street – devtank

Seattle Viaduct

Posted on February 20, 2019 by devtank in Uncategorized

Last day of public access to the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle — The Alaskan Way Viaduct is a defunct elevated freeway in Seattle, Washington, United States, that carried a section of State Route 99 (SR 99). The double-decked freeway ran north–south along the city’s waterfront for 2.2 miles (3.5 km), east of Alaskan Way and Elliott Bay, and traveled between the West Seattle Freeway in SoDo and the Battery Street Tunnel in Belltown. The viaduct was built in three phases from 1949 through 1959, with the first section opening on April 4, 1953. It was the smaller of the two major north–south traffic corridors through Seattle (the other being Interstate 5), carrying up to 91,000 vehicles per day in 2016.[1] The viaduct ran above Alaskan Way, a surface street, from S. Nevada Street in the south to the entrance of Belltown’s Battery Street Tunnel in the north, following previously existing railroad lines. The viaduct had long been viewed as a barrier between downtown and the city’s waterfront, with proposals to replace it as early as the 1960s. Questions of the structure’s seismic vulnerability were raised after several earthquakes damaged similar freeways in other cities, including some with the same design as the viaduct. During the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the Alaskan Way Viaduct suffered minor damage but later inspections found it to be vulnerable to total collapse in the event of another major earthquake, necessitating its replacement. from- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Way_Viaduct

On street photography and behavior.

Posted on July 29, 2016July 29, 2016 by devtank in Personal Stories, Photography, Responsibility, Social Issues

I also live and shoot in Seattle and have done for 12 years. Seattle is possibly one of the most photographer friendly cities outside of NYC. It is also one of the best places I’ve worked for the most incredible light which lasts for 5 months of the year, and is peaking July to October.

Seattleites are pretty reserved and have become used to photographers, when I first started here there was about 3 or 4 regular downtown street photographers and two more who were both mail delivery people. By about 2010 there was about 15 regulars and now I don’t know.

My behavior on the street is that I walk to my spots with my gear on full view, and I’ll typically scan the scene for a few minutes and then as things appear I will shoot. I’ve recently been doing a lot more video work which involves a tripod and two lenses. I’ve had 2 people this summer stop and ask what I’m doing.

I basically go into a scene with an intent and respectful command, and I will just start working like there was nobody there at all. I’m an exceptionally shy person who has to bring up my reserves of confidence to actually do this at all, and it is even harder when someone stops to ask, but I can do that now and I do it very well. I made my introductions with beat cops, and explained what Im doing by making a half page flyer and handing it out after an introduction, along with my ID. Now they know that I’m there doing my thing, and if I ever get grief from anyone they already have a little background on me upfront.

Very very rarely will someone get huffy about having their picture taken (and usually people get upset if they think they have been singled out) and if so Ill stop, if Im wearing sunglasses, Ill take them off make eye contact and offer to shake their hand and explain that Im an artist and invite them to see what I’m doing. I’ll offer them a business card, a nice high quality card that says, yes I’m serious about this work.

I believe that if I’m going to ‘use’ people as my characters models whatever, then they have a right to know what I’m doing and invite them to be involved with viewing the work. I offer them cards most take them and I very very rarely hear from anyone afterwards, however, I do make a big deal about them going to the sites and looking at the work, to educate them on my ‘vision’ and what I’m trying to achieve.

Basically if you treat everyone that you are shooting, like they are gods, and that you wouldnt, or couldnt, be there, to do what you do, if it wasn’t for them, and you tell them that, then they will have a radically different attitude towards you next time. And it gets passed on to their friends also.
I always give my name first, if there’s a particularly warm vibe at the end of a conversation then you ask their name and offer to shake hands, and the next time they see you, you will get a nice smile or an amazing photograph.

A man climbed up to the top of the city center ornamental Sequoia, flanked by a small army of medics, police and fire services, some streets were blocked off for the 25 hour period.

At the end of the day nobody wants to feel as though they are being abused or exploited, and ultimately we as street photographers are exploiting them because they are there. But our job is to be emissaries and educators for our art.

