No Greater Reward

No Greater Reward
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

For anyone who works earnestly at what he or she aspires to be, accomplish, or become, there is no greater feeling than to be told that you are an inspiration to someone else who is likewise aspiring.

Hence, I am sharing a letter that I received yesterday, that immediately endowed me with the greatest sense of glee and appreciation.

Subject: A-Level Photography Class!

Hello again Lorenzo!

I'm a teacher at St Boniface's Catholic College in Plymouth (UK), and I thought I'd let you know that a few of my students have chosen you as their inspiration! Each student has to choose three artists that inspire them- which span from Muybridge and Hockney to David La Chappelle and your good self!

You've got quite a fan club in my class- the students (and I) think your work is awesome!

We received our copies of 25 Lessons today and began reading it as a class- it is truly amazing- well done!

I will be sure to send you copies of their sketchbook pages, which feature you!

Thanks for being so inspirational!

Paul Scott
Head of Photography
www.stbonifaces.com

*

Needless to say, I am honored and humbled and flattered. There is no greater reward than to inspire others to pursue the passions in which you likewise believe in and incessantly apply yourself to.

Moreover, as I relayed to a few of my dearest friends yesterday, it is overwhelmingly gratifying to be considered an “artist” by anyone, especially by those who are preparing to drive what the future of photography brings. Because albeit I have worked incessantly at my craft for many years now, writing since I was 15 (25 years ago) and throwing myself into street photography three years ago, it is difficult to feel that I am what I aspire to be, when society only deems you so when you are “professionally” compensated for your work.

Nonetheless, I have long been compelled to apply myself (see What Art Means to Me). And recently, I have come to accept myself as an artist, regardless of the measures that others may tend to impose, because I realized that with the recent HP honors and the publication of two books, 25 Lessons and Be Yourself) I am actually fulfilling my greatest childhood dream—to be an artist.

Thus, hence and therefore, Mr. Scott’s letter comes as a godsend, a confirmation, and graceful rite of passage for me into a stage of my life that I have long yearned to achieve, much as good Catholics strive to fulfill the Seven Sacraments of their faith.

And thus, I profusely thank Paul and his disciples.

*

In return, I would like to mention that under the auspices of Paul Scott, St Boniface’s College offers a rather impressive array of Photography & Film-Making courses to its students. Some of these include:

— Pinhole Photography
— Lomography
— Astrophotography
— Fashion Photography
— Mission: Photography
— Photography 101
— Portrait Photography
— Stop Motion Animation

Impressively, this curriculum began all but one year ago and the students participate during their free time. According to the history posted on their website, “The A-Level photography course was started in February 2007 when two students asked Mr. Scott to run the course. The course began as a trial with both parties getting used to the course as the months went on. After a successful series of coursework and examination for both candidates, word spread and sign-up for 2007/08 stands at 68 students.”

I myself attended a parochial high school (Bellarmine College Preparatory, 1981-1985) and often beam with great pride when I speak of those formative years. In particular, I look back fondly upon my four years at this all-boys prep because it allowed me to focus on academics, as well as the understanding and development of my true character, without having to endure the pressures and follies that others must stumble through at public co-ed institutions.

Although we were not offered any photography, or even art courses that I recall, I took a course on in literature there that changed my life. As I wrote in my book 25 Lessons: The Art of Living:

“… if it hadn’t been for my high school years and my sophomore literature class in particular, I wouldn’t have read James Joyce’s Ulysses, and I may not have been inspired to be a writer. Because even though I did not understand a lot of the arcane references at first, the intricacy of his words set me on fire—ablaze with a grandly romantic and inextinguishable love for words.”

That said, I now realize how important our influences can be during our formative years, which makes the letter I received yesterday all the more sweeter. And so once again, I must relay that I am honored and likewise inspired to continue applying myself, if only to continue inspiring others to do the same.

Please check out this group’s work and help the students by offering advice and critiques of their work:

www.flickr.com/groups/boniface/pool

www.stbonifaces.com/photography/

Cheers,
Lorenzo

An Artist @ Work

An Artist @ Work
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

Photo taken by Adriana Lira-Oliver; editing by me.

April 22, 2008, New Jersey:

Waking Up

Although I could just as easily have closed my eyes, they were urged open this morning at 6 AM when my father stood towering above me saying, “You want me to facilitate that for you? Do you want me to be your facilitator?”

What I understood that he was saying was “Get up out of bed and back to work”—‘facilitator’ being a euphemism for horsewhip.

