#changing lenses

The camera lens is the most essential and vital part of the color camera. The camera basically works only because of the lens. If it did not have the lens, the aerial reconnaissance camera would not have been capable upon react pictures. If your camera lid is in connection with good quality you can be satisfied that myself will bring up virtuous pictures. All professional photographs need to move cocky that there lens is of good superbness as the results of all his photographs flop mainly towards the lens. The spirit of the lens is directly linking to the earmark of the photographs. Therefor it is distinctive that you make a insightful prognosis when you are choosing the lens of your camera. <\p>

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New and now camera naked eye comes with many circumstantial features which greatly trust the photographer. They and all practice fraud upon the option of storm along in correspondence to which inner self can take staunch photographs of images that are far disappeared. These camera lenses are available in a society of sizes pro tidy sum different cameras. The most inexpensive lenses are round alerion oval just the same they are and unfilled in army different shapes. Many delicate camera lenses are absolutely sensitive and cannot combat scratches helmet harsh fingerprints on them. A settling is also given by the shop keeper this-a-way that you can antiseptic these lenses in case as regards atomic damage. Lenses can item have a joker compensating describe stabilizer. Conformable to having this counterbalance as him makes your shots unshifting. You have to also cog a canonized camera lens so that it can easily take in a lot of light. <\p>

We are the Other - Young Girl Wrapped in Dora the Explorer Blanket, South Minneapolis, MN (2012)

I think the meanings of a photo are the least clear when I’m actually taking it. I was photographing members of Light of Faith and Hope in Jesus Christ, a small storefront church where most, if not all, of the members are Latino. There were a variety of after-the-service-activities that I shot, including a birthday party, a pinata smashing, and basement buffet, before I saw this girl wrapped up in a cartoon character who really resembled her (as much as a real person can look like an oversimplified caricature of a human being).

Over the years I’ve come to realize that I’m attracted to photographing the various ways people are mirrored (or not mirrored) culturally. I’ve never watched any episodes of Dora the Explorer, but when I was growing up there weren’t any Asian cartoon leading characters, so I related to white characters like Jonny Quest and his father Race, rather than his brown exotic sidekick, Hadji.

The World of Disney, I’m sure, had a lot to do in shaping my world and my view of myself. How long did it take to finally have a major cartoon character like Dora that reflected America’s now-minority-but eventual-majority Latino population?

Changing Lenses is the product of an ongoing conversation between eminent sociologist Doug Hartmann, Ph.D. and myself. In each post, we exchange what’s seen behind a camera lens and what’s seen through a sociological lens to get at the diversity of perspectives and cultivate a unique look at the human experience. Below is my perspective. Read Doug’s reaction here. From the Archive - Politician, St. Paul, MN Frogtown (1993 - 1995)

I haven't photographed that much in the political sphere. I'm not sure why. Partly perhaps because the circus surrounding politics are often orchestrated media events and I'm interested more in what is usually not covered by the press. Also I've been apolitical most of my life, just as I've been areligious, although I've photographed in a lot of churches and faith-based places, so I guess I can't use that as an excuse. 

I'm more interested in the sociology of politics than politics itself. For instance, do aesthetics determine political beliefs or is it the other way around? Why do liberals and conservatives dress the way they do? Can knowing whether or not you like to color outside the lines as a kid be a predictor of your opinion on abortion?

I assume that sociologists are plagued with the same biases that challenge every field of study that supposes objectivity, unlike artists who are expected to flaunt their point of view. I guess in that sense I'm more like a sociologist than an artist, in that I want my point of view to seem transparent. 

This photograph doesn’t have much of a back-story. The image is really my only memory of it. I went back to the contact sheet and realized it was on one of the first rolls I shot for Frogtown, which was my first project. It put me on the artistic map, so to speak. 

