David Alan Harvey’s loft extravaganza

Well, that was not entirely what I expected. First, it wasn’t Magnum photographers as the surprise guests. It was James Nachtwey and Steve McCurry, a Seven AND Magnum photographer. Also probably two of the most famous (if not THE most famous) living documentary photographers. Nachtwey won a Ted Award to document XDR-TB, a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, and had his photos premiere live in New York, Rio, London, Sydney, Hong Kong and ANTARCTICA, among other places. McCurry is most famous for the Afghan Girl, although all his stuff is pretty amazing.
Anyway, I digress. I walked in and had David Alan Harvey greet me within two minutes and–can I get an amen?–offer me a beer. The loft ends up being in the “Photographer Building,” aptly named since at least 40 photographers live and work there and has been that way since before the neighborhood became trendy and totally unaffordable. The rooftop view (my photo above) has an amazing vista of the city and is enough of a reason itself to go back.
After everyone had imbibed to their satisfaction, we settled down to watch slide shows by his students from his weekend workshop as well as some of the work by party attendees. There were some stand out and lovely essays considering they only had three days to shoot, edit and put their work together, making me feel like a slacker for not shooting anything nearly as exciting lately. David also showed After the Storm, probably my favorite photo essay on burn to date. This is about the time he announces that Nawtchey and McCurry are on their way and we will have to watch the essays again. This is also about the time I get so excited I feel like a puppy shaking from her tail wagging so hard.
After the guests of honor arrive, he showed these slides again and asked if anyone else had any slide shows with them ready to go. Are you kidding me? Do you mean to tell me if I had been prepared DAVID ALAN HARVEY, JAMES NACHTWEY AND STEVE MCCURRY would be looking at my work? I thought of racing the 13 blocks home but David gave me his card and told me since I’m a neighbor, I should come by sometime with my work. And this, my friends, is exactly why I go to events. Opportunities, pretty photos and free beer.

sorry for the mess.

Well, that was not entirely what I expected. First, it wasn't Magnum photographers as the surprise guests. It was James Nachtwey and Steve McCurry, a Seven AND Magnum photographer. Also probably two of the most famous (if not THE most famous) living documentary photographers. Nachtwey won a Ted Award to document XDR-TB, a drug-resistant ...