Tag Archives: New York

The House of One Hundred Years of Solitude

In mid August, I headed down to Cuernavaca, Mexico, to visit with my old friend Marela Zacarias.  Marela grew up around Mexico City but currently resides in New York City; she was on a trip to visit family and I was invited to tag along.  The house we stayed at has been in her family for generations.  This beautiful compound is a bit like Marquez’s House of a Hundred Years of Solitude.  It is built on a large sloping hillside that is terraced and ends in a deep barranca below.  Each level accommodates different areas including gardens, swings, walkways, and swimming pools, all in various states of repair.

There is a special magic to a place like this, a place where there are echoes of parties long since past, children grown up, and a future yet to come.  One can imagine golden era Hollywood starlets, flirting under the canopy of lush trees, limbs embracing each other like lovers. If you listen carefully you can hear the sounds of children squealing in delight as they dash down the waterslide, crashing into the grotto like swimming pool.  Here and there are the shadows of gardens being taken back by the jungle, gardens that must have grown abundant tropical flowers.  The past is present, but there is also a great deal of promise, as slowly the structures are being reinforced against a climate that loves to decay anything in its grasp.  Who knows what mysteries will unfold or what tails of love will transpire.

On a trip to the local artisans market, I purchased a small handmade, papier-mâché tiger mask.  As I have previously discussed, I am trying to incorporate some different costumes and props into my images.  One of the things I have always liked about working with long exposures is the anonymity, as my face is usually blurred and unrecognizable.  I think that this allows my viewers to place themselves into the images.  Now that I am fequently working in full daylight, using my neutral density filter, I find that I am more recognizable and a masking is a great solution.  In the past, I created a lot of images dealing with issues of masking, whether through makeup, costumes or just personal identity.  I feel like this is an interesting integration between work that is old and new.

The Thirteen Grandmothers

This summer I was invited by my friend Terra Celeste to attend the 11th council of the Thirteen Grandmothers.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into by attending this gathering, and in a lot of ways the repercussions of this event may directly affect my life for the next several years.  The thirteen grandmothers are indigenous women from different cultures around the world.  They are on a mission to pray in their own individual and collective ceremonial ways in order to bring peace, and balance back to the universe.  Although these women are often confined to walkers and wheelchairs, make no mistake; they are possibly the most powerful group of women I have ever encountered.

The Council was held on the Lame Deer Cheyenne reservation in eastern Montana.  Cheyenne grandmother Margaret Behan hosted this gathering.  Originally, three hundred participants were expected, but over the course of the four-day encampment, over seven hundred arrived from around the world.  I, like many others, did not know what to expect but the importance of this council was quickly evident, especially in regard to the Cheyenne people.

Initially, the event was to be held at Grandmother Margaret’s house.  After a forest fire came within a few hundred feet of her property only days before the opening, the gathering was moved to the local public powwow grounds, a move that proved to be quite fateful.  Although, the grandmothers are on a peace mission, change often comes with great resistance. After only a short time on the reservation, I was given a crash course in tribal politics.  Basically, it is tradition for the elder men to speak and hold council, and although women are generally free to express their opinions, they do not make important tribal decisions or hold councils of their own.

By bringing the grandmothers to the reservation, Margaret was going against thousands of years of tradition and was met with physical and psychological opposition.  A group of militant young men came onto the powwow grounds before the event and threatened cause problems if the grandmothers did not cease and desist.  This clearly shook up everyone involved and after a meeting between the grandmothers that lasted into the wee hours of the night, they decided to proceed.  Thankfully they did, because this may have been one of the most important events held in recent Cheyenne history.

As the days progressed, the grandmothers prayed, and began telling their stores, both personal and historical.  They told of war, oppression, massacre, marginalization, and the loss of land, food, water and children, they mourned the loss of old traditions and ways of living.  Many white people also came forward with stores of their own, including the great grandniece of General Custer, who asked forgiveness for her family’s roll in oppressing and murdering the Cheyenne people.  Slowly, the men started to come around, to hear the stories, and witness the healing the grandmothers were offering.  By the end of the gathering, many of the tribal chiefs had don their feather headdresses and welcomed the grandmothers, thanking them for taking action and opening their eyes to the possibilities of a new future.

