RYAN HANDT

Ryan Handt is yet another photographer to come out of SVA with flying colors and a large merit badge. Since graduation Ryan has shot for large publications like Avenue Magazine and executed high quality retouching for his client, Saks Fifth Avenue. 2 avenues and Ryan is now producing a new body of work while doing high quality retouching for a impressive list of clients. . Ryan's photography can be viewed at http://www.ryanhandt.com/

Beautifull photo From NY Times

I have been to busy inside of this.















To do this.

Flak Photo

Today a photograph from a series I completed on Divorce in America is being featured at Flak photo. Flak photo is kind of a online magazine that does articles and has information on photography. I personally admire the work on the site and respect the talent of the photographers that they choose to host on the site. With that said it is an honor to have the photograph of the day.

Please check out www.Flakphoto.com

Full interview with Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama Speaks in Seattle

Andre Kertesz

Andor Kertész was born July 2, 1894 in Budapest to the middle-class family of Lipót Kertész, a bookseller, and his wife, Ernesztin Hoffmann.[3] Andor, known as "Bandi" to his friends, was the middle child of three sons.

André Kertész met with great success in pre-World War II Paris. Recognized as a pioneer in small-format photography (using the newly introduced Leica camera) and a celebrated member of the milieu of Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, and Tristan Tzara, he was published in numerous magazines, including L'Art vivant, L'Image, Vogue, Paris Magazine, Neue Jugend, Münchner Illustrierte Presse, Uhu, The Sphere, and, most often, Vu. His work was influential on a subsequent generation of photographers practicing in Paris, including Man Ray, Brassai, Moholy Nagy, Berenice Abbott, and Cartier-Bresson.

n 1936 Kertész moved to New York to fulfill a one-year contract with the Keystone photo agency. Still there, three years later he created Melancholy Tulip, which draws on the series Distortions (nude figures photographed in "funhouse" mirrors) from 1933. With the war approaching, Kertész was classified as an "enemy alien" in 1941 because of his nationality. He obtained US citizenship in 1944 and remained in the States until his death. Although he had many commercial contracts, Kertész was unable to rebuild the artistic community he had left behind in Paris. The fact that he also left his archive of negatives behind contributed to his feelings of isolation and discontent. In 1963 he recovered the negatives, which had been hidden in a chateau in the south of France during the WWII. A 1964 exhibition, organized by John Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, helped to reestablish his international recognition.




( Brief Biographical information pulled from various internet sources)

Jordan Kleinman

Jordan Kleinman doenst need much of an introduction. Jordan is a reminder of what it is like to live inside of your imagination. A reminder of what it is like to live inside your dream and to capture your most interesting parts of it. His Client list is outstanding, and his ability to constantly make work is driven by a humble ambition and love for the camera. Jordan has had major success since his graduation at the School Of Visual Arts working with clients like Surface Magazine, Zink,Culture,and Skin magazines. His work address's sexuality, birth, cleansing, life, movement, and stillness. Jordan thrives off of experience and loves his reality and the constant exploration of it. To see more of his work visit http://www.jordankleinman.com Or catch him doing yoga at Greenhouse in Williamsburg.

Mike Kwiecinski

Mike Is an enlightened explorer of the photographic landscape . He is here to turn his reality into a holy playground of pure light. He walks with his camera out to wait for the landscape to respond. After the response is recognized his intuition guides him into his approach of photographic exploration. He uses the landscape as a tool for learning, painting, and creation. Lately he has been searching for the extraordinary in trees,animals,and forests in and around the United States . Mike is a humble soul with a long client list and growing reputation as a student at the School Of Visual Arts in New York City. His images reflect his ability to search and find the extraordinary within the ordinary . His vision shines through in its originality creating his own trend within the contemporary world.GO MIKE!!

Gandhi

Gandhi was a high and holy being. He was a master of correct worldview. The view that sees our reality as coming from us, not at us. Gandhi perfected non violence inside and out and resonated what the power of truth can do if ceaselessly embodied. When violence would appear in his reality he would fast, not only as a sign of protest to his people and the British, but also because he understood that his world was coming from his mind. Fasting was a means of purifying not only his way of viewing the world in all dimensions but also a way of changing it. In the end it worked the world that Gandhi saw was freed with the practice of correct worldview, nonviolence, truth, and teaching his people to follow him in these truths. Gandhi also had the foresight to know that he was going to be assassinated. Some People with high spiritual realizations can predict there death, or have foresight into there future. He said when I die as long as I mutter the words of God on my lips I know I have lived a good life. There are a few good documentaries about Gandhi that are worth checking out. If you Google Gandhi Documentary you can find some of the videos about his life.