Photography: 6 months of A’s, B’s and some C’s

Posted on April 24, 2016 by devtank in As Far as the Eye Can See, City, Indigenous Cerebral Identity, Memories, Photography, Seattle

Sometimes I just dont have other places to put my work, but the work continues regardless.

Darklife Series.

Darklife Series. 20160419.USA.©JO.SS.00124

Darklife Series.

Leprechaun.

Man, in the city.

Just before the Spring.

Political Event, Safeco Field Seattle

Political Event, Safeco Field Seattle George, is anticipating large crowds.

Sakuracon, Seattle.

A man in a tree is throwing apples at police.

Under discussion.

He said his name was Mario Andretti “not the race car driver”.

Inner Strength On the Streets.

Posted on March 23, 2016 by devtank in As Far as the Eye Can See, Awake & Aware, Awareness, City, Civil Rights, Communities, Conviction, Core Values, Discovery, Documentary, Eye of the Mind, Global Awareness, Identity, In My Head, inspiration, opportunity, Personal Stories, Photography, Responsibility, Seattle, Social Issues, Society, Soul of the Eye, Synaptic Connections, The System, Uncategorized, USA

I love and respect all of the people I photograph on the streets. I see you, and I see you in the fragmented moments when you are off guard, unaware, and existing in the space between consciousness and biology.
To my heroes, my street loves; my respect, always.

20160304.USA.©JO.SS.00086 — I simply cannot get over how robust and powerful this man is. So young and so beaten by life. He lost his leg, something to do with rotting bone from an infected wound.

20160322.USA.©JO.SS.00067 1 — A man climbed up to the top of the city center ornamental Sequoia, flanked by a small army of medics, police and fire services, some streets were blocked off for the 25 hour period.

20160315.USA.©JO.SS.00003 — Ive seen this gentleman, on a daily basis since I have been living here, 12 years. I have watched him slow down and degenerate from a feisty outspoken veteran in full military fatigues, to a feisty challenger of old age. He is the personification of defiance. I dont know him, but I love him for his strength.

20160304.USA.©JO.SS.00074 — I love the parallel of primal mothering in a modern civic environment.

20160304.USA.©JO.SS.00100 — She came up to me on the street and showed me the pictures she had taken with her phone. Quite astounding actually. A real sense of aesthetic, indicating a book far larger then its cover conveys.

Dublin

Posted on May 17, 2015 by devtank in As Far as the Eye Can See, Awareness, Belief, City, Civil Rights, Communities, Conviction, COPYRIGHT, Core Values, Culture, Diary, Documentary, Dreams, Eye of the Mind, Grumpy Old Men, Identity, inspiration, Ireland, Journal, Light, Memories, Personal Stories, River, Sights Sounds Senses, Social Issues, Society, Soul of the Eye, Soul of the Mind, Synaptic Connections, The Past, Tradition, Train, Transit, Travel

Family roots — My Aunt Eileen and my father discuss family roots. Skerries north Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Intercity views, north Co. Dublin — North Co. Dublin from the Dublin to Dundalk train.

Generation Gap. — Generation gaps prevail, Dublin City, Ireland. While Ireland awakens from stern austerity measures put in place by preceding governments the generation gaps appear as many of the immigrants from ireland came back in the mid 2000’s left again during the economic downturn, the economic migrants, many from former eastern bloc states the up the slack.

Cafe Doggy — The dog is part of the family.

The Gull Boy — “They come down from the Pheno” Referring to the Phoenix Park, at one stage Europe’s largest city park. Seagulls plane on the strong winds which funnel up the river Liffey. Dan Kavanagh stands on the Millennium Footbridge linking Temple Bar to Ormond Quay, commanding a flock of majestic gulls, with chunks of biscuit, like a scene from Irish mythology.

Got it at Guineys! — Guiney’s Dublin’s favorite everything store.

After School fun at blackrock baths. Dublin Ireland.

Takin’ the Bauler for a walk. Old town Dún Laoghaire.

Some Images from the last few months.

