I'd been given a last minute assignment to speak at a 2 day seminar in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Understand that the Governer of the Central Bank will be present. Unfortunately I wont be speaking about my world views on the state of photography today. I'll be presenting a couple of topics on Hedging Commodity Price Risks and Real World Perspectives on Structuring a Workable Risk Management System. Hey! Wake up!

Still trying to figure out a couple of ice-breaking jokes to thaw out the crowd.

Flight's this evening and being bored, decided to take an IQ test online and scored 120. Wow!!!! Am I a genius or what???

The evaluation says "This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is WORD WARRIOR. This means you have exceptional verbal skills. You can easily make sense of complex issues and take an unusually creative approach to solving problems. Your strengths also make you a visionary. Even without trying you're able to come up with lots of new and creative ideas

Now I'm figuring out if I should give them my credit card number and fork out $18 for a complete psychological evaluation and best-career-path-for-you profiling exercise....

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Went to Mike Yamashita's Marco Polo talk at the Alliance Francaise (why cant the French ever spell anything in English?) a couple of weeks ago and he'd invited us to stay tuned to the National Geographic channel for a feature story on his journey in Marco Polo's footsteps. Nice trailers.....Mike actually looks shorter and fatter on TV.

I never cease to learn new stuff watching National Geographic TV. Last night's program was sexually explicit and revolved around the sex lives of flat worms that live among corals in our oceans.

Flat worms have 2, ( yes thats right, TWO.... T.W.O ..... DUO .... A PAIR .... of penises). I thought I was happy with my own penis until this program. And that each one can assume the role of EITHER sex.

So they play this 'game' when mating.....how do I describe it?.....ahhhh...they engage in PENIS FENCING + Tag. So sipping my beer with shaking hands, I watched as 2 flat worms reared themselves up from the sand, all FOUR (4) penis's (Hell! Whats the plural for penis???) start crossing swords. It was almost like watching Peter Pan and the Pirate fight it out in the Disney Channel.

The game ends when one worm stabs the other worm on its back with one of its penis and deposits a glob of worm sperm. The 'stabbed' loser then turns into a female and suffers the burden of pregnancy and child-birth.

I'm making it a point from now on to stay GLUED to National Geographic TV!

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Just back from Sri Lanka yesterday morning. The 4 hour flight was OK but the timings were murderous with departures out of Colombo at 1.30am (3.30am Singapore time)

Sri Lanka is very different from what I imagined to be.......a mini version of India across the straits. Singhlanese is the main language and almost everyone I came across on the streets spoke english.

Arriving the first night and checking in by 2.30am, we headed out to the casino for a few games. Between Ceasar's Palace, Bellagio's and Bally's we decided to go to Bally's as it was nearest. The names might sound like Vegas establishments but were in fact a fraction in size with about 20 to 30 gaming tables each......and no jackpot/fruit machines.

Mornings and sunsets were glorious and the beach area seems a very popular hangout for many. Its here that we see how the boys get to meet the girls. Its very cute and a blast to watch. There'll be groups of 2 or 3 girls walking along the shoreline getting their feet wet at the far reaches of incoming waves. Groups of boys/men in their 3s or 5s would walk the deeper part of the surf teasing the girls to come nearer and generally playing a game of cat and mouse with the young maidens.

Conservatism demanded that young couples courting on the outcrops hide their intimate behavior under the shield of umbrellas......even when there is no sun.

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Credit goes to PNChong from Offstone who shared the following quote from "On Being a Photographer" (2003) by
David Hurn/Magnum, & Bill Jay/Lens Work....

"1. Photographers are not primarily interested in photographs. They have a focused energy and enthusiasm which is directed at an outside, physically present, other. They bring to this subject an exaggerated sense of curiosity, backed up by knowledge gleaned from reading, writing, talking, note taking.

2. The photographer transmits this passion in "the other itself" by making pictures, therefore the subject must lend itself to a visual medium, as opposed to, say, writing about it.

3. The photographer must assiduously practice his/her craft so that there is no technical impediment bewteen realizing the idea and transmitting it through the final print.

4. The photographer must have the ability to analyze the components of the subject-idea so that a set of imagess not only reflects the basic categories but also displays visual variety. Intense, clear thinking is a prerequisite to fine photography.

5. The photographer is aware that, like all difficult endeavors, to be good at photography requires an unusual capacity for continuous hardwork and..........

Good Luck!" End Quote

and his personal interpretation especially of the first point above.....

Quote "What David Hurn is saying is that the most important thing is not the photograph itself, but the passion about that "outside other".

For example in your case, a "passion" about the "sisters", and then you chose photography as a medium to express your passion. Without passion on the "outside other", your photographs probably will be just, "photographs".

Another good example would be Sebastiao Salgado. His works on the "workers" stemmed from his concern about the welfare of the workers in Brazil. Despite writing tons of technical papers, he did not make significant impact. But then he decided to show the plight of the workers in photographs, and things moved.

