"DEAR LEADER"

Back to shooting personal work. Scanned from contact sheet; obviously needs much post color work but it sure feels good to be back at work while the moolah lasts…..(click image for larger version).

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab orisItaliam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venitlitora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram; multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.
Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso, quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

Urbs antiqua fuit, Tyrii tenuere coloni, Karthago, Italiam contra Tiberinaque longe ostia, dives opum studiisque asperrima belli; quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus unam posthabita coluisse Samo; hic illius arma, hic currus fuit; hoc regnum dea gentibus esse, si qua fata sinant, iam tum tenditque fovetque. Progeniem sed enim Troiano a sanguine duci audierat, Tyrias olim quae verteret arces; hinc populum late regem belloque superbum venturum excidio Libyae: sic volvere Parcas. Id metuens, veterisque memor Saturnia belli, prima quod ad Troiam pro caris gesserat Argis—necdum etiam causae irarum saevique dolores exciderant animo: manet alta mente repostum iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae, et genus invisum, et rapti Ganymedis honores. His accensa super, iactatos aequore toto. Troas, reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achilli, arcebat longeLatio, multosque per annos errabant, acti fatis, maria omnia circum. Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem!

Vix e conspectu Siculae telluris in altum vela dabant laeti, et spumas salis aere ruebant, cum Iuno, aeternum servans sub pectore volnus, haec secum: ‘Mene incepto desistere victam, nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem? Quippe vetor fatis. Pallasne exurere classem. Argivom atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto, unius ob noxam et furias Aiacis Oilei? Ipsa, Iovis rapidum iaculata e nubibus ignem, disiecitque rates evertitque aequora ventis, illum expirantem transfixo pectore flammas turbine corripuit scopuloque infixit acuto. Ast ego, quae divom incedo regina, Iovisque et soror et coniunx, una cum gente tot annos bella gero! Et quisquam numen Iunonis adoret praeterea, aut supplex aris imponet honorem?

Talia flammato secum dea corde volutans nimborum in patriam, loca feta furentibus austris, Aeoliam venit. Hic vasto rex Aeolus antro luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras imperio premit ac vinclis et carcere frenat.

Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis circum claustra fremunt; celsa sedet Aeolus arce sceptra tenens, mollitque animos et temperat iras. Ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras. Sed pater omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris, hoc metuens, molemque et montis insuper altos imposuit, regemque dedit, qui foedere certo et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas. Ad quem tum Iuno supplex his vocibus usa est:

May be I should move to Brazil and leave those puritans behind……Nevertheless, seems like Ms. Juliana Paes, a big soap opera and Samba star in Brazil, is not afraid of her body and of a little humor at her expense. I’m next….So stay tuned.

So who’s YOUR Massa? It’s Dear Leada !!! Rest of pics HERE.

Notes: Summer retreat and party plenum. Newport, Rhode Island. August 13, 1953:

We the People, in order to form a more perfect monopoly, establish benefits, insure hegemony, provide for the common stock, promote the corporation, and secure the blessings of liberty to enrich ourselves and that of our future prosperity, we do ordain and establish this constitution to benefit all multi-national institutions, and in order to better and perpetually confer onto this “system”, a set of reciprocal legal and financial obligations among our warrior and excecutive nobility.
That every man be the vassal, or servant, of his lord, that “they” swear homage to him, and in return this/these lord(s) shall promise to give him protection and to see that justice and recompense is received. That this monopoly shall be the expression of a society in which every man be bound to every other by mutual ties of loyalty and service. That said monoply shall be marked by vast gulfs between the very few, very rich, landholders and the masses of the working poor who toil for the profit of this Union…

Photo by: Tom Nagy

This shall serve to confuse and dissuade our intentions of creating a more dystopian vision of a society, whereas the many, shall benefit the few ….
To promote and project a more perfect monopoly we shall promote our present policies concerning literary and artistic work, in as much as it shall be used to market a more benevolent image of this noble Union….

It shall stand to reason that today’s writers and artists who cling to an individualist, arty-bourgeois stand cannot truly serve the Union’s benefits, as their interest is mistakenly and mainly focused on a small number of arty-bourgeois intellectuals whose interests are to promote themselves, and not our afore mentioned Union.

