YOU DOUITY RAT!

There are many terrific reasons for living in NYC. Quite honestly the list is endless, but there is one thing almost all New Yorkers can agree on, rodents can be a problem. Cut to bucolic Columbia County,Upstate New York. Farm land, lakes, summer haze rising off the pastures and RATS NEST IN MY ENGINE!!!!. So you can imagine the scene, relaxing in the great wide open, birds twittering outside you window, bees buzzing and then you hear your wife and to be honest myself shriek at the site of a rodents home in your car. This weekend alone we saw deer, fox, blue heron, Hawks, Fish and a fuckin fried rat. Now last weekend I filled up with oil and coolant and I can quite assure you that big balloon was not coming out of the battery. So in one week the rat found a home, stole some kids balloon, had coffee at Dunkun Doughnuts, read many a newspaper, and found a wristband. Only in New York.
PS Thats the rat on the left hand side.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY

Spent a nice afternoon in Billyburg last week visiting galleries including A. M. Richards Fine Art. This great space is on the second floor of a Brooklyn brownstone, with beautiful Afternoon light. The main attraction of the visit was old friend, painter Susan Wanklyn's new work, who along with Jessica Weiss form the the bulk of the exhibit. Both artist's work play off each other wonderfully in this setting. But a nice surprise was to find Jill Freedman, standard bearer for New York photojournalists for the last 30 years or so, be part of the last exhibition. After speaking with owner Ann Marie for awhile I find out Jill has not one but two books on Ireland in publication, one better than the next, A TIME THAT WAS & IRELAND EVER, with forwards by the now world renowned McCourt brothers, non the less. The images are terrific and feel like a continuation of "Dorothea Lange's Ireland", 20 years later. Yet in some respects the country had changed so little in those years it feels like they could have been shot simultaneously. Andrew Hetherington's "Made in Ireland" series feels like the bookend to the trilogy, now that I think of it. Life's funny, if you head off with good intentions on one road its amazing how many different roads open in front of you, wanted to see some great work by a specific person and end up overloaded with incredible work by many different artists. Oh and by the way check out photographer Andrew Garne, who has some beautiful work up at Ann Marie Richards also. Good work people.

Queen vs Queen

Well the story was too good to be true. I was laughing before I read 2 sentences. Our beloved Queen of Photography bollocks out the Queen of England. Priceless. Anybody who has worked with Annie Leibovitz and we all know plenty of people have who have, say this would seem to be about par for the course. This apparently was how it went.

Leibovitz photographed the queen in March at Buckingham Palace to mark the monarch's state visit to the U.S. in May. The session was recorded as part of ``A Year With the Queen,'' a documentary to be shown later this year on the BBC One. The trailer was shown yesterday at the channel's preview of its autumn season.

In one clip, here, the queen is wearing the traditional floor- length Garter robe of the monarch. Leibovitz tells the queen she will look better without her tiara because ``the Garter robe is so ...,'' Before the photographer can say ``extraordinary,'' the queen points to the robe, saying, ``Less dressy. What do you think this is?''

In the next clip, the queen appears to walk off, telling an aide, ``I'm not changing anything. I've had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.''

Now I'm lovin' this, how perfect, Annie the arbiter of court fashion. But then the BBC come out and apologise saying the footage of the queen walking was filmed as she entered the room, before the photo session began and the manipulated it to seem like there had been friction between them. But still its the Queen of England not Victoria Beckham. "Yo Queen that thing on you head, yeah its...... too DRESSY. Yes the Tiara made by Garrard in the 1870's, royally past down for generations, too dressy. Priceless.

Just when you thought it was safe.....

Do you ever think construction will ever stop in NYC?, naaah me neither. But you always feel sorry for the guy who's building is right next door to the new monstrosity right, well keep looking out your window because this could be happening to you sooner than you think.

Villan Photographers

If ever one needed to know the absurdity of a bureaucracy, it may be coming to a street near you. The city of New York wants to implement a process that would require any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour to get a city permit and insurance. The same requirements would apply to any group of five or more people who plan to use a tripod in a public location for more than 10 minutes, including the time it takes to set up the equipment. You can go Here for all the other legal ins and outs but if you ever have tried to shoot on the streets since 9/11 you will understand how this could be misunderstood by any yahoo who doesn't want you taking any kind of photographs at all. Shooting large format on the street as I do has always been a difficult proposition. People think its a weapon, (post 9/11), people think its a movie " who's in it", people want to show you their digital camera, and then try to take the same shot your taking, but most of all people think whatever your doing is 'almost' illegal and gives them the right to come and accost you. With this new ruling I can only imagine how this will be interpretted by the authorities never mind the man in the street. Now there have been plenty of occasions when I have applied and gotten permits but sometimes you just want to get out when the mood takes you or the light just happens to doing what you have always wanted it to. And don't you think the cops have enough to do?, how about policing Canal street at 3 o clock on a Friday afternoon so that the most insane gridlock doesn't occur. This is where I was when I first read about this great new City strategy. Now this happens every day especially Friday for the last oh... 30 years or so but nary a copper in sight again! But that evil family taking snaps of the Empire State are securely in custody. We can all sleep safe in our beds.