The Documentary Life

People ask what type of photography I do. Sometimes I answer, "documentary work."

People seem to be interested in this. The idea of this. But, I'm not sure how the reality, or thought of documentary work actually meets up with the nuts and bolts of actually doing it.

What I'm about to list is not a complaint, quite the contrary. This is what makes this work so fantastic, but it does come with a price.

So, the last twenty four hours of my life....

Caught in monsoon storm near midnight, run for cover but drenched, soaked, muddy, covered in bug bites.
Get stuck in car for one hour as flooding shuts down escape route.
Up at 5.
Drive for one hour.
Stumble on ultra-small rodeo, stop to shoot.
Shoot two rolls, make contacts for further shoots, including guy who chews 12 bags of tobacco per day.
Cow barfs up snot ball down my pants right before being sent out squeeze shoot.
Drop base plate on rock while reloading, bending it. Bend back with car key, keep shooting.
Back in car. Drive for one hour.
Stop horse racing track to shoot and scout location. Shoot one frame.
Back in car. Drive for one hour. Eat jerky and dried mango.
Stumble upon Mescalero Apache annual rodeo.
Stop and shoot. Light SUCKS. Can't shoot anything.
Back in car. Drive for one hour.
Stop to shoot and pull info for upcoming shoot in August, BTK info center.
Back in car. Drive for one hour.
White Sands National Monument.
Shoot for three hours, while hiking through park, 100 degrees plus.
See guy with camel in distance.
Run over dunes to catch him, leaving water behind to save time and weight. Stupid.
Shoot two rolls.
Back in car. 4pm
Drive for 1000 miles.
Get caught in monsoon of epic proportion which closes interstate, forcing me off highway.
Get caught in dust storm forcing me off highway again.
Hit enormous black object in middle of freeway, going 75 miles per hour. Somehow manage to avoid ANY damage to car.
Begin to see things. I think.
Stop for truck stop coffee, getting stuck behind meth user paying for combination of gas and snacks with coins, making small piles on counter of gas station.

Arrive home 4 am.

23 hours of straight doc mayhem.

Up at 9 to begin client dealings.


Again, not a complaint. This is what, for me, it takes to do this work. I have limited time, limited resources, so you KNOW that at times, life is going to really suck, but it's all self-inflicted. I could have stayed home. Waited. Waited until I had more time, resources, but chances are I would have never left.

And, what I left out was sleeping in the car, due to lack of hotels where I was, with windows up, in 90 degree nights, due to security concerns. Six homicides in last month in this area.

And in the end, what do I have? The last image. This tiny bag of film. That's all. Nothing yet. No guarantees.

14 rolls total. 14. 504 clicks of the shutter, which on paper sounds like a lot. It isn't. And what will I "get" from this?

MAYBE a few images. But how many will make the grade? One? Perhaps two? Yep, this is the reality.

What was so great about this was everything I just listed. Getting back into the field and making pictures. It had been a long time since I had done this, far, far too long, and I realized immediately how much of these skills I had lost. Atrophy. But, it came back, slowing but surely.

I had grand plans, but realized it was essential to do less to get more. Leica, 35mm, Tri-x. ONLY. Nothing more. Could have shot medium format color and shot "strangely" and compiled a huge body of work, but I knew in my heart that was only a short term remedy for what is really a lifetime sickness.

Waiting, watching and having the experience to know I can kid myself, or anyone else. That GREAT pictures are rare, and I have to be ready at all times, but also ready to accept the fact, that on this trip, or any other, I might not get anything. Honesty can be ego bruising and painful, but refreshing nonetheless.

So, as I sit here, thinking about processing this stuff, by hand, I am thinking of only one thing. When can I go back? When can I do this again?

An Old/Young Friend

Fun Alert:

You might recognize this one, as I have photographed her many times in the past. Often times people ask me what I like about photographing kids, and the answer can be complicated, mostly because there are many things I like.

In this particular case, I had not seen this little one for some time, and the best part of the shoot was the first five minutes, when I wasn't shooting, but rather was just talking with her.

I must have been sleeping for the past 40 years because I'm still shocked at how fast kids grow.

Just spending five minutes, not shooting, just catching up,hearing about her side of life is, for me, really fascinating. She has a sister as well, so I'll be posting some pictures of her in the coming days.

