Blog

The Significance of Santa Claus(e)

My Christmas morning began as they all seem to have, today. Being beckoned from sleep, I pulled on sweat pants and sweater and wandered out into the dark at 4 am on what in California was a clear, cold morning. The cold earth against feet which only a few moments ago had been under the covers, sharpened my senses, and bending back I looked up to see the matrix of lights strung out within the dome of a multi hued, dark firmament. I then let it all flow through me from ground to sky and back. And I thank God

Memorial Day, 2016

I made this piece for my friends in the Phoenix Patriot Foundation. The clock just struck midnight. It is now Memorial Day in the US. I dedicate this piece to my brother RJ Fenwick, who has ended his time here on earth this weekend. Beloved Father, loyal career LEO, lifelong waterman, and dear brother, who understood honor better than most one could ever meet. The song in this is written by another brother in arms, Samuel Shoemaker. I will be off grid this day, but in our Ocean off of Costa Rica, thinking of RJ, praying a bit, and spending

Memorial Day Is….

A culture which does not connect accurately, reverentially or beautifully with it’s past, is akin to a rudderless boat: doomed to be at the whim of waves and weather. So today is Memorial Day. So what? Why should you or I care? Only because to not do so, is to engage in our personal demise and that of our families, and in turn, our Nation. Wiki does a great job with relating the History of Memorial Day. In the course of my work, on a somewhat regular basis, I get the opportunity to serve the various Military Communities which heed

Foundations of Change

In the aftermath of the horrible events of Sept 11, 2001 I had found myself faced with a crossroads of sort which was quite unexpected. On one hand was the road to being immersed in the disaster and shooting that. On the other was quite a different tack. That of leveraging the change which I would like to see in the world. I was unaware of the consequences of the choices before me as I settled in to create some imagery in the week after the event for Sygma News service through my agent, Corbis Images. I found myself shooting

A Thanksgiving Story

A little while ago, at the behest and planning of artist Robb Havassy, I found myself at the home of film maker Bruce Brown. Though I tend to want to keep some aspects of my life private, this is something to share, as it is a story about the power of gratitude. November twenty fourth being the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S., it is especially appropriate, as thankfulness is in the heart of a Nation today. This little tale explains how it works, in the lives of my friends. I met Bruce many years ago. He had rang me

Beholden on a Thanksgiving

Ah kids. They enter our world, turn it upside down, and at some point we realize that we had it all upside down in the first place. In my thirties, I had no immediate plans for having children. Managing a growing company, working a morphing athletic career, and looking at a rapidly changing world, inspired no confidence in myself to manage the additional responsibilities of a child. Let alone two. My wife at the time, Ronnie, had other ideas. So in the course of three years, when what I had assumed were foolproof measures that we were taking to avoid

Living is Training

Many speak of the debt created in dying for a cause: “So and so died for this country.” But it is much more difficult and strenuous, to fight and live for one. I am convinced that many of the vanquished would agree. Nobody embraces dying for a cause. Many will not live for one either. It seems honor is something increasingly rare in our commoditized culture. Have a look around. How many people do you see daily, whose moral compass swings by virtue of the gravitational pull of a situation, not being directed by word nor duty? A pastor of

Blog

Categories