WHERE AM I AGAIN? OH!!! RIGHT. SRI LANKA.

I am in Sri Lanka for the next week or so on assignment. I have been dying to make my way back here since 2006. It's been well worth the wait. I can be reached at +94 .77 . 663 .5339. I am not sure what the week after brings. If a gig comes through I will be in Southern Punjab until the end of the month. We will see.

MONDAY MORNING

I may be the world's worst blogger. After three weeks my Sunday is over. I took a little more time off than I intended and have been spending my time drinking, partying, eating rich food, hanging out with friends, and looking a pretty girls. To say the least I have not been shooting much. It's the polar opposite to being in a funk. I have just been letting myself live a little(okay a lot). All I have I shot recently a little more on kushti. Despite the fact that is is fun and kind of interesting I think I am moving away from it for a while. I'll revisit it later but for now my heart is telling me to get to work on something of greater substance. A long Sunday has been nice but I think it may finally be Monday and I need to get back to work.

AN OFF DAY IN DELHI

photo by Sanjit Das

I have had a pretty busy couple of weeks. I have been to an different state every week since the start of the elections here and I am really tired. A few days ago I helped my friend Sanjit light portrait of a CEO for a matrimonial website where this picture was taken. I look like such a man of leisure lounging on his estate in this picture. The sad part is it only reminded me of how tired I am. Since I don't have an estate of my own with a pool to lounge by I did the next best thing an exhausted photojournalist could do. I took the day off. Keep in mind it is 110(f) here. II went to the pool, took a swimming class, flirted with a pretty blonde, grocery shopped for a dinner party, and had several beers and dinner with Sanjit and Suzanne.I pretty much fucked off the entire day. No archiving, no editing, no shooting, no research, just an day off. After weeks of politicians, rock throwing, flash bangs and tear gas, writing, archiving, researching, shooting, early mornings, and late nights, I think I earned a little break. Tomorrow I am back to work. Today can be my Sunday.

BACK TO THE GRIND

It's been a busy week since coming back from Kashmir. I've been to one embassy or another to work on a j-visa to Pakistan, hosted a new friend, prepared for the Stumping Grounds gallery show, and spent a couple of mornings at an akharas (wrestling gym) to shoot Kushti. Kushti, is a traditional style of Indian wrestling that takes place in a clay pit on a soil mixed with ghee(denatured butter). Each wrestler is responsible for tending to the soil as well as adhering to a strict regimen of exercise, a diet of mostly milk, almods, ghee, chapattis, and eggs, and celibacy that is meant to give them both physical and spiritual strength. It's been fun to watch. I'm trying to get back to a promise I made to myself in an earlier post that I would do more portraits. I'm also working on a short multi-media piece that I hope to have finished before heading to Pakistan next week. I'm crossing my fingers. I have been behind on my archiving, captioning and photoshop work the last couple of weeks and really need to catch up. I've had more fun working and living here the past few weeks, but I really need to get back to the grind.

TEAR GAS DAYS AND H*@H H@%H NIGHTS

In Kashmir covering the fourth stage of India's election. It's been four days of long days of shooting, walking, eating, drinking, the more shooting, walking, eating drinking, and then more shooting eating, drinking, topped off by a pretty wild day of tear gas, rock throwing, and angry threatening rock mob. What more can you ask for? Despite all of this, Kashmir has given me some of the friendliest and giving people I have ever met, the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen, and the best time I have since being in India. Srinagar,how I love you.

A GOOD WEEK

Today I got a nice surprise. I am in both Time and Newsweek's Asian and Middle East editions. I have been hitting the pavement pretty hard the last two months working on a project and trying to cover the election issues a bit(see below). I got a double truck in Newseek and half a page in Time. To say I am over the moon is an understatement. The ego boost helps but it's really good to get the sense the I have good news judgement. After being sick for the better part of the week and suffering a great deal of heart ache this is the sort of thing to lift the spirits.

THE STUMPING GROUNDS MASALA STYLE

After all the ramblings on politics and elections for the last two years, pretty apparent that I like elections. Hell, I love elections. I honestly believe in the idea that good government can make a difference. The idea of by the people, for the people means something to me. In my mind, if there is access to the polls, to health care, and to education that the playing field is leveled for all of us. No matter what our station is life is. Rich, poor, black, white or what ever. I'm not sure if India is the place for me in the long run but I am enjoying seeing it go through this transition. It's the world's largest Democracy and I am getting a front row seat to a pretty heated election. I don't quite understand all of the issues or parliamentary politics, but by putting myself on a familiar story in unfamiliar territory I am helping myself understand my new "home" a bit better.