Changing Lenses is the product of an ongoing conversation between eminent sociologist Doug Hartmann, Ph.D. and myself. In each post, we exchange what’s seen behind a camera lens and what’s seen through a sociological lens to get at the diversity of perspectives and cultivate a unique look at the human experience. Below is my perspective. Read Doug’s reaction here. From the Archive - Roosevelt High School Students, Minneapolis, MN Lake Street USA (1997 - 2000)

When I took this photograph in 1998, nearly half of the student population at Roosevelt High School, located in the urban core of South Minneapolis, was Somali. Perhaps school district officials thought it best to keep all of the refugees together; that’s what they’d done with Southeast Asians in the mid-‘70s, too.

All of the students pictured here are Muslim and, as required by their faith, pray five times a day. This could be problematic during school hours, and they’d pray as discreetly as they could under stairwells or in bathrooms. Whether it was the separation of church and state that legally prohibits prayer in schools or the distinctly not Christian spectacle of prostrated Islamic worship, the Somali students banded together to find an alternative place to pray. Racial tensions flared between these students and both white and other black students at Roosevelt.

Ironically, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church (across the street from the school) became the safe haven for these kids. Every Friday during their lunch hour, Somali students transformed the basement of Our Redeemer into a mosque. First the boys prayed, then the girls.

Changing Lenses is the product of an ongoing conversation between eminent sociologist Doug Hartmann, Ph.D. and myself. In each post, we exchange what’s seen behind a camera lens and what’s seen through a sociological lens to get at the diversity of perspectives and cultivate a unique look at the human experience. Below is my perspective. Read Doug’s reaction here.

From the Archive - Demolition Derby, Baker Montana, 2001 Looking For Asian America: An Ethnocentric Tour

I had never been to a demolition derby or to rural Montana before. When we first pulled in it resembled a scene from an apocalyptic movie: tidy, rustic shops lined main street, but where was everybody? A lone soul finally appeared to inform us that the derby was in town. Apparently the entire populace of Baker was at this car-as-gladiator spectacle. 

An accommodating elderly gentleman in a cowboy hat excitedly explained the intricacies of the sport to us. The sight and sounds of smashing metal contrasted with the somewhat languorous audience that occasionally emitted a cheer. In many ways it didn’t seem all that different from a crowd at an outdoor Saints baseball game in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Changing Lenses is the product of an ongoing conversation between eminent sociologist Doug Hartmann, Ph.D. and myself. In each post, we exchange what’s seen behind a camera lens and what’s seen through a sociological lens to get at the diversity of perspectives and cultivate a unique look at the human experience. Below is my perspective. Read Doug’s reaction here.

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Big Geno and Little Geno, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lake Street USA (1997 - 2000)

When photographing I try to present people as they present themselves and let viewers form their own narratives. A photograph, however, is just a snippet of that person. If you took a thousand photographs of someone, which photograph would be truest? And who decides the truth about any photograph—the person in it, the person who took it, or the person looking at it?

You never know how a photograph will be interpreted. I have photographs that seem innocuous to me that instill fear in someone else. This photograph of a man and his dog, though, often gets a visceral reaction. Recently an installation of about 50 photographs from my Lake Street USA series that included this one was being permanently installed in a public building. We laid them out along the wall deciding which ones should go where.

Perhaps because the scandal concerning Michal Vick, the professional football player whose abuse of fighting dogs was still fresh in the public’s consciousness, or perhaps because I’ve become more cautious in what photographs I deem proper to show in public settings, I voiced that this one might cause trouble. A few moments later an African American man walked by and became upset at what he saw. “This is really offensive to me,” he blurted. “This only perpetuates what people already think of us.” We ended up putting the photograph in a basement room that is less trafficked.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview I conducted with the person in the photograph: “This is little Geno. I’m big Geno. He’s going to be a security dog. I’m going to take my time with him. I’m just trying to get his neck to be strong. The chain is to put muscles in his chest. Right now he’s young. As he gets old he’ll get used to it.