11. September 2008 by Max.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I thought it said something in there about the press.

Apparently Mr. Kanye West and his cohorts haven’t read the Bill of Rights. Actually, they haven’t even started reading it!

Mr. West decided to start his Sept. 11 by scuffling with photographers at LAX this morning. He and his body guard grabbed cameras from photographers and smashed them into the ground. The photographers were shouting for police the entire time.

The advantage the paparazzi media has is that they travel in herds. While one photographer is being assaulted there is always another one to catch it on video. Luckily, this case was no different.

 Kanye’s rampage

The videographer talked about what happened once the cameras were off. After the police arrived and separated the involved parties, apparently one of the officers asked to see the video. As the videographer was about to show him, Kanye charged him demanding for his tape.

 The videographer speaks out

This really irks me because of next clip. Clearly Kanye and his crew do not understand the first amendment. It may not be a bad idea to make all celebrities and entertainers to take a first amendment law class.

 Don’t tape me or I’ll sue

 I guess this should have been expected. He expresses his hatred for the paparazzi in his song, “Flashing Lights.”

“I get a call, like where are you deezy
I tried to hit you with the o wokie
Till I got flashed by the paparazzi
Dang these n****** got me
I hate these n****** more than nazis”

I don’t understand why Kanye (and other celebs for that matter) don’t want the paparazzi around. It’s free publicity. They all want their face on the cover of every newspaper and magazine. Don’t you have to have your picture taken to have it printed somewhere?

Kanye has nearly no expectation of privacy. He is a public figure. He is in the spotlight by choice. If he doesn’t want the attention, he should get out of the industry and stop assaulting photographers.

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11. September 2008 by Max.

Yes. It is two in the morning. The perfect time to continue the throwback series!!

The summer after I graduated high school, I took a trip with five other recent graduates, a former teacher and his wife. We debated on where we wanted to go but we decided on Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. We were there for two weeks.

This was my first time out of the country. Here I was, 17 years old and ignorant to the world.

I don’t know how many rolls of film I shot. All I know is that I have contact sheets for film that I cannot find! NOT GOOD! Luckily, I also have a lot of digital images from the trip.

I entered one of my images into the Smithsonian Magazine photo contest the the following winter.

Days before the final day of notice, I received an email. At first, I thought it was a “we regret to inform you” letter. As I kept reading, I found out that my image was selected as an honorable mention. It was in the top 150 entries out of over 35,000 images entered from around the world. That was pretty cool.

Now that I have had some time to go through some of the negatives, I have found some of my favorite images from the trip. Like this one!

While my trip to Thailand was great, it was only a trip. When I was living in Shanghai for five months, it gave me a tremendous opportunity to make beautiful images.

One of my favorite images from China was shot in Longsheng. To get to this city from Shanghai, my friend Gavin and I took a train for 29 hours southwest. From there, we got on a boat for another six hours. After the boat dropped us off, we had to take buses and trucks for another few hours up the mountain. When we got to the base of the town, we had to hike for another few hours up the mountain on a narrow path. It wouldn’t have been bad at all other than the fact that it was midnight when we were climbing this path.

When we got to the village, after we taught a few Chinese people how to play the card game Uno, we hit the sack. We were getting up at 5am to see the sunrise come over the mountain side. There was only one problem. It rained all morning. The fog was so dense that we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us. After waiting for five hours, the fog cleared for a brief moment and a mountain appeared out of the clouds in the background and I snapped my shutter. This is what I got.

While I was going back through some of my film, I found a black and white image that I shot at the same location.

Most of my time in China was spent in Shanghai. I went to many different temples and pavilions. So many that I can’t identify which one is which. I believe this next image was in Shanghai somewhere. It was shot on a lucky roll of infrared film. This roll went through the x-ray machine in Beijing and appears to have no ill effects.

More to come…

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2. September 2008 by Max.

In the last few weeks, I have once again discovered that I have a massive archive of negatives. Since I had some time on my hands, I decided to start scanning some film.