American Divorce

Many of you are familiar with the body of work I completed about a year and a half ago, 2 years ago. In the past year it was published in Magenta Foundations flash forward book for 2007, in picture magazine, and it was also put up in Toronto as a miniature billboard to decorate the city.

I'm still entering the work into shows because Divorce in our country is still very relevant, and probably more relevant than 2 years ago. Here is one of the images from that series that always stood out to me.

Reaction to the blood

Blood at Dinner

My arrival in Washington has been a roller coaster, sometimes coming home is not all hugs and kisses. Last night we had dinner with some family friends, my brother, and his girlfriend. During a conversation last night at the table our guest spilled his cup of red wine over the table. I had been sitting with my camera through all of dinner because photographing eating events can sometimes be very interesting,especially with family. After the wine spilled and I took a closer look at it its stain everything about it reminded me of blood. It spoke to me in that moment as a metaphor for the day I had experienced home in Washington.

Karma and emotion

Coming back home can sometimes be a breeze and sometimes it can be real hard, stirring the waters of my mind. I had a pretty rough morning dealing with some personal emotion and resentment's from the past. Things that are a part of me and still need work and reconciliation. Fealing this way I decided to pick up a book a good friend of mine gave me as a gift upon my arrival into Washington.

It is not necessarily a chronological book so I opened it and it fell upon a page which helped me think about what needs some reconciliation. The title is Karma and The Emotions

"The most important thing for us to know is that afflictive emotion is our ultimate enemy and a huge source of suffering. Once it develops within our mind, it immediately destroys our peace of mind, and eventually destroys our health and even our friendships with other people. All negative actions such as killing, bullying,lying,stealing,wrong intent,cheating,selfishness and so forth, stem from afflictive emotion. This, therefore, is our real enemy.

An external enemy may be harmful to you today, but tomorrow could become very helpful, whereas the inner enemy is consistently destructive. Morever, wherever you live the inner enemy is always there with you, and that makes it very dangerous. In contrast, we can often keep an external enemy at some distance. In 1959, for example, we escaped from Tibet since escape was a physical possibility; but in the case of this inner enemy,wether I am in Tibet, or in the Potala, or in Dharmasala, or here in London, wherever I go it follows me. I think the inner enemy is even there in meditation; and even if I visualize a holy place, I may still find this enemy in its very Centre! So this is the main point we have to realize: the real destroyer of our happiness is always there within us.

So what can we do about it ? If it is not possible to work on that enemy and eliminate it, then I think we had better forget the spiritual path and rely on alchol and sex and other such things to improve our lives!

However, if there is a possibility of eliminating the inner enemy, then I think we should take the opportunity of having a human body, a human brain and a good human heart, and combine these strengths to reduce and ultimately uproot it. This is why human life is considered to be so precoius according to the Buddhist teachings, for it alone enables a being to train and transform the mind, mainly by virtue of intelligence and reasoning.

Buddhists distinguis between two kinds of emotion. One type is without reason, and is just based on prejudice. Hatred is one of these. This sort of emotoin will rely on superficial reasons, of coures, such as 'this person has hurt me terribly', but deep down, if you pursue that reasoning futhre , you find it does not go very far. Emotions without proper reason are what we call negative emotions. The other kind of emotion, which includes compassion and altruism, is emotion with reason beause through deep investigation you can prove it is good, necessary and usefull. Furthermore, although by nature it is a type of emotion, it is actually in accord with reason and intelligence. In fact, it is by combining our intelligence and emotion that we can change and transform our inner world.

