New Website and New Blog

I have finally moved to my new blog. This post should be my last post at this URL.
Those of you who are subscribed to this one can easily resubscribe to the new one. Now you will have more options than ever as to what kind of a RSS reader you want to use (you will have the option to do it by email if that works better for you).

See you there!

www.dzlatanovic.com/blog

New Website Coming Soon

10.17. UPDATE: Most links to the galleries are dead. I'm uploading them to the new server. Everything should be back to normal over the weekend.



Just a quick note... I'm working on a brand new website which requires me to change my host. Please excuse any glitches that might occur during the process of switching. And I'm also moving away from Blogger to WordPress for my blog. I will post a new address as soon as the blog is ready.

Thanks!

Nickelsville: a mobile town

Click on the image for more photos.

What is Nickelsville, and what are the roots of its name? Nickelsville is the newest Tent City in Seattle. Currently there are four, "official" tent cities in the King County, two of which are within the city limits. And the name? On April 4^th, 2008 the Mayor's Office of Seattle issued an executive edit that homeless people cannot stay on city property such as overpasses, parks, and greenbelts where many of the homeless take shelter each night. Seattle's Mayor is Greg Nickels, thus the name Nickelsville.

Nickelsville is the fifth camp, and is temporarily located in the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Discovery Park. A bit of history: On September 22nd at 5 AM the Nickelsville camp was built at 7115 West Marginal Way SW. Four days later, on 26th, 70 tents and 5 wooden buildings were removed, and 23 people were arrested. The homeless found a temporary shelter at their current location. The city issued the "Notice and Order to Remove", and the residents need to leave the park by Friday, October 10th. I spoke to some of them today, and they will obey the city orders. The future location of the park is undisclosed. I found out that the city "advised" the Indian Cultural Center that extending hospitality to the camp could affect how the budget gets distributed. This is unofficial and I have no way of confirming this information. I wouldn't be surprised if that were true, though.

What's different about Nickelsville? For one there are rules you must obey in order to be a resident. The thing that really surprised me was that most of these people have jobs. This fact is even more depressing considering that after a day at work you spend a night by yourself in a tend. All of them speak of saving money for a fresh start. And many do have some savings. That's not the talk I'd had heard in my visits to Seattle's shelters. These people haven't lost their hope. By pushing them around we're working against them, we're killing that hope. And that's the only thing they have left. Let's keep it alive.....

If you would like to get more information about the camp, visit their website.

To be continued....

James Nachtwey's Photographs Revealed

Last year James Nachtwey received “one wish to change the world”. Over the last 18 months, Nachtwey and the TED community have worked together on gaining access to some locations Nachtwey wanted to photograph.

James Nachtwey's TED Prize wish video:

The Missouri Photo Workshop 2008

Click on the image for my story

The Missouri Photo Workshop - 60 years of documenting small town life

The 2008 Missouri Photo Workshop is ending tonight. All stories are available online (Thanks to the best crew who worked day and night to help us participants during this week).
This year's workshop was held in St James, a town of 3704 people. It's been a tough week, filled with frustration, little sleep, 20-hour days, joy, fried chicken and beer. It's over, and we all feel both happy and sad. Happy that we have learned a lot in less than a week, met some new and interesting people, and sad because now we don't get to have our work critiqued by the amazing faculty we had this year; MaryAnne Golon, Randy Olson, Kim Komenich , David Griffin, Melissa Farlow, Laurie Skrivan, Alan Berner, Peggy Peattie, Rita Reed and Danny Wilcox Fraizer. And we no longer get to drink beer on a parking lot of our motel at 3 AM with them.

My story was on Jay Delano, third generation business owner of Delano Oil Company. It was an incredibly hard story to tell for a number of reasons. I have never shot a photo story, and my understanding of it was that a photo story was a collection of the best images from a shoot. Wrong. Very wrong. Secondly, my story was not about Jay the oilman, but rather how the family business affected his life. I was "warned" by my faculty that a story like this was very hard to shoot. I accepted the challenge. Check out the intro here or click on the image above. And here is the link to all the stories shot by 40 photographers from 11 countries.

More posts about my experience are coming in the following days. Stay tuned....

Port Townsend Shipyard

Click on the image for more photos.

Back in April I spent a few days in Port Townsend with my class, a regular thing that was part of our curriculum. Being interested in photojournalism and portraiture, I decided to combine both and spend time with some interesting people. So I'd gone to PT two weeks earlier with my wife, searching for an idea. Somehow we ended up at the shipyard, and in minutes I decided to spend those few days right there. Two weeks later I was hanging out with three welders, Eric Howe, Milton Bud Altom and Paul Purpura aboard Anna Marie, a fishing boat that was being repaired after a heavy accident that happened somewhere between Oregon and Washington (they are the first three people you'll see in the gallery). Besides Eric, Bud and Paul, I spent some with with a few other people at the shipyard, although not as much as I would have liked. I might go back and complete this story, make it more than just a few photos of three welders as the shipyard is much, much more than just that.
Oh, did I mention that I'm writing this from America's "heartland"? I'm sitting in a motel in St James, Missouri. Got here two days ago for the Missouri Photo Workshop. I'll be posting my story (yet to be discovered) in a couple of weeks. Until then, stay well...

