Key Words - Oversees Factor

Entered two photo competitions, mostly due to prodding from my publisher to beef up my - hell I don't know what you call it - pedigree? CV? List of shit?

Had dinner with two very good friends and their new, little (that's redundant) baby. Mexican, which I seem to be drawn to lately. Although it didn't even come close to approximating "Taco Time."

Nothing does, for that is holy.

Was mostly absent through the evening. Focus was a problem.

Watched Saturday Night Live. Laughed twice. A re-run that I'd not seen from two (?) weeks ago.

Going back through your archives is both painful and exhilarating, same as looking through your current work. Flaws are apparent as are some missed gems.

Had a waking nightmare that my place caught fire and all the negatives melted. Gotta do something about off-site storage. But it's a LOT of stuff. Gigs...

Pollen, the atmospheric pressure, pharmaceuticals, worry, missing my girl and nonsense are clouding my judgment.

Should just let it all happen.

I want some more, and then some.

Cover Star: Naama, from our first shoot. She told me that it looked like her mother. And there's a story there...
Headlining Band: The greatest living guitarist, period.

www.jamesmgraham.net

You Probably Could Tell Me By My Black Attire

Perhaps there'll be an official portrait...

Cover Star: Grant Hart @ The Cake Shop, earlier tonight
Headlining Band: Nova Mob, long out of print

www.jamesmgraham.net

Boots

I like boots.

I really do.

Cover Star: Kelly's boots
Headlining Band: The Ms and the Ps

www.jamesmgraham.net

To Disappear Forever

Is appealing...

Cover Star: Marzena
Headlining Band: Lonnie Johnson

www.jamesmgraham.net

Letter

You've just now gone.

I think I am learning a lot about you. I may be wrong, but allow me this: It is easier for you to speak in this way than to...speak.

I am gonna listen for a while...

Cover Star: A Fire Escape
Headlining Band: Mr. L and Ms. H

www.jamesmgraham.net

When All The Noise Is Gone...

...I am the luckiest motherfucker in the world.

And all I want in life, is for the fucking noise to go away.

Cover Star: The BK
Headlining Band: Longwave

www.jamesmgraham.net

First We Take Manhattan...

...then we take Berlin.



You with me, baby?

Cover Star: RCMH
Headlining Band: Mr. Cohen

www.jamesmgraham.net

It's Pronouced "Knife"

Went to the New York Photo Festival (NYPF) today with my publisher and friend for the second year in a row. In DUMBO.

I started with two tacos and two margaritas.

Mostly everything fell into two categories. A) Derivative. Of Eggleston, McGinely, Crewdson, and that ubiquitous photographer called Crap, and B) War Photo Journalism, which is great, but when you literally see three exhibits totaling 1,000 photos of war victims and shit, it becomes a bit much.

Also, as my publisher pointed out, the NYPF is not New York Photographer centric - most of the work was International, which is cool. But, so, where do we have to go, Istanbul? Sometimes I felt like an ugly American. Sometimes I felt a little infringed upon.

Sigh.

So we made an effort to see everything, talked amongst ourselves about what we had seen, and soldiered on (pun intended).

We ended with two tacos and two margaritas. And tried to strategize. This business is a big black hole full of who knows who and money money money and taste. However relative that taste is. Actually, that's the most honest thing about it. And the most frustrating.

Individual taste.

If I was curating an exhibit for the NYPF, I'd pick exactly what I wanted to. Every single fucking time until I was relieved of my duty.

We live in strange times. "Everyone" has a "camera."

Talent didn't seem to matter. Snapshots mattered, as well as graduate school banalness.

I think I just made up a word.

Kudos to Rosa at Pedro's. She'll take care of you on a Saturday.

And she has nothing to do with banality.

It's raining in Brooklyn.

Cover Star: Casillero del Diablo
Headlining Band: Alex at his peak

www.jamesmgraham.net

Tilde

For my lovely sister.

It's nice that when you get closer, you get older.
It's nice that when you get older, you get closer.

~

For my girl, too.

Ditto.

