I’ve been finishing up a book on Santa Cruz California. The town is well known for it’s Boardwalk which includes an amusement park with an old wooden roller coaster and carnival games. It has a long history and is still a favorite destination among Northern Californians during the summer months. I came to find a cover shot or the Boardwalk but a wicked fog rolled in.
Benjamin, we want you to go to this restaurant in Los Angeles owned by a guy who has a skateboard signed by Tony Hawk. I know I know, it’s kind of a flat subject but bring back something a little different. We need a different vision. We’re tired of these standard restaurant shots with food and a smiling chef…
It seemed like every day since the Los Angeles Times announced layoffs this summer an email would appear in our inboxes. They all provided a personal glimpse into a once thriving industry….and today, shortly after one of the greatest photo editors in the country sent his final email, the newsroom erupted in applause as he walked out the door.
Here is the letter:
I am a very lucky man. I’ve spent the last 24 years at the Los Angeles Times as a photographer and a photo editor. I can tell you what it’s like in the eye of a typhoon, in a firestorm, under an offshore oil platform or the wrong side of the green line in Mogadishu. I know what a whale feels like and I’ve buzzed icebergs. I’ve had lunch with rock stars and seen President’s sweat. I’ve tried to get Carolyn Cole out of jail, even.
When I die, I hope I have a bag of popcorn, because if my life flashes by, it’s going to be a hell of a show.
Best of all, I’ve had the pleasure of your company. I can’t imagine a more engaging, talented and dedicated group of people anywhere. Years ago, I was cooling my heals at some news event next to a New York Times reporter who had worked here. She said, “Oh! The Los Angeles Times! The New York Times is warm on the outside but cold on the inside. The Los Angeles Times is warm on the outside and warm on the inside.”
Civility. Kindness. Fairness. Intelligence. These are the qualities that pervade the Los Angeles Times. Stay here for a while, and it get’s in your blood.
Those folks who pine for the demise of the gatekeeper media don’t know squat. What people really want out of the news business is a fair shake. We do that here. We worry about the truth and getting it right the first time.
There were 1,200 of us, but now there are a little more than half of that. I like to think that the Los Angeles Times is not so much diminished as dispersed. All those folks who have left the building still carry the Los Angeles Times spirit around with them. It’s my turn to join them.
I am a very lucky man.
Bob Carey
Good Luck Bob. Thanks for your guidance…enjoy the show.
He’s a junior in high school but USC and UCLA are already courting him to come play. He’s known for his speed but he should also be known for his personality. Woods was the nicest athlete I’ve come across in a long time. Complacent about his abilities and impeccable character…and he let me put a Little Red Riding Hood cape on him.
The LA Times gave me an assignment left over at the end of the day. It was interesting to say the least. I was walking around to photograph an overall of the Wilshire Restaurant and Bob Saget (Full House & Americas Funniest Videos) asked me not to photograph him. I didn’t recognize him at first but told him I wasn’t going to take his picture. He told me to pester the restaurant for some free food and later introduced himself to me in the lobby and apologized for potentially ruining any pictures. Nice Guy.
Protesters organized in downtown Los Angeles against illegal immigration and in support of Jamiel’s Law. Jamiel’s parents are right and left. Organizer Ted Hayes wants illegal immigration stopped due to job loss among african-americans and gang violence between immigrants and locals.
When I first visited Portland in November of 2007, I had the privilege of being on the set of an aspiring photographer, Alicia Rose, to view her rendition of a project called fairy tales. The photographer asked me to hold off posting my images from the set until her gallery of images had been displayed locally. This photograph was taken during a break in shooting using the modeling lights. This gives the photograph a different appearance than the image in the gallery due to the ambient light bleeding into the forest of Sauvie Island. This is my favorite from the series.
The best weekly in Portland, The Willamette Week, had me running around photographing locations for their annual drink guide. One of my favorite places to photograph was the Gilt Club in Northwest Portland. As a professional photographer you often want as much training as you can get shooting in a style that represents your vision, but you also need to get out of your comfort zone once in a while.
Editorial photography (essentially cheap advertising photography) is good training because you’re forced to make compelling images regardless of the location you’ve been assigned to. In some aspects it’s more difficult than advertising work as you’re not able budget for location scouts and assistants to help with lighting and props and you don’t have a second pair of eyes to make sure you’re thinking of everything. This is why I urge emerging photographers to shoot as many different styles and genres as possible. Inevitably what you learn in these other ventures will pay off when you’re problem solving in your higher end work. I found my prior experience photographing in dim situations as a photojournalist really helped me with this assignment. Lighting the scene was not an option. Hauling in lights would’ve disrupted business and given me unnatural expressions. In any case, the Willamette Week was happy with the body of work and I reinforced my ability to photograph in extremely low light. Play on playah.
