George Forss reached his Kickstarter funding goal at 3:00 a.m. Saturday, about 14 hours after “The Way We Were” project was launched on kickstarter.com. George asked for $8,200 to publish a collection of his photographs of New York City, taken before the tragedy of 911. This morning, he had raised $9,000 with 29 more days of funding to go.

I woke George up this morning with the news – George is quite astonished by the very idea of crowdsourcing, he doesn’t quite believe it. “This only happens in dreams,” he said. “This Kickstarter thing is amazing.”

More important, he is beginning to believe what I have been telling him for a few years, that his work is not passe, it is timely and powerful. “People do want my pictures,” he said, “Kickstarter eliminates the middle-man, people get to decide for themselves what they like.” They call it crowdsourcing, but I prefer the term democratic funding. People get to support the art they like, not the art they are told by critics and galleries to like.

For artists like George, Kickstarter is another chance, a needed chance. The bulk of the contributors came from bedlamfarm.com – thank you – but a growing percentage of pledges, about $2,000 so far, have come from within Kickstarter, people there are finding George’s project and looking at his photos and pledging support. He has 29 more days to go, I am going to launch my own campaign if there’s enough money and urge him to consider buying a new computer rather than building one out of salvaged parts from garbage cans and ancient things donated by friends.

This follows by just a few days Maria’s successful project “Reclaiming Vintage Hankies,” which also was funded rapidly and still has 22 more days to go. Maria, like George, does not promote herself much, I love supporting both of them, they are so deserving and creative. Maria was seeking $4,000, she has received $4,490 so far. You can still contribute to her wonderful work here. Artists are under great pressure in America, the government has slashed its funding for the arts, and times are hard for many people. It’s time ordinary people got to help shape the world of art.  Kickstarter shows us that people do care about the arts, and do want to support art works.

George has an unusual view of the world, he usually credits aliens with bringing him good news, this morning he was grateful to the many people who rushed to support his work and his very timely and powerful project. I think George bought into the idea that he was over, that the digital photography revolution, the collapse of the Twin Towers and his own humility meant his great work was being forgotten, that he was being left behind. George is a humble man, but his creative ego is healthy, and I predict this amazing experience will spawn a whole new body of brilliant photography. He has never stopped taking wonderful photographs.

George is a generous soul, he keeps offering to share the Kickstarter money with me. This will not happen, I told him, he owes me nothing, he can move again to occupy his rightful place in the world, and go forward to do more brilliant work, which he will. George is excited about coming to both Bedlam Farm Open Houses, where he will be available to shoot portraits of people.

I can’t say enough about my blog. “You have the sweetest people on  your blog,” George told me this morning. He thinks the blog is so powerful that it must be driven by the mysterious forces of the universe. Maybe so, the blog is my mother, it nurtures and provides and encourages.

You have shown him that this is not so, that genius triumphs against the great odds, that love is pure and powerful. This one is for love, for the good and wonderful people on my blog, for aliens for sure, and for genius. Congratulations, George, you have earned every penny and deserve even more. Tonight, we are taking George and Donna out to dinner to celebrate his amazing first day of funding, and the new and democratic world of the Internet.

This funding will change George’s life, he will use every penny of it well, and I can say that any additional contributions will be valued and used as well. George and I are meeting this afternoon to see if there are any additional rewards he might think of to make use of the 29 funding days he has left. If you have not yet pledged and wish to, you can do so easily here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.