sign – dark or dusk
-Red roses on a coffin

A Product Of Our Environment: A Preview Of What I'm Working On For Aperture

2010-03-18T23:10:00.021-04:00

So last summer in the midst of a project I was working on called Down These Mean Streets, The Aperture Foundation contacted me saying they wanted to meet. They wouldn't tell me what it was for and I had to submit to a portfolio first. So I did. Fast forward to a couple weeks later, some meetings had, a proposal written, I get an email saying I got it. I was one of five photographers (the others being the incredibly talented Gabriele Stabile, Thomas Holton, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Shen Wei) selected to document the New York City Green Cart Initiative. This commission is in partnership with the Tisch Illumination Fund, The Mayor's Fund for New York City and the Department of Health and provides underserved urban communities with ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables via hundreds of independently-owned Green Carts stands.

One of the things that I was intent on showing in the work I made for Mean Streets was the lack of healthy food options and the ever abundant liquor stores and fast food chains and I wanted to continue this exploration. So for this commission I will be photographing in the geographic locations within the 5 boroughs where the highest reported instances of poverty, obesity, diabetes, illness related to poor nutrition and people living without health insurance overlap with the locations of the Green Carts. My goal is to create a visual record of the food options that surround the Green Carts within this geographic overlap. I’m interested in the impact the fruit and vegetable carts will have on these areas and how they will compete against one of America’s most addictive drugs: fast food. As our country adapts to a changing economy and we debate healthcare, the weight of these national issues can be seen on a local level through the Green Cart initiative and its influence on New York City’s most economically deprived neighborhoods.

It is exciting to be a part of this project and it is so important that commissions of this nature are put into action which demonstrate a commitment to explore social issues through the medium of photography and continue on in the vein of the great work done by the WPA photographers many years ago. There is no time since then more important for this than right now.

-To see a preview of all 5 photographers' work please visit the Aperture Foundation website.

From The FotoFest Opening

2010-03-17T00:11:00.006-04:00

Me and the mayor of Houston.

FotoFest

2010-03-11T16:02:00.006-05:00

Off to Houston for my show at the Fotofest Biennial. I am showing 17 photographs from Down These Mean Streets in Whatever Was Splendid: New American Photographs curated by Aaron Schuman. If you are in Houston come to the opening reception on Friday March 12, 8pm at Vine Street Studios, 1113 Vine Street, Houston or you can find me at Poison Girl conducting business. Then off to travel Texas and find out what America thinks about health care, among other things.

The Bronx

2010-03-01T12:33:00.001-05:00

Nay Nay from the Bronx.

And a feature of my work currently up on the Black Snapper.

An Overflowing Bucket Of Shit, It's The American Way

2010-02-15T15:17:00.004-05:00

A new interview is in the current issue of NY Arts Magazine. To read the full conversation click here. Here is an excerpt:

Leah Oates: Your images deal with working-class people and environments in the United States, and have a melancholy side to them. How did you come to this theme in your artistic practice?

Me: The working-class people, as you refer to them, the workingman is the victim lab rat of this great experiment called America. America is founded upon a man at the top of the pyramid shitting in a bucket and then handing it down to the man below him, then that guy shits in the bucket and hands it down to the man below him. As each man takes his turn shitting in the bucket and handing it down, it eventually reaches the man at the bottom and that is the workingman. The workingman is given a bucket of shit filled so high that there is no room for him to shit, and no one below him to hand the bucket down to, so he is stuck with it. He has no other option or choice, and he is forced to eat and deal with everyone else’s shit, everyone else’s mistakes, failures, miscalculations, and selfishness. And, well, that ain’t cool with me. This bucket of shit or perhaps a nice way of referring to it is the trickle down society we have built our politics and economy on, doesn’t work for everyone, and problems can’t just be pushed downward, swept under the carpet and forgotten about. It takes Americans the absolute worst to realize that there is problem, and usually at that point the pile of forgotten problems under the carpet have become so big that the carpet looks like the tiny white snow cap on top of a mountain. And by then it is too late.

There's A War Going On Outside

2010-02-04T23:21:00.010-05:00

There's a war going on outside no man is safe from. You could run but you can't hide forever from these streets that we done took. You walking with your head down scared to look, you shook, cause ain't no such things as halfway crooks, they never around when the beef cooks in my part of town....it's similar to Vietnam.

-Mobb Deep

The Words Keep The Pictures Honest

2010-01-26T12:40:00.005-05:00

For me writing is so very close to photography and at times I find the line between the two almost indistinguishable. I write before, during and after I make photographs and there are times when a photograph only exists as words in one of my little notebooks. In fact I have dozens of books filled with these photographs and there are many times when an image lives best as a collection of words. A great writer whom I used to work for just after I graduated school once told me writing keeps you honest. Last night I enjoyed reading Hunter Thompson's thoughts about writing in his book of essays Songs Of The Doomed. I always read Hunter Thompson as fast as I can, somehow it makes it better, his writing makes more sense and at times has new meaning when read that way.

"But until the [Hell's] Angels I had always been writing in the same mold as other newspaper hacks and I thought that was the way to do it. With the Angels, however, there was a freedom to use words. I'm a word freak. I like words. I've always compared writing to music. That's the way I feel about good paragraphs. When it really works, it's like music. In sportswriting, you have the freedom to use really aggressive words. There's a whole breadth of vocabulary. The Angels gave me that same feeling, like hot damn, the thing was rolling right in front of you. You could touch them on their cycles, you could hear them, and you could see the fear and fright in citizens' faces. And so I took that first $1,500 and went out and bought a motorcycle. At that point it was the fastest bike ever tested in Hot Rod magazine. And then I destroyed the son of a bitch.

I found out then that writing is a kind of therapy. One of the few ways I can almost be certain I'll understand something is by sitting down and writing about it. Because by forcing yourself to write about it and putting it down in words, you can't avoid having to come to grips with it. You might be wrong, but you have to think about it very intensely to write about it. So I use writing as a learning tool."

I think the true test of how cohesive a body of work is, if it really works and the images flow from one to the next and the group as a whole performs how you the photographer, the creator, intend it to is when you write that statement. When you put it in words what the project represents or embodies, it is the words that the images have to stand up to. It is the words that make it complete and allow you to see the work in a whole new light. The words keep the pictures honest.

Obama Everywhere

2010-01-19T12:41:00.007-05:00

Somehow I am amazed that the president of The United States has a facebook page and would like you to think he is accessible and reachable to all via social networking. Oh thee powers and grand illusions of the internet....but maybe thats just it, maybe today people only need to feel connected and in touch with one another when they are just a click or link away from one another.

UPDATE: The White House has just introduced its own iPhone app.

Will The iPad Destroy Us?

2009-12-13T14:34:00.015-05:00

So as technology rolls mightily along, perhaps some of you who are in the know have heard about Apple's latest invention, the iPad. From what I understand it is that incredibly corny Amazon Kindle digital book reader thing you tend to see people in suits on the 6 train below 86th Street reading but Apple's version of this, aka beefed up and made incredibly cool. Word on the street is that advertising agencies are already working with big companies to design multimedia pieces specifically for the iPad. I can only assume that what the iPod did to the music industry the iPad will do to the magazine and newspaper industry. In 5-10 years you will be reading magazines, the newspaper and however else you access information, on the iPad, as well as whatever other stimulants, time wasters and general over flow you desire, facebook, itunes, blogs, you tube, etc etc. The people you will see on the train actually reading a paper magazine in 10 years will be seen with that same "what a behind the times weirdo" look as the people today who still buy cds. And so it has begun folks. And the content of magazines and newspapers (the NY Times seems to be ahead of the curve in terms of their multimedia content and will probably thrive during this transition, and they probably already have a deal with Apple to be featured in iPad ads or at least ready for it all) will experience a dramatic revolution. As we digitally turn the pages of magazines, the separation and juxtaposition of still images and words will converge. As you flip through the front of the book mini articles instead of reading a paragraph here and there, instead you will hit play and watch a 1-2 minute multimedia piece with sound and a moving image. Images will no longer be stills. Everything will be moving and shot with whatever the current version of that RED camera thing is.....meaning (as I understand it) high def video shot with the capabilities of pulling a RAW image from that clip and that being used as your still (whatever stills are actually displayed). Esquire magazine has already been doing this and using cover images pulled from RED camera footage. Ads in "magazines" or whatever their new digital name shall become will all be moving images, features on this hot model, that actor or the next presidential hopeful will all be moving and words will soon be spoken to us...we will be sitting on that couch right next to them....so digitally up close and personal we can almost smell what kind of deodorant they wear. And isnt that just what our reality show crazed and Page Six gossip column obsessed culture has been fiending for?

