Burning Man Day 2: A Cashless Society

There are currently 50,000 people camped in the Nevada desert about 2 hours north of Reno. Every one of them has their own reason for being there. Some have gone to get trashed and party hard, some have gone for the Art, some have gone to gawk and some are there because they have a need to be. Because they feel real there.

This picture of The Burning Man was taken on this day last year. An incredibly impressive structure, it was designed by BM Founder Larry Harvey and Black Rock City Architect and Planner, Rod Garrett (http://www.burningman.com/art_of_burningman/bm09_theme.html) It was truly beautiful to wander through the arches of what felt like giant desert thorns. And then they burnt it. But that's another picture and another story.

Black Rock City aka The Playa, is an unusual place. Something I was not aware of before I went on my own personal pilgrimage, is that no money is allowed there. At all. Once you are on The Playa, your money counts for nothing because you cannot use it.

It's supposed to run on a barter/exchange system, but the whole time I was there nobody asked me to give anything in exchange for what they were giving me. Every morning I'd get up and have a fresh coffee at a temporary cafe some people set up not far from our campsite. Not once was I asked to give or contribute anything in return. Some mornings they gave away fresh croissants as well. (Where the hell did they make fresh croissants in the middle of the desert with dust storms rolling through every day?).

Over the course of my week at Black Rock City I learned that groups of people raise funds all year so they can go to Burning Man, set up a bar/nightclub/cafe/shop etc and give everything away. It's a very liberating experience to live amongst 50,000 people for a week, none of whom are exchanging money. I've never seen anything like it. It was inspiring.

Today with honor and respect for the 50,000 people who make Burning Man what it is, I am listening to Bob Marley's Redemption Song covered by by Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGVSTsgcCvw

Burning Man Started Today

This time last year I was on the Playa, close to Gerlach in Nevada. I had arrived in Gerlach on Thursday as the people I was travelling with told me we would be allowed on early. They were mistaken. As it turned out, we spent the weekend in Gerlach where I wandered around taking pictures.

This picture was taken on our way to Gerlach. We had taken the wrong turning and ended up driving about 50 miles on a really bad dirt road and came across this abandoned house along the way.

This was an oasis of green surrounded by parched land that reminded me of Australia in summer time and the house was seriously cool, so I felt compelled to pull over the car and take pictures of it.

This was the beginning of an adventure in the desert that was unlike any I've had before. As Burning Man is happening all week and I am not there this year, I will be devoting this week to posting Burning Man related pictures and telling some of the stories from my trip there last year. To see more about Burning Man check their website here: http://www.burningman.com

Today, with a nod to Daktari, of whom you will hear more over the next few days, I am listening to Arbre Noir performing 'Visions' from their album Madurai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w_NB2LCJ8s

Bachelorette Party or Hens Night?

Yesterday I was supposed to go on an art adventure but instead I stayed home and then in the late afternoon I went and caught up with some friends who were out for a Bachelorette Party and as a surprise for the principal Bachelorette, took some pictures of them before they went really crazy for the night.

This picture was taken around 7pm last night, just as the sun was starting to go down. I'd wandered around location scouting for 5 minutes and found a couple of good spots within a block of the restaurant where they were having dinner.

From left: Julie Moreno, Ramona Clifton, Emily Zuzik (Principal Bachelorette and soon to be Emily Holmes), Dawn Sheggeby, Jeanne Halal and Tanya Skinner were all in a fine mood, ready to party and cause trouble in the accepted tradition of such nights. After taking some pictures and entertaining them for a little while with some stories whilst they picked and salads and replenished wine glasses, I left them to it. From what I understand they caught up with the boys later and had lots of fun at Karaoke. Emily would no doubt have been the best singer on the night as she has her own band. To hear her music, check it here: http://www.myspace.com/emilyzuzik

I find it interesting that this is another area where America stands alone against the rest of the world as Bachelorette Parties are actually known as Hens nights everywhere else. But try calling a Bachelorette a Hen and she's likely to slap you hard, as the impression in the USA seems to be is that a 'Hen' is old & over it, whereas a Bachelorette is still young and full of fun. To see more on this cultural anomaly, check the Wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelorette_party

A friend of mine from Australia, Rayni, is in the process of setting up her company here to do what she has done for Australian women. To see more about her interesting contribution to this old tradition, check her website here: http://www.theartfulhen.com.au

Today in honour of Emily's upcoming nuptials I am listening to the bootleg mix of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak and White Wedding by Billy Idol here: http://hypem.com/track/711889/DJ+Schmolli+-+Wicked+Wedding+Billy+Idol+White+Wedding+vs+Chris+Isaak+Wicked+Game+vs+H+I+M+Wicked+Game+

Chantal Ughi: From Model to Thai Kick Boxing World Champion

Respect. Chantal Ughi is the Thai Kick Boxing Female World Champion. I first met Chantal a couple of years ago when I was spending far too much time at Nublu on Avenue C in the East Village. Nublu was an amazing bar, full of characters and by far and away had more of the best professional musicians hanging out and playing there than any other bar I've been in. The Brazilian Girls started there when some friends began playing together for fun. Chantal used to work as the coat check girl and made videos on the side for Brazilian Girls and various other bands.