This is a unique opportunity for me. I am able to show everyone never before seen images that I shot all around the world. I don’t even remember seeing some of these images! It is very cool.

Since it is my birthday today, I decided to start off with an image I shot at my 17th birthday party. The legendary “Scary Cake.”

The story goes that my mom had made me a chocolate cake. When I removed the candles, this face was left in it. Before anyone touched the cake, knife or any of the surroundings, I snapped a frame.

I was shooting chromes on my dads Pentax ME SUPER for my photo 2 class my senior year of high school. We were doing Polaroid transfers and emulsion lifts. The final product is hanging framed in my moms kitchen.

On a less horrifying note, I also found the negatives from the first roll I ever shot for a class assignment. One part of the assignment was to photograph an old chair. I took a chair and set it next to a mostly glass door. The next thing I knew, I had a pretty cool picture of a chair.

That just goes to show you that any subject CAN be photogenic.

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12. August 2008 by Max.

My friends Lauren Kirkwood and Jonathan Fournier decided they wanted to grow up and get married.

For some odd reason, they asked me to photograph their wedding. I told them, “You know I don’t like shooting weddings, right?”

They acknowledged and still didn’t care. They wanted me to shoot it. How could I say no?

A few weeks before the wedding, I went over to the Kirkwood/Fournier household to get a feel for the event. They were telling me how it would be very non-traditional. It would also be entirely outside.

This meant a few different things.

1. The weather could do anything it wanted to
2. There is no way for me to know what my shooting situation is going to be like
3. I am probably not going to be able to use strobes (other that my speedlight) to illuminate

So on August 8th, my mothers birthday; the start of the 2008 olympics; and the Kirkwood/Fournier wedding, I packed my car with everything:

• Stabilization devices such as a tripod and monopod, along with other stabilization mounts that would be classified as “specialty items”
• A camera
• An extra camera
• MANY extra batteries
• All of my memory cards
• Various other odds and ends

I headed down to the wedding in Farmington, MO. I had my trusty TomTom GPS and the safety net of a Google Maps printout. I drove. I switched roads. I saw state road Y. I passed state road Y. Thank god for automatic re-routing.

I finally got there. There was about an hour and a half before the wedding. Time to take some photos! At that point, we knew the family portraits would have to be done after the ceremony. We decided to take some fun shots of the bride and groom with their maids and men.

I’ll admit it. I had fun. Not only was it a tremendously fun to be there as a friend, I really enjoyed shooting it.  Being immersed in their joy made me so happy. I was working but I was really just playing along with them! It didn’t hurt that we had the most ideal weather conditions imaginable!

As the night wound down, I ran out of memory. Cards that is. I filled every single card I had. All nine gigs. Go figure. I knew they would want them fast so I just uploaded my cards onto their laptop before I left that evening. I figured it also helped save the environment. After all, a few DVDs is practically an entire tree…

Lauren and Jonathan, this is a very public congratulations. I know that you two will enjoy the rest of your lives together, for better and for worse. Although it will probably be 80/20. The odds are on your side.

It also is very heartwarming to know that among all of your photographer friends, many of which enjoy shooting weddings, you chose me and pressured me into doing it! I don’t regret it one bit. I am truly honored.

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4. August 2008 by Max.

No. Don’t worry. I didn’t ride naked. I just made my first multimedia piece.

My friend, Stew Smith and I collaborated on a photo/video/audio project. It was a first for both of us.

We decided last minute to cover this bike ride. It proved to be a challenge because the light fell quickly. We worked with three video cameras: 1 HD camera; 1 standard Mini-DV camera; 1 night shot Mini-DV camera.

The two Mini-DV cameras were attached to my bike. One was mounted low on the front fork and moved with the turn of the wheel. The other was on the front of the frame and moved with the motion of the bike.

We conducted interviews to find out a bit about the event and its participants. We mixed photos and videos to tell the story. It was definitely one of the most interesting events I have ever covered.

