ruffian BECOMING-PLANT:

ethical paradigm

PASSIVE ACTIVISM:Pascal Fellanneau

TOP 5 OWS POSTERS

ru

ffia

n

CATALOGGING THE BIRTH OF MOVEMENTS

FOLLOW THE BIRTH OF MOVEMENTS

ISSUE5 - I

12.2012

Photo credit: Patricia Milero

99%mythology

cheapeneddiscussions

with clear, actionable demandsno call for action means

no accountability

“this lack meant the movement would eventually die

against the pressure of those in power

and time”

the

0

"if anything is certain,it is that OWs is nOt the last egalitarian

insurgency We Will see"

n May 1, 2011, OsaMa bin Laden was killed in his virtually unprotected compound by a raiding mission of 79 navy seals, who entered Pakistan by helicopter. after many lurid

stories were provided by the government and withdrawn, official reports made it increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law, beginning first with the invasion itself.

There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 79 commandos facing no opposition - except, they report, from his wife, also unarmed, who they shot in self-defense when she “lunged” at them (according to the White House).

a plausible reconstruction of the events is provided by veteran Middle east correspondent yochi dreazen and colleagues in the atlantic. dreazen, formerly the military correspondent for the Wall street Journal, is senior correspondent for the national Journal officer briefed on the assault said the Snot to take him alive.”

There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 79 commandos facing no opposition - except, they report, from his wife, also unarmed, who

there appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 79 commandos facing no opposition - except, they report, from his wife, also unarmed, who they shot in self-defense when she “lunged” at them (according to the White House).

a plausible reconstruction of the events is provided by veteran Middle east correspondent yochi dreazen and colleagues in the atlantic. dreazen, formerly the military correspondent for the Wall street Journal, is senior correspondent for the national Journal Group covering military affairs and national security. White House planning appears not to have considered the option of capturing ObL alive: “The administration had made clear to the military’s clandestine Joint special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior U.S. official with the discussions. a high-ranking military officer briefed on the assault said the Snot to take him alive.”

a plausible reconstruction of the events is provided by veteran Middle east correspondent yochi dreazen and colleagues in the atlantic. dreazen, formerly the military correspondent for the Wall street Journal, is senior correspondent for the national Journal Group covering military affairs and national security. White House planning appears not to have considered the option of capturing ObL.

Group covering military affairs and national security. White House planning appears not to have considered the option of capturing ObL alive: “Had made

oby noaM choMsky

occupy Wall street (oWs) burned through the nation like

a wild fire, crossing oceans and leaving no country

unaffected. is it extinguished?

the haze

13

rUFFian > power

30 311

WHAT would youdo WITH THESE9BN DOLLARS?

~

centsare “wasted”by everycitizendaily

current populationof the usa

public funds to education

(check one)

log-on tomovement.isto submityour answer

public funds for welfare

funds for healthcare

tax cuts

9unclaimeddollarsevery day

MILLIOn MILLIOncents

uT if THe QuesTiOn Of THe metropolis is central, then in my opinion it is because there is a structure of the common that is specifi c to it. This structure could be described as the

tension that exists between the demand for services on the one hand, and the withholding of these services, or the refusal to consent to this demand, on the other. The refusal endangers the demand, and the claims made to it. and this demand becomes more and more important. i actually believe that two processes are currently underway. The fi rst is a defi nitive neutralization of the traditional working class, which has allowed for the distinct working-class space—the factory—to be destroyed. but it goes beyond this to something more general, because we could also say that this disqualifi cation has marked the disappearance of the productive space as a clearly defi ned one. The second process concerns the illegal reconstruction of urban space, the spaces not controlled by anyone,

to nine hundred thousand living in what we could call neighborhoods, or “defi ned” spaces, whereas about six or seven million people live in totally chaotic conditions.

