Thursday, October 16, 2008

Problems With Wine And Cheese:

I usually don't talk about what happens outside of work, but I feel I need to vent. As I was posting my last blog post at the Apple Store yesterday, it seemed I was running into a bit of luck because a few photographers were going to show their work and talk about some of their pictures. What are the odds, I didn't even have to get out of my seat to see some fine photography. 

The first photographer shows his work for about 45 minutes; it was all documentary work. I was stunned by the high quality I was seeing. So after he was done his whole spiel about humanity, and respect to his subjects, about marketing aggressively, I decided I would tell him about my spectacular blog. First I would write my name and email down on his contact list, then I would talk to him and hand him my card. While I signed my name and email, my hand was shaking and my penmanship was just awful due to the previous coffee I'd had. I made sure to control my hand writing, a man on my right encouraged me to write faster, then encouraged me to take his card rather than waste time writing my name on the list, "What are you writing, an essay?" he asked. I had no time to look up because I was engrossed in tunnel vision, then I continued to write my Url down too, because honestly I had no interest in receiving junk mail, I'd rather have more people view my site.

I was completely unfazed by this asshole, and so I continued to the other end of the table where I thought the photographer would be. Well, guess what? that asshole was the photographer, and when I returned to the contact list he had written under my name, only write your name and email address. 

The fact of the matter is that he'd have been pissed at me no matter what I'd written on that list. He had seen me as unimportant, a pee-on, less then worthy of his 35 cent paper. And for that Landon Nordeman, you are scum, and I will neither support you nor the APA.

And I would like to add, that the reason mostly for his trying to get me off his sheet, is because he wanted some other guy to sign his sheet, but I was taking up his valuable time by signing the sheet meant for all to sign. Landon Nordeman never took the time to see me as anything but what my clothes or my size and height indicated, and as I add this paragraph it still pisses me off. If ever a man enters my cab and he tells me his name is Landon Nordeman, I will tell him exactly what I think of his hypocrisy.


5 comments:

King of New York Hacks said...

I Concur....i saw his photos and he is shit. Taxi photographer wannabe without a hack license.Subjects? I like to refer to them as people. No worries, I just ran him over on 45th st.

NYC taxi photo said...

Thanks man, I appreciate it, I'd have ran him down too if I saw him again.

Real cab driver said...

Don't let him annoy you.

By the way, what kind of camera and lens do you use? I am beginning to carry a small cannon, digital, and I let my passengers take a few photos with it.

When I get home tonight, I'm going to drink a toast to your first showing.

And, oh, yeah.... I want to see some photo's of where street people live. Got any or can you take a few?

NYC taxi photo said...

Thanks rcd hold that glass, I haven't had a show yet. but hopefully I'll work on getting one soon, and by soon I mean, a year or two.

That's a great idea having your passengers take pictures, really opens things up as an ice breaker for conversation, and to get different peoples perspectives. post them on the blog, it'll be awesome.

occasionally I shoot pictures of the homeless, but, it just feels exploitative most of the time.

This guy gets a lot of pictures of the homeless http://hackshotnyc.blogspot.com/ he also has his own radio program i believe, and i've seen him at my garage, so I know he actually drives.

my camera is a canon rebel xti, i think I put it down in my comments for my most recent blogpost of shift shots. Good luck.

Eugene Salomon said...

You know something, I've found as a general rule that people in the arts who I've had in my cab who really hit it big tend to be nice people. Conversely, I think it's safe to assume that if you meet someone in the arts who is also a schmuck you have met someone whose own personality flaws will keep him down. Good old karma.