W/NW: a photo and its story

A couple of weeks ago, in Cambridge (UK), I saw this guy and thougth

he was standing in a fantastic early morning light so asked him if I

could take a picture of him. His short answer was that he was trying

to sell some copies, at 1,4 Pounds each. We got a deal: one copy and

one photo, 2 Pounds. And here it is.<div></div>

and by the way, I'll be grateful if someone tells me how to avoid Newton rings between negative and glass when printing in dark room (see upper side of the photo)!

i believe newton rings to be caused by the negative actually making contact with the glass. if your negative is curled, try scanning it upside down. a friend of mine scans his negatives sandwiched between two thin pieces of glass. this results in the negs being as flat as possible. he uses some sort of spray when scanning med-lrg format negs, but with 35mm, i'm not sure. with my epson 3200, scanning the neg upside down if it is too curly usually helps.

m

Nice photo, you made a good deal:). Maybe a bit thinner DOF would have been nice? (just nitpickong)

 

Copies of what was he selling?

he's selling the 'big issue' magazine, and the money will go straight to his drug dealer.

 

I'm looking out of my office window in Liverpool (uk) now, and eight big issue sellers are

are waiting for their stuff to arrive.

So Steve, let's clarify this shall we? All people who sell "Big Issue" are drug addicts?

I hope for your sake that you're joking! <p>Perhaps you should read this: <a href="http://www.bigissue.com/selling.html">Big Issue vendors</a>

monkey, no not all... but most are here in liverpool, and manchester also... it's sad be I see

it every day.

 

steve

excellent, andrea.

and monkey

 

from your link...

 

'Vendors are not employed by The Big Issue. They are retailers, and as such, are

responsible for their own tax, book keeping and timekeeping etc.'

 

... can't really see them with their accountant, can you?

yes andrea

 

great shot, and apologies for hijacking you thread. Steve

I was in a bar the other night and, in order to get some portraits, had my book of portraits out. A guy that looked just like the guy in the photo, except for the hairline, stumbled by in a slight haze and asked if he could look at it. He then spent about ten minutes going through it carefully and spent about an hour giving me a picture by picture critique. It was far more insightful than anything I've seen here, and he never asked me about my camera.<p>A shot from that night.</p><center>

<img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/pub1.jpg"><br><i>Cassidy's Irish Pub, Copyright 2004 Jeff Spirer</i></center>

Earlier this year, I was on my way back to the States from Korea. I had a three-hour layover at Narita airport near Tokyo, and I was sitting on the floor, watching a DVD on my laptop. (The seats near the power outlet were already occupied.) Narita not a very interesting airport to be in, but I had noticed the shadows becoming more- and less-defined as the sun was moving in and out from behind the clouds. I figured I could try to get a halfway interesting record shot of the place when the sun finally came out again. I had the camera out and the exposure set, waiting for the right time. The sun was still behind some very light clouds when I saw this kid come racing down the hallway. I had time to grab the camera, refocus, and get off two shots before the kid was past. The mother came marching along soon after . . .<P>

<center><img src="http://mikedixonphotography.com/narita01.jpg"></center>

My girlfriend was recently in zombie musical called <a href="http://www.showmepictures.net">Song of the Dead</a> (Not to be confused with Shaun of the Dead, or Dawn of thed Dead, etc. etc.) I showed up on set one night to take some stills and eat some free pizza. Near the end of the night I was sitting in a corner in the kitchen trying to stay out of the way. The producer walked in, opened the fridge, and started checking the script by the fridge light. Apart from the fridge light, the room was pretty close to dark. I snapped a couple of frames. All were pretty dark, but this one has a nice effect when printed. It was a favorite at that cast and crew party.<br><br><center>

<img src="http://www.1point4photography.com/documentary/sotd/images/45001.jpg"><br><i>hexar af, tri-x @ 3200</i>

"I was in a bar the other night and, in order to get some portraits, had my book of portraits out. "

 

Took me 3 times reading through this to see that 'and'. I was about to say, 'Sure you were in a bar just to get some portraits'. Sigh, comedy gold foiled by a conjunction.

