Dmitri Kasterine: Jamaica

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Man from Jamaica

He was outside his apartment building on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. "Take it!... Take it!" he said, "and send me a copy." To the question of where he was from originally he replied, "Jamaica, and that's not Jamaica, Queens".

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Man from Jamaica

Shot twice in the stomach in a drive by shooting in Minnesota. "Just standing there on the sidewalk as we are now." We are in Newburgh, NY. where many, including him, have told me the same thing. "The poor are not looked after; the money comes in for us but we seldom see it." He worked in construction but never recovered enough to continue after the shooting.

His father wanted him to go to England with him when times were very bad in Jamaica, but he said no as he heard it was cold there. "And look where I landed up."

From the photographer

I started this blog in December 2008. At the time I did not know if I would enjoy it or not, and whether I would get any response to it. I am enjoying it and people have responded. I made a silent pledge at the outset not to say much about my artistic intentions or the composition of the photograph. I would just talk about what led up to taking the picture and what it was like doing it.

The discipline is actually not a strain for me, because I do not desire, and really have never been capable of discussing my intentions, artistic or otherwise. My wanting to take a photograph appears as fast as a bolt and without warning when I spot the subject. I then take it or not, depending on how brave, awake, or fumbling I am with the camera. I enjoy exploring, looking for things that stop me, or frighten me. To fear to take a picture usually means you want to take it.

dmitri@kasterine.com

Biography

Born in England in 1932, I started out as a properly brought up young gentleman with an English mother and White Russian father. He fought wars all his adult life and died in a car accident in the North of England at the age of forty-seven.

Photography came to me at aged eleven, photographing birds at the bird feeder my mother put up outside the kitchen window. After the acute disappointment of the birds being minute specs in the picture, I did cows in the fields around us in Kent.

After the wine trade, Lloyd’s, racing cars, selling cars and flying aeroplanes to Australia, I became a photographer. I photographed my friend’s engagements and their weddings. I worked for magazines and advertising agencies.

I was sent to Los Angeles to photograph Mick Jagger, returned to England via New York where I met Salvador Dali in the elevator at the St. Regis Hotel. Thence started my interest in living here. Three or four years later I moved to America, remarried and lived happily ever after.

Dmitri Kasterine

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Man from Jamaica

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Man from Jamaica

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