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Happy 2011 from www.therawfile.org

How we spent our 2010

Happy 2011

Dear Friends of The Raw File,

Three years have passed since Laura Loforti and I started www.therawfile.org.

The simple blog format that Laura used to post the original three parts of The Back On The Block series has grown into a more expandable online publication and the group of independent journalists and activists who are invested in stories for the long haul, is increasing to fill its cyber space.

I have more late night editing and email sessions than ever and many more commitments for therawfile to fulfill.

The work here in our Brooklyn basement is continuous and exciting, yet the busier we are, the less financially stable our lives become. The open -ended and holistic way that we approach our subjects has the built in component of delaying the gratification that comes from seeing this work in books or films.

I ask myself the question so often; "what are we doing with our time", that today I decided to answer it.


To donate a Money Power Respect box set to a social justice organization, teacher with limited resources, or health care professional - OR purchase one for your self

Make a $500 contribution to www.therawfile.org and receive an edition Money, Power, Respect box set.
The embossed archival box includes:

One Signed Out of Print Book -
Money, Power, Respect; Pictures of My Neighborhood
Channel Photographic, New York, 2006

One screening quality DVD designed with vintage cover art not included in the book- DVD contains seven short multi media and film productions that continue the stories in the book.

Choice of one of three 11x 14 Epson Prints not included in the book.

The sets are numbered in limited editions of 50 per image.

See box set here
Money Power Respect Box Set

January 2010 began with therawfile being fortunate enough to have the amazingly positive, competent and just so darn sweet Charles Horowitz from Bennington College do his fieldwork internship here at therawfile.

In addition to spending hours helping us organize six years of work from upstate, New York into a master file, Charlie also produced the first of three audio scrapbooks from the Upstate Girls Scrapbook Workshops that we began at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York in 2009.
 

While Charlie labored over the scrapbooks, another of the most dedicated, independently motivated, intellectually curious and talented young persons on the planet, rawfile producer and, contributing photographer, Steven Zeswitz tackled the edit of his first major piece.

The result "A GAP LIFE" is a 25-minute short film that continues the story that began more than a decade ago in Andy and Tata Part One.

Andrew Velazquez and his family left the old apartment on Malcolm X Boulevard five years ago.

In this, Part Five of The Back On The Block Series, Andy struggles with ending childhood, beginning parenthood and the perpetually slow grind of life, as he is bound by blood to the streets that raised him up.

The piece truly showcases Steven's fine film editing sensibilities. In addition to editing sound and video, Steven continues his documentary work, The Tribe in New Haven, Connecticut.

The technical rendering, color corrections, and numerous trial and error exports and encoding was done by the ever generous MacGregor Thomson, University of Ohio MFA Candidate and Editor of the Upstate Girls video trailers.
   
 

In February and March therawfile traveled to the Dok10 Festival Sponsored by The Norwegian Press Photographers Association in Oslo and then on to Moscow where in the Red October Chocolate Factory on the Moscow River the visionaries Liza Factor and Jamie Welford put together Projections of Reality.

They built a dedicated theatre for the five part series Back On The Block and it was beyond thrilling to see the deeply urban dialect translated into Cyrillic, AND people staying for the entire 54 minutes of the pieces combined.

With the chill of Moscow's winter still in our bones, we returned to The US and traveled to Miami, Florida to set up the first of several planned video installations of The Upstate Girls Project.

Steven and Charlie put together an edit of stills of The City of Troy, New York, that I took over the past years during the City's notable Uncle Sam and Flag Day Parades. The stills were made into a final cut movie with the audio being an interview that I did with Fred Polnish, the Uncle Sam Impersonator and Tea Party member who appears in parades and at schools to "teach young people about our history". The show at the beautiful Gallery ID was the second in the space owned by Giselle Devera and Marite Iglesias.

