An Evening To Dine For

A rainy Thursday night bus ride takes me to a Russian Hill neighborhood in San Francisco. Walking down the wet street I see a figure back lit by an open door in a dark alcove eyeing both directions for passersby. A car is double parked. Stainless steel kitchen containers and tupperware full of different colored contents are passed through the alcove into a small, well lit foyer. I approach the shadowed figure. I say hi, as he recognizes me he smiles and welcomes me in. I help carry containers up to a first floor flat with two other people. Once inside the night truly begin.

Inside the stylish kitchen two guys begin pulling plastic wrap off stainless steel containers and opening tupperware. A soup is boiling while a pasta roller is brought out and set-up to make the noodles that will accompany the broth. The room is lively with talk of soup and noodles, while in another part of the room a conversation is rolling about different wines and the food they will be paired with.

There's a reason I'm here tonight. These two guys, Blair Warsham, and his friend Clint Davies, are two chefs who worked together at Campton Place in San Francisco under the famous Daniel Humm. They're working together again to create and prepare a special 5 course dinner for Blair's monthly underground Graffeats event. There are two courses of 5 left to taste and pair with wine for this Valentines day event. And, I'm about to sit down with these guys, and a local wine rep to taste these dishes and their companion wines.

The first course I taste is the house made organic Japanese noodles with a concentrated miso, sesame, blackened onion broth. This dish was paired with Green River Snow Age sake. The noodles are served separate from the broth. The idea here is to dip the noodles in the broth to absorb the flavor. The room is silent for a moment before an eruption of slurping. Slurp of soup, a sip of sake, a burst of opinions, we all agree the match is near perfect. Everyone quickly finishes the soup in anticipation for the next pairing.

Dishes clatter as we clear the table. Blair and Clint go into the kitchen to prep the next course. They hover around a stainless steel container from the freezer that is being difficult. Hiding inside a Foie Gras Parfait, a layered dish of Foie Gras, granny smith apple confit, black truffle, and hazelnut. At the sound of this, I secretly became nervous. I had never tried Foie gras before. But, hell, this is fine dining, wine, and good company. There was no way I was going to pass the experience up. The course was plated and served, paired with Waipra 2007 Reserve Riesling. Everyone started. Nervous, I took a heaping fork full. I learned very quickly that Foie Gras is an acquired taste that everyone else at the table obviously had. I got it down and quickly reached for the wine. My immature palette for Foie Gras was quickly replaced by my wine palette. The flavors were amazing. Once again we all agreed in unison that the pairing was near perfect. I continued eating my Foie Gras, but in smaller bites.

Finishing the courses we had one last wine to try, an interesting surprise, a sparkling red wine, Barokes Blanc de Noirs-Vibrant red in a very interesting container. I won't describe the container, keeping the surprise for any attendees that may be reading this. It was extremely tasty. It reminded me of a sparkling sangria.

This amazing evening came to an end with wine, good conversation & company, and new friends. I have never had an experience quite like this before. If Blair's Graffeats experience is anything like this, I am definitely signing up. But I will have to wait to experience one of his events for myself until I am finished filming Blair's story. For the next 6 months I will be working with Blair to document the story behind his graffeats events.

With that my exciting evening ended. We said our goodbyes, and I left the same way I had come in, back out an unlit, unmarked door onto rainy street in a Russian Hill Neighborhood with anticipation for the Valentines Day event.



If you're interested in going to this event, here's the flyer:

Epidermolysis Bullosa, Trying To Be A Normal Kid

Garrett, a 13 year old boy afflicted with EB loves basketball. He depends on it to help stay focused and get through each day. Please watch and pass on.

Epidermolysis Bullosa, Trying To Be A Normal Kid from andre hermann on Vimeo.

Epidermolysis Bullosa: Garrett's Clinic Day

National Rare Disease Day is coming, Feb. 28, 2010. Help by spreading the good word.

Garrett: The Boy Beneath The Bandages (Part 3) from andre hermann on Vimeo.

Epidermolysis Bullosa. Please watch and pass on.

This video is about Garrett and the disease he was born with, EB. This video is very unique compared to images you might normally see regarding EB. This movie and images gives the public an intimate, true to life view of what living day-to-day is like with a rare debilitating skin disease. Please watch this and share it. Pass it on. Link to it. Blog about it.

The more people become aware of this, the closer we get to finding a cure. If you want to help please visit

www.ebkids.org, or befriendeb.com. You can also get more info from visiting: http://dermatology.stanford.edu/research/research.html

Garrett: The Boy Beneath The bandages from andre hermann on Vimeo.

Revisiting The Metal Thieves (Part 2)

Today, while walking down Market Street in San Francisco, I met a character who I thought I would never meet again. In my previous post, 'revisiting the metal thieves' I revisited the metal thieves camp to find that none of the original residents were left. One had died and two had found their way back into prison.