Quite literally, I fear, journalism will become just another movie. And so I ask what will become of the still image? What will become of us photographers? Will we all have to adapt to this new RED RAW video footage, will we become film makers or multimedia makers instead of photographers? I must say it is all kind of exciting and interesting to ponder this and as we watch a visual revolution unfold in front of our eyes to watch what creative and adaptive people will create and present to us. But I cant help but to look at the music industry which has never really caught up or gotten back on its feet once the iPod revolution knocked it on its ass. Perhaps we can learn from them and know we just have to go with the flow and invest our money and creative thought in whatever the newest and latest digital cameras or instruments used to capture the world are. And I also cant help but to think about how this will affect the freelance photographer. Will those FOB stories that usually are hard won by that hungry up and comer journeyman photog be available? Or will these magazines and online venues have their own in house people shooting all this? What will happen to the freelance market? Will the top of the food chain just keep getting richer and fatter as they have the means and assistants and techs and studios, etc to handle all this as the bottom feeders fight and kill each other just to get a taste of the scraps as they struggle to stay afloat and working? Time will tell. But I do believe the time is now to start thinking about all this and to think about our own art and the tools we use to create it and what the future has in store for us. Will the iPad ultimately destroy some of us as it breeds a whole new evolution of thinkers, creators and seers? One I thing I am sure of is that all those digital design wizards will have to stay on their toes (and in the know) with the influx of new technology and programs to go along with it as they rake in that bling.

Here and here are some more examples of how the New York Times gets it and what I assume are some early samples of what this will look like with their Miami Art Basel series Something Small, Something Big.

My Friend

2009-11-25T08:30:00.004-05:00

I loved bar room fights.
I fought the biggest meanest men
I could find.
the patrons thought I was
brave.

but it was something else, something
that walked and slept and sat with
me. it ate with me when I ate,
it drank with me when I drank.
I saw it everywhere: in loaves
of bread, on the back of a mouse
running up the wall, I saw it through
torn window shades, I saw it
in the bodies of beautiful women;
I never saw it in the sun but I saw it in
insects; and I saw it riding in buses
and trolley cars;
I saw it in the dresser drawer when I
pulled it open,
I saw it in the faces of
bosses with their dumb wet lips and
little rivet eyes: blue, brown,
green;
I heard it in the click of timeclocks,
saw it spread like powder across the
faces of my landladies;
I saw it it on the bar
stairways
leading to the 2nd
floor of some rooming house in
Houston, New Orleans, in St. Louis,
in L.A., in Frisco;
and I saw it in the doorknobs and I saw
it in the rooms, sitting on the
beds
waiting nicely...
and in some bar after hours of drinking
somebody says, "hey, Hank, you
ever tried Big Eddie?"
Big Eddie grins, I see it in his
teeth, I finish my beer,
nod at him, get up, walk to
the rear entrance, Big Eddie and
the crowd following, and outside
I see it in the moon and the
bricks
as the patrons lay their bets
I am the underdog, and as Big
Eddie charges I see it in his
feet and on the buttons of
his shirt and I hear a horn
sound somewhere far off, and
it's as decent a thing as a man
can know.

-Buk

Sheeeeeeeet! 100 Greatest The Wire Quotes!

2009-11-17T18:34:00.005-05:00

This is amazing. A good portion of these I have written into my journals just to keep as a record of brilliant writing. I think one of my all time favorites is:

"How you expect to run with the wolves come night, when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?"

"I Didn’t Come In Here A Killer, But In Here You Learn Hate." The Aryan Brotherhood And The American Prison.

2009-11-10T10:10:00.011-05:00

Each year we spend billions of dollars on prisons to house and support inmates in order for them to do the time our justice system determines based on their crime. This sentence is what our system has decided will allow inmates the appropriate time needed to recover in order to re-enter society. But ultimately how much recovery and progress is made in inmates lives? Is our prison system only a breeding ground designed to bring out the worst in an individual as we spend billions of dollars on housing and supporting inmates when it would be cheaper to actually allow healing in an environment based on education and therapy. (2 out 3 children in inner city juvenile detention centers suffer from a mental illness...Harper's Index, Nov. 2009) Our prisons are out of control and downright horrifying. I read this fantastic New Yorker article by David Grann profiling The Aryan Brotherhood many years ago and recently found it again online. Here are some excerpts:

"On a Saturday morning in the fall of 1983, at Marion federal prison, in southern Illinois, Thomas Silverstein waited for guards to take him for a routine shower. Marion, which is about a hundred miles southeast of St. Louis, was opened in 1963, the year that Alcatraz closed, and was designed to cope with the profusion of violent gang members—in particular, men like Silverstein, who by then had been convicted of murdering three inmates and had earned the nickname Terrible Tom (as he often signed his letters, with looping strokes). Before taking Silverstein to the bathroom, the guards frisked him, to make sure he hadn’t fashioned any weapons. (He often had pens and other sketching tools for his art work.) They also shackled his wrists. Three guards surrounded him, one of whom was a hard-nosed, nineteen-year veteran with military-style gray hair named Merle Clutts. Clutts, who was to retire in a few months, was perhaps the only guard in the unit who didn’t fear Silverstein; he once reportedly told him, “Hey, I ’m running this shit. You ain’t running it.” As the guards escorted Silverstein through the prison, he paused outside the cell of another gang member—who, as planned, suddenly reached between the bars and, with a handcuff key, unlocked Silverstein’s shackles. Silverstein pulled a nearly foot-long knife from his conspirator’s waistband.“This is between me and Clutts,” Silverstein hollered as he rushed toward him. One of the other guards screamed, “He’s got a shank!” But Clutts was already cornered, without a weapon. He raised his hands while Silverstein stabbed him in the stomach. “He was just sticking Officer Clutts with that knife,” another guard later recalled. “He was just sticking and sticking and sticking.” By the time Silverstein relinquished the knife—“The man disrespected me,” he told the guards. “I had to get him”— Clutts had been stabbed forty times.He died shortly afterward."

"In the case of Silverstein, who was already serving multiple life sentences when he killed the guard Clutts, in 1983, the Bureau of Prisons had established a separate unit for him at Leavenworth, where he was held in a Hannibal Lecter style cage.Though Silverstein continued to sketch, he was for years not permitted to have a comb or a hairbrush, and when the reporter Pete Earley visited him, in the late eighties, he had long wild hair and a beard. “They want me to go crazy,” he told Earley.“They want to point their fingers at me and say, ‘See, see, we told you he is a lunatic.’ . . . I didn’t come in here a killer, but in here you learn hate. The insanity in here is cultivated by the guards. They feed the beast that lingers within all of us. . . . I find myself smiling at the thought of me killing Clutts each time they deny me a phone call, a visit, or keep the lights on. I find it harder and harder to repent and ask for forgiveness, because deep inside I can feel that hatred and anger growing.” Jessner told me, 'Within the gang’s lore, Silverstein has become its Christ figure.' "

"By the mid-nineties, Jessner says, the gang had evolved to the point that it had to appoint members to lead different branches of its operations—such as the “department of security” and the “department of narcotics.” Though the Aryan Brotherhood’s profits never rivalled those of the Italian Mafia or outside drug lords, its reputation for violence did. The gang had some of the most highly trained and ruthless hit men in the country. And inside the prison system the Baron had so grown in stature that he overshadowed the imprisoned head of the Italian Mafia, John Gotti. According to authorities, in July, 1996, after a black inmate attacked Gotti at Marion prison, bloodying his face, the Mafia leader, who seemed ill prepared for the explosion of prison violence, sought the Baron’s help in murdering his assailant.The Brotherhood seemed receptive to the idea—the Baron allegedly used sign language to communicate the price of the hit to an associate—but Gotti died before the hit could be executed."

Why Bother Taking Pictures Anymore When There Is Google Street View?

2009-11-04T12:59:00.004-05:00

In current issue of Harper's there is a wonderful little feature on Jon Rafman's collection of Google Street View images. This is brilliant (buy the book). We all use street view to scout locations and this and that, but Rafman takes it to the next level. This is such a wonderful portrayal of America in so many ways. Not only does it comment on what the the notion of the once romantic great American road trip has been reduced to, but also touches upon on our dependance of the internet, what the internet allows us to see and perhaps the things that many Americans dont see because they are boxed in and removed from society within the confines of their automobile, and not to mention, either too busy texting while they drive or focused on their stupid little GPS navigation devices to see what is right out the window. I cant help but think, why bother picking up a camera anymore when nearly every street and corner in America and soon, I imagine, the rest of the world will exist in the greatest document of 21st Century American society...Google. Oh, the internet.

Some of my favorites....

One Of The Greatest Feelings In The World Is Hitting A Home Run

2009-11-02T20:33:00.012-05:00

Baseball fever. Yes. Let's go Phils. I miss playing. Terribly so. Stopped playing in college after freshman year. Decided to focus on my art. Killed me to quit. But had to. Stephen Shore. Best pictures of baseball. Ever. Need one. To go next to the collection of Ty Cobb and Philly A's photos. That fill the walls of my bedroom. Floor to ceiling. Here are Shore's.

This Fucking Guy...Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T13:55:00.010-04:00

The Last Days Of Gourmet

2009-10-30T12:21:00.027-04:00

Kevin DeMaria, my good friend, my homie, my main man, my brother from another mother and my best drinking buddy was an Art Director at Gourmet Magazine and took these beautiful photographs in final days at the magazine. Please visit the site The Last Days of Gourmet to see all the images.

"October 5th, 2009 In shock and disbelief, using garbage pails for long exposures, I took these photos of the last days at Gourmet. Although at times it was hard for me to shoot the common places in the offices at Gourmet, I knew I needed to document where I loved working for the last 8 years. It was a unique opportunity to have worked with such amazingly talented people in such a friendly work environment. Gourmet became my family and I will always look back proud to have been part of such an amazing magazine."
- Kevin DeMaria

Kevin also has an amazing collection of vintage photographs and more of his photographs can be seen here, here, here and here.

