LIFE IN MUMBAI
- New Portfolios and Websites for ME!
Hello everyone. I’m about to embark on a very serious project. Its time to rework my print portfolios as well as my website. I generally update my books once every year or so with some new prints and leave it at that, my website…well, it could almost always use some work. This time around I’m going a little crazy. I’ve decided to completely rework my editorial portraiture books, edit a new reportage book and print two commercial books for my new commercial rep…. Redux Advertising (I’m not up on the site quite yet but I will be). I’m also about to completely revamp my website, new site, new pictures, new format, new everything. To help me through this insane process I’ve not only enlisted Marcel, Jesi, Maria and Audrey at Redux but I’ve also brought Mike Davis and Deb Pang Davis to help me along. I’m considering blogging the process (I’ll need to get the go ahead from Mike and Deb tonight) for all of you to follow. I’m going to go ahead and give you the first installment considering it has nothing to do with Mike or Deb, just me and my SUPER unorganized archive.
Step one of reworking one’s portfolios spend the time, and the money:
I spent the last few months narrowing down images with Redux. I left the editing for my commercial book to Maria Avitable at Redux Advertising, formally Redux Reps (I’m not up there yet). She went through about 750 shots from the last years work and knocked it down to about 50 she liked. I printed like a mad man for a week and just shipped the prints over to her in NYC from India. I have to tell you, this process was not cheap or easy. I had to get the paper I like shipped from BH in New York to Mumbai my studio/office/apartment. Hanemuhle paper isn’t cheap to begin with but throw in 300 bucks for shipping and then around 350 bucks in customs charges and watch out. I was all set to get started when I realized my printer was running low on ink. In NYC, no big deal. In Mumbai… good luck. It took me five days to get the ink I needed and even then most of those cartridges were 75% full, pulled from a friends machine for another 300 dollars. So right off the bat I’m already about 2k down just on paper and ink. Add in 4 new leather books and cases from House of Portfolios in NYC and we’ve just hit 3500 dollars.
Moving on to the Editorial books…
I’ve gone back and forth with Jesi and Audrey since early December talking about where I want to go career wise and how my work is changing/growing and we’ve knocked around some edits. I like where its going but I feel like its not quite there yet and since I’m dropping so much cash on the books and the website re-work I really need to get it perfect. I thought it was time to call in a big gun and SHOCKER the timing couldn’t have been better. Mike Davis, the newly freelance picture editor and all around good guy in Portland had some free time and I hired him to help flesh it out. I feel like we’ve always worked well together and he has a really good idea of where I want to go… Perfect.
Tonight I have a meeting on Skype with Mike so yesterday and today I dug around the archive and organized and categorized about 1250 images. Some tight edits from projects I liked, some miscellaneous images and some wide edits from projects I never really felt sang quite the right way. I’m uploading 450mbs to my server and Mike should be able to download that all in the morning Portland time and have a quick look during our meeting. Then the fun begins!
If anyone is interested I’m happy to post low res versions of the entire initial take in a gallery for people to take a look at. Let me know if you’d be interested and I’ll make it happen.
Wish me luck!
- Train waiting. Awesome
Missed our train so we had lunch (for three hours) at the trainstation in Phitsanulok. Radical. Ps. I had a beer too. Yay beer.
- Thailand
Rockin rural thailand today. I’m on a bus in the middle of nowhere about to get on a train. Had an amazing Thai massage this morning after getting up at the ass crack of dawn to shoot Sukothai’s old city for Transit. Faring a bit better than Maki though. She’s out cold. Mouth breather…. Who would have guessed.
M
- Why film?
Check out this great post on the Stockland Martel blog from photographers who still shoot film. People ask me ALL the time why I shoot film. Why, why, why, why? Well, I’ll tell you why. It looks better. It feels better. I has depth. It has range. Its beautiful AND, when I shoot film, I don’t feel like a snapper. I don’t feel like a button pusher. I feel like an artist. Its a good feeling.
Here’s a little taste:
Why do you shoot film?
Brian Finke: I almost exclusively shoot film, with the exception of recently starting to shoot video with the new Canon, and soon checking out the new Nikon HD camera. More and more these days when I am on assignment I get the, WOW, reaction when I pull the first Polaroid and everyone on set sees I’m shooting film. I am instantly seen as an art photographer, which makes by happy. I learned shooting film and love it. I shoot exclusively with the Hasselblad, it is a great process, taking the Polaroids, loading all the backs, then while shooting taking a pause and reloading, the physicality of the camera and process are beautiful. I also prefer the grain and depth of film and the chromogenic print, especially when viewed in a large scale, gallery environment.
- Keith Bedford’s Year in India
My friend Keith Bedford just posted his first year in India pictures. Take a look kids:
- Their Loss our Gain….
A bit of happy news for you freelancers out there for 2010. Mike Davis, the amazing photo editor from the Oregonian took the buyout and is now rolling freelance. That’s right. Its contest season and the best editor I’ve ever worked with is available to help with portfolios, projects, contests, books, career counciling and finding your way to nirvana.
I’ve worked with Mike for the last three years and I can honestly say that not one person has helped my career more than him. He helped me get my gig at the Oregonian, set me up with my first magazine meetings in NYC, hooked me up with Redux, edited several projects that I won awards with (albeit small ones but that’s my fault) and has been an all around great guy from the get go.
Send him an email, give him a call. He’s in Portland, Oregon and he’s really fantastic.
email at tekamah@mac.com for the moment;
cell 503-545-7711
home office 503-289-1757
- WORK: 7 Awesome Restaurants in Mumbai for the WSJ
Check it out here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704517504574590262428592406.html
- WORK: Michael Rubenstein in the NYT
In November I photographed Divya Thakur’s beautiful South Mumbai apartment.
- WORK: Michael Rubenstein in the NYT Travel Section
Take a look. I shoot this quick story on Andheri a few months ago.
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