i must say that i completely agree with niall ferguson, who has said that the new political context the bush administration was responding to was not one of large-scale terrorism engendered by the ongoing confl ict in the Middle East—a situation that they themselves created—but the fact that, for the fi rst time since the assertion of the Monroe doctrine in 1823 Latin america was completely independent. and now, if Mexico votes Left, it will no longer be only Latin america, but Latin america and Mexico in Central america!

b by Michael albert

learn how

the change left on

corner stores’ counters

and pennies on the floor

can change the world THIRTY CENTS

19

rUFFian > balances

THIRTY CENTS

1971:Philip Zimbardo led the radical

stanfordPrison

experiments

PUerto escondido, keegan gibbs

2007:the findings of the Prison experiment pushedDr. Zimbardo to defend the soldiers behind the abu ghraib prison accusing the government leaders as the main culprits for these issues “if yOu’re nOt aWare that

this can haPPen, yOu can be seDuceD by evil. We neeD inOculatiOns against Our OWn POtential fOr evil.”

n THe suMMer Of 1971, we set up a mock prison on the stanford university campus. We took 23 volunteers and randomly

divided them into two groups. These were normal young men, students. We asked them to act as “prisoners” and “guards” might in a prison environment. The experiment was to run for two weeks.

By the end of the first day, nothing much was happening. but on the second day, there was a prisoner rebellion. The guards came to me: “What do we do?”

“it’s your prison,” i said, warning them against physical violence. The guards then quickly moved to psychological punishment, though there was physical abuse, too.

in the ensuing days, the guards became ever more sadistic, denying the prisoners food, water and sleep, shooting them with fire-extinguisher spray, throwing their blankets into dirt, stripping them naked and dragging

rebels across the yard.How bad did it get? The guards ordered the

prisoners to simulate sodomy. Why? because the guards were bored. boredom is a powerful motive for evil. i have no idea how much

in a lot of ways, the studies are bookends in our understanding of evil. Milgram quantified the

small steps that people take when they do evil. He showed that an authority can command people to do things they believe they’d never do. i wanted to take that further. Milgram’s study only looked at one aspect of behavior, obedience to authority, in short 50-minute takes. The s.P.e., because it was slated to go for two weeks, was almost like a forerunner of reality television. you could see behavior unfolding hour by hour, day by day.

Here’s something that’s sort of funny. The first time I spoke publicly about the S.P.E., stanley Milgram told me: “your study is going to take all the ethical heat off of my back. People are now going to say yours is the most unethical study ever, and not mine.”

i was shocked. but not surprised. i immediately flashed on similar pictures from the s.P.e. What particularly bothered me was that the Pentagon blamed the whole thing on a “few bad apples.” i knew from our experiment, if you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.

That was why i was willing to be an expert witness for sgt. Chip frederick, who was ultimately sentenced to eight years for his role at abu Ghraib. frederick was the army reservist who was put in charge of the night shift at Tier 1, where detainees were abused. frederick said, up front, “What i did was wrong, and i don’t understand why i did it.”

i

by PhiliP ZiMbardo

there are times when

external circumstances

can overwhelm us, and

we do things we never

thought we could

situations

21

rUFFian > society

~

(1943-1987)italian artist born

out of the arte povera movement in turin

of the 1960s(1943-1987)

italian artist born out of the arte povera

movement in turinof the 1960s

Philosopher and social critic who developed

revolutionary theories on art and evolution

of the 1960s(1896-1968)

Philosopher and social critic who developed revolutionary theories

of the 1960s(1896-1968)

“This morning i woke up to terror such as i have never experienced before: i was entirely stripped of feeling. everything was gone; it was as if i had lost something that had been entrusted to me the previous evening, something i was special”

“in the ensuing days, the guards became ever more sadistic, denying the prisoners food, water and sleep, stripping them naked and dragging rebels across the yard.”

“Our kitchen crew slaughtered our last four ducks. While they were still alive, Julian plucked their neck feathers, before chopping off their heads on the execution block.”

