Chasing Light

Sebastião Salgado | Churchgate Station

doug — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:59:56 +0000

I work only in 35mm format. I have a small bag so I can carry all my films with me for one or two months. That means I am completely independent and free.

-Sebastião Salgado

Click for larger image.

Church Gate Station, Bombay, Inida 1995 © Sebastião Salgado

Union Square | Buskers

doug — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:02:58 +0000

Nikon D300, 35-70mm Nikkor, SB-800 Speedlight.

Buskers, Union Square © Doug Kim

Union Square | Free Cocaine

doug — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:09:58 +0000

I was standing outside Steak Frites on 16th Street, smoking a cigarette, waiting for my friend to come out when a well-dressed gentleman exited the restaurant and asked me if I wanted to take some coke off his hands. Sure. Why not? Those days were long over for me but free is free. Coke is just the rich man’s coffee but I have rich friends that wouldn’t have minded a gift bag. He said that he had too much and that he and his wife were fighting. He palm passed it to me and on cue, his wife appeared and gave me the stink eye.

Free drugs on the street. What kind of town is this? But no worries. On the way to meeting my friends in the LES on Friday night, I actually lost the little glassine bag and my Klipsch ear bud headphones somewhere on Houston near the F train.

What a moron.

Free cocaine. Someone got a gift on Houston St. last night

Henri Cartier-Bresson | Germany, Part One

doug — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:52:55 +0000

Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.

-Henri Cartier-Bresson

HAMBURG, West Germany—Around the neck of a young man hangs a sign that reads, "I am looking for any kind of work," December 1952-January 1953. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

DESSAU, Germany—A transit camp, located between the American and Soviet zones, was organized for refugees, political prisoners, POWs, forced laborers, and displaced persons returning from the Eastern front of Germany after having been liberated by the Soviet army. A Belgian woman and former Gestapo informer, being identified as she tried to hide in the crowd, April 1945. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

MUNICH, West Germany—Oktoberfest, 1961. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

HAMBURG, West Germany—December 1952-January 1953. © Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos

Los Angeles | Culver City

doug — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:39:48 +0000

The intersection of Sepulveda and Washington Boulevards in Culver City fifty years ago. I’ve driven through this intersection a thousand times. It could use a rocket ship and a big ass donut again.

LOS ANGELES—The corner of Sepulveda and Washington Boulevards in Culver City, 1960. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos

San Simeon | Ragged Point

doug — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:27:12 +0000

Nikon D300, 80-200mm Nikkor.

Ragged Point © Doug Kim

André Kertész | Landing Pigeon, New York, 1960

doug — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:37:36 +0000

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André Kertész | Landing Pigeon, New York, 1960

This was taken around 59th Street where they had demolished the houses, and I saw a pigeon flying in and out. The original idea for this photograph dates back to my days in Paris, where I also saw some old run-down houses and wanted to photograph them with a pigeon. But the pigeon never came. Here in New York I sat and waited. Time and time again I went back to the same place, but it was never right. Then one day I saw the lonely pigeon. I took maybe two or three pictures. The moment was here. I had waited maybe thirty years for that instant.

-André Kertész, Kertész on Kertész

Nashville, Tennessee | Dominican Drive

doug — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:45:51 +0000

There were a bunch of people hanging out in front of this local corner mart as I pulled up. It was early evening in the summer, that great time between the days chores and the night’s revelry. There was a group of guys that I wanted to shoot, smoking and lounging by their cars but they were extremely wary of me as it was obvious I was an outsider. I walked up to these girls instead and started chatting, shooting a few frames as the group of guys dispersed quickly in their cars.

I did not get the shots I wanted but I had a good time hanging out and talking with these girls on a sticky summer evening.

Leica M6 TTL, 35mm Summicron, Agfa APX 400.

Encino | Pedlow Skatepark

doug — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:07:39 +0000

Pedlow Skatepark in Encino has a great, massive and roomy keyhole bowl, a large street course, a super tight, shallow snake run and some horseshoes in the street area. There is unfortunately no tree cover and subsequently no shade in the entire park so summer afternoons are brutal. It is near a school also so after 2PM, watch out for the flying groms.

Shot for National Lampoon. I do not remember the significance of the white wicker elephant but this guy had a nice layback air.

Murray Hill | 34th Street

doug — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:07:38 +0000

Nikon D300, 35-70mm Nikkor.