May 2012

In 1968 I was in high school when the Democratic convention took place here in Chicago. Over the next 2 or 3 years, the anti-war movement shaped my world view, and, I think in a way, made me the person that I am today. The eloquence of the people responding to the war and many other social issues helped me become a thinking (hopefully) and caring person and to always strive to learn.

So now we move forward to 2012, and the NATO summit in Chicago last weekend. Some observations:

The chant kept on going up that “The whole world is watching” but no one said anything. Seems to me that if the whole world is, in fact, watching, people should have something to show them! Seems that for the most part, the demonstrations were just a couple of thousand people milling about pointlessly through the streets of Chicago being photographed and videotaped by another couple of thousand people. They missed a great opportunity- each demonstrator could have had their own personal photographer! The police presence was so great that there was no room for an audience. So the audience became the television cameras, and nobody had anything to say. Until a group calling themselves Black Bloc decided to attack the police, nothing really happened. Then the Black Bloc people got arrested and the rest of the crowd continued to mill around for no reason. AND… if the Black Bloc people were so radical, why were they all wearing masks? Do they not have the courage of their convictions to show their faces?

There were two great small demonstrations that proved that some people in this movement have something to say and know how to say it. In the middle of the proceedings, the demonstrators gathered around a small stage near the NATO meetings and about 40 Iraq and Afghan war veterans stepped up to the microphone one at a time, denounced the war and the branch of the military that they served in. They each then ripped the medal of valor they had received off of their uniforms and tossed them over a fence behind them. This was the perfect statement for this place and time. Around the same time, a group of doctors and nurses marched to the Mayor’s house and demonstrated against the closing of mental health facilities in the Chicago area. Although this had nothing to do with NATO, they hijacked the process and spoke out intelligently about the problems.

So there were a few moments of clarity in the jumble that was NATO.

I will try to not get too depressing today, but three people that I have worked with passed away in the last two weeks.

About a month ago, I shot my third CD cover for Michael Burks, and Arkansas blues guitar player on Alligator. A nicer man you would never meet. He put up with anything we threw at him (including lighting about 50 sticks of incense in a bowl behind him to simulate a smoke machine). The last one was him standing in one position for about 2 hours playing guitar. He never complained! After our shoot, he left the next week for a European tour. When he returned from Europe, he collapsed and passed away from a heart attack.

Early last week word came from Japan that Donald “Duck” Dunn had passed away on tour. He was the backbone of Booker T and the MG’s for many years, played bass for the Blues Brothers Band in the 1980’s, and recently spent a lot of time touring with Neil Young. During one of those Neil tours, my friend Dan, the owner of Lakland Guitars brought him over to my house for a shoot. Most of the shoot was spent telling stories about people we all new (and he pretty much knew everyone) and a little time was spent on actual photography!

Later this last week brought the news of the passing of Donna Summer. I photographer her a few times, once in the early 1980’s, and once a few years ago. Her voice was amazing, and her stage presence was outstanding. I don’t think she ever got her due- she was always pegged as a disco singer, although I always thought of her as a great soul singer (in the same league as Chaka Kahn and others).

If more people thought of her that way, I think her career would have gone in a better direction

I have always been of the opinion that the only tangible product of my career is my intellectual property. I protect my ownership of such with all I have got. It seems that in the music world, especially in the hip hop world, the same thing is the case. This week there was an interesting article about a Chicago based hip hop duo called Flosstradamus, who created a new song “focusing on their own compositions” and licensed it to a label who released it as a 3 song EP for free on some of their websites. There plan always was to release free music, and then compile a set of those songs and sell the CD’s. They do not include anything with samples in the music for sale, and feel that if they give the songs away for free, they are not breaking copyright laws. BUT NO!!! Of course it is a violation of the law. It doesn’t matter if you make money off of the song, you are still stealing someone else’s copyrighted music. I think thaqt it was great that a Netherlands based electronic musician named Dutch Master sent a cease and desist order to the record company, who were surprised that they were made to take the song down, because, of course,  they weren’t making money from the song!!

The one thing that the writer of the article didn’t mention- and to me the most ironic part of the discussion- was this:

Flosstradamus, who were “focusing on their own compositions” used a sizable chunk of the melody from Dutch Master! Is this what they mean by their own compositions? WOW, maybe they should learn how to write some of their own songs from start to finish.

In May of 1985, I was photographing Madonna. The opening act was a bunch of kids jumping around on stage and rapping. They were called the Beastie Boys, and boy did they suck! I didn’t bother talking any pictures of them. When I went to my car after the show, they were sitting on the hood of the car next to mine. I asked them to pose for a few pictures and they immediately jumped on their car. I took a few photos and left.

A few years later, in March of 1987, I got a call from my friend Steve, a New York publicist. He asked me to do a shoot with the Beastie Boys. Budweiser had asked them not to use their beer on stage, as they thought the band was not an appropriate vehicle for their fine brew. So Steve wanted me to photograph them “auditioning” a new beer for the tour. I showed up at sound check, set up in the balcony, and waited for the guys. When they arrived, I asked them if they could possibly direct the spray away from my camera equipment. Bad move!! They proceeded to shake up and open about 50 beers, aiming most of them directly over my head. My lights and camera smelled like beer for about a year. Loads of fun!!!

By the time 1992 rolled along they were not a party band any more, but a serious politically motivated band when I did my last shoot with them.

They then stopped letting photographers shoot them (sounds like a broken record) and I never saw them again.

My last contact was a year ago. Someone from Oscilliscope Laboritories contacted me. They said that they were a documentary film production company, and their president had found a portrait that I had taken of William S. Burroughs many years in the past. He loved the photo and wanted to use it is the packaging for a documentary they were releasing. We agreed on terms, I sent them a scan, and a month later one of the most beautifully designed DVD packages I have ever seen arrived in the mail with my image spread across two pages in the center of the fold out package! The owner of that company was Adam from the Beastie Boys.

Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys lost his battle with cancer this week.