Cover Star: CD
Headlining Band: Gene and Dean

www.jamesmgraham.net

Just Dance To The Music

Or Hoppity Hop to it!

Cover Star: Ari
Headlining Band: Mr. Lennon, rehearsing for "Double Fantasy."

www.jamesmgraham.net

Instrumental

No words.

Other than these...

Be brave. Don't be scared. Don't hide behind your hypocrisy. Or the Internet or whatever. Be steadfast. Be respectable. Have chops. Have talent. Don't pass judgment. Put lipstick on. Cavort. Tell yourself that you would fuck you. And do it. Hard. Do not, under any circumstances, be pathetic. Or a pussy. Or someone that feels the need to provoke, attack, or create drama. And especially - always tell the truth to those that you love.

I've learned this lesson recently.

But this is not about me.

Have a nice day.

Somewhere over there...far, far away from here.

Cover Star: Anna applying lip stuffs
Headlining Band: Mono

www.jamesmgraham.net

If The Cold Doesn't Kill Her, Money Will

"I read a magazine
It said by seventeen
Your life is at an end
I'm dead
And I'm perfectly content."

Ahhh, those fucking Gainsbourgs...

Lyrics, I think, by Jarvis Cocker.

When Rich and I were in Seattle about two years ago shooting tests for the Seattle agencies, we used to put this record on to fall asleep to every night. Kind of cute, hunh?

Except for the fact that Rich had photographed Charlotte when she was a kid, with her famous parents, Serge and Jane. I've seen the photos and they are - amazing.

I think he got a little teary a couple of times while it was playing. In fact, I know he did.

Rich, I cannot thank you enough for everything.

But that is something I'll never forget.

Cover Star: my charlotte
Headlining Band: Charlotte

www.jamesmgraham.net

Memorizing Torsos

So, I said I wouldn't sue her.
Even though I have a great lawyer.

Cover Stars: Lisa & Lars
Headlining Band: X

www.jamesmgraham.net

A Fag Hag And A Dope Fiend

Cover Star: Anna's Kit
Headlining Band: Mark

www.jamesmgraham.net

The Tide Makes All Our Decisions For Us

Friends are underrated.

Friends who understand.
REAL friends.
They are FEW and FAR BETWEEN.
Trust me on this one...

There are five police cars in front of my apartment right now. It's not me, they are here for two doors down. Something about someone being barricaded in... I think it's domestic violence or maybe, if we're lucky, just a hostage situation.

I don't know and truth be told, I don't really care.

I got other shit on my mind.

Cover Star: Moi
Photographer: Stuart Levine
Headlining Band: Einstürzende Neubauten

www.jamesmgraham.net

Lonely Joy

An oxymoron.

I think.

Wonder what Nikola Tesla thought? About lonely joy. I don't know, but I hope he knew that he embodied it.

This photo was taken in 1899 and is a double exposure, thank god. But he is there, with his self-manufactured lightning, alone, reading.

What a great fucking self-portrait.

Think about that: self-manufactured lightning. When's the last time you did that?

The difference between lighting and lightning is just an "n."

One could argue that there is joy in being alone, but that's not the same thing as being lonely.

I don't know what I'm after right this second, except to say that I know tons of lonely people, some good, some bad.

And I feel that way too, from time to time.

But mostly, I miss.

My best friend.

Cover Star: Tesla
Headlining Band: Mr. Eitzel

www.jamesmgraham.net

Noise

Cover Star: Ari
Headlining Band: Flaming Lips

www.jamesmgraham.net

Radio Silence

Some Of Them Smile And It's OK

"We shuffle back and forth with decisions all made
We put them in our yearly cakes and eat down to the crumbs

Our watery eyes are pools of light
that water has no good use for

Oh Constance my bride buried in your silver locket
Plums driven into your electric socket
A song that time always builds
Look look look"

- Mark Eitzel, "Watery Eyes"

Cover Star: Cristi
Headlining Band: AMC

www.jamesmgraham.net

Go

I am available for children's parties.

Sorry, Bill...

Cover Star: Isabella
Headlining Band: Cottonhead

www.jamesmgraham.net