iDream Apple and AT&T

This past summer, AT&T double charged me. It took phone calls, faxes, and several visits to the AT&T store to prove to them that they took my money. In the end they refunded the fee but I still lost my rollover minutes, my dignity, and five hours of my life.

When I asked to be compensated for my time, AT&T customer service offered me ten dollars—their maximum possible credit. I argued with the representative. She said AT&T values me as a customer, apologized, and promised I wouldn’t be double charged again. I asked for that in writing but she couldn’t furnish such a letter. She did “talk with her supervisor” (ten minutes on hold) and offered me a new maximum possible credit—fifteen dollars.

What happens when an individual goes up against a huge company like AT&T? They lose. Every single time. I can’t put this on AT&T’s credit report. All I can do is complain about it online. But that doesn’t matter because there are thousands of complaints floating around out here. People need a phone and one of the monster phone service companies is inevitably gonna get us as their servant/customer.

Which brings me to Apple. After much hype, Apple announced its new product line today. I was really hoping they’d add 3G to the iPod touch. A pipe dream, yes, but one worth imagining. Steve Jobs was radical when he refused to enable Flash on Apple devices. But alas, Apple is in bed with its phone carriers. Why would they put out an iPod Touch that competes with the iPhone? What if Apple did just that?

Yes, Apple sells unlocked iPhones but the trick would be giving the masses an easy alternative to monthly carrier bills. If everyone could ditch their phone number but still communicate using an online phone application it would change everything. EVERYTHING. I’m envisioning teens writing their iPhone or Facetime user ID where it says “phone number” on job application forms. It’s not crazy.

With iTunes, Apple created a market that didn’t exist beforehand. Now iTunes is huge. So why didn’t they make iPhone into its own service that Apple could own? It could have been free or really affordable with all kinds of apps and whatnot. It would “democratize” the telephone. Instead we’re still being nickel and dimed (or dollared and hundred dollared) for every bit of information we send across one of these monster company’s networks.

Why do we pay huge monthly usage fees to these behmoths when they could give a crap less about us as customers? Because we’re not being given the tools to do otherwise. If we had the tools, service providing companies would have to step up and innovate rather than sit back and regulate.

Creeper in My Apartment

I found this video to be creepy, fun, and surreal.

Who was that girl? How did she get into his apartment?

Then I saw this video…

My whole thinking changed. It’s a meme! “Creeper in My Apartment” is a meme. I’m not sure who was the first to tell this story and nothing came up when I searched the Know Your Meme website (which you must visit, BTW).

I love stuff like this! This video is an urban folktale told and retold through new media. “Creeper in My Apartment” is modern day electronic folklore that brings to mind tales such as “The Vanishing Hitchhiker.” I’m going to look for more of these. If you know of any, please share in the comments!

Everything is a Remix

Copy → Transform → Combine

I just discovered this great miniseries on Vimeo called Everything is a Remix by New York-based filmmaker, Kirby Ferguson. The first three episodes are below. He’s planning a fourth due out October of 2011. See his website for that… EverythingIsARemix.info

Part 1: Some of your favorite Led Zeppelin songs weren’t Led Zeppelin songs at all.

Part 2: Watch how movie makers borrow ideas from other previously made films.

Part 3: Copying, transforming, and varying. Learn about Apple and the first home computers ever made.

Are you telling an original story? Does it really matter? Maybe if you own the IP and copyright…

Reframing New York City’s Garbage

New York City artist Justin Gignac has created an artistic product—which is essentially trash—and he is selling it to people all over the world via the Internet. New York City is known for many things and garbage is one of them. You can easily find cans, plastic forks, tin foil, used metro cards, napkins, and paper cups on the streets and sidewalks all over the five boroughs. So why on earth would someone want to pay for that trash and then display it on their desk or shelf? Because Justin has reframed the trash and turned it into an object of desire.

New York City Garbage are tiny plastic sealed (smell-proof) cubes that contain an array of trash lovingly collected and arranged by the artist himself. The cubes sell for $50 each, unless they are part of the Yankee opening day series in which case they double in price.

I used to be a New Yorker and the above image reminds me very much of Union Square, where I used to live. The Starbucks cup took me by the Starbucks on Astor Place and the Metro Card feels of the subway that I rode so often. Although I will not pay $50 for a plastic box of trash, there are plenty of people who will pay $50 for a smart piece of art that reminds them of the city that never sleeps. And therein lies the genius of this work.

The artist identified something that the city is known for—a characteristic that is usually seen as a negative—and he turned it into something positive, a work of art. He transformed the garbage from what it once was into something of value. Let’s face it, when you are in New York, the trash on the street is part of what gives you that nitty-gritty NYC feeling. Why wouldn’t it do the same if it were sitting on your desk in a cube on the other side of the world?