The Daily Beast

2009-10-20T09:44:00.005-04:00

I am excited to have Down These Mean Streets featured on The Daily Beast. Thank you Rachel!

Obama, We Are Dying Out Here

2009-10-07T12:59:00.008-04:00

Obama, we are dying out here. Stand up and put change into action, talk is cheap, doing is doing. We need health care, we need health education, we need health options. We are dying slowly...

Magnum Expression Award

2009-10-06T08:42:00.003-04:00

Im pretty happy to be a finalist (winner announced mid Oct.) in the Magnum Expression Award. Who would have thought this Philly cuz who is rough around the edges would be recognized by both Aperture and Magnum in the same year, my two favorite photo organizations. I am honored and excited.

RIP Gourmet Magazine

2009-10-05T10:16:00.004-04:00

It's actually happening, the greatest magazines we all thought would survive through this rough patch are falling. Gourmet is a Conde Nast staple, along with the New Yorker and Vogue. Gourmet Magazine in my opinion had some of the best photography on the newsstands month after month and was up there with NY Times Sunday Mag as my favorite. Damn man. Damn.

All My Boys In 6th Grade Used To Wear Drakar Noir...Along With The Beautiful Comes The Ugly

2009-10-04T21:42:00.005-04:00

Sometimes when you don't hold anything in and you give yourself to it, and you give everything that is inside you, along with the beautiful comes the ugly. We are all human and what is a gift can also be a curse. No beef C.

New Projects Coming Soon

2009-09-18T18:05:00.009-04:00

My work in progress We Are All In This Together, which is an accumulation of several years worth of work as well as brand new stuff, and, Deadline, my project examining the newspaper industry and the internet era, will be up on my website shortly. Stay tuned....

You Down With POC? Yeah You Know Me!

2009-09-14T21:11:00.006-04:00

"We are the Union
The mighty mighty Union.
Where ever we go
People want to know
Who we are
So we tell them
We are the Union
The mighty mighty Union."

-A little jingle sung in front of the blow up rat during Union protests of scab worksites.

The start of a photography Union (or something kinda like it) has arrived in America. And like most good things these days in America, it comes from Europe, The Piece of Cake (POC) network of photographers. We have been in great need of something of this nature for some time, I hope we can all unite and grow stronger as a union of individuals with unique visions. Here is an excerpt from a past interview that never made it to the final edit:

Interviewer: Finally Will, what advice would you give to any young or up-and-coming photographers who are reading this?

Me: I have always been a big fan of the story about the old bull and young bull on top of a hill overlooking a field of cows. The young bull says, "Let's race down to that field and fuck one of those cows," to which the older bull replies, "Let's walk down there and fuck them all." I never really understood how this whole "emerging" photographer thing became so popular, other than as a means of business and really just a sales pitch. Young or old, established or just starting out, we are all artists and photographers regardless of where we are in our careers. I think the most important thing to understand about this game is to see not just what's right in front of you but to look far down the road. As we learned from the outcome of the Mexican revolution, you must have a national plan as well as a local plan, because you may just win a fight or two, but there will still be a war to battle through. No matter where you are in your career there will always be that next step to climb. There will also always be someone standing on the step you are attempting to climb and so as artists we must learn to organize and unite and not regress into labels and categorizes, me must walk together and not run reckless and short sighted, we must help each other climb up those steps with open arms and lift each other up, united and strong.

The Giant Has Fallen And He Can't Get Up: Labor Day Notes Of A Union Man

2009-09-07T12:40:00.014-04:00

Now don't get me wrong here. I am a Union man till I die. I bleed blue blood, work boots, hammers and nails. But with the recent and not so recent (which I will get into momentarily) economic turn of events that our country has experienced and as a result the drastic spike in unemployment and numerous closings of American plants and factories, specifically within the auto industry, I can't help but to take a real and direct look at Unions. Organized labor and the Unions of course saved the American worker literally from death and exhaustion near the turn of the 20th Century and gave workers a decent living. As Unions quickly became strong and powerful forces that fought brave hard won battles with a strict "all or nothing" approach that gave American workers the right to a fair wage and a voice for the voiceless, these tactics were successful. Then factories and jobs began to migrate towards the South where cheaper Non-Union labor was available and soon after, worldwide as the outsourcing and globalization of American jobs began in the 1950s. As our Unions continue to fight to this day, in what seems to be the last fight in a loosing battle, I wonder how much of the" all or nothing" approach in regards to contracts and all of the associated benefits (ie, health care, vacation, overtime, etc) of organized labor has ultimately hurt the American worker. Yes, of course, don't get me wrong, these things should be guaranteed and are what has made American labor an honorable life, but how much of these hard nosed "all or nothing" Union staples ultimately killed the American worker? As GM and other American automakers wrestle out of the quickly tightening noose and breathe those last gasps of air before the rope is pulled tight forever, I ask how much has been fought to really save the worker? How much in an ever changing Capitalist society in which the dollar always wins has been truly sacrificed? I am not so sure the "all or nothing" approach that our Unions were founded on many years ago is still viable and beneficial today. And while I believe the downfall of the American auto industry is primarily the fault of the bosses (in the 70s GM had already developed a hybrid car, why it wasn't released until decades later is perhaps another conversation related to the evil oil empire) and the deadly belief that if it aint broke dont fix it, which in America will only last so long (ie the Japanese auto industry) and a never clear and developed vision for the future. But the bosses will always fuck up, and did our Union bosses get too comfortable smoking cigars in their Cadillac and Lincoln SUVs plastered with "Build Union, Buy American" bumper stickers as they drove to the fancy lunch meetings with the auto industry executives at the country club? Was the tightening noose ever seen coming? And did the idea of saving jobs by accepting less than ideal contracts, but considering the times not so terrible conditions, come into play? Or did the outdated success and belief in the "all or nothing" approach that our Unions and workforce were built upon ultimately kill us? At the end of the day can the American auto worker really believe that the Union stood by his and her side and did everything they could to ensure tomorrow there would be a timecard to punch? Was the American auto worker in these shitty economic times in which everyone is hurting willing to tighten his or her belt for a shitty contract with major sacrifices and pay cuts in order to wake up to a job tomorrow? Or was it already too late? Has America been blind to the fact that we cut that rope, tied the noose's knot and threw it up on that tree branch our own damn selves decades ago and that every year we stick our necks out looking the other way while our left hand wraps that hungry noose around our thick skin?

In 1881, after trade representatives met in Pittsburgh and formed the American Federation of Labor (AFL) they swore to "protect the skilled labor of America from being reduced to beggary and to sustain the standard of American workmanship and skill.''

When did we become so blind? Why are we now a nation of importers?

Texas

2009-09-05T01:34:00.001-04:00

photo by Houston native and current resident Julie Soefer. Keep your head up Julz.

We Eat Fish, Tossed Salads And Make Rap Ballads

2009-09-04T10:28:00.008-04:00

Be healthy. Enjoy the last of these summer days with some fresh fruit.

NYC Green Carts along 125th.

From The Sports Desk

2009-08-26T12:43:00.005-04:00

Five Minutes Of Heaven

2009-08-16T14:29:00.001-04:00

I want to make a portrait of the man who held a gun to my head and almost murdered me. I want my five minutes of heaven.

Aperture Green Cart Commission

2009-08-12T21:58:00.002-04:00

I am thrilled and excited to have been selected by the Aperture Foundation to work on a year long commission documenting the Green Cart initiative in New York City. I will be working with 4 other awesome photographers, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Thomas Holton, Gabriele Stabile & Shen Wei on the project. For the past year I have turned my camera to the problems that plague our inner cities in hopes that through the power and salience of photography change can come and positive action can be made. There is a food revolution happening right now in inner cities throughout America and it is a light at the end of a long dark tunnel to discover programs like the Green Cart initiative. It is refreshing and uplifting to be able to now turn my camera and document the efforts to bring locally grown fruits and vegetables at affordable prices to some of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in New York where there are little or no health resources and food options available.

Newspapers And The Age Of Information

2009-08-10T18:44:00.006-04:00

photo taken by Michael W. Plunkett in the Philadelphia Inquirer downtown news room

Been on a break from the blog as I have taken a step back to examine the internet, specifically how we access information. Been working on two new projects. Have spent some time photographing the newspaper industry and the current transitions our newspapers are faced with, seeing how the paper is made, how information is gathered, presented and how the paper is put together. My father is a newspaper man, my grandfather was a newspaper man, my great grandfather was a newspaper man and my great great grandfather was a newspaper man, this is in my blood, it was how I was raised, from the reporters to copy editors to teamsters, everyone felt like family. A sneak peek of this work to come shortly as well as more on my other new project.

No Longer Can We Ignore The Lack Of Health And Food Options In Our Inner Cities

2009-07-27T21:43:00.013-04:00

There is a food revolution happening right now in our inner cities (a must read). The future of our country and its citizens lies not only in how we value our education system and living conditions, etc, but in the health of our people. Our health care system has been under great focus recently, as it should be. How we have let our health care system become a business dominated by insurance companies and pharmaceutical makers I do not know. How the sick workers who gave their brave lives to spending weeks working on Ground Zero and now can not get insurance coverage (Moore's Sicko) brings tears. This must end. Instead of spending millions of dollars on treating the preventable illnesses (obesity, diabetes, stroke, blindness, limp amputation and kidney failure) that result from little or no health and food resources in low income areas, we must target the problem before it begins. Many programs (The Food Trust, Fresh Food Financing Initiative, urban farmers, to list a few of the many) have sprouted up across America that recognize the immediate need for change and have hit the streets and taken action. Here is some information:

From Gov. Paterson’s press release announcing strategies to expand grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods:

“There are not enough healthy food options in many urban and rural communities throughout New York State. The lack of affordable, nutritious food is negatively impacting the revitalization of many communities, and the health of New Yorkers,” said Governor Paterson.