As I shook off the slumber and my desire to close my eyes again and go back to sleep, I acknowledged that my father was merely an apparition, a specter in a dream, a phantom in my psyche. However, his message reverberated, because I actually felt an urgent need to “get back to work.”

The compulsion ran deep and thus prompted me to jump out of bed, run downstairs to make a pot of coffee, stretch a little while I waited for it to brew, and then, run back upstairs to jump in the shower (that’s a whole lot of jumping!).

Albeit the desire to get back to work was and is a true and common feeling for me, the dream was so strangely Freudian, that I felt suddenly, somewhat, enlightened.

*

Last night at 1 AM, I had to force myself to stop working on a new book that I began creating immediately after putting the boys to sleep.

The only reason it was a compulsory shutdown was because I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

Nonetheless and allthemore, five hours later, I was roused awake again by this inherent need to return to work, to make the most of my day, my time, my talents and this solemn night on earth; to seize the day which was being quietly, slowly illuminated by the rising sun; to “get your lazy ass out of bed son,” if only to make my angry father happy.

When I was growing up my childhood inclinations to read or draw or write or obsessively-compulsively organize and clean my room until 2, 3, or 4 AM in the morning, often clashed with my father’s belief that one’s day should always begin early.

Hence, through college and graduate school, and even through my first five years of marriage, whenever my father called his standard phone greeting was “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“Did I wake you?”

It would be 3 o’clock in the afternoon here on the East Coast (noon, his time in California) and he’d still rhetorically ask, “Did I wake you?”

It was the most irritating, emotionally grating thing ever. It was only after years of having him saying the same thing to my wife (at the time) and subsequently getting the flack for it, that I had to eventually ask him to cease and desist, once and for all.

Ultimately, he did quit saying it.

Alas, apparently, the message still resonates deeply though.

*

Hence, even though I didn’t have time to fire up the laptop to continue working on the book this morning as I got ready for work, I did apply myself diligently to the task of doing something meaningful.

For while I got dressed and finished my first cup of coffee; and while I walked to the bus and rode on the bus; I memorized the first stanza of my all-time favorite poem by Rudyard Kipling, If, a piece of verse that I feel I should have committed to memory a long time ago:

If
If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
And yet make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, or talk too wise…

… you’ll be a Man my son!


So, apparently, it seems, my soul continues to sing the song that my father taught me a long time ago; one that compels me into a frenzy of labor and anxious time-biding through project upon project upon project with little time or design for repose and rejuvenation.

And although I’m not sure that this compulsion will ever make me more of a “man” per se, I do believe that indeed it has compelled me to create prodigiously, and despite the bleary eyes and the constant bout with exhaustion, I guess that might be a good thing...uh, maybe.


*

Check out the Best Seller 25 Lessons: The Art of Living
www.25Lessons.com

2008 HP Be Brilliant Featured Artist
http://www.hp.com/go/bebrilliant

Change The World! Be Yourself!

Change The World! Be Yourself!
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

Poster entitled "CHANGE" by contemporary artist Shepard Fairey;
cover to new book Be Yourself by Lorenzo!

"Be the change you want to see in the world.” — Mohandas (Mahatma) Ghandi —


April 16, 2008, New York City:

Scratching Beneath The Surface: Thoughts on Necessary Evils, Like The Art of Marketing (Art)

The series of ten screenshots and diptychs I am sharing here were created to give thanks and praise to all the journalists, friends and bloggers who have been kind enough to mention my new book, 25 Lessons thus far.

In particular, I want to thank four people including Rob Walker, "Consumed" columnist for The New York Times Magazine; Beth Jannery, a dear friend and author of Simple Grace; the staff at Blurb; as well as Margaret Lenartowicz, who writes her image rich and lyrically beautiful text&body blog from London.

Rob Walker examines consumer behavior in his weekly “Consumed” column in the Sunday New York Times Magazine and recently posted a congrats edition regarding the publication of 25 Lessons on his insightful Murketing blog. He also has a book coming out in June from Random House entitled Buying In, The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. If you regularly read his weekly column as I do, you know that this book is bound to be an instant best seller.

This last Sunday he wrote about how Barack Obama camp’s has created a strong bond with artists, and how the association has not only given a boost to Obama’s campaign, but has also helped promote those artists who have “freely” given their work in support of this popular presidential candidate.

For more information on Rob and his work visit www.robwalker.net.

