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photography

Vietnam War Photography Series

Peter · November 2, 2024 ·

Working On My New Vietnam War Photography Series.

Um, The Vietnamese Call It The American War.

This podcast is generated by Google’s NotebookLM.

“The Mistake” is a new photography series that will be shot in Vietnam in 2025. The series aims to capture the untold stories of the last remaining soldiers from the American / Vietnam War – primarily those who fought for the National Liberation Front, the NLF.

Through intimate portraits and personal interviews, this project will illuminate the long-lasting impact of one of the 20th century’s most controversial conflicts.

A (major) critical mistake of the war was that the Americans thought that they were fighting a war against the advance of Communism (then known as the Domino Theory). While the North Vietnamese, the National Liberation Front, and the Viet Cong thought that they were fighting a civil war with South Vietnam – supported by Western imperialists.

FYI: April 30, 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the war’s end.

That’s it. More to come as I get past pre-pro and onto the actual Vietnam War photography.

Oh, have you visited my photography website?

2022 Goals – Personal & Business

Peter · January 5, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Yup, I Have 2022 Goals

2022 goalsJust a quickie here about my 2022 goals. Just for my head. Just to maybe get your juices flowing. Your goals juices – that is. Your other juices are up to you.

Some goals aqui…

  • I’ve been intellectualizing, a bit too much, with some smart photographers about who can photograph who? Can me, a white guy, photograph people not like me, as in a series on lesbians? Can I go back to Selma and continue my series in the south? Can I do that black family project in L.A.? On the left or above is a photo I took many years ago. I like it. I am going to write about this ‘who can photograph who?’ subject on PetaPixel.
  • I am going to dig in deeper about account-based marketing – ABM – just for you – right here on this blog. Well, it is called ABM but it is just plain old very smart sales techniques. Too many advertising agencies do not use ABM. Why?
  • I am joining a group in Mexico that is all about micro-lending to Mexican women so they can start their own businesses.
  • I will be in Argentina twice this year visiting my 1.5-year-old granddaughter. She is here with her parents right now. Yes, I will drink a lot of red wine.
  • I have to get my ass back to SE Asia. Been all over. The last big trip was to India in January 2020. Too long ago.
  • I will continue to get lots of incoming questions from people that want to move to Mexico. Read about it here – Quit Advertising. 

There is more, but I will spare you.

Oh, OK, One Other Thing.

I am starting the year finishing up with two agencies, as in they hired me to help them grow their agency client base. And, starting on two new assignments. Thank y’all!

Now, shouldn’t working with me be one of YOUR goals?

Peter + India And Photography

Peter · June 14, 2021 · Leave a Comment

India And Photography – A Pre Covid-19 Trip

India and photographyIndia and photography go together like chickpeas and curry and butter and chicken as in murgh makhani. Here are some thoughts on a trip I did to India WAY back before Covid-19. The January 2020 trip was part of my multiple-location The People series. The how…

My cow photo on the left shows how I produced the series. I traveled with collapsible polls, a white background, two assistants, and Fujifilm equipment. I traveled light.

First things first – the video.

Back To India and Photography

I solo traveled to India in January 2020. My goal was to use The People, my ethnographic photography series, to meet lots of people and record my interactions in the northern state of Rajasthan and the holy city of Varanasi. My travels included the magnificent lake city of Udaipur, the holy and hippie town of Pushkar, busy Jaipur and the megacities of Delhi and Mumbai. In addition to the photography, I leveraged my global network to make friends in every city, to attend a huge Jaipur wedding and give marketing lectures at two colleges.

You can see the work here.

My initial takeaway is that it was more difficult for me to accomplish my photography goals in India than it was in earlier parts of the series that were shot in San Miguel de Allende, Venice Beach and Selma, Alabama. Difficult because I hit some cultural and language barriers — I had a harder time eliciting the interactive reactions I wanted.

India and photographyKey thought – Outsider photographers who just parachute into ancient cultures for a month or less have built-in “connection” issues. I also think that some of the portraits are just a bit too expected from foreign photographers visiting India. Like the man on the left. A good shot. But, a brand new idea???

ABL. Always Be Learning.

!!!! My future goal is to do work that is more connected to a local community via more collaborative programs. Parachutes be damned. I am thinking of doing that in Selma. I have some more progressive ideas. I have even thought through the many ways to exhibit the work.

That’s it. If you ever consider going to India, especially if you want to do India and photography, give me a shout. I’ll give you my perspective, a limited 30-day perspective on how to plan and have a trip of a lifetime.

 

3 Thoughts On Advertising

Peter · February 12, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Actually 4 Thoughts On Advertising

Here are some thoughts on advertising driven by four recent reads.

What If There Was No Advertising?

Imagine a world where all advertising was erased from the environment. That means no more escalator, or bathroom stall ads; no more behavioral retargeting; movies and tv shows without commercials (oh, that’s Netflix); no outdoor boards on Montana highways, and on. Hard to visualize? Maybe (um not), to help, here is a series of “ads” that have been erased. Check out Jorge Pérez Higuera’s photo series Public Spaces. 