So much happened while I was at this event I cannot begin to summarize everything in this brief blog.  Suffice to say, I saw a wild wolf, ran out into a lightning storm, witnessed a crowd react to a tiny ancient Nepali woman the way one would expect from a revival church, slept in a tipi, and made a promise I intend to keep.  In our final meeting, Grandmother Margaret asked me to return to the reservation and hold a photography workshop for the local kids.  I am just starting to work out the details of this agreement which involves a lot of research, grant writing, and planning, but hopefully by next summer I will be able to fulfill my commitment to Grandmother Margaret.

The Episcopal Chapel at the General Theological Seminary

Well, It has been almost a week since we did this, and I now know why I always try to write these things the next day.  Alas, here I sit in a train station in Salamanca, Spain on my way to Madrid, I have a few hours to kill (I totally missed my train), and I need to get our final New York shoot on the web.

So, after the Times Square debacle, we shot on campus at the General Theological Seminary.  This was one of our favorite evenings, and we really wanted to come back and shoot in the chapel.  I was hesitant to just go in there and start shooting, because in general we make the places we use sacred by the act of being there.  This is a spot that is already sacred to many and I wanted to give it the respect it deserves.  So we had our good friend and student at the school, Mac Brown, send a note to the higher ups asking permission to use the chapel.  We were warmly welcomed.

The chapel is Episcopalian and was built in the late 1800’s.  It is warm, inviting, and smells of old books.  It is really wonderful place for contemplation and a very special place to make art.  Aloyse has been working for the Episcopal Church for a few years now, and has been following her own path with their guidance.  I think for her, getting the chance to make art in a personally sacred place was really important.  We had a lot of fun working with Mac Brown.  As I have almost never attended church services and did not know any of the traditions, he helped us with a lot of the staging.

We started buy creating several images of our own design, the most successful being the act of bowing to each other and ourselves with respect and devotion.   Next, we approached the altar as if receiving communion, and then did a version of the lector reading to the seminarians.  The final image was Mac’s idea and involves the Orante.  This is an ancient position of prayer, the Orante referring specifically to the female with her arms out stretched and palms raised to the heavens.

This was such a nice shoot to wrap up three weeks of hard work.  I am now on my own without a partner in crime.  I am planning on working a lot, but there is nothing like the act of collaboration to inspire great work.  If I am not traveled out, I might stop in NYC on my way home for another two weeks and a few more chances to make art with my bestie.  We shall see… “God willing,” as they say.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

For some reason this project seems like an endless series of follies. Last time it was the tripod, this time I had to race across NYC in a pouring rainstorm because I forgot the extra battery, and in the next post I will forget part of our costumes, forcing us to be kind of naked in an Episcopal Chapel (more on that in the next post).  I wonder what that brings to the project?  Obviously it creates a bit of tension and forces us to have even greater time constraints.  Yet why are we always running into these kinds of issues?  Its not like we are rookies at this, and yet we never seem to have it completely together.

Somewhere deep inside, I know that this is who we are, Aloyse and I.  We are spontaneous, and creative, and always on the edge of not having it completely together.  This is not necessarily a negative trait, because it forces us to be resourceful.  In turn, I believe this allows us to create beautiful images in often less than optimal conditions, and gives the project a more human feel.  We are not setting out to create over perfect advertizing-esque images.  There is something so much more authentic about two friends coming together, night after night, to create art.  It is not a perfect process, but is an honest process.

On this day, we met at New York’s famous Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This museum is such a treasure.  Everything about it is just brilliant, from the staging to the actual works of art.  With a little help from our wonderful friend Jennette Mullaney, we were able to bring in a tripod and photograph at will around the museum.  What a treat!  Even with the battery shenanigans, we were able to get a lot of work done.