Likewise, Eugene Smith and his work on the Minamata Disease. He stayed and lived among the victims, partake in theirs lives, etc. Almost lost his own life. But what photographs! It was a passion that drove him, a passion that eventually got demonstrated and shown in his photographs. A passion that eventually led to the closure of the mercury generating factories, and justice for the Minamata victims.

But coming back to David Hurn, basically what he said in his book, and I strongly recommend everyone to read it if you can find one, is that you should be passionately interested in what you are shooting, whether it be migrant workers, "sisters", people/events on the street, portraits, nudes, landscapes, sandunes, architecture, religion, fast food, fashion, artists, streetperformers, underprivileged women, child labour, different kinds of chapatis, etc, etc, etc,etc. The photographs become an extension of your passion, and you capture that passion and show it in your photographs.

What SS (ed: another Offstone member) mentioned is interesting. If you take photos and then don't look at them at all (and I see more of this happening with digital photography. No "price" to pay) eventually what are these photos for? Apart from the exercise of pressing the shutter button, you have not even learnt from what you have shot!

When I first bought Robert Frank's book "The Americans", I kept that book next to me every night for several weeks. I did not sleep until I spent at least half an hour looking at the images from the book. But I did not get it! I told Ralph Gibson that I could not understand Robert Frank. RG laughed! RF, BTW, was RG's mentor. The images made sense after RG's explanation. Those images were made at a time of tremendous social turbulance, and RF captured for posterity the mood and events of the time. Because of the nature of RF's work, the "technical quality" of RF's can never equal those of the large format workers. There is no necessity to apologise for it - " sloppy, poor tonal range, etc. There is no necessity for Elliot to defend RF. It was the right tool for the right job. Having said that, take a look at the work of Dorothea Lange. She was known for the famous picture "The Migrant Mother". Dorothea and others recorded the problems of teh great depression. She photographed with a large format camera. The "Migrant Mother" was simply stunning. It is indeed possible to have better tonal range etc even for RF's type of work, but the pace have to be slower, and there is more things to lug around!

There was a fundamantal difference between European and American photography. HCB was known to laugh at AA's (Ansel Adam's) landscapes. Why should one take pictures of rocks! To HCB, photography meant "The Decisive Moment". That was HCB's passion. But landscapes was AA's passion. Whether or not AA's photos are postcards quality, they arose from the passion of AA to capture "The Decisive Moment" in landscapes photography. The example of "Moonrise over Hernandez" is an excellent example of "The Decisive Moment in Landscape Photography". Another example: Josef Sudeck - The Poet of Prague. He photographed the building of St Vitus's Church (Yes, to those familiar with Sydenham's Chorea). To get the light correct, to get the light streaming in from the windows lighting the interiors, he studied and waited just for the right moment!

Alfred Stieglitz was credited to energizing the development of modern American art, particularly photography. AA was really pissed off when AS initially dismissed. Thankfully AA controlled his feelings, and got AS to see his prints. The rest is history. AS could not believe such beauty as unfolded by AA's prints!

Subjects aside. The common denominator in all these photographers was a passion for what moved them. One may not like AA, but there are thousands who do. There are others who may not care for RF' type of picture, or Winogrand's photography. But all these people have a passion for their subjects, and made their intention to capture their passion with the tools chose to use.

I cannot agree with Erwit Elliot. He should read his own words, and ask what is AA's intention. AA's intention is very different from EE. EE may not like AA's type of pictures, but AA's intention is clear - to capture the magnificance of the great landscape on to prints.

I once heard an old doctor who derisively dismissed my exhiliration when I saw a magnificent sunrise on the way to East shore Hospital at 6.45 am. He said, "I will never wake up to see a sunrise". I wonder if he had a soul.

If one could not be moved by the beauty of the sunrise, the colors of fall in New England, the Cherry Blossoms, the majesty of HuangShan, the beautiful waters of JiuZhaigou, it is indeed sad.

But if one is moved by such creations of mother nature (or the Almighty - as some may prefer ), is it surprising that there are people who would like to record such beauty? In poetry, paintings, AND PHOTOS?" End Quote ....Thanks PN!

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This raised questions about myself and my personal shooting. It just occured to me that my images have been making general statements about life and social affairs thus far. I'm in despair! I cant seem to break through to the level where the message within my images run silent and deep through my heart.......I want my images to SHOUT!, to whisper, cry, laugh, shed tears and to move the soul into contemplation and hopefully action.

Thus, with the personal dissatisfaction and disappointment in my heart that needs curing, I decided to sign up and compete for one of the 10 slots avaliable for this year's gruelling 5 day Shooting Home 2004 workshop organized by Objectifs. Involving 'rigorous fieldwork' and intense mentorship with some of the region's leading imaging minds, I really hope to move out of my present plateau to a higher awareness of myself and issues close to my heart.

They required me to state my reasons/goals for participating......and thus I scribbled this down in the application " I've a grounding in the basics of photography. However, I have a problem....My images 'speak' only to a limited extent and I have so much more to 'say'. I want my images to provoke/promote change. I truly believe that with the quality of mentorship and critical appraisals, that I can, be an effective voice in society and ultimaely.....a better human"

Wish me luck that they take in a cranky 42 year old.