Kingston, Jamaica A Day in The Life........

I arrived in Kingston, Jamaica in January of 2010 on assignment to photograph a day in the life of Andre Fairclough Project Artist student. This is a program sponsored by Red Stripe and Diageo as part of their larger initiative, Learning For Life. I was given access to a young musicians life for an entire day, needless to say I was very excited to photograph this assignment. I first met Andre as I was stepping out of a van at about 7:00 am on bright, crisp beautiful day in Kingston. The first thing I noticed was Andre's excitement about the project and his infectious smile. I was privileged to meet his family and friends and spend some quality time just experiencing and photographing his life for an entire day. In the pages of this book you will see what I experienced meeting his family, having breakfast with his friends, taking his daughter to school and finally ending with Andre's graduation from the program. I was honored to meet this talented young man I wish him well and look forward to hearing his name in the music world.

San Salvador,El Salvador

Well I haven't been on here in a long long time. A lot of things have been happening since the last time I posted something on my blog, the world it taking shape and opportunities are revealing themselves. I recently was offered a full time job to shoot for Luminosity Creative in Miami, Fl. This postion consist of traveling through out South America and some travel in Europe to photograph for Diageo, a company of Johnny Walker. I also am able to shoot my own photography under my company when time allows so I can continue servicing my current and potential clients. For this job I was recently sent to San Salvador, El Salvador to photograph the damage done by hurricane Ida and to photograph relief aid provided by Diageo.

My first impression of El Salvador was a poverty stricken place with an amazing natural beauty sprouting from its land and its people. Sadly the city of San Salvador is a very polluted place, with exhaust billowing from every tail pipe forming in a hazy layer of carbon monoxide through out the city. The city its self is a barricaded and guarded place, with security on most nice homes and places of substantial business. The security consists of one guy sitting in a chair holding an automatic shotgun just waiting for some action and they most likely see action from time to time, as San Salvador is home to some notorious gangs like Mara Salvatrucha aka MS-13. Most homes have German razor wire nestled atop a cinder block wall surrounding the entire home.

This is a very small country consisting of 7.2 million people, the most populated country in Central America with 1.5 million people in San Salvador with a majority residing in poverty. I suppose in times of desperation people take desperate measures hence having guards with shotguns and razor wire everywhere. I kept thinking as we drove around the city, how bad would it have to get before I resorted to breaking in to peoples homes? I'm positive I would never take that measure I would like to think I would be more resourceful than that,but I have never and probably never will experience poverty like that other than from the window of a rented car.

As I stated before I was there to photograph the destruction that hurricane Ida left behind, during this particular storm 200 people lost their lives and 15,000 families were affected. We traveled ( the video team and I) into these affected areas. We pulled into a small town hit by the hurricane, roads were washed out, debris everywhere with branches and garbage strewn about ,it reminded me of a dried up dirty river bed but the river bed was the actual road into town. We pulled up to a small cluster of houses nestled in the forest right next to a 150 ft hill, a perfect place for a landslide. I photographed a house in which a man had died. This house was butted right up next to the hill, awaiting for the careening earth from above, an unstoppable river of soil and rock ripped right through his house and took his life. It was a bit strange photographing the personal items of man who had died in the very room I was standing in only a few short weeks ago, knowing his family was somewhere near. As I climbed the landslide and stood at the top looking down it was a painful reminder of how we are at the mercy of mother nature and we are helpless when she is in full force. After photographing for a while we continued to down the road to the community center we I was to photograph relief aid being handed out to this community.

Arriving to the location it was a scene that gave me a feeling of hope and sadness. It was a great thing to see people getting aid in the form of food,medicine, bedding and on-site medical aid and being a part of a company like Diageo. Actually having a part in it made me feel quite good I must say. I also felt a kind of sadness knowing that these people have lost everything they own and in some cases lost those closest to them. I saw two women break down and cry explaining their situation, one of these women being the wife of the man that was killed in the house I was photographing earlier. That was an incredible thing to experience , I wanted to give her a hug and tell her everything is going to be alright. Perhaps I should have but I had work to do and kept my distance I figured that would be the best for both of us. I also noticed a great resilience in this community, these people have been through so much and yet everyone found a way to keep a smile on their faces despite their dark times.

