'One of the hazards of publishing a well-known photojournalism blog - getting multimedia like yours, where the photos are both powerful and moving, and I end up in tears at my desk.'
'I am a fan of duckrabbit. I am not a fan because I agree with everything Ben has to say, but because he says it without frills and then will spend the time necessary to engage the consequent discussions. Such commitment is a priceless commodity.'
'I met one of them at an academic conference in the summer. He was the sanest person there, but sure enough by damn gadnabbit ruffled more than a few fluffed up peacock feathers.'
In four days time it will be the anniversary of old Albert’s birth. This fact reminded me of a pic I shot a little while ago…a stonemason here in Bristol – Mike Blow- phoned me up and told me that he’d made an exact replica of Einstein’s brain out of marble. And not just any marble..marble from the same quarry used to sculpt Michelangelo’s David. The replica is accurate due to Mike working from original photographs of the brain, and from resin models. It really is something to behold. By the way, if you ever need a stonemason, Mike is THE man….
“In times when (some) photographers hold celebrity status, it is useful to be reminded that a good photograph does not solely depend on the photographer’s ability to choose the right subject, location and light, but also on the chemistry and the collaboration, between photographer and subject…Despite my deep sympathy for socially inclined photographers, when the people portrayed feel ashamed of their portraits, there clearly is something wrong with this kind of photography.”
If you are a young photojournalist with aspirations of photographing war & destruction, famine and suffering and think that your pictures are ever going to change the world well this show should show you that you are on a hiding to nothing. If the pictures made by Don MCullin can’t change the world, well no ones can.
“Between 1994 and 2001, the endowment of Harvard University tripled, making the school the wealthiest non-profit in the world, second only to the Vatican. In the same years, Harvard heavily outsourced many service jobs to lower-paying companies, thus resulting in average wage cuts of 30% for the schools’ custodians, food-workers and security guards.
In response, I got involved with a student group called the Harvard Living Wage Campaign and I began this project. My goal was to publicize the situation, to share the stories of a number of service-workers I had come to know, and to raise questions about the prevailing class-structure at Harvard and on college campuses in general.” Gregory Halpern
If you’re not aware of the work of Gregory Halpern (which I wasn’t until a week ago), then please, please, please spend some time reading Asim Rafiqui’s account of his work here, and then spend some time with the photographs here.
I do want to add one thing.
Too often we celebrate the photographer and not the cause. It’s a kind of disease in an industry where very few people are prepared to challenge unless the gods be shaken and they feel their wrath. That’s stone age thinking, because there are no gods, only emperors who have clambered up the pack of cards (often through great work) and whom our adulation clothes.
It says nothing about photography and everything about us that we are only interested in a ’cause’ when a ‘name’ photographer is attached.
Halpern, like Rodriguez, like Crow, like White, like Chiba, like Rafiqui (see our Where It’s At Links) are only interested in one voice being heard, and that voice is never their own. That’s why we celebrate their work.
by a series of posts I’ve just read on Prison Photography about the death of the young woman Fabienne Cherisma in Haiti and the photographers who witnessed this event. The pictures are too graphic for my stomach, but the questions are important.
‘Photographers don’t work in a vacuum and we must demand to turn their images inside out to understand the context in which the images were created.’ Pete Brook
I have been in contact with the photographers involved and I have a lot more information, testimony and images to continue this story. One photographer even believes he has footage of the police officer who shot Fabienne. I hope you and your readers can keep interest in this analysis and story as it unfolds. Pete
VII MASTERCLASS WORKSHOP WITH ANTONIN KRATOCHVIL
ORTHODOX EASTER IN THE CHERNOBYL FORBIDDEN ZONE
‘Chernobyl and its Forbidden Zone are magical places, which attract the attention of both adventurers and the media. After more than 20 years, echoes of the worst nuclear disaster in the history of man still resonate. Antonin Kratochvil, from the VII agency, has repeatedly photographed in Chernobyl and knows how to move around in the area.’
Not sure how ‘magic’ the people featured in the following report by Greenpeace find the place:
Here’s a related pic of a really magical place…Tarara in Cuba, where child victims of Chernobyl are treated, for free, by the Cuban government. Every child at Tarara is seriously sick as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. Cuba offers them rehabilitation, pioneering treatment, warmth, love and sunshine.
Child victims of Chernobyl recuperating at Tarara, Cuba. (C) David White
Please note if you want to take a masterclass with VII they have some excellent alternatives. Ron Haviv seems like a top bloke and he has a workshop running in Maine.
There’s a bag piper who stalks the streets of Kings Heath, where duckrabbit lives. Well there was until he disapeared a few weeks ago. Turns out the local mafia put his feet in concrete and dropped him off Spagehtti Junction during rush hour. Can’t say anyone was too outraged because when he was about the only way to get into Kings Heath was with industrial stength earplugs.
Not everyone feels the same way about bagpipes and according to this excellent and slightly surprising BBC audio slideshow they go down a treat in Palestine.
A few posts ago I was quite critical of Unicef’s new five year campaign PUT IT RIGHT, for being centred on making sure that children are heard but not actually featuring any children’s voices. Clearly an own goal. But as the video below demonstrates Unicef can use their mandate effectively to give people a voice.
This was just one of a series of video’s about mothers with HIV positive children. The video is focused on the story, not on fundraising. That’s why it works.
This is from the website:
Photographer Gideon Mendel traveled to Lesotho in November 2007 and the resulting Lesotho Voices films, images and words tell the personal stories of several women there. The women are from different regions of the country, all are living with HIV. Some of them have benefited from PMTCT. Others have suffered without access to these vital services.
I got an email from Rhubarb last night saying they’re opening up a photo gallery in Birmingham, which is fantastic news. Let’s hope they get proper backing from a city that holds one of the nations great photo collections.
If you’re serious about photography, find it hard to access movers and shakers in the business, and you think that you are ready then I recommend that you invest in one of their portfolio reviews. At £250 they are not cheap but in some ways they are priceless. If a reviewer likes your work it could open doors. If you’ve been kidding yourself about how good you are the review might be a well needed wake up call. Either way you’ll benefit; just keep realistic expectations about what you might get out of such an event.
US photojournalist Ed Kashi is in London next week for an exhibition of his project Curse of the Black Gold, looking at the Nigerian oil business, and a series of other events.
For more info about the show and talk on Monday at Host Gallery check out the Foto8 site. He’s also speaking at the Frontline Club on Wednesday. He’s an engaging speaker and an inspiring photographer so it’s well worth checking out if you happen to find yourself in the Big Smoke.
Click here for the accompanying Curse of the Black Gold multimedia piece.
We Say/You Say