Photography is Magic

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 24, 2013

To all the ships at sea,

On one level, if photography is magic then Ann Raine was Houdini. She put forth an unbelievable effort in everything that she did, and she reinvented herself on at least five occasions. We had very long discussions on where she wanted to go photographically, and in many ways I encouraged her with all my heart and soul. That was on the right hand; on the left hand I explained to her that the overall perception of photography was losing some of its magical powers. With the advent of digital, the image became a little too easy and a little too common. Having said that, the cream always comes to the top, and Ann was on the top and in many ways still is. Both JoAnne and I think of her all the time. There’s no doubt that she’s no longer in this consciousness but she has progressed and moved on to a finer one. Her great work will always be here; it will be archival in the truest sense of the word and last to infinity. The next time I see you, you are going to have to lead me on your workshop.

Please see the beautiful tribute from Warren Rosenberg.

To all the ships at sea, health and happiness

Joe DiMaggio

Will a Rainbow Put a Smile on Your Face?

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 1, 2013

Hi to All the Ships at Sea,

It’s a little known fact that JoAnne and I had an illegitimate son, by the name of Dylan (just joking.) Please understand across the studio just came a comment…”You’re out of your mind what are you saying?.” So let’s just be honest, I am out of my mind, I agree, it’s just the nature of the beast. Dylan at a very young age had a babysitter, by the name of Dennis Wheeler. Dennis’s art is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art. In my humble opinion he is one of the finest artists of our time. In those days we lived on the sea and rainbows were relatively commonplace. They usually happened after it rained…I never quite did figure that out. One day Dylan decided to paint rainbows. He painted, I don’t know, somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty different rainbows. I think JoAnne said to him one day, “Why don’t you sit outside on the stoop and maybe you can sell the rainbows to people who pass by.” (You can tell who the mercenary business person is in our small company) That’s why she is the brains and the beauty.

Dylan sat outside with the rainbows as people would come by and pick them up for 2 cents each. The timing on this was approximately ten months after Musician Doug Stegmeyer went on to playing bass on a different plateau. There was a knock on the door and it was Peggy Stegmeyer, who lived down the street. In her hand was one of Dylan’s rainbows. She very softly said, (I am paraphrasing) “Joe, this is the first time a smiled in almost a year.” I’ve been known to say, all the great things in the world are free and occasionally a great piece of art may only sell for 2 cents. But it made some one very happy.

All the Best, Joe D

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Lovable Lew, a Magnificent Jew

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on March 28, 2013

Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

One of my friends is a great internationally known photographer by the name of Lew Long, or Lovable Lew. He started his career in NYC and ended up with a Rolls Royce in England. He worked for every major advertising company in the US and Europe. I remember one of his great ads of a TWA pilot inspecting an engine on a rainy day. It was brilliant. He’s now based in Miami and still generating great photographs. He’s begun to delve into videography. He has a great friend, who was a major player at McCann-Erickson, by the name of Greg Birbil. He was born in Coney Island, doesn’t get better than that, especially if you love Nathans. I’m going to reblog some of his blogs because they are just great and I would like to share them with my friends…that’s you…if you didn’t know. Follow his full blog here: An Ad Man in Greece

While in college I worked for the post office at Christmas time delivering mail. This was pre Internet and it was snail mail, especially at Christmas time, tons of it. Two to three weeks of helping the regular mailman. It was my first government job; my second was the Army a few years later. Before I go any further, I have to explain something; as a kid growing up in Coney Island, dogs were not part of my life as they are now. Through my wife and kids, all dog lovers, I have become pretty much a dog person. In an immigrant neighborhood where I was raised, nobody had pets, certainly no dogs, maybe a cat for mice if you had a store. Dogs were scary; think of the expression “junk yard dogs.”

I delivered mail in Brooklyn, but a Brooklyn different from Coney Island. I delivered mail in a neighborhood that had single and double family houses. These houses had front yards with fences around them and they had dogs; big noisy, snarling, vicious, rabid dogs, between me and the mail box, which was usually on the porch. Perhaps the regular mailman knew each dog personally…but not me, to me they were “junk yard dogs.” All dogs were supposed to be dangerous. There was only one way to deliver the mail, after all, the mail must get through, even though it was only Christmas cards and life magazines and ads. I opened the gates and the dogs ran out, free and happy I guess. I could deliver my load of mail. I have created a whole neighborhood of released happy dogs involved with each other, probably mating and making more dogs for next years Christmas help.

I am not proud of this crappy thing I did, I would like to personally apologize to my daughter Chris (she is a great dog lover, check her blog, thelifeofcaptainchip.blogspot.gr.) I remember arriving at a house, no yard, and no dog. I start to put some mail in the brass slot at the bottom of the door and I am ambushed by a dog on the inside, he grabs my fingers and I try to pull my hand out and the mail slot closes on my fingers cutting them. Freezing weather, bleeding fingers and the dog is on the inside proudly barking away. How do I get me revenge on this beast, it actually might have been a tiny poodle, but to me he was a snarling Ridgeback; I get a life magazine out of my bag, I have no idea if they even subscribed. I put the magazine in the slot until the dog gets a hold of it. I then pull him into the door and then ram the magazine in…hoping to skewer him; I must have missed because he continued barking and probably making fun of me, giving me the “paw.”

Aside from the cold and the dogs, delivering Christmas mail was OK, meeting for coffee and killing time so we could go out on a second run and drag it into heavy overtime. I now know all dogs are not “junk yard dogs’” at least the ones I have in my yard aren’t.

All the Best,
Joe D

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