We brought some white dresses and some draping fabric because our intension was to shoot with the marble sculptures.  We quickly found that the museum is very popular on a summer Friday and hard to shoot without getting other people in the images.  In fact, one of our biggest problems is drawing crowds.  In every public shoot, others have surrounded us, taking photos and asking quesions.  This unnerves me a bit, but Aloyse seems right at home.   This shoot was no exception.  I mean who can resist taking photos of girls doing fake ballet in the Met?

The Highline

I’m not really sure what my problem was last night.  Maybe it was the full moon, maybe it was the fact that I have not slept in my own bed in weeks, or maybe I was just being crabby.  Nonetheless, when we got to our shooting sight last night and I realized that Alyose’s tripod’s quick plate was practically welded onto my camera, and would not work with my new tripod, I started cursing like a sailor, and tried to give up on the shoot.  Aloyse would have none of it!  She made me rig up the camera with books, Luna bars, eyeglass cases, and we actually got a few really nice shots, despite my lack luster attitude.

Last night we shot out on the new Highline Park, an elevated abandoned train trestle, turned walking park, through the Chelsea neighborhood.  This beautiful new addition to the city makes for great views, and a lovely shooting backdrop.  The full moon behind herringbone clouds in the background was not too shabby either.  I really want to return to this space for a re-shoot, as I feel like we could greatly expand what we started (especially with a tripod). Unfortunately, I am leaving NYC in 4 days, to head to Spain for a month, and we have a pretty full schedule until then that does not include re-dos.  It is possible that I will be returning here for an extra two weeks when I get back from Spain, we shall see.

We ended the night with some white wine at the Drunken Horse and continued the theme of ‘drinking with friends is the greatest art of all.’  Taking over the back of the bar, and generally irritating our polish bartender, Aloyse, Mark and I did a bit of musical chairs for the camera. A special thanks goes out to all of our collaborators last night, Mark Schultze, JP Magenis, and Justine Evans.

The General Theological Seminary or the Times Square Debacle

We met at Times Square for the second time, to no avail.  That place is damn hard to shoot.  Noisy, crowded, bright lights and dark spots, enough neon to simulate true daylight at night, working there is an effort in futility.  We are tiny, just another attraction, as tourists take our photos we become part of the madness.  We walk away feeling defeated.  We got no good images from the shoot, nothing even worth putting up here.  It feels so depressing.  We insist that we will return, that we will get the shot, but I wonder.  Maybe sparkly dresses will help.

Then at 11:30pm we decide to head across the street to the campus of the General Theological Seminary.  We have the keys.  We let the dogs off their leashes to play on the lush green grass, a magical oasis on this gritty island.  The school once owned most of the area, I think 140 acres, or what is all of Chelsea.  Now it is just an enclosed city block, with dorms in the surrounding area.  We needed a re-do, a confidence builder, a reminder that yes we can make beautiful, meaningful images, that Times Square had not sucked out or souls.

We donned our new matching dresses, and carried candles on to the close.  This felt so safe, so natural, so relaxed, and so easy.  We effortlessly, began our process of creating, of using light and location.  Obviously, it is easier to create in such a beautiful quiet environment, but shooting there versus Times Square made us think about the nature of the work we were creating.  What we do has such an inherent spiritual quality, for us and for the resulting images.  I think shooting in Times Square, the epicenter of consumer culture, really drains that spirituality away from us.  Where as shooing on a theological campus inherently fills us up with that mysticism.

Does this mean we should abandon Times Square?  That we should shoot in only sacred spaces?  I am not sure, but I really don’t think so.  I think that Times Square, like any trial by fire, pushes us to our limits, to the nature of our faith.  It has not happened yet, but I think if we can make strong and meaningful images there, it will be a great accomplishment.  We must now think of the ritual, the dance that can protect us from the overwhelming nature of Times Square.