“On the fifth night, my former graduate student Christina Maslach came by. she witnessed the guards putting bags over the prisoners’ heads gs over the prisoners’ heads. she witnessed the guards putting bags over the prisoners’ heads, chain their legs and march them around.”

alighiero boetti

theodore adorno

richard aVedon

Werner herZog

we quote some of the most groundbreaking artists

of the 20th century to discuss art’s open veins

aestheticOBSCENE

challenges

23

rUFFian > converse

OBSCENE

Photos by: MarcUs nilsson

190 dean street (at bond street)boerum hill, brooklyn;(718) 576-3209, rucolabrooklyn.com

“Our cuisine anD service stanD in a lOng traDitiOn Of resPect fOr the custOmer: that’s Our secret”

efOre venTurinG inTO THe restaurant business, Henry Moynahan rich co-founded Oral fixation mints, a brand known as much for its sleek retro packaging as for its breath-freshening

properties. There is a similar emphasis on style at rucola, the boerum Hill brownstone-cum-Piedmontese farmhouse. The wine list is primarily northern italian, the cocktails laced with amari and bitters, and the room itself clad with reclaimed Pennsylvania barn wood and rustic farm implements. To stand out from the meat-centric competition, chef Joe Pasqualetto (late of Gilt) has devised a vegetable-focused menu of salads and housemade pastas, many incorporating locally grown produce.

The wine list is primarily northern italian, the cocktails laced with amari and bitters, and the room itself clad with reclaimed Pennsylvania barn wood and rustic farm

daylight pours through the elaborate window ironwork onto natural woods and restrained bric-a-brac. famous young actors eat breakfast over scripts. at night, neighbors stop at tables and chat about the children. Everyone fills up on farm-to-table Northern

Italian. Rucola reflects Boerum Hill’s platonic ideal of itself; it’s full of rootsy brooklyn good taste.

and good tastes. after an uneven start last year, the food is

accomplished and satisfying. There are rustic, rich starters like veal spiedini: lemony, addictive cigars of tender meat rolled around anchovies, then breaded and pan-fried ($9). Green lentil soup is earthy and substantial, laced with Parmesan ($8).

The kitchen makes fine use of nuts. Colorful heirloom carrots are enriched with hazelnuts ($11); sweet, soft branzino crudo gains crunch and interest from toasted

sunflower seeds ($12). You might agree that rucola does what a neighborhood restaurant should: make local life feel good enough that you want to live nearby.

Bby alice Waters

how to open a restaurant in a

crashing economy & succeed

RUCOLA

27

rUFFian > gastronomy

~

Photos by: WilliaM rUgen

core gallery117 Prefontaine Place south

seattle, Wa 98104(206) 467-4444

William rugenhttp://williamrugen.com/

William rugen is a seattle based photographer. Known for his projects “Western dioramas” which explores man’s relationship with the vast american west, and “Consumed” in which he documented every single thing he ate over the course of one year, his most recent project “new botanicals” was exhibited at seattle’s Core Gallery in the spring of 2012.

“new botanicals” is an homage and graphical update to the classic botanical prints from the 18th and 19th century. i have a background in biology and have always had an affinity for scientific illustrations.

by adaM sMith

“everything of beauty or value requires a certain amount ‘ugliness’ to come to fruition”

ne

w b

ota

nic

als

29

rUFFian > showcase

~

Photos by: WilliaM rUgen

satellite iMagery coUrtesy oF nasa

1

2

3

4

5

(1) “new botanicals” is an homage and graphical update to the classic.

(2) “new botanicals” is an homage and graphical update to the classic.

(4) The sun consumed the window pane.

(5) “Consumed” in which he documented every single thing he ate.

by don de lillo

1

2

4

5

(3) The rivers crossed opening a sudden valley.

