I went to the Corcoran Halloween Dance tonight. I walked around and photographed everyone having a good time. The costumes were shiny, skimpy, bloody, dark, pasty and creepy ... they were all great. An uneasy feeling hung over the event the entire night, perfect for Halloween.
This is an Anti-Communist China woman from Siberia. Her sign says she was held in a Siberian Concentration Camp. I tried to understand what I could. One thing is for sure, if she were a citizen of the United States she would vote for Bush. She had all kinds of Pro-Bush pins and items. I couldn't understand why, until I saw that one of her signs read that she was seeking political asylum in the United States. She isn't the only international homeless person I've met. One of my good friends, The Bum Isaac, is also internationally homeless. The man speaks nearly every European language. In the summer he is usually here in DC. In the winter he takes the Greyhound south down to Florida. Last week Isaac got his passport from the North Holland Embassy; he is a resident of North Holland. He told everyone at Swing's Coffee Shop that he was off to South America last Friday. We suspect that is where he is.
Here is respected photography writer, critic, and author (also the Chair of Photography at the Corcoran), Andy Grundberg holding up a photo of mine that was in last Sunday's New York Times. It is the third time the Times has run the photo. The first time, Dec., 20, 2001, it appeared on the front page. The second time, the photo was in the New York Times Review of Books. I didn't know the most recent photo ran until today when Andy revealed the clipping from his attache while walking into M.E. Swing's coffee shop. The photo, that depicts battlefield prisoners entering the detainee facility at the Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan, is also in my web portfolio.
In the student lounge at Sandy Spring Friends School some students relax from their scholastic activities to partake in multiple hands of "Texas Hold'em." I thought it was smart they were using scraps of paper in place of actual money. I mentioned when I was in high school my "un-assigned" study hall was at the end of the day so I could leave early. Me and my good friend Ruben Del Angel had the same un-assigned period. We would walk home together. Something I didn't mention was that, while walking off school grounds we would shout the lyrics to our favorite oldies tunes through opened classroom windows.
It's a scenic ride on the train back from Sandy Spring Friends School. I am working my internship there and sharing what I know about photojournalism with the students. When I am there among the students I remember back when I was their age. Today, I was going over the high school students' photo story projects with Lori the journalism instructor. I told her I had been editing photos since high school, maybe before. Down by the playground I saw a middle school student sitting on the bench drawing during recess. I remembered drawing at the picnic table during recess when I was in Preschool. When I boarded the yellow school bus that takes me to the Metro train, an interested student said, "Are you a photographer? That's one of the things I want to be." I told him to stay interested in art.
I walked up to Mount Pleasant to see my friend Solomon. He was just waking up late in the afternoon because he works as a DJ on weekends. I spotted him before I could make it to his house at my old favorite 7-eleven buying milk, cereal, and ramen noodles. Last night he DJed at a club called FIVE. He is the newest member of DC's DriveSafe DJs, who have recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary.
It's the beginning of the end, game one of the World Series. I went to watch the game with others at a small gathering at Andrew and Maris's place on Capitol Hill. We were all hoping for Boston to win it against St Louis, they did. What a great night of baseball ... crepes and mimosas, beer and pizza, laughing into the wind, and yelling into the oscillating fan.
My new lens showed up in the mail tonight. Its aperture of f/1.8 makes it ideal for taking photos in low light. My professor Mark Abraham suggested I get this lens for a photo essay I am shooting on feral cats. I had to take a walk and test my camera. I found this guy by DuPont Circle ending a cathartic night of drinking, literally on the sidewalk next to him. I was really impressed with the color my lens produced in this dim light. If you have a Nikon purchase a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AF, a bargain at $100 new.
Before our class today Andy McMillan lined up this ladder with the Washington Monument. The fact that a man was climbing the ladder created a humorous picture. "Good Thinking," I said. Nikon also likes the way Andy thinks (even though he uses Canon equipment). He won a $10,000 scholarship from Nikon at a recent photo workshop called Barnstorm XVII. It was the first scholarship of its kind and there is a nice article about it at Photo District News Online.
I was taking photos at a press conference in the Capitol Building this morning. Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) held the conference in support of a bill proposal that would increase the profitability of flu and other vaccine's production among domestic and Canadian pharmaceutical companies. Due to the recent shortage Sen. Bayh and others on the Hill have opted to pass on their "congressional" flu shot. The plan is essentially supposed to prevent vaccine shortages in the United States and decrease our reliance on foreign pharmaceutical companies. Sounds like politics to me. What I really wondered was if the senator from Indiana has been watching the Red Sox and Yankees the last few days.
I caught this Metro bus reflection in the glass shaft of the Glenmont Metro Station's broken elevator. The first year I lived in DC I was next door to the Waterfront Metro Station in Southwest. I thought the Metro train was better than San Francisco's Muni railway (A system which I admire). It wasn't long before I started noticing flaws. The first was that the elevators were always broken creating difficulties for people in wheelchairs among others. Because of the out-of-order elevators, special shuttles were provided from other stations, which created a hassle. The second major thing was the installation of the new money feeders on the buses that you can't put a penny in. And my third and most recent Metro pet peeve is the way bus after bus cruises down 16th St without stopping to pick anyone up during evening rush hour.