Besides, being a great friend, Beth Jannery is author of a inspiring book called Simple Grace: Living a Meaningful Life, an amazing motivational speaker, Ms. Virginia America and a former Ms. Connecticut America. You can read more about her and her inspiring work here: www.bethjannery.com

Moreover, she is a warm and wonderful host of rejuvenating artist retreats. She hosted the first one last December at Elihu Island, off of Stonnington, CT. Read about our grand adventure here: The Retreat. I am eagerly looking forward to the next one.

Margaret Lenartowicz is a wonderful poet, blogger, and photography aesthete based out of London. I look to her blog, text&body, whenever I need a bit of insight and inspiration. She has a great feel, eye and mind for art, design, verse, and photography, which she chronicles regularly in her online scrapbook.

The staff at blurb recently chose my second publication Be Yourself as a Staff Pick. And earlier last week, blurb blogger Alice wrote a flattering entry about 25 Lessons being an instant best seller on blurb, which began "Live From New York It’s….Lorenzo!”

As some of you may recognize, those words kick off the long-running comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) every weekend, and is broadcast out of my hometown, New York City. Thus, I couldn’t be more honored.

I’m especially tickled by this tribute because, although, like many other writers I often fantasize about getting that golden ticket – a plug by Oprah! and her book club – as an artist and a New Yorker my fantasy has also long been to host SNL.

In her entry, Alice asks, “How did Lorenzo’s book become a Blurb best seller so quickly?” She concludes “For one thing, he’s absolutely marketing the hell out of this book. Check out his site and his Flickr account to see how he does it. He has book promotion down to a science.”

Although I’d love to think that the merit of my work alone convinced people to make the purchase, I can’t help but agree with Alice. Because after 20 years of experience in marketing and communications, I firmly believe that a well-planned marketing campaign has indeed played an all-important role in generating interest in 25 Lessons.

Alas, even than, sometimes it seems that the only way you can get people’s attention is when you flash a pair of breasts (16,000 hits), (a half-naked cowgirl (20,000 hits), a barely-clad woman or a Victoria’s Secret model before them.

Hence, the truism that every good salesman knows, SEX SELLS—anything and everything.

Hence, the reason that my all-time most popular photo (with 22,000 views) is of an old man getting a "blow-job" at Port Authority bus terminal.

Hence, the fact that I posted 11 new images at midnight a little more than a day ago and combined they have had a measly 345 views. And then, I posted “25 Subliminal Lessons,” a purposefully more salacious subliminal image, and within a few hours I will likely surpass the cumulative total of all the other photos.

Of course, this proof of concept, this Pavlovian manipulation of the masses, this testosterone-abetted truism is moot considering that very few people actually read what I write. Which is wholly understood, since this is a photography (oh, uh, excuse me, and video) site after all.

*

Moreover, philosophically speaking, I believe that any successful endeavor designed for public consumption requires a balance between Surface and Substance.

In other words, you can create the greatest product in the world, be it a play, a book, a movie or performance, but unless you make an effort to tell people about it, it will surely end up getting lost amongst the fray or thrown upon the heap of millions of other pieces of work created daily by aspiring artists, writers and photographers from around the world.

Of course, as I’ve written many times before (see What Art Means to Me), ultimately, what matters most is that as a true artist, as one who is follows his true calling, you continue to create regardless of who blogs about or buys your work.

However, that said, it sure would be nice to pay all the bills with the sale of a few photos and books every now and then. Alas, as much as hosting SNL or being Oprah’s author du jour remains merely a fantasy for now, being an aspiring, yet starving, “artist” will have to suffice as my raison d’être, at least, for now.

Which, is why, once again, making an effort to market your work becomes so important. Because as thrilling as it may seem, no one really wants to remain a bohemian artist for all too long.

*

Albeit, many people mistakenly consider Machiavelli to be a conniving advocate of dirty politics, for those who have actually read his treatise, The Prince, you’d know that it actually provides some sage advice on leadership.

In particular, I have long been inspired by a few passages that I believe, for me, make Machiavelli the father of marketing. He wrote:

“...merciful, faithful, humane, forthright, and religious...it is not necessary for a prince to have all of the above-mentioned qualities, but it is very necessary for him to appear to have them...having them and practicing them at all times is harmful; and appearing to have them is useful.”

“...men in general judge more by their eyes than their hands; for everyone can see but few can feel. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few perceive what you are, and those few do not dare to contradict the opinion of the many who have the majesty of the state to defend them.”

Unfortunately, words like these have long been taken out of context and thus may seemingly suggest a strategy of deception at first glance.