An experiment with video

Video: Steven Karl Metzer

Music: Lights, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

American Bar Association Annual Meeting 2009

Well the good old ABA gave me a call last week and wanted me to shoot the annual meeting this year. This is as you would guess a lot of people attending meetings, finding shots is a little harder but they are there to be had! It's a bit like hunting , you have to walk around inconspicuously and wait for your prey to reveal its self then at the right moment you strike! Everyone was really great to work with, an absolute pleasure! This year the ABA had the honorable Cameron F. Kerry from the General Counsel, United States Department of Commerce as the keynote speaker.

More Editorial!

I was called to shoot another editorial assignment. Editorial assignments are great they allow you to really think quickly and adjust to your environment. This assignment is for the October issue of CS,this is not the photo that will running in the magazine. I had seen this guy walking around set with his dog so I asked if I could take his portrait. His name is Dino and he is a Ju-Jitsu instructor,and this is his dog Nola.

Shoot for CS Magazine

I recently received a call from CS editor Greg Gillis for a quick editorial assignment. The shoot, a portrait of Laurent Gras a world famous french chef and owner L2O restaurant in Chicago. Laurent is a serious bicyclist with a carbon fiber bike that cost as much as a nice car. CS was sending one of their writers to take a bike ride with Laurent and interview him along the way. The shot is coming out in CS Magazine in the first week of July 2009. This was a really fun shoot with really great subjects, thanks Laurent and Mark! I also had two of my favorite assistants on this one Zach Johnston and Ely Philips thanks for all your hard work!

Buenos Aires and Mendoza, Argentina

Well I have not updated this blog in a very long time! In the last couple of months I traveled to South America once again to do some digital post production and shooting this time in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Mendoza, Argentina. The job...... shooting wineries. I got the call from my friend Mark and had to decide that day if I could do it, it was a little rushed but spontaneity is exciting! We made our arrangements and in a couple of days I was at O'hare heading south. It was nice a flight at 3:00pm no lines at the airport.........awesome. My connecting flight was in Miami so it was pretty easy I had the same experience about 5 months ago traveling to Bogota and Carracas on a job with Diageo. I arrived at the gate and they had just started boarding 1st class, perfect enough time to run to the bar and order a long island iced tea! The theory here was to get a nice stiff drink and sleep through the 8 hour flight as it turns out it was just a theory. I landed in Argentina around noon got through customs grabbed my bags and went to look for Pedro, the driver Mark had sent to pick me up. Sure enough there he was standing with a print out of my name. Pedro was very cool, there was a language barrier that basically I had built from neglecting to really learn Spanish.....I want to change that. Pedro is a middle aged man that always has a smile and talks very very fast and very loud......I instantly liked him. I managed to get a fragment of a conversation going as we sped down the highway on our way to Palermo, an awesome neighborhood in Buenos Aires.

I stayed in Buenos Aires for about 9 days until Mark came back from Bogota,Colombia then we flew to Mendoza, Argentina. From there we dumped our suitcases in our hotel room then jumped on a bus with all of our gear heading towards the Andes. Along the way we passed many wineries and took a lot of winding narrow roads and just took in the beauty of Argentina. Our job was to hang with a group from Diageo and photograph our adventures, the food and wine consumed along the way..........not a bad gig.

Our first day we went horseback riding in the foothills of the Andes mountains, we also had an amazing lunch with a few wine tastings. Soon we headed to Cavas a hotel in the middle of an enormous vineyard with pueblo style rooms scattered through out the vineyard ,we checked out the the hotel had some food and of course more wine! On our 2nd day we headed to the vineyards of Navarro Correas to pick grapes, photograph the workers in the vineyards and tour the winery. The winery itself is a work of art, a canvas of concrete and steel. We basically went through the entire process of wine making from the harvest of the grapes to the barreling of the wine. We spent about 4 days in Mendoza mostly traveling via bus and photographing the art of wine making, what an assignment!