26/52 ~ halfway

26/52 ~ halfway, a photo by heathre on Flickr.

I'm 37 1/2 this week - halfway to 38, halfway through my latest 52 weeks photo project ~ one self-portrait every week for a year.

On another (rambling, photo nerd) note - I went to an artist talk by Mary Ellen Mark last night at Reed college. As usual, I wish i would have taken notes or had a better memory. i want to take a workshop with her in Oaxaca - or Iceland! sigh. good stuff - i was suprisingly emotional on the drive home afterwards. it was interesting to hear her talk about the 'glory days' of photojournalism, the death of magazines and all that. basically no one will pay you to do 'stories' about anything other than war or disaster. She also addressed the criticism that it's 'mean' or cruel/exploitative to take pictures of people with disabilities etc - several of her projects (such as the iceland kids) focus on kids with serious disabilities - but she pointed out that the families often thank her - for including their kids and letting them be the 'focus' or a part of things. Letting other people 'see' them. She's also very much FILM/analog, doesn't shoot digital. talked a lot about having 'access' - much harder these days, people are more aware of the distribution (the whole world seeing the images via the web as opposed to in books or shows?). She said she could never do her Falkland Road (Bombay prostitutes) project now. What an amazing life and career - i just looked her up and she was born in 1940, so she's 71....