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Ian Senior-Amherst Street-Tom Bookstore

Some days you do and some days you don’t. Cannot predict what the shoots entail or how you feel about them or yourself when you finish. Different subjects create different emotions and require different skills. One in a studio. One on the street. One in a store.

 

 

Friends at Red’s Barber Shop

Hard to make friends in a new place. You got to have a job and a place and some commitment to something. Me. I go to school. This distinction earns you so little, unless you spend a ton of money. Even then, people say that you are leaving, leaving behind dollars to use their territory to learn and then, like the proverbial NY comment about not letting the door hit you on the way out, say goodby. Not me. I made friends at the local barber shop, thank you Walker Evans.

So, I go to hang out and talk to the guys. No betta place to talk to the guys than a barber shop. You don’t have to be on any social level. You can be as judgmental as you want, withinreason, so long as it ain’t personal. and, you got to be able to either tell stories or laugh at the stories told by others. A quotable quip, for sure, makes it. But it really better be good.

 

Judge Roger Miner Dies at 77

I was trying a case in the Southern District. Judge Miner, whom I knew from New York Law School, the local law school on Worth and Church from which we both were graduated, somehow found himself in the public elevator with me, one of his clerks, and a very out of control pro se litigant. The guy didn’t know Judge Miner’s lofty position in the building. He was ranting about one injustice after another, focusing his anger on the system and judges in particular. Judge Miner turned to me and said, “Mr. Duckman, you represent them and then I listen to them.” A very human judge.

Bill Diodato and Max the Studio Mgr at Hallmark Institute of Photography

Commercial photographer, Bill Diodato and his studio manager, Max, lectured at Hallmark Institute of Photography. Bill also signed his book, Care of Ward 81, which came with a gift box of images he had distributed to select clients as a business promotion. Both be HIP graduates.

Hard to sit through five hours of looking at his images, as compelling and creative as they were; even he had to say he was  tired of showing. But listening to his rap that mixed the craft and business of commercial photography made the presentation overwhelminly rewarding. He brings sharp wit and sharp focus to every job. After more than 20 years on the job, he has little left to prove about his skills, so he is trying to turn out more images that reflect his art, as opposed to his client’s tastes and desires. His is a route to which we all aspire.

Max works way too hard, 80 or so hours a week and doesn’t shoot at all. But to most students at Hallmark, that doesn’t seem too steep a price to pay for the experience needed to take the lessons learned to a more professional and saleable level. While Bill doesn’t seem to like the work for free concept that interns in many fields have to endure these days, the pay for assistants ain’t that good. You can barely put food on the table and pay expenses. Time to move on dude, just like the boss did and see if your eye behind the lens making pictures is as good as your eye in the monitor fixing them.

Eric Saw His Family For Christmas

 

I worry that he could be next. In Paul’s final days, Eric dragged him to Act 1. He knew Paul was a mess, but he didn’t give up on him. Now he has no one to hang with or care about.

Eric went home for the holidays. Street workers/outreach say Mom calls in everyday. No room at her house for him. Brother home after some financial disaster, according to Eric. They let him take a shower. Gave him a hat, two pairs of socks and food. He doesn’t want the kind of help that he would get if he had a reasonable diagnosis. “I am 30. I got years to go before I’ll admit to any disability.”

Jim always tried to help. He stopped a woman from being groped on a bench. Cleaned City Hall Park in the early mornings. He looks out for his daughter, Amanda. He picked Paul off the ground, several times. Last week, he knew Paul was in trouble. “His color wasn’t right. He couldn’t walk. Wouldn’t share a beer. Not right what happened to him…. We have lost a few recently. Got to keep walking to stay warm.”

Yeh. No one wants to freeze to death. Cold ain’t as bad as dying.

Who is looking out for Jim?