• 1.5 hours of footage
• 3 gigs of photos
• 11+ hours of editing

I hope you enjoy our presentation. Let me know what you think.

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11. July 2008 by Max.

No one finds it easy to deal with a tragedy. Not even a journalist.

A recent comment on the Kirkwood shooting photos asked “Had you covered other vigils or memorial services before? Do you ever encounter problems with people not wanting you to be there, since it can be such a personal and emotional experience?”

I have  photographed two vigils now. The first being one in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. My university held a small memorial service in an auditorium. There were few people but many tears. You could feel the emotion in the room.

The second was the candlelight vigil held for the Kirkwood shootings.

I never have encountered problems with people not wanting me there. I think it is because they know we are emotionally shredded as well. As journalists, we hear, see and report on things we don’t want to. I think the public sometimes knows that.

For instance, when the shootings in Kirkwood occurred, the staff of The Journal, Webster University’s student newspaper, was working around the clock for a week to prepare a newspaper.  We were at every press conference, vigil, memorial service, funeral, etc. Not to mention the fact that our long time university president all of the sudden quit and our school had just established a fantastic link with China. ALL IN THE SAME WEEK! It was physically draining. By the time we got home, we were wiped of all energy. We still couldn’t sleep.

I wasn’t able to sleep for a good two weeks. I was forcing myself to build a callous to the situation. I am willing to bet that it is the same for some of my colleagues.

Journalists have to have that super tough skin. It is our job to show the world what is happening. All too often it is ugly.

Citizens are aware that we are crying inside.

At a vigil, no matter how many lights and cameras are around, people aren’t paying attention to the press. Their focus is devoutly elsewhere.

I am attaching a copy of our newspaper from that week. The staff I worked with was (and still is) incredible. Take some time to read the articles and look at the pictures

The Journal - February 14-20, 2008

Too see more photos related to the Kirkwood shooting, go to my website in the photo essay section. There is a link to “Kirkwood 2008.”

I hope my explanation makes sense. It is hard to understand a journalist’s sense of tragedy without experiencing it. But it is real. There is even an organization deal with it called the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma.

Our studies teach us what to do. Real events build character. I would like to think I am a better journalist because of this.

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9. July 2008 by Max.

I promised updates. Here they are! I have added new photo galleries. There is a Feature, News and Sports gallery. There is a new and improved photo menu interface. I also added captions to the photos to give them context for all viewers.

Take a look at the new photos. Enjoy! More updates to come in the near future.

http://www.gershphotopost.com

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9. July 2008 by Max.

I wanted to wait till launch day but I decided to spoil the surprise. My website will be gaining a few new photo galleries in the near future. I will make an announcement when it launches but you can look forward to a dedicated sports, news and feature gallery!

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7. July 2008 by Max.

My internship at The Alton Telegraph (January-May 2008) was a different experience for me. It was a great learning experience. Working in small towns like Grafton, Ill., I really had to rethink the way I photographed and approached people. This internship also gave me unbelievable opportunities to hunt for stand-alone art for the paper. In fact, I think the only downside to the internship was that I had to drive nearly one hour from my home in St. Louis to Alton and then another hour drive home at the end of the day.

I compiled some of the shots that I took for the Telegraph and put them in a gallery. I did a decent amount of shooting!

Take a look!

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30. June 2008 by Max.

The Mississippi River was said to crest again today. We walked down to the Arch grounds during lunch. The stairs allow us to gauge how much the water has really risen. While it still has a decent way to go, it is gaining on the plaque that marks the water height from the flood of 1993.

It was hard to tell if more tourists were photographing the Arch or the flooded Mississippi. A fence that was there in a photo from a previous posting was either pushed over or the water took it under. There were at least three park rangers down at the police line to keep spectators from getting too close.

I did notice a funny thing. The tourists that were trying to take a photo of their friends and family and the Arch in the same frame couldn’t get low enough. Perhaps if they could have gone down to the base of the steps, they would have been able to frame their ideal shot.

This shot is looking down where the river road is. I don’t think any people will be crossing there for a while.

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