Here is an interesting clip by Chris Jordan. He shows statistics in his photos in an effort to help us connect to the huge numbers. 2.3 million US prison inmates is just too big of a number for us to grasp. But when you see 2.3 million prison uniforms it makes more sense to our visual mind.
Did you know over a thousand US citizens die of cigarette related disease EACH DAY??
Or that one quarter of all the prisoners in the world are in the US. The Home of the Free actually isn’t that fee after all. Especially if you are a black man - there are more black men in jail than in college….they are getting a free education but it ain’t exactly the right one.
Here are some photos I took from the TV. I used color negative film. After taking the pics I dumped the roll of film, canister and all, into dirty water. Then I took it to the lab to be processed. The results are coll.
I took these photos at an event in International House, New York some time around 1998. I used the varnished stage to create a reflection. I think they are beautiful. Buy one and put it on your wall. Better yet, buy a triptic.
Here are some photos of Ballroom dancers at International House, New York. There was some very interesting content and at one point I considered doing a photo essay on it. But I realized my photos showed a disdain for the subjects and out of respect for the people I couldn’t do the essay. The ballroom scene made them very happy and that is what mattered. Who cares if it was weird to me.
In fact I thought the whole scene was ridiculous at first. They were living out this time warp fantasy would. Some of the people were dinosaurs both in age and in their perspective. Others were dinosaurs in perspective only, which was even worse. And even as I got to know them and made friends I never quite lost that initial impression.
My photos showed this and I did not enjoy ridiculing them. The photos could be great but to do it at the expense of their dignity wasn’t worth it to me since they were nice well intentioned people. The human race has a lot of qualities and to belittle them is to render them as shallow caricatures, something I don’t like to do.
The positive aspect of the word “Bigotry” (I’m being academic here) is the understanding that there is difference in the world and what makes one person happy may make another miserable, thus some people should not mix. Of course a bigot believes one way is better than another universally, a “wise bigot” if there were one knows that one way is better than another PERSONALLY.
Even if I photographed a really evil person I am not sure I would focus on their evil. I would probably focus on their humanity. We are all evil and good. That is just a surface level duality. Below that we are one - human. And that is much more interesting and complex.
So anyway, here are a couple of them, shot between 1997 and 1999 at International House in New York City.
this one is different than the others. she was hot.
And yes this is me! I have to admit I did love getting dressed up.
Nigel Dickenson is a cool photographer. I think he is almost as good as me! OMG!
He has some great photos of Roma. If I had to describe the difference between his style and mine it would be that my photos are a little more romantic.
I spent 10 years traveling to 17 countries photographing Roma, or Gypsies. I traveled from their homeland, India, westward to Europe and North America.
The resulting body of work, 64 thousand photos in all, is being edited and eventually will be compiled into a book.