The artist is crucial in all of this. First of all, without the artist the trash is just sitting on the sidewalk waiting to be collected by sanitation workers. Anyone could collect some trash and take it home with them—but they don’t. It’s a very New York City thing to do to support a clever artist who goes and handles the trash for you. The art and the artist are a necessary part of the transformation and it is the reframing of the garbage into a neatly packaged art object that causes the paradigm shift.

Imagine that some guy from Bayonne, NJ got the idea to seal NYC trash in a cube and sell it to the souvenir shops on Times Square. He hires a bunch of illegal workers to sift through piles of rubble all day and assemble the cubes by using a formula (three colors, no two same types of trash in one cube). Suddenly tourists are purchasing trash cubes for $14.95 each and they’re flying off the shelves. It becomes a completely different, although believable, story. (I prefer Justin Gignac’s story and am glad he got there first.)

Check out the NYC Garbage website and choose a cube for yourself. If that’s not your thing, find some trash in your life and transform it into art!

Interview: His And Her Photography

1. What is your profession?
Photo Ninjas

2. How does story/narrative play a role in your work?

Narrative is the essence of our work.  We use photography, and in some cases writing, to tell our client’s stories.  Storytelling is what we love to do.  When a client looks through the images we’ve created together, they see not just a collection of photographs but a visual story showing the reality, emotion, and passion of their experience.  One of the most inspiring bits of feedback that we’ve received from past clients is that “the photos will help to preserve our memories”.  In a way, we feel that that’s exactly what photography does.

3. What do you mean when you talk about your passion for storytelling and photography being rooted in balance? Please say more.

We associate balance with harmony and connection.  We find that the philosophy of balance is multidimensional.  While photographing, we seek to find equilibrium with each other as partners in storytelling; simultaneously, we seek to find balance with our clients and their guests.  We are able to find this balance as a result of our pre-planning and attention to detail.  We meet with all of our clients prior to their celebrations, which allows us the opportunity to develop meaningful connections with the folks that we’ll be photographing.

We are also able to develop a detailed outline and timeline for the events that our clients have planned.  This makes it possible for us to choreograph our movements so that we are able to anticipate moments unfolding around us and so that we are
photographing from complimentary perspectives.  Seeing an emotion filled moment from different perspectives is the catalyst that transforms a handful of images into a balanced story.

Of the genres of documentary styles, we strive for a blend of poetic and observational documentation.  While the very act of our presence influences the event, our aim is to be as unobtrusive as possible.  Here is where we must align ourselves with the energy and flow of our clients, their guests, and the sometimes delicate nature of their celebration.

When we photograph together and connect with that harmony, the results are humbling and inspiring.  Realizing that balance with each other and with our clients, we feel as though we’ve become a part of their celebration; this allows us to be able to capture decisive moments – moments that become preserved as still images and when viewed together – tell a beautiful and personal story.

Working together has brought incredible insight to our photographic styles, approach, and aesthetic.  Jai’s background is rooted in fashion photography and portraiture while Drew’s background is heavily based in photojournalism and capturing candid moments.  In that sense, we bring balance to each other.  We have both been able to grow individually as a result of the other’s perspective. The constructive dialogue that we have regarding subjective issues, such as aesthetics, has helped our partnership to blossom and has infinitely strengthened our ability to tell stories with photography.

In the final results, the images we deliver to our clients, we see balance in those stories resulting from our differing approaches to photography and knowing when to be shooting in the middle of the action and when to remain around the periphery.

4. How do wedding photos tell and preserve the story of the event?

Have you ever found an old shoebox full of photos or a photo album that you haven’t looked at in years?  Looking through the photos you might be re-living experiences that happened 10, 20, 30 years earlier.  And, although you haven’t thought about those things in a long time, the images help to revitalize your memory.  Because of a few still images, you start to recall people’s names, words that were spoken, emotions felt, and experiences shared – all with astonishing detail.

Human memory is strongly tied to imagery.  On a biological level, our memories are stored as complex proteins. As we move, through space and time, away from the moment and place when that memory was created … the tendency is for those memories to become degraded – especially as we get older.

Still imagery is simple and beautiful in its ability to form a tangible link between our personal memories and our shared experience with others.  Photographs help us to stay connected with our memories.

Wedding photos tell the story by visually establishing a sense of time and place and who was interacting within that framework: the family and friends who have come together, the details and decorations that reflect the style and unique expression of a couple, the location, the flowers, the food they choose to serve, etc.  All the details captured in moments throughout the day compliment and add context to the human interactions we photograph.  Often times, these photographs become the most effective vessel for communicating that story to generations yet to come.