The Piece "Interview With Uncle Sam" was the first of the Upstate Girls video installations to be acquired by a collector and can be seen at the amazing Margulies Warehouse this spring 2011. This acquisition became a milestone in the way that we distribute work and a step toward eliminating the making, packaging, framing and shipping of prints (EXCEPT OF COURSE WHEN SOMEONE WANTS TO BUY ONE!!). The installations are a way to show the work while we edit the book and 500 hours of digital video for the Upstate Girls films.

Immediately following the Upstate Girls Show at Gallery ID, Steven was part of a group show at ID that focused on new voices in photojournalism.
   

In April we continued a three-year conceptual fashion project at our favorite place in the world, Hour Children, in Queens, NY.

The traditional white seamless fashion photographs, together with b roll behind the scenes video footage and moving interviews of formerly incarcerated women in the Hour Working Women's Program are meant to provoke discussion about stereotypes and self image.

The material is being edited into a 60-minute feature, via the generosity of former long-time NPR producer Chip Grabow. Chip comes to us by way of Story Planet, and the resourceful BJ who found him for us.

The fashion Shoots were made possible as they have been for the past three years by Izak Mishan lights, technical and styling support.

The Styling was done by Kyndal Marie DePass and makeup by Nikki, both of whom have worked pro-bono or for small honorariums during the course of this project.

Additional shoots have been styled by Ru Flynn of Ru-cessories.

B roll Video was shot by Therese Shechter, an award winning film maker who generously donated her talents, and Steven Zeswitz who constantly donates his talents.

Thanks especially to Laura LoForti who assembled the first bro-bono team.


While all that was going on the incredibly generous, talented and zenful Murray Cox, therawfile's behind the scenes web site making angel and all around phenomenally enlightened person was busy working on a redesign for Laura's original blog format. Murray who is a beautiful photographer in his own right endured months of back and forth and organizing new material that finally ended in the relaunch of www.therawfile.org.

 

The relaunch included new contributors Samantha Box, who got a shout out on the Niemen Story Board as a result.

Emily Shiffer, who was amazing enough to make a poetic sound piece for therawfile to accompany her gorgeous work with and about children on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.

 

We also completed, courtesy of MacGregor Thomson, our volunteer editor/producer in Miami, the second part of Moya's Story in The Back on The Block Series. HOUR PRINCESS, a tribute to the vision of Sister Tisa Fitzgerald of Hour Children and a testimony to the power of true redistribution of human resources.

MacGregor, while working on his MFA thesis, also edited a twenty-minute excerpt of the rap documentary Hip Hop By All Means Necessary, that I shot between 2004 and 2006 but have not yet released. We put some of it on therawfile with a collection of stills from that project until we have time to find a home for the film.
   
 

Summer came and went with each of us shooting our respective projects and me in Troy trying to finalize Upstate Girls www.upstategirls.org.

To that end I began working with Graphic Novelist Rebecca Midgal (http://www.rosettastonecomic.com/) who is a regular contributor to World War 3 Comics and who recently designed a comic for The Yes Men.

She is the key to making the dream of Upstate Girls becoming a graphic novel a reality, and thanks to Steve and Branda Miller at The Sanctuary in Troy, Rebecca began editing, designing and conceptualizing with me in June.

Steven worked all summer on two extensive pieces from Upstate Girls. We wanted a place for the entire still edit to live while Rebecca and I research and design the book (s).

Steven began the daunting task of ripping a chronology of the music that the girls upstate have listened to while I have had the video camera rolling. Steven then edited the stills from the earliest to the present for each young woman and set the sound collage that he made from the ripped audio in a final cut movie.

Murray, designed a spilt screen to post that movie and an accompanying video the gives context to Troy as the All American City in which the girls live. The two videos, comprise one piece Titled; AMERICA LOVE IT OR ELSE; In Two Parts.

The split screen is designed so that both videos can be played simultaneously or not and the choice of sound on both or one or neither is up to the viewer.

