Busted Camera

2011-12-04T16:06:00.001-05:00

What is a good death if not a safe bridge?
Wading righteous rivers of war,
in waters too red to look at,
admitting we can't see anymore.

What is a good bridge if not a safe heart?
Wishing for truth, icing the blood,
Hoping for gold, drowning in the flood,
reserved to not hear anymore.

Who told us to weep for ourselves?
Who gave up the game?
came up lame...
Who built these bridges
to keep us sure?
...of the pain,
now too weak to endure.

Jeff Swensen

Dragon Scales

2011-12-04T16:05:00.001-05:00

Jesus stands in the midst of rush hour,
baptized by rain, holding his sign,
dumpster-diving our line,
eyes for hands
our cars, his cans...
discovering, collecting and examining.

We pray his timing is off,
that our eyes won't meet,
too sure we're moving together,
arrogant about forever...
He takes stock of our shelves,
granting us the chance to see ourselves.

Giving us back something empty,
light enough to soar;
the rain continues to pour.
Our dragon scales no real armor;
for the one,
smiling with his sign,
clocking our time.

Jeff Swensen

Common Sunshine

2011-12-04T16:04:00.001-05:00

Conversing with the light,
rebirthing sight,
running from the night,
we just might
do it right
and enjoy the flight,
from guilt to wisdom?

This common sunshine
aging the vine,
drying the line,
baking in those fine,
bittersweet memories;
halcyon trinkets
for our time.

Jeff Swensen

Someone Might Get Hurt

2011-12-04T16:02:00.000-05:00

Can you pull back the bullet
from the gun it sprang...
or harness the words
that Muhammed sang?
Can we cap off the well,
close up the mine,
bask in the sun,
enjoy the wine?
We worship fear and alert
that someone might get hurt,
and tell ourselves the lie
that we'll never die.

2010-10-02T13:49:00.000-04:00

"Black Dub" in the studio - "Nomad Knows" from Daniel Lanois on Vimeo.

ballpoint maze

2010-10-02T13:22:00.000-04:00

all better...not bitter

2010-10-02T13:14:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, in never neverland
the hawk kicked the vultures
out of the circle in the sky
and the swallows sipped the river
in swirls of mellow gold.
Bit down on all that could have been
and surrendered up to what was...
Expert rites and hallelujah calls
to make time stand still long enough
to catch its scent...fresh, warm, now..
not bitter, all better from before
when the hunger pangs
locked the door and blinded
me in your house.

Hummingbird Party

2010-10-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

Sometimes when it gets to the brink
of a big old cliff above the sea
you're a tropics bird whistling dixie
to the fishes below
i'm the rock that couldn't fly
showing up 25 years late to the
hummingbird party...
in the maze of lace
that is this crazy place
i think i finally discovered
that the best answers
are the ones offered up
at the end of weak
moment in paradise.

It slowed me down a little...

2010-10-02T13:08:00.000-04:00

I got tattooed on my heart
where the fates can see
the blood that's let off the leash
every now and then
to put my dog in that fight
i got the branding done on my soul
parts that make a whole
in those moments of clarity
when i'm not forced to stop
and think...
about the havoc
that could be cooked up
if a sword was pulled out
and dragged across
the marinade of everything
i suddenly see if i'm not
forced to stop
and think...
it slowed me down a little
before the brakes broke
and the sword brought
sparks that ignited the oil
...glistening... on the
fine ass of this world.

On not crossing the road...

2010-10-02T13:05:00.001-04:00

St John

2010-06-23T11:13:00.002-04:00

Institutions

2010-01-31T16:26:00.001-05:00

sunset

2009-07-08T16:32:00.001-04:00

Stephanie and Jonano

2009-06-27T12:47:00.001-04:00

Hyacinth Wabi-Sabi

2009-05-06T16:32:00.003-04:00

Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, not Pergo; rice paper, not glass. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. It reminds us that we are all but transient beings on this planet-that our bodies as well as the material world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace liver spots, rust, and frayed edges, and the march of time they represent.

