Ben McKeown

A few weeks ago, I did a cover shoot for a new magazine, VYPE (stay tuned for the new local web page; I’ll let you know when it’s up and running), a franchise publication which covers high school sports in the Triangle area.  So far, it has been an absolute thrill to work with the folks at VYPE, including editor Teri Saylor and owner Richard Williams.  Their enthusiasm for this new project is palpable and contagious.

This particular shoot featured three local athletes from different area schools: Chris Ettson, a football player at Northern Durham High (my mom’s alma mater), Courtney McKim, a golfer from Wakefield High School (my alma mater), and Taylor Gilland, a cross-country runner from Chapel Hill High School.  Each of these athletes excel at their respective sports, hence, of course, their being featured in the magazine.

We shot these photos at Northern Durham High School in Durham, NC.  I wanted to get everyone out early in the morning in order to capture the magic morning light.  Unfortunately, however, we shot these photos on June 21, the longest day of the entire year.  By 8am, the sun was already extremely high and the light was quite harsh.  In hindsight (as is the case with pretty much every shoot I’ve ever done), there are quite a few things I feel I could’ve done a lot better, though I’m decently satisfied with these results.  In particular, I absolutely love the individual shots of Chris (football).

I’m completely psyched about continuing to work with VYPE.  My love for high school sports runs deep (as indicated here), and the opportunity to meet and get to know local high school athletes and coaches makes me giddy.  Next on tap for the cover of VYPE - Cheerleader vs. Volleyball Player: Who is tougher?  This one’s going to be fun.

This is how Batman should feel.  Dark, disturbing, deep, and in no way definitive.

Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” plays these qualities with an undivided effectiveness that was till now absent in the “comic book” genre.  Sheer beauty emanates from each scene of the movie in a myriad of ways.  The writing, the acting, the cast, the set, the cinematography, the music - everything just works.  Simply put, this movie is amazing.  It’s so amazing, in fact, that it’s nearly impossible to write a review that adequately echoes the film’s profundity and impressiveness.  This one just has to be seen.

And yet even more astonishingly, amid the dense greatness there is a specific part of this movie that stands out even more brilliantly.  Heath Ledger.  Or, more accurately, The Joker, for the portrait that Ledger paints of this character is so complete, so absolute, that you forget there is an actor beneath the makeup.  In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger does not play the joker, Heath Ledger is the joker.  Like a profound sentence in a perfect book, Ledger’s depiction of the sadistic, sardonic, anarchic criminal pushes the quality of The Dark Knight from amazing to monumental.  Of course, the circumstances surrounding this particular performance inevitably add a sense of importance to the character, as it will be Ledger’s last full performance, but the execution is so flawless and engulfing that the external feelings are overshadowed.  In this case, “Oscar” is a perfectly apt word, if not downright certain.

The story behind The Dark Knight is by no means simple.  In the first act, we are reintroduced to many of the familiar characters from the prequel, Batman Begins - Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman), Alfred (Michael Caine), Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and Rachel Dawes (this time, Maggie Gyllenhall) - as well as to a couple of key new players in Gotham, namely The Joker (Ledger) and Gotham’s handsome and ambitious District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).  Our first encounter with Batman (Christian Bale) is at a nighttime meeting of criminals in a parking garage, where we learn that throughout Gotham, a number of copycat (and pathetically under-qualified) Batmans have taken to confronting outlaws.  This faction represents a growing number of citizens in the city who are becoming aggravated by Batman’s vigilanteism and who believe that no one person should be above the law.  “What gives you the right?” one of the copycats asks Batman in the parking garage, “what is the difference between you and me?”  (Batman’s response in the film is both revealing and hilarious.)  Their frustration is evidently justified by the fact that crime in the city is worse than ever, despite Batman’s presence.  This, we find, weighs heavily on Bruce Wayne, who begins to wonder how long Batman can and should exist.  Fortunately, the city’s appointed “White Knight”, Harvey Dent, works tirelessly to confront the problem.  The operation is continually thwarted, however, by the added problem of corruption within Gotham’s police force, a theme which has run continually through Gotham’s existence.

