Joshua Kessler iPad App

Throughout my career I have searched for the perfect portfolio to showcase my work. Today more than ever, with video being incorporated into many assignments a traditional 11x14 print portfolio is not able to fully convey what I do. The iPad with a bespoke app is the perfect blend of the best qualities of a traditional portfolio and a web site. It is able to deliver high-resolution video and images instantly with out the need to buffer, in a tactile interactive package.

So the above text is the official version of my app’s description. To sum up… it is just really cool! If you have an iPad click here to download the app and if not contact my agent Gregg and he can loan you an iPad with the app loaded.

Gregg Lhotsky

Bernstein Andriulli

greggl@ba-reps.com

www.ba-reps.com

Vietnam Redux

I visited Vietnam three and a half years ago. Vietnam was a very intense place and I used my camera as a way to make sense of it. Shortly after returning, I took the images from the War Museum in Ho Chi Minh City and made a short video. The museum and parts of Vietnam are heavy places and the slideshow reflected that. The images from that video were mainly shot on the first afternoon of the trip and until now I had done nothing with the bulk of the images. Two weeks ago my agent Gregg Lhotsky needed an image to use in a pitch for a job and I thought there might be something appropriate from the Vietnam images. After finding the Image for Gregg I was inspired and a few hours later the rough draft of the above video was finished. This is happy Vietnam, condensing two weeks from the north to the south and everywhere in between into one minute. This video is a perfect bookend to the first. In the end the camera did help me understand Vietnam better.

The War Museum video: http://vimeo.com/13189788

UJA

Last week I started working on a project for the UJA, United Jewish Appeal, to restock their photography library. Over the next few months I will be photographing at various organizations that are recipients of UJA funding. I knew that this would be a great project, but after only one shoot it has already exceeded all of my expectations. The first assignment was at a monthly gathering of Holocaust survivors organized by Selfhelp. There are four separate groups that meet once a month, so once a week the staff stages an operation of amazing logistical proportions. Fleets of car services are dispatched to all points in Brooklyn to transport the participants to and from the Flatbush Jewish Center for lunch and a musical program free of charge. For some it is the main event of their month, a way to get out and connect with the only people who can truly understand their pasts, for me it was an amazing treat. I have met Holocaust survivors before, but never so many at one time. My feelings can best be summed up by quote from one of the Selfhelp community workers Joe, “You could write a book about anyone in this room!” He was so right.