Ferry boat in a rainstorm

2009-04-22T17:14:00.003-04:00

myrtle

2009-04-12T22:47:00.003-04:00

NYC

2009-04-11T14:55:00.002-04:00

gaff-rigged ketch

2009-01-29T09:21:00.004-05:00

One main factor in the upward trend of animal
life has been the power of wandering.
-Alfred North Whitehead

ice and water

2009-01-22T19:21:00.003-05:00

...most people don't know that there are angels who's only job is to make sure we don't get too comfortable, fall asleep and miss our lives...
we laid there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and i told her i'd never heard of them..."of course not," she said, "the really important stuff they never tell you...you have to imagine it on your own."

sun and water

2009-01-04T13:09:00.002-05:00

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
-Siddhartha

kin

2009-01-02T15:43:00.001-05:00

Imagination is the highest
kite that one can fly.
-Bob Schneiderl

rust

2009-01-02T15:33:00.001-05:00

Only in quiet waters do things mirror
themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind
is adequate perception of the world.
-Hans Margolius

pink 2009

2009-01-02T12:33:00.004-05:00

The fishing was good; it was
the catching that was bad.
A.K. Best

2008-12-16T22:46:00.001-05:00

We lose everything, but make harvest
of the consequence it was to us.

-Jack Gilbert

Dee Briggs

2008-12-16T22:25:00.002-05:00

the beauty of oil in water

2008-12-15T11:57:00.004-05:00

Beware lest you lose the substance
by grasping at the shadow.
-Aesop

family in a field

2008-12-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

Jack

2008-12-14T20:19:00.001-05:00

A woman has two smiles that
an angel might envy - the smile
that accepts a lover before words
are uttered, and the smile that
lights on the first born babe, and
assures it of a mother's love.
-Thomas C. Haliburton

cross on a hill

2008-12-14T20:15:00.001-05:00

In order to be a realist you
must believe in miracles.
-Henry Christopher Bailey

2008-12-11T09:49:00.001-05:00

. . . love from one being to
another can only be that
two solitudes come nearer,
recognize and protect
and comfort each other.
-Han Suyin

Thanks old and young

2008-11-28T17:19:00.005-05:00

Each day of our lives we make deposits
in the memory banks of our children.
-Charles R. Swindoll

Soft and Spiney

2008-11-23T15:32:00.002-05:00

Dear to us are those who love us. . .
but dearer are those who reject us
as unworthy, for they add another life;
they build a heaven before us whereof we
had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new
powers out of the recesses of the spirit . . .
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Point of Light

2008-11-23T15:27:00.003-05:00

There are two ways of spreading light: To be
the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
-Edith Wharton

Leap

2008-11-23T15:20:00.002-05:00

Strengthen me by sympathizing with
my strength, not my weakness.
-Amos Bronson Alcott

flurry too

2008-11-23T15:17:00.001-05:00

There can be no rainbow without
a cloud and a storm.
-John Heyl Vincent

Imagination

2008-11-19T22:15:00.002-05:00

Imagination will often carry us
to worlds that never were.
But without it, we go nowhere.
-Carl Sagan

I imagine many ways to embolden imagination, most of the time he's way ahead of me.

Rural reality

2008-11-19T21:57:00.003-05:00

Images from a homeless shelter in Northwestern Pennsylvania. As Americans lose what they once had, life gets to a place it once was. Some seek solace in faith in a higher power, some, in faith of a better day, a ray of light, a friend with whom to walk. It was cold there...and I was glad to come home and sit by the fire, warm and loved.