These images are with the new Sony Camera, the A900, which is a very nice camera, with a fantastic assortment of lenses. But in the end, the best equipment is the gear you never have to think about, the equipment that simply allows you to connect with what you are doing. If you are thinking about, or looking at..........your equipment, you are not thinking about or looking about, what you SHOULD be thinking about and looking about. Know what I mean?

These were all shot with fixed lenses. I don't use zooms. Although if I did use zooms, there are few stellar options in the Sony lineup, including a Zeiss or two.

This shoot was so much fun for me, and I hope it was fun for the girls. I feel being able to do this is a complete luxury, one which I never take for granted. Being allowed in to see these little people becoming big people, and just listening to what they have to say.

It never gets old. Only we do.

A Morning Of Men

Okay ladies, for those of you who don't know, consider this post a public service announcement regarding us men. It doesn't matter if we are 36.5 pounds or 165 pounds. We are all the same.

We like stink.

We are guys. When we look at things like trees, yes we see green things and bark, but our inner DNA tells us we must climb, and not just the bottom notch, but to the top, and if it costs us a punctured lung or fractured femur the so be it. Clear a path.

Oh ya, that stick in the yard, that's not a stick, it's a bat, and look, I just found a red ball in the bushes. Guess what, game on. First pitch, HIGH and TIGHT, right near his melon. "But he's three and half!" Perfect, great time to learn, never dig in too deep. Uncle Dan has him down 0-2 and busts him again with a knuckleball! Lesson learned, swing at Uncle Dan's first pitch, it will be the best you see.

We move through this world with the idea that everyone else and everything else is behind us, trees, hygiene, other species.

The beach too. We just can't simply go to the beach. We need to wear the beach, to smell it, to have it in our hair and ears hours, days, weeks after the engagement. Bury us? Sure, why not. Bring it on. And next time deep the hole even deeper so I can barely breath.

And what do we do after we go to the beach? We eat Mexican food. Cause that is just what we do. Hats on backwards, finger popping, sit near the window, back to wall, and eat massive quantities of comida mexicana, that has our heart sagging and our central nervous system, well, frankly, nervous. And for good measure, we "accidentally" break a Tabasco bottle. "Wink, wink."

Want beans?

Ya, why not. "Your going to be in the car for five hours!" Really, make that a double serving. That car ride is just another challenge.

Men+stink+sloth+food=life. (Write this down.)

At some point in our lives, us men, we all looked at that evolutionary chart and said, "I think I wanna be that guy in the middle." You know the one, sloped shoulders, club in hand, the guy with the simple job; hunt/gather.

And yet despite all this we have a tender side. Bubbles. Ya okay, I'll blow a few just to appease the ladies. We don't really like bubbles, but know we are bound by sacred duties and this just happens to be one of these.

As night falls we find our fire and sit atop the highest hills, looking down on our lives with a clear sense of our place in the world, confident in the path ahead, but never losing track of the wariness of our prey.

A New York Family State Of Mind

It has been a while since I posted about my kids work, so after being encouraged by the folks in these snaps I thought I would post up about this little scene before you. These images are from my "family photo-essay" work, which I do more and more these days. I've begun to do these all over the country, and this was my first New York shoot, but if all goes as planned, there will be many more of these New York contributions coming along very shortly.

As many of you know, I've been doing documentary work for years, so shooting in this style is something I'm very comfortable with, and in fact, is my favorite way to shoot. This is just a tiny taste, but hopefully it will give you an idea of how a shoot like this works.

In short, I spend the day, or days with the family, sorta like the long, lost uncle who emerges from nowhere to reengage with the family, only I'm not related, but I AM an uncle!! Actually, one of my "regular" kids I photograph three or four times a year recently asked his mom, "Is Dan my uncle?" Love that.

Anyway, back to the story.

A New York day, Brooklyn, subway, Chinatown. I prefer to do a real day, or gathering or event in someone's life, as opposed to a "fictional" day of photo-ops. You can never substitute for real, and you can really see when snaps are faked.

These shoots are so much fun for me because I feel like I'm back working at a newspaper, assigned to follow a mayor, a politician, an athlete, or police officer.

My Leica(Zeiss/Contax) in one hand, my Blad in the other, a bag of film, and the opportunity to just follow and watch.

New York Family Continued

A little black and white to keep the masses happy!