The guesthouse in Delmas Our last night in Haiti was spent getting back to Delmas from St. Louis du Sud, a task that should have taken three took hours because of ongoing political protests and a murky and sad incident near Route Nationale that held up traffic for miles and required Edwin’s take charge attitude and …
Half of Tuesday was spent in pursuit of a live pig. From the muddy outdoor market of Okai where walking through with a group that includes white Norwegians invokes a lot of whining especially when we came out empty handed. Accusations of being there to film etc. I’m still getting …
This past Tuesday I found myself standing in front of a packed house in Prospect Heights at Kombit, a Haitian bar and restaurant. I was introducing myself and the project I had started about a year ago out of frustration on creatives of Haitian descent. I was gesturing way too …
I wish I had another opportunity to hang with Presscott Mcdonald in person. But alas it won’t be. I found out over the weekend he passed away in Florida where he was based and lived. We met once when he was visting in New York back in 2011 but we were already connected by two Photographers. He introduced me to one my favorite dive bars in Williamsburg and connected me with people even though he didn’t have to. He was a talented and versatile photographer and had recently started his own production company. It was good knowing a photographer of …
The Director So a few years ago I took down a very personal blog I had maintained for almost 8 years. It fed my need to expunge my thoughts and feelings on life. It also occurred at a time where writing was a big part of my life as a …
An older gentlemen has been showing up at my job purchasing the last of our Kodak color paper (Kodak has discontinued their print darkroom paper) for the past couple of weeks. And I knew from his thick accent that he was of Haitian origin. But today I revealed or shared background and he opened up rather quickly telling me his life story in a few quick sentences. This included his decades long career photographing the people of Harlem and being a Civil engineer. In 2008, the NY Times even thought his work and life warranted a piece. His is a Brooklyn native and I hope to do something on …
I have found myself in the past week reading links related to embattled film critic Roger Ebert; An Esquire profile of his life post the removal of his jaw; Ebert’s blog post on walking. In someway the cancer that stripped him of his ability to speak or eat or drink has reinvigorated this sixty-something year-old …