However, if one reads the book you’d find that he felt that leaders should strive to serve their people well by being wiling and able to lead – to make tough decisions, to make sacrifices when necessary for the greater good, and to convince others that “Yes! You can,” even if one is not really yet able.

It is important to understand that the latter piece of advice is often vital to success, because the ability to accomplish something often comes with the support of others.

Alas, all too often, you can’t get the support of others unless you are first “able,” which occasionally means convincing some of that you already possess certain qualities, when, in reality, you are actually merely in the process of attaining them.

Comedy superstar Steve Martin, who like many successful comedians before and after him, happened to launch his career by yelling "Live From New York It’s...Saturday Night!”, once lamented in an interview in Publishers Weekly that his life “….moves in cycles. Creativity and promotion.” In other words, in order to make a living by one’s art, one cannot survive without the other.

Hence, artists entertain daunting interviews with the press, beg for plugs from bloggers, and even create Warholesque prints for poplar presidential candidates, if only to get a little more air time themselves…


Read what the consummate pundit on the art of marketing, Rob Walker, has to say about this in his latest piece: The Art of Politics.


*


Check out the Best Seller 25 Lessons: The Art of Living
www.25Lessons.com

2008 HP Be Brilliant Featured Artist
http://www.hp.com/go/bebrilliant

Video Killed The Photography Star

Video Killed The Photography Star
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

April 11, 2008, New York City:

Video Killed The Photography Star (and for that, I am grateful)

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, or the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

One of the most invaluable lessons I’ve learned in life is that sometimes, sometimes, you’ve just got to just go with it, baby—go with the flow, change with the times, adapt.

For sometimes, resistance can be a sheer waste of energy. Sometimes, you’ve simply got to realize that you ain’t David or the Dalai Lama, and so there ain’t no use in fighting a behemoth like Goliath, China or Yahoo! Especially, when it decides to allow its users to add video to one of the world’s greatest photography sites.

Hence, I attempted to upload my first video to flickr: Lunacy: The Final Cut, which I created some time ago and first uploaded to YouTube. The story about how and why I created this video can be found here: And Now, For Something A Little Crazy… (My First Gusano)

(Alas, alas, alas, I soon discovered that this did not load completely and later found out, thanks to Rodger Holtom (Riverman72), that apparently there is a limit to the kind of videos you can post on flickr. Too bad, guess I'll be sticking with YouTube than. Nonetheless and allthemore, here is the complete video, on YouTube: Lunacy: The Beauty of Youth)

Besides, this change comes at a good time for me because I have been taking a break from photography for a while, a mere hiccup of a hiatus, in order to focus on other creative endeavors, mainly publishing books. These include:

25 Lessons: The Art of Living, which was a monumental journey, a labor of love and nothing less than an extraordinary experience for me. I spent the last three years creating the book: taking all the 500+ photos that are in the book, writing the story and the incredible lessons I’ve learned from the experience of becoming a New York City street photographer.

Check out the website! www.25Lessons.com

Be Yourself,
A celebration of the spirit of the individual as captured on the streets of New York City
Using many of the photographs that were first published as part of galleries in 25 Lessons: The Art of Living, as well as many others taken in New York City from 2005-2007, Be Yourself has 100 photographs of unique individuals, each on a separate page and complemented by quotes about individuality, self-determination and the stuff genius is made of from everyone from Camus to Carnegie, Einstein to Emerson, Schopenhauer to Shakespeare, Thoureau and Twain, and many, many more!

Check out the Be Yourself Press Release!

*

Apart from publishing, I’ve been trying to enjoy life “differently” than I have otherwise done for the last couple of years via my passion for photography.

Alas, I always get anxious when I spend an inordinate amount of time simply sitting watching others create, play or perform, because if the play or movie or performance are good, I’m usually simply inspired to get back to work, to get back to doing what I enjoy most in life—creating.

Nonetheless, I forced myself to watch Akira Kuroswa’s 1953 masterpiece Ikuru, which I would summarize as being about the tyranny of bureaucracy and how one man is inspired to overcome that and ultimately “make a difference,” after he discovers that he has terminal cancer and six months to live.

Coincidentally, the very same night Domenica passed onto me a link to “The Last Lecture,” which is a presentation of the final lecture given by Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch on Sept. 18, 2007. Professor Pausch is dying from pancreatic cancer and acknowledges at the beginning of his talk that doctors have told him that he only has a few months to live.

In his inspiring talk entitled, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talks about the lessons he’s learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. Originally, he wrote his advice for his children who are aged 6, 3, and 22 months.

