Take a moment to reflect

Alexandra Boulat - copyright Jerome Delay

I wrote several essays on Alexandra Boulat. She was laid to rest to day at Church of Jacqueville outside of Paris, alongside her father. The emotions expressed by the photography and other communities are hopefully providing some relief to her family, loved ones, friends and colleagues. Few photographers have done what she has accomplished and shown the world.

I hope everyone takes a moment to reflect on her and the rest of the community of conflict and war photographers for their contributions to the world. Without their work, we wouldn't know. It's as simple as that. We would be left with political and propograndist views of conflicts, wars, genocide, and other acts of inhumanity. We wouldn't know the truth. And to that we owe or highest gratitude to these photographers.

And take a moment to thank Alexandra Boulat. For her life and contributions. We should all do so much, and while we know we can't all do that, at least we can honor those who do risk their life for images we see to know our humanity and inhumanity.

JMO - Support all-inclusive ENDA

I wrote a blog on the ENDA and Representative Barney Frank and others' decision to remove gender identity from the Act, leaving only sexual orientation as protected under the Act. I was criticized in my view for not including transvestities, drag queens and cross-dressers because of the umbrella term of transgender to be all-inclusive under gender identity.

Well, while there are laws protecting gender presentation, there are few laws, meaning most states don't have them, protecting gender identity. Gender identity is an established medical condition in the DSM-IVTR and HBIGDA, and gender presentation is only a part of the whole process of gender identity. And while many with GID live for periods of times in the LGBT community as cross-dressers, it does not mean all cross-dressers have GID, and in fact, the vast majority are heterosexual married men usually with familes. Most of the rest are gay or lesbians.

Very few transgender people are transpeople under the medical definition of transsexual. Being a transvestite, draq queen or cross-dresser does not make you a transperson, but a transgender person who presents themselves in the gender different than their birth sex. That's all they do, and don't go through the medically defined process to physically and legally change their sex to match their conflicting gender identity.

And my point? If Congress wants to include all transgender people in the ENDA, fine, but don't exclude transpeople because you're confusing them with transgender people. Transpeople need inclusion because of the problems they face in their transistion to be protected from employment discrimination, violence and hate crimes, and other problems they face in their life during and after their transistion. Their problems are far different than mere gender presentation and worthy of their own protections.

While I applaud many LGB groups supporting an all-inclusive ENDA, I'm outraged some feel the transcommunity should stop riding their coattails. Since the early 1990's the transcommunity hasn't and has independently fought for inclusion in ENDA. And by the way, transpeople have helped you throughout your struggle, as well as the CD community, some of whom separated themselves from transgroups because they didn't want to be identiified as transpeople or separated themselves from the LGB community because they're straight.

As for the vote as Representative Franks says, who cares? We all know the President will veto it and Congress can't override his veto. So why not send the message to be all-inclusive and let him veto a real bill. Or are you afraid of being identified with transpeople to your voters? It's not just about the votes Mr. Franks, is it? Or else you wouldn't have dropped transpeople so fast to win the vote of the LBG voters. You jettisoned the transcommunity too fast to be just a votes issue.

Representative Baldwin is right, it's all or none. And while I make the distiinction with transpeople from tv's, dq's and cd's, I'll go along with an all-inclusive bill for gender presentation as part of gender identiy. It's not, in my view, right or true, but it's worthwhile. Clothes should not be grounds for discrimination. It's as simple as that. But in the end, it's just my view and opinion.

The Three P's

I got to thinking - which my friends always warned me was dangerous because they didn't know if my thought or idea would fly around or fly off, the physics of the forces on the mental process to produce substance in space and time. About perspective writing the essay on Alexandra Boulat. The photo of her taken by an another photographer inspired me sitting in front of my computer watching a bright red to orange to yellow sunrise over Mt. Rainier and the whole southeastern sky.

Ms. Boulat was a super talented conflict photographer, and I hope everyone takes a moment to think about her, her images and what life means. I prefer the design and emptiness of our world, finding views that you see but don't pay attention to, and the camera is the ideal tool to sort it out and find the image that presents something different. Ok, it's an ordinary image, but I like it - hey, I took it. Anyway, back to the thought.

Three things a photographer needs, and I love them in bunches of three's of the same letter, something to catch the mind. It's about perspective, presence and peace of mind, all of which resolves into time and space and the one thing that makes it all work, light. As they say, it's all about light, all the rest is what is at that place at that time. And the photographer has to be there.

A photographer needs a perspective about their life and work, and about themselves. It's about how they see the world and their place in the world. It's the innate sense of being and expressed in the doing, the photography they do and how they go about it.

A photographer must have a presence. Sound obvious to be there and aware. But a photographer must have their mind fully engaged and present in to the whole, their work and themselves. It's the saying, "Stand in your own space and know you are there.", and don't forget the camera.

A photographer must have peace of mind. Ok, it's a Zen thing, but photography is a lot about the merging of Taoism and Zen Buddhism, to keep the mind focused on the world, the scene, the image, the light, and yourself. It's about, as they say, finding the zone and being in it to work and get the image(s) you want.

Ok, statements of the obvious. What photographer wouldn't subscribe to this view? Well, how many have come back from a shoot or photo op, or just out wandering with their camera, have other things on their mind or say, "I don't know, it didn't come together."?

A photographer's perspective

When I read about Alexandra Boulat I went searching for information on her short life. I found this image without a photo credit (credit added from comment below), so it's obviously by another photographer at a checkpoint somewhere in her travels. You can read about her on the VII Photo Website.

Photographers are a quirky bunch of people. Each one belongs to a group of similar photographers, usually by the type of photography they pursue and present to the world. Conflict photographers are in a class and value by themselves. And yes, I truly believe this. Who else when being personally searched and her equipment thoroughly inspected turn to the camera and smile with a sense of humor you see in her face?