Back to reality.

But, First The Good Old Days & ROI

I am having a drink tonight in my town San Miguel de Allende with Michael Farmer whose book, “Madison Avenue Manslaughter: An Inside View of Fee-Cutting Clients, Profit-Hungry Owners and Declining Ad Agencies” is the most informative and insightful book on the reasons for the demise of the good old days of advertising. Michael covers the advertising world from the high-profit Mad Men days to where we are today (much less-profit). Today’s ad world is strapped by client jitters, the quest for low-cost advertising services and way too many advertising platforms that equal an ever-increasing workload.

I suggest you buy the book and listen to Michael’s interview with Jack Meyer’s on MediaVillage. From the interview:

Jack Meyers: Last week we talked about the deterioration in agency-client relationships — fee cuts, shorter relationships, in-house agencies, etc.  You said that agencies were downsizing and liquidating their capabilities — becoming less capable of helping their clients solve “brand growth problems.”  You predicted that this would lead to financial problems for the holding companies. This did not paint a very optimistic picture of the industry.  Where do you think things are headed?

Michael Farmer:  There’s a difference between where things are probably headed and where they could be headed.  In a funny way, I’m still optimistic about the potential for a turnaround in the industry.  As long as advertisers have performance problems — stagnant brand performance, for instance — there are attractive opportunities for problem-solving partners.  The question today is whether the current leaders of advertising agencies and holding companies will transform their operations and help them become the problem-solvers that their clients need.

We will not return to the good old days of 15% commissions on large TV, print and radio buys. Today we are paid by the hour and seem to need to run Instagram at a 24/7 pace.

However, it does not have to be gloom and doom. As I have written about over the past few years and council my agency clients… we need to, as Michael says, address the core need of our clients and that is sales growth – not mindless Instagram posts. In the case of 2019’s ability to track much of what we do, that means addressing Return On Investment. Yes, you better be creative art directors, media planners and database experts. But, you have to be able to recognize sales opportunities, have the time to find solutions and deliver ROI.

Advertising Is Back! Y’all. I Hope.

From a Business Insider article.

2017 was a trying time for ad agencies, with issues ranging from transparency and brand safety concerns to the looming threat of consulting firms coming to a head last year.

But the prospects for the advertising industry look a lot brighter in 2018, according to new research issued by UBS.

The investment bank surveyed 350 global marketing executives and 500 US CFOs and has predicted that ad agencies will bounce back in 2018, buoyed by a growth of 4-5% in global advertising spend.

The recovery in 2018 will be driven by a number of factors, UBS analysts said, including large advertisers increasing the scope of work with creative agencies and big sporting and political events driving increasing spend on brand media.

This is particularly interesting, as it runs counter to the trend of advertisers doubling down on direct advertising in recent years, where they have prioritized marketing strategies that drive measurable results.

[Read more…] about 3 Thoughts On Advertising

Best Of 2018

Peter · December 18, 2018 · 1 Comment

No, no, don’t worry, I am not going to make a long list of the best of 2018. I am just going to tell you about my best personal experience.

The People

I have been working on a major photography project for a couple of years. As I say on my photography website:

“I am traveling around the world to shoot The People, my long-term portrait series. My ultimate goal is to amass well over one thousand simple portraits that foster empathy and a better understanding of the world and its people. Think visual ethnography. I’ve now made over 330 portraits in Mexico and Selma, Alabama. Next stops are Havana, Cuba, Indonesia, and Argentina.”

I was in Selma Alabama for three weeks in November. I was graciously accepted into the community and took 140 individual portraits. The pre-planning process and working in a new environment is one of the most interesting aspects of the project. I can’t just parachute in and hope that I find the people I want to photograph. I need some local help. For example, my upcoming trip to Havana in February is being set up by a large Cuban family. I’ll arrive having 30 brand-new friends.

I love this stuff.

Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church

I knew when I headed to Selma that I wanted to photograph members of an African American church. Sure, I know, a stereotype, but, iconic nonetheless. Churches are an important element of any Southern community portrait.

On my second Sunday, Pastor James Perkins, Jr invited me to attend the service at the Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church. Pastor Perkins had even prepped the congregation that a photographer with a big white background was coming.

I arrived at the church during the sermon. Pastor Perkins was preaching about how we all have different personal “languages” – different ways of communicating. As an example, he mentioned that if the congregation was going to reach out and be meaningful to young people, then the younger members of the congregation needed to be the church’s voice. The older folks simply do not speak the same language as sixteen-year-olds. It was during the sermon that I realized that my “language” is photography. A seemingly obvious, but meaningful revelation. 

As the sermon was ending the lady users put on their white gloves and when the congregation began to sing hymns, the ladies took my hands and held tight.

I began to cry.

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