Jed Devine (ruff draft to get stuff out my head; to be edited)

Today is Jed Devine's retirement party. A lot of us former students and colleges are massing at the only thing Purchase can consider a local bar, Doral Arrowood. apropriate for anyone elses retirement it is attached to a golf course. But that really in the end isn't jed's style. this should have been at Walkers in Tribeca.
I know everyone feels this way but I feel close to Jed in a way that I don't feel a lot of the others don't. Jed is the person who I based my undergrad choice on. Going to Purchase was a chance to study under Jed Devine. if you don't know how much that stands for, look him up, he is listed as an influence of Jan Groover, John Cohan, and Greg Crewdson to name a few. In my first photo class I wrote a long paper on him, back in High School. I wanted to print like him. I wanted to hear what he had to say.
He never disapointed. he could talk about anything and you would listen. He just has that gift. I would spend hours at purchase just listening to stories. Eventually we started trading stories. That is where Jed became more than a famous artist who took amazing pictures. Jed was a whisky drinking, life living, father, artist, mentor and a great dart hucker. (He doesn't through he hucks the darts).
That's the person I'm going to this party for. I'm not going cause of some fan boy obsession, or cause it's the cool place to be, or to be seen. I'm going to have a drink and thank the guy who has been a top influence on me not just as an artist. He is a great person and a great teacher. I model the way I teach my own students after Jed (and Bob Kozma but this is not about bob right now). Give them lots questions, give them few concreate answers and tell them to let go and make work when you need too.
The most important lesson I ever learned from him was to disearn between when to take a picture. and I'm not talking cropping or light readings. "If the experience is better then what the photograph, then enjoy the experience. Live it and don't lose it behind a box with glass." and yes that is the exact words he used the first time I heard it.
Jed taught to not just take pictures, but to live life develope stories. Without life stories you have nothing to share at the bar. Live life and meet him at Walkers, have some bourbon and play some darts. Cause that's photography, that's Jed Devine.