April 2003 Archives

today is a big day for me, i've discovered Glen E. Friedman.
i am very happy to discover someone who is such a great photographer, who takes pictures of things i like, and who have a lot of ethical principles like i do. that's great. he is really brilliant and he has always kept his integrity, and to me, this is very important. he cares about environment and about animals suffering and he's a huge fan of Fugazi! He has refused to work for coca cola, and he has took pictures in subcultures scenes, like the earliest times of the hard core and the skateboarding scene in the usa.
it always makes me very happy to discover there are other people like me, with the same way of thinking on this planet!

if you wanna have a look on his work:

http://www.burningflags.com

thanks,

i am still spending my days in my dark room... and hopefully we'll work on the website soon...
I spoke with my friend Gina today. She lives in london, and she's called me this afternoon. I was very happy to talk to her, it has reminded me when Gina and i met during the Quiksilver Pro France last september, in Hossegor (south west of France). She is Roxy's press officer in the UK. Hopefully we 'll meet at the end of may, for the quiksilver bowlriders cup, a big sk8boarding comp in Marseille (south east of france), because she has almost convinced me to go there... I've already took pictures of sk8boarding events, because there are some, sometimes in Orl�ans...But i am not sure yet to go there... at first i have to see if some sk8boarding magazines could be interested in publishing my pix ... we'll see.
I am leaving tomorrow, i am going to Germany to buy a red van. I won't be out for long... and i'll work on my website, to ad my new pix soon!! i promise...

thanks,

my cat loves Beck. she has forgotten to ask me her dinner and stay close to the speaker, listening carefully to "Mutations". maybe she is bilingual and understand american perfectly... she must be trinlingual then, because she has some good notions in french too!
she is now day dreaming listening to Beck... no! the 9th song of the album, o maria, get her bored she is now outside firing a redish cat... so beck's music isn't that peaceful! cats keep on fighting, even just after listening to "Mutations for an hour!

just come from the concert of the Burning Heads, the show was great, thanx guys !

Uh Oh... The weather is so nice over here! which is really pleasant: the sky is blue and it's very sunny... it's a real springtime but as if we were late of may instead of late of april. Actually here the weather is usually very rainy from october until may, and sometimes it's very rainy in july too! so that's why i am amazed!
But i haven't run out of things to say! i am not talking about the weather because of some lack of communication! but it's a real fact, the weather is soo nice!!

You may have noticed that there is a new intro on this website since... yesterday evening! i think this music fits perfectly with the picture: people who have already travelled in India will understand what i am talking about... Actually this song is a hit right now in India, you can hear it everywhere. I think during my last trip we haven't spent a day without hearing it! and you can mostly hear the indian hits (which are most of the time original motion pictures from Indians blockbusters from Bollywood) when you are travelling by bus... and the kids on my pic are in a school bus... Many many more pictures are going to be on line soon, but we have to re build the website again... changing all the Categories and stuffs... so it gonna take some times (and i am still working on the b&w prints!)
I have been locked in my dark room all these last days... and yesterday is an historical day for me, because i've discovered a new way to print my pix... Actually i am a bit stubborn, when i find out a way to do things that works i keep on using it... i mean i won't necessary try to find out other ways to do the same thing, if i've already found one!
And yesterday, i found a better way, it made me so happy...
i was working on my prints of my last trip in India and Nepal... and i was angry because it was too grey and there weren't any details. That was because i was printing on a small format (3x5 in, or 10x 15 cm) and my enlarger lens was open at 8... so i've tried opening it at 16 with 11' seconds of exposure (is it correct??) and it has worked perfectly... every single details are there!
That's what i love in Photography, you are always discovering some new tricks and ways to do things and every discovery makes me so happy.
I've learnt Photography on my own, discovering everything step by step, reading some books... it probably took me more times than if i would have learned Photography in some school... but the fact to really discover every single thing all by myself make things easier to understand for my little brain... i mean every discovery is a victory and i have the impression to understand it better.
I am reading a great book, i started it in india, in a train between Hubli (karnataka) and Delhi. It name is "A Friend Of The Earth", by T.C. Boyle... i don't know if i have ever mentionned it down here before, but it's such a great book. A kind of ecological book but in the mean time it shows the dark side of the force...
Tonight the Burning Heads are playing downtown (there are some pix of them on this web site, in the Music category) i hope i'll find tickets to go there... Most of the time their live here are sold out and it's a bit hard to get invitations... They are from here, Orl�ans, and are quiet famous in the french punk rock scene. They tour all over Europe and also in Canada and in the USA. Last time i've seen them, it was last september, in the south west of france, in the Landes. There were a lot of bands playing that night, and there were a lot of... well in french we would say "punks � chiens", it means literally "punks with dogs" in the concert hall... and i remember the dogs were shiting in the room, while the Burning Heads were playing!!!
But that was a cool evening.
We'll see what's going on tonight... i don't think we'll see dogs in there... but maybe some Hobbits, some old punx-without-dogs and some coming-of-age young rock'nd roll fans...
This afternoon i am going in studio with my friends of Collection d'Arnell Andr�a (see the Music category and the Radio of this website), they are recording the voices for a remix of one of their previous hit... the remix sounds so great. I would like to make a shooting in there, but the problem is that the studio is a bit too decorated... it's the studio Nyima, of my friend Terence, but there are some kind of blankets on the wall, for the acoustic... and i am afraid it won't fit for the shooting! but the recording is the priority of today, so i could'nt change anything in the room... so i'll have to fit with room!