Southwest Airlines Torchlight Parade

Click on the image for more photos.

I've lived in Seattle since 2001 and this was the first time I took part in this annual event that is part of Seafair, Seattle's summer festival celebration that lasts from June until August. Unexpectedly my wife and I spent a fun afternoon down on 4th avenue. The parade was a classic "family fun" event, which we still officially aren't if you define a family as having at least one kid. But what we found the most interesting were the people who started lining up 4th avenue as early as 7.30 AM. I should mention that the parade kicked off at 7.30 PM. There was a group of 3 guys who built a one-bedroom apartment right on the sidewalk. Literally! The only thing that was missing was a bathroom. Luckily "Honey Bucket" saved the day. They had a full kitchen with pretty much anything you need, a living room with two sofas and a few armchairs, lamps, family pictures hung on the trees, and a room with a bunk bed for the kids. Just look at the photos and you'll see what I'm talking about. A few blocks north we found a guy eating pizza and watching a movie in his sidewalk livingroom. In short, the most entertaining part of the whole parade was not he parade itself, but rather those who watched it. Can't wait 2009....

The Dalai Lama in Seattle

Click on the image for more photos.

And after a decade (it feels that long) I'm back with a new post. The post is new, but the event is almost two months old. A lot has happened in the meantime. The Dalai Lama went back to India, last month's cyclone killed tens of thousands in Myanmar, earthquake killed just as many people in China, Ana Ivanovic won Roland Garros (To Anci!), Hillary finally acknowledged defeat to Obama and someone in Hollywood is getting $20 million for a few snapshots of their still unborn baby (this is perhaps the most important news to half the nation). What else?.....Well, I'm graduating in a few days! Ha!

A few words about this event; The Dalai Lama visited Seattle back in April for a 5-day gathering. It was a big event in the city with daily activities that drew huge crowds of people. Between the big events at Key Arena and Qwest Field, smaller events took place throughout city, from Phil Borges' Bridges to Understanding event at Seattle Art Museum, concerts at McCaw Hall, to many workshops at Seattle Center. I was one of the photographers in the "public team" hired to cover the event by Seeds of Compassion, the organizer. It was a great experience for it allowed me to have access to places you normally can't get close to without a press pass. I got to hang out with other photographers and shoot right next to them. I have to admit that a "Bigger IS Better" thought went through my mind many times. To get the Dalai Lama closer I used a 100-400mm lens with a 1.4 extender. That lens is big. Very big. But when I saw the gigantic lenses other photographers used I felt like a smart next to a Hummer. Now I have to leave. The thing I've been waiting for for two years is starting in an hour and a half....my portfolio show! See you there...

Barack Obama in Seattle

Click on the image for more.

So after months of not posting anything, I'm back! Who's to blame? Dunno, blame it on Canada. That's always an option. Or blame it on Barack Obama. So today I went to the home of the Greatest, The Sonics'. That was a joke. The "Greatest", that is. As a woman who sat next to me said, "There haven't been this many people at a Sonics game in a long time". To that I added "Perhaps they need to start playing."

Obama gathered 21.000 people at Key Arena. According to "well-informed" sources, at least 3000 people couldn't get in. Most of the attendees were younger people, those who've kept Obama at the forefront of this race. It was refreshing to see them getting involved. It does seem that they really want to see a change in this country. And what a change that would be! I will look at the US with very different eyes once a non-white person enters the White House. And stays there for at least one term. Or a woman. Hell, I live in a "girly" state. Every position of any importance is held by a woman in Washington state. Personally, I doubt that America is ready for a non-caucasian president. Or a president in a skirt. I want to be proved wrong!

Traditionally it's been students and younger generations who've brought big, historical changes. Unless they role up their sleeves, nothing will ever happen. Someone commented (intelligently) on NPR that Baby Boomers will win again unless younger generations don't prevent them. I don't need to explain what action we need to take.

Dead Links

From a few days ago my website is hosted by liveBooks, and since then I've had some issues with my galleries posted here. If you try to access them you'll get the following message, "The page you are looking for was not found on this server." I'm working with liveBooks on this, and they should be up and running in a few days. In the meantime visit my brand new website, www.dzlatanovic.com.

UPDATE: I've started updating links (which required rebuilding galleries, thanks to StartLogic, soon my ex-host). A few are already active. The rest will come....eventually...