The view from here
Today was a good day and not just for the absence of any misfortune, which in itself can constitute a good day. Today was good for specific reasons too. For one, I had a much anticipated roll of film developed and it turned out excitingly well. There is nothing like the anticipation and delayed gratification of film, especially when it contains photos that by their nature were a bit more experimental and waiting to see if they succeeded or not just makes the whole experience more gratifying. Plus, despite how long I have done this, or maybe because of it, I find I push the envelope a bit further. As a former experimental risk becomes less of both, I try new things that are inherently risky just because they are new techniques or ideas that I am less practiced or experienced doing. Maybe this all sounds a bit abstract to you. I'll clue you in that one of the exposures on this anticipated roll of film was an 80 minute exposure of the entire Trek in the Park performance yesterday combined with a motion blur of the crowd and the trail left by the setting sun in the sky above it all. It all came together beautifully.
I'm excited.
Being excited makes me happy. :-) (I like simple equations like this).
I won't spoil the surprise though and tell you what else came out really well on that roll. Even better than my 80 minute exposure. You'll see soon enough. Sorry to be a tease (but not really).
What really capped off the day though was the weekly Chieu Hoi meeting. It was so good. Many of you might remember this project I have been a part of since January bring to light and life a collection of negatives made during the Vietnam War by an Army photographer named Charlie Haughey. Back in April there was a show of the work and it got huge press. It was featured on the Boston Globe's site, Der Spiegel, CBS Evening News (and the Sunday morning show too). Numerous other websites, radio shows, and magazines followed. The show was a smash. We sold a ton of prints and created a nice savings for the next step of the project which is what we have been working on quietly in the intervening months. That next step has long been a book, both a physical print book and an accompanying iPad version that will include lengthier captions, audio content, possibly video and the story of the whole project from the beginning.
The creation of the book has gone through several stages from the initial curation to the finer editing that brought it down to 150 or so images. The past month has seen us doing sequencing, the art of figuring out which order the images go in. This itself was a pretty tricky question. Do we organize the book into folios of similar content, i.e. combat photos, recreation, portraits of the men, civilian life. Or do we run it chronologically? In photo essays or single images? Color at the end all together or interspersed. It took us several weeks of brainstorming sessions to make ground on this. The way we finally did it was to take the curated images and divide them up into three groups based on emotional content. We ended up with the "highs", "mediums" and "lows". So photos whose emotional resonance was higher and lighter versus those darker or heavier images, and the ones left in the middle. Having them thus organized we then wove a narrative based almost solely on emotional reaction, sort of like stringing together notes to make a piece of music.
Well, tonight was the first night that we sat down as a group and looked at the entire sequence of the book from start to finish. It was so good. I am proud of the work we have done and what we have put together and the book is barely even half done. We still need to lay down the finer points of the design layout and tweak some sequencing issues. In the meanwhile, Charlie got into a recording studio and recorded several hours of audio dialogue telling the stories of and behind the photos which will become audio excerpts for the iPad version and pull quotes for the print version. We still have a ways to go before you sitting there reading this will be able to hold the book in your hands, several more months for sure, but it is like climbing a mountain. You may get halfway and look up and see how much farther you have to go, but then you not only look down and see the immense distance you have covered, more importantly you look around and see the awesome view the effort to that point has rewarded you with.
That is where I am tonight, enjoying that incredible view.
The view from here
Today was a good day and not just for the absence of any misfortune, which in itself can constitute a good day. Today was good for specific reasons too. For one, I had a much anticipated roll of film developed and it turned out excitingly well. There is nothing like the anticipation and delayed gratification of film, especially when it contains photos that by their nature were a bit more experimental and waiting to see if they succeeded or not just makes the whole experience more gratifying. Plus, despite how long I have done this, or maybe because of it, I find I push the envelope a bit further. As a former experimental risk becomes less of both, I try new things that are inherently risky just because they are new techniques or ideas that I am less practiced or experienced doing. Maybe this all sounds a bit abstract to you. I'll clue you in that one of the exposures on this anticipated roll of film was an 80 minute exposure of the entire Trek in the Park performance yesterday combined with a motion blur of the crowd and the trail left by the setting sun in the sky above it all. It all came together beautifully.
I'm excited.
Being excited makes me happy. :-) (I like simple equations like this).
I won't spoil the surprise though and tell you what else came out really well on that roll. Even better than my 80 minute exposure. You'll see soon enough. Sorry to be a tease (but not really).
What really capped off the day though was the weekly Chieu Hoi meeting. It was so good. Many of you might remember this project I have been a part of since January bring to light and life a collection of negatives made during the Vietnam War by an Army photographer named Charlie Haughey. Back in April there was a show of the work and it got huge press. It was featured on the Boston Globe's site, Der Spiegel, CBS Evening News (and the Sunday morning show too). Numerous other websites, radio shows, and magazines followed. The show was a smash. We sold a ton of prints and created a nice savings for the next step of the project which is what we have been working on quietly in the intervening months. That next step has long been a book, both a physical print book and an accompanying iPad version that will include lengthier captions, audio content, possibly video and the story of the whole project from the beginning.
The creation of the book has gone through several stages from the initial curation to the finer editing that brought it down to 150 or so images. The past month has seen us doing sequencing, the art of figuring out which order the images go in. This itself was a pretty tricky question. Do we organize the book into folios of similar content, i.e. combat photos, recreation, portraits of the men, civilian life. Or do we run it chronologically? In photo essays or single images? Color at the end all together or interspersed. It took us several weeks of brainstorming sessions to make ground on this. The way we finally did it was to take the curated images and divide them up into three groups based on emotional content. We ended up with the "highs", "mediums" and "lows". So photos whose emotional resonance was higher and lighter versus those darker or heavier images, and the ones left in the middle. Having them thus organized we then wove a narrative based almost solely on emotional reaction, sort of like stringing together notes to make a piece of music.
Well, tonight was the first night that we sat down as a group and looked at the entire sequence of the book from start to finish. It was so good. I am proud of the work we have done and what we have put together and the book is barely even half done. We still need to lay down the finer points of the design layout and tweak some sequencing issues. In the meanwhile, Charlie got into a recording studio and recorded several hours of audio dialogue telling the stories of and behind the photos which will become audio excerpts for the iPad version and pull quotes for the print version. We still have a ways to go before you sitting there reading this will be able to hold the book in your hands, several more months for sure, but it is like climbing a mountain. You may get halfway and look up and see how much farther you have to go, but then you not only look down and see the immense distance you have covered, more importantly you look around and see the awesome view the effort to that point has rewarded you with.
That is where I am tonight, enjoying that incredible view.