“With too few supermarkets in neighborhoods across the five boroughs and many existing businesses shutting their doors, much of the city is being affected by supermarket shortages, and a lack of access to affordable, healthy foods,” said Speaker Quinn.

"It was established in 2008 because of concerns that New Yorkers were losing access to fresh, affordable foods. Despite a growth in population in New York City, the number of supermarkets has declined by one third in the past six years. Diabetes rates have doubled in the last 10 years. Childhood obesity has become a public health epidemic. One out of every four New Yorkers under the age of 18 is obese. In many high-poverty areas, the rate is closer to one out of three. For the first time in history, children have a lower life expectancy than their parents.

Obesity causes serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It puts children at greater risk for life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks, stroke, limb loss, and cancer, and it places an enormous strain on our healthcare system. Last year New York spent $6.1 billion to treat obesity related health problems, the second highest in the nation."

From the report Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes

"The food environments of lower-income communities and communities of color are of particular concern, given that obesity and diabetes rates are highest in these communities. Lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color have fewer grocery stores and an abundance of fastfood restaurants and convenience stores compared to higher-income and predominantly Caucasian neighborhoods. When grocery stores are not accessible—when residents do not have access to a private vehicle or reliable public transportation, or when grocery stores are not located within short walking distance—residents of these communities often resort to purchasing the generally higher-calorie, lower-nutrient foods sold at nearby convenience stores and fast-food restaurants. These disparities in food access contribute to subsequent chronic health conditions, including obesity, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, as well as to higher mortality rates and years of potential life lost."

From The National Fresh Food Financing Initiative

"Millions of Americans in low-income communities and communities of color walk out their front doors and see nothing but fast food and convenience stores selling high-fat, high-sugar processed foods. Residents of rural areas face a different but related challenge—a complete lack of any nearby food options at all. Americans in too many urban and rural communities must travel long distances just to access the fresh food they need to live healthy lives."

Down These Mean Streets Featured In Harper's

2009-07-17T10:37:00.004-04:00

I am very happy to have my photographs featured in the August issue of Harper's. It is always so refreshing and exciting when you meet with someone and they totally understand your work and they zoom in immediately to the heart and guts of the project. This is exactly what happened when I showed Stacey Clarkson, the art director at Harper's, my work. The images she selected for the portfolio feature are some of my favorites and the ones that I feel speak to the larger issues that the project addresses. Thank you Stacey! Go pick up an issue today, or any other magazine, stop clicking and start flipping. Remember that feeling when you lick the tip of your finger to turn a page?

1,000 Words

2009-07-06T12:17:00.007-04:00

Some of my work and a new interview are featured in the new summer issue of 1,000 Words. Be sure to check out Troika Editions they have a special offer on limited edition prints available until the end of July and proceeds will help support 1,000 Words. Support the scene!

The Sounds I Hear At Night

2009-06-21T02:17:00.004-04:00

Every night like clockwork I hear these sounds:

Midnight- A rusty metal storefront gate coming down slowly
1am-4am-Reckless cabbies driving too fast over the huge sunken pot hole and scraping the manhole cover at the end of it
4am-Motor City pulling down their rusty metal gates quickly
6am- My neighbor slamming his door shut on his way to work and who always seems to forget something and then re-slams the door

Listening

It was a night like all the others. Empty
of everything save memory. He thought
he'd go to the other side of things.
But he hadn't. He read a little
and listened to the radio. Looked out the window
for a while. Then went upstairs. In bed
realized he'd left the radio on.
But closed his eyes anyway. Inside the deep night,
as the houses sailed west, he'd woke up
to hear voices murmuring. And froze.
Then understood it was only the radio.
He got up and went downstairs. He had
to pee anyway. A little rain
that hadn't been there before was
falling outside. The voices
on the radio faded and then came back
as if from a long way. It wasn't
the same station an longer. A man's voice
said something about Borodin,
and his opera Prince Igor. The woman
he said this to agreed, and laughed.
Began to tell a little of the story.
The man's hand drew back from the switch.
Once more he found himself in the presence
of mystery. Rain. Laughter. History.
Art. The hegemony of death.
He stood there, listening.

-Raymond Carver

Come See What Everyone Has Been Talking About

2009-06-03T06:03:00.009-04:00

Come see what everyone has been talking about. Come see what photography on crack and steroids looks like. Come see this journey I have made through our country's streets. Come see what I have given myself to. Come see what I now give to you. Come see what I promise you is worth seeing. This is it folks. Right this way. I hope to see you there.

-Conscientious
-A Photo Editor
-Rachel Hulin
-MTV
-Bomblog
-Inside The Loop
-We Can't Paint
-Jake Stangel
-Art Most Fierce
-Eyes of Artists
-Slow Century Magazine
-Justin James Reed

Thank you my friends for all of the support, kind words and fuel for that fire.

Down These Mean Streets

Photographs by Will Steacy

Opening Reception TOMORROW NIGHT!

Thursday June 4th, 6-8pm
Gulf & Western Gallery
New York University
721 Broadway
NYC

It Has Been A Wild Ride

2009-05-28T01:24:00.009-04:00

Please join me for the solo exhibition of Down These Mean Streets. Some how I made it through all this. When I got the phone call early one morning last year and the voice on the other end said congrats you won the Tierney Fellowship this year, I was like, "Shit, I can't believe they gave it to me, they must be as crazy as I am!" Then I thought, ahhh, what a gift, this is going to be a great fucking year." It's been a long wild ride and I must say I am pretty fucking proud of the images that will be on those walls, my heart and soul and everything I got is on that wall. Come on out and have a beer with me.

Opening Reception Thursday June 4th, 6-8pm

Gulf & Western Gallery
New York University
721 Broadway
NYC

Opening Night (My Favorite Cassavetes Flick)

2009-05-14T09:49:00.004-04:00

Some flicks from the Tierney show hanging courtesy of my intern Davis. Opening is tonight.

Thursday May 14, 5-7pm
The Tobacco Warehouse
26 New Dock Street
Dumbo, Brooklyn

My Mug Shot Collection

2009-05-13T00:03:00.003-04:00

The night I was almost murdered, many years back, after the guys left the store and I was able to free myself and call the cops I then spent the night at the police station looking through mug shots on the police computer in hopes that the guys had priors. I didn't see the guys in the computer mug shots but I did see many people I knew and many guys I knew from the neighborhood. They looked a lot meaner and tougher in those mug shots than on the street as I knew them. Somehow those mugshots made them inhuman and cruel, the guys I knew had smiles on their face and always said what up with a hand shake. For the next couple months I became obsessed with the mug shot as a form of portrait and began collecting mug shots. Here are a sample of some mug shots from my collection.

New York Photo Festival

2009-05-10T22:43:00.014-04:00

A selection of images from Down These Mean Streets will be up at New York Photo Festival as part of the Tierney Fellows Exhibition. The opening reception is:

Thursday May 14, 5-7pm
The Tobacco Warehouse
26 New Dock Street
Dumbo, Brooklyn

I am on the final lap of this work. Once the arm heals, one or two more cities need some walking. This project has worn me down and at times I have felt so broken down. After each trip I am not just physically exhausted, but mentally and spiritually, at times I question how I can go on. It's been hard on the soul. I have never been more alone. The killers, hustlers, prostitutes, homeless, insane, addicts, the bad dreams. Before I went out each night, I stood in the mirror, looked myself in the eye, asked myself how bad I want it, then punched myself in the face repeatedly to get hype, every night was a title fight, every night alone in the streets. But I'm grinding till I die. Why haven't you taken my life yet? I got a stone where my heart should be.

"Down these mean streets must walk a man who is not himself mean, who is untarnished and unafraid"
- Raymond Chandler, "The Simple Art of Murder"

I Fought The Law And I Won

2009-05-07T00:46:00.005-04:00

Another summons for public drinking. Another summons, warrant, ticket to add to the pile. Whatever. Guess I've got warrants all over the place by now. Good luck finding me. I havent lived at that Brooklyn address for 6 years now bitches! Hahaha. Drinking beers in the hot sun, I fought the law and I won!

