CAREER KILLS PASSION

Beware of making a career out of what you love to do. It shifts your motives. I used to take pictures for the sheer joy of it; now I do it to make car payments. Each time I take a lousy job, like taking pictures of wealthy people eating dinner, or shooting the stunning interior of a fast food restaurant, the more I view my camera as an instrument of torture. We used to be friends, chums, pals, buddies, amigos. Now I pick up my camera every morning like a Costco employee picks up his back brace.

I happened to be walking to a lousy job the other day, and just before I arrived I noticed a small auto repair shop. The kid in the above shot waved me in and I took a bunch of shots of him and his dad. This is the kind of stuff I love to shoot: people making their way through this world by whatever means possible. And the people with the least tend to be the kindest and the happiest. It's a story that's told in this picture, through light and gesture and the subject's soulful eyes. Taking this picture reminded me that I need to do more of this here in Jordan, even if that means turning down lucrative crap jobs. Or maybe I just need to reflect on my company name a while.

IDEA VS REALITY VS INSANITY

I blogged a few weeks ago about the beauty of the past when things were done by hand. Here is another example of a beautiful watercolor rendering done by Ammar Khammash. I've been meaning to photograph the building in this painting for over a month, but haven't been able to motivate to get up at sunrise and do it...until today. The building is the headquarters for the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN). They are the Jordanian equivalent to the National Park Service. It is a terrific space built on the edge of a hill overlooking downtown Amman. Another interesting fact about this building is that I helped pay for it, and if you're reading this in the US, so did you. It was funded entirely by US tax dollars. US AID in Jordan is the topic of a much longer piece, but know in the meantime that our government gives Jordan almost a billion dollars a year! We can't afford to pay our teachers, but we can build Jordan a posh nature center (which is by no means the most ridiculous of the US AID projects). US AID also has several billboards in Amman to advertise the fact that we give Jordan money. So much for American humility.

I FORGET WHO THIS IS

I used to take away a lot more from my photo shoots for Nox magazine before they switched to an all Arabic format. Case in point, I shot this guy today and have no idea who he is. I sat through an entire interview in Arabic. As this guy was rather animated, I assume he is an artist of some sort and not a banker (my apologies to all my banker readers). In some ways it's nice that the magazine is in the native language of the country where it is published. Unfortunately, from a business prospective, expats and wealthy Jordanians (many of whom can't read Arabic) make up the overwhelming majority of magazine readership here, so Nox Arabic has a few hurdles to clear to gain a new readership base.

FROM DESTRUCTION COMES CREATION

I came across a fascinating piece of art today on a photo shoot. It was a large munition casing from World War I. The Syrian artist collected the discharged brass shell from a battlefield and inlaid it with copper and silver patterns and Arabic text. From destruction comes creation. (it's hard to tell from the photos, but this is a large round with a diameter of four inches)

SMARTEST GUY I KNOW

In addition to being a world-class architect and painter, Ammar Khammash also designed the currency of Jordan. This is a piece I did on a small weekend house he built for himself in the town of Pella. It ran in the current issue of Trendesign. To read the full article click here.

A NEW FEATURE!

I blogged earlier this month about the Duke of Mukheibeh. The feature I did on him is out now in this month's issue of Trendesign magazine. It ended up being 15 pages long! To read it click here. I really love writing the article in addition to taking photos; it seems to suit my anal retentive nature. If only I owned a magazine. If only magazines weren't on the verge of extinction!

HOLY BILLBOARDS

Just minutes from the spot where Jesus was baptized is a billboard featuring my photography. The ring pictured on it sells for well over $100,000 USD. I hope Jesus doesn't mind. As a carpenter, I'm sure he made a few tables for rich people just to pay the bills. Not only is the billboard interesting due to its proximity to historical sites, but it just might be the lowest billboard on earth at an elevation of 1300 feet below sea level. The bottom billboard is not holy at all. It is located in Amman where there are about 4 others like it.

DUMBING US DOWN & RUINING OUR REP

Unfortunately, Julie is a follower of the Sex and the City show. So as a favor to her I downloaded the latest movie, Sex and the City II, set mostly in the Middle Eastern city of Abu Dhabi (but actually filmed in Morocco). I made the awful mistake of watching parts of it. If you travel the world like I do and have even the slightest curiosity why a culture might resent you just for being an American, blame the four idiots pictured above. In the above scene the ladies are karaokeing the song "I Am Woman" to a clearly oppressed room of partying women. This is one of the countless examples from the film of the enlightened Americans trying to liberate the poor oppressed savages. The film is offensive on so many levels that it's hard to highlight just a few examples, but here goes: Samantha (the whorish character) fellates a water pipe in front of a table of conservative Muslim men, a move that would get you arrested in Abu Dhabi or in Alabama, and is outraged when she later gets arrested hooking up on the beach. Later, condoms fall out of her purse and an angry mob of Muslim men encircle her and chase her through the city. The only problem is that Arabs use birth control and wouldn't be offended by seeing condoms. Perhaps they were more offended by her next move: dry humping the air and declaring "Yes, I have sex". Arabs also have sex, if not, Julie would not be teaching 4th grade. They just tend to be more reserved in talking about it.

I think as a retaliation, an Arab country should make a film where 4 wealthy, superficial, self-absorbed Arab men go to America, and belittle everyone they meet about being overweight, impatient, and detached from their families.

DEPOLARIZING OUR WORLD

I consider one of the greatest threats to our existence on this planet the massive polarizing of thought that is spreading throughout the world. Too often, people embrace ideologies that separate them from their fellow human beings and leave no room for critical thinking. We see this most clearly with political parties, but also in religion, the class structure, and even in our schools. When I do meet people who have been liberated from this narrow way of thinking, it gives me hope. There is no doubt here in Jordan an almost unanimous anti-Israeli sentiment. This seems obvious as most people who live here are Palestinians who were kicked out of their country many years ago. Even the small Christian community here fights for Palestine. So you have to admire when out of all that hatred and sadness, a Palestinian can still admire a beautiful Israeli made piggy bank. The photos above were taken at the home of a friend. The letter was hanging on the wall above the bank. It's these small things that help us see through the haze of what separates us to the fundamental truth of life: we are are human beings with the same hopes and desires, fighting our way through an often cruel world.