All the things one has forgotten
scream for help in dreams.
-Moses

2008-11-19T21:49:00.002-05:00

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth.
-English Proverb

flurry

2008-11-16T20:55:00.004-05:00

You could not step twice into the same rivers;
for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
-Heraclitus of Ephesus

One of the Best

2008-11-13T21:58:00.002-05:00

The key to the mystery of a great artist is
that for reasons unknown, he will give
away his energies and his life just to make
sure that one note follows another . . .
and leaves us with the feeling
that something is right in the world.
-Leonard Bernstein

2008-11-09T22:49:00.001-05:00

If you tickle the earth with a
hoe she laughs with a harvest.
Douglas William Jerrold

2008-11-06T22:23:00.000-05:00

ASK ME

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes that I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others have come in their slow way into my thought, and some have tried to help or hurt: Ask me what difference
Their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you will say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there are
comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
-William Stafford

2008-11-06T09:02:00.002-05:00

Change is a measure of time and, in the
autumn, time seems speeded up.
What was is not and never
again will be; what is is change.
Edwin Way Teale

2008-11-06T08:51:00.003-05:00

How did you get your blood pressure to come down?
"Oh...I found my pace. Simple thing really. Hard to explain."
-George Malley

2008-11-06T08:44:00.003-05:00

"Everything is on its way to somewhere."
-George Malley(John Travolta)

New Dawn Coming

2008-11-05T12:23:00.003-05:00

I have taken many photos of Barack Obama over the past months. I like this one, because it gives me a sense getting behind someone who is leading. It just recently ran on the front page of The Times of London, and i never got a chance to see it there. But I've come to admire this man and look forward to pushing forth in the days and years to come. There is much work to be done.

Copyright 2008 Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

“ It is not from the sons of the millionaire or the noble that the world receives its teachers, its martyrs, its inventors, its statesmen, its poets, or even its men of affairs. It is from the cottage of the poor that all these spring.Andrew Carnegie

2008-11-01T11:41:00.001-04:00

Art is the unceasing effort to
compete with the beauty of flowers -
and never succeeding.
-Marc Chagall

Grace

2008-10-29T14:05:00.001-04:00

We're all stumbling towards the light with
varying degrees of grace at any given moment.
-JHS

2008-10-29T13:40:00.002-04:00

America's health care system is neither
healthy, caring, nor a system.
-Walter Cronkite

Pillars and Networks

2008-10-29T11:10:00.002-04:00

All deception in the course of life is indeed
nothing else but a lie reduced to practice,
and falsehood passing from words into things.
-Robert Southey

Flight of Fancy

2008-10-29T10:49:00.005-04:00

God loved the birds and invented
trees. Man loved the birds and
invented cages.
Jacques Deval

A Fine Performance

2008-10-28T19:32:00.003-04:00

Todd Heisler inspecting the cheeeeeeses.

Carolyn Cole after cheeeeses.

Hondo and Christina trying to find a hotel room.
Just a few pics from Chris Hondros' benefit concert in Brooklyn, raising money for CIVC.

a great portraitist talks about his work

2008-10-28T18:56:00.000-04:00

babe in the woods

2008-10-28T16:02:00.005-04:00

Sarah shows she is compassionate.

Willow and Trig.

A deer caught in the headlights.

One of the penalties for refusing to
participate in politics is that you end up
being governed by your inferiors.
-Plato

2008-10-28T06:20:00.002-04:00

Shank of the afternoon, wan weight-light
Undercard of a short month, February Sunday
Wordlessness of the wrong world
In the day's dark niche, the patron saint of what-Goes-Down

Shuffles her golden deck and deals
one for you and one for me...
And that's it, a single number -- we play what we get
My hand says measure,
doves on the wire and the first bulb blades
Edging up through the mulch-mat,
Inside-out of the winter gum trees,
A cold harbor, cold stop and two-step, and here it comes,

DEEP MEASURE

Deep measure, deep measure that runnels beneath the bone,
That sways our attitude and sets our lives to muse;
Deep measure, down under and death drawn
Pilgrim, homeboy of false time,
Listen and set your foot down, listen and step lightly