Sidelined With A Broken Arm

2009-05-01T11:55:00.012-04:00

Yup. I'll be watching from the sidelines for the next couple weeks with a broken arm. So I spent Wednesday in the emergency room with what I assumed was a broken arm given that I was in excruciating pain and couldn't move my arm. I waited hours in the packed waiting room watching the paranoid New Yorkers who all thought they had the swine flu. Half of them had masks and the other half who didnt wouldnt go near them, one big game of keep away, shirts vs skins. I eventually grew bored of this and then remembered that several months ago I sat in this very same seat in the wee hours of the morning with my face mangled and covered in blood after being on the losing end of a bar fight. I have health insurance and pay a shit load each month for it, yet for some reason I have recently been getting bills from creditors wanting hundreds of dollars for the "surgery" I had....funny I thought the doctor called them stitches when she was putting my face back together. Hospital bills? aint no need for that, my insurance handles that...or so I thought. Anyway. Eventually my name is called, I walk through some doors so I can wait some more in a new seat before getting an X-Ray. I get one, eventually, and then eventually the doc has a look. As she looked over my X-Rays I asked what the deal with this swine flu was and is everyone just paranoid? Yes, she told me and that they havent seen a single case at the hospital (Beth Israel). Oh my paranoid New Yorkers I love thee. Maybe the swine flu is some conspiracy connected to the Mexican drug wars and an attempt to cut off ties to Mexico and fed to the Fox News types who have spun this into a spiraling out of control case of contagious fear? Hahaha. But this same doc also told me my arm wasn't broken, gave me a sling, a script for vicodin and sent me on my way. Only to get a call 3 hours later from her saying upon review it appears that, yes, in fact, my arm is broken and that I should see a specialist, thank you, goodbye, click, dial tone. Hey doc you there? Dial tone. Hmm, so then does that mean maybe everyone does have the swine flu?

Swine flu or not, here are some more recent interviews to check out, topics include Detroit, my new project Down These Mean Streets and how I fell in love with the game:

-In(side) The Loop

-Slow Century Magazine

Thank you Courtney and Janna!

Everything Dies Baby That's A Fact, But Maybe Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back

2009-04-27T22:49:00.002-04:00

My new project DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS is now up on my website.

Atlantic City

"Well, they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night
Now, they blew up his house, too
Down on the boardwalk they're gettin ready for a fight
Gonna see what them racket boys can do

Now, there's trouble bustin in from outta state
And the d.a. can't get no relief
Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade
And the gamblin commissions hangin on by the skin of his teeth

Well now, everything dies, baby, that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City

Well, I got a job and tried to put my money away
But I got debts that no honest man can pay
So I drew what I had from the central trust
And I bought us two tickets on that coast city bus

Now, baby, everything dies, honey, that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back...

Now our luck may have died and our love may be cold
But with you forever I'll stay
Were goin out where the sands turnin to gold
Put on your stockins baby, `cause the nights getting cold
And maybe everything dies, baby, that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back

Now, I been lookin for a job, but it's hard to find
Down here it's just winners and losers and don't
Get caught on the wrong side of that line
Well, Im tired of comin out on the losin end
So, honey, last night I met this guy and Im gonna
Do a little favor for him

Well, I guess everything dies, baby, that's a fact
But maybe evrything that dies someday comes back..."

-The Fucking Boss

Can I Get A Side Of Internet Action With That?

2009-04-21T13:29:00.010-04:00

Been working away getting things ready for The Tierney Fellowship show at the New York Photo Festival and for my solo show at New York University, more info to come. In the meantime, here are some links to recent interviews, features and book reviews I have done.

-An in depth interview about my new project on the Bomb Magazine Blog. Alec, thanks for all the great questions!

-An oldie but goodie project of mine is featured on the Italian photo site Urbanautica.

-A quick interview on the PhotoLucida Blog that features the 2008 Top 50.

-I recently reviewed Josh Lutz's Meadowlands for 1,000 Words Magazine.

Nothing Like It

2009-04-18T15:55:00.001-04:00

Cold Sweats. From Bad Dreams.

2009-04-15T20:44:00.012-04:00

Every night in Detroit mad dudes up in my face. Mad aggressive. I held that wrench so tight. Just waiting. Waiting for good to go bad in that unpredictable split second that it always does. I'm still here, still standing tall, still riding hard.

The Stare Down

2009-04-10T15:42:00.007-04:00

Whether it worked or not I dont know. Trying to get that tension, that juice... Sarah and I definitely had a fun time.

Goddamn, I'm Starving And I Just Ate

2009-04-09T13:13:00.002-04:00

I'm still in Detroit, but this is what's up in Boston...

The Steak And The Lobster

2009-04-08T18:30:00.008-04:00

I recently did some stuff for the show called Viewfinders. I dread listening to myself, but they did a great job editing out the ummms and fragmented sentences, thanks guys for the wonderful opportunity.

Because The Night Belongs To Us

2009-04-04T19:38:00.002-04:00

Back in Philly and then off to Detroit. On last legs of this journey through the night...

Smoking Cigarettes All Night Looking At The Past Couple Years

2009-04-03T00:43:00.012-04:00

Somehow it just occurred to me that my website is more than 2 years old. Spent most of the night coming up with an edit of work from the past couple years, perhaps it will supplement the night work, perhaps not, either way it's a lot to go through for this workaholic. It was a year ago that I met Timmy "T-Boone" Briner in Marfa. I spent a lot of time there photographing through through the night and into the day.

Stay tuned for a huge website update and tons of new work....

Mentioned. Honorably.

2009-03-30T16:38:00.006-04:00

The Pain Of The Long Distance Runner

2009-03-20T09:57:00.013-04:00

I just can't stop thinking about it.

Steve McQueen's Hunger is the best movie of the year and Michael Fassbender's performance as Bobby Sands is extraordinary. Fassbender reminds us that acting is a performance in which the body and its movements can reveal the heart and spirit of a character in a language devoid of words (minus the 24 minute "Last Super"-esque conversation, 17 of those 24 shot as a single take!). The actor's bodies and the months of starvation, denial and ability to suppress pain and discomfort until the very end, until running across the finish line, in my mind is a performance in itself. I felt as though Fassbender himself was near death as he lay in that bed. And Jesus fucking Christ, the scene in which the guard walks down the hall splashing bleach on the piss puddles, walks back, then comes down the hall again mopping the piss and bleach back into the cells until the camera itself can no longer endure watching any longer and it falls to the black floor and proceeds down the hall, the screen turns black with bursts of light from the reflection of the lights on the ceiling in the remains of the piss puddles, symbolizing the flickering and on the brink of death Irish prisoners in the British Maze prison during a 1981 hunger strike. This scene with obvious Kubrick, Truffaut and Sam Fuller influences is one of the most beautiful and painful scenes I have ever witnessed. Hunger is performance art and a painting that Steve McQueen kissed and molded into one of the most powerful films of the decade. And I will let someone else talk about the significance of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay....

I'm Not Fearing Any Man, My Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Coming Of The Lord

2009-03-17T23:40:00.011-04:00

I get chills and tears in my eyes every time I watch this. King passed out after giving this speech. He pretty much knew he was going to die any day, any moment and you can see it in eyes. He left his heart and soul on that stage (among many) with that speech.

Some Of My Most Real And Intimate Experiences Have Been With Complete Strangers On The Street

2009-03-16T03:33:00.001-04:00

.....And at times the interaction has only lasted for several minutes. When I go out to the bars these days I am just so bored and sick of all these people. It seems no one downtown anymore has any guts, heart or good stories to tell. These days to live in New York you have to be privileged or successful and......I miss the energy.

Here's to the ones who've tried to rob me, watched the bodies fall to the pavement, invited me for a drink, led me into the alleys and all the others who I have crossed paths with who are out there doing the best they can at this thing called life. I'm up all night tonight smoking cigarettes and thinking about you.

Housing Crisis? What You Talking 'Bout Willis?

2009-03-09T15:00:00.023-04:00

There was a great article in yesterday's Times Sunday Magazine about the national foreclosure crisis focusing in Cleveland.

"In the ensuing years, the city's real estate was transformed into an Alice-In-Wonderland-like landscape. Local officials began keeping track of foreclosed homes by placing red dots on large wall maps. Some corners of the map, like Slavic Village, are now so pack with red dots they look like puddles of blood. The first question outsiders ask is, Where has everyone gone?" .... "The county has lost nearly 100,000 people over the past seven years, the largest exodus in recent memory outside of New Orleans Parish."

-Alex Kotlowitz

And to expand on this article, here are some of my images of this housing crisis from New Orleans.

It Takes Americans To See The Absolute Worst Before They Can Identify A Problem: A Required Reading List

2009-03-07T12:57:00.026-05:00

Walker Evans....from the cradle to the factory to the grave.

"Worried that you are falling behind, not living as well as you once did? Or expected to?
That you are going to have to work extra hours, or take a second job, just to stay even with your bills?
That the company you have worked for all these years may dump you for a younger person?
Or that the pension you have been promised may not be there when you retire?
Worried, if you are on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, that you will never see a middle class lifestyle?
Or, if you are a single parent or part of a young working family, that you will never be able to save enough to buy a home? That you are paying more than your fair share of taxes?
Worried that the people who represent you in Congress are taking care of themselves and their friends at your expense?
You are right. Keep worrying."

-A selection from America: What Went Wrong by Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele, Pulitzer Prize winning reporters of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

America: What Went Wrong is an expanded version of a nine part series originally published by the Philadelphia Inquirer in October 1991 and while written nearly 20 years ago this brilliant journalism uncovers how the politicians and dealmakers on Wall Street have rigged the game to benefit the rich, while the middle class and everyone else remain powerless and sink deeper into the bottom economic brackets. This book is perhaps one of the most relevant studies out there in terms of providing a back drop to where we are RIGHT NOW and how we got ourselves into this mess. The politicians and executives have been playing with a marked deck for decades while we sit here watching Monday night football drinking Bud Light as we work our bodies and souls to the bone all for a hot and a cot and a seat on the express train to the graveyard. I am boiling inside.

