http://www.popafricana.com/

Hello World,

I drove up to Pismo Beach and spent the weekend with my mum… just relaxing. hung out with a few friends, played some pool and found a wonderful bar to find a fight! I was ordering a couple drinks, and noticed the young lady sitting next to her man to my left. She saw my glance and lashes out… “what the fuck you looking at?” I approached her, reached out my hand and said “I know what I was looking at… a very beautiful lady.”  That seemed to ease her, then I proceeded… “but I could be wrong.” We continued to verbally spar through the evening, ending in a game of pool for money. I guess she didn’t know I play pool practically everyday. I really pissed her off when I asked her if she always hangs out with her little brother!

anyways, time spent with my mum was really nice!

plus…………

I invite you to view an interview with Chris Jones I just finished on the website Alt Pick. view

here is a copy of the text…

Today more and more photographers are creating unique online promotional techniques using the internet. From websites to blogs, marketing and promotion for freelancers is shifting everyday. Hamesh Shahani is a photographer based in Los Angeles that has been using sites like Altpick, email campaigns and two blog feeds for his promotions. We asked him to share some thoughts on the current state of photography and promotion.

who are we?
we are everything. we are who we want to be, who we pretend to be, we are who we are and sometimes we can’t help but be ourselves

who are you?
part of a generation weaponized with information technology and communication… plus I’m a good friend and a decent pool player.

do you use your camera as a weapon or an instrument?
I use my camera like a writer uses their pen.

what qualities do you instill in your work to get noticed by leading art buyers?
The energy of my commercial work is inspired from authentic personal moments… moments I feel we all experience. When creating promotional pieces I do think about how those moments can be conducive to an advertisers needs. Not everyone is going to connect with the work and even if they do, the right job might not be around. I think in some ways consistency in the work is important and in other ways I think diversity is important. Art buyers I have spoken with seem to connect to the quietness and simplicity of my work. Some connect with my use of color, others love my black and whites. One described the work as deceptively simple…. I liked that. But keep in mind, I’m also a very young photographer, if you ask me the same question next year my answer will be different.

Are you much more likely to be respected doing something that you believe in, or something you think people want to hear and see?
I don’t know. Why not both? I make photographs because I don’t want some moments to end, because of their potential to be looked at by others and sometimes to pay my bills.  When it comes to paying the bills my client’s needs are first and foremost. They know what I can do, they want me to do it and I do it for them with joy. In between jobs, I spend a lot of time experimenting in an effort to continue to define my visual sensibility and in an effort to offer more to my clients. I also work on projects that are meaningful to me, work which I feel is separate from my advertising and editorial work. You can see some of that work on my website under the “projects” link. I think its important to let people, especially art buyers and curators know I’m capable of expressing myself in different ways.

Photographers like cobrasnake and Bronques (lastnightsparty) have morphed the internet into a means of self promotion using very generic techniques, but still affecting a wide audience. What are ways a commercial or art photographer can promote themselves on the web yet still stay true to a very sophisticated image?
Cobrasnake and Bronques shoot quick, they act on opportunity. Making a single image for them takes seconds to produce… but they do more than make single images, their success is dependent on how much interesting work they can produce and distribute online to consumers not businesses. Its beautiful to see them do what they do and I celebrate them more so because their process is sophisticated, contemporary and relevant as opposed to the production of a very sophisticated single image… which I also love. I feel technology allows us to think less about the single image and more about the many images all hyperlinked… its an interesting time when it comes to the future of images and commerce. When it comes to my own promotion I am currently represented and my rep does send out promotions in the mail. For my self-promotion I personally use Alt Pick, Ad Base, I have a twitter account which updates my facebook account and my facebook account updates my network every time I upload a new blog entry, how cool is that? I get several thousand visits every month, its nice to have an audience. it makes me happy. in regards to a conversation on Cobrasnake and Bronques… I also want to mention Todd Selby, his work makes me happy too.

Recently Facebook changed its terms so that everything you’ve loaded up into your profile (personal pictures, etc.) belongs to Facebook, even after you’ve closed your account. There was a public up roar and Facebook subsequently terminated the change but with these types of technologies how can we protect our intellectual property and identity?
I don’t think people have to protect their identity, it’s their privacy they have to protect. For the most part social networks allow us to control what we want people to know about us… they let us mold our identity like a hipster’s tight jeans and a doctors white coat. I know a lot of people that are paranoid about social networks, I understand their fear… its a new way of communicating. Some people are going to be hesitant about having social networking profiles, hey cool, no worries.. I’ll still call you, maybe… hopefully you accept text messages! For myself and most of my peers it feels ok having so much public information out there.  Now when it comes to a conversation about protecting intellectual property online I’m going to refer to Larry Lessig, he’s by far my favorite thinker on the subject. You can google him!