-Charles Wright

New York moments

2008-10-28T06:11:00.002-04:00

Blessed is he who has reached the point of no
return and knows it, for he shall enjoy living.
-W. C. Bennett

2008-10-27T20:59:00.001-04:00

One dog barks at something,
the rest bark at him.
-Chinese Proverb

2008-10-26T22:14:00.001-04:00

There is nothing noble in being superior
to some other man. The true nobility is in
being superior to your previous self.
-Hindu proverb

2008-10-25T11:34:00.000-04:00

When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
-Kikuyu Proverb

2008-10-23T12:02:00.005-04:00

With true friends . . . even water
drunk together is sweet enough.
Chinese Proverb

faced

2008-10-16T12:24:00.005-04:00

It has been said that in each human heart lives a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale and that the diversity of our character is the product of their unequal activity...ever wonder which one you put in control of your blood pressure today?

2008-10-15T23:55:00.001-04:00

2008-10-15T23:40:00.000-04:00

a quiet place

2008-10-15T22:44:00.002-04:00

Buddha told a parable:
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming
to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge.
The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below,
another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man
saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the
strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

reading the writing on the wall

2008-10-13T16:04:00.004-04:00

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail better."- Beckett

fever

2008-10-12T12:28:00.004-04:00

farm life

2008-10-05T21:23:00.004-04:00

tightrope

2008-10-04T12:47:00.004-04:00

Nothing is so difficult that
diligence cannot master it.

pear harvest

2008-10-03T19:06:00.002-04:00

ski island-a place for tribal ritual

2008-08-25T15:41:00.017-04:00

2008-08-20T16:12:00.000-04:00

2008-07-16T22:42:00.002-04:00

“ Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely. It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition…. If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another. Robert La Follette, 1917

2008-07-07T20:22:00.000-04:00

fans

2008-05-12T01:30:00.003-04:00

bill deasy pittsburgh musician

2008-05-12T01:20:00.002-04:00

another sunrise

2008-05-02T12:31:00.002-04:00

another airport at sunrise, i think this is charlotte, but it could be knoxville, tennessee.

a wing and a prayer

2008-05-02T12:19:00.002-04:00

lately, i've been flying alot, overseas, overland and overly much. the sunrise flight seems to be prevalent, and i typically have my camera gear packed away. flying into europe a few days ago as the sun broke loose, i could see the contrails of all the early morning flights heading to the west, from where i'd come...this photo was taken on my way to atlanta, after a 4am wake-up call and only 2 sips of coffee...
Alitalia has the best coffee, Delta's is lame.

something to bring in April

2008-03-30T19:04:00.003-04:00

obama march 17

2008-03-17T23:56:00.004-04:00

hear it

2008-02-29T00:21:00.002-05:00

hilary and barack

2008-02-29T00:19:00.000-05:00

the candidates

2008-02-29T00:16:00.001-05:00

more people from the scene

2008-02-29T00:12:00.005-05:00

photos from the campaign

2008-02-29T00:07:00.004-05:00

Obama

2008-02-20T01:24:00.004-05:00

Barack Obama is like a rock star, and what differed from Hillary Clinton's rallies was the diversity and furvor of the crowd. An inspirational speaker.

politics

2008-02-20T01:21:00.006-05:00

Hillary Clinton learns from a campaign staffer that she's just lost Wisconsin, but works the crowd and perhaps waves goodbye.

watch this

2008-02-16T11:04:00.001-05:00

Photos lie the way you want them to

2008-02-13T13:40:00.001-05:00

I love the medium of photography, for with
its unique realism it gives me the power to
go beyond conventional ways of seeing and
understanding and say, "This is real, too."
-Wynn Bullock

A great video by Tom Waits with the photography of Danny Clinch

2008-02-13T13:32:00.000-05:00

Some things don't change for the better

2008-02-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced pyschosis of war hysteria and an incessant
propaganda of fear." - General Douglas MacArthur c1950

some pix of my day

2008-02-12T17:47:00.000-05:00

For a short time yesterday, light came through the window of my studio, and if i framed it right, i could almost imagine we were not in the depths of winter. I came in touch with signs of birth and rebirth though.

a good song

2008-02-12T16:05:00.000-05:00

2008-02-11T21:42:00.000-05:00

"A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit."
-ancient Greek proverb

my wife

2008-02-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

My wife, Beth, 17 years, 3 kids, a big old stack of laundry, dealing with me...wow.

