May 5, 2008
“Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.”
Mark Twain
Ethan, Campsite #41, Mazda Protege
Wista, Dunes, Self
Dunes, Lake Michigan, Blue Sky
I am recording more video than I know what to do with and it’s being made with a Canon G9 and a Gorilla Pod (many thanks to two folks for making these two items a reality).
I am running into a problem, though. Many of the files are in excess of 2-4gb each.
I need a way to compress them before dropping them into iMovieHD because right now it simply takes more time than I have while on the road.
Any suggestions? I would like to get this content onto the blog but need a fix!
We came across this billboard during our first (but quick) traffic jam of the trip, specifically along I-94 West between Ann Arbor, Michigan and Sawyer, Michigan.
May 4, 2008
Yesterday we arrived in Athens, Ohio much later than our anticipated time of 3:30PM and instead around 6:30PM. Earlier in the day we drove through an absolute downpour for longer than we would have liked and it made for a difficult, tiresome drive where much time was not able to be made up.
The rain ceased towards the latter part of the afternoon. The clouds began to clear, giving way to rays of sunshine and feelings of warmth and elation. We snaked up, down, and around the mountainside towns outside of Athens where Matt has been photographing most recently.
Upon arriving in Athens we walked a short ways from the apartment that Matt, his wife Melissa, and their baby Madeline live-in and over to their college friends’ home and we realized that Athens was teeming with life. I particularly remember seeing a college-aged girl with dreadlocks that reached down to her bottom happily riding her bike in and out of rays of sunshine that streamed down through newly-blossomed trees that seemed to carefully rest like extended arms above our heads.
Without planning, Ethan and I had ironically arrived on Mom’s weekend. Daughter’s and son’s shared copious amounts of hot dogs, hamburgers, cookies, cakes, and alcohol, of course, with their mother’s. A great time seemed to be had by all with much laughter, indie music, a soccer ball, and a game of indoor twister. Some sort of high-five slap-tastic hand movement was also happening on the back deck. I would elaborate more but I am still slightly confused by what exactly it was.
Ethan and I met their welcoming friends, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, drank a couple of Corona’s, and then made our way back to Matt’s apartment to speak and learn about his photographs and he as a photographer.
During our conversation, Ethan and I remarked on how beautiful and idillic it was driving through the rural towns outside of Athens. Matt agree that this is the view experienced by many visitors to Athens but that so much more lay beneath the surface. The interview with Matt was everything we could have asked for and more (side note: content from all of our interviews will make it’s way to the website in either June or July).
I relate it much to how life in Maine is. Tourists view the coastal towns as beautiful, serene, and peaceful, and in the most honest there is no question that they are. But after spending close to two years in these coastal towns I have learned that there is much more beneath it all. It is perhaps much like an iceberg; a small portion is easily viewed rising through the water but a larger, deeper portion rests below.
Right now we are driving through Arlington, Ohio and Ethan says there are a lot of kids out and about. I agree. It’s a warm, pleasant day. We are listening to three mix cds courtesy of the talented Matt Eich. Brian Eno does what he does while we drive to Ann Arbor to see Colin Blakely.
…photography students from Ohio University, perhaps?
Ethan driving towards a sunset.
Sunroof, sunset.
EDIT: the content below is being added on May 9, 2008. I am in the works of catching up on everything..
May 4, 2008
This afternoon we visited Colin Blakely at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, We had the pleasure of meeting not only Colin but also his welcoming wife, young children (one named Ethan, ironically), and their German Shepard-esque dog, Mesa. We walked a short ways down to the park where Colin has been making his photographs and enjoyed learning about he and his photographs.
Now we are departing Ann Arbor, Michigan, and heading towards Warren Dunes State Park, which is on the eastern, lower part of Lake Michigan where we will sleep for one night.
Colin Blakely in the park he has been photographing.
May 3, 2008
It’s morning time again, shortly after 10:30AM. We have departed Rochester and are cruising along I-90 heading West to see our first photographer, Matt Eich.
Last night we had the pleasure of catching up with old friends and our superb team: Suzy, our editorial director; Eric at Booksmart Studio, our publisher; Josh Gomby, our graphic designer. Videos will be coming soon from the opening of “Seventeen”, an exhibit of the artwork from the fourth year fine-art photography students at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Back to the present…
Cat Power’s sweet, weathered voice is playing through the speakers of Ethan’s yellow-jacket colored Mazda Protege. Right now the odometer reads 71,979 miles. By the end our trip it will have surpassed 82,000; an addition of over 10,000 miles in one month’s time.
