Life Through a Lens: April 2010

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Random

I've often wondered what my song will be? What my story will be from the lips of those telling it?

I see such amazing talent around me, either too out of the box for mainstream society to accept them or to much like whats already in rotation and truthfully i become even more lost within myself. See, I've realized you've got to "Play the game", that is mantra of sorts.

What does that mean? Well i look at it like this....

You ever have a friend that was a great singer, but they sang in a manner that was different? Different as in, not Usher, or Just Beiber, or whoever else is out right now? They've got a great sound and an amazing talent but its just not whats hot right now? Well, when you ask that person why don't they change to fit in, that's like a slap in the face right? The discussion for me always takes an interesting turn. I often ask so what do you want to be known as? Some may say great, or this or that? Then the next question is, who is it that will be calling you these things (ie. great, etc) ? If he/she refers to society in any shape or form as being the group of people to validate them as great, then they've got to "Play the game".

The reality is that i want to effect my culture! I want to believe that I'm assisting in the growth of a people, not just a black people, not just a photographer culture, not just any one specific person place or thing, but universal culture. Photography is that to me! You show me a person that either does not own a camera or does not have a picture of themselves somewhere and I'll show you a mini leprechaun in your back pocket cause you are the luckiest person in the world, to have found someone without one of those two things!

Although there are exceptions to the rule, I believe there are very few people on the face of the earth that don't have something to do with photographs either being taken of them or taking them of someone else. Furthermore, if that is the case, and I am creating images, then I'm left with the notion that I participate in the understanding of that cultural phenom.

Yes its 1:50am in the am and I'm slightly delusional, so I'll probably read this in the morning and wonder what the heck was I thinking....but to those that are curious, I don't drink so this isn't drunk blogging lol :)

and no I'm not going to proof read this because I'm going to bed....good night!

o yea, because I'm a photographer I've got to post a picture so...

Kevin Hart, they guy is hilarious!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Keeping you Updated! Kevin Hart

So I got the opportunity to shoot Kevin Hart for Be-entertained magazine on Thursday 4/15 and the shoot went well, he was making everyone cry laughing so hard, which was a first at a shoot I was having a hard time staying serious.

Whatever the case, me personally i've always wanted to understand comedy more. How it works, how do you put a set together, what are you thinking as a comedian, more over as a human being etc...but never could get an "insiders" perspective on it, so beyond the jokes that Kevin would throw out I was listening for more.

After we did our shoot, he sat down with the magazine and had an interview and i can't exactly remember the line of questions but Kevin responds by saying something to the effect of:

I was a jerk when I use to get on stage, I'd get up there not really knowing what i

was doing at all etc... but eventually I realized that i was responsible for everyones

night.

Ok so everyone that reads this may think I'm just trying to be deep when the situation isn't! But that meant something to me. I never considered what a comedian did in that light, but its true. You know why you would go see a comedian or a music artist or whoever/whatever and that individual, that production is responsible for the caliber of your night.

Ok fast forward, I showed him the pictures, he was digging them and asked if i'd be interested in coming to his show he had that night at Uptown Comedy Corner and getting some action shots. I thought free show + free laughs+ picture taking= Fun, so I said sure.

So, get through the show and let me tell you it was just pure funny!

But another one of those moments happened. After he got off stage I went to the back to just catch some documentary style shots of him with all his friends or greeters

and when most of them leave, Kevin stops and begins discussing his set with a fellow comedian asking the gentleman what he thought of the show, should he have dug deeper etc, based off of the content that Kevin was speaking about. What blew me away was just how intellectual the discourse was about what seemed like an easy task to just get up and make people laugh.

Now, without saying too much, Kevin Harts stand up is very personal, he speaks about his family and turns his actual life occurrences into laughs. So when Kevin and the other gentleman had there discussion and the man tells Kevin to pull out more of the redeeming qualities of a family member, it was another one of those moments where I'm like, Man! Didn't even think about it like that, but again its true.

Guess all I'm really saying is, its always interesting to see a deeper side of something you admire from a distance.