It’s hard to remember, but in 2006 Wikipedia had just said copyrighted photos–like publicity shots and film stills–couldn’t be used.  This was a huge deal and caused a lot of bitterness.  People were angry.  Senior editors walked off.

Times change:  today, no respectable editor would argue for the wanton use of copyrighted images (there are a few ‘certain circumstances’).

Back in the day, I uploaded images to Wikipedia that lacked the basic standards of information.  In 2006, you didn’t need to justify the work’s import nor its origin.  The rules were fast, loose and ever-changing.

A small subgroup of my Creative Commons photos were uploaded in that era.  They may now be deleted.

They are no loss.  In 2006 I was shooting with a Fuji 1.3px point-n-shoot.  But also included were my crappiest-but-favorite uploads from 2002, Cuba and Imitation of Christ.

So here are two Creative Commons 3.0 licensed photos to be deleted from Wikipedia.  These photos are no loss for the encyclopedia.  They are unremarkable and low quality.  But they are personal favorites because of what they symbolize in my photographic and personal development.

I decided to clean them up a little, so I give you the original, and the cleaned-up version I would have uploaded today:

The original above is of Cayo Levisa, a private island where Ernest Hemingway used to fish off  the coast of western Cuba in Pinar del Rio.  There are only 20 bungalows to rent on the entire island.  It’s unspoiled in a way that I know that once the American travel embargo is lifted that it will never be the same.   Unfortunately, this is the best my low-res 2002 digicam took.  Below is my 2010 improvement of it:

This photo below was one of my street shots of the recycle hounds that gather around the Key Food recycling center where they get cash for their deposits.  There are people who make their livings by walking the streets of New York looking for discarded aluminum cans and bottles.  These people usually fall into two categories (based upon my observation over 10 years): Asian immigrants and long-term homeless people who might be better classified as “independent spirits”.  This was my 2006 attempt to capture them:

And here is how I would have uploaded the same shot today:

Back in the summer of 2006 I set out on a project to create a body of high-resolution photography that allowed the public to use it, even alter it, without my permission.

I initially hosted this project at Wikipedia, because back then very few articles had photographs for a lack of freely-licensed imagery.  I also wholeheartedly supported what they were doing at Wikimedia and still do.   I wanted to contribute.  So I focused on what I considered the most difficult subject to illustrate: biographies.  Photos of famous people.   Not only actors and athletes, but also politicians, poets, presidents, porn stars; nobody was off limits.  Within four years I photographed over 800 people.  Very few release photos of these subjects to the public, and almost never at my resolutions.

My recent CC portraits include the Time 100, the Tribeca Film Festival and Joan Jett.

Any new work I produce–which is sporadic–is hosted at my Creative Commons Flickr Photostream.  Over on Flickr, I compiled a list of my 100 favorite portaits. Click the image below to see the ones that meant the most to me.

I dislike that opponents of the Cordoba House have won in branding it the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ – more evidence that it’s mostly non-New Yorkers, who generally prefer calling it the ‘World Trade Center’.

I ventured out to take some Creative Commons shots of the protesters and supporters of Cordoba House, but there were only a handful of supporters when I arrived at noon.   If people are not against Cordoba House and think it’s fine, they aren’t particularly enthusiastic with support.  That would explain the lackluster support turnout.  I would say there were about 500-1000 people who showed up for the actual protest.

These images may be re-used and cropped – they are licensed Creative Commons 3.0.  Click on the photo to enlarge it.

This was the small crowd of supporters of Cordoba House.

Below are shots of the protesters:

Click here to see more images of the protest at Flickr.

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I received a few e-mails from people wondering why I haven’t been blogging, and there isn’t really a reason.  I’ve been busy with work, I don’t have much to say and I’m in a creative rut.  I don’t enjoy writing about politics because of how absurd the national discourse is right now; it feels a little degrading to write when ‘terror babies‘ and U.N. conspiracies pass for mainstream issues.  If Jack Stuef and Josh Fruhlinger weren’t around, I don’t know how I would make sense of the right wing (Poe’s Law).  I’m in love with Jack Stuef.

Work is busy, though, and the few hours I’m not putting in at the office I am working on a story that’s been in my head for awhile.

I have, however, been keeping my Flickr Creative Commons photostream alive with randomness.  So, to fill the void in my political rants and meaningless observations, I include a few recent uploads.