This picture was taken the day before yesterday on my rooftop in Little Italy. Chantal got in touch with me two days earlier through Facebook to let me know she was in town. We caught up after the Automatic Loveletter show and agreed that we would finally take some pictures, as we've talked about it for years now, but never had the time. She came around late in the afternoon, during a break in the rain. We went up on the roof and shot some pictures. This was one of them.

Chantal is a truly unique and inspiring over achiever. She was born from a French mother and an Italian father and grew up in Milan, Italy. She studied piano and violin from an early age. She then dropped music and started modeling in Paris, London, Madrid, Milan and Tokyo. She also pursued her passion for acting and photography by going to Acting School and taking photographs.

She moved to Rome and got her first acting role in 'Traveling Companion'  which was nominated @ the Cannes International Film Festival. She went on to appear in a large number of movies before studying Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and then moving to NYC, where she starred in the romantic comedy, 'Big Apple'. 

Once in NYC, as well as acting she started to focus more on her photography and also directed her first movie, 'La Mia Mano Destra' (My Right Hand) which won 'Best Short' at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. (Brooklyn has an International Film Festival??). Following the success she achieved with that, she made her first documentary, Voices Underground, on the NYC avant-garde music scene. Which is how she ended up at Nublu and singing with a variety of bands, including the Nublu Orchestra, Butch Morris's Chorus Of Poets and In Flagranti Live amongst others.

Tired of NYC, she moved to Thailand to make a documentary on Women Boxing in Chiang Mai jail, but got distracted by training in Muay Thai, which is the toughest of all the martial arts. These people use fists, elbows, feet and knees when they are fighting. (Full disclosure: Chantal and I first bonded because I had already photographed the Lanna Muay Thai Training Camp in Chiang Mai, where she was planning to base herself). In December of 2008, this 5'10" tall woman in her 30's became World Professional MuayThai Federation Champion in the 70Kg Division and in December 2009 she became World MuayThai Association World Champion in the 65 Kg Division. 

I am now waiting to see what this remarkable individual does next with her life. To see Chantal fight, check her on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCO3D6UENBE. To find out more or about Chantal or get in touch with her, check her myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/chantalughi. 

Today I am listening to the Brazilian Girls doing Jique in a video directed by Chantal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWLMQMJFyO8

Ken Hirai: The Japanese produce pop singers as well....

Ok. I know I didn't post a blog yesterday. I did write one on my friend Chantal Ughi, who went from being a model to World Champion Kick Boxer, but it got wiped when Firefox decided to crash and take my words into the ether along with it. And I didn't have time to re-write it as I had to go to B.B. Kings and photograph Ken Hirai perform at his 15th Anniversary of Ken's Bar. So if you want to read about Chantal, you'll have to come back tomorrow.

This picture was taken last night at B.B. Kings in Times Square. The club was full of adoring Japanese fans who were there to see Ken Hirai perform one of his extremely rare NYC shows. I'd never heard of Ken before I was asked to photograph him, but watched the DVD I was given by the lovely Keiko from SonyJapan, so that I could get some background on this unknown singer. Well, unknown to me. It turns out he's sold over 14,000,000 records in Japan and Asia.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Ken has a lovely voice and the fact that more than half his set was sung in Japanese made no difference to my enjoyment of his music. In fact, my lack of Japanese was disappointing more because I couldn't understand what he was saying between the songs, which seemed to be really amusing given the peals of laughter rolling around the club. I did catch that one of his tales was something about the first time he came to America and discovered that porn magazines in the decadent west aren't subject to the same kind of censorship as Japanese porn. For some reason they can never show a womans nether regions, which are always airbrushed with such an extreme soft focus that nothing at all is visible there.

Ken is playing at B.B. Kings again tonight. Don't let your lack of Japanese deter you from going. If you can get a ticket. Which is doubtful as this charismatic J-Pop performer sells out arena shows in Japan with an ease normally associated with bands like the Rolling Stones, so to see him somewhere as intimate as B.B. Kings is a rare treat. To find out more about Ken check his wiki entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hirai

Today I am listening to Ken Hirai singing 'Love, Love, Love' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZviVkAt7uv0&feature=related

Automatic Loveletter: Conquering from Clearwater

Last night I saw Juliet Simms and her brother Tommy of Automatic Loveletter play 6 songs at Angels & Kings, a small bar in the East Village. Even though Juliet was nursing a sore throat so couldn't speak before the show, from the moment they hit the stage I was transfixed. She's an incredible performer and Tommy is a superb guitarist and the two of them have a chemistry that only siblings can share.