The grass between the thruway is a heavily saturated green dotted with yellow buttercups and daffodils rising from the earth. Our breakfast has been a healthy one to fuel us for the road: three homemade chocolate chip cookies (thanks, Mom!) and water from our Nalgenes.
May 2, 2008
I am writing this while riding in the back seat of my parents Black Toyota 4Runner. It is morning time shortly after 9AM. My father is singing, “One day at a time.. one day at a time..” and my mother is talking about dribbling a basketball with the students she nurses for in the Syracuse City School District.
The weather is overcast; probably in the high-40s and the air is quite heavy with spring. My parents are enroute to dropping me off at Hannah’s apartment where Ethan is most likely up and rumaging about.
Rochester, here we come.
May 1, 2008
“If you’re going to ride my ass at least pull my hair”
That was a bumper sticker seen on the rear of a vintage Jeep while driving through Massachusetts. The 8 hour drive from Maine to Syracuse was smooth, quick, and easy. I met my parents on the New York State Thruway, specifically Exit 36, to have dinner and a night with them at the home I grew up in and they continue to live in. It’s a quaint suburban home; creamy white siding, sections of white picik fence, rich green grass from spring’s rain. Ethan continued on to Rochester to see his friends and his lady, Hannah.
Verizon pay phones along the Boardwalk on Coney Island.
I am particularly interested in the way contemporary artists use the internet to proliferate their work. I think that The New York Times creates especially interesting online galleries and exhibitions. While browsing I found this great photo slideshow by Tom Starkweather. Enjoy!
We are pleased to announce the following 15 photographers for the inaugural year of Pause, to Begin:
Colin Blakely; Ann Arbor, Michigan
Timothy Briner; Boonville, California
Alejandro Cartagena; Monterrey, Mexico
Hin Chua; London, England
Tealia Ellis-Ritter; Barrington, Illinois
Matt Eich; Athens, Ohio
Matthew Gamber; Savannah, Georgia
Shawn Gust; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Shannon Johnstone; Cary, North Carolina
Erika Larsen; Hoboken, New Jersey
John Mann; Tallahassee, Florida
Thomas Prior; Brooklyn, New York
Brea Souders; New York, New York
Sonja Thomsen; Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Shawn Records; Portland, Oregon
Please visit www.pausetobegin.com to view a selection of photographs from each selected photographer.
Starting May 1, 2008, David and Ethan will depart the state of Maine with documentary filmmaker Bruno Toré for 1 month to meet the aforementioned photographers. Upon returning in June, 2008, Pause, to Begin will begin to unveil one photographer’s complete series of work per day at www.pausetobegin.com.
Stay tuned for forthcoming updates right here on our blog and we look forward to seeing the selected photographers and their work while on the road.
© Brea Souders (L) and © Shannon Johnston (R)
March 19th, 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war and I believe the word ‘anniversary’ accompanies it entirely inappropriately. I encourage you read photojournalist Max Becherer’s experience in Iraq via The New York Times:
Five years have passed since I stood on the border of Iraq and Kuwait, watching the predawn sky for the first salvos in the Iraq war. I am reading political analyses and historical accounts of years that are past. I am thinking of all of the things that had not yet happened as I stood in the desert sand that day.
Whatever war is, it is a deeply personal experience for those who live in it. I am a photographer and have captured thousands of images of Iraq and the war there since that day. But when I stop reading about the war, I guess I get that faraway look I always saw, as I grew up, in the eyes of countless veterans and civilians who lived through war, including my mother. I don’t wonder what they see anymore. I see images. Not the images I took, as the shutter is closed the moment I capture a photograph. I see the images and feel the sensations I keep mentally when I am without the help of a lens. Sometimes they are still images and sometimes they are short movie clips of the people on all sides of the war who are no longer living.
Article here, and Max’s photography here and here.
© Max Becherer. A woman cries as she reaches under the blanket and touches an adult female body at Al-Khindi hospital. Al-Khindi hospital received about 25 dead and 75 wounded from three different bombs, which exploded around Baghdad according to a hospital doctor around mid-afternoon. The largest of the blasts was a car bomb that exploded near a crowded market in a mostly Shiite area called New Baghdad. Women at the entrance of the morgue cried “What’s wrong with the government? Why did they not do anything? They don’t have a solution for this?”
Another family member at the morgue said, “Each minute, we as Iraqis are waiting for death,” as he looked at the 20 odd bodies waiting for identification.”
No Foolin’ There are only 6 days left to apply to Pause, to Begin.
All Applications are due on April 1, 2008 before midnight EDT.
APPLY NOW! (and tell a friend).
