Signs, omens and incense

I've decided to list myself with some of the lesser temp agencies in town. This is a hedge against any future work I may get. Even if I got an assignment tomorrow I won't get paid for several weeks at the earliest, and I need some cashflow now. So my first interview was yesterday and it was a great, if odd ego boost.

This agency is as low on the totem pole as you can get. They place people for typing, data entry, and other menial offce work. And part of the interview process is a series of computer quizes testing your typing speed and data entry accuracy, sort of like the administrative SATs. I am proud to report that I am a typing superstar. I whipped through them in no time flat, I faltered a bit on the Microsoft Word portion. My recruiter goggled her eyes at my score and told me she could get me work no problem, usually they ask for keystrokes of 8500 and up and I scored a 12,000! Nice to know I have a future in the typing olympics if this photo business doesn't work out.

After the interview I had planned to make my way to the MOMA's free night but I had some time to kill beforehand. I wandered around midtown, dodging tourists and errant taxicabs. I considered the American Girl Doll place, but ultimately couldn't stomach the screeching girls and their moms. I found myself instead in St. Patrick's Cathedral.

As a lapsed Catholic I have a strong affinity for churches. I don't care about the religion, but I love the ritual, the history and the smell of incense. St. Patrick's is odd too because it's not a part of the Diocese of New York, they seem to support themselves by letting people wander around and give money at any one of a thousand donation boxes in the sanctuary. A few people were actually praying, but there was a lot of picturetaking and hushed giggles too. Still, it was helpful. I sat down in a pew to take some notes.

Now I'm not superstitious normally, but I do like to tempt the universe and see what it can send me in the way of signs. I picked up the Hymnal and used it like the I Ching. I decided to open to three different hymns and see if I could divine any guidance or meaning in them. See, how I'm the worst Catholic? This is what I got:
1. Buenos Dias, Paloma Blanca (Good morning, little dove)
2. Lord's Prayer
3. Time of Fulfillment

I'm not quite sure what that was, maybe I'm supposed to come as a child before God, ask for help, offer praise and I will get what I want? Or maybe I'll just woken up by some birds, church bells and then eat breakfast. That sounds about right.

I'm a newly arrived freelance photographer in New York City. I've made the leap from working for someone else to working for myself. And I've chosen to do that in the biggest pond imaginable. I must be crazy. So to document the descent into madness I'm going to keep it all here. All the embarassing and humiliating moments, the crazy things I'm going to do to pay the rent while waiting for my invoices to come in. All of it, and a little bit of media commentary as well. I care about images, I think they are important and I want to try and add a little bit of understanding to the world through mine. Cheesy? Hell yeah. But every photographer I know, every good, committed image-maker, button-pusher, they all have this idealistic outlook, in spite of the mountains of shit they have to climb to get anywhere in this business. That's what this blog is about, trying to get past all of that.