Say Goodbye ...It's Independance Day !

Yipeee Kayea...Mother F*@kers. Live Free or Die Hard !!!

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose..."
Kris Kristofferson

I remember the moment I heard that Radiohead announced
that they would be releasing their latest work "In Rainbows"
on a"Pay what you want" basis to be downloaded on their
website,and thinking right away that I had to be the first
photographer to do something similar in my art form.
So two months later this  is what I have come up with...
"Pay IF you want"...On the website for the next 11 weeks
I will be offering High Resolution down loadable files
from the "Lost Vegas Art Project" portfolio. Take'em,
print'em, change'em, frame'em,give'em, send'em, tattoo'em,
draw pictures of'em, write music to'em, paint'em, burn'em,
write poetry about'em...whatever your creative mind comes
up with ?
Do something, it will be fun.

The Background Story:

This Portfolio of images is the last work that I shot
on film, one afternoon in March of 2004 on my first
trip to Las Vegas. My wife Nicol was attending a
marketing conference and I came along for the trip. One
afternoon I trekked to Old Las Vegas with my Hassleblad
camera loaded with colour film and a 35 mm Minolta point
and shoot camera loaded with Black and white film.
As I walked by the Golden Nugget Casino on Freemont Street
I spotted this cowboy having a smoke against the gold wall.
I aproached him and asked if I could make a picture of him ?
He was friendly and did as I asked.
His name is Franklin...This was the photo I made

After I had shot this we had a nice chat. He was a former
Professional Rodeo Cowboy who was at that time living on
the streets of Old Las Vegas. He asked me if I wanted to
see some sites that most tourist never see. I said sure.
For the next two hours franklin took me to historic Casino's
and bars in Old Vegas. He never asked me for anything,
although I bought him beers at a few of the bars and a nice
lunch(kinda pay if you want?). He gave me his Mom's address
to send the photograph to her, but I somehow lost it ? I
would laterdo a little film about a similar story that
happened to me in Jamaica in 1993. If everything that I
hope can come out of this project, then in a about a years
time I will return to Vegas and try and find Franklin and
give him his photograph.
That could never happen twice could it? I think it can.

It was after I left him that I started to shoot the black
and white images. I roamed the streets of Old Las Vegas
and did what I love doing best. I have fond memories of
Las Vegas. It was our first trip away from the kids. We
got to stay at the Bellagio Hotel, met some old friends,
lost some money playing blackjack ...but it was the five
hours I spent out in Old Vegas that I captured best,
I think?

"Give it away, give it away, give it away NOW"!
Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

"Pay If You want"?

Am I crazy? Some people have told me so, but after 10
years pursuing a career as a freelance photographer
and then as a freelance documentary filmmaker,I feel
that the Radiohead model may be my chance for true
Independence as an artist.

I read this on a blog recently and it sums up the concept
of this project...

-"Where music leads all else will follow" .. that is
the breakdown of the commercial music industry to elements
of trade, file sharing, swapping & purchase will one day
encompass our whole online commercial structure. Merit and
creative truth will rule,meaningless content will simply
become ignored meaninglessness,and it will struggle for any
traction.

The sharing and spread across digital platforms of all
online services and products will occur, with value being
judged by merit. This will occur whether we are talking
about a music track,a new product or a simple day to day
service.

Advertisers will no longer be able to saturate our TV
screens with useless products and thinly veiled lies
about necessity- purchase value & immediacy will be
decided by the purchaser.

Ok, …. deeper : the human mind is a spark of the
almighty consciousness of the creator, imagination
and creativity are the doors from which this consciousness
emerges. As human minds develop further and become more
fully tuned to the nature of spirit, by stopping thought,
abandoning knowledge & trusting intuition, creativity also
becomes more fully tuned to this truth.
That is, music / knowledge / content / product is freed
from the shackles of blind commercialism, prejudice or
banality will simply cut through and gain traction by the
simple fact of its creative merit. The deeper the self
realization of a person and his/her creativity, the more
he/she influences the whole universe by subtle creative
vibrations.

Silence is the potent carrier of the present tense.
Every sound or action comes from silence & dies back into
the ocean of silence. You choose by your actions how you
may disrupt this silence – 
choose wisely.

Think about that for a while ? Revolutionary.

Thomas Jefferson said the following about The United
States Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that    all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights,that among these are Life, Liberty
and The Pursuit of Happiness .

So this is my life and I am at liberty to do whatever I
want with these pictures,in my never ending pursuit of 
happiness ?

This website is a work in progress. Download one of the
Screen Savers on your computers. They look amazing and are
framed nicely with a border to store all your folders and
stuff. Please send me an retouched image if you fel like it.
I will begin to post some them in a separate Gallery page next week.
Myfriend John Coburn did an amazing black ink drawing for me
that I will post.

Starting next week I will be changing the music every week
to feature great songs about Las Vegas.
The song playing under the Lost Vegas slide show on this
first day is Gram Parson's "OOOH Las Vegas". If you don't
have any Gram Parson music - get some.
I have asked some independent musician friends I know to
write original songs for the 11 titles of the images to
produce a CD/Tour...Who knows what? My friend Dale Clark
(Orange Cap) just sent me a rough version of the song
for the first image "Welcome To Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas
Nevada"..
It's God Damn brilliant, I think Dale is the new Dylan!
And I love Dylan but isn't it about time???
I invite any Canadian musician to participate also.
We have the greatest talent that needs new ways of
exposure.
Please check the web site soon for more details.

As well as giving away image files for people to make
prints with, I am starting to market and license my
images on various products. Check out the "store" that
I have started to set up. I will be putting more images
on the t-shirts if the demand is there. I even got real
American Stamps printed with the "Welcome to Lost Vegas"
image on it, how cool is that? The T-shirts are  $ 19.95
(never pay more than $ 20.00 dollarson a
T-shirt). I make about $ 5.00 from that.
I only have one coffee cup up there right now but I
think a set of 6 would make a lovely gift idea. Good news
the shop is open 24/7.

There will be live events coming soon also that will be
updated onthe site.

So there in a nutshell is the idea.

It's officially Independence Day In America (12:03 am).
In the words
of Bruce Springsteen...

"So say goodbye it's Independence Day,
 Papa now I know the things you wanted that you
could not say,
 But won't you just say goodbye it's Independence Day
 I swear I never meant to take those things away."

So with a click of the mouse and a roll of the dice
Phase Two of "The Lost VegasArt Project" is underway.

Luck be my lady, lets all meet in Vegas in a year,
and what happens there... well you know!