I once read somewhere, I forget exactly where, that the only point in flogging a dead
horse was for the pure enjoyment of it. So let me enjoy myself a little bit here……

Since my post last Sunday, which was about juries and taste and people saying “yes”
or “no” to what you do, about staying strong and just getting shit done, since then
there has been a flurry of activity in the blogosphere about one aspect of what I wrote
about. Namely USER and whether drug addicts should be photographed.

In case you missed it you can see the dialogue here (scroll down to: Drugs and Art) and
here and here (scroll down to: Tony Fouhse). (And, yes, I know that this is all really just
a flash in the pan. As my friend Tony M. points out : “blogging is so ‘in the moment’ that
the moment never lasts…”)

Anyway, I guess I have just one final thing to say about that matter…..

I believe that, as Homer Simpson says: “trying is the first step to failure.” I also know
that, as soon as you do something, someone will criticize you. And if you do nothing
you’ll be criticized for that too.

I’m a totally non-censorship kind of guy. I believe that (almost) anything can (and should)
be talked about, represented, torn apart, put back together. It’s how we learn. I understand
that we (humans) aren’t ants (even though we can certainly seem drone-like at times), that
we have our own little, poorly-evolved brains that point us in this direction or that. This is
the world we live in and I totally accept it.

In the end you have to create your own meaning (thanks: J.P. Sartre). If sitting around criticizing
others is what turns yer crank, fine. Just don’t hang around with me. I like action.

And, because this blog is also about imagery I’ll attach here a couple of USER shots that
aren’t on my web site:

RECENT EDITORIAL

I have a funny little room upstairs at my house…..a small studio that I share
with Cindy. We both do our thing in there. One of Cindy’s things is art and she
uses the walls of the room for experimentation. They, the walls, keep changing.

Every so often a gig comes along that seems custom made to shoot in that weird
environment. Case in point is this shoot I did of Ray Zahab for Explore magazine.

Ray is an extreme runner. He’s run across the Sahara Desert, he’ll run for 24 hours
straight. He’s famous for that kind of stuff. The art director didn’t want the standard
shot of a runner running, he wanted a portrait.

Just so happens that the studio is looking quite distressed these days….a room that
could be anywhere, just so long as that anywhere isn’t some comfortable room.

And, for your information, those funny things along the top of the door frame?
Those are intestines.