2008-02-10T19:24:00.000-05:00

For the next couple of days, I'd like to show some photos of individuals that people should know about; people that I've been fortunate enough to meet and spend some time with.

My dad.

2008-02-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

Punxsutawney Phil is the worst weather predicter I've ever known. What is remarkable about the large rodent is that his audience stretches to the far reaches of the planet and he is the generator behind a $10 million economic stimulus package to a small, rather obscure town in rural Pennsylvania. I don't think that Phil has much respect for global warming climate models. In 122 consecutive years of weather prediction, Phil has pronounced an early spring only 5 times.

John Leguizamo

2008-02-10T18:48:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much interaction with actors, but after a summer shooting stills on a movie set, John Leguizamo impressed me as someone who has reverance for his craft.

Bob Schneider

2008-02-10T17:53:00.000-05:00

Bob Schneider is most notably a musician based in Austin, TX. He is a father. He is a painter. What seems most remarkable about him is an ability to marshal a complete concentration in the moment. I'm pretty sure he would have been a great fighter pilot in the days of the Red Baron...or maybe tightrope walker. More importantly, I frequently witness people from the ages of 5 to 65 gravitate to his music. His songs, hundreds of them, have long steady legs that will eventually walk into everyone's lives.
www.bobschneidermusic.com
www.myspace.com/bobschneider

chris hondros

2008-02-10T17:49:00.000-05:00

Chris Hondros, 2-time Pulitizer Prize finalist in the past 4 years, a great friend,graduate school roommate and world-class storyteller. The first photo was taken this week during a stop off in Pittsburgh before heading to Kosovo. The second was taken after a return from a week covering the war in Afghanistan. Chris has taken money from his own pocket to send former Liberian child soldiers to high school, eaten lizards in the jungles of Sierra Leone when he ran low on Snickers bars, and loved some of the finest ladies to grace our planet.

a quote from wikipedia:
Hondros's images from Iraq, especially a January 2005 picture series detailing the shooting of an Iraqi family by U.S. troops, have been published extensively and garnered worldwide acclaim and criticism.
On January 18, 2005, an Iraqi family was travelling in a car which failed to stop at a US checkpoint in Tal Afar. US troops opened fire, killing both parents, Camille and Hussein Hassan, and injuring one of their five children sitting in the back seat. Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen and lost the use of his legs. As a result of the worldwide interest in his case generated by Hondros's pictures, Racan was flown to the United States for treatment in a Boston hospital. Hondros won dozens of international awards for the images.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
In an interview, Hondros stated:
“ Almost every soldier in Iraq has been involved in some sort of incident like that or another, I would say. Their attitude about it was grim, but it wasn’t the end of their world. It was, “Well, kind of wished they’d stopped. We fired warning shots. Damn, I don’t know why the hell they didn’t stop. What’re you doing later, you want to play Nintendo? Okay.” Just a day’s work for them. That stuff happens in Iraq a lot. That’s why it’s such a damn mess, because almost everybody’s had something like that happen to them at the hands of U.S. soldiers. [8] ”
The Editor and Publisher reported that Hondros' photographs of the children were widely distributed to United States papers -- but few newspapers published more than one photo. By contrast, Hondros states, the same photographs "seemingly dominated the discourse in Europe, where they were run in full over multiple pages by many important papers there."[9] "These pictures are going unseen because editors don't print them. And they don't print them because readers don't want to see them."[10]