New Documentary Photography Blog

I've started a new blog on Documentary Photography, and the first post asks the inevitable question:

What Would Walker Evans Do?

Four Years Ago

Four years ago I made my first post on this blog with Beginnings and Endings.

I then marked the 1839 anniversary of the announcement of the invention of photography with Happy 167th Birthday.

Now, I've moved from Manhattan, so -- while I'll keep this blog, after a bit of repurposing -- you can follow my California posts on Los Angeles Portraits.

One more city will be in the news, very soon, as well. Above: one of my last recent snaps in Manhattan.

Who and Where, but Why is Still Pending

I sometimes forget that my various online outlets aren't always connected, and that it isn't always obvious that I post in more than one place. So a quick bit of linkage:

My other blog is Actualities and I usually make documentary-related posts there.

My main site is tedfisher.com, and that includes my filmography and c.v. and a way to contact me. I'll be adding some new material and a new section in 2010.

My IMDB page includes links to my films and other projects I've worked on.

Some of my films are on vimeo.com also.

You can find me on Twitter as well.

No, I'm not on Facebook, or LinkedIn, and no, I'm not this guy, even though bing.com thinks so.

Above: an iPhone snap taken at Hunter College last week, looking uptown in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, On Actualities

On my Actualities blog, a few new posts: on a new project, an editing lesson, some editing skills and some editing ideas.

It's all about editing, I suppose.

Update on Polanski Doc

On my other blog, there's a little more on the revelations about that documentary on Polanski. Less Hypothetically

The Big Three Oh Oh

My other blog just hit a milestone. In fact, there are several posts there you might like to see: on Documentary Ethics, on HD cameras, and on the Olympia Film Festival.

Be Gentle, Slow Down

I've had to slow down, for a number of reasons. It's important to get things in order and focus on the most important things. It does seem like the law of averages is not currently on my side, but perhaps that will change.

A related note: Am I back on Twitter, which I've previously likened to a cocktail party for people with earplugs? (Picture everyone standing alone, shouting at intervals, and rarely listening to anything except their own insights on how much more important making a brand is than making art.)

Well, yes.

I have a screening coming up this Saturday, two films currently on Snagfilms, and a Continuing Ed class to promote. While I am struggling to catch up with everything -- and, at the same time, very purposefully trying to avoid overwork and the difficulties it causes -- it seems important to make myself easy to find. For whatever that's worth. So follow me there, but keep in mind I'm only following people I know in "real life" or that I have a lot in common with. I can't, at the moment, focus on too many things at once or in the midst of noise. I think I'm supposed to be adding quiet, and I'm not sure how that's done.

Above: an iPhone snap. Very busy street, turned to the side and saw this. Luckily, since it is the iPhone, the door didn't move.

Three Years

I started this blog three years ago with this post.

In those three years I've posted over 610 times, and another 283 times at my other blog. Very few of those posts, however, have been made recently. This summer has been a tough one, and it isn't over yet. I'm eager for a change of seasons.

Ah well, back to work. More posting "soon" I hope.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Whatever

I know, I know ... but now I'm back.

A few items of good news, soon, when some things are official. Until then, on my other blog, a little post about an editing book.

Last Book Read: Ralph Rosenblum

It's Not You, It's Me

I deleted my Twitter account. It's not for me.

I've also turned off the Flash plug-in for my Web browser. (Advertisements show up as empty white boxes for me now.) As well, I've unsubscribed from a lot of RSS feeds. I've started turning my cell phone off whenever possible.

Back in April, on my friend's blog, I said I would.

Ted and Internet

“Between your 16 blogs and everyone else telling me to Facebook and Twitter… I’m about to get rid of everything except one email account. It’s starting to look a bit empty. (I can’t think of one interesting thing I’ve seen online in the last two months anywhere. I don’t care about the Octomom, I don’t know anyone making decent money from blogging, and online video is generally weak crap.)

It might be time to return to the real world — just to tick people off.

