Epic

THIS is the most beautiful video I've ever seen.  Just watch it.  Talk about inspiring.

Dear Boston

Tomorrow marks one year since the tragic and senseless Boston Marathon bombings.  My good friend and photographer Robert X. Fogarty of Dear World recently went up to Boston to document some of the victims returning to the finish line for the first time.  His portraits are haunting and powerful.

The thought of going back to that spot for the first time must have been terrifying.  Of course, the physical danger may be gone, but our thoughts can be just as dangerous.  What happened next was amazing.

Going back to the spot where their lives were changed forever was healing.  Going back changed them.  It was defiant.  It gave them control back.  It gave them their lives back.  You can see their healing in the portraits.    

Just watch the video above and then check out the amazing and inspiring portraits here.

It's already been picked up by the Huffington Post, USA Today, The Today Show, and many others.

You can help support his project by sharing his project here.  Please, take two seconds to help out.

As Robert said, "Thank you for sharing yours here.  As you heal, know you inspire the rest of us to be better, still."

And I can hear them all...

What a brilliant commercial.  When something like this comes together and is executed this brilliantly, it can leave you with chills.  I actually don't care who wins the Superbowl...but this will make me feel better if the Seahawks win.  

(And for the record, I'm pro-Sherman.)

Dear World ALS Summit

This past June saw the creation of the first ever ALS Summit right here in New Orleans.  Never before has such a gathering of minds taken place.  Scientists, clinicians, pALS, their caretakers, friends, and family from all over the world traveled to New Orleans with with one goal in mind: to establish a road map to ending ALS.  Representatives from Harvard, John Hopkins, St. Jude's,  Emory, Cedar Sinai, and Massachusetts General all came together with the common goal of better understanding what ALS is and how to stop it.  You may not recognize them, but these are the rock stars of the medical world.

ALS is still such an unknown and underfunded disease, and it has become Steve's mission to end that. "Most people who are diagnosed with ALS are expected to just fade away and die. It is a horrific disease and yet it is underfunded and largely ignored. That is not OK. We set out to galvanize the world of ALS to speak in one voice and put their heads together to find a cure. I have been humbled by how many people are engaging with this vision. Today, this Summit has brought us one step closer to that vision becoming reality."

I'll leave it up to Jeffrey Rothstein, MD, PhD, and co-chair of the Summit to sum it up best, "Achieving breakthrough can only be done through collaboration. This Summit was the first time people living with the disease have been able to sit at the same table with some of the world’s leading scientists, and the results are extremely encouraging.”

I've shared with you the great work of Dear World before- it is an awesome project and I'm lucky to consider it's founder, Robert Fogarty, a good friend.  Unfortunately (for him) he was out of town during the Summit, so I was asked to fill in and capture the messages from some of the world's leading scientist and doctors.  It was an incredible honor.  The enthusiasm in the room was palpable...it was impossible not to leave inspired.  I have no doubt in my mind that this and future Summits will have a drastic affect on ALS research.

It was such a great thing to be a part of and it absolutely would have never happened without Steve and the truly awesome people of Team Gleason.  I know I say this too much, but they are an inspiration to me...all of them.  

Here are the pics from that night back in June.  The messages are great.  Be inspired!  

Here is a video slideshow of the pics set to music.  Enjoy.

Steve Gleason interviews Pearl Jam

David A Smith: The last of his kind

Here's your daily dose of inspiration.  Meet David A. Smith, a traditional sign writer and graphic designer, among other things.  Actually, he's an artist in the purest sense of the word.  A very technical artist, but as you'll see, he creates masterpieces.  As the video above shows, this guy is a master at so many things...design, drawing, glass gilding, gold leaf, sign making, etc...  The phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" does not apply to him.

(Please note that I have used the term 'artist' and 'master' very carefully, as both are highly overused these days.  For example, Britney Spears is not an artist, period.  Anyway, I'm getting off subject.)  

What's so sad, like so many things these days, is that this beautiful art is completely dying.  Like so many of these great buildings and monuments that are rotting away due to the lack of craftsman and stonemasons, this kind of art is also in danger.  David is one of a handful of guys worldwide who can produce this kind of stuff, whereas there used to be a shop like his on every corner.  Technology is a great thing, don't get me wrong, but we rely on it too much.  (I know, I know...how ironic, coming from a photographer who's never stepped in a darkroom in his life.)  As David says, it's the blending of the old and the new that allows him to do what he does.  

It should also be noted that David does a great deal of teaching as well.  He wants to pass on his knowledge of this lost art before it's lost forever.  If there's a silver lining, it's that I truly believe art like this is on the rise again (relatively speaking).  It's a scarcity, and smart people want the real thing.  It's like the wet plate process in photography...too many people are too good at digital.  It time for the artists to separate themselves and go back to the way things used to be.  

Anyway, I don't consider myself to be a graphic designer, even though I do my fair share of 'design' (aka Photoshop).  I often get depressed or down, or simply feel uninspired in my work.  Then something like this video comes along and bam!, my creative energy really gets going.  So, I say to you- watch and be inspired!

Check out more of David's work here.