SEPARATION ANXIETY

It's easy to see why I would be so home sick as I write this post. I am in the state of Orissa to cover Christians celebrating their first Easter after secular violence against them last August by Hindu fundamentalist. All of this with the upcoming election as a backdrop. So far things seem pretty quiet with everyone on their best behavior since there are a ton of para-military soldiers keeping watch. I am sitting around boiling because we are going through the second power outage in six hours. Another reason to get a wireless card and a bgaan asap. It's not just the feeling of missing home but the loss of high speed internet, the cool breeze of an AC or at least a fan, Starbucks coffee(yeah I know it's corporate evil, but I'm addicted), and consistant power. All these things I take for granted at home. All of these things come here when they come and not a minute before. People stretch out relax in the shade and wait it out. I stress that my pictures have not filed. My pal Scott Eells who spent years in the trenches here says patience needs to be my new mantra. With that in mind I am taking a deep breath, drinking chai on a hot street in a dusty town and enjoying the site of beautiful women in pretty saris. I realize I am actually starting to like it here.

THESE FRIENDS OF MINE

I have always thought that my greatest talent was the ability to make friends. I have been kind of lacking in that department since I left New York. I've been so moody lately that you can see the dark cloud over my head clear as day. As luck would have it a few people from home are in town and a few new people have stepped up to the plate to help me though the transition. I usually only post work that is"serious' but we had a great time taking pix of each other, drinking, laughing and catching up. I feel I get a little more creative when I have other people to bounce my ideas off of. It's good to hear other voices sometimes and not just the one in my head. I need to remember that no man is an island.

NEW DELHI FASHION WEEK FOR DUMMIES

Like I did not get enough of fashion in New York. My agency said I should go and make features of fashion week since it's always good for sales. I've covered fashion week for 9 years in New York and was never that much of a fan. This is about the same but as my pal at a world wide wire service put it New Delhi fashion week is like a high school musical while New York is like a big Broadway show. I'm not that cynical. While production value may be lower the clothes seem pretty nice and they did have free Grey Goose. Hooray for Alcohol!!!! Sponsoring Fashion Weeks worldwide since 1989.

A DISQUIET FOLLOWS MY SOUL

A title that is heavier than it really needs to be but I just watched Battlestar Galactica and that was the episode title. Rip-off I know but I hate coming up with titles for blog posts. It kind of fits my mood as New Delhi has been rough. I feel like I can't get a moments peace or things to work properly. I am trying to lower my expectations and learn patience. I found a flat share so I finally got out of the cell of a room that is Hotel Bright. They really need a Best Western or some other mid-range hotel here. It goes from shit hole to five star with very little in between. But after moving into the flat with dreams of a hot shower and a good night's sleep I found my shower does not work and it's 5:30 as I write this.

Sleep has been a big problem for me since I left New York that just keeps getting worse. The good is that I am always exhausted when I put my head on the pillow and drift off pretty quickly. The problem is that I usually fall asleep around 1AM and find myself wide awake by 5AM. I'm spending the time refreshing my photoshop skills and skulking the neighborhood at night. I am so tired of being in a dark place here. I've been sick, run over, sleepy and lonely. I think I am back in Bikaner next week to follow up on the cancer trials and train story. I need the diversion. Work is slow right now and being able to do something for myself is a lift I need. Right now I miss friends, love, comfort, and medium rare hamburgers. I am also stubborn and am really trying not to let this get me down.

ROAD RASH AND CLINICAL TRIALS

I'm in kind of a weird place as I write this. In the last week I've spent time in a hospital shooting the first part of a story on patients taking part in a clinical trial for chemo therapy treatment. There has been a 65% rise in trials in India in the last two years due to the number of potential subjects and loose regulations.

As if that weren't enough taking a 20 hour train ride to get to where I wanted to be I got sick myself. As I tried to continue with the shooting with a bad tummy and a fever, I wound up getting run over by a motorcycle as I was leaving the hospital the hospital. Fortunately I was a few hundred yards away from decent medical care. Nothing broken. Just bumps, bruises, and scratches. This as I was considering getting my own motorcycle. I was exhausted,lonely, sick, and sore on a dirty hospital bed surrounded by the people who's story I wanted to tell. Everyone looked perplexed by the situation I found myself in. Wasn't I just there with a camera? What happened? Who did this to you?