These men are serious and everything there is serious. You don't (pardon the expression) fuck with these people or you will know what happens in no uncertain terms. But within the framework of it, Alexandra finds the humor of the situation to smile. While I can say I've had my taste with authority in my photography, it pales by a lot with any one of her experiences. I would be too cautious and anxious to stand there, especially with a smle.

I prefer the quiet solace of nature, more specifically Mount Rainier NP. The trails have very few people, and none with automatic weapons and armored vehicles ready to shoot and kill when necessary. And only rarely people in camoflage uniforms, such as the paramilitary people I met in the deserts of Arizona when I worked there with the USGS. But I will add they are spookier than soldiers.

That's because military people, generally, have orders and rules to follow in engagement and the use of force. Private paramilitary people don't and hearing gun shots ignites the senses - yes been there, done that. And while I've met some walking in the desert I've never had an encounter with them like Alexandra routinely did for her work. I give her far more courage than I'll ever imagine, let alone know.

Even in the street photography I also like to do, it's always in the daytime in cities where I'm not too far from the public. I'm not an extreme street photographer either. They're also their own group dedicated to the city environment and people. And occasionally their experience is not that different from a conflict photographer, just the place and events. It's the old adage, it's still about humanity or inhumanity, whichever is the situation.

And that's the beauty of photographers. It's the respect we have for the passion of our craft which inhabits the spirit and soul of every photographer that counts. It's the one constant, and each of us do what we can to do what we want. And the rest is just the world we live in to be there. It's our perspective, and hopefully with a sense of humor. After all, what else is there?

NPR - Being alone

I read about the recent research on loneliness and the immune system where the reseachers found it's partly genetic - loneliness that is, and it inhibits the immune system to fight diseases and illnesses. That's somewhat known, but the genetic part isn't. But that said, and before you confuse the two, loneliness is not the same as aloneness. To borrow a quote, "The difference between aloneness and loneliness is like being broke and being poor."

The writer Anneli Rufus has a great book on the subject, "Party of One". You can find more about Anneli at Wikipedia. Her book examines and explains people who like to live and be alone. It's their nature and it's not abnormal, and in fact, many loners in history have made significant contributions to the rest of the world. For you see, many activities, like writing, photography, and so on requires people work alone and be comfortable with and in themselves being alone.

I write this because the confusion still shows up in the news and people still seem to be getting it wrong. The life of an alone person has many advantages.

Life. Many people like living alone. We've all read the studies of single people and we've all read the psychologists preach it's unhealthy and single people really want the comfort of companionship. In short, they're selling hype to sell books. The percentage of single people has been increasing for the last 20+ years, and very few seem to regret their choices. It's the freedom that being and living alone provides people.

People. We all interact and engage people in our lives. It's the reality of being in the world. Whether it's work and life around work, or your life, even if you're independent and just go through life living and working. We can't survive anymore without meeting people in the ordinary events and places in life. Alone people aren't any different, people are just as important in our lives as anyone else's life. It's just they don't feel adicted to have the around all the time.

Friends. No one doubts friends are nice to have. But sheer numbers of friends doesn't make you a better person, it's also the quality of those friends. Some people just like a few good friends they know and trust. They don't mind social situations, but often talk to just a few or migrate to a less crowded area of the party or scene. It's their nature, they're satisfied and comfortable, so don't fret over them.

Loved ones. All alone people have had loved ones in their life or have loved others throughout their life. They're no different in that respect, it's as long as they understand their aloneness. And some people find that a strong value in a relationship, so they can focus on the things important in their life without the guilt of the other person(s) feeling left out or lonely. It benefits both in the relationship.

Ok, enough about the what in the person's world, how about the person?

Being. This is the tough one since being is simply being comfortable in, with and by yourself. Yet, many people have the internal makeup that either crave or need company or companionship. Being alone is something they dread or fear. Most people don't mind being alone for periods of time, but usually not for long. And some at the opposite end of the spectrum prefer being alone. We're all part of the human diversity and eveyone is normal.

Doing. This is the other half of being. We are and we do. It's that simple, most of the time. Other things get in the way, but this is about who we go through life. Many professions, endeavors and activities require people being alone while they work, it's just some prefer to do this for almost everything they do that doesn't require human interaction. And as noted, creativity often requires it.

Personality and temperament. These and genes are the factors that determine comfortableness when being alone, from being totally comfortable to terribly lonely when being alone. Despite what many may think, it's not about confidence, in fact probably the opposite. Being alone requires the confidence to believe in yourself by yourself. There are some people who will challenge themselves to do something alone, but alone people don't necessarily need the challenge. It's a part of them.

And how it's sometimes seen or expressed?

Creativity. Many people are far more creative by themselves, just letting their minds wonder and wander, to see all the iterations and follow all the paths of ideas. This doesn't mean they don't like to talk with others, to hear the ideas, views and experiences of others, to add to the whole of ideas and to bounce their thoughts or ideas off others. It's just they trust themselves. Sometimes it's not productive, but then innovation isn't efficient or always effective, but in the end, it usually produces.

Silence. Don't confuse people being silent with wanting to be alone. The ability to desire to converse and ability to easily converse with others is a personality trait. Many alone people are easy to meet and greet, and have conversations with. Most, however, hold the more serious ones to their close friends. You might find many alone people have interesting views and insights into the world, often with a quirky sense of humor.

So, in the end, if you see someone alone, don't assume they're lonely. They may just like being alone. And if you think they want to be alone, maybe they like the conversation, they just like going home alone afterward. And if you like their company and companionship, be patient and understanding. Something everyone wants out of life.