To round out my five “reaction” submissions to the Hard Working Class Heroes exhibition, I chose one of the first concert pics I ever took. Back in my college days, I snapped the above shot of the saxophonist from the band Liquid Soul playing at The Canopy Club in Urbana.
Add comment September 25th, 2009
The college football season got underway this weekend, and I can’t help but be reminded of my junior year in college when I followed the Illinois football team for The Daily Illini. I shot nearly all of the games that season, home and away, and you can’t ask for a better seat in the stadium than being on the field in and amongst the gridiron action. It was also a pretty sweet gig getting to take the The DI company car on road trips every other weekend to other schools across the Midwest. Unfortunately though, there was just one drawback – we sucked. The team went 0-11 that year. That’s right, I didn’t photograph a single victory, and believe me, it can get a little tiresome seeing your team get pummeled every f-ing week.
Now I’ll be the first to admit it…I got pretty lucky with the above shot. I could never have predicted that when I clicked the camera, I would capture the football squarely between the kicker’s foot and the outstretched arms of the Illini defender the instant before he blocked the ball. When you’re shooting sporting events, the action can be so fast, especially when looking through a telephoto lens, that sometimes you just have to rely on a little luck. I’ll never forget scanning through my developed negatives on the light table and seeing this shot in the loupe. Holy shit.
And that’s the shame about digital photography. Not only do we no longer have the physical tangibility of our film and pictures, but we’ve also lost that incredible element of surprise. That great ritual of dropping a roll of film off at the photo place, and then coming back to see what you had. And while I love the immediacy of shooting digital (and the price tag), I do miss that ritual.
Add comment September 6th, 2009
It’s hard to believe that the summer’s nearly over and that it’s already September. It’s also hard to believe that it’s been almost twelve years since I took this pic of Adam Duritz at Purdue’s Elliott Hall of Music.
My friend Sean was a Boilermaker, and in the fall of ‘97, a group of us took a road trip from the U of I to visit him and to see the Counting Crows live. At the last minute, I threw a Hail Mary and put in a request for a press pass to cover the concert for The Daily Illini. Ironically, not only did I end up with a dead-center, front-row seat for the entire gig (while my friends were relegated to the cheap seats of the hall), but I also wound up winning an Illinois College Press Association award (an ICPA) for the article I wrote reviewing the concert. Power of the press, baby.
The highlight of the show was during the song, “Mr. Jones.” Duritz was looking right at me in the front row, singing the lines, “Stare at the beautiful women.” He waved his arm around the room. “She’s looking at you.” He shakes his head. “Uh, I don’t think so. She’s looking at me.” Probably so, but there’s no need to rub it in, Duritz.
2 comments September 1st, 2009
Celebrate we will
Because life is short but sweet for certain
We’re climbing two by two
To be sure these days continue,
These things we cannot change
- Dave Matthews
(pictured above with Boyd Tinsley @ Farm Aid)
3 comments August 16th, 2009
“I’m here to sing for Mother Nature tonight,” howled Neil Young to the Farm Aid crowd, and it was an inspired performance to say the least. He criticized all of us young people for thinking “it’s not cool to have a cause,” and he led us in anti-factory farm chants. “NO to factory farms!!”
It was the first I’d ever heard of the evils of the factory farming. I had no idea of the consequences of corporate America’s greed in the agriculture industry: its devastating effects on the environment, the horrific treatment of its “livestock”, the incredibly unhealthy food it produces and the destruction of the family farm as we know it. While it wasn’t until I read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation several years later that I really had my eyes opened to these facts, it was Neil Young who first planted the seed. No pun intended.
2 comments August 15th, 2009
Back in October of ‘97, Farm Aid came to the Chicago suburbs, and of course, The Daily Illini was there to cover the event. Willie Nelson helped create the benefit in 1985 to help raise awareness (and some cash) for the plight of the American farmer, and he’s been doing the concerts every year since. It was a fantastic day of music with a star-studded lineup, and certainly one of the highlights was when Willie joined Beck on a cover of the Jimmie Rodgers classic “Peach Pickin’ Time Down in Georgia.”