With all that I have seen and the care that people had received I was trying not wonder if the sheet I was lying on was going to make me sicker. Despite the lack of so called Western conditions a great deal of care goes into the treatment of patients here. Why should I feel the need for something better? I felt a bit ashamed of myself. Doctor dropped what they were doing just to be sure I was taken care of. Patients came over and smiled. Nothing terminal like my bunk mates. Just a few bumps, bruises, and damaged pride. I said I wanted to do this project because one of the things I thought that leveled the playing field for all of us is health care. I should put emphasis care. This was not the most modern hospital bed I have ever been it may have been my best I've ever been treated in a hospital any where.

DOES EVERYONE STARE THAT WAY AT YOU?

India is kind of an odd place some times. It's beautiful, weird, smelly, and humid. One thing I keep noticing is every time i look up or turn around someone is staring at me. I know I'm funny, charming, and handsome but com on. Is it because I'm bald?
I usually smile and wave. No one ever waves back. When I looked up from glancing down at my map while sitting in traffic last night I looked to my left to see my friend here just staring. Traffic really backs up here some times so I smiled, wave, nothing. I glanced down at the map again, looked back up, still staring, smile and wave again. Nothing. This goes on for ten minutes. I'm a little embarrassed to say it took that long to before I sheepishly capture the moment. He actually looked shocked when I took his picture.

BANANA LASSIS AND A WEDDING

I couldn't sleep this morning so I decided to get some tea and try to relax my way into my third day in India. I strolled up the road and got talked into having banana lassi and going to a wedding instead. All this before 8AM. And before having my coffee.I miss good coffee. My current neighborhood is a backpacker's heaven, but that is one thing that is lacking around here. Plenty of patchouli incense but no good coffee. It's been strange my first couple of days here in India. Sleep has been difficult and it's weird not having a network of hundreds of like minded friends to fall back on. At least getting good light and wedding invitations.
The groom hands out money to people dancing at his wedding.


I wish I could pull off looking this stylish.

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION 2: PHOTOSHELTER

I am now one of the featured photographers on the Photoshelter home page. For those of you that don't know Photoshelter is the best thing since sliced bread as far as the photographer is concerned. It is in simplistic terms and online archive for images. They offer as safe home for my images that not only allows me to store them securely but also sell and distribute not only prints but to push my stuff to editors and art buyers. This post in not only shameless self promotion for myself but for those guys as well. Allen, Grover, Burf, Tom, Marc and the rest of the team have not only made my life easier, but they have been dear friends not only to me but to the rest of the photo community. Thanks for everything guys.

THE STUMP REVISITED

I spent the better part of 2007 and 2008 covering the election(I know. Broken record). I am going through my archive and cleaning up my hard drives to make room for new stuff and backing up the old. I came across this and a few other pics I liked that did not make it to the stumping grounds site or into print. Easy to overlook this since I barely remembered Mitt Romney running for president.
Supporter Oscar Poole listens as U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop in West Des Moines, Iowa January 1, 2008.

FUJI COLOR STATE OF MIND PART 2

I told myself I was going to get better at making portraits this year. To that effect I spent a little time working on that today. Harajiku is a fun little neighborhood in Tokyo populated by some of the coolest and uniquely fashionable people you will ever see. I spent the day there milling about and enjoying the light. I found a few people to let me shoot portraits of them. I'm going to stick with this diptych set of portraits for a while and see what shakes out. I really like Hirajiku. It's definitely something I'll have to shoot more of the next time I'm here. It's been a fun month that is finally drawing to a close. I have my first couple of stories planned and an assignment for when I get of the plane in India. No rest for the weary.

FUJI COLOR STATE OF MIND

I finally turned the monochrome setting off of my D700's today. My mood is improved as I am ending my time here with a good assignment. I thought of my time with the Trenton Times today and remembered the Fujicolor 800 we used to use for everything no matter what the light conditions. Funny where your mind drifts.

Shopping for a suit during lunch.

DAZE JAPAN

I got a little weirded out by always seeing people with masks on. Initially I thought that it was because of poor air quality. Surprisingly it's usually because the wearer has a cold and does not want to spread his germs around. I wish the guys who coughed on the back of my head for the twelve hour flight here thought of that.

It's been a bit of a process staying here so long when I really only wanted to be here a week or so. Work, work, work. Kind of nice but I long for real Indian chai. One week and counting and then I will be sipping it from some shady cafe in Delhi.

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

I'm in Japan spinning my wheels a bit as I wait for an assignment to come together. I've been busy shooting a piece on the economy and teaching myself Final Cut. With any luck I will be posting my first video in my next post.

My excitement comes from an interview I did right before I left New York for Zoom-In's Viewfinders series. They interviewed me on my experiences covering the 2008 Presidential campaign. Below is a preview. I promise to get more recent stuff up and keep my posts more up to date soon.