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East Bali Poverty Project: Field Notes

The February 1963 to January 1964 eruption of Gunung Agung, Indonesia’s largest and most devastating eruption of the twentieth century, was a multi-phase explosive and effusive event that produced both basaltic andesite tephra and andesite lava. A rather unusual eruption sequence with an early lava flow followed by two explosive phases. (Research Gate) Imagine living in a jungle on the slopes of a massive mountain. Your village is composed of several small huts nestled within densely vegetated terrain. Life flows in the tempo of your mountain culture, and is different from that of the people who live far below you,

Running and Gunning

Whew, just off a series of e mails with Lorenzo De Stefano, who is Director of the film Hearing is Believing which I am the Director of Cinematography on. The crew will be down at the Blue Whale in LA filming a performance by Rachel and the remarkable Taylor Eigsti for the project Thursday night. I on the other hand, will be on Bali working on some development projects for my wife’s company, and meeting up with a couple film makers there to possibly create something rather exotic. Life is hectic in a good way. This week saw a fantastic

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

Jam

I have a lot of friends who are into music. They all range in experience, depth, scope, and level of monetization. Music is one of the High Arts of course. How a person begins in any Art germinates in a fascination with it. I remember mine. Getting to play my Hawaiian Grandfathers Zither. I must have been about 6 or 7. Guitar lessons at 8. Then on to the Arts in school, where I took choir, learned to sing in church, band practice, learning to read and write music. It was part of the education process in America at the

Hyperbole

This is a little deviation from the Loves serialization. Though the subject does relate. The other night, I got roped into doing something I rarely ever endeavor. My son invited me to a “dive bar” to see him play. He had been working on creating a band to perform his music, and the never visited “hole in the wall” on a section of Ventura’s Main St, was to be ground zero for a shake down performance. Josh Slavin is the stage name for Joshua Pu’u by the way. (People keep asking me.) I usually sort of just smirk. Hyperbole is

No Substitute

My sons are both adept musicians. Josh in fact, is especially gifted. He rang me up one day and asked for some help, possibly shooting a music video. I tentatively agreed, but the short of it was Josh meant, umm…. in three days. I had heard No Substitute before and was really impressed by the lyrics. I had not seen Josh perform more than a few times, as he is pretty much a songwriter-computer nerd-artist who happens to play a lot of instruments. I penned a script, rang Rob Dafoe, we assembled a plan, and three days later, with a

Savantism

I know who I am. So I recognize those traits that resemble mine, in my colleagues and friends. This creates a deep affinity with those people who I repeatedly refer to as Savants. Check the definition below. savant |saˈvänt; sə-| noun a learned person, esp. a distinguished scientist. See also idiot savant . ORIGIN early 18th cent.: French, literally ‘knowing (person),’ present participle (used as a noun) of savoir. I was pleased and honored when one of those, a certain Sean Davey, showed up at my door in Ventura, California. Sean is a Tasmanian born, Hawaii ensconsed photographer whose work

Windows of Perception

Perspective is a unique line item for all of us. Our own Point Of View (POV for short) is one that, being our own, may not seem particularly special to us. I find myself overlooking the fact that I can be rather unique. You may tend to do that as well. As a photographer, writer, film maker, I am all about communicating a designated POV. I decide what perspective a subject ought to be examined from, in order to best embrace a particular viewer-audience. This was one heckuva busy week. I shot a music video, BMX, a performance music video

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