COLD SPRING NEW YORK WITH SANDY ORDONEZ

If you are an old timer Wikimedian then you will remember the days when the public relations guru Sandra Ordonez was cutting her teeth at the Wikimedia Foundation in St. Petersburg.  Sandy and I have become good friends, and she and her husband José hosted a weekend retreat for various New York artists and intellectuals at their country compound in Cold Spring in the gorgeous Hudson Valley.

The property they rented for the summer has a main house, a four bedroom guest barnhouse, a boat house, and a private pond that you have to traverse by boat to visit the abandoned 19th Century graveyard that contains perhaps 30 graves.  All on their private property.

Above:  The boat house, with the main house in the background.  We were out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees, nature and silence (except for our loud laughs and conversation).

Above:  Dave and Sandy in the abandoned 19th Century graveyard across the pond on the property.  There were about 30 graves there of people lost and long forgotten (until we were there).

Above:  Sandy and Maria laughing late into the night by candlelight.

Above:  The Little Man enjoying the flowers in the country air.

See more Cold Springs photos at my Flickr

FIRE ISLAND BIRTHDAY 2010

I was kind of surprised at how “racy” my sister said she found my Fire Island birthday photos.  Actually, both of my sisters found them…<ahem>…racy.  I asked the one why, because there are no shots of anything salacious like people fucking or doing anything other than dancing and having a good time.  She paused for a moment to think about it, and then she laughed and said, “Yeah, I know, but I guess it’s what I don’t see.  The mind fills in the blanks.”

Ha!  I was a saint and just enjoyed hanging out with my friends.  Here are a few more shots:

Michael Lucas, Nonie, Rafael Alencar, David Shankbone and Ernesto Altamirano at the Hotel Belvedere.

Michael and Nonie at the Belvedere.

I don’t know what we were thinking:  Judas carrying crucified Christ.

Michael, Nonie and Ernesto trying to catch fish on the Great South Bay.

See more of my Fire Island Creative Commons photos at Flickr.

LITTLE MAN & THE PIGEON

Finally, below are two shots of Little Man’s unrequited dream captured on film.  His lifelong goal, since he was little (he’s five and a half now) is to catch a pigeon.  He tries often, and never comes close to succeeding.  Then one morning we leave the building for his morning walk and right outside in our alcove is a pigeon with a broken wing.  Helpless, hapless, flopping about.  Little Man was so excited he could barely contain himself.  Alas, I did not let him realize his dream because it was not a fair fight.

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On July 9th I turned 36 and I was invited to spend it on Fire Island.  It was an amazing birthday full of new and old friends.  I took Ernesto with me, who is also the model I used to illustrates the body on Wikipedia (for example, his well-formed teeth are used as an illustration of human teeth on over 40 Wikimedia pages).

Here are a few shots of my birthday weekend.  It’s great to be 36!

Nonie reading on the deck with swans.

The amazingly talented Shequida.

Good times: Michael, Nonie, Rafael (w/o head), David and Ernesto at the Belvedere for a party.

Ernie, Shequida and Chris at the Hotel Belvedere.

Ernie and Nonie freaking to “Bad Romance”

Michael, Ernie and Rafael

Click here to check out more Fire Island photos on my Flickr.

Last night a good friend of mine scored me a free ticket to see Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden for the Monster Ball.  I hate to sound trite, but words don’t do Gaga justice so I will just say that it was amazing.

When I go to events like this I struggle with whether or not to sneak my good camera in so that I can take some nice Creative Commons photos of one of the most inspiring artists working today.  To bring a clunky DSLR means that I no longer feel like a spectator to the event as much as a documentarian.  I don’t sit back and enjoy the show (or dance in the aisles as I did last night) but instead I’m always on the lookout for crisper photos, better angles.  It can make an event I am in the middle of feel far away.

Since my Creative Commons project is more-or-less officially over (with exceptions), I left the DSLR at home and brought my Samsung cameraphone.  Obviously, the photos aren’t so great, but my own personal experience was so much better without the DSLR.

Me and Brooke with Gaga in the background.  Thank you to the security guard who took this photo and then promptly told us to go back to our seats.

She is actually playing the piano she is on top of in the photo above.

Brett and Brooke having a blast.

Have you ever wondered a good place to contemplate life?  How about on top of a Wall Street skyscraper.  I had a meeting downtown and the bathroom had a window, which is when I caught this guy with my cameraphone.

