Vendors

Walking on Water

I didn't realize that W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh story was never published until seeing the segment about his time with Magnum on The Genius of Photography. I guess it's because I have seen pictures from the project over the years. I fully realize my project is nowhere near the magnitude or quality of his wonderful obsession. The thing that got me was that he made thousands of pictures over several years under the illusion that he was changing the world with his chronicle of the city. I'm still chipping away but will probably keep at this little strip of coastal Maputo. I've been trying to show the encroachment of urban life on the Marginal, concentrating on the beach erosion and seawalls.

Out with the Kids

When I was living in Lisbon, my little boy, then the only one, often went on assignments with me strapped into his Baby Bjorn hanging in front of me. We have a nanny (out on maternity leave of all things) here, but I still spend significant time changing diapers, cooking, picking up toys and being engaged in constant battles of wills. If I ever pop back into the newspaper photo editing world, I think parenthood will make me a better manager.

My wife is back in the U.S. until next Sunday doing important government stuff, but meanwhile I'm juggling a restless one year old and three year old. Today, I took them on an outing to Catembe, a town across the bay which requires a ferry ride (we were mostly interested in the ferry ride). I had Charles strapped in front in the Baby Bjorn and Thomas on the loose. I'm always proud of getting a good picture when I have a fussy baby strapped to me who was trying to grab my camera or strap when I was shooting.

Slippin' and Slidin'

An integral part of my Marginal project that I want to refocus on and have tried to make more compelling pictures of are of the beach erosion problem. Essentially the physical road, Avenida Marginal, is going to kill part of the local culture because of the eroding beach and the construction of sea walls. A way of life will fade away when the beaches disappear. When I was a photographer at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, I worked on a long-term project with a reporter and artist called The Beach Builders that looked at the enormous monetary and environmental costs of rebuilding beaches because of beach erosion. We also explored the human cost since dredging sand that is pumped back onto beaches is one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. The story took us to the Carolinas, Alabama and Mississippi aside from our very own Florida coast and it was the type of thing that infuriates you since essentially tons of money, much damage and several lives are given essentially so rich people can keep their homes and luxury condos on the beach at the expense of everyone else: classic.

It's one of the things that struck me when I got her because it's so obvious with crumbling roads and trees with exposed roots lining the beach. Also, the new U.S. embassy is being constructed on Avenida Marginal. That along with the construction of luxury gated communties and neighborhoods, it is a pattern that I'm familiar with and know that ultimately for a cash-strapped country like Mozambique ripe with corruption a skewed priorities, a sea wall is the solution.

The ten kilometers of road that makes up "the Marginal" goes from the bridge that separates the dirt road leading to the Bairro dos Pescadores, or fishing village, from Costa do Sol to the roundabout at Praça do Robert Mugabe. The latter half of the road runs along coast where a sea wall separates land from the bay. I've been examining old photographs of Lorenço Marques (the name that the city was called until 1975 in its colonial Portuguese days), and there was once a beach called Polana beach and a club there called Polana Pavillion. I asked a young woman who works at the Club Naval, which neighbored the old Polana Pavillion, and asked her if it the zone was still known as Polana beach or if the walk was still known as the Polana Esplanade. She looked at me with bewilderment and was too confused to give any answer. I explained what used to be there and that once an actual beach and beach club and pier neighbored her place of employment. She was surprised. Essentially, the area that is now characterized by its sea walls and leads to the port and downtown Maputo is foreshadowing what will most likely be the fate of the more rural parts of the Marginal.

Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon

The family and I went to South Africa this weekend to go grocery shopping (things are significantly cheaper and higher quality there). I missed a boat race that was going on on Saturday at Clube Naval. It's a South African holiday and there were lots of racers from there in Maputo with their rocket-like boats, unfortunately I missed it and was a bit frustrated about it. I hung out for a few hours this morning trying again to make something interesting out of volleyball games that go on.

My Cute Kid's Birthday

My most useful application of my photography skills over the past few years (the time I've had children) is to keep the family and friends connected and updated weekly with lots of cute kid pictures and the like. Charles, baby number two, is one today. His nanny, Finoca, who he loves more than his parents, left yesterday to have a baby of her own and will be away for a few months, so I've gotten to spend some time, not all quality, with him. We have a temporary replacement nanny who is not so good, so I haven't had much time to do course work. I had forgotten how much time these creatures leech away.