3

visual tales from a 2 week drive

down route 101 from oregon into

mystic northern california

froma

movingcar

33

rUFFian > nomadism

~

collection: John leWis ss12

John leWis logo Printed on eVery Piece oF their clothing

aWarded OnLy TO susTainabLeCLOTHinG-Ware

green seal oF aPProVal

Get It:goose barnacle

1400 atlantic avebrooklyn, ny

(206) 467-4444

or

steven alanhttp://www.stevenalan.com/

iLLiaM ruGen is a seaTTLe based PHOTOGraer. Known for his projects “Western dioramas” which explores man’s relationship with the vast american west, and “Consumed” in which he documented every single

thing he ate over the course of one year, his most recent project “new botanicals” was exhibited at seattle’s Core Gallery fall 2013.William rugen is a seattle based photographer. Known for his projects “Western dioramas” which explores man’s relationship with the vast american west, and “Consumed” in which he documented every single thing he ate over the course of one year, his most recent project “new botanicals” was exhibited at seattle’s Core Gallery fall 2013.

w

by adaM sMith

“everything of beauty or value

requires a certain amount

‘ugliness’ to come to fruition”

be-lie-ve me

36

rUFFian > style

~

“A riot is the l AnguAge

of the unheArd”Martin Luther King, Jr.

rise-up,youngbuck!

PhotograPhs, articles, PoeMs on the toPic oF Protests cUrated bynoam chomsky

let’s understand whylondon is burning

so is the rest of the worldrise-up,youngbuck!

THer areas under CurfeWonly visible from the road, over barriers erected by the army. When i visited, the refugee camp of Jalazoun had been under 24-hour curfew for over a month. Jalazoun was a ghost town. no men were to be seen. a few older women, presumably less vulnerable, were working in gardens near the houses and there were

several children out of doors. Otherwise, silence. all entrances were barricaded and under military guard. The inhabitants were not permitted to leave their houses except for a brief period every few days to purchase food with what meager resources they still have. There was reported to be very little

medical care and a shortage of medicines. The un relief official in charge of the camp, Mogens Fokdal, reports that “people have gone without electricity for a month. They have no oil or fuel to cook. according to attorney raja shehadeh of al-Haq, the curfew was imposed after an alleged threat to an israeli collaborator. israel takes such threats very seriously. Typically, the “threat” consists of calls on the collaborators, who are well-known because of their flaunting of privileges afforded for their services, to come to the mosque, repent, and promise to refrain from serving as shin beit informers. One result of the uprising is that israel appears to have lost its network of collaborators and informers.

On february 24, villagers had marched to the house of a collaborator, Mohammad al-ayed, to call

oAre the Actions of the

rioters bAsed on A certAinmob-psychology?

collaborators was permitted to bear arms, began shooting wildly and continued for several hours, killing a 4-year-old boy and wounding 15 people. He then either killed himself (as villagers allege), or was killed by villagers. His body was hung on an electric pole.

The army then invaded the village, killing a 20-day-old child and a 70-year-old man with tear gas. dozens of people had bones broken from beatings. Many were arrested; 500 remained under arrest when the curfew was lifted 6 weeks later. four houses were demolished and others heavily damaged. during the curfew, villagers report, soldiers entered the village daily, arresting and beating people, breaking into homes, smashing furniture and destroying food supplies. When journalist Oren Cohen entered by back roads in late March, the smell of tear gas made it difficult to breathe. a house where he stayed had signs of a fire, caused a week earlier by gas grenades dropped from a helicopter, the family reported. food and medicines were in short supply, the one clinic and pharmacy had been closed, and the town’s only doctor could not handle the many patients.