Photo by: Tom Nagy

These intellectual workers should eventually be made to serve the visual guidelines of the Union, to craft a new visual and literary ideology as “The people” still have many shortcomings and have retained many arty bourgeois ideals; and while both the working class and the urban petty bourgeoisie have heartily embraced our ideology, we have still been hampered by “their” struggle to contradict. But, we shall be patient and spend a longtime in educating them and helping them to combat their own arty errors and shortcomings, so that they can advance with great strides towards our more perfect and consumptive vision.

The purpose of our meeting today is precisely to ensure that art and literature fit well into the whole beneficiary machine as a better component part and/or that they operate as a more powerful weapon for uniting and educating the people, and for attacking and destroying the “People’s” established fiduciary institutions to create a new and more perfect Union.

I usually do not talk about business, and other such bourgeois capitalist matters, but just this time I will have to make an exception and mention that as of March 1st, two thousand and eight, my professional representation with Redeye will officially terminate. I shall represent myself until further notice. Thank you and Good day…!

Jörg Colberg, interviewed below, in a two part series by APE(A Photo Editor) and the venerable Andrew Hetherington (What’s the Jackanory). I had originally intended to edit and scramble their questions, including mine, which will appear tomorrow but this turned out to be far longer and involved than I had expected. Part one, unedited:

APE: If you discovered a collection of photographs, that in your
esteemed opinion represented the pinnacle of fine art photography and
that discovery was yours alone to reveal to the world and you learned
the photographer was none other than George W. Bush. What would you
do?

JC: You mean what have I done with them?

APE: Are there any laws or nature that govern the popularity of fine
art photography?

JC: I wish I knew! But whatever they are, hand-wringing about whatever
is popular or sells well at any given moment in time is basically
pointless.

APE: Artist statements seem to be a bunch of hooey. Are there any that
you’ve particularly enjoyed?

JC: I think artists’ statements are just part of the whole show. You
could probably add those texts that galleries/museums write about
their shows to that or many of the texts/reviews in serious art
magazines. I wouldn’t necessarily say that each and every one is bad,
but unfortunately, there is quite a trend. So usually, I don’t read
them. I only read them if I can’t figure out what the work is all
about (which might or might not say something about the work). As for
a particularly ridiculous one, I don’t remember the details any
longer, but I do remember it was a couple of years ago, and I think it
was a statement written for one of those Whitney Biennials or whatever
those events are called. I remember I laughed for maybe ten minutes.
Pure comedy gold.

APE: Is there a style of photography that you would add to The United
Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

JC: I’m glad you’re asking about a style and not about a photographer.
“Street photography”. Puh-leeease! I mean if you want to see street
photography, take a walk! At any given time, if you walk around and
look what there is to see you’ll see a “street photo” right in front
of you! Oh wait, how could I forget about “fashion photography”?

APE: You have uncovered thousands of talented photographers whom I’ve
never heard of. How do you do it and where are they hiding?

JC: Most of them are hidden in full sight! You just have to look
around. And that’s really all I do. For example, sometimes I look
through the lists of students at photography schools. I also do read
quite a few blogs regularly. A few years back, when there were very
few photo blogs and when I had run out of links, I would Google for
categories that I’d make up spontaneously. For example, I remember I
once started looking for Finnish photography, simply because I didn’t
know anything about it, but I thought it would be neat to find out
what was out there. It’s interesting to note that while a few years
back stuff was often hard to find because no one had linked to it,
stuff now is hard to find because there is so much, and one has to
sift through a lot of it.

WTJ: Am I at a disadvantage or an advantage seeing as I am the only
one of us who has met you?

JC: You’re obviously the only one who knows for a fact that I’m not a
15 year old with an acne problem who is pretending to be a photo
blogger at his parent’s computer – but I can’t tell whether that’s an
advantage or a disadvantage.

WTJ: What do you think is people’s biggest misconception of yourself?

JC: I have come across people thinking that I’m “intense and intellectual”.

WTJ: How did you feel about ‘The Bitter Photographers’ Conscientious posting?

JC: I don’t care about anonymous posts or comments. If you have an
opinion or if you feel like you have to make fun of something or
somebody, be an adult and stand for what you have to say. Don’t hide
behind “anonymous”. So I didn’t spend much time thinking about it – it
would have been like thinking about graffiti in the bathroom of a
public high school: Not much to be learned. No argument to be had. And
even the kind of fun to be had is very limited, for the same reasons.

WTJ: Are you and Alec Soth tight?