The story could have easily move forward simply on this platform, enlisting a ring-leader-villian to lead the corrupt and fight Batman and the rest of the righteous.  From here, the filmmakers could’ve produced another quasi-entertaining, summery Batman movie.  Fortunately though, for the movie’s sake, we meet The Joker.  Both psychotic and fiendish, the Joker quickly demonstrates that he is a friend of no one, not even, perhaps, himself.  The injection of this disturbing element propels the story deeper into its wonderfully dark moodiness.  Subsequent events unfold with a level of intricacy and intensity akin to other great crime films like Scorsese’s “The Departed” or the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men”.  The action, though absolutely present, is by no means out of place, which is too often the case in the standard Summer Blockbuster.  In other words, there is no shortage of pyrotechnics, and they do nothing but add to the splendor of the story.  It’s hard to find any element, really, that doesn’t do its part to make this movie work.

And to cap it, the monologue that ends the film is gorgeous enough to provoke tears (even the second time).

The Dark Knight is just beautiful.  In every way.  It works.  And not only for lifelong Batman fans (like myself), who will likely find that a filmmaker finally understands what makes these stories and characters fantastic.  It works even for the outsiders, the newcomers, for the stories and themes in The Dark Knight are utterly human.  Just like Batman himself.  This isn’t a “superhero” flick; no one in this movie has “superpowers”.  It is rather a complex and sincere study of good, of evil, and of the elemental capability of humanity.  This is how Batman should feel.

I don’t even want to look at how long it’s been.  Today, I know, is July 17.  It’s the dead of summer.  The heat is brutal, so much that I don’t ride with my windows down.  I wear shorts and flip-flops every day and my sunglasses tan is incredibly pronounced.  The past few months has represented for me somewhat of a reevaluation of priorities, of direction, of my notions of those around me.  I’ve come generally to the conclusion that it is time to take the next step forward, to really throw a new and rejuvenated level of energy into running my business and, more broadly, my life.  On a grand scale, the what is worked out.  The how, however, is what I’ve been struggling with for the last few weeks.

I left April literally stunned.  A series of events too personal and too detailed to divulge rendered me speechless, confused, hurt, and ultimately unable to concentrate on anything other than climbing out of the residual funk.  Suffice it to say that I now know what it feels like to be the victim of a case of blatant slander, which put in danger both my personal reputation and my professional career.  I won’t say much more about this specifically, for it is futile now for me to dwell on anything that has occurred prior to now.  To use a euphemism, it is simply water under the bridge.

As a result of the aforementioned funk, I temporarily abandoned much of what is very important to me.  I abandoned (obviously) my blog, but more seriously, I abandoned a few friends and projects that I never should have left.  I am working now on reestablishing a connection to these things and people.  My personal life has been significantly rearranged, for sure, but not irreparably; I am working on loving it again.  It’s happening, just slowly.  To those who I left, I apologize.

Now, moving forward…

I have, despite the funk, managed to roll the ball on a few new projects.  The most notable of these is my newest website: www.benmckeown.com .  In an effort to establish a much clearer distinction between my freelance work and the brand, “Organic Exposure Photo”, I have begun separating my work into these two arenas.  This means good news for you, the customer/reader/friend/client/interested 3rd party/etc.  My hope is that the clarifying of this distinction will make it much easier to find just what you want to find.

Organicexposurephoto.com will ultimately become a house for content suited for the wedding/portrait/individual consumer.   The information and portfolios displayed will be more concise and thus, more relevant.  (This transition has not fully taken place yet, so as I continue to make the content distinction, I will let you know.)  It is in these realms where the Organic Exposure brand is much more apropos.

Benmckeown.com, on the other hand, will be the headquarters for my freelance and personal work.  Excitingly, this includes more than just photography.  I plan on devoting sections to audio (music and radio), writing (journalism, prose, poetry), multimedia, and of course photography.  It seems appropriate to me to compile each of these mediums in a central location, for in my mind, they are not separate entities devoted to entirely different purposes.  Rather, they are all similar tools used in pursuit of the same goals: among others, stories, art, truth.

Additionally, after this simul-post, I’ll begin devoting the two blogs to only the content that suits them specifically.  Essentially, the distinction will be the same as with the static content, just, well… more fluid.  Expect updates on weddings/portraits/etc. at ogranicexposurephoto.blogspot.com .  At www.benmckeown.com/blog , expect a more diverse variety of topics to be covered, including my musings on professional and personal goings on.  (One thing I’m really looking forward to is giving you a new category called “good stuff”, where I plan to review movies, music, and other generally good stuff.)

At this point, I am happy to announce my return to the blog(s) as well as the grand opening of www.benmckeown.com .  Look around the new site and feel free to give me your feedback.  It’s still very much a work in progress and I’d love your input.  Thanks to all for hanging in there with me.  I’m looking forward to moving forward with everyone.  Keep in touch.

All the best.