Tea Party - Better Late Than Never

During a massive cleaning of my office, I rediscovered some negatives from a self-assigned shoot to photograph a Tea Party rally in the summer of 2009 (I think) at a race track in Bay Town, Texas. Wanting to try something different, I rented a Hasselblad medium format camera and made the trek out to the rally. I seem to be attracted to the overt patriotism: flags and people dressed up as figures from American history, as well as a sense of the paranoia of a dystopian, socialist future that seems to drive much of the conversation at these events. Also to note: I shot a couple of different film stocks. One is chrome and the other was an expired batch of porta left over from grad school.[gallery]

"The Suburbs" wins a Grammy for best recording package

Most excellent designer Caroline Roberts won tonight's Grammy awards for her design of the recording package for Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" deluxe package released in 2011. Kudos to Caroline and I thank her for her kind acknowledgment. Thanks also to the band and their associates for the opportunity to work with them. I look forward to the next time!  

[gallery]

Bus stop slumber

After a portfolio review in Austin last week and hearing great feedback all around, but especially from Will Chau regarding a quirky-ness in my work I hadn't really defined before, I've decided to post some recent work I made with my Hasselblad. I've also been on a cleaning jag as of late and in the process discovered a bunch of uncut, unscanned negs that I'm going to give a second look. I also have one more roll of black and white film I shot on the way home from Austin that I still need to develop.  

As for the review itself, I must say that I really need to step it up and attend these gatherings more often. It's hard to get honest feedback as a freelancer. We're kind of out here on our own and the opportunity to hear reactions to our work from professionals in the visual communication industry is priceless.

 

On a whim, I also went out to photograph a typewriter repair man after reading about him in the local paper.  There is something anachronistic about someone who still makes a living repairing old technology. The experience has sparked some ideas about what I might focus on next. We'll see!

 

[gallery]

A couple of new images

Here are a couple of recent images I like. The first is from my project on the Karen refugee community in Houston. I brought along my Hasselblad and some Tri-X film and shot a couple of rolls. The camera takes some getting used to and is unforgivable with fine focus at wide open apertures. It'll definitely force me to shoot differently. I've also found that taking the time to process the film at home pays off in two ways. The first is that processing film is very meditative. It's not something you can drift off from. You have to pay attention to agitation, development times, and temperatures. Because this all takes time, it'll force me to become more selective and careful when I'm making images because I know that every shot will have to count.  

The second images is a favorite from a shoot I did for Purina last week of two champion bird dogs in Cypress, Texas. The dogs were great because once they found a scent of a quail, they stood like statues.

 

[gallery]

New work from my Karen refugee project

I spent a few hours today working on my project on Karen refugees. I couldn't have done it without the help of a member of the Karen community who took time out of his day to introduce me to families and translate for me for the time I was there. I'm not sure how cool he is about putting his name on my blog, so for now, he'll be anonymous. I will say he's been in the United States for almost three years and besides English, knows Burmese, Karen, and some Thai. He's a pretty impressive guy. That being said, I think I made some progress as far as getting a little deeper into the community. So far everyone has been great.

 

EK

 

[gallery]

Karen refugees project begins

I started on a project today on the Karen refugee community where I hope to tell the story of their daily lives here in Houston. The Karen, to my knowledge, have been emigrating to the United States in large numbers since 2008 and are repressed by the government regime in Burma/Myanmar with genocide frequently used to describe their situation. The Karen, however, are a strong, resilient people who have been in active conflict with the Burmese military government since the end of World War II. I hope to find a number of stories in this community over the following weeks and months. It's so interesting to me what stories we can find in our own backyards.  

[gallery orderby="ID"]

http://vimeo.com/31701106

 

The tragedy of child brides

Last night, I had the opportunity during my visit here in DC to watch a discussion by Stephanie Sinclair about her work on child brides throughout the world. Her work was published in the June 2011 issue of National Geographic. Sinclair's first experience with child brides occurred during a visit to a burn ward in Herat, Afghanistan. She wondered why these young ladies were setting themselves on fire - one, a 15-year old who was married when she was nine, had broken her husband's television set and thought the consequences would be more severe than setting herself on fire. More than half at the burn ward were married underage. Sinclair wondered what issues led to this act, and her journey began. View Sinclair's photos here.

 

There are 50 countries in the world where child marriage is still practiced. There are many reasons child brides are wed. For instance, as in rural Yemen, it is a catch-22 situation. Girls can't go to school because there are no female teachers, but there are no female teachers because the girls are getting married before completing their education. Their education seems to come to a halt once they are married.

Sinclair said there needs to be more female teachers - education and empowerment and communities that change from the inside. Rules can't be forced on these communities. If a wedding is stopped by the authorities, it will only continue once they leave and the family will be disgraced for a generation.

Also, there is great cultural and practical pressure. For instance, if an unmarried woman is raped while working in a field before she is married, she is forever an outcast in her community. A girl's parents sometimes figure that having their daughter marry young will at least give her some respect and protection from this outcome. The weddings are also used as a way to connect families and to pay off debts.