Posted on November 6, 2014 by devtank in As Far as the Eye Can See, Choice, City, Communities, Consumerism, Conviction, Culture, Diary, Discovery, Documentary, Dreams, Eye of the Mind, Identity, In My Head, inspiration, Journal, Photography, Seattle, Social Issues, Society, The System, Uncategorized

Amazing Environmental Audio from Maha Kumbh Mela

Posted on July 12, 2014July 12, 2014 by devtank in Allahabad, Ancient, As Far as the Eye Can See, Awareness, Baba, Belief, Communities, Conviction, COPYRIGHT, Culture, Discovery, Documentary, Dreams, Dust, Education, Eye of the Mind, Field Recordings, Ganges, Global Awareness, Grumpy Old Men, Hindu, Identity, India, inspiration, Journal, Krishna, Location Audio, Location Sound, Maha Kumbh Mela, Massive, Media, Medieval, opportunity, Personal Stories, Pilgrim, River, Sacred, Sangam, Sights Sounds Senses, Social Issues, Society, Soul of the Eye, Soul of the Mind, Synaptic Connections, Tradition, Travel

I’ve been back from India just over a year now, back living in the US and in that time its been a real struggle, both on a personal level and financially.
Looking back on that time, a half-year spent in India, thinking about it and thinking about how much I miss it, and yearn for the Utopian chaos to run through my veins once more.
I have edited my photography over and over trying to extract the essence of the experience. However the personal journey that India was to me, has obscured my objectivity, something that only time can distill.
I have started once again on the editing process, going back over the audio recordings I made, and in doing so, had an epiphany about the work. I realize that I have no choice but to go back to India, and capture more audio, this time with an expanded kit. And to dedicate much more time and effort into making quality environmental recordings.
Audio recordings offer a taste of reality that video and photography simply cannot touch. Where video has to be constructed to make a compelling presentation, and photography provides specificity, and depth, that depth is within just that contextual intimacy.
Audio offers a living reality of time based exploration. Audio treats the consciousness to a wide layered mental vision, one that the mind is intrinsically connected to, there is no learning to listen, whereas there is learning to read photographs.

This Location Sound during the Anup Jalota concert at Pilot Baba’s Ashram camp 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela, Sangam Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh India. I had decided to walk around the sector 9 area where the ashram was located, about 7 miles from the actual main bathing area.
You can hear all of the local sounds, and the far distant sounds of the millions (130,000,000 to be more accurate) of pilgrims who existed at the ‘city’. Headphones highly recommended. Sit back and enjoy the Mela as I did for thirteen minutes.

Just a reminder..

Posted on July 2, 2013 by devtank in Consumerism, COPYRIGHT, Core Values, Corruption, Documentary, India, inspiration, Ireland, Journal, Maha Kumbh Mela, Media, opportunity, Personal Stories, Photography, Responsibility, Seattle, Sights Sounds Senses, Synaptic Connections, Transit, Travel, Uncategorized, USA

To anyone who has in their possession any of my images, video or sound recordings, that I have not given anyone any permission or license to use any of my images, and no such permission or license shall be implied by their possession of digital or otherwise electronic analog or physical copies of any of my images, video, sound recordings, and that I trust none of my images will be incorporated into any work, and that my policy is to aggressively defend my copyrights to the full extent of the law.

If you do have copies of my images, video or sound recordings and want to use them for any reason, you must contact me before hand without exception.

FROM PUSHKAR TO BHOPAL

Posted on April 20, 2013May 4, 2013 by devtank in Ancient, As Far as the Eye Can See, Belief, Bhopal, Choice, City, Discovery, Documentary, Dust, Eye of the Mind, Goa, Grumpy Old Men, Hindu, Identity, In My Head, India, Indigenous Cerebral Identity, inspiration, Journal, Light, luck, Massive, Media, Medieval, opportunity, Personal Stories, Photography, Responsibility, Sacred, Sights Sounds Senses, Soul of the Eye, Soul of the Mind, Synaptic Connections, Tradition, Train, Transit, Travel