Cropping in the Camera

I've become more disciplined or at least more aware of my framing when shooting. After my first critique with Paul, I realized that he was looking at all of the frames, the whole raw frame without any mention of cropping, but with just an direct critque on what I shot in each entire frame. Over my career, I've tried to do that with two factors that influenced it: 1.) Paul Morse and 2.) Annie Leibovitz.

I don't know what people think of Annie Liebovitz. I've developed mixed feelings but still she was a big influence because I was a teenage wannabe rock star and my first influences in photography were people like Jim Marshall, Dezo Hoffman and Annie Leibovitz. When I was a kid, somebody bought me a Dezo Hoffman photography book of his work with The Beatles (who I was an absolute fanatic over for years). I bought aquired some old Annie Leibovitz photo books (Shooting Stars, Rolling Stone Book of Portraits, which is an all B&W compiliation book which she edited that is documentary-much more than Rolling Stone's later photographs of extravagant lighting and sets. The other is Mark & Leibovitz, The Photojournalist.) In the second book, there is a portion of a contact sheet on one page of one of Leibovitz's shoots at a prison that was made a big impact on me-even now.

Each of the frames of Leibovitz's prison shoot was different and good. I guess because it was before I became a photographer and it just stuck. Much later when I actually became a photographer, I thought it was great and even referenced this in debates about Annie Leibovitz with Leibovitz-haters.

Paul Morse was a staff photographer at the Pasadena Star-News when I was doing an internship there in college. Paul was sort of the star, young hot shot who was always winning awards. I was just learning photography and really a bit uncomfortable because my experience was more in writing than photography. Paul was super cool and would always give advice and encouragement. One thing that stuck was when he emphasized that he "cropped in the camera," he considered the whole frame in shooting. Although it might seem silly now, it made a strong impact on a green intern who was stumbling along.

Over my years in newspapers, cropping is something that I did regularly and learned how to do it to strengthen photos-mostly hard news and sports. As an editor, I had to do my share of it for all kinds of reasons, but would try to respect or at least find out the intention of the photographer. So in a sense, the course has really helped me take a step back. Also, focusing so much on Cartier-Bresson these days, I'm more aware than ever of the full frame.

Capoeira

I photographed a Capoeira (a Brazilian martial art) group who invited me to what was supposed to be a press interview for a national talent show one of them won. It was in his back yard and complete with music. Much of the neighborhood came by, but the television crew never did. I stayed for a couple of hours before I had to leave to pick up my little boy from school, but felt a bit sorry for the group. Hopefully things worked out.

I found Homer's talk last night very interesting. There were a few of his photos that were wonderful in their simplicity and use of shadows. Homer is inspiring to me because we've gotten to know him just a bit, and he seems very down to earth and touchable; an excellent photographic veteran with lots of practical experience. A guy like Ed Kashi who is fantastic and I've seen speak before seems a bit up in the stratosphere, but I'm still very much looking forward to his talk. I guess I've been spending too much time focused on Cartier-Bresson and all of his Magnum buddies and feel a little bit like tossing my camera into Maputo Bay at times. I used to carry a Chinese quotation in my wallet for years that said, "All unhappiness comes from comparison."

Fog

Obsessed? I'd been trying to photograph this man who bathes on occassion, and usually go by around 8:30 a.m. Today, I photographed him buy only a few frames. He works in a bar on the Marginal, and I see him often. Rather than ask his permission and more than likely be refused or freak him out, I waited. Afterward, I told him (although it was obvious) that I photographed him and assured him it wasn't anything bad I was doing because I could tell he was a bit embarassed. He thanked me after I told him I'd bring him a print.

Chipping Away

I pulled back on my Marginal project. I was becoming a bit obsessive and think that I need to wrap it up. It's something for good and bad, that editors have helped me with in the past and told me that I should move on. It's so interesting to me, the characters and the sort of life of its own. Part of me feels like I can surpass pictures that I already have and that I might miss something earthshakingly cool. Yet, there are essays to write, other neglected projects to hit and new ones to seek out.