Simply

shop on Tin Lok Lane © kjm

I'm working in Hong Kong this week, and this is my first trip here. As always, I can't show any of the images I'm making for the editorial assignments I'm working on, and my brain is a little drained to make many personal pictures. But I'm so amazed and impressed by this city. For its size and density, I find things wonderfully organized (maybe the best subway system I've ever been on?), calm and non-threatening. Tonight a police van buzzed by me, and I realized that I've been here for 5 days, and it was the first siren I'd heard. More thoughts to come...

as seen: flight pattern

flamingos and shadows, Kowloon Park © kjm

absence

S. Broadway Avenue Location, #3 © kjm

within reach: crinkle

after the thin mints © kjm

As gastronomic traditions go, this may be my oldest: I believe I've indulged in thin mints every year since I bought my first box from Lisa Purcell in the third grade.

[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]

Kelly Shimoda on collect.give

Before lunch: Flaccanicco, Italy © Kelly Shimoda

Kelly Shimoda offers a beautiful 11x14 print today on collect.give. I've been a fan of her work for quite a while, and Marilu and I own one of her 20x200 prints. And if you haven't seen Kelly's text message project, it's worth a visit: I guess you don't want to talk to me anymore.

beginning

© Heinz Kluetmeier, left, © E. Jason Wambsgans, right

This past weekend, I was a judge and speaker at the Wisconsin News Photographers Association convention - a gathering of newspaper photographers from around the state. I spent my first 10 years working in newspapers, and I still feel a kinship to the industry. Fellow judges for the year-end contest were Erv Gebhard, a retired photographer from the Milwaukee Journal, whose work I admired for many years in my hometown paper, and Chicago Tribune photographer E. Jason Wambsgans, who brings artistry and a unique eye to daily newspaper stories and multimedia pieces.

The biggest pleasure was reconnecting with Heinz Kluetmeier, the longtime Sports Illustrated photographer and keynote speaker at the convention. For several years during high school, when Heinz still owned a house in Milwaukee, he was very kind to this young, want-to-be photographer. He had me assist at games for him and for other photographers, lent me camera gear, and generally encouraged my interest in the profession. His life experience was certainly inspiring, and I realized later that his generosity of time was, as well.

One of the most interesting things he said to the group of daily newspaper photographers, was this: "The most important pictures you make are often within 10-15 miles of your home."

The same can be said for sources of youthful inspiration.

325

© Tom Owens (junior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design)

If you haven't visited MIAD-FA382 lately, I don't blame you - the Professional Practices class concluded with the Fall semester, and the blog won't feature new student work until this coming August.

But do you like reading photographer interviews? I ask because we're continuing to post them to the site. We're up to over 378 links to interviews with photographers and industry professionals, from terrific sites like Feature Shoot, NYMPHOTO, American Suburb X and Too Much Chocolate.

How about one per day over your morning coffee?

i love this photo, #37

© Roderik Henderson

I love this photo by the photographer Roderik Henderson. It comes from Henderson's series, Transvoid, for which he recently won a World Press Photo award. Henderson describes the series below.

Transvoid is a series of portraits of individuals sheltering in their vehicles at snow covered parking lots in British Columbia. Together with my family, I lived in the wilderness of British Columbia, Canada for some years. A place without grocery stores, electricity, phone, television or neighbors. Weeks would pass without seeing anyone. We became a crowd of four when our baby Sid was born. To get to the nearest town, we drove almost three hours one way through mud, snow or ice.

I started photographing other people who had to spent lots of time in their vehicles. A Native family from a first nations reserve going to town on Friday. A priest giving a sermon in a small church in a remote valley. A couple who couldn’t afford the rent of their apartment anymore and were now actually living in their car. A guy slowly dying on a parking lot. A guy traveling to see his sick brother on the other side of the continent.

The time spent waiting interests me, the void between point of departure and destination. In Transvoid, I regard the vehicles as solitary domains in time and space.

[See past 'i love this photo' entries here.]

Max S. Gerber on collect.give

© Max S. Gerber

Max S. Gerber offers this print, Mother Nature Doth Provide, today on collect.give. Max is the author of an amazing and compelling book, My Heart Vs. The Real World, and is known for his editorial and commercial portrait work in Los Angeles.