Having gone through my own life-altering transition while living alone in a church for three months, I understand Randy’s compulsion to pass on the lessons he’s learned to his children. That compulsion is one of the main reasons why the original work I wrote, 25 lessons I've learned (about photography), became a book, 25 Lessons: The Art of Living, which I wrote while keeping in mind the lessons I wanted to pass onto my own children, Nicky, 6 and Enzo, 9.

It so happens that reporter Craig Wilson of USA Today published a piece today about the book that evolved from this video phenomenon on YouTube, which has now been seen over 1 million times. Read it yourself: Dying dad does book for his kids.

Last night, while making that extra-effort to “take a break” from my compulsion-to-create, I accompanied my dear Super-Über Friend, Marie Huber, to see Bobby McFerrin perform at Carnegie Hall. McFerrin was accompanied by an orchestra and his friend, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. They performed a program of Bach, Fauré and Vivaldi for the first half the concert. However, the best half began with the encore performances and Bobby’s improvisations, which were amazingly impressive, rife with glorious sentiment and most of all, inspiring.

Thus, half way through the evening I began to feel that itch again, that undeniable, irrepressible urge to create.

Nonetheless, I continued to repress it and allowed myself to enjoy the company of the magnificent Ms. Huber after the performance. While we walked to Queen Sheba for a delightful platter vegetarian Ethiopian delights, we both acknowledged that even though we have only been friends for six years, we both felt as though it has been decades. I truly love Marie and feel quite fortunate to have her as a friend.

*

When I arrived home half past midnight I wanted to begin working on a new book of verse which I am planning to put together and publish very soon, but my mortal coil had other plans. And thus, exhausted, I gave in and unwound for the evening within the comfort of my bed.

However, the willingness to let go and relax for a few hours of sleep only lasted until I awoke at 6 AM and decided to load this, my first video on flickr.

Interestingly enough, this seems to be the week for coincidences, because a few days ago I was researching my legal right to publish Be Yourself which presents 100 photos of individuals on the streets of New York City, and I found out that Photography is Dead on the Streets of Paris.

According to a March 22 London Times article individuals now own their image in France, immediately making street photography a dead art there, because the costs of producing such photos—the time it takes to get waivers, the inevitable bargaining, claim insurance, etc.—now make authentic, off-the-cuff, street photography too costly to procure. Irony abounds, being that via Bresson’s decisive moments street photography was essentially born there.

Woefully, photographers in London are also experiencing pressure to stop taking pictures on the streets. Once again, according to The Times, “Any person who appears to be taking photos in a covert manner should expect to be stopped and spoken to by police ... And now, a new poster campaign by the Metropolitan Police is inviting Londoners to call a hotline if they don't like the look of a photographer.”

Alas, even here in New York, ever since 9.11, photography has been repressed for fear that it will lead to terrorism. I’ve experienced this many times over, not only because I’ve been harassed by law enforcement a number of times (The “Stupid” Pictures, Under Suspicion ) but also because the city of New York attempted to impose the requirement of permits for taken pictures in the city last summer (Picture New York Without Pictures).

But, as I confirmed once again with my recent research, New Yorkers still have the legal right to take and sell photos of people in the streets and subways of New York City because they are within the “public domain.”

This right was reinforced recently two years ago with a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in Nussenzweig v. diCorcia, where a photographer was being sued for photos he took surreptitiously in Times Square and then sold for tens of thousands of dollars each in a gallery.

According to The New York Times, “State Supreme Court Justice Judith J. Gische rejected Mr. Nussenzweig's claim that his privacy had been violated, ruling on First Amendment grounds that the possibility of such a photograph is simply the price every person must be prepared to pay for a society in which information and opinion freely flow. And she wrote in her decision that the photograph was indeed a work of art. "Defendant diCorcia has demonstrated his general reputation as a photographic artist in the international artistic community," she wrote.” (The Theater of the Street, the Subject of the Photograph, by Philip Gefter, March 19, 2006)

Hence, with confidence and some pride I proceeded with publishing Be Yourself, A celebration of the spirit of the individual as captured on the streets of New York City, because, much like Professor Pausch relays in his inspirational lecture, with the publication of this book and my best-seller 25 Lessons, with the honor of being chosen to be the featured artist for HP’s Be Brilliant campaign amongst other creative achievements, I too have finally achieved one of my childhood dreams—to be an artist.

And for that, I am grateful (along with so many other wonderful things and experiences and people in my life).


For those who actually read this entire posting, you great a special treat...
An oldie but goodie, the legendary first video ever seen on MTV: Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles (uh, sorry but you can only see the full length version it on YouTube)...