Where do images fall short? Where do they excel?

We only wish we could be in 10 places at once! There is so much going on at a wedding, perhaps images fall short when they fail to record everything that is happening.

Also, there are times when we are part of an experience that we know would make for amazing photographs – though something in the moment suggests being a bit more discrete.

One recent example comes to mind.  We were photographing a wonderfully intimate celebration earlier this year.  The ceremony was atop a small peninsula surrounded by sheer cliffs falling away hundreds of feet to the deep blue Pacific Ocean.  It was an amazing setting.  The light was perfect; an angelic mist rolling in off the ocean cast a golden hue over the young couple and their guests.

The guests were all seated in a circle, with the bride and groom in the middle – which presented a challenge photographically.  During their vows, the bride and groom shared a very emotional and powerful exchange of feeling and sentiment. Because of the size of the space and the small number of people in attendance, we decided to back off a bit.  We captured the moment, and then let the remainder of the exchange unfold – sometimes it’s very necessary to know when your presence as a photographer will compromise the integrity of a moment.

As for excelling … hmm.  Well, we have had a number of clients this year refer to us as their personal “photo ninjas”.  If our clients don’t notice us taking photographs, then we’ve done our job well.

5. What are the elements of great photographic storytelling?

First is establishing context and a sense of place.  So important.  Of course, aesthetic decisions such as framing, exposure, and point of view all carry great significance and should be taken into consideration when thinking about how that particular image will fit into a story.

Also, the details are very important.  In a way, details (flowers, shoes, decorations, etc …) help to compliment and connect the human interactions and people photos captured throughout the day.

6. You have a section on your website suggesting tips for creating an organic wedding. How does sustainability affect the photographic storytelling process?

Ecological sustainability … that is, living and acting in the world in a way that will preserve the integrity, stability, and diversity of the biological community for future generations … is at the essence of our being.

We live our personal lives by these tenets and could not imagine running a business any other way.  It is amazing and inspiring for us to find more and more of our clients commenting on how they are planning their celebration or wedding to be ecologically friendly - while striving to become more sustainable in their day to day activities.

A couple that values sustainability will want to highlight that value as a unique expression of who they are together.  Sustainability becomes a shared value between our clients and our approach to photography.  This connection helps to build a foundation of trust – after all, what and how we photograph is a reflection of the way we understand our selves and our world-view.

We were meeting with a couple recently to talk about their wedding plans and discovered the bride was an avid gardener and she and her fiancé were devoting much of their free time together working in a community garden space they had helped to establish.

We are both gardeners and find great happiness in connecting directly with the living soil to grow and nurture food.  In this way, eating is a very sacred act.  Not to mention, eating food grown locally is very sustainable.

In a way that is difficult to quantify, this connection with our clients helped to establish a rapport that lead to very real and very beautiful images.  During the ceremony the rabbi spoke about the importance of growing living things, of the importance of gardening, and this couple chose to symbolize that with organic mint sprigs they had harvested from the community garden they worked on together.

The images came to reflect our shared values in that they helped tell the story of living, acting, and wedding sustainably.

7. You mention how memories get tied to photographs. If the narratives created by a photograph don’t come to mind without seeing the photo, does that mean that stories are stored in the photo or in the mind?

The story the photo reveals for a couple may be one of a grandparent getting a kiss on the cheek from a grandchild - while the couple was visiting across the room with old friends.  When viewing the image later, although they did not see that moment being played out, the feelings experienced by seeing guests enjoying themselves will come to be associated with that image.  So we think the stories are reinforced by the image, though stored in the mind and the heart.  Also, the memories we carry with us are preserved and fortified by the narratives told by the still images.

Are they linear or non-linear?

The stories the images tell are linear, as they are documented in the order of the day.  However, the feelings they recall and the connection that they inspire are not linear.  In a way, the stories become cyclical as they are passed on to new generations, who are in fact manifestations and embodiments of their parents. Woah.

8. What advice do you have for upcoming photographers looking to tell stories with images?

Connection and balance are very important.  Get to know your clients and/or your subjects.  Sometimes this means spending time with them or in a place for extended periods of time without taking a single photo.  Sometimes additional research is required to better understand the historical or cultural significance of an event or location or people.  Pre-planning is crucial.  Establishing context visually is so important. Also, it helps to understand discretion.

Last, know your equipment.  When things are happening fast you need to balance the technical aspects of your gear with the interpretive aspects of what is happening around you.

His And Her Photography
Drew Burdick
Portland, OR USA