The visiting delegation were told by villagers that morale improved as the curfew was extended and the community organized in response. One said: “if you want to balance the situation -- on the one hand put all the israeli practices: torture, hunger, beating, imprisonment. We are ready to accept them, but not to accept occupation. We would rather continue if that is the way to get rid of the occupation.” Having heard the same things said with obvious sincerity and simplicity, I do not find it hard to believe that the sentiment is genuine.

rise up, young buck

by noaM choMsky

in defensethe right to rise up

46

The “truth” of the photo, says alex Kershaw author of “The Life of robert Capa”, is in its representation of a symbolic death. “The falling soldier - authentic or fake - is ultimately a record of Capa’s political bias and idealism,” he writes, adding: “indeed, he would soon come to experience the brutalizing insanity and death of illusions that all witnesses who get close enough to the romance of war inevitably confront.”

eight hours - and 30 km - later, Capa was dead, killed by a landmine at Thia binh, as he tried to get just that little bit closer.

by now, a romantic aura had gathered around Capa. He was a war hero, friend of writers like Hemingway and lover of movie stars like ingrid bergman.

all iMages Were taken dUring

the 2011 london riots

contInued on paGe 48

“l iberty is About our rights to question everything.”

PhotograPhs by roberto caPa

the way things are torn

47

rise up, young buck

next paGe:

FireMan and croWd in tottenhaM, 2011

being so evidently irrational, the revolt of the dispossessed must be guided by evil intent or primitive nature. Why should one care about humiliation and degradation if these conditions are accompanied by some measure of economic growth? Why should people sacrifice material welfare and rising expectations in a quixotic search for freedom and self-respect? On the assumption that the basic human emotion and the driving force of a sane society is the desire for material gain, such questions have no simple answer, so we seek something more sophisticated and arcane.

rousseau continued “but when I see the others sacrifice pleasures, repose, wealth, power, and life itself for the preservation of this sole good which is so disdained by those who have lost it; when i see animals born free and despising captivity break their heads against the bars of their prison; when i see multitudes of entirely naked savages scorn european voluptuousness and endure hunger, fire, the sword, and death to preserve only their independence, i feel that it does not behoove slaves to reason about freedom.”

Two hundred years ago, rousseau wrote with withering contempt about his civilized countrymen who have lost the very concept of freedom and “do nothing but boast incessantly of the peace and repose they enjoy in their chains.... “

noaM choMsKy

continUed

“the privileged often regArd these struggles As An AssAult on their rights...”

the way things are torn

48

rise up, young buck

~

noaM choMsKy

unfortunAtely, you cAn't vote the rAscAls out,

becAuse you never voted them in, in the first plAce.

rise up, young buck

FireFighters tackle a blaZe at a store attacked by rioters in croydon, london aUgUst 8, 2011

rise up, young buck

“there Are nooutdoor sports

greAter thAnthrowing

stonesAt A dictAtorship”

ai weiwei

alFredo Jaar, a logo For aMerica, 1986

artist Pyotr PaVlenskyin sUPPort oF ‘PUssy riot’

The representation of geography and the intricacies of global relations influence Jaar’s every thought and action. in more recent projects, this obsession has led to critical investigations of cartography. a logo for america was an explicit demonstration of the significance of the images and language of geography – its representation and articulation. it also appropriated an amendable technology that utilized Jaar’s interest in texts, words, film processes, and graphic design. Part of a six – year program sponsored by the Public art fund, inc. in new york, Jaar was one of thirty artists invited to produce a 45 – second computer animation / intervention on the spectacolor lightboard in the heart of famed Times square.

by herbert MarcUse

ai WeiWei, 2011

“your own Acts tell the world who you Are And whAt kind of society you think it should be.”

protestas

art-form

56

rise up, young buck

esseL’s Life WOuLd MaKe a nOveL, although his story is too hopeful to be told by nihilist Houellebecq. His father, franz Hessel, was a German Jewish writer who emigrated to france with his family in 1924, when stéphane was 7. franz’s friend Henri-Pierre roché used him and his wife, Prussian beauty Helen Grund, as models for

