Several weeks had passed since I’d heard from Wichita artist Michael Pointer, teaching dental technicians the ropes in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Because of the escalation of suicide bombings in Kabul, I was more than a little concerned for his welfare, so last night I tracked down Michael’s father Ed Pointer, who has his own work exhibited at the Upfront gallery on east Douglas.
Ed had talked with Michael on Monday, he said, and he was doing fine, at least as of Monday.
This morning I received an email from Michael with some of his recent pictures. Here’s a slide show with Michael’s commentary below.
Enjoy:
(click icon, lower right corner above “credits,” for full screen mode)
“As an artist I am heavily influenced by the environment I’m in — it just comes through in my work. However, while many of these images are rather emotionally dark they are not necessarily indicative of my mood here. I find living here very exciting and intensely interesting so my worst mood is for most people what would constitute a very good mood. The ecstasy of my good moods is the energy I use to create.”
-Michael Pointer
“At an altitude slightly above twelve thousand feet, in the Central Andean region of Peru, pollution is a fact of life for the inhabitants of La Oroya. Since 1922, the city of La Oroya has been exposed to toxic emissions released from the Doe Run Peru metal smelting plant….”
“…Doe Run Peru is a subsidiary of Missouri-based Doe Run, the world’s largest primary lead producer and the world’s second largest total lead producer. Doe Run is part of the privately held New York-based Renco group….”
“…Peru’s state mining company Centromin operated the 80-year-old La Oroya facility for 25 years before Doe Run bought it in 1997. The smelter processes concentrates, producing 11 metals and nine by-products, including copper, lead, zinc and silver.”
“A Health Ministry study from the government of Peru showed that 90% of the children tested had lead poisoning, a condition, which causes mental retardation, hyperactivity, liver and kidney disease and even death. Lab studies revealed that many of these children had levels of lead in their bodies four times greater than what the World Health Organization considers the normal amount. In addition to brain damage, children are at high risk of developing lung cancer as well as other respiratory ailments, skin conditions and digestive disorders. As the plant continues to release lead, copper, zinc and sulfur dioxide into the air on a daily basis, generations of young children will be exposed to environmental and health risks.”
Last weekend was a beautiful time for fall colors in the area. I headed down to the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine, Kansas to document the day (well, most of it). I set up my camera in a great spot and attached an intervalometer to my Canon 30D. It’s a device that can be programmed to take pictures in intervals that you select. I chose to shoot one frame per minute from sunrise to sunset. The camera had to be taken down around 4 p.m., so I shot most of the day. Enjoy. The music is courtesy of Garage Band.
“He has spent years in poor neighborhoods exploring not just physical violence but what he calls the “quiet violence of letting families fall apart, the violence of segregation and isolation.”
—–From the New York Times photography blog, Lens, where Rodriguez talks about his work and approach in an excellent multimedia piece.
I received an email a few weeks ago, forwarded from Paul Hudson at Lawrence Photo, from Ken Vandruff, director of communications for Go Wichita Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The email reads, in part, “Go Wichita Convention & Visitors Bureau is working to update and improve the photo library that we use to promote Wichita as a convention and tourism destination. I am trying to make contact with photographers who would be willing to participate in this project….
“I want to set up a meeting with interested photographers who like to shoot editorially as well and commercial-style to determine who is interested in assisting with this project. I have a limited budget available, so I would hope to work out a co-operative arrangement offering courtesy credit for each use of the images they are willing to share.”
In a followup email I asked Ken about his “limited budget.”
He replied, “To be honest, ‘limited budget’ means I’d like to work out pro-bono agreements if at all possible.” He further explained, “Currently, Go Wichita works with several photographers in this manner. They give us permission to use their photos for the noncommercial promotion of Wichita as a destination for tourists and conventions. In exchange, we give the photographer credit each time his or her photo is used.”
The way I figure, there are two very basic principles of Economics 101 at work here, the first being, the value of something is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it.
The other is about scarcity: as the availability of something increases, it’s inherent value decreases. It follows that, people will not pay for something freely available.
Everyone has a full-auto digital camera, everyone wants to be published and people who need photographs are trolling for freebies. It’s not even a buyer’s market anymore.
Many aspiring photographers assume that if they provide a few free images it will somehow help them sell pictures later. That may work for street drugs, but that’s not how it works for photography.
