Nic Robinson is a 20 year old manager at the San Jose Giants minor league baseball stadium. He grew up in Capitola California, just down the coast from Santa Cruz. He graduated from Bellarmine High in San Jose in 2005 and consequently applied to San Jose State. Although accepted and enrolled in classes he soon found out that San Jose State was not for him. He went on to apply at San Jose City College and is currently enrolled there. In 2006 Nic realized he needed a job around campus and proceeded to apply to work at the stadium. Robinson was placed on cashier duty in the hotdog and beer stands.
After the first season was over, Nic was invited back to work as a minor manager for stall “A”. Here he would be in charge of the entire stand including the employees working there. During his second season working for the Giants, Nic displayed leading qualities and an organized work ethic. His bosses were happy with his progress and he was soon beginning to get invited to go drink with the bosses after the games. This apparently is a big step in a San Jose Giants staff career as it proves their trust and hopes in him. At the end of the season he was again asked to return for the 2008 season as a general stall manager. Furthermore Nic Robinson was placed on a fixed salary, which emphasizes the importance and the level of his new position.
As a general stall manager Nic now has the liberty to wear what he wants instead of the assigned Giants “Staff” shirt. However his job is not any more glorified than most other positions. Despite having a higher pay grade and having control over many lower level employees he still has to do basic busy work. As you can see In the photos, he still has a number of “busy work” jobs to do including constant trips to the storage room to restock the stalls, during busy hours he still has to help make hot-dogs and other ball park foods. His most important job however is to count and collect all the cashier money and give it to his boss. All in all he really enjoys the fast paced stressful environment of a baseball game, not to mention that he can sit and watch the games when he has a couple minutes to breathe.
After the first season was over, Nic was invited back to work as a minor manager for stall “A”. Here he would be in charge of the entire stand including the employees working there. During his second season working for the Giants, Nic displayed leading qualities and an organized work ethic. His bosses were happy with his progress and he was soon beginning to get invited to go drink with the bosses after the games. This apparently is a big step in a San Jose Giants staff career as it proves their trust and hopes in him. At the end of the season he was again asked to return for the 2008 season as a general stall manager. Furthermore Nic Robinson was placed on a fixed salary, which emphasizes the importance and the level of his new position.
As a general stall manager Nic now has the liberty to wear what he wants instead of the assigned Giants “Staff” shirt. However his job is not any more glorified than most other positions. Despite having a higher pay grade and having control over many lower level employees he still has to do basic busy work. As you can see In the photos, he still has a number of “busy work” jobs to do including constant trips to the storage room to restock the stalls, during busy hours he still has to help make hot-dogs and other ball park foods. His most important job however is to count and collect all the cashier money and give it to his boss. All in all he really enjoys the fast paced stressful environment of a baseball game, not to mention that he can sit and watch the games when he has a couple minutes to breathe.
After walking through “The person in front of you: Photographs from West Africa” I really feel the sense of isolation and poverty David Pace and Kathy Knowles must have felt in Bereba. For me all the pictures showed a sense of disparity that was contrasted by the opulent display of color, design, culture and complacency.
Two pictures stood out as being particularly interesting for me, but for different reasons. The first picture which incidentally is my favorite, I feel says a lot about the society and economic position many of the West African states are in. It was the picture of the young teenage boy standing behind a makeshift bar holding a small shot glass. From the picture and the boys position in it, it is apparent that he is the bar tender. What I first noticed was his age, which I noted was most likely under 15. In western culture this would seem outrageous and may even be illegal, but in a country swamped with poverty and very slack government laws and rules it isn’t uncommon for young children to take what we consider “adult jobs” to be able to bring more food to their families table. Next I realized how well the liquor cabinet was stocked, many new unopened bottles. This was in stark contrast to the bar itself, showing the hierarchy of needs and priorities to be centered around only the liquor. Another sign of economic struggle was the apparent girls clothing the young boy was wearing. In a time and place where food on your plate is your soul priority, the floral patterns and pink embroidery on a hand me down shirt is insignificant and trivial. It is these deepening contrasting fragments that made this picture so fascinating to me.
On the other hand the one picture that really did nothing for me was a picture of a young girl blowing a bubble with some bubblegum. The close of her face is framed by an orange wall with a few shadows. To me it shows nothing about the society or town, and the bubble covers the girls face so we can’t even tell anything about her. I get no sense of meaning from this shot as its simplicity restrains the potential significance of the shot. But it may be this simplicity and lack of disparity that give us a strong contrast to what may be going on around the little girl. To the girl the only thing that matters at that moment is her bubble gum, and it may be this innocence and contentment that shows the last hope for a safer West Africa.
San Francisco played host to the third annual Green Apple Earth Day Festival from April 18 to 20. The Green Apple Festival had free concerts in 8 large cities across the country simultaneously and featured artists such as The Roots, Talib Kweli, will.i.am, Ziggy Marley, Mickey Hart's Mass Drums and more
With photography becoming an ever expanding field, there are more and more photographers with more and more subjects to shoot. This is why I find “who is your favorite photographer” a hard question. Just like with literature it’s hard to say who your favorite author is based on that premise. Like the old saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words, but they could be two completely different sets of words. And as such are only similar in the fact that they are both photographs with everything else different. Kind of like a Ferrari vs. a Bentley, both extremely nice cars, but you just can’t compare them to each other.
For me I am torn between an undeniable master, and my passion for cars. And so I would have to say my favorites are Ansel Adams, and Peter Vincent. Ever since I was a kid we always had a big Ansel Adams book on our coffee table. I remember looking through the perfectly contrasted photos and being in awe of the feats of strength and determination Adams had to carry such ridiculously primitive camera equipment through mountains, valleys and plains. In fact for my 15th birthday when my parents remade and painted my room, they asked me what kind of pictures I wanted hanging on my wall, I wanted a couple of Ansel Adams pictures. So we scanned some pictures from the book, enlarged and printed them, and then got them framed. All three are still hanging above my bed back home.
However for my passion for cars you can not deny the unbelievable elegance in which Peter Vincent photographs classic cars. From shooting old Mooney 32 deuce coupes on the salt flats to multimillion dollar European coachwork like Delahayes and Talbot Lagos at Pebble beach. I have always loved cars and hot rods and it’s also a known fact that most photographs don’t ever do a beautiful car justice, but Vincent seems to know the perfect angles, lighting and framing to make the car pop out of its page. He has actually admitted that his biggest influence was surprisingly Ansel Adams, and his car photography has made it into almost every big car magazine including Hot Rodders Journal, Street Rod Magazine, Hop Up and more. His photographs have been displayed in museums and galleries from New York to San Francisco and he even published a Hot Rod photography book called “Hot Rod, An American Original” in 2001 which became a best seller.
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