TEARSHEETS!!!!!!!

On line is my tearsheet section. Please have a look and see some of my work in print!

www.marcpix.com

1997-2008

My father once used to brag about all the countries he went to with the Army. Lots of those new people my father encountered wanted to kill him and his buddies but thats the nature of traveling with the military. My travel adventures, on the other hand, (Central America, Mexico, Asia, Europe, etc...) rarely took the form of digging trenches and eating c-rations, although many of the things I ate made my father's MREs into candy. Dog, anyone?

My first encounters with Tokyo were absolutely amazing...nothing could have prepared my little shallow San Antonio mind for the mind blowing excitement of Tokyo. Bright lights, big city! So many people whose faces were so different than mine, fashion, trains, buildings, signs written in Japanese and none of it I could read! It was all so different. One of the most striking facets of Tokyo life was the barrage of advertisements: from neon billboards toting the newest J-Pop stars, to beer, to tea, to cell phones...endless amounts of selling in every imaginable place. And everything was larger than life ads. Huge photos pasted on walls, subway halls, hoisted on building, gleaming with that language I still can't understand. So unique. My first photo travails with my Nikon allowed me to capture and record human reaction with such advertisements. How small and little we are compared to these larger than life ads.


Shinjuku Station, 1997

I snapped this beer ad shot in Shinjuku Station and at the time it was the "cats meow." The ad for Suntory beer features a Japanese baseball player named Kiyohara. The sign translates roughly into "It tastes good...how about one?" "Supah Mah gu nam Duur eye! (Super Magnum Dry--I had to do the accent.)

At the time, I though I couldn't have taken a better photo. The timing, emptiness...the image itself growled back at me. I though I knew so much about photography and myself and I was ready to launch a career. But as I now work on a new portfolio showcasing images from Tokyo over a 10+ year experience, I quiet a different story and view.

While editing and choosing new images, I came across the original negatives (YES NEGATIVES!) and I re-edited the image. There were so many different angles I didn't blink an eye at and actually forgot about the scene.



My editings led me to see a variation of different scenes. Different angles, different thoughts. An unfamiliar look at what I though was one of my better images.



Mysterious blurs, people ghosting in the shot. I wasn't sure why my original "cat's meow" doesn't strike me any longer but maybe its my growth as a person, my experiences, all the things that have made me into a professional. I don't know.



My hero shot would now take a back seat to the others I think duly take the winning slot as a moment.


June 2008, Shinjuku Station

Oddly enough, my last trip to Tokyo this past May produced a very familiar image. It is not as if I though to frame this image as such but the poster, the look on the model, and the motion of the blurry Japanese girl truly captures a moment in Shinjuku Station Essentially its the same shot as my original. Different time, different medium, different me. Yet something struck me again about my life and how experience has defined me in my mid 30s'.

I remembered an amorous letter I wrote long ago during a trip away which I prosed the following: "...the only thing I can share with you while I am so far away is the moon... as it will always be the same... no matter where you are...the moon is always the same..." or some insane dribble about something or another. I doubt the validity of what I wrote back then but it made sense but it was the musings of a young romantic. A romantic before the reality of life took hold. (What? Charm can't get me through life?) I though U2, rum, and a dirty school bus trip through Nicaragua defined it all.

I guess what I am trying to get at is no matter how much I have changed as a person, I am still like the moon...meaning I am still me. I haven't changed nor has my view changed on what I see. Experiences have made me different but I am still me. I still see what I do and I capture what I want. Do I ever miss photos when I don't have a camera, do I miss moments? Sure but it doesn't matter cause I wasn't there to capture it.

So whether or not my moon musing holds water, I guess I do still am the same, see the same and shoot the same, sharing the same views as I once did with someone so long ago. Maturity and vision could be one in the same but then again...

Four on the Fourth

Last week, I put a roll of color film into my camera and didn't finish the roll before it got dark and kept the film in for next time. For that week the film lived in the camera, I was completely anxious and obsessed about seeing what I had shot. I did get about 14 images on the roll before it got too dark and left but I wanted to see it!

We've all forgotten (for good measure in many cases) the anticipation, and for some, the anxiety of having a half roll of film left in the camera. I didn't want to take the film out and waist the unused half. Penny pinching is important at times and film isn't cheap. Digital photography has taken away all this good (and bad) anticipation on waiting with excitement to see your images on the light table. You can see immediately your images on the back of the digital camera which in many ways has taken away the excitement of photography.

Imagine this...you take your film camera out, you see the shot of the day, you focus, snap, and smile. Now you got 35 more frames on that roll before it goes to the lab. Sadly, the sun goes down and you can't shoot anymore today. Throughout the week, you take more pictures hopping to get to the end. 12 frames, 22, frames, 33, 34, 35...oh finally! The end. After six days, you finally take the film out of the camera. You pull it out, get to the lab...the lab's machine is down until tomorrow morning. Argh! You drop it off while you curse under your breath and obsess about that first frame you shot...obsess all through the night. Its it sharp, was the exposure dead on, did she blink? On and on and on...

Next morning you get up thinking about frame one. After coffee and breakfast you are still obsessing. The lab doesn't start their first processing till 8am. Your film won't be ready till noon. Wait and watch the clock. Wait....wait...and finally, you get in the car and rush over to the lab. Pay your money and run home.

Rush inside, throw the film on the light table and bam! There it is...the shot!



This shot of the four teens on the wall at Waikiki struck me cause of the moment, time and place. Its really nothing special other than the moment in my eyes.

But the most important think about this image was the time waiting to see it. The simple anxiety of waiting to see your work that you took all so long ago. And like I said, looking at the back of my digital camera doesn't offer the same fun.

4th part 2

Went down to Waikiki with the Leica, the 35mm, and a pocket full of film. Actually it was only three rolls of film.



I came across two women lounging in the sand when I spotted their tiny little baby wiggling on the blanket. His size, serenity and pale skin amazed me. All this stuff was going on around him and he dozed away as if nothing else mattered.



Seeing what I shot most often than not is beyond me. What I mean is sometimes, the mechanics of photography, the focus, composition, etc...just flow around me and disappear into the mist of my subconscious. Yes, yes...this sounds like a bit of bull but I can't explain why I see and capture what I do. After getting film back from the lab and doing my edits, I find myself sometimes returning to this unique archetype of style that I see. I took an art class in University and the professor would remark at my graphical sense of composition. It was stuff I never understood or studied but opened my eyes to see what I saw.

Does that make sense?

Why I am struck by this picture of the kid crawling under the rails is not so much the starkness of the ocean, the emptiness of the beach, but the lines that all form and fall into place. I didn't see it...it wasn't as if I lined up the camera this way. It just happened. Something subconscious took place inside my head and I just pulled up the camera and snapped.



These two girls were watching the multitudes of swimmers swelling away in the surf near Queen's Beach. It was a nice day and the light fell really nice on them.



Now this girl was classic...she was a bit of an odd ball and I have seen her around a few times...at least I think I have. She's covered in a few tattoos and she was parading around in a very very tiny string bikini. Her front didn't leave much to the imagination either. We came across her and I first thought she was completely naked. Nudity isn't de rigueur on the beach nor are Brazilian bikinis. Most girls are a bit more modest if modesty counts on the beach and wear fairly fleshy suits but she really kicked it up a notch.

She was chatting with some guy entranced by her peep show. She must have known her g or string or what ever its called was slowly advancing to the point of no return. She couldn't have cared less. Neither did he.

4th

Fireworks at Ala Moana Park seen from my downtown digs...

talking

Waikiki, 2008