Bryan Farley Photography Educator

On Saturday March 1, I attended two season openers. One was a campaign and the other was a sporting event. There is probably a cheap joke here, but neither event felt cheap.

In the morning, I attended Libby Schaaf’s “Libby for Mayor Oakland Campaign Kickoff.” (I took a few hundred pictures; here is the edited photo gallery.) In the evening, I photographed the Bay Area Derby Girls Season Opener. The events felt similar. There was music. There were people from different ages and backgrounds. Young people held signs. Older people cheered. Everyone seemed committed. Positive.

As someone who pretends to be a journalist, I do not officially endorse anyone, but I support many people and causes. I support Libby. Before she was elected to City Council, she supported my kids and neighbors. I support people who help my kids and neighbors.

People at derby support me and my kids.… Read the rest

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A journey is a person in itself… We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. – John Steinbeck

Sometimes I have to let go. Too much happened in February. I want to understand it and explain all of it. Now. I want to explain one February and the last 140 years of the Central Valley… and I want to explain it all with one blog post, five photos, a Steinbeck quote and a country music song.

On Valentine’s Day, I took a trip through the San Joaquin Valley. The same day that President Obama visited Fresno to discuss the drought with area farmers, I visited Fresno County to continue a project about Japanese-American internment camp survivors. I wondered which US President I would want to share a drought with (not draught beer), especially if I were a small farmer. Has any US President supported the interest of the small farmer in the Central Valley?… Read the rest

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Tonight my daughter Emily and I visited Alta Bates Summit Medical Center where she was born ten years ago. Emily called the hospital “Magic Land,” because it “gives life.”

Ten years ago today was the best day of my life, because it was the day I started being a father. There is nothing better than being a father. Ten years ago today I also started taking photographs of my daughter. The gallery I created for Emily’s 10th birthday contains about 100 photographs as of tonight.

THERE ARE SOME DECENT PHOTOGRAPHS.

Today is also the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ American Invasion. (Their first concert was in Washington, D.C. on February 11, 1964.) While I celebrated the Beatles and an R&B musician who inspired Emily’s middle name, I also listened to a George Strait song during my morning commute. When Emily was four, “I Saw God Today” was the CMA Single of the Year.… Read the rest

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While I maintain the romantic belief that I can change the world with my pictures, I know from experience that meaningful long term photo projects usually change me more than the other way around. I can already feel the transformation now that I have started a new project about the Japanese American Internment Camp and The Art of Gaman.

Before a new project comes into focus, there is a paradoxical excitement that Robert Frost never quite captured. There are infinite roads and I want to rush down all of them at once…  into the past and back to the future. There are so many more roads not taken than I was led to believe.

If there is such a thing as ”an official start” to this new project, it began during the Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. Day On at the California Museum in Sacramento, on Sunday January 19, 2014. The next day I visited families in Reedley, California. Unofficially, the project began many years earlier when I met Carol Egoian at my local farmers’ market in Oakland. Carol lives in Reedley which is near my childhood home Fresno, California.… Read the rest

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Hot Couture Runway Show 3 Photo Slideshow

Before an artist can fly, an artist must fight.

A good artist argues with him or herself.

Artists are their own collaborators, their own muse, their own liberators.

An artist’s process is uneasy. Art is the fire, the wood and the shadow. Non-artists usually only see the final product. They miss the messy struggle.

At The Crucible‘s 15th Annual Hot Couture fashion show in Oakland, California, I photographed all three runway shows on Saturday January 11, 2014. The third show was more personal, because I know designer and dancer Alexandra Candia.

Alex teaches my two children how to dance. She also teaches my children how to perform and collaborate. She teaches them how to listen to their inner drummer; she teaches them to dance with a group. My daughter, who turns 10 next month, fought with Alex in the beginning. Both of my kids struggled, until they performed.… Read the rest

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Photo Gallery for Runway Show 2

“Life is wasted on illusion….”

Bow Wow Wow, from Do You Want To Hold Me

Since last weekend’s Hot Couture fashion show at The Crucible in Oakland, California, I have contemplated the relationship between the music and fashion industry. Popular artists influence hairstyles. New styles of music force designer to create new outfits. A new dance craze provides a new excuse for more shoes… not that anyone needs an excuse for new shoes.

So what does Hot Couture have to do with the lyric from 1980′s band Bow Bow Wow? According to legend (or in this case, Wikipedia), Bow Wow Wow was recruited by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren to promote Westwood’s new clothing style. Westwood and McLaren used music to change fashion. Westwood’s “Pirate Collection of 1981″ made punk stylish although the former school teacher probably used a different word. (I am a current school teacher so I will say “stylish.”)

I watched the old Bow Wow Wow music videos today while writing this post; I was surprised by the band’s sophistication which I probably missed when I was a young teenager.… Read the rest

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