2 comments August 14th, 2009
Here’s another shot I took at the Denver Nuggets game. Man, could that guy fly. Looking at it now, I just can’t help but ask myself…Why did Michael have to come out of retirement and play for the Wizards? It was bad enough that we had to live through the two Jerry’s (Reinsdorf & Krause) dismantling our very own dream team, but when MJ “un-retired” the second time and went to play for Washington, that was it. A part of my childhood soul was crushed, and I was done with basketball.
It’s a shame that these athletes some times just don’t know when to call it quits. I empathize that it must be so difficult to walk away from a sport that you can still dominate, but like any good comedian knows, you should always leave ‘em wanting more. Jordan’s last play with the Bulls was a game-winning shot at the buzzer in the Finals against Utah to win the championship, their 6th in 8 seasons. I don’t think it’s possible to ask for a better curtain call than that.
Add comment August 13th, 2009
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs during the ’80s & ’90s, it was impossible not to be a Michael Jordan fan. To be a kid and have this guy playing for your sports team was literally a dream come true. Like so many others, I would spend hours shooting hoops out on the driveway, enacting end-of-the-game MJ heroics. My bedroom was painted red, black & white, and Bulls posters crowded its walls. I cried when we lost to the Pistons, and I celebrated six times over as the dynasty repeated the three-peat.
So when I went to college and eventually became the photo editor for The Daily Illini, I set a goal to get a press pass for a Bulls game. I wanted to get on that floor and see my childhood hero up close and in the flesh. The sports editor at the paper (Ben Berman) and I did our best to convice the Bulls organization that our request to come and cover the game was a legitimate one. We said we were doing a story about former Illini basketball stars playing in the NBA, specifically Kiwane Garris, who was then playing for the Denver Nuggets. They bought it hook, line and sinker (or maybe they didn’t), and granted us the passes.
Ben got to sit in the press box, and I got a seat on the floor for one of the hottest tickets in town. Not only that, but after the game, we ventured into the locker rooms to do some post-game interviews. Of course, we were obligated to talk to Kiwane because of the “story” we were doing (btw. he’s the one guarding Jordan on the left in the photo above), but we soon made our way to the Bulls’ locker room. Unfortunately, Michael was nowhere to be found, so we settled for the giant, Bill Cartwright. As we were leaving and the dream seemed to be coming to a close, we saw #23 talking to someone in the underground tunnel. And as we passed, I couldn’t help but tell him, “Good game, Mike.”
Add comment August 12th, 2009
With all the media attention for Bill Clinton’s surprise trip to North Korea last week, I couldn’t help but think of the photograph I’d taken of him back when I was the photo editor for the U of I’s daily student newspaper, The Daily Illini. The sitting president had decided to pay our school a visit, and I got to ride in his press pool while he was in town.
It was an interesting time in Clinton’s presidency. A day after delivering his State of the Union speech to Congress in January of ‘98, he had chosen to take his Washington message to the Midwest, specifically our Assembly Hall. He touted his initiatives for education and social security, and he even addressed his VP’s top issue, global climate change. Gore was there to introduce the President, and it seemed clear from his unusually animated style that the second in command was going to be running for the top dog spot soon enough.
Most people’s minds however, were more focused on a brewing controversy that had just begun to surround the president – Monica Lewinsky. It would be another seven months or so before Clinton finally acknowledged his affair with the intern, but the scandal was already clearly taking it’s toll on the President when he came and visited us in Champaign. He looked tired.
I thought the above image captured that weariness in his eyes, which was why we chose it to run on the front page of the next day’s paper. It was the beginning of the end for ol’ Bill, but after last week’s heroics, one can’t help but wonder if he hasn’t finally gotten just a bit of his mojo back again.
Add comment August 11th, 2009