Be Yourself! Just Published

Be Yourself! Just Published
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” George Bernard Shaw

At 3:30 AM this morning I published my second blurb book, Be Yourself, A celebration of the spirit of the individual as captured on the streets of New York City.

Using many of the photographs that were first published as part of galleries in 25 Lessons: The Art of Living, as well as many others taken in New York City from 2005-2007, Be Yourself has 100 photographs of unique individuals, each on a separate page and complemented by quotes about individuality, self-determination and the stuff genius is made of from everyone from Camus to Carnegie, Einstein to Emerson, Schopenhauer to Shakespeare, Thoureau and Twain, and many, many more!

Check out the Be Yourself Press Release!

Buy it on Blurb

“To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” Confucius

25 Lessons is Instant International Best Seller! Thank You!

25 Lessons is Instant Best Seller! Thank You!
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

My book 25 Lessons: The Art of Living was just released yesterday and it is aleady an Instant International Best Seller. Check it out: www.blurb.com/bookstore

Thank you, thank you, thank you! to all my family and friends on flickr that have supported me on this project.

Please spread the word: www.25Lessons.com

Note: First Edition collectors please note that once we have hit the 2,500 mark I will be submitting the 2nd Edition for print, so buy yours now while the 1st Edition is still available!

Much Love and Happiness,
Lorenzo!

Just Published! 25 Lessons: The Art of Living

Just Published! 25 Lessons: The Art of Living
Originally uploaded by Lorenzo! (lorenzodom)

April 2, 2008, New York City:

Dear Flickr Friends,

25 Lessons: The Art of Living has been a monumental journey, a labor of love and nothing less than an extraordinary experience for me. I spent the last three years creating the book: taking all the 500+ photos that are in the book, writing the story and the incredible lessons I’ve learned from the experience of becoming a New York City street photographer, creating the layout and design for the book, and even writing the code for the website, www.25Lessons.com, which I also translated into 10 different languages including: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.

Thus, finally, my book will be released on Wednesday, April 2 on blurb.com.

Originally, the book was to be published by Cyan Books in the Spring of last year. However, the company had some financial woes and so, although I finished writing it a year ago, the project eventually came to a standstill.

Hence, I decided to move on and publish the book myself via blurb.com. More information on the book including the first 15 pages, testimonials, a synopsis of the story, my bio and a slideshow of photographs can all be found at www.25Lessons.com,

First 2,500 Copies for FREE*… (to everyone around the world)
As I mentioned, 25 Lessons has truly been a labor of love for me– a very personal, creative and colorful expression of my love for my family and friends, a love for my children, for New York City, and—for life itself.

The decision to forgo waiting for the traditional publishing house to recover and to self-publish instead, ultimately means that I have to depend on my friends around the world to help promote my work. This message alone is going out to flickr friends in more than …cities in …countries around the world. Please help by passing on this message to your friends, family and acquaintances around the globe as well.

The book itself has over 60 testimonials from fellow flickr photographers in over 12 countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Qatar, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. And I am a graduate of the World Arts & Culture program at the U.C.L.A and the graduate School of International and Public Affairs program at Columbia University, so reaching out to everyone around the world is truly of great importance to me.

Publishing with blurb.com. also means that whereas 10,000 books were supposed to be printed and prospectively distributed via traditional channels, now the books will be sold via print-on-demand, one at a time.

Subsequently, the price may be slightly higher than original retail mark-up, so that the 4-color book costs $39.95 US Dollars via blurb.com. as opposed to $35 USD via Barnes & Noble or amazon.com. By the way, blurb. transacts in 57 countries.

Hence, I’m advertising that I am giving the first 2,500 copies of the hardcover edition of the book away for “FREE” because the author usually adds a mark-up to the base price in order to generate a profit.

I’ve decided to forgo that option and essentially give it away at cost to the first 2,500 buyers— because as a labor of love I passionately feel that is more importantly to get the word out about the book than to make a profit.

Therefore, I encourage you to order a copy now, while it is "free" and to please help me get the word out by doing any of the following:

1. Spread the word! Pass this message on to anyone and everyone you know, ideally your entire address book. If anything, simply send pass on the website, so they can read about the book themselves: www.25Lessons.com

2.Tell any bloggers, journalists or people of influence that you know about the book

3.If you like the book after you read it, please rave about it wherever and however you can: write reviews, blog about it, post a testimonial on blurb.com.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Click HERE to Read The Press Release

Sincerely,
Lorenzo