Redlights and Redeyes

I’m convinced most of my most exciting ideas come from Starbucks-stained napkins…most of which get crumpled up into a pocket and forgotten about.  This one stuck for some reason…and now this little napkin is reality.

FOCUSED came out of an idea to rejuvenate some film I had.  I had no idea how that would happen, but all I knew is I wanted it to be a shared effort amongst my favorite photographers. On a three hour trip to Miami to catch a flight to the Bahamas for a shoot, I revealed my idea to my friend and fellow photographer, Brian Blanco, who helped me brainstorm this project down to one simple thought:  one camera.  one click.  one moment.

FOCUSED is rekindling the Decisive Moment one frame at a time.  There will be 200 photojournalists to start – from students to Pulitzer Prize winners – and the list of confirmed names is insane - here.  A photojournalist on the list will be mailed a film camera and a roll of film – with the challenge of getting only one click of the shutter to capture whatever they want and then mail the camera onto the next photojournalist.  Pretty simple concept.  Terrifying to some.  A welcome break to others.

For the last couple months, I’ve built FOCUSED with the help of my friends (notably Melissa Lyttle, Kristin Lenz, Peter Lockley, Kevin Moloney, Matt Slaby, and Tomas van Houtryve) who have put up with my long winded emails and random phone calls as to the best way to make this happen.  My wife, Elaine, has put up with the rest.

Now FOCUSED is live – and it needs your help.

FOCUSED has launched a crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo.  We’re seeking money from donors to cover the cost of shipping, equipment, and future print and gallery showings for one purpose – to obviously make FOCUSED happen, but there is something bigger here.  Your help will be keep the foundation of our craft going.  FOCUSED has partnered with several youth photography programs worldwide - Critical Exposure (Washington DC), Fundacion Ph15 (Argentina), and Through the Eyes of Hope (Rwanda) – with more to come in the near future.  While the ultimate goal is to raise money  through print sales, gallery showings, and hopefully a book, we’re also getting the children involved by letting them take a frame for the project to just get them excited about picking up a camera (a film camera at that).  Pretty amazing.

With that, I give you FOCUSED – http://www.focusedproject.org + Twitter + Facebook.

To donate (tax-deductible):

Had a nice chat with Holly Stuart Hughes over at Photo District News for an article in their September Education Issue about what I’ve learned so far freelancing with a much wider net (wedding, magazine, newspaper, pr, sport, commercial, etc.) this go-round after falling flat on my face a few years back.  Go check it out in their digital edition (here).

I’m the opening act for Zack Arias.

If you don’t like the assignments you are given, make your own.

Shooting for free is the kiss of death in this industry, but there’s a time for everything.  Sometimes, a self-assignment is worth it.  If you are a staffer, the daily grind of assignments can beat you down with every building mug and press conference.  If you are a freelancer, the times when the phone doesn’t ring can seem like an eternity.  I suggest one of two things: either get off your butt, or get your boss off of it.  Find something to go shoot and go shoot it.  Just for yourself – not to sell, not to market, and definitely not something you are delegated.  This assignment has to be something that gets you going both visually and viscerally.

In the summer of 2007, a small group of photographers – myself, Sol Neelman, Rob Mattson, and Bob Croslin – piled into a car and headed north to East Dublin, Georgia, to cover the Summer Redneck Games complete with events ranging from the mud pit bellyflop to the toilet ring toss to bobbing for pig’s feet.  Essentially a bunch of rednecks, trucks, camo, and beer.  Amazing.  It wasn’t something any of were being paid for (even though some of did after the fact – i.e. Sol in National Geographic) but it was just something…else.  There wasn’t an editor that needed a specific shape for the paper.  No reporter asking for us to shoot someone because he/she was in their story.  Hell, we didn’t even have to get names.

We just shot for the pure joy of shooting.

We eventually met up with Jeff Haller, Elissa Eubanks, and Tamika Moore – we even ran into my Eddie Adams leader Bill Frakes and Laura Heald on a random hillside.  The key for the four of us was that we wanted to just have fun and make some photos, but the underlying mission was to destroy each other visually.  It was never spoken but there’s that battle that always happens when you get a bunch of photographers together.  The challenge breeds creativity and somehow wipes out any sort of hesitation to just jump into a complete stranger’s world without a reason why or publication to vouch for you.

None of us wore credentials.  I bought a mesh, green John Deere hat (which has gone MIA unfortunately).  None of us really remembered rain gear.  Others had trash bags wrapped around cameras.  I just took it like a champ and my gear paid for it – a body and a lens toasted and off to CPS after covering the bellyflop contest.  My clothes were ruined by the thick red clay that I can still see almost 5 years later in that shirt I wore.

We all crashed in a very exquisite motel and edited that night.  Why?  None of us had clients, but we were just excited about what we had shot.  Everyone was racing it to their blogs or Sportsshooter galleries at 3am with a hotel sink full of beer and smiles on our faces.

What’s the point?  The photography business can be a rat race.  There are tens of thousands of photographers out there doing exactly what you and I do. Everyone has one unique thing – a vision.  That vision can be driven by ego, competition, passion, fear, curiosity, artistry, adversity, and talent.  What drives yours? It should be you.

Sometimes feeding the beast is easiest when that beast is you.

For more photos:  click.

I’ll leave you with one last photo.  That’s me in the center after taking a hit in the mud pit.  If you see that hat somewhere, it’s mine and I miss it.

I spent the week doing a couple things I don’t do very often – disconnecting, actually going to the beach for fun (instead of a shoot), and putting my camera down for a while. The eye candy one night this week was too insane to play around in for a few frames.

For as much as I use them, I always have to look up the proper spelling of “silhouettes,” and it still looks wrong…and for as close as Siesta Beach is, I don’t go there nearly enough.

That being said, I’m out the door for an evening magazine shoot.  At the beach.  At sunset.

Now for something completely random.

The insides of a old Apple blueberry G3 I dug out of the shed before taking it to the tree stump and driving a 4″ nail through the hard drive on the way to its burial.

R.I.P. ol’ blue.

Got a nice little write up from the fine folks over at Jen Bekman Gallery and 20×200 for the upcoming Hey Hot Shot! competition.  I have no idea if I’ll make the cut or not, but it was cool to read someone else’s take on a project I literally do just for fun when I’m bored or in need of a visual reset.

Thanks – love the site!