Hyperballad Babes

Brooklyn, New York * July 2013 * Fuji X-E1

What do Katy Perry, Salma Hayek, Azealia Banks and my brother have in common? Hyperballad. A Brooklyn-based music collective of supremely talented gentlemen, Hyperballad produces, for all intents and purposes, the sweetest beats around for film, TV and Internet. My brother, DJ Hammer, happens to be a major contributor to this talented group. One afternoon in July, I photographed the lovely bunch in their Brooklyn studio element. Surrounded by synthesizers, instruments, microphones and lots of coffee mugs, I christened my brand-spanking-new Fuji X-E1 and made them pose for portraits. These photographs are my personal favorites from behind the scenes on that hot summer day. Check out the full Hyperballad scoop at http://hyperballadmusic.com/.

All Aboard: The Jambo Deluxe

Nairobi  > Mombasa, Kenya * August 2013 * Fuji X-E1

18h00 Three gals in three floppy hats arrive at the Nairobi train station. Make friends with two handsome Danes on the platform. One looks ill; he's had fever for days. (Thankfully, he's not in our train carriage.) 

18h30 Where. Is. Jeffrey?!

18h50 Jeffrey arrives.

19h00 ALL ABOARD.

19h10 Jeffrey’s broad shoulders barely squeeze through the train corridor.

19h30 No lights, no matter. “Someone’s on it, hakuna matata,” our train attendant informs us.

20h30 Dining car. We all wished we chose the semolina-fried chicken over the beef stir-fry. The night is officially ruined.

22h00 White wine. Tusker beer. White wine.

22h30 How does a gal effectively take a piss on a moving train anyway? Answer: CORE strength.

23h00 Mosquitos!? On a train! WTF.

00h00 Name that movie reference. Story hour from Lonely Planet Kenya. Something about the Portuguese building a fort in Mombasa decades ago and then promptly getting whooped by the Kenyans FOR-E-VER. (Hint: Sandlot movie reference.)

00h35 zzzzzzzz m’squito sting zzzzzzz

06h25 Alarm. Snooze. Alarm. Snooze. Somewhere east of Nairobi, west of Mombasa, the sun rises over Kenya. We get up to watch to say we did.

07h00 Back to bed.

08h00 Breakfast bell. Dining car. Windows upon windows of views. Can we PLEASE have some fried chicken? No? Tusker beers all around.

09h30 Morning Nap.  

11h00 Back in the dining car. 3 more hours till Mombasa? Bring on the Tusker. Break out the playing cards and dominoes. My new dominoes protégé beats me. Thrice.

12h30 Midday Tusker train nap. 

14h00 A freight train is holding up our train. Stalled on the tracks. Just in front of us. Just outside of Mombasa. The locals will move it, we’re told. An hour ago. We demand fried chicken.

14h20 Thought seriously about jumping ship to find a taxi in order to make our lunch reservation in town. Hypothetically constructed a catapulting contraption made from a bunk bed ladder and luggage to launch us to Mombasa from the train deck.

14h45 Mombasa. Finally. Karibu Sana.

Playing Tourist

New York City, July 2013 * Fuji X-E1, my new baby

In the heart of July, on the hottest day of the summer, three New Yorkers decided to row a boat in Central Park for the first time. Under the fierce, furious sun. Sweaty. Sticky. Humid. Sun. Must-keep-rowing-desperately-to-find-shade sun. We discovered our very own mermaid cove. Thought we spotted a lake monster that was actually a turtle. And found buried (er, floating) treasure. (Dear Sara, owner of the Guess? wallet of the lake, we hope you are ok and merely lost your wallet that day. Have you received your wet belongings we sent in the mail?)

Because this week marks my tenth month in the great country of Kenya, I pay tribute to a city I miss greatly. A city with many muses. Two who played with me all day long that hot summer Thursday. Two of my absolute favorites. 

GAME

Maasai Mara National Reserve, Hell's Gate National Park, Nairobi National Park - Kenya   * October 2012 - January 2013 * Olympus OM-1, 35mm

No domestic animal can be as still as a wild animal. The civilized people have lost the aptitude of stillness, and must take lessons in silence from the wild before they are accepted by it. The art of moving gently, without suddenness, is the first to be studied by the hunter, and more so by the hunter with the camera. Hunters cannot have their own way, they must fall in with the wind, and the colours and smells of the landscape, and they must make the tempo of the ensemble their own. Sometimes it repeats a movement over and over again, and they must follow up with it.  

- Karen Blixen

LAMU by sea, part II

Lamu, Kenya * November 2012 * Olympus OM-1, 35mm; Canon G10; Holga, medium format

Since its adoption as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001, Lamu town has hosted annual festivities to celebrate its coastal island culture, its Swahili and Islamic culture. During which donkeys race, dhows sail and musicians strum amok. On these days, the townsboys live on the docks—jumping and shoving each other into the water, becoming bobbing buoys in the Indian Ocean. The immensely warm ocean. An ocean that whimsically changes its tides. And its sea colors. The sea of the Lamu archipelago. In which mangroves require manhandling and maneuvering. Coral reefs demand fishing. Sea turtles scurry. And mildly obnoxious jellyfish sting. Mermaids must have spent time here. Somali pirates definitely spend time here. I search for the one-eyed buccaneers, but I only find dhow captains who wrap their waists in Kenyan kikoys. So I spend my Lamu fling on dhows and on sand. Collecting shells on Shela beach. Playing hide-and-seek with crabs. Earning a salty tan.