I discovered that the issue of child brides is more complex than simply having authorities telling people to stop marrying their very young daughters. It will take education and an ability to incentivize communities to educate their daughters instead of marrying them off before they even have a childhood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYleXcpbzKY

 

 

 

New portraits

The last couple of months have been busy. I've started picking up assignments from the Houston Business Journal (hence the corporate portraits) and completed an assignment for one of my favorite clients, Columbia magazine, whose readership are members of the Knights of Columbus. I also had the opportunity to photograph Marcus Davis, the owner of The Breakfast Klub, a well-known and loved restaurant here in Houston. I'm headed up to Washington, DC next week and will be visiting with various editors to show my work and introduce myself. It'll be the first time I've spent an extended period of time there, never having made the requisite trip in middle school that seemed to be all the rage in the mid-1980's. Do kids still do that?

In other news, I've been busy revamping my digital asset management system. Not quite as exciting as making pictures so I won't bore you with the details. Needless to say, if you're a photographer, don't wait too long to get your files in order. Nothing hurts worse than the pain of a crashed hard drive with no backup.

 

Eric

 

 

[gallery orderby="ID"]

"Scenes from the Suburbs" - Day 1

In April, 2010, I had the opportunity to shoot the behind the scenes still images for the Arcade Fire/Spike Jonze production of the short film "Scenes from the Suburbs." The movie, screen-written by Arcade Fire, illustrates themes explored in their Grammy-winning album of the year, "The Suburbs."  

For five days, I shot a mix of Illford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X film using two Nikon F5 cameras to shoot the images that eventually were included in a booklet released with the DVD of the movie. The grain you see in the film is a result of "pushing" the film three stops in some cases. It effectively raises the ISO (sensitivity) of the film. The trade off is increased grain in the film. For this assignment, it seems to work well.

100421_suburbs_KAYNE_0224
100421_suburbs_KAYNE_0224

To view images from the first day of shooting, check out the link to my website here.

Artist Jordan Sullivan at Peel Gallery

I recently had the pleasure of photographing artist Jordan Sullivan at Peel Gallery for Gloss, a fashion and lifestyle publication produced by the Houston Chronicle. Sullivan was a little shy in front of the camera, but I think it's this sensitivity that is a part of what makes him a successful artist. [gallery orderby="rand"]

It's Not Like Work

I spent the last five days attending the 2011 Multimedia Immersion at Syracuse University. During the week-long program, we learned the basics of creating and producing a short video using Canon 5D Mark ii cameras and various microphones. The experience opened up a new world for me. Situations that traditionally might not make for a very good photo package of stills now have the potential to become rich narratives through the additional elements of sound and motion.

Our stories were chosen literally out of a box. I chose a character story about Ed Patterson. He owns and operates a custom golf store in Syracuse, New York. I thank him and all the great teachers and new friends I made at the workshop for making the experience so memorable.

 

http://vimeo.com/24430173

Surreal Arcade Fire moment

Last night, my wife and I watched Arcade Fire perform at the Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands. The show was phenomenal and it was great to catch up with the band after the show. My most surreal moment, however, was seeing one of my images on a t-shirt in the merch tent! You can check it out here. The photo is from work I did for the band over a year ago. My choice of wardrobe for the next few weeks has been massively simplified!

April portraits

Hi folks,  

I have some portraits I made in the month of April, more or less, for your perusal. Thanks for looking and I hope you're enjoying the spring weather, especially in Houston.

 

Cheers,

 

Eric

[gallery orderby="rand"]

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A few weeks ago, I had the honor to photograph Chitra Divakaruni for the Houston Chronicle. She is an award-winning author and poet who writes about women, immigration, the South Asian experience, history, myth, magic and diversity. She writes for adults and children, and her books have been translated into 20 languages. Born and raised in Calcutta, India, Divakaruni, 54, teaches creative writing at the University of Houston and lives in Sugar Land with her family.  

[gallery]

Basketball hotshot Jenzel Nash

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing Jenzel Nash, the nation's leading scorer at 39.9 points a game. She was great to work with and needed very little direction. As a senior, she is sure to be rocking it in the NCAA very soon. The photos were made with a single 580EX strobe and a STS transmitter. The Pocket Wizards are in the shop, so it's been a good push to try and keep things simple.[gallery orderby="rand"]

Red Rider

Yesterday morning, I woke up around 5am to make a drive to Hockley, Texas. My assignment was to photograph the Harris County Sheriff's Mounted Patrol as they participated in the 62nd Annual Pony Express Ride. The event consists of 40 horses and riders, primarily from local law enforcement mounted patrol agencies, who travel along U.S. Highway 290 to Austin in a relay fashion.  Their objective is to deliver 2011 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo invitations to the governor and lieutenant governor of Texas. Cold weather, horses and the people who ride them, as well as great light made the morning fabulous. [gallery orderby="rand"]

Mike Davis on newspaper photography

This is NOT Mike Davis

Ten years ago, when I was starting out in photojournalism, a very talented, sage, albeit cynical photographer told me that the majority of newspaper photography is about people and their stuff (see example of mine above).

That person was not Mike Davis. While Photo editor Mike Davis has always been smart about describing and interpreting photography in general and photojournalism in particular, he is much more articulate in his thoughts about newspaper photography than my early mentor. In this link, Davis digs deeper into this subject as he describes the qualities of a newspaper photograph and its creative limitations.