It is what we call an online installation - we will add to the I Love You portion with the girls' photos from time to time until the book is done and then the videos will be retired.
   

The School year began in September and with it came our first intern from The Bronx Guild High School. It is a pleasure to see the smiling face of 17 year-old Anderson Rivera on the two mornings a week that he makes the subway ride from Moshulu Parkway to Bedford Styuvesant.

The commute, slightly under four hours round trip, is just one of the ways that Anderson inspires us through his dedication, fortitude, and love of learning.

Anderson jumped right into the rawfile and teamed up with Steven to shoot and edit a personal multi media piece that will be part of his college application portfolio.

It is amazing to watch both young men grow through this mentor/mentee relationship; Steven as a teacher, editor and activist and Anderson as a competent, focused, and prepared college freshman.
   

The November elections came next and Steven re cut a video called "Its the Black House Now" that Laura Loforti originally produced right after the 2008 election results.

The piece, which had been lost, is now back on line along with a long delayed second part of therawfile election coverage from inauguration day. Two years after that was shot we finally produced the piece and all three of the pieces together.

I LOVE AMARICA, THE BLACK HOUSE and INAGURATION 2008 posted in November 2010 hopefully in time to remind us of how happy we were when the Obama victory was announced and of the other hand the tea party ideology that is on the rise in I LOVE AMERICA. I guess there are no accidents.

We have committed to facilitating two shows per year (one each season) of socially concerned photography at The Sanctuary in Troy.

November was devoted to editing and hanging a show of Samantha Box's homeless LGBT project at The Sanctuary.

On November 19th, the inspired an evening of discussion and thought provoking hip hop with Capitol District LGBT activist groups.

The evening culminated in a candle light vigil that focused on recent deaths in the LGBT community.

Our own Murray Cox made the journey with us and took stills of the event

   

The last event of the year was in Miami during Art Basel 2010, in partnership with Gallery ID, we curated a show that would introduce content to the stiletto-studded week. "This Time In America" is a show whose obvious title is a group of work by some of the finest photojournalists working in the field today. The committed artists and activists who participated support some of their work through the sale of fine art prints. We are so happy that many of them joined us in Miami for the show.
Steven and Anderson ended the year with our annual tradition of photographing at The Hour Children Christmas Party. Anderson jumped right into his first photo assignment, shooting both stills and video of the event.
   
 

The last person that I need to mention had his helpful hands in every one of the projects and productions that therawfile was involved with this year, as he has been every year since we were photojournalism students at The University of Miami.

The fine photojournalist, commercial photographer, master darkroom and digital printer, Photoshop expert and all around technical genius, Daniel Portnoy has consistently donated all of these talents to therawfile. Photographing scrapbooks on a table top with his Hasselblad, processing rawfiles and printing for shows that I could never afford to be in, and drum scanning most of my archive has made it possible for me to continue my work and I am eternally grateful for Daniel's amazing friendship.

And PS he is available for commercial shoots and fine printing etc at danielportnoy.com

By the end of 2010 the rawfile has become a network of like-minded individuals in service to common values that have allowed organization to form organically. Each of us has both individual and collective goals for 2011. To be able to continue this special way of working and disseminating that work which illuminates public and social polices of our day is our only objective. To that end we are beginning a fund raising campaign.

To donate a Money Power Respect box set to a social justice organization, teacher with limited resources, or health care professional - OR purchase one for yourself

Make a $500 contribution to www.therawfile.org and receive a limited edition Money, Power, Respect box set.
The embossed archival box includes:

One Signed Out of Print Book -
Money, Power, Respect; Pictures of My Neighborhood
Channel Photographic, New York, 2006

One screening quality DVD designed with vintage cover art not included in the book- DVD contains seven short multi media and film productions that continue the stories in the book.

Choice of one of three 11x14 Epson Prints not included in the book.

The sets are numbered in limited editions of 50 per image.

See box set here
Money Power Respect Box Set