Jules and Kate in his 1953 novel Jules et Jim.This was the enchanting tale of a woman who

loved and was loved by two men that was translated to the screen in 1962 by françois Truffaut. franz Hessel wrote novels in German and french. His admiration for france and french literature led him to produce, with the great German Jewish literary

critic Walter Benjamin, the first German translation of Marcel Proust’s a la recherche du temps perdu. stéphane grew up in a literary milieu that the German invasion of france shattered in 1940. after studying at the university of Paris’s prestigious École normale supérieure, he served in the french army during the battle of france and, like more than a million other french soldiers, became a prisoner of war. following his escape from a POW camp, he joined Gen. Charles de Gaulle and his small band of free french résistants. Hessel’s was a rare act of patriotism when most of the french professed loyalty to vichy leader Marshal Philippe Pétain and his policy of collaboration with Germany. The attitude

Hwhich replaced “liberty, equality and fraternity” with “work, family and nation.”

Hessel writes in this book, “How lucky i am to be able to draw on the foundation of my political life: the resistance and the national Council of the resistance’s program from sixty-six years ago.” That program, declared on March 15, 1944, set out the wartime and, significantly, postwar goals of the resistance. defeating the nazis and their french collaborators was only a stage, the combined resistance declared, on the way to “a true economic and social democracy.” Hessel rejects the claims that the state can no longer cover the costs of such a program. it managed to provide that support immediately after the Liberation, “when europe lay in ruins.” How could it not afford to do the same after it became rich? similarly, in britain the state paid for free universal education, including higher education, free universal medical care and other benefits that improved the health and well-being of the country’s children immeasurably after a war that left the nation bankrupt. now, after half a century of prosperity and the accumulation of fabulous fortunes, the government says it can no longer pay for the social rights for which an earlier generation fought and for which it voted overwhelmingly in 1945. The british coalition government’s cuts in social benefits, its dramatic increase in the cost of university education and its transformation of the national Health service into blocks of private trusts come in tandem with its absolution of the tax obligations of major corporations like vodafone and its public subsidies to private banks. Outrage and indignation are not inappropriate responses.

the question before us is, wil l we stAnd up to

demAnd our ownright to be heArd?

by stePhane hessel

againstviolent nonachievers

57

rise up, young buck

sto-len

iden-tity

rise up, young buck

destroyed car on a street in tottenhaM, north london aUgUst 7, 2011

They did not recognize me in the shadowsThat suck away my color in this Passport

and to them my wound was an exhibitfor a tourist Who loves to collect photographs

They did not recognize me,ah... don’t leave

The palm of my hand without the sunbecause the trees recognize me

don’t leave me pale like the moon!

all the birds that followed my palmTo the door of the distant airport

All the wheatfieldsall the prisons

all the white tombstonesall the barbed boundaries

all the waving handkerchiefsall the eyes

were with me,but they dropped them from my passport

stripped of my name and identity? On soil i nourished with my own hands?

Today Job cried outfilling the sky:

don’t make and example of me again! Oh, gentlemen, Prophets,

don’t ask the trees for their namesdon’t ask the valleys who their mother is

from my forehead bursts the sward of lightand from my hand springs the water of the river

all the hearts of the people are my identityso take away my passport!

MahMoUd darWish

passport

53

rise up, young buck

“One Of the great themes Of mODern histOry is the struggleOf subjugateD PeOPle tO gain cOntrOl Over their lives anD fate.”

bynoaM

choMsky

side by sidecomparisonprotest

“the PrivilegeD Often regarD these struggles as an assaultOn their rights, viOlent Outbursts bent On Our DestructiOn”

bynoaM

choMsky

side by sidecomparison police

80

a conversation with

Pascal doesn't practice the usual dissidence. He flirts with the cousin of scholarly dissidence:

Pascal Fellonneau is a French photographer exploring the landscapes of Europe from Iceland to Spain, from his hometown Bordeaux to Paris where he now lives. An important part of his work questions the urban scene as we inhabit it. His pictures depict strange yet familiar landscapes often devoid of humanity. After living in Iceland for a few years, he was beneficiary of a grant from French ministry of Culture in 2005, and began exhibiting in several countries across Europe (France, Greece, Germany, Sweden).

artful dissidence.

passiveactivism

FellonneauPascal

No one doubts that posters used to be highly effective as both advertising and propaganda, but from the moment people in wealthy economies started buying TVs and watching commercials.