I am currently reading these and recommend them to all:

-American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto, By Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh
-Tally's Corner, By Elliot Liebow
-Subliminal Seduction, By Wilson Bryan Key
-Code of the Street, By Elijah Anderson
-When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, By William Julius Wilson
-The Death and Life of Great American Cities, By Jane Jacobs

Instead of providing an Amazon link to these titles, I encourage all to go to your neighborhood mom and pop locally owned book store and buy them there.

Down These Mean Streets

2009-03-03T21:22:00.015-05:00

In my new on-going series "Down These Mean Streets" I examine fear and the abandonment of America's inner cities. Photographing only at night with a large format view camera, I work in a set routine by walking from the airport to the central business district of each city I photograph. My focus is the parts of the city you don’t want to be in at night; the part of town you drive through - not to - with your windows rolled up and doors locked. The guts and history of the American city lie between the airport and city center as a portrait of the modern day American inner city has gone missing. America has turned its back on cities through years of abandonment and neglect allowing neighborhoods to crumble with no local economy, a public education system that barely meets requirements, a low income housing disaster, few options for proper nutrition and health care. Violence and drugs reign, and there seems to be little or no way out as survival becomes a number one priority.

Fueled by America's preoccupation with homeland security and protecting our country from foreign forces that we have lost sight of what it is we are for fighting for. We have forgotten our own cities, neighborhoods and streets. By addressing the overwhelming loss and despair that prevail in our urban communities my aim is to reveal an intimate look at what our cities have become as problems and issues cannot be solved if they are not first identified. America is at a crossroads as we are waist deep in an economic crisis, still at war and trying to find our place within a rapidly changing global society. This project is a contribution to the conversation of our country’s future and it demands that we look inward at ourselves and what we have allowed to occur.

I will be showing a sneak preview of this work at Michael Mazzeo Gallery as part of the exhibition titled "Art Fair." Please join me for the opening reception this Wednesday, March 4th, 6-8pm, 526 W 26th Street, NYC.

I Don't Believe That Anybody Feels The Way I Do About You Now

2009-02-25T23:16:00.013-05:00

a little something something from L.A., more sneak peeks to come...

The Three Ring Circus: Ed Hammerhand On Flying The Friendly Skies

2009-02-24T21:54:00.007-05:00

Lost on the way to the loony bin somewhere between Los Angeles and New York, this outcast madman sat at the airport awaiting his delayed connection. The gods of traveling must have had it in for me that day. As I sat there listening to the white kid with dreadlocks and all the rasta gear one can find on the internet these days doing his best rendition of a Jamaican accent into his cellphone, I hear this awful shriek. I hear it again. And again and it is getting louder. It sounds something like "EEEAAAAIII" and gets very soprano at the end. I turn away from the wannabe rasta man from Nebraska and see one of those airport golf carts slowly going by as the driver screams "EEEAAAAIIII," apparently the siren that makes the sound of a truck in reverse is broken and this brilliant individual feels the need to improvise. In the back of this golf cart, which usually seems to transport the elderly to their connecting flights, are three obese women chatting to one another completely oblivious to what is happening. The whole airport came to a silence and time stopped as this man squealing drove by. Ed Hammerhand eventually made it on the plane and proceeded to push the flight attendant button in dire need of a beer before the plane even took off. Many buttons pushed and many $7 beers in a can (unfortunately Delta does not provide koozies, I asked) later the cart came by with food. My $15 salad had two leaves of lettuce and something that kinda looked like but definitely did not taste like chicken on top. When I told the flight attendant that this was bullshit and I wanted my moneys worth, I was told sorry. For a man on his way to the psychiatric ward this turned into a heated argument in which the other flight attendants came over and eventually I was shut up with a box of Pringles. I will not even get into the $6 movies. Traveling now has become a great American pastime equal with going to the movies and attending a sporting event, you get raped in the ass and you are expected to smile and say please and thank you in the process. This somehow doesn't seem right to me, but, ahh, I suppose that is why everyone thinks I'm the crazy one. At times I wish I could sit in my padded cell here in this loony bin and look out the window smoking cigarettes all day for the rest of my life.

Sports Talk Radio Live From The Psychiatric Ward With Your Favorite Madman Ed Hammerhand

2009-02-22T14:05:00.017-05:00

So, yes, A-Rod (and the rest of baseball) used steroids. Is it really that big a surprise? Does it really matter? America loves its sports and for many the local sports team is all they got in their lives, it is their only escape, their only bit of hope, sports have become the modern day religion, along with the Walmart super center, 1000 cable channels and frozen food that comes in a bag pop it in a machine and zap it on high for two minutes 30 seconds and dinner is served. It might seem to some that most things American these days are on steroids. We have put these men in the spotlight, worshipped them, turned an industry in which these men used to have jobs in the off season to make ends meet into a billion dollar marketing machine. When 10 extra home runs a year means a million dollars, why not take that juice (one of my favorite scenes in The Wrestler is when The Ram is buying all his steroids from that monster of a man in the locker room). And let's stop here for a minute, and rewind before we get ahead of ourselves. Steroids do not make you a better athlete. Hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports. I played college baseball and hitting a home run is one of the greatest feelings in the world, but with that said, if you fail 7 out of 10 times you are a hall of famer. A-Rod is one of the greatest natural talents I have seen in my short existence. If steroids and big muscles were what made you great, then half of New Jersey and all of Staten Island and Long Island would be in the majors....and batting fifth playing left field Franky "The Golden Guido" Biceps. America, stop putting the blame on the players, and perhaps focus on the higher powers (Bud Selig) that allows this rampant drug abuse to occur. Selig is the one killing baseball. And for anyone who wants to talk about steroids and how bad a drug they are, I hope you are vegetarian and don't want to talk about all of the drugs we put in our animals, aka the steroids in your steaks and Double-Double (thanks LA, great fucking burger!). More soon from your favorite madman Ed Hammerhand once the nurses unlock my padded cell....

One In 8 Million

2009-02-19T23:02:00.009-05:00

Finally! The New York Times has been killing it lately with its series One In 8 Million. The Todd Heisler photographs are amazing and the interview dialog has guts (this guy is my man!) I hope to see other newspapers taking journalism to the next level (or a return to the golden years) with pieces of similar quality and content. It breaks my heart to see newspapers doing stories about Paris Hilton exposing her bald eagle when she got out of a car, or even Anderson Cooper doing whatever that You Tube thing he does at the end of his show, I mean seriously. I hope journalism can return to journalism sometime soon. I want real stories.

There's Blood In The Streets In The Town Of LA

2009-02-12T22:59:00.002-05:00

Off to Los Angeles for some midnight journeys. This project is starting to take shape, but, alas, not without a price to pay, it has taken its toll on the mind and soul, I have seen such horror, human beings behaving in the most inhuman ways, crazed and unpredictable, at times I have been so afraid.

"there are worse things than
being alone
but it often takes decades
to realize this
and most often
when you do
it's too late
and there's nothing worse
than
too late."

-Buk

While in LA, I will be paying homage my hero Bukowski and I hope to check out his former residence and of course visit his favorite race track. You are with me always old friend.

Recent Observations

2009-02-05T08:13:00.009-05:00

-Don't know why it made me happy, perhaps a rememberance of my own childhood, but walking down the street yesterday afternoon a big group of kids on 6th Ave. were throwing ice chunks at cabs and running down the street when one guy got out to chase them. Ahhh those were the days.

-It's been a couple years since I have seen this guy around, but for all my New Yorkers-remember the guy with short dreads and a jean jacket who would come up all quick in your face and say, "Got a quarter?" I could never figure out exactly what that guy's deal was but something was off with that dude, like was he some annoying NYU Tisch actor kid or just some schizo? Anyway. He's back.

-From Sean Penn's "The Pledge." Hmmm, where have I seen this image before?

In case you didn't know, now you do, one of the more famous photographs of the 20th Century:

By Robert Frank

It's Been So Long Since We Laughed Together

2009-02-01T14:43:00.006-05:00

It's Gonna Be A Cold Winter

2009-01-30T08:46:00.007-05:00

Photo by Max Ortiz / The Detroit News

Tuesday
About 5 p.m.: Reporter calls 911 and describes the body's whereabouts.
20 minutes later: Operator calls back asking for more specific directions.

Wednesday
4:43 p.m.: Reporter calls 911, waits and is disconnected.
4:46 p.m.: Calls again and explains that he called yesterday but body is still there.
4:55 p.m.: Fire Department calls back for specific directions and reporter offers to meet at the site.
5 p.m.: Fire Department arrives and the homicide department is called; recovery begins.

Read the LeDuff story HERE.

Reminds me of that Raymond Carver story when the fishermen find a dead body in the river but they do nothing and continue to fish all weekend.

The Current State Of The Art Market Series

2009-01-28T15:53:00.003-05:00

I recently spoke with Ruben from Art Most Fierce about The Current State Of The Art Market, read our conversation HERE. Ruben is doing a series of interviews examining the art market and will be showcasing a wide range of perspectives including several artists at different points in their career, collectors, gallery owners, curators, non-profits, art fairs. Keep your eye out for more! Thank you for including me Ruben!

