Tag Archives: Photography

January 30, 2017 · 9:26 am

Keith Dannemiller: A Podcast

Keith Dannemiller, a native of Ohio, has been one of the premier photographers out of Latin America for two decades now. His black and white street shots from Mexico City are strange and dazzling.

Keith and I worked together in Mexico for many years, both of us freelancers. We recorded this conversation a while back when Keith’s first book of photography — Callegrafia – was coming out. It’s sold out, but the chat is interesting – about finding what to shoot, and why, and what got him started on street photography, and how a man devoted to his craft does his job.

Keith’s new exposition of his photography is called Luz Translation, opening in the town of San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato, on February 2. Check it out if you’re down there. It’s at Centro Cultural El Nigromante Bellas Artes, #75 Hernandez Macias and running until April 23.

Find out more about him at his website, www.keithdannemiller.com, including the photo tours he leads of Mexico City.

 

 

 

Photos by Keith Dannemiller

 

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August 21, 2013 · 1:34 am

PHOTOGRAPHY: Boy running, Oaxaca, Mexico

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I’m trying to be a better street photographer these days, and the results are only occasionally satisfying.

But I liked this shot last year in Santa Ana del Valle, Oaxaca.

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July 29, 2013 · 10:24 pm

LOS ANGELES: The Virgin of the Carniceria

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Okay, this is actually in Long Beach.

Was driving down Long Beach Boulevard and spotted her and pulled over.

Just part of my ceaseless efforts to photograph every Virgin of Guadalupe mural in Southern California.

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July 21, 2013 · 10:36 pm

PHOTOGRAPHY: Another Tuba Photo

Paramount, CA

Alfredo Herrejon, tuba player for Banda El Recodo.

Alfredo changed Mexican tuba with his playing on “Mi Gusto Es” by Banda Tierra Blanca in 1997 — a reworking of the tuba part in that classic ranchero song that ignited the imagination of dozens of younger players.

Mexican tuba playing hasn’t been the same since.

This was taken outside the shop where he has his tuba mouthpieces made — Garibaldi Musical Instruments in Paramount, CA.

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July 13, 2013 · 8:16 am

PHOTOGRAPHY: LA photo walkabout

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Hey folks, the Perfect Exposure Gallery is holding another photo walkabout of downtown Los Angeles, this time with a photographer from Magnum, the great photo agency.

Today at 5:30 p.m. at the gallery in Koreatown: 213.381.1136.

A great way to learn to use those cameras that are now so cheap, but a little complicated to use.

That last one was a blast — with LA Times photo maestro Luis Sinco.

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July 1, 2013 · 12:23 pm

PHOTOGRAPHY: LA Walkabout

I spent Saturday evening on the LA photo Walkabout organized by Perfect Exposure Gallery owner Armando Arorizo and LA Times photog maestro Luis Sinco.

Here are some of the shots.

Armando and Luis are planning another one for this Saturday. It’s a great time, walking about LA, seeing it in a different way, learning more about photography from two consummate pros.

For more info, contact the gallery, in Koreatown, at 213-381-1137 or 1138 or at www.theperfectexposuregallery.com.

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June 20, 2013 · 11:49 pm

PHOTOGRAPHY: Photo Walkabout through Los Angeles

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The Perfect Exposure Studio in Koreatown, connected to the gallery of the same name, which has had some wondrous photo exhibits, is holding a Photo Walkabout with LA Times photog Luis Sinco and gallery owner, Armando Arorizo.

Walking around L.A., over a two-mile distance, shooting street scenes of whatever presents itself. Sounds like a ton of fun.

The thing takes place Saturday, June 30. There’s an 8 a.m.-noon session and another from 6pm to 10pm. $175 per person if you buy tix in advance.

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March 6, 2013 · 9:48 am

LOS ANGELES: 3rd & Vermont Photo exhibit and Oaxacan Basketball — events not to miss

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The next few days have a couple very hip events taking place west of downtown that you don’t want to miss.

On Thursday, The Perfect Exposure Gallery holds an opening of photographs by Michael Cannon, centering around the 3rd and Vermont area. That ‘s one packed section of town, and one of my favorites, with folks from Korea, Bangladesh, Oaxaca, Salvador, and probably elsewhere as well.

It was there that I grew to love the strip mall — the immigrant’s blackboard. But that’s for another blog post.

Cannon, one of whose photos is above, has been living in and shooting the area for 15 years and his images will be on display at the gallery beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday.

By the way, The Perfect Exposure (3519 W. 6th St.) is fantastic photo gallery, exhibiting some of the best photographers from Los Angeles and elsewhere. Really worth a visit.

Then on Sunday, the 2013 Oaxacan basketball season gets underway, with a tournament at Toberman Park. The ohoop1inauguration, which is as cool to behold as the games, begins at noon.

Oaxacan basketball tournaments usually involve 20+ teams and bring together folks from all over Southern California.

(I wrote about them in my first book, True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx — which you should also not miss.)

They used to be held at Normandie Park, a few blocks away. Normandie Park is in fact a bi-nationally famous little park due to the role it played in maintaining the Oaxacan community, mostly folks from the Sierra Juarez mountains, for many years beginning in the 1970s by hosting hundreds, probably thousands, of tournament games by now.

But tournament size and disputes with park management meant that organizers switched the events to Toberman.

Either way, a fun way to see another part of LA on a Sunday.

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February 11, 2013 · 9:52 am

PHOTOGRAPHY: Photographer of the Year, Tijuana Velvet, and 6 Things Not To Do

Enrique Felix, velvet painter

As an amateur photographer struggling always to learn more, I’m forever in awe of those who do it majestically.

