Red Bull photo contest
Heres to all you sport photographers or aspiring sport photographers. hey you never know what they will pick it could be your image. so why not look through you work and see if you have something they might like.
here’s their link: red bull rules
a few weeks ago i entered the center 4 fine art photography water contest. it’s one of the contest i first started entering when i got enough courage to submit work. enough people had told me my work was good and i should submit.
well i never heard back from them from any of my entries, well maybe a rejection email or two, i am not sure anymore. rejections are something i’ve grown use to, although some contest don’t even bother doing that. how many entries do they get, i’ve heard some places raise as much as $50,000.oo each contest, not a bad months worth of work.
lots of people want recognition as an emerging photographer or old salt. but it’s something that i don’t do as much as when i started out, yes i’ve won my share of contest which is pretty wonderful or at least gotten honorable mentions which i think is pretty cool also.
now i am more interested in who’s judging the contest than i am the gallery running it. how does one make contact with people? the big question. i asked bruce silverstein one night how he finds his talent to which he replied spend all night searching the internet much to his wifes objections. how do we or anybody make contact in this age of computer overload? do we use the same device that causes the problem.
modern postcard would have us believe that the old school of contacting art directors and agents is through good old mailings. maybe that’s still true.this reminds me of a story i heard a long time ago about the sun rising and native american legends.
it seems there was this anthropology fellow living in one of the native americans villages studying the native peoples. in his observations he would see that early in the morning some men would disappear into a certain area before the sun came up. he asked questions about what was going on which mostly were met with evasive answered. but there was one person who shared a story that they were performing a sacred ceremony of greeting the sun.
[now my memory isn’t the greatest in remembering names isn’t one of my strong points.]
but to continue the story: when the anthropology student pressed for details he was told that the group performed the ceremony in order for the sun to be raised from the underworld . ‘you’d don’t really believe that the student asked? you’re educated people who knows that the planets revolve around the sun which makes the sun comes above the horizon.’
‘yes that is true.’ was the answer.
but the student kept seeing the group meet every morning. once again he approached the person whom had answered his question about the ceremony and asked ‘why are you still meeting and performing that ceremony ?’
to which was answered ‘ if we didn’t perform this ceremony it might prove your science sun rising theory wrong and leave the world in darkness.’
so you never know what outcome your actions will produce which is one of the reason i still enter contest.
wandering around new york galleries on wed after an all day sitting at soho photo looking at the lighting system they have and are thinking of replacing as they have received a proposal from the contractor who painted the gallery this past summer. what an improvement over the dingy, paint peeling walls and ceiling. for an art photography gallery to look that run down i thinks reflects on the artist who show there.
i guess i should say the photographers who show there. this distinction i make with my work being art as opposed to just photographs. i create my pictures while i think most photographers capture theirs. i’ve always thought that the proof in my work was the print, that’s where i spend most of my time in creating, not that taking the picture isn’t just important because it is.
i did stop by Madame X, 95 houston St, nyc, ny to see Catlin Mitchells semi nude fashion exhibit. Madame X seems an appropriate place for the show except for the lighting but the decor of red wall paper and golden couches, can we say whore house look, seemed to the welcome the exhibit. i did look to introduce myself to Catlin who was not hard to find in her silver sequined dress, but didn’t have time to talk, who ever does at ones opening, greeting guest, friends and what not. love her carbon prints on cold press paper.
speaking of artists and galleries in the evening i continued around the corner to ward-nasse gallery where i have four prints hanging to re-lable two of them with the awards they have received, Blue the 2009 Prix de la Photographie, Paris (PX3) and Ascending the 2009 International Photography Award. because there is an opening reception at ward-nasse this saturday 10/17/09 at 7pm for this lovely young artist who paints hearts. She usually sells out and has a large following. i sold two prints at her last show. woohoo.
the next sunday 10/18/09 mary and i are showing our work in Hoboken at the Monroe Center for the Arts for their open studio tour, 12 noon to 5 pm affair.if you’re in the neighborhood stop by or better yet make the trek to the center and say hello. we are showing some of our bump, wedding and children laboroflovepixs hoping to drum up some more business.mary makes sure there’s lots of wine and popcorn, don’t ask. she will also be bring some of her wearable art, which women seem to like, as that’s what the conversation always seems to move to at our gallery openings etc.
where does our life go? mary the energizer bunny and me, i get tired just watching her, are getting ready next month for a friends art/gallery shop opening on 231 Bedford Ave in williamsburg Brooklyn called Barking Lizard. some of the art works there are fabulous. do stop by and take a look.
yesterday september 22, 2009 i was invited to the Broadway Salutes 2009 celebration in Duffy Square, Times Square, New York City. this ceremony was to honor the working people who make up the Broadway Theater community for their years of service. i got a 25 year pin and the chance to see my name scrolled on the Clear Channel billboard on 47th street and Broadway.
no i didn’t take pictures. it was nice just sitting there seeing my name and reflecting. i thought i did pretty good for a kid who stole postcards and displays from the theaters to put in my room, oh so many years ago. times square what a memory and oh how it’s changed over the years. but to me i see so many things as clear as day there, ghosts of new york.
one of the things i always loved about the ‘Square’ were the people or should i say characters, like the guys who sold ‘Dancing Balloon Figures’. they worked as a team, one of them standing off to the side operating a clear fishline with the other end attached to a fire hydrant or pole. he usually had a coat over his hand so you wouldn’t see him moving the fishline. the other fellow was the pitchman who gave out the packages took the money. this happened to the theater crowd as they were exiting on their way home. my friends and i would laugh about them blowing up the balloons and trying to make them dance. those were the days. i bet those balloons would be worth a pretty penny now.
one day a friend of mine, barry arnold and i were walking somewhere through the square and i was moaning about not getting anywhere in the ‘biz’ when he stopped in front of on of the many book stores on broadway and said ‘come on’ . he strolled in walking up to the theater section where he pulled from the shelves a theater directory. thumbing thought the index until he got to my name, next to my name were page numbers corresponding to the various shows i had worked on listing my title.
‘there you see’ he said ‘feel better now?’ yes i did.
we continued on to wherever it was we were headed, but that moment stayed with me through all the tough lean years. i was a somebody. i wasn’t until years later after winning a couple emmy awards for my lighting that my estranged family was proud of me, they always wanted me to get a job. i on the other hand would have wished the mom who raised me could see who i was then.
after being downsized at CBS Evening News the day after winning my second emmy i didn’t feel too good about the future, but i stuck around not knowing what else to do. at the end of my last show the title page of credits appeared showing my name. it just stayed there not moving until the copyright appeared. i was almost in tears. that’s how much they thought of me.
millions of people had the chance to see my name on the network shows i’d worked on but what was important to me ,were how the people i worked with felt towards me. but sitting in times square tuesday seeing my name i though to myself ‘you’ve come a long way baby.’
no pictures, just a silly pin and a program that will go in my mementos box along with my last Fillmore East program, some Woodstock letterhead and a few other trinkets. not much when you think about it, just some parts of my life.
and what will tomorrow bring?
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