After living in Iceland for a few years, he was beneficiary of a grant from French ministry of Culture in 2005, and began exhibiting in several countries across Europe (France, Greece, Germany, Sweden).

There are two answers to that. There’s the greatest picture I didn’t take but which was taken by someone else. Then there’s the greatest picture I could have or should have taken but didn’t because I missed it or my conscience got in the way or because I was too lazy to lift the camera.

In the first case, there are just too many to name, all of them better than anything I could ever do. Off the top of my head: Avedon’s Marilyn Monroe, Lily Allen by Nadav Kander, Alfried Krupp by Arnold Newman, Elaine Constantine’s girl feeding chip to seagull (which I am very lucky to have a print of ). Avedon’s Chicago Seven. In fact, anything and everything by Richard Avedon.

I don’t want to work with another photographer. That would be like asking 2 taxi drivers to drive the same cab. There are quite a few that I would like to watch at work though. It's a solitary thing, this job. We never get to see how others do it. I would love to see how Terry Richardson pulls off the things he gets away with.

YOUR WORK IN PHOTOGRAPHY HAS NEVER STEPPED INTO THE POLITICAL,

WHY NOW?

WHAT'S THE GREATEST PICTUREYOU DIDN’T TAKE?

WHICH PHOTOGRAPHER WOULD YOU mOST LIKE TO (A) WORK WITH AND (b)

TALENT SPOT?

Q A&

I don’t want to work with another

photographer.That would be like

asking 2 taxi drivers to drive the same cab.

“”

You in three words:Observant.

Opportunistic. Persevering.“

”

84

If I had not been a photographer, I would've been an architect. After graduating high school, I won a 2-year scholarship to Pratt in architecture, even though I was

weak in mathematics, which is why I ultimately turned it down. I'm an idealist, and I strive to excellence in whatever I do. I always admired Frank Lloyd Wright as my favorite,

especially his Guggenheim Museum in New York. He believe that form follows function: 1. the use of structure, 2. the strength of materials and engineering, 3. beauty follows.

I don't like Frank Ghery, because he placed beauty first and sacrificed utility and strength. All of his flying curves are impractical. He should have been a sculptor. The twin

towers were good design, but they lacked strength. They failed to reinforce the steel columns with cement, and they

melted under extreme heat.

There are two answers to that. There’s the greatest picture I didn’t take but which was taken by someone else. Then

there’s the greatest picture I could have or should have taken but didn’t because I missed it or my conscience got in

the way or because I was too lazy to lift the camera.

In the first case, there are just too many to name, all of them better than anything I could ever do. Off the top of my head: Avedon’s Marilyn Monroe, Lily Allen by Nadav Kander, Alfried Constantine’s girl feeding chip to seagull.

My life's philosophy revolves around respect for truth. Everyone should stay true to who they are. Everyone should

find out early in life what they are good at by doing many things, thinking of ideas, and making things. Then decide

which things they love and excel at. A perfect example of this philosophy is my career. I was good at mechanical

things and using my hands. I was good in biology and thought about becoming a dentist, but I had no money for

that type of education. I liked art and painting, and became a ceramic artist, but in the end, I owe my career to the US Air Force, which trained me as a photographer during the

Korean War. As an enlisted man, I was lucky to get into photography because that was the closest thing they had

to art. In summation, find your forte in something you love and can be proud of.

Life is too short,the sooner you start,

the better.

If YOU HADN'T HAVE bECOmE A PHOTOGRAPHER WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE LIKE TO HAVE bEEN?

HOW DO YOU GERmINATE IDEASfOR YOUR WORK?

DO YOU HAVE A LIfE PHILOSOPHY?