Hence it’s worth noting that…

The Photographer of the Year, just selected, is Sweden’s Paul Hansen.

(Above, I’ve posted a photo of my own — Enrique Felix, one of the last of Tijuana’s velvet painters.)

Meanwhile, for the rest of us, here’s a link to what not to do:

Six Bad Photography Habits to Break  — several of which I’ll own up to, standing still being a big one.

You gotta move….as the Rolling Stones once said.

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January 31, 2013 · 9:57 am

MEXICO: Oaxacan Hoops and the photographer Jorge Santiago

Tlahuitotepec's first female mayor, Sofia Robles, takes the opening shot at the basketball tournament.

Tlahuitotepec’s first female mayor, Sofia Robles, takes the opening shot at the basketball tournament.

Pittsburgh-based photographer Jorge Santiago has put up stunning images of Oaxacan village basketball tournaments at his website.

Santiago it appears spent much of 2012 wandering in the Sierra Juarez mountains from tournament to tournament and has grasped the essence of the basketball world up there — that basketball, the most urban hip-hop 21st Century sport, has become an integral part of Oaxacan Indian culture and tradition.

Check them out. They’re great!

My admiration for the photos, of course, is only enhanced by the fact that Santiago partly drew his inspiration for the project from the story on Oaxacan basketball in my first book (True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx).

But the images do make me envious. He’s traveled far into this culture and tradition and captured some beautiful shots. I’m looking forward to see what he can do with the Oaxacan basketball world here in Los Angeles, which is deep.

One thing I always found interesting about this topic: Though Oaxacan Indians are some of the most anthropologically studied of any group in Mexico, I could find no academic researcher who had even a superficial knowledge of basketball and its importance in the cultural, social, and traditional life of Oaxacan villages — or for that matter the enormous importance it plays in the lives of Oaxacan immigrants in Los Angeles, where my story (Zeus and the Oaxaca Hoops) took place.

How many dissertations have been written on pelota Mixteca — an almost extinct sport played 500 years ago? And nothing on basketball, a sport that tens of thousands of Oaxacan young men and women play with a passion bordering on obsession. I find that remarkable. Any thoughts as to why that would be? Please chime in…..

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November 26, 2012 · 11:39 am

PHOTOGRAPHY: My photos at Kaldi in South Pasadena

For those in the L.A. area, I’m exhibiting a selection of photos at Kaldi, a cafe in South Pasadena, through mid-December.

The photos are from stories I’ve done in Mexico, Los Angeles, as well as a brief trip to Bogota I took at the behest of Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine, to do a story on the girl soldiers in the guerrilla militias.

Above are four of the shots: from a story on the emergence of tubas as the region’s emblematic musical instrument; a group of Mennonite kids at a school in northern Mexico, where I went to do a story on Mennonites’ involvement in drug trafficking.

There’s also Grace, a legendary drag queen in the 1980s who is now homeless, and another of a Oaxacan farmworker in the agricultural valley of San Quintin, which is south of Ensenada, Baja California.

Many more are up at Kaldi — hope you like them….They make great Christmas gifts!….:)

 

 

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November 21, 2012 · 11:11 am

MEXICO: More Oaxaca photos

Oaxaca is such a colorful place. I’m getting very absorbed in photography lately.

Hope you like these.

Meanwhile, you can see more of my photos up at Kaldi’s — a South Pasadena cafe. I’ve mounted shots from Los Angeles, Colombia and Mexico.

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October 19, 2012 · 1:23 pm

MEXICO: Homeless World Cup

Mexico City photographer Keith Dannemiller has some great shots of the Homeless World Cup soccer tournament.

Great idea — forming soccer teams made up of folks who are homeless, or socially/economically marginalized, and bringing them all together to compete in a soccer tournament, this the 10th annual.

On Facebook, Keith writes of some of the people he met:

“Like Ikram Moukhlis, a young Muslim woman who lives in a women’s shelter in Tangiers, Morocco. I know about 5 phrases in Arabic, she speaks no English or Spanish, but somehow we connected and I was proud of the photos I made of her. This trip to Mexico was the first time in her life to be on a plane. And then, Mauva Hunte-Bowlby, playing for England, who has been, until just recently, ‘sofa-surfing’ in London. Ms. Hunte-Bowlby is 52, and a grandmother twice over.”

Great story, fascinating event….check out Keith’s shots.

 

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October 18, 2012 · 8:29 am

LOS ANGELES: The Virgin of Pico Boulevard

 

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March 7, 2012 · 7:36 am

MIGRANTS: Curandero Carlos, Guatemalan Witch Doctor

Yesterday, I met Hermano Carlos, a curandero, or witch doctor, from Guatemala.

One of the great botanicas in all LA, his place on Pico, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite streets in town.

His place is filled with soaps to Keep Hate Away, and aerosol sprays for love, and candles, Santa Muerte, San Simon, Jesus Malverde, and every kind of icon to ward off evil and welcome good luck and happiness. A lot of it’s made in China.

He said he’s been curing people since he was 5, and came here in 1988, fleeing Guatemala’s civil war.

Initially, he had some competition from El Indio Amazonico, a strange fellow who seemed to franchise out his curing shops and had several the last time I looked. But Carlos said those shops seem to be closing, so Hermano Carlos has more business. The recession hasn’t hurt either, as more people have come to him for help finding work.

He had to interrupt our chat to read the cards of a client who happened by. More later.

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