People are influenced tremendously by social networks. The ability to express yourself instantly is considered a very marketable attribute in society today. Did you purposely create the photowall on your website to capture this attribute?
I didn’t make it for marketing reasons, I made it for myself and I decided to share it with anyone interested. I love social networks, I love how one’s profile acts like a personal record and documentation of one’s life. Have you ever visited the profile of anyone that has passed? their profile becomes a digital shrine. I find that interesting. I created the photowall as a way to archive images I shoot everyday with my little snapshot camera, its like my own personal archive open to the public through an RSS feed. I was influenced to build and maintain it from sites like flickr and stock websites plus web2.0. I think as a society we’ve become very good at finding information and we’re only just beginning to understand how to archive and organize it for personal use, I think sites like facebook, flickr and delious are great for this. I’ve had a lot of nice feedback on the photowall from art directors and photo editors… they really seem to get it. Its my life in images: keyworded, searchable and shareable.

What’s next?
I hope the same as yesterday…. I had a great day yesterday!

Thank you
My pleasure, thank you.

Hello World.

sorry for the lack of postings… this whole economy situation has got me in a crunch. have not worked since Jan 26th… it’s really tough out there, but we’ll ride it out I’m sure. good news is that the family is healthy, I’m good and my pool playing has been getting better!!!

On another happy note, I’m allowing select images of mine to be licensened on Gallerystock

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

Hello world, wanted to share some thoughts/images from one of my favorite photographers: Thierry Le Goues.

I particularly love the work he shot for the French clothing company: Antik Batik. From this work I can guess several things about Thierry… first, he must have a very beautiful energy and probably makes a lot of people smile. His images are full of life and lack any fear. He also understands the technology he is working with… all the images from the Antik Batik campaigns are low production shoots with a single flash that has a certain output range… Thierry is very familiar with the amount of distance he should put between him and his subject for his system to work. I find the work courageous and encourage you to view more of Thierry’s work here

Here are a few of my favorites from the Antik Batik campaigns:

Interested in a high resolution image of our 44th president? The official portrait of Barack Obama, download here

Makes a great 8×10 print for personal usage. This is the first official presidential portrait to be shot with a digital camera, just a tidbit for convo. enjoy.

Dear World,

hope all is well. I am now represented by Josette Lata. Josette’s agency is young yet her roster is incredibly sophisticated. I’m really impressed with her roster.

I’ve also started to twitter… you can subscribe to my feed by visiting:

http://twitter.com/hameshshahani

I was inspired to try Twitter after readying my buddies Sasha Strauss’s notes on why he thinks Twitter rocks…

here is what he had to say:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=46990633076

Check out “The Selby,” a website by photographer Todd Selby. I adore this site… On the site, Todd documents the homes and spaces of creatives (artists, editors, writers…etc.), he shoots traditional portraits of his subjects as well as portraits of them through their possessions. He has a free, loose, low production style …I bet he spends a lot time organizing and compiling the shoots on his website. Something I personally appreciate.

His site is really fun to experience. You can scroll down his splash page and see portrait after portrait and should you want to know more about the subject of each portrait… click, and you get to see their spaces from other angles, their possessions, their style. I find it to be very revealing… for me the site as a whole resonates with today’s sense of lifestyle plus its a great contemporary expression of photography. He also distributes his work through an RSS feed too… Fucking brilliant… “The Selby”

Untitled

Thank you to Erik Wåhlström for original posting.

If you have seen not Erik’s work, I highly recommend it, its bold, simple and like all things I like… deceptively simple.

you better believe lunch was hot today! but it was cold and I needed to stay warm. Hanging out in Camden Town with Abra, Xuan and Holly. Did a bit of shopping and checked out some very stylish beauties.

enjoy:

While most of my peers had House of Cards on top of their In Rainbows list…. Reckoner was mine. Most excellent animation.