Steve, pictured here, I met on Market street today. I barely recognized him. He remembered me and we took a moment to talk. He asked why I disappeared. The whole camp had wondered what happened to me. I asked him about the stories I had heard. He verified that buhdro, guy wearing glasses and plaid shirt in previous post, had in fact died. After asking if he knew anything he explained that buhdro had went over to a drug dealers house and took a hit of something that caused him to have a heart attack. The people in the house freaked out, not knowing what to do, and being close to water, they dumped his body.

The other steve, in fact went to jail for allegedly breaking into a garage. Steve no longer lives his old camp. He's currently living on the streets.

the kid in me likes the iphone

I was recently reminiscing of the days when I was a kid with a camera. There was nothing technical to worry about. No processes, critiques, f-stops, shutter speeds. It was a simple time when I would just point and shoot with an auto film camera. The subject matter infinite. Back then a well composed frame was not even a thought. The only thought on my mind was what to shoot next. I was enthralled with what the world looked like through the view finder, the freedom to shoot anything and everything. When I received my film back from the developer I loved the surprise to see what I created. More often than not the images were throwaways. But there were winners that left me giggling with joy.
Those days of photographic innocence have long gone. I have learned the processes, survived critiques, and focused my attention on specific subject matter, often times denying certain subjects the click of the shutter only because it didn't captivate my interest enough. I found myself shunning the free flowing, organic concept of the 'snap shot' for the creation of more focused and refined images. Gone are the days of shoe boxes filled with the throwaways and double prints. Digital photography has made things a lot more easier. You don't like an image delete it, its only a moment in time right?

Last year I purchased an iphone. Not for the camera feature, or to jump on the band wagon but for connectivity to my work flow at home. It made organizing my life a little easier. Never did I ever think of using the camera. It was far below my canon 5D, and my G10 for that matter. I found myself using it occasionally to add images to people's phone numbers on my phone. I wasn't really happy with the quality but what could I expect from a 3MP camera. Honestly, I had no expectations. It wasn't a serious camera to me. I continued using it for fun little moments or when I noticed something I wanted to photograph but was without a camera. The images were never posted anywhere. They sat on my camera, my digital shoe box of the crappy images that weren't good enough to go in the album.
Bored one day I decided to look through this accumulation of images. I was surprised at what I saw—a rough collection of snap shots of this-and-that. Awkward moments, and half decent compositions. "Hey" I thought. Maybe there is something to this camera. No one said it had to be my pro camera. I realized it served a different purpose. It opened the door to the simplicity that is happening around me constantly. Those simple & subtle nuances of moments that I chose to ignore because it meant having to bring out my big camera and shoot. Using my iphone meant I could simply aim and click. It didn't matter that the image wasn't perfect—suffering from all the digital hoopla that can affect digital images. These were just snapshots. A quick click, a private moment I shared between myself and my subject, similar to those snapshot moments of long ago.
The point to all of this that the iphone helped me rediscover something that I lost when I became a professional photographer, my love affair with the act of photography—taking pictures of anything and everything for no reason—just because I like what I saw.

Questioning Jim Nachtwey's unpaid internship opportunity

Recently, I did a search for Jim Nachtwey looking for current work. I came a cross a blog listing, the ad stating that Jim was looking for someone to fill an unpaid internship in his NY office. This for some reason opened a pandoras box of public statements, opinions & snide comments regarding Jim's work, ethics, and the question of photographers supporting unpaid internships.
Many people were commenting that for someone of Jim's position who makes 10's or even 100's of thousands of dollars a year should be able to offer a a paid internship. It was other people's opinion that we as photographers completely abolish the unpaid internship.
Last year I was lucky to have jim agree to work with me for 15 weeks as my mentor. I had to pay my school for it in order to get the credits to graduate from my master program. That aside, this was an amazing experience. If you have never heard the man talk about photography and his process, you are missing something. To experience him critiquing my work personally—helping me develop my style in a one-on-one environment is worth its weight in gold. What I learned from Jim in 15 weeks could have easily replaced half my grad school education.
Finally, internships are a time-honored and in some cases coveted institution in our field. They give students a great opportunity to work with people they look up to. Even if it is only as a gopher for the photographer, the opportunity to even ask the photographer a question, gaining from their knowledge is priceless.
As much as I would have loved to have been paid for my work in internships with various photographers, I see it as a rite of passage—paying your dues, a learning experience. There are values that are learned from unpaid internships—humility, respect, and understanding for one's self.
In the end I disagree with people's response in the form of making personal jabs at the photographer's portfolio and ethics due to a business decision. Its shameful and tasteless. These people are entitled to their opinion, but the good things he has accomplished for people in need through his images is admirable and amazing.


To read the ad and the postings:


http://jamieslist.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/internship-for-james-nachtwey-nyc-unpaid/