NEW YORK PHOTO BLOG / DAVE BECKERMAN

Buddy continues to do better.  He was given a bottle of pills to tune down his thyroid, and he likes them.  He thinks they’re treats.  As far as getting the eyedrops in his right eye – that’s still an adventure.  He doesn’t like that at all Probably burns.  Plus even if you hold his head still, he’s got the upper hand in that you really can’t exactly hold his eye open.  So that’s been hit and miss, mostly miss.

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Still not smoking cigarettes. Stopped July 1.  But I have replaced them with about two cigars a day.  Right now, my favorite cigars are from the H. Upmann line.  Either the half- or the full coronas.  Of course, anyone will tell you that it’s better to stop altogether, but for an addict, this is a different experience from cigarettes.  Cigarettes are simply a very fast nicotine delivery system.  You don’t exactly savor them.  Cigars are  all different.  You don’t inhale the smoke, and you sort of roll it around in your mouth like a sip of wine.  If you like this sort of thing, it’s an enjoyable experience.  I even seem to enjoy chomping on the thing when it’s no longer smoking.

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One project to finish – my Bronx portfolio.

This was my room on University Avenue until I was thirteen.  My father and I went back to photograph the apartment about six years ago when I started the Bronx photography memoir.  The window looks out on street level at University Avenue.  On the right it’s a few paces to the bathroom.  You can see the cable wire on the floor.  Obviously when we lived there from about ’52 to ’65 there was no cable.  How many coats of paint does that room have by now?  Must be dozens.

And yes, it is tiny.  My two sisters shared a slightly larger room which was off to the left and looked out on the alley where the super kept the garbage cans.

In case you’re wondering what I’m up to, I working on cataloging my Bronx images (mostly from about three years ago). This is one of those lucky catches. I was driving by the House Bronx of Detention when I decided it was a spot I should at least try to photograph. I expected guards to come out as soon as the camera made came out, but although there were guards walking in and out, nobody paid me any mind.

That’s the irony of street shooting. You just never know who is going to be touchy and who won’t. As a general rule, city workers, especially if they’re working in public are the most touchy. But not always. And sometimes it just depends on your own karma. But back to to the picture. Yes, I watch the black cat scramble up the fence, make it’s way over the barbed wire and jump – and that was the shot I was waiting for. I caught him just before he landed and scooted off.

And then off I went.

IMPORTANT;  I PLAN TO PUT IT IN THE PRINT STORE TOMORROW, AND I REALLY WOULD LIKE TO SELL AT LEAST ONE OF THESE SINCE IT IS ONE OF MY BEST SHOTS SO IF YOU ARE A PHOTOGRAPHER, OR JUST A LOVER OF PHOTOGRAPHS, PLEASE DON’T TWEET OR COMMENT THAT YOU LIKE THIS, SINCE THAT IS THE KISS OF DEATH AS FAR AS SALES GO.  THERE ARE TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS OUT THERE THAT REALLY HAVE THE KNACK.  YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.  IF YOU COMMENT THAT THIS IS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE BECKERMAN’S WELL – THAT’S THE END OF ANY POSSIBLE SALES FOR THIS PRINT.  I SHOULD PUT A SMILEY AT THE END OF THIS – BUT I KID YOU NOT.  IN FACT, IF YOU COULD WRITE SOMETHING DISPARAGING ABOUT IT, THAT MIGHT HAVE JUST THE RIGHT EFFECT.

I’ve put most of the Paris / French shots together; most of the Southwest, there’s still The Mermaid Day Parade which I shot for about eight years in a row, and of course the collection for the Bronx which took me about a year to do.

Once everything has been put into a handy place – then I’ll begin to lay them out into small books. I haven’t decided whether they’re going to be based on place yet; but at least I’ll have a good idea on where to find everything.

I was also asked to contribute to a new photography startup that sounds pretty interesting. My first step is to add to my todo list, another list of articles, either that I’ve written already; or that I could write in the future. The site will be backed by a large photography company, and it should be a good mix for both of us in terms of what I’ll call cross-pollination. I almost always have more to do than I can handle these days, so I have to be careful who I say “yes” to.

Anyway, if a black cat crosses your path, you may wind up in the HOUSE OF D

How to tell if you are eating with a “street photographer.” As you enter the restaurant, there’s a scoping out of the seat with the best view. If the two of you are friends, you’ll be able to say something like, “c’mon, you had the good seat last time.”

There is no way of really knowing what the best seat is going to be, but the possibilities are always swirling around your brain. You may be talking, or laughing or just wondering about who’s going to pay the bill; but instinctively, you will move to where you think you’ve got the best possibilities. In this case, either side of the booth would have been okay. I placed the camera on the edge of the camera, feeling that I didn’t want to attract too much attention; and waited for the so-called moment… in this case it was just a moment of engaging banter between the two women. Click. And now you can concentrate on your own breakfast or the Mets, or whatever you were talking about with a feeling that you may have caught something. Thinking over the backlighting, and the shutter speed. In the film days it would be a while before you knew for sure if you got something.

The tiny plastic  orange juice glass is part of the so-called breakfast special.  Not a very good diner, but it’s still around twenty years later.

One of the pictures I did for the john lennon: in their own write book by Judith Furedi

I felt the challenge to do something with the IMAGINE mosaic and many of the images from the mosaic wound up in the book.

I arrived that morning with a ladder, a mirror, and a bunch of small  objects that I could fit in a knapsack. Hopefully, I’d get some idea when I saw the word. This one didn’t end up in the book because I just had the idea this morning to flip it upside down. I like the idea, and could do a series of these.  It’s more interesting what we make of it, then the thing itself.

I can imagine doing an interesting Warhol-like movie at the imagine mosaic.  Just shoot one day at the circle.  One full day.   Something in the vein of the Empire State building movie, though maybe not as long and with license to shoot hand-held, or whatever you feel.  You could do it easily with the 500D etc. dslr.  The final cut would be about five minutes or so.  Can’t really use Imagine song for obvious copyright reasons.  I’m sure Lester could write something for it in a few minutes.

Also, doesn’t the woman with the sunglasses look like she has one of the old Beatle mop tops?