Her profile cut through the smokey darkness and magnetized my glare. My moment came… I introduced myself, her name was Myrcinni. Her eyes solid beads of tigereye, her nose elegantly Greek. Her tits beautiful and small. Her hair trimmed in the front and arousingly crazy everywhere else. She drank black rum. We talked. We drank. We left together. I didn’t know where we were going, I didn’t ask. I listened, she told me of her pain. In the light of the moon beside the sea I could see her despair. I cared. We came to her street, she asked me if I’d like to come up. I did. The street cats watched us. She rolled a joint of hash and tobacco. We smoked on her balcony and watched the stars. I held my breath and we locked lips. I let me breath out into her and she pulled it in. Our lips stayed locked and she exhaled into me. back and forth we shared the same breath, each time a shorter grasp of air until we separated… panting heavily. She asked me if I wanted to stay the night. Yes. We shared her toothbrush. Next to her I slept calm and deep. In the morning I massaged the stress from her back. She asked me if I was going to photograph her… I wanted to and I did. We went to breakfast. we smiled. we had to say goodbye. She said maybe we’ll see each other again. I looked at her and I knew that moment had come to an end.

Britton and I wanted to go to Turkey for the day but there was a boat strike and B is going back to California tomorrow so instead we decided to shoot in the sea for fun.

We took a road trip to Eressou birth place of Sappho and now days, its a lesbian retreat. We met Bandit and Sarai at a party where they were performing. We got to spend some quality time with them. Visit their MySpace page and check out their tunes:

http://www.myspace.com/nopcmusic

and their website:
http://www.opctown.com/

here are some party pix from the night:

Chris and I spent the day with Osman Mohammed (in above picture), Abdula Joseph, Osman Ali Adam, Abdifatah Rashiid, Kamil Ahmed, Ali Hussen and Dayib Adulgadir. Refugees originally from Somalia. Their journey to Athens took 2 years; working and migrating through Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Turkey before seeking asylum in the EU. Since Greece was their country of entry their chances of being able to live anywhere else in Europe is slim. Chris asked Dayib (who learnt English washing cars and spoke with great proficiency) what he would do with unlimited financial resources, his only answer was “to not be here” in Greece where the culture in general displayed an immense hostility towards them, especially the police.

It was quite an amazing juxtaposition for me to work with these courageous men in the cradle of western civilization and to then hear news of unregulated free market capitalism debauchery and a $700,000,000,000 corporate bailout.

We had just finished dinner with Lavina and her friends. Chris spotted a young man with punk style listening to an MP3 player. Asked him what he was listening to… and before I knew it they were listening to each other MP3″s (Chris had an ipod). The young man’s name was John. He was hanging with his friends…. 18, left home. Spends his nights on the streets and sleeps during the day. Chris and John talked… I photographed his friend.

We kicked it with John and his friends for a good 2 to 3 hours. He told us about the Neo Nazi scene, the politics of the police, and the challenges he faced. I showed him some of the grafitti I had photographed and he recognized one of the pieces as the work of one of his friends and showed us another one of his works:

visit him if you like:

http://www.myspace.com/romvos77streetpunk

Chris Jones just arrived in Athens… now with him and my sister (two of my favorite people) we’re gonna get some work done… then off to Lesvos to install our show.

had to try a sheep’s head Greek style. have to say, cool experience. meat in the cheek bone was the best… the eyes were tough to swallow. I could have chowed down more of the brains if I had a little salt and pepper.

plus some pix from the meat market.

Dirty. Loud. Awful street smells, riot police patrolling the night streets. Refugee problem out of control. Man snorts heroin in front of me. Couple sit embraced in catatonic state. This was Omonia Square. And on the walls between the Acropolis and this place of despair, street works stood stronger than the ruins of what was once the Western frontier.

here are a few interesting works and to see more… visit the photoblog and enter keyword: graffiti.

Arrived in Athens. Spent the day walking around, getting a feel for the city. Loving the heat compared to London. Here are a few images from the day… To see more, search keyword “Athens” in the photoblog

Just spent a couple hours down Portobello Market with my sister. We decided to meet some charming well dressed Market shoppers.

enjoy:

plus a few pix from the day (captured by Lavina)

camouflaged and no where to hide but in your face.
check out my boy Tiger’s stripes….

enjoy:

Shortly before wrapping up a session with Kenny G in Lake Las Vegas, Kenny told Chris and I a few good jokes….

we all had fun, enjoy:

“today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. that we are all one conscious experiencing itself subjectively. there is no such thing as death. life is only a dream and we the imagination of ourselves.”

Bill Hicks
(Dec 16, 1961 – Feb 26, 1994)

Chris and I spent the day at A Cut Above in downtown Vegas. its a family owned business. Here are a few images from the day:

enjoy:

I went up to Vancouver for the weekend to document a performance by one of my dearest friends and a tremendously powerful artist… Lida Abdul. I encourage you to check out her artist statement at www.lidaabdul.com

Below are some of the images from her performance.

enjoy:

simple masterful arrangments