Meanwhile, we have this…which basically rocks:

Documented Binge Drinking at the Mafia Mansion

There really isn’t much to say…  this was shot in my old apartment in Brooklyn, a four-story brownstone just off the Gowanus canal.   There are many stories and myths about this house, mostly regarding the Italian mafia.  From the looks of the interior this is possibly true.  The place is decked out in gold lame wallpaper, orange diner booths, wainscoting, mirrors everywhere, and an equal bar to bath ratio.  The owners are said to now reside in New Jersey, and occasionally show up to sign leases in tracksuits and gold chains.  There are even rumors of Frank Sinatra himself partying in this house.  Many of these stories were recounted at Anthony’s, a 100-year-old Italian restaurant across the street.

At the turn of the century, a huge flywheel did come apart from a nearby factory, flying thousands of feet through the air and crushing the top floor of the house.  That I know happened, as I saw the microfiche myself.  When I lived there it was a real co-op, we shared food, cooking responsibilities and many other chores, it was a total pain in the ass, but I loved it.  Now my wonderful friend Marela Zacarias lives there… the chain of friends never ends at the Mansion.

On this evening, it was far to wet to shoot outside and Marela invited us over for happy-beer drinking-playtime.  We set up a rigorous schedule that included shot gunning a beer, changing costume, and getting ready to take the next photo every 30 minutes.  Needless to say things got sloppy, and after a while we didn’t really follow the shooting schedule too closely.  These are the images of debauchery at the Mafia Mansion.

Coney Island

Last night’s adventures took me down to the land of the Russians: Brighton Beach and Coney Island.  We spent the evening strolling up and down the boardwalk as evening fell, stopping for giant beers, pickled cabbage, and Nathan’s hotdogs.  It felt otherworldly down there, and a big part of me really could not believe that I was even still in Brooklyn.  What a crazy wonderful place, and how have I never been there before?

Getting caught up in the ambiance, I let too much time pass and had to beg the gatekeepers in the park to let me in for one quick shot, before the park closed.  Nothing like two ghostly creepy twins in blue dresses haunting a run down carnival.  In fact, I think it would be really fun to do more of these types of shots in different carnivals, as two headed ladies, Siamese twins and such.  Ghost carnies.

As we were shuffling out, we stopped to watch this ride where they slingshot a chair on bungees way in to the air.  In the image it just comes out as a streak of sparkles like a firework.  It was an odd scene with people giving me very strange looks as I waved my flashlight around like a crazy person.  Good thing they moved fast enough not to register on the image.  Without much time to work out a concept and shoot multiple images, I opted to let just the light stand in for myself: thus the ribbon of light.

Brooklyn Bridge

Sometimes after a night of shooting, I wake up with a photography hangover.  Today is such a day.  I think back, things are fuzzy; I wonder what happened the night before.  Did I get the shot?  What that the right exposure?  And then I look at the work.  Like a long night of drinking, moments I thought were brilliant were total flops, and moments of blah, turn out to be the most meaningful.  Part of me craves a re-do, but like any great party there will be another one soon, so I try not to worry. Second chances abound.

Not that I was truly disappointed with the work last night, it is just that I can see how much better we can do.  Along with seeing how much better we can do, I am also starting to recognize the art of collaboration.  My natural instinct, for some reason is to stand square to the camera, like we are facing off, a duel per say.  Aloyse, has a natural propensity to dancing in front of the camera.  It must be the obsessive compulsive in me that desires such rigid symmetry and fears messy images.  In last night’s work, you can really see when Aly was directing, and when I was directing.  Not that either style is better than the other, and actually it might be why we work so well together.  Ultimately, I feel that one of the final images we did, a dance image, was the strongest.

Finally, a word on clichés: I am still struggling with subject.  I know this work is about spirituality, spirit, ritual, the goddess, dance, religion, and more, but how to bring that to the image?  Well, sometimes there is the need to explore clichés.  Possibly to just get them out of the way.  If you do it once, then at least you don’t have to do it again unless it is really working.  Last night for some odd reason, there was a lot of Hindu and Buddhist symbolism in the work.  Chakras and many armed goddesses.  I have no idea why the Brooklyn Bridge brought that out in the work but there it is.  Ok, sorry I am a little rambly today heat does that to me.  So with out further adieu…