ivysion

This past Saturday, May 1, I celebrated another year of life.  Like a lot of other photographers, and people in general, I’ve been struggling to continue making a living in photography, as well as dealing with other personal challenges. So, this weekend, I decided to do absolutely nothing but spend time in NYC celebrating my birthday with friends and colleagues. I just wanted to enjoy good times, with good people, while soaking up sunshine and culture and shooting just for fun.

I spent Saturday afternoon and evening at the Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturday. While sitting in the plaza in front of the museum, caressing my bare feet in the soft, spring grass, I noticed a couple next to me dressed in what appeared to be some type of costumes. The man was dressed in shirt, tie, hat and sneakers, accented with a gold lamet cape.  While his female partner excused herself to the restroom, I tried to get a few frames of him against the deep blue Brooklyn dusk sky.  He noticed me shooting him and we engaged in conversation. He said that he’s a dancer and choreographer by the name of Funk Buddha.

I asked him to pose for a few shots against the sky. Those images weren’t really doing anything for me, so I asked if he’d mind jumping and striking a few poses. He agreed and after several takes, we captured one that I really like.  While we were shooting, his partner came back and I got a few portraits of her.  After a few minutes, I looked around and she was wrapping herself in a lot of artificial flowers, saying that I inspired her to pose in her costume and perform.  I shot a few of her against the Brooklyn Museum.

While I was shooting, a crowd gathered behind me,watching us and grabbing their own shots.  The artist, known as Princess Lockerooo, started to sing in a beautiful, operatic soprano voice while pop lock dancing in her pink flower uniform.  Art was alive in the plaza.  A simple idea to capture a few images against a dusk sky, turned into an impromptu performance. It was great!

After leaving the museum, I headed back to Manhattan and while walking through Penn Station, was entertained by the sounds of drums and horns.  I’d heard the band called the Drumadics playing in the subway before, and they are phenomenal.  As I approached the area where they were playing, I noticed a man approaching me in my peripheral view.  I’m from E. St. Louis, IL, so whenever I see someone approaching me with the intent of getting my attention, I automatically switch into defense mode.  That defense response turned into a smile, however, when I realized that it was friend and fellow photographer Saddi Khali. It’s always strange to me when I randomly run into someone I know in New York.  It’s interesting that, out of 8 million people, two people who know each other can coincidentally be in the same place, at the same time.

Saddi is gaining a following as a sensual portrait photographer, and was returning from a shoot in Jersey.   His growing popularity is  a testament to the powers of marketing through social media.  While he doesn’t have a website portfolio of his work, his following has grown through his postings on facebook and Model Mayhem.

The celebration continued into Sunday, starting with a trip to B&H Photo to hear renowned commercial and celebrity photographer Kareem Black.  After his talk, I headed outside of B&H to see if I could find this older gentleman I’d seen around the store a few times.  I was happy to see that he was in his usual spot, with his usual companion, a 4×5 Speed Graphic camera, complete with flash bulb.  We greeted each other with smiles as I introduced myself and asked if I could take his picture. He agreed, and after shooting him, we spent several minutes in conversation. His name is Louis Mendes, and he makes his living shooting street portrait Polaroids with his Speed Graphic camera that he bought in 1956.  He is 70 years old and has been a street photographer since 1972.  After several minutes of good conversation, he asked if he could take my picture.  Later in the conversation, he asked how old I was and I told him that my birthday was just yesterday. He insisted that I take the Polaroid he shot of me as a birthday gift.  Actually, that was the only gift I got and I treasure it very much.

After leaving Mr. Mendes, I headed back on the train to Crown Heights Brooklyn to attend the Brooklyn Photo Salon.  The Brooklyn Photo Salon is a quarterly gathering of photographers and friends of the photography community. Three photographers were invited to discuss their work dealing with covering the aftermath of disasters.  Mashid Mohadjerin showed and discussed her work covering the earthquake in Haiti. Alan Chin showed and discussed his work from various locations, including covering the earthquake in China, as well as the war in Iraq.  Tina Fineberg showed work from her coverage of a Brooklyn Polish community after the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other government officials.  It was a good time discussing various issues of photojournalism with fellow shooters and editors.

After the presentations and discussions, we mingled and had a good time just hanging out together and getting to know each other. Later in the evening, the very talented singer and musician, Obed Jean Louis, entertained us with a few of his original songs while he played guitar and was accompanied by another man on the cajon. The cajon is an Afro-Peruvian drum that resembles a wooden box.  Africans in Peru invented it because the traditional African drum was tabooed in Peru by the Spanish.  Louis is a very talented Haitian musician, who, in addition to playing guitar, accompanied himself with the sounds of a trumpet he made using his mouth.  We eventually all joined in to sing Bill Whithers’ iconic hit, “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone.”

It was a great, relaxing weekend for me, and I came away with a few good images. I have new inspiration to tackle and complete the projects that I’m working on, and fortunately, business is picking up as well.  I look forward to a great Summer and great things to come in my new year.