A Silent World

2009-01-28T10:52:00.012-05:00

James Castle (1899-1977) was born deaf and never learned to speak, read or write, and refused to be taught to communicate in any of the accepted forms of signing or finger spelling (he was kicked out of the School For Deaf and Blind). Instead, he used his art as a way of communicating and making sense of the world. Castle lived with his parents on their southern Idaho farm all his life, as a man he lived in one of the family's barns and slept on the floor. His drawings were made by using stove soot mixed with his own saliva and applied with the tips of sharpened sticks on whatever form of paper he could find ranging from butcher paper, matchbook covers, cardboard, and mail-order catalogs. Castle lived in a world all his own. He experienced his surroundings with a unique and sophisticated sensitivity, never learning to read or write, words and letters were just abstract forms and shapes, as the instinctual urge to communicate and record the human experience was done so through his own visual language. Thought to be autistic, there is a blurred distinction in Castle's work between the inanimate and the animate, he treated objects like chairs, doorways and beds the same he did humans.

Castle is one of my favorite artists and there are days when I wish I could have lived in his world.

Sounds That Eventually Turned Into Words

2009-01-24T18:48:00.010-05:00

Lately I have really been feeling Sasha Frere-Jones' music reviews in The New Yorker. Whether it is a profile onLil Wayne or Bon Iver, Frere-Jones makes me interested and gives me reason to keep reading, I trust him and will follow him down whatever path he leads. This is good writing. From his recent profile on Bon Iver:

"It is easy to believe that his lyrics are 'sounds that eventually turned into words,' as Vernon once told an interviewer. In 'Flume,' the language works best as sound-I listened to the album a dozen times before I looked up the words. Among other things, the chorus contains the sequence 'only love is all maroon, lapping lakes like leery loons, leaving rope burns-reddish ruse.' Starting the album with some word salad turns out to work just fine, as it gives you time to adjust to the power of the singing."

I am dyslexic and hearing and listening (among many other things) have been a challenge my whole life. From listening to my mother's rules which I could never seem to get right, to all the voices all speaking at the same time at the art openings I can barely make out what the person next to me is saying into my ear: it is all just one big blur. Music has always been this way for me, one sound, and it takes great focus for me to listen to the lyrics, but when I do I hear that voice, it becomes the most intimate experience.

Train Wrecks

2009-01-13T01:00:00.010-05:00

Recipe For Success

2009-01-06T14:50:00.006-05:00

Glad to be back in New York, back on my bike, back racing the cabbies, after traveling/shooting over much of the holidays. I love being on the road and all of the wild adventures I usually encounter. Here are some of the staples I can't live without while on the road shooting.

-A bundle of cigars. I think and write better when smoking a cigar, it relaxes me. A cigar also helps pass the time on long drives.

-Depending if I am flying or driving to my destination: a big heavy wrench I can stick in my back pocket, brass knuckles or a knife. Self defense, I ain't going down without a good fight baby.

-Good playlists on my ipod, either sad lonely songs or something to get me amped up.

-A Moleskin and Foray pen. Gotta have something for when the ideas flow, to record locations I will return to, to get the names and addresses of my subjects so I can mail them a print, and of course to record the details of each photograph I make.

-In the summer, a good bandana, to wipe the sweat away, it gets hot under that dark cloth and lugging all that gear around. In the winter, a good pair of gloves, my fingers get freezing carrying that tripod and focusing those knobs on the camera.

-A vest to keep all my stuff: a flash light, loup, light meter, business cards, batteries, poncho, film holders, random pictures I cut out of magazines that I look at for inspiration, my moleskin and pens, a shot list of words and ideas, snacks, keys, phone, weapons and the random things I find on the street.

-Whatever book of poetry I am into at the moment and that is an influence for the project I am working on.

-Granola bars, trail mix with M&Ms, peanut butter crackers that come in plastic wrap, and several double shot Starbucks espresso cans. All can fit into my vest and be had when desired.

-My shooting cap. Really it is just an ironworker's cap that many construction workers (of all trades) wear under their hard hats to keep the sweat away. I used to wear one when I did construction and I continue to wear one because it reminds me of that time, when I was a warrior. No matter what I am doing I will always be a worker and have that blue collar tough as nails approach to my work.

-A lucky $2 bill. I have the worst luck ever and whatever bad thing might possibly happen, usually ends up happening to me, I need all the luck I can get. However, I usually end up giving the lucky $2 bill away to someone who looks like they could use some luck a lot more than I could.

-A cold beer. I rarely drink when I am shooting, but after a long exhausting day nothing is better than an ice cold watered down American beer to wash down all the sweat and dirt. Ahhhh

The Eye Of The Prostitute And The Photographer

2009-01-02T01:52:00.002-05:00

After shooting all night in Atlantic City I would go to the bar in one of the casinos. I would sit there and watch the prostitutes with their hawk eyes waiting for the recent winners to come get a drink to celebrate. Everyone is after something here. One night I sat behind a woman who at first gave me the up and down, sizing me up, but she knew I wasn't game. I didn't look like everyone else there, out to have a good time: I had dirt under my fingernails, my moustache was really grown out and I hadn't shaved in days, nor had I showered, I've decided that while making the night walk photographs it's better to be down than up. This woman probably figured I was there to rob the winners or I had just gambled away my paycheck and was having a cold one as I tried to figure out what I was going to tell the old lady. But I sat there drinking and watched her work. As each new man came up to the bar, her eyes would meet his, then slide down to his cock, on to his shoes, then back up to his eyes again. But this was for show, it was part of her game, she had already sized him up before he even got to the bar. She would glance over to me every once in a while, in a checking up on the competition way, aware of every detail. To me, this prostitute was the most beautiful woman in the bar. Her dark eye makeup, the bags under her eyes which must come from the stress and sleepless nights, her uniform of cheap tight clothing and her worn out body intrigued me. I was curious, I wanted to sit there, drink beer and trade stories with her for the rest of night. But instead I just sat there, admiring that eye of hers. She gave off the appearance that she was slightly tipsy and a flirt, but she was on point and just as sharp as I was. I learned a lot from watching her, watching the hustlers and prostitutes at work, watching their eyes, watching how they react, seeing what they see.

The Jumper

2008-12-30T03:27:00.003-05:00

I saw a dead body tonight. I was the second one on the scene. I have seen a couple dead bodies before but never a jumper. This guy jumped from the roof of the Taj Mahal casino parking garage and hit a light post before landing on the sidewalk. Half his clothes were ripped off and his arms and legs were twisted around and bent up in the wrong direction. At first I thought it was just some junkie passed out but when I took a second look, no body could contort into those positions. Mike and Valerie who saw it happen said the sound of his body hitting the cement sounded like a car accident. It's weird sometimes to see the dead when the death is fresh but the body is still warm and there are still traces of life. While death is natural, the bodies I've seen haven't been by natural causes and instead by the violence and horror of man.

"And The Moon And The Stars And The World"

2008-12-27T17:08:00.001-05:00

Long walks at night--
that's what good for the soul:
peeking into windows
watching tired housewives
trying to fight off
their beer-maddened husbands.

-Charles Bukowski

Off to Atlantic City for some night walks....

When Photographers Make Films

2008-12-18T00:30:00.003-05:00

I recently watched David LaPachelle's Rize and I couldn't stop thinking about the Robert Polidori quote posted on Alec Soth's blog sometime ago. When Soth asked "Where are the people?" in reference to the plethora of images taken in a post Katrina New Orleans and many comments were made about Polidori's work, which is devoid of people, Polidori responded saying he believes, "That you should take stills of what doesn’t seem to move, and take movies or videos of does. It’s my opinion that people come off better in movies." I was fascinated by this statement then and I still am today. I have had an idea for a short film for some time now and like all of my projects, when I can't not do it any longer and the ideas and vision have consumed me, I give in and let the new project take me. Lately I have needed a break from photography, sometimes I get sick of talking about it, sick of the shows, sick of all the gossiping and phoniness, etc, and it takes away from the purity of it for me, just the simple beauty of seeing and creating. I am in the early stages of writing a screen play and am very excited about diving into a new medium, all instinct and guts.

The Original Punk Rock Art

2008-12-15T22:08:00.008-05:00

I was a huge fan of Raymond Pettibon's work years before I even knew who he was. I first started listening to Black Flag in 5th grade when the only other punk rock kid at my school, who was a 10th grader, started lending me all his tapes. I used to wander the halls at my school as an elementary student when I should have been on my way to gym or lunch and that is how I met Tae. Whenever I would go wandering I usually found him sitting by himself drawing or with his headphones on. In hindsight it was pretty cool of him to hang out with me (some little kid basically) and let me borrow all his music, sometimes I called him on the phone after school and we would talk about music for a while. Most early 80s hardcore albums were pretty cool, but the Black Flag album art took it to the next level. Yes, Pettibon and Greg Ginn (guitarist) are brothers, but the art and music seemed to come from the same place. Sitting in my room listening to my boombox for hours after school I realized that what I felt when I listened to music I could also feel and express in art, and ideas and feelings are not limited to any particular medium. This music took over my life all through middle and high school and I have closets full of limited edition colored 7",zines, t-shirts and stacks of flyers. Here are some of Pettibon's flyers for Black Flag shows. And yes, Rollins killed Black Flag but his journals in Get In The Van are amazing.

