Jamaica + Haiti exhibit at Habana Outpost – Brooklyn NY [June 29 to July 13]
Last minute show after my quick but dense trip to Jamaica.
an instinctive edit.
Opening at Habana Outpost on Monday 29th of June. 6 to 9 pm
757 Fulton street in the Ft Greene section of Brooklyn NY.
pass it around
http://cafehabanablog.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113901361404&ref=nf
“A display of photos I took on my trips to Jacmel, Haiti and the West End of Jamaica.
In September I spent 2 weeks in the South East of Haiti. The town of Jacmel had been hit by 4 hurricanes. Food crops and many homes had been wrecked by storms and floods. I witnessed the daily life of different people. Daily struggle combined with dignity and passion.
This June I spent a week in the West end of Jamaica. The town of Negril with the contrast between the inclusive resorts with partying tourists and the peace of the countryside and the west end. I rented a bicycle and went over the mountains on the other side of the west end. I met people that shared food and stories. Windswept rocky coasts, goat trails and mountains with lush mango trees.
15 miles away from Negril, a different reality”
Prints will be for sale at affordable prices.
I will use part of the net profits to send some additional funds to Guerline Laguerre. A single pregnant Haitian woman I met on the beach in Jacmel.
I raised money through Facebook fundraiser so she could pay for a Cesarian section delivery as in Haiti health care is not free.
She now has a baby daughter she named Stefania and very little money for food.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43964902495
Another part of the sale will help me cover the costs to send photos back to all the nice people of Jamaica that showed me a bit of their lives. Many had no camera nor many photos of themselves. They loved the idea of having a good photo of themselves.
Haiti, La Font. Food distribution. Spaghetti lunch, Soccer team.
La Font, Haiti
September 16, 2008
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen.
People kept telling me they were hungry. I was in La Font , an hamlet up on the hills a few kilometers outside Jacmel.
The river had flooded and the hurricanes destroyed most of the banana crops.
The day had started early in Jacmel. 7 am coffee from the lady outside with my host Dodo and his friends. The judge from across the street wanted to take my picture. Photography was his hobby and had a few old computer in his house. Due to the state semi permanent blackout he could only use a few hours every few days.
A guy was wearing a “No Wave – Lower East Side” T shirt from the 80s. He could not understand why I wanted to take that photo. In Haiti I saw the most amazing T Shirts that probably here would be sold as vintage at Urban Outfitters.
So I took a moto taxi to La Font. 10 minutes of bumpy ride on uphill dirt roads.
The Haitian Red Cross was unloading big heavy bags of soy, a gift from Canada, to distribute to the hungry rural people of the area.
As I had press credential they told me at some point I could not shoot the operation.
I walked around, hungry people telling their story, willing to be photographed with a proud look on their face.
A family down the street had a small convenience store business. I liked their home painted light blue with white dots with the family tomb/mausoleum beside.
The daughter made some really good spaghetti for me. Al dente and spicy.
A local amateur soccer team stopped by. They mentioned Maradona’s ” Hand of God” referring to that goal he infamously scored at the World Cup in Mexico back years ago.
Their dream was to have a uniform for their team. Everyone at the moment could wear all different jerseys.
3000 Satmars at the Marriott, downtown Brooklyn
May 26, 2009
Marriott Hotel, Brooklyn, NY
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen [you can't watch the above flash slideshow on the iphone]
More than 3000 Satmar orthodox jews gathered at the Brooklyn Marriott to decry the real estate development in Toledo, Spain that threatens some very old jewish cemetery. Apparently the graves would be relocated and this is unacceptable to some orthodox Jews as graves should be left alone “for the eternity”.
Some view it as a way to erase Jewish historical presence in Europe. I wonder if the developers are just motivated by greed rather than ideology. These are sensitive issues and I can’t find an answer although I always feel it is a shame to destroy or deface symbols of the past.
A rabbi tells me it would be less sacrilegious to build on top of a cemetery rather than moving the graves. That for Jews and Muslim the resting place has to be left alone in peace. I think about cemeteries in Italy that after a few years the remains get collected and removed from the tomb and put in a smaller box in a little crypt. I think about that small Jewish-Portuguese cemetery in Chinatown that is a little patch in between residential buildings. And the issues with the African burial ground in downtown Manhattan.