thanks for reading,

I woke up this morning and tried to go to the post office... it was closed, i went to another one... and it was overcrowded.
So i decided to quit this post office idea and came back home, to check my emails.
I've received Peta's newsletter, like every week (or maybe it was the one of last week i haven't opened yet...)
Anyway, i discovered one more unbelievable truth about animals suffering
i've seen a video shot in the laboratories of Iams, a company of animal food. Actually i used to hope that animals who are testing the pet foods were happy compares to animals tortured for cosmectic test... well i was 800 % wrong! it's the same torture!
I don't understand how people can do this to other sensitive beings! it's really unsane. I mean every single sensitive being want the same thing: to avoid suffering and to be happy and fulfilled... so i don't understand why people are able to torture other beings...
If you want to have a look for your personnal information here are the links:

http://www.peta.org/feat/iams/food.html

And if you are sensitive to the animal cause, you can check Peta's web site (http://www.peta.org) which is a mine of information.

"There are viable (and usually better) alternatives to the use of animals for food, sport, clothing, and experimentation. I beg you to discontinue any actions that might cause or condone animal torture, abuse or destruction." Moby.

Thanks for reading,

Many coincidences...
i have been thinking of my friends from South Africa, Simone, Alan and Manoa when i was in Nepal... actually i don't know why, but i did!
As soon as i came back i sent them a small paquet with some gifts inside... And few days later (my paquet hasn't reached South Africa yet) i received a phone call from them... to invite me to a surf safari in SA, from the 22nd of april, until the 6th may... i know, it's pretty soon! the plane tickets to Capetown are so bloody expensive! i've been checking out on the internet and it costs a lot!
And i am afraid it's gonna be too soon... i just come back from India and Nepal and... i have to work, to make some new pix and to save money... i have a lot of stuffs to do, like putting the pix of my trip on this website and stuffs. Anyway, maybe later...
concerning the news...
It seems that the aussie magazine Tracks has runned some of my pix these last few months... but i haven't found any issue of Tracks around here! i wish i don't have the issue numbers, to order them!
I have emailed the photo editor, but i haven't received any replied yet...
and i may had an article and some pix in the american magazine transworld surf, last month but i am not sure yet...
and also i've sold one of my indian pix for a week of exhibition about India.
That's it for the news... i am really motivated for my work, and i have a lot of ideas... we'll see!
I've listened to the last album of Radiohead, waow, it's really really huge!!
we, with friends from Collection d'Arnell Andr�a, have bought our tickets for their show of the 14th of july, in the ar�nes de N�mes... this is the only problem, for the first time of my life, i'll have to go in arenas... this slaughter house, where they kill bulls for entertainment... it took me a while to admit that there were nothing wrong in going to a show of radiohead in arenas, and that going in there to see one of my favourite band wasn't like supporting that kind of unsane ritual... so i'll go there. But i am sure that before the show, it would give me the shivers... just to think of what's usually happen there, and to think of all the bulls who have been tortured in this place!
i hope Radiohead will be reallly hugely great, to help me to forget!

Thanks for reading.

Orl�ans, France

I am back for few days... so i am still landing!
But it's an amazing landing this time... everything has happened so quickly! As soon as i arrived i had so many things to check and some orders... So i didn't get the time to realize what 's going on and that i was just coming back from India. As if this trip was just a dream disapearing in the haze of my memory... i came back so quiclky in my work, it's as if i haven't been anywhere, as if i've been staying in my dark room all this time i was gone!
But i know i have been there! i have all these films to developp!
i already have the colour films and the slides and i am so happy!
I am gonna work on the black and white films next week (since tomorrow)
so you can be sure that there will be a lot of change on this website pretty soon!!

Thanks for reading!