Love Me Tender

2008-12-10T10:51:00.004-05:00

I guess I was 13 or 14 at the time and still a virgin. Like most days, I had taken the Septa bus home after school, had gotten off at my usual stop and was waiting to cross the street when an older woman came up to me and started talking. I was a shy and awkward teenager in the middle of puberty who most people didn't have any interest in and she was overly friendly. As we crossed the street together I wondered how long this would last, I just wanted to be alone. We proceeded down the street in the direction of my house when she said, "Let me suck that cock baby." It was clear to me now-this woman was a prostitute. I don't recall my actual words, but I mentioned something about having to get home and then speeding up my walk. She continued to walk with me till the end of the block and then she gave up. She said goodbye and took a few steps back to the avenue and then stopped, turned around, called out to me and pulled up her dress. She stood there laughing with her dress pulled up to her chin as she flashed her old naked body to me.

Laughing And Crying

2008-12-08T23:35:00.001-05:00

It is weird how sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between laughing and crying. And sometimes the two are the same.

Out My New Window

2008-12-06T14:41:00.009-05:00

Hank Willis Thomas Interview

2008-12-05T11:05:00.009-05:00

I recently interviewed Hank Willis Thomas for Photo-Eye Magazine and our conversation is now online. I admire artists who think big and are not afraid to take risks expressing their ideas in various mediums and venues.

Thursday Is The New Tuesday. Please Join Me

2008-12-03T09:35:00.006-05:00

For all my fellow New Yorkers who aren't in Miami right now, please join me tomorrow night for the opening reception and book launch of The Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward '08 at:

Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts
526 West 26th Street, Suite 605
New York City
6-8pm

It's Moving Day!

2008-11-30T02:51:00.000-05:00

Madness. It Just Makes No Sense At All

2008-11-23T20:51:00.025-05:00

Noel's frustration about the Magnum photographers' advice to young photographers collected by Alec for the Magnum blog has gotten me thinking. First off, I should be packing, I have to be out of my apt at the end of the month, but I am a procrastinator, so fuck it. Second off, no disrespect, no beef, I have no intentions of offending anyone or starting some photo blog blah blah gossip. With that said, Alec is one of the most generous and caring real deal guys in the game today and he must receive a ton of emails from young photographers seeking advice. I know, because several years ago, I was one of those young photographers writing him for advice. To this day Alec's advice has stuck with me over the years and through the challenges. Now I get emails from young guns asking me for the same advice. To be perfectly honest, those feelings of anxiety and uncertainty that are the theme in these emails, never go away, they just evolve and over time you become used to them. Whether trying to find photographers to assist for so you can pay your rent or feeling unsure how the critics are going to respond to your next solo show or trying to find new clients so you can pay the office space, assistants, retouchers, printers, etc; it never really ends no matter what level you are at, over the years I have discovered that is the one true solid thing about the game. Perhaps that is why there were so many vague answers, we are all always trying to answer the same big question in one form or another and we never really know what is next. As you climb the ladder, challenges don't somehow magically sort themselves out, in fact, Biggie's words couldnt be more true: "More money, more problems." That is the gift and curse of this life we have chosen, there will always be details to figure out along the journey. And of course there is the fear we all have (my greatest fear)....what if one day I just can't hack it anymore, the talent dries up and no matter how hard I try all I can come up with is just crap. It happened to Papa Hem and he put a shotgun to his head because he couldn't take it anymore. And speaking of Hem, this gets me back to where I started. Advice for young photographers.

And so I ask, what happened to the tough guy artists? Guys like Mailer stabbing people in bars, Buk drinking 5 bottles of wine during a poetry reading, De Kooning sleeping in the gutters, crazy Hem stepping into the ring with a bull thinking he was a matador and Hunter's days with the Hell's Angels. These guys are my heros. In my eyes the most important thing about being an artist is living. I wish I could go back to school now and read all the books all over again, listen to the lectures again, take Intro to Photo with Phil Perkis again, having lived and experienced what I have in the last 5 years. It would all make sense. But maybe the Gods made it this way and this is what keeps things interesting. And so I say: live every fucking second to the absolute extreme. These guys were brave and fearless and their approach to life was so vulnerably evident in their work. I tell the photographers who write me to live their lives, do as many drugs as possible, drink as much as you can, fall in love, have your heart broken, get into a fight, go to the hospital, take that trip to where ever it is that curiosity is leading you, make it happen, sacrifice everything you have to do it, jump off that cliff, don't look back, if you don't take that leap and risk falling (failing) you will never know what could be. Somehow I have been lucky and something has always caught me, and something will catch you too as it has caught the ones before us and will catch the ones after us. When Scorsesse made Raging Bull, he said he filmed everyday as if it was his last day and he would never shoot again. Those are great words, allow that to happen. I am a fuck up and I could never hack a 9-5 job for the rest of my life, I just can't, I am not built that way. And so I drift, I live this life as an artist, I get stressed the fuck out and most days I am hustling nonstop working my ass off, but everyday is a true gift, everyday I get to jump off that cliff. I figure the details out on my way down, the greatest line Jay-Z ever had was, "Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week." You must give yourself to this life. And really it is all the same thing, my life is my love is my art. All of the times I have had my heart broken by the woman I love, the fights and the beatings I have taken in the bars, somehow just making rent on the last day of the month, waking up last New Years Day in an alley on top of a steam vent in New Orleans and then barging into the wrong hotel and kicking down the door of the room I thought was mine, almost being murdered, losing countless women and friends because of this thing inside me that has taken over me, this burning addiction to create, to do my art, whatever it is, let it happen. So my friends, young and old, the rookies and the seasoned veterans, the nobodies and the stars, I will see you all on the way down, and I will look you in the eye and smile because we know what it feels like to fly through that air...it is the greatest feeling in the world.

above pic-me in the emergency room getting things stitched up after a recent bar fight

The Wisemen Usually Don't Steer You Wrong

2008-11-17T20:08:00.008-05:00

So I have been told recently that I am bad at promoting myself and that is probably a fair assessment. I would much rather spend my time working. I love to work, I love ideas, I am addicted to creating and thinking and living. But, yes, more times than not the voices of the wisemen are usually right and so here is some stuff that I have going on:

-Daniel Cooney’s Emerging Artist Series Auction on iGavel. My piece here. Bidding ends on Dec. 10th. Many awesome photographers including Cara Phillips, Samantha Contis and Brea Souders have work for sale here, collectors: don't sleep.

-I have a piece in Meet Waradise, which features the work of the young and hungry photographers that make up theFjord Collective. A night curated by Alana Celii and Grant Willing. One night only folks at 17 Orchard Street, NYC. It's on my block so I pretty much guarantee I will be there and then probably Good World to have a Gaffel. And so should you!

-My best friend in Canada Noel Rodo-Vankeulen has been grinding away, redefining the online photography world with new ideas and a fresh outlook has just launched the We Can't Paint network which features a project gallery and online magazine Wassenaar. Some of my work is featured in the Projects Gallery.

-Stay tuned for an interview with Hank Willis Thomas up soon at Photo-Eye.

I know there is some other stuff too but I'm getting bored of this now, I need a beer and some dinner, more installments later.

The Porno Theater Usher

2008-11-14T09:35:00.008-05:00

The other night in Philly I was setting up to take this shot when the porno theater guy comes running out at me saying, "No pictures, no pictures, the boss doesn't want any pictures." So I turn to him and say, "Fuck the bosses! Every boss I have ever had sucks and you know what guy, your boss sucks too, he don't pay you enough for all your hard work, fuck him." He didn't seem too concerned about his pay and said that he's going to call the boss. I told him, "Fine, call your boss. Your boss can't do shit because I am in public domain, on the streets, and I have the freedom to take any picture I want, so if you want to call your boss, go ahead, and while your at it, call the police too!" He turned and slowly walked back to his ticket stub booth. The boss didn't come, nor did the police, but two creepy guys did and they bought tickets with quick movements and looked around after they got their ticket to see if anyone was watching them. I was.

I am sick and tired of this war that has been waged on photography. Know your rights as photographers! Don't let anyone tell you you can't take a photograph, and if you don't know your rights then make them up. I have been trying to figure out where this self importance that people have adopted as crusaders for the war on photography has come from. Is it a result of the Bush years and the invention of Homeland Security (I have been surrounded by a swarm of Homeland Security dudes as well, and to be honest, I tried to make up some shit why it was cool for me to be shooting this oil refinery here and that I was almost done could they wait 5 minutes and then we can parlay, but they weren't really having that, and also I was distracted by one officer who looked like half of his face had been shot off and when I asked him if I could take his portrait he got really pissed off, and then they followed me for a half hour and had me bugging out)....and where was I? Oh, yes, or has the glamour and notoriety of the photograph dissolved in the digital era when every jerk off with a cell phone or $100 digi camera (and not to say that a $100 camera is a bad thing, I love all 3 of T4s) is now a photographer, and people are just bored and don't want to be bothered anymore. Maybe it's both, maybe people suck, maybe the bosses aren't paying enough and ask for too much, or maybe it's me, I'm the asshole, and this is America.

Zoe Strauss: My Broad Street Buddy

2008-11-06T09:49:00.011-05:00

I interviewed Zoe Strauss on Election Day for photo-eye magazine, have a read here. Zoe's book America is absolutely amazing to say the least and it was a great pleasure to spend a day in history with such a warm soul. Don't miss her opening at Silverstein on Nov. 22nd.