Ben McKeown

It was a Very. Long. Day… Good day, nonetheless.

I’ve been going at it since six this morning, when I felt my way (quite clumsily) through Manhattan to the Jacob Javits Convention Center for the Photoplus Expo. I stepped out onto 24th St, somehow found my way to the subway station, ended up somewhere else, didn’t know where I was, turned around in circles for a few minutes, walked several blocks, still didn’t know where I was, stood and looked around stupidly, then saw a bus that said “Javits Center”. I hopped on the bus and it took me straight there. It was that easy. Who says New York City is intimidating?

I’m so exhausted.

At some point, I’ll elaborate more on this and the following topics, but at this point I’m just going to throw you a brief summary. I was privileged to hear the following people speak:

Denis Reggie. As a world-class wedding photographer, his client list is full of celebrities. Mr. Reggie gave quite an entertaining and interesting presentation about different techniques regarding wedding photojournalism, a field and philosophy which makes up a significant portion of my work.

Platon. Simply the highlight of my day. Highlight of my autumn so far. Possibly the highlight of the year. Certainly one of the high points of my life. Platon’s presentation was more than inspiring, it changed the way I think about a lot of things. Unfortunately, I cannot re-create what happened in the seminar room today for you. Suffice it to say that the man’s humility trumped that of most any other person I’ve ever met, while his work (perhaps quite reflectively) is that of an artistic legend.

And lastly, Brian Storm. Brian is the founder of MediaStorm, a multimedia documentary delivery platform. Please check out his website and take a look at the content. The stories are breathtaking.

Tomorrow, up at 6am again. Hopefully the Manhattan commute will present me with more of an exciting challenge in the morning. I’ll be tired, don’t want to fall asleep on the way there.

Cheers!