photography, random thought, travel, writing

lebanon …day 2

al jnub (the south) of lebanon is very beautiful. but it’s also high security, because of it’s proximity to israel, and a relatively strong hezbollah presence.

basketball. lebanese style. we met an american couple up in the mountains of the south. it was a welcomed break after the long drive from beirut.

the american couple’s kids were great. and this little guy was official. he had just been with his dad to renew his visa, and i guess he had a little fun with the rubber stamp.

the south has a very strong hezbollah presence. these three flags, lebanese, palestine, and hezbollah, are on the southern border of israel. a strong statement, though the majority of the lebanese are anti-syrian and angry with hezbollah for firing at israel. hezbollah receives almost all of it’s funding from syria and iran. they have no allegiance to lebanon, and as a result, the lebanese people are beginning to withdraw any support they may have given in the past.

mount hermon and israel in a haze.

the village of marjeyoun, where my family is from, looked tired from war and violence. i hope to spend more time there before i leave. i only passed through this time.

mount hermon.

israel straight ahead. but the border is insanely secure with lebanese forces and droves of un tanks and soldiers. on the other side, 24 hours a day, israeli soldiers fiercely guard their borders.

a giant un complex near the lebanese/ israeli border.

lebanon is know for it’s wonderful crops. this is the biggest lemon i have ever seen.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2009

photography, random thought, travel, writing

lebanon… day 1

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my host, rev. walid, naps after picking me up from the airport at 3 am. “everyone that comes from the west gets in at that time… i’m used to it.”

peter, said’s boy, working at his dad’s book store after school.

rev. walid

sarah and salina, said’s oldest and youngest daughters.

said and walid arriving at the reformed baptist church of tyre.

the church is next door to a former hezbollah weapons cache that was destroyed in 2006 by the israelis.

mohammed said with the hat he got at petra the week before.

there are lebanese soldiers and outposts everywhere. in that way, lebanon feels incredibly safe. actually, more safe than i’ve felt in many u.s. cities.

sunset over the mediterranean at the beach in tyre. legendary.

remnants of the roman empire.

there are droves ferrel cats and dogs all over lebanon. i’m still trying to figure out where they came from.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2009

photography, random thought, travel, writing

despues de la lluvia

bilbao in spring. it rains almost every day for a few hours. but after the rain stops… la luz.

barrika cliffs.

sopelana beach cliffs.

we took a day trip to san juan de luz in france.

it became apparent that the light had a different quality in san juan de luz. saint john of light. john must have been a photographer.

i decided to take a bike ride in gordexola one morning. headphones in, innocence mission on the frequency, one hand on the handlebar, and a giant camera in the other hand, i set off on a wobbly course.

geese angrily greeted me. they seemed even more unhappy that i stopped. and nearly incensed that i took their picture…

beautiful old homes lined the long, narrow streets. it’s a mostly rural village, so i eventually passed many sheep pastures.

today was the day of the photoshoot. instead of a wedding, Elaine and Mikel decided to have an all day portrait session all over el pais vasco. i am so pleased with the resulting images… and so are they.

these kids thought we were crazy. a guy in a tux, a girl in a bridal gown, and two photographers chasing them around on the beach.

the guggenheim! i never actually went inside. the outside was enough for me. and besides, i heard that the inside is less than impressive anyway.

bilbao at night.

laga beach, unesco urdaibai reserve. i could’ve spent weeks here.

txaber and his auntie teba. cute little guy. might be in competition with my nephews…

txaber and his dad, xerjio. txaber’s mom didn’t like this activity.

maidercon con un abuelito. that’s what the spanish call a dandelion. it literally means “little grandfather”. makes sense i guess.

all images © andrew r. slaton | photographer 2009

random thought, travel, writing

chasing sunrise

today, the sun came up seven hours early.

the plane was shaking. i don’t much like it when planes that i happen to be riding in shake.

quite impersonally, a man hands me a water in an in-flight plastic tumbler. one ice cube. that’s the first thing i noticed… the second thing i noticed was a nearly microscopic speck floating dangerously close to my one ice cube.

“i’d better get a closer look,” i thought to myself. “what if it were someone that was accidentally shrunk, like in honey, i shrunk the kids?”

for whatever reason, since i was a little kid, i’ve had the gift of empathy. i could always put myself in other’s shoes, and very eerily feel close to how they felt. at times, a great gift. others, a curse.

i recall watching honey, i shrunk the kids and understanding completely how those shrunken kids felt. just wanting to be noticed. needing someone to notice. before they were squashed by a tennis shoe, or perhaps crushed in the mandibles of a hungry cricket. or worse yet… sipped into oblivion while floating in some aloof schmuck’s in-flight beverage.

so i leaned in to check the speck. oh… just some dirt.

suddenly the plane stopped shaking.

and as i looked out the window, we slid unnoticed through the fading night.

chasing sunrise.

family, photography, random thought, travel, writing

the old country

as i’ve been preparing for my trip to spain and lebanon, i’ve been thinking a lot about my grandfather, Casey Cohlmia.

papa passed away in 2004 unexpectedly. i felt it was too early. we always had many passions and gifts in common, but i felt like we were just starting to connect on a deeper, more mature level. but who am i to question the One who gives and takes?

one passion we shared was for “the old country”, as he used to call it – lebanon. he and nana visited back in the ’70’s, but as far as i know, no one in our immediate family has been back since.

so… off i go. i don’t know what i expect to see, or experience. maybe understanding. of where humanity evolved. where hatred grew, and continues to grow. where Love incarnate transfigured, and walked this cursed soil, and died. appropriate meditations on Easter.

papa used to have some awesome letterhead that he printed everything on; business correspondence, graduation letters, birthday notes, etc. it was a caricature of his enormous bald head, smiling, with an unlit cigar protruding from the side of his mouth… in front of a typewriter (as he often was in real life… after all, he was a journalist, author, and marketing genius).

family members have always said that i favor his looks. so i had the thought the other day to compose a portrait of myself as Kenneth (Casey) Cohlmia.

i must say, i really like the result. but i’m pretty sure papa would not approve. he was way too clean shaven to ever look that raggedy…

andrew slaton | blog

travelogue and visual catharsis of a nomadic photographer

Category Archives: writing

lebanon …day 2

lebanon… day 1

despues de la lluvia

chasing sunrise

the old country

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