The heat becomes you. Heat dictates everything. Your life revolves around it. In extreme temperatures, anything above 38c, the body reacts differently, even for those who are used to heat. It takes over your actions, what you do, how you do it, when you do things where you do things, what you eat, what you drink, and how much of both. Heat mandates that you segregate everything and do those tasks in small amounts. Currently its averaging between 38c and 44c surprisingly enough I have been fine in the extremes. I have to wear socks in my shoes because my shoes become too hot for my skin, and in places where you are not allowed to wear shoes it is essential that you have socks on because the temperature of the ground is enough to dry spit in 20 seconds. It will make an ice cold 1L bottle of water hot –30c– in 20 minutes. Inside a car that is reduced to about 10 minutes. Its easy to print figures and say oh look its 44c outside, but its a different thing entirely to know how those figures actually behave in terms of what those figures mean

The decision to leave Pushkar was made for me by the enticing idea of working again on a project Im not allowed to discuss. Needless to say its a sensitive topic in India and lives are at stake, as well as our own freedom if it were discovered what we were trying to achieve in terms of truth telling through documentary.

This is probably the biggest current affair topic Ive worked on in the last decade, and it feels good to be back in the loop -hows that for ego?

Pushkar was ultimately a fulcrum point for me in terms of learning how to deal with a few things by my self. I spent 11 days there two of them were completely buried in unemployment bullshit from the US, Im still fighting that decision now after a year because it wont leave me alone. Im so over it that Im over being over it. Do much so that when it came to paying the bill in the SunSet hotel I thought Id only been there five days instead of seven.
I also went through a period of self reflection and spent a few days meditating on matters. Something brought me clarity. After that I started meeting interesting people. There is nothing like silence for three days to really make you think. My sweet friend Isil from Istanbul who I met in Varanasi went on a retreat for that very same purpose but did it for ten days, and what she said she got from it was life changing. Im changing my opinions on meditation. Meditation is different from alone time. Alone time to me is something that I have to have, its time to do my shit anything I want for a period of time every day. I need it or I go nutso, but i know that a small doses are better then big doses, makes you appreciate that time more.

Pushkar was also a challenge for me in that I had to stand up for the things I believe in and accept that those beliefs clashed with the beliefs of others, and with that discourse has to be opened to find common ground. I spent a day with a fantastically independent free thinking woman named Daisy who rambled with me for many hours on many topics and in that period opened my eyes to things I hadn’t even begun to think about. Her ideas rattled me and made me think hard about derivatives of those sentiments.

Pushkar is tiny, and you could see everything in a day and a half, but its so relaxing that I had to stay, sit and soak in the heat the light and the silence of the mid afternoon sun. I never did trek up any of those hills like I wanted to, but Im not really that bothered. The place gave me something else instead and I’m more then happy with that.

It was surprizingly easy to get a ticket out in the end. I had been trying to get a ticket for a few days and I kept going to these rat-hole travel “agents” that tell you that they cant get you anything for whatever reason. Finally I went to the highstreet guy and he instantly got me an express train directly from Ajmere to Bhopal, 5pm departure 6am arrival. Bingo. I got on the train, bedded in, played videogames for a few minutes fell asleep and woke up in Bhopal. How perfect is that?

Arriving back in Bhopal again, was a little strange but it gave me confidence, because the city the first time was a bit intimidating for me arriving in India, and this time around it was familiar and the people here are definitely more relaxed, have a great sense of humour and dont try and rip the tourists off because nobody comes to bhopal for tourism, so Im Mr Exotic Noveltypants again. Its dominated by Indian Muslims, and after being in Hindu dominated places for two months, I can honestly say that Islamics are definitely more grounded and have less conflict within the religion then Hindu seems to. Also the food is better.

ME MATE STeve said i would just for the crack.

an indian menue in restaraunts are notorious for the most imagintive phonetic spelling of english words. Ive seen Shup on the menu, and when I asked the witer, he said ‘Soup” through a bushy mustache and mouth full of mangled red teeth, and with an indian broken english. Magic.
The best one Ive never sen was told to me by a neighbour in pushkar, guy names Lance who was a 63yo guy who looked 52, his buddy steve and their wives. they were totally great, I loved the reconnect to old times through these guys.
Lance told me that in one restairant he was here the spelling for ice Cream was all perfect except the last one which was two seperate words “Black Krunt”.

I think that takes the cherry.