The island between the buildings is Governors Island and way off in the distance is Staten Island.  The bridge barely visible on the left is the largest suspension bridge in the United States, the Verrazano-Narrows.  Who this guy is and what he was doing is anybody’s guess.  Images licensed Creative Commons 3.0.

Oh, the East Village, my neighborhood.  Some poor soul for weeks, if not months, planned to crochet his/her bike and put it out as art, or whatever else reaction they wanted.  I bet you if anything, they wanted this blog post; they spent countless hours in hopes somebody, somewhere, would see what they did and let you know about it.

Well, Crochet Bandit, I have taken the bait.  Now you read this and revel in the absolute bizarre amount of time you poured into this pointless exercise, which now officially exists.  Not only is it now on the Internets, but when I was there I saw real, live Asians photographing it.  When you move to Raleigh in two years, you can now spin yarns to the knitting club about the impact you had in New York City as a subversive street artist.  You. Were.  The Edge.

This is what bikes look like normally, all over this city:

But with the Crocheting Bandit on the loose, your hapless bike might end up like this:

The Crochet Bandit wants you to believe that this could happen to anyone, anywhere.  They hope to strike fear in you, asshole bicyclers, that you could wake one morning to find your smug eco-friendly way to work rendered useless in yarn.

Yet the un-yarned magna-lock and that the wheels don’t work show this was meticulously created over months, in the safety of an apartment, and then placed for you to behold.  And for Critical Mass to fear.  Well, I’ll bite.  I fear.

I fear for all those bikers New Yorkers hate, who beg for more bicycle lanes no pedestrian wants.  Those bicyclers (all of them) who obey no traffic laws and that most New Yorkers wish would not exist.  Cyclists.  New Yorkers hate them.  Really, we do.

So yes, Crochet Bandit, gum their wheels with the needle of synthetic justice!

My dog Little Man is my best friend and we’ve been through a lot together.  Dogs are incredible, and this one has added a lot of joy to my life.

In January Little Man turned five, and in dog years that makes him 35, which is exactly my age right now. To mark the occasion this month, my friend Billy Name, Andy Warhol’s live-in photographer at The Factory, did some portrait shots at the historic Chelsea Hotel in New York City.

Images with attribution to Billy Name

This is a photo my friend Nate took of Billy photographing:

Billy and me:

Image above licensed Creative Commons 3.0

I make no money from my Creative Commons photography, but the payoffs come in ways that aren’t financial.  One is that with every person I photograph, I’m in a situation where I have the opportunity to say something to that person.

I almost never take advantage of this.  It’s somewhat unprofessional: these people are there to have their pictures taken, and I’m there to take them.  Neither of us is there to discuss whatever.  Idle chatter does not go down well with photographers because it hamstrings our ability to shoot photographs.

Besides, what to say when one has perhaps 20 seconds for an interaction?

When I photographed David Bowie, my all-time favorite musician and someone whose work impacted my life a good deal, I said nothing to him.

“I really love your music” wouldn’t have cut it in the moments we had, and who knows if his reaction to such a cliche would have hurt my own cherished, personal “David Bowie”.

But with Elizabeth Warren it was different.

Amongst the 100 Most Influential People in the World, she was the only person to whom I had something to say because I love Elizabeth Warren.

I love the person I see in the media; I love that she does so much good; I love the voice and tone that she uses to say the things that she does; and I love how gently matter-of-fact she is about it all.

I went to law school, but I also love that I would only need a high school education to understand the arguments that she makes on behalf of mainstream Americans (and against the shenanigans of Wall Street).

If you ever have said to yourself, “You know, I really should bone up on what needs to be done to fix the whole Wall Street mess” then Google Elizabeth Warren and look for her television appearances.  She’s speaking for you, she’s speaking for me, and even though they may not know it yet, she is speaking for Wall Street.

Our financial sector, the entire global economy, only functions with trust and faith; damage it, and nobody trusts that the things you sell may be okay to buy.

Think Chinese toothpaste and toys; American financial products are in danger of the same reputation if we don’t clean up how they are made.

So what did I say to Elizabeth Warren when I had the opportunity?  “Elizabeth!  Thank you!  You do such good work!  Thank you!“  And then I took the portrait that you see above.

Learn why I love her–and why you should too–by watching this clip from the May 3rd Stephen Colbert (whom I photographed in 2007, but to whom I also said nothing):

Click here to see my Time 100 Creative Commons portraits at Flickr.

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