Gary Crabbe says as much in his blog, Enlightened Images when asked about working for free in exchange for a courtesy credit line: “That kind of exposure will very very very rarely ever get you any additional work. Plus, once a magazine gets you to work for free, you will most likely never be able to stand up and say, “Now please pay me for the next job.” There won’t be a next job. They’ll move on to find the next photographer who wants to work for the lure of credit and exposure.”
However, if people want to give away their work, that’s fine by me. I’ve done pro bono work for various charity and mission outfits myself. We all make our own choices. Even celeb photographer Annie Lebiovitz, who is facing bankruptcy, works for free sometimes.
Ken is meeting with interested photographers October 29, 2009 8:00 AM-9:30 AM at the Go Wichita office at 515 S Main, Suite 115. He asks for RSVPs no later than Tuesday, Oct. 27 to Danika Swoyer at dswoyer@gowichita.com
Doris Johnson takes her Chihuahuas Poncha and Sage for their daily afternoon walk through Riverside. “Every day,” she said, rolling her eyes. “And every day I say, ‘Here we go again’.”
Knowing there’s more to life than newspaper photography (duh), for the past several years I’ve been looking at the work others are doing for NGOs (non-governmental organizations), particularly work done for humanitarian agencies.
Today I stumbled across this photograph by a fellow named David Taggart, a wonderful example of great street photography, but with a profundity most street photography — particularly my own — seems to lack.
Usually altruistic photographers lean toward pathos in their images. Newspaper photographers love pathos, including yours truly, because editors and reporters do. Let’s face it, pathos is photogenic.
Here’s some background about Mr. Taggart:
“Through the sale of some of his work he has raised tens of thousands of dollars for charities and foundations. He also gives of his time and skills to Voices 4 Children Foundation, a Miami-Dade organization that provides funding for legal representation for neglected or abused children, by teaching photography to children in the program.”
Says Michael, “We have a free dental clinic and school to teach dental assisting, dental hygiene, and dental technology. My job is to teach dental technology and to provide support for remote dental clinics. We most recently had a clinic at the prison for women here in Kabul.
I am currently teaching five students in dental laboratory technique at our school in Kabul. I am happy to report that I haven’t had to dodge bullets, so I am, as yet, fully intact.”
We will post updates of Michael’s experiences and his photographs here on More than Meets the Eye over the coming months. You can also follow him on Facebook.
Following are excerpts from his most recent email:
“…The internet has been exceptionally difficult so this is old stuff. I have since gone to the bank and demonstrated my prowess with Dhari [the local language] which came out in French as I told them that “the fish are cold (poisson froid).” The bank employees were completely baffled, a nice reversal of roles for me.
We went to the US Dept of State compound last night where I ate two pounds of beef and an equal amount of ice cream. It was nice to be in a group of Americans, even if they were in charge of the Afghan prisons.
Apart from a bit of dysentery I am fine. Al Qaeda is in town wanting to kidnap a few Americans; I declined their offer.
Thank you all VERY much for your love and support!
Love, Mike…”
“Irving Penn, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential photographers of fashion and the famous, whose signature blend of classical elegance and cool minimalism was recognizable to magazine readers and museumgoers worldwide, died Wednesday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.”
In 1980 I became a serious student of photography, and more importantly, one who studied those who made important photographs. With little direction except from Steve Harper, my mentor, friend and eventually my boss, I studied the photographs and techniques of those whose photographs I liked.
I liked Penn’s work, although I was never particularly interested in portraiture until I started working for the Wichita Eagle in 1981. I learned that a high percentage of what we put in the newspaper are portraits.
I figured if I was getting paid to shoot portraits — business execs, jocks, authors, cooks, crooks, artists, educators, the uneducated and thousands of otherwise non-famous people given their fifteen minutes of fame in my newspaper — I wanted those pictures to be more than mug shots. So I took a more serious look at the masters.
Irving Penn was one.
Penn was more than a portrait photographer, of course. But he was a master of the controlled environment.
After 30 years I have only begun to appreciate that aspect of the craft.
Trent Parke captured “Minutes to Midnight” during a two-year journey across Australia at the end of which his son was born. It is both a document of a nation mourning the loss of a perceived innocence and a man’s vision and evolution.