So long as the inner enemy is there, and so long as we are under its control, there can be no permanant happiness. Understanding the need to defeat this enemy is true realization, and developing a keen desire to overcome it is the aspiration to seek freedom, technically called renunciation. Therfore this practice of analyzing our emotions and our inner world is very crucial.
The scriptures say that so far as the desire to overcome the first level of suffering is concerned, the 'suffering of suffering', even animals have it naturally. And so far as the aspiration to free oneself from the second level of suffering is concerned, the 'suffering of change', this is not something that is unique to the Buddhist path. Many ancient Indian non-Buddhist paths were similar, seeking inner tranquility through samadhi(single pointed concentration). However, the genuine aspiration to seek complete liberation from a exsistence subjected to suffering, can only arise from a recognition of the third level of suffering, the 'suffering of conditioning', where we realize that so long as we remain under the controll of ignorance we will be subject to suffering,and there will be no room for lasting joy and happiness. It may be said that the recognition of this third level of suffering is unique to the Buddhist path."
(quote from the essiantial Dalai Lama)

Getty Images -Snippet

I have been doing some work recently with Getty Images.. My good friend Karim Harris of DarcSun imaging just retouched these images for me, he did a great job. Below is a snippet of my latest Getty Submission. Thanks for the great work Karim.

Bruce Weber

I had the opportunity to go to Bruce Weber's studio today. I met with his production manager and some coordinators in the office. Amazing. Huge, tastefully laid out and on all wood with a wood ceiling. Classic. The photography they had up was beautiful. I look forward to working with there team in the future. Below are some of Bruce's images.

Amy Elkins

I met Amy Elkins at the School Of Visual Arts about 3 or 4 years ago. Since I have met Amy she has always been incredibly passionate and diligent about photography. She is always creating and always making progress as a artists and a businesswoman. I have seen Amy's work grow and grow and im not surprised at her current level of Success. Expected would be a better word. I love hearing her talk about photography because of her knowledge of the industry and her ability to articulate her ideas, influence's, and reasons for composition,etc. Below are some of Amy's latest portraits. Congratulations on all your success.


Born in Venice Beach, CA in 1979, rooted in New Orleans, residing and working in New York with wanderlust for unfamiliar territories, Elkins’ work explores notions of vulnerability, identity and transitory states. Her ongoing series "Wallflower" investigates and confronts some of the cultural grounds underlying gender, opting to focus on the beauty, sensitivity and vulnerabilities found in a sex that has long been held to masculine expectations and stereotypes. For Elkins these portraits remain a personal and psychological delving into the other, finding the mannerisms of male role models in her personal life endlessly fascinating. Elkins received a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in May of 2007. Her work has been published in PDN, American Photo, EyeMazing, Dear Dave, NY Arts, Corduroy, Out, NY Times Magazine, Newsweek Japan and Newsweek here in the States. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions across the world, including the PIP International Photo Festival in Pingyao, China, Gallery Gagopa in Masan, South Korea, Gallery Elsa in Busan, South Korea, Yancey Richardson Gallery, Jen Bekman Gallery, PEER Gallery, Visual Arts Gallery and Affordable Arts Fair in NYC, Fette’s Gallery in Los Angeles and Aqua Art Fair in Miami, FL.

To see more of Amy's photography visit. http://www.amyelkins.com and http://www.amyelkins.blogspot.com

The Ecoist

I have recently been working on Production for a Television show called the Ecoist. The Ecoist aires on the Sundance channel, below are 2 short clips from the show.

Michael Delfin

Michael Delfin is a NYC resident born and raised in Reading Pennsylvania. After attending the School of Visual Arts and graduating in 2005 he has had an impressive number of achievements. Soon after completing his BFA Mike went on to shoot for clients like, Panasonic, Rides magazine, King Magazine, Scratch Magazine, Psychology Today, and Slam magazine, and thats just to name a few, FOR REAL! Currently Mike D is the associate photo editor at XXL Magazine. XXL magazine is the largest hip hop magazine in the world, and they hire some of the best photographers out. You can catch Mike D blazing the best low grade, kicking back with a shit eating grin a easy going attitude, and a great smile. Below are some of his pictures... His photography can be viewed at http://www.mikednyc.com

Memories from the India trip 2006

Dice Game in Brooklyn

This is an amazing scene in my area. All darkness then under this bright street light in the middle of a park squeezed between two blocks, a dice game. All you can see is the form, and then the sounds of the dice hitting the concrete. Also, the occasional"Yea" when someone wins a game. I wanted to move in closer but as I became noticed I could see my energy of presence impeding on the game. I left shortly after I set up my tripod. I shot it with a tele lens on my Canon Digital.

Inner Heat-Also known as Tumo

Surf Photography-Chris Burkard

Below is some surf photography from a website that I frequently check out. See link. http://www.surfline.com Credit for photography- Chris Burkard