JC: For some reason people appear to think that Alec and I are very
close. But in reality we don’t know each other all that well – apart
from what we know from our email exchanges and from meeting once and
saying hello (at the opening of the portrait show last Summer in New
York). I have to say, though, that he’s an incredibly nice guy.

WTJ: Why do you think he stopped blogging ?

JC: I think he stopped blogging for the reasons given in his last
post. I really regret he did, because he provided such a unique and
dedicated voice to the blog world. But who knows – maybe he’ll be back
some day?

WTJ: What does your wife think about you being such a player on the
photo scene? I know she got a kick out of it when I referred to you as
the ‘godfather’ in my first ever posting.

JC: When I started my blog, I never thought someone would seriously
use the terms “a player” and “godfather” about me. Very odd. As for my
wife, I never figured out whether she thought of “the Godfather” as in
the movie or as in when referring to James Brown. With her Italian
family background it must have been the former, whereas I was amused
since I’m about as un-James-Brown as one could possibly get. In any
case, I think she is somewhat less surprised than I am about me having
some sort of role in “the scene”. I do know that she’s happier about
me being active in the art scene than in the academic scene.

WTJ: You are a player right ? Do you feel like a star maker ? After
all you are now a harbinger of taste and people look to you for an
endorsement?

JC: Is that some of that famous humour that you non-German people
always talk about?

WTJ: I am thinking that a posting on ‘Conscientious’ can seriously
help someone’s career?

JC: The scientist in me would probably say that there’s enough data
out there to test this hypothesis. Just poll the people linked to on
my blog! Given that so many people visit the blog regularly I think
that a post could indeed help someone’s career. There are a lot of
photographers out there whose work is not as much appreciated as it
should be. If I can change that a little bit by posting about the
work, that’s great.

WTJ: Have you seen people’s cache rise ?

JC: I have. I know for a fact that Chelsea gallerists follow the blog,
and I know of a few cases where a post on the blog had a direct impact
on people getting a show or getting assignments to shoot for
magazines.

WTJ: Have they thanked you? Sent a print, bottle of whiskey, bag of cash?

JC: I often get thank-you emails when I have someone on the blog. I
also sometimes get books in the mail (which I love). Getting an actual
print has been a very, very rare occasion, though. Likewise for the
whiskey (I like single malts) or bags of cash (no coins and only hard
denominations, please).

WTJ: Oh and have people sent you a little shall we say bride in an
attempt to guarantee a posting?

JC: Bride or no bride, there is no guarantee. It’s really very, very
simple: If I like the photography – regardless of the photographer’s
name – I’ll post about it.

WTJ: I once got an email from a photographer who shall remain nameless
who said that one mention on your site and he went from obscurity to
some serious New York gallery representation in a matter of days. How
does this make you feel ?

JC: I was/am genuinely happy for the photographer, because I thought
that his show was well deserved. Assuming, of course, that we are
talking about the same person. Maybe there is more than one?

WTJ: American Photo named you as one of their Innovators in 2006. Did
you notice a change in your self love following this accolade ?

JC: No, it didn’t. I don’t want to tie me ego to whether my name
appears in a magazine or newspaper.

WTJ: Nice to be acknowledged by the establishment right?

JC: What is genuinely nice is to be acknowledged by photographers.
That I like. When a photographer, known or unknown, tells me she or he
enjoys the blog, that is very, very nice. And to be able to talk to
all of the photographers I had in my “Conversations”, that’s something
else that I have enjoyed a lot. As for “the establishment”, I haven’t
fully figured out who is part of that and who isn’t.

WTJ: How do you feel you are perceived in the hallowed halls of ‘Fine
Art Photography’ ?

JC: I am not too concerned about that. Instead of thinking about stuff
like that I rather look at photography.

WTJ: What photo blogs do you read ?

JC: My RSS reader contains a large number of blogs – too many to list
them here. They’re all linked to on “Conscientious” (I do need to
update that list, though!). I will mention one, though, “Mrs Deane”,
which is one of my favourite photo blogs.

WTJ: You have a big birthday coming up! So lets say you could invite
10 photographers alive or dead to your party, care to name names ?

JC: You mean apart from the ones that I already invited?

WTJ: And while we are at it 10 non photographers alive or dead to make
the conversation more interesting ?

JC: I have the feeling that the people in such a list would not get
along very well with each other, even though it would be fun to have,
say, Philip Roth and Mark E Smith in the same room with me. Hard to
imagine those two striking a conversation. So that might end up being
a bit tedious: Ten idiosyncratic personalities in the same room. I’d
probably find that amusing for only ten minutes.