This picture was taken on a Tuesday evening a couple of months ago on the beach at Clearwater in Florida. I'd flown down from NYC earlier that day to location scout for the all day shoot on Wednesday, but suggested to the band that we take pictures as well as location scout on Tuesday afternoon and they agreed. I arranged for make up artist Andie Sleeman (http://andiesleeman.com) to work Tuesday as well as Wednesday, so we could shoot when I arrived.

From Tampa airport I drove straight to Juliet's parents place where she was resting up for a couple of weeks. I found the band waiting for me and ready to go, as Andie had gotten there before me and already done their make up.

We all piled into the rental van and as soon as I pulled out of the driveway, I started looking for locations. Being a photographer looking for locations on a shoot can be similar to a carpenter who walks into a room looking at the way the doors and windows fit. You're looking for a background that will enhance the subject. For a long time I've believed that its possible to find 6 different locations within 50 meters of any given spot. Three minutes after we left the house I found the first location, a one storey pink panelled office building that housed a veterinarians surgery.

Juliet, Tommy, Ryan and Clint arranged themselves around my camera and I went to work. From that point on it all flowed well. We shot 6 looks in the next 5 hours around Clearwater, finishing up on the beach as the sun was going down. After we got back out of the water we went back to their house where I was fed a great meal by Juliet & Tommys v cool mother, Natalie. The following day we continued the shoot and did another 7 looks before heading back to their house and going through all the pictures. The band approved a ton of pictures. Everybody was happy.

Automatic Loveletter released their debut album, Truth Or Dare, on June 22nd 2010 and joined the Vans Warped tour in July, where they consistently got great reviews for their live shows. Juliet has been through the record company wringer for the last 4 years. She was bounced around the ineptitude of Epic Records for nearly 3 years, until ALL was dropped in 2008. But she didn't give up, she kept moving forwards.

RCA then picked up the band and put renewed faith and energy back under their wings. They recorded their album with Josh Abraham in the producers chair and now the album is doing really well and it looks like they are going to break out of the pack and achieve the success they deserve. I'm happy for them as they are bunch of great kids with cool attitude and a seriously hard work ethic. Listen out for them on your radio dial because they are already there. To find out more about them, check their myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/automaticloveletter

Today I'm listening to Automatic Loveletter doing Heart Song from the heart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsONBKFbL-w

Birmingham: Razor Blades and Bull Rings

Following on from yesterdays post about Sharna, I thought I'd move onto my own background. I was born in Birmingham, England and grew up there at a time when it was still the center of the Car Manufacturing Industry. In essence, Birmingham is the Detroit of England.

I've been to Detroit and was shocked to see how little of it has been rebuilt after the riots of the 1960's. Birmingham had really serious riots in 1981 and 1985 in the 'black' area of Handsworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_Handsworth_race_riots). It's been extensively rebuilt and it makes me wonder why the same was never done in Detroit. If anybody out there reading this can tell me, I'd be interested to know.

This picture of the Selfridges Department Store built in 2003 by Future Systems (http://www.future-systems.com/architecture/architecture_03.html) to replace the old Bull Ring Shopping Centre, was taken in 2004, on one of my few visits back to Birmingham since I left when I was 20 years old. The bird very fortuitously happened to fly through the picture at exactly the right moment.

It's funny that the city used to have a shopping mall called the Bull Ring, as there were times when it was as dangerous to step in there as it would to be to step into a real bull ring.

Birmingham is a tough town. It's where I learnt to never walk through underpasses late at night because if you do, you will probably get beaten up. It's also the place where they developed sowing razor blades into jacket lapels, so if somebody grabs you by the lapels in a fight, they will lose their fingers.

I left home when I was 17 and was sitting in a bar a couple of weeks later talking with two girls; one was really pretty and her friend was quite plain. The pretty girl was telling me I should go travelling around Europe, get some life experience and then come back to see her. Her friend disagreed and told me I should move to another city in the same country where I speak the same language and am used to the customs as it would make the transition away from the comfort zone of my friends easier.

Being 17 and stupid, the next morning I set off hitch hiking for the south of France with £14 in my pocket. I got as far as Paris, where I ended up living on the streets for a few weeks before crawling back to Birmingham with my tail very firmly between my legs. I've often thought the plain girl gave me some of the best advice I've had in my life and when I finally regained the courage leave Birmingham again 3 years later, I moved to Bristol. That was the beginning of my real travels. And a whole bunch of other stories, some of which will no doubt surface here over time.

Today I am listening to Ku Klux Klan by Steel Pulse the first reggae band from Handsworth to achieve success, as that was a serious soundtrack in the summer of 1977 http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1m34xdgEe4&feature=related