Snark - Thy Name is Ross

Ross Halfin gets his 5 minutes in The Independent. Known more for his rock icon photography than for what he loves to shoot, clouds and travel, Mr. Halfin graciously granted me permission to use the photograph here as background for some liner notes on an upcoming CD insert. I am fascinated by clouds and love to shoot them, but Halfin is much better at it, often taking shots from the window of his first class seat on a trans-Atlantic flight.

One of the pioneers of brutal blogging, a term the photographer rejects, Halfin is a master of the cutting retort or snarky observation. When I inquired of him about the photograph he said he'd get to me and hadn't yet delivered, Ross shot back, "I'm busy, I'll get round to it. I'm not your SLAVE."

He lives a charmed life, but he swears it's tough work. I'm sure dealing with the monstrous egos of the music biz would get on your nerves after a while, so I've urged Halfin to put out a coffee table book of nothing but cloudscapes. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone and a thousand other rags, but maybe some London agencies working with giant budgets can get him some ad work and help fund his dream of getting away from crybaby celebs and the PR people that surround them.

His credit on the aforementioned project will read: Cloud photograph courtesy of Ross Halfin, a true artistic and literary genius masquerading as a rock photographer.