A rabbi starts wailing and mourning for those dead 500 years ago in Spain.
More than 1000 Satmars are outside trying to get in but there is no room. The NYPD and security have to intervene.
Some hotel guests look very uncomfortable.
I find it a very interesting experience, and I find strange being the only photographer apart from the official hasidic one covering the event.
People at the beginning do not want to be photographed but then after a while they ask me for my card and if I can put these photos on my website.
Here is more info about the Jewish cemetery in Toledo
Memorial weekend Haitian parade
May 24, 2009
Nostrand ave, Brooklyn, NY
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen [you can't watch the above flash slideshow on the iphone]
Memorial weekend Haitian parade down on Nostrand ave.
Starts later than expected. some Rara bands play spontaneously on the sidewalk.
After 1 pm the floats start coming down Nostrand avenue.Many groups from Latin America like Colombia and Nicaragua.Women from Bangladesh selling Haitian flagsCops from the 67th precinct were overseeing without ruining the party, just empting some alcohol containers and anyway the smell of weed smoke was all over. I got a plastic sports bottle from the Census truck and filled it with a 16 oz Coors.
At these parades people really lower their defences and differences. Many want to be photographed and ask me if they can get copies. Some even offer money. But if someone does not have email it is a lot of work to get the images printed / dropped off or mailed.
At the end of the parade n Avenue D/Newwkirk ave there was spontaneous dancing and music playing. Kids could pet donkeys and goats and adults could buy fried goat or pork from the food vendor a few feet down the street.
Sonic Youth album release party
May 22, 2009
131 Chrystie st, New York , NY
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen [you can't watch the above flash slideshow on the iphone].
Sonic Youth’s The Eternal release party.
Art gallery at 131 Chrystie street in the lower east side. The chatter is louder than the music. Free indian beer and pizza slices from Two Boots.
Bands cover Sonic Youth songs at the bar downstairs but the nice evening after the long winter and cool wet spring makes me want to hang out in the street.
Photographers Richard Kern and Michael Lavine are there too.
I think I haven’t hanging out outside in the Lower East Side for a long time. It feels like it was a few years ago. This stuff now happens more in Brooklyn, apparently.
Clams, blunts, shots, sugar. Memorial Day weekend’s saturday
May 23, 2009
Brooklyn, NY
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen.
Cort club block party on Gerritsen ave, somewhere in between the Sheepshead Bay and Canarsie areas. Mostly Irish-American people + some with Italian or Scandinavian last names.
Veterans flags, lots of beer, clams and grill.
I always choose the Hot Dog over the frozen burger. A dad in a white top got a plate of fresh clams with red sauce over the blue plate.
He probably had a few beers, that really helped me getting a good shot.
On Nostrand ave and Ave D check what time the Memorial day Haitian parade starts. Cop is putting “No Parking” signs up. He tells me 11 and that I will be OK without the press credential as the officers of the 67th pct know me.
A few feet away some are drinking shots and smoking a blunt. “It’s the Memorial day weekend” one of them tells me with a smile.
A car stops. the girls in the back are excited about their new baby sister
Developer and union construction workers. May 21, 2009
May 21, 2009
Brooklyn, NY
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen.
Topping off of roof of building at 80 De Kalb avenue.
A construction by developer Bruce Ratner whose Atlantic Yards project is causing very polarized opinions in the media and among some Brooklyn residents.
The workers here are all Unionized and 20 percent of the building units are for lower income people.
Iron workers, carpenters, concrete workers wear different colors hard hats.
There is a huge crane on the roof of the tower that lifts huge and heavy buckets filled with concrete.
Sonic Youth. No Fun Festival. May 17 2009
Brooklyn NY
May 17, 2009
click play or use manual controls to view the slideshow. button to the right for full screen.
Sonic Youth at The No Fun Festival organized by Carlos Giffoni at the Williamsburg Music Hall.
Bill Nace joined the band as Lee was away.
Could not catch many bands as I had some very busy days with various assignments.
It was a night I would rather be home taking a hot bath than at some busy venue in Williamsburg.
Some guy downstairs was demontrating his synth and others were selling records. The Sonic Youth set was a wild jam of feedback and improvisation.
Stage was dark. Used 2 flashes with one a bit on the side on top a stage monitor. I could then see in the photos Thurston cut his hand somehow and his fingers were bleeding. Blood in the music.