Or maybe that was the plan: get the Internet started, wait for all the normal people people to get fully committed to it, then get off of it — so only the cool people will be offline.”

I'm not advising anyone to do this. I just think that people talking on their cell phones as they attempt to walk down the street look a bit dumb. I'm sure you don't.

My brief experience with social media was rather unsocial. Everyone was very friendly, they posted links to things I read last week, and told me that social media was the path to success. (Good luck with that.) When I responded, they generally ignored me.

My friend who posted my comment above knows: I'm not any sort of Luddite. I've been on the Internet forever. A lot of the things people send me excitedly as something new -- I did back in 1997.

The thing is this: I'm noticing that my students increasingly can't focus as well as I'd expect. That the media gets away, increasingly, with posting water cooler talk, easily debunked with any search or thinking, but right there in the big red headline. That as a culture we can't match the post-destruction resolve of the ancient Greeks -- who rebuilt the Acropolis -- and instead rebuild movies from our collective childhood.

I don't care about Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc. I'm not twelve years old, and I think there's a lot more to sophistication than better visual effects underneath improved marketing.

I'm noticing that things are getting shallower, and that folks seem happy with that. That's fine. There's someone just waiting for them. His bio says:

"I make stuff, actually I make up stuff, stories mostly, collaborations of thoughts, dreams, and actions. Thats me."

Go check him out.

A Brief Period of Textual Experimentation

Well, I'm still not sure if it's for me, but I'm giving Twitter a trial run.

Mainly because Maureen Dowd won't. It's the one place I can be sure not to run into her by accident.

I'm at http://twitter.com/tediting. You know, in case you need to know what I had for lunch.

Sakura on UES

Chris Corradino has a nice shot of our neighborhood from a Springtime Stroll Through Central Park.

Is "Dektol" Danny Lyon?

Danny Lyon fans may also wish to glance at:

Dektol's Weblog

And On My Other Blog

On Actualities recently I've had posts about: flowers, strippers, stalkers, bloggers, and editors, posted a link for a doc I edited and requested your vote for The Webbys.

You know, the usual.

And On My Other Blog

This week on Actualities -- my other blog -- I discussed Malcolm Gladwell, the Supreme Court, and the future of IMDB. Somehow, it all relates to making documentaries.

Two Years

First, happy birthday to Photography. Today marks the 169th anniversary of the announcement of the invention of Photography. (Of course, I prefer to think of the creation of the first photograph in 1826 as the beginning, but the 1839 announcement really marks the date when the world noticed.)

Second, two years ago I started this blog with a post on Beginnings and Endings. I'm now thinking of ways to improve it, ending the old model and moving toward a new one.

Third, I'm increasingly aware that the term "blog" is actually 'blog -- as in short for Web Log -- and has in fact not really matured from that role. Initially the idea was to post a record of your "interesting" journey to Web sites -- what you read and what you thought of it -- and now the unfortunate state is that there's little unique content being posted. It's mostly links to large news sources -- the same ones people call "dinosaurs" in favor of blogs -- and at best a comment. That's kind of pointless. Blournals -- 'bjournals or Web Journals -- are increasingly pointless as well. I follow a few, mostly of authors or photographers I like. 9 out of 10 posts are trivia, so I wait for that 10th and hope the content is worth it.

So what model is worth following? Magazine? Channel? Daily Photo?

Last Night's Screening

Over at Actualities I've posted a brief report on last night's screening.

Frugal Seattle

Over on Actualities I discuss editing the latest Frugal Traveler episode.

Oh, and there's some Thanksgiving-related fun as well.

Pop Photo Flash

The video on the NYIP photo contest has received a link from Popular Photography -- so it will be interesting to see if that leads to a good number of viewers for the piece. There are no parachuting squirrels in the video, just folks talking about photographs and photography, so I'll be very pleased if it does well on YouTube....

New Frugal Traveler Video

Over at Actualities I have a few notes on editing the latest "Frugal Traveler" video. I've been very quiet on that blog, which is strange since so much of my time lately has been taken up with video projects and teaching video....