WTJ: What is the future for ‘Conscientious’ ?

JC: I don’t know. We’ll see.

WTJ: Do you think your own photography is judged on its own merits or
because of who you are?

JC: I don’t think it’s very well known I actually do take photos
myself – and I refuse to toot my own horn on my blog. I’m no
photographer with a blog, I’m a blogger who takes photos. To be
honest, I am slightly worried about the “Oh my god, now he’s trying to
take photos, too” reaction once I will try to get my stuff out there;
but I usually work on my own photography trying to achieve something
that I personally like and not so much worrying about a possible
viewer. As for how it is being judged, the answer probably is “I don’t
know”. People don’t really talk to me much about it.

WTJ: How many submissions a day do you get on average?

JC: It’s about two or three.

WTJ: You must see some crazy stuff that doesn’t fit your aesthetic?
Any examples?

JC: I’m not very fond of blurry photos of pretty, naked, young white
people (think Leni Riefenstahl meets David Hamilton). That’s just
terrible, terrible kitsch.

WTJ: How does it feel to be so powerful?

JC: I’m still working on the diabolical laughter that appears to be so
popular with people in power, but I’m afraid I can’t really pull that
off.

Here we go, here are a few more stories for your arty pleasuré:

ONE- Go shoot animal tracks, gopher tracks, goat tracks, that sort of thing. Did you know most roads and byways you now drive on, to take your aunt Mary to her shallow grave, started out as animal tracks. That’s right, way back when, all that primitive man had to do was follow them and bingo, either they’d get some tasty entrée or find some dirty water to quench their cave sized estomaqué.
When we were kids in Corsica, you had to know which path, which track, led back home, otherwise you’d be fucked, big time….. The goats ate away at the “Maquis“(a corsican word BTW) and over time dig tunnels into the mountains; some led nowhere but to dappled dead ends*, other led us home. If you didn’t what you were doing, you were dead.

During the war my grandfather and his pals in the Corsican resistance would lure the Germans and Italians into the Maquis through those tunnels, get them good and lost and then burn that part of the mountain, roasting them like Christmas partridges. Which brings me to our next story.

TWO- In California and the West, we have what’s called freeways, and on those freeways automobiles travel great distances rather hurriedly, and often recklessly whack other mammals out of their way. The often end up, in the grass, by the side of the road, where they lie, mortally wounded. If they are not dead right away, death usually comes slowly but no one’s counting, so who knows how long it takes. Paramedics are never called but once in the while if the stink is too great, some CALTRANS highway worker will drop by and pick up the remains. But fortunately, not all of them are collected and a few stay there to rot, deep in the yellowing grass, watching big rigs go their separate ways.

That grass I just mentioned…. well teenage runaways enjoy putting matches to it; just for the hell of it. Great big billowing dark clouds of sooting grass rise into our beautiful blue clouds(what’s a blue cloud you ask?), soiling Highway 5 a little more than expected, incinerating those forgotten carcasses . The tall grasses gone, what was once invisible to vagrants and passenger seats, is now revealed, after that grassy and fiery furnace. (Note: If you are on a budget and don’t like waiting in Motel 6s, just burn some shit down yourself or rent some teenage runaway. If you can’t find crispy critters just drive to the nearest muni dump and ask where they keep the road kill and plead your case…..)

So, next summer, drive up and down High 5 between Tracy and LA and look out for those dark burned out grassless patches, drag your cameras on a one horse open sleight and shoot those forlorn carcasses (See above image, for reference only).

The first one to return to NYC with a body of work out of those two stories gets a gallery show….so please hurry….off you go…. shoo…scram….shuusshhhh…..

I was also going to suggest shooting those discarded xmas trees you are apt to see, felled by the side of the road, but my friend steve mentioned that it has already been done. Anyway, someone has already done a similar project, shooting piles of lawn clippings on suburban streets but called them “Detritus”, and with a name like that, you get the keys to the city.

* Just like Golden Gate park in San Francisco, except that the tunnels are dug by the homeless and you more likely to catch some toothless skank giving head, rather than having a magical childhood ready made. (Skank:The term “skank” differs from that of “slut” in that whereas the latter implies only sexual promiscuity; the former also implies poor taste, personally degrading behaviour and low socioeconomic class. Dang…..! I want me some of that, aaarg, those damn childhood fetishes!).