 

Bringing around a book of work is pretty good idea though.

center off?

</center>

off now

Israel lives in East Boston, a working class neighbourhood which was predominantly Little Italy, but now contains a mix of people from El Salavador and Puerto Rico. Israel, originally from puerto rico, used to live in Brooklyn, but moved to Boston in the early seventies. Israel is a Yankees fan, but has grown to love the Sox nevertheless. Israel has adopted 3 children, 2 of them he knew suffer from AIDS at the time. One of the kids passed away and the other one is undergoing treatment and surviving. Israel always sends left over medicine, drugs and whatever he can to poor countries instead of throwing them away. He is a godparent for 12 children. He is motivated in life by his sister, who passed away from AIDS as well.

<p>

<center>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/2796338-md.jpg">

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I really cannot even begin to imagine what I would need to get through the experience being homeless. I dont know if drugs or cheap cider would do the trick.

 

Sleeping in a dry doorway on a warm night without being attacked and having enough money for a bacon sandwich and a cup of hot tea for breakfast is probably a 'good' day when homeless.

 

If this appalling state of being is alleviated (numbed?) by alcohol or drug abuse then I cannot bring myself to begrudge them. (As long as no-one else is hurt.)

 

In the city where I live (here in England) a small 2 bedroomed, Edwardian terraced house costs 160,000 pounds to buy or 600 pounds per month to rent. That assumes a young couple (or individual) would need to be earning at least 40,000 pounds a year (or more) to come any where near being able to afford the mortgage, community charge, utility bills, insurance, running repairs etc. (And all that just to be able to afford the most humble home in a relatively low cost area of the country. You can double or triple those figures in a 30 mile radius of London!)

 

This problem is going to get far worse as even our bright young university graduates cannot even afford 'starter' homes of their own.

Trevor---you didn't mention heroin, but I once heard an interesting description.

"You're sitting in a cold, roach infested "shooting gallery" in (name your slum).

You inject heroin. You're now in Hawaii on the beach." Dunno, but your

comment made me think of it.

Balaji: great shot and better story on top of it. i hope to see more of your isreal shots and hear more about him. the world sure will be a better place if we have more of him. thanks.

One of the most lovely homeless i've met in my life was this man...he said me, just before i pressed the shutter, that he's making his best to make the zone he lived a better place..

 

He wa a damn good poet, too...from this, the name of the shot...<div></div>

He comes from Brasil. I couldn't get out of him, how he ended up in the Netherlands.<br>

Daytime, he walks in the city center and mumbles with one hand held open in front of him. This evening - surprisingly clear and friendly. He had a bag of sliced bread and a large notebook wherein he was writing different words with big, fancy letters. Like PEACE, HEMP, CANNABIS. He also has notes written by some local young fellows which ride stinky mopeds, talk loud to everyone on the street and occasionally offer him a sip from a hand-rolled joint.

His "friends", I guess.<br>

He spoke perfect English and reasonable Dutch. When I finally asked him about a photo, he straightened up his back, he got 20 cm taller. His pitch black skin was shining in the darkness like freshly cut antracit. Strangely, there was no white in his eyes. "Ready, thanks." "No flash?" -he asked, disappointed.<p>

 

Then he turned back to his notebook and dove into writing, on a concrete bench in front of the floodlit bank building.<div></div>

<a href= "http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005yCH"> Looking for a Lady</a>

<center><img src="http://gallery.photo.net/photo/2823128-

lg.jpg"><br><center>"Would you please take a photo of my ass

for my ex-boyfriend?" (hardly an everyday request, so I tried to

approach it graphically, and the lab left the worst streaks on the

negs I've ever seen. I'm going there tomorrow to cause a

ruckus.) I took some nice portraits of her too, I'll bore you with

some of them soon.