duckrabbit - we produce photofilms » Where it’s at

What a total, utter, inspiration! Thank you Colin Rich (where it’s at)

duckrabbit — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:30:52 +0000

Pacific Star II from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

This is the second trip of my home made high altitude weather balloon photography project, Pacific Star.

The balloon was launched at 5:37pm (PST) from Oxnard, CA and reached an altitude of 125,000 feet snapping photos and recording video along the way.

The balloon burst, the parachute deployed, and the payload floated down for 35 minutes, landing near an old olive orchard Northeast of Santa Paula.

Created by Colin Rich
http://www.facebook.com/colinrich1

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Zen and the art of Japanese Ferries – Where it’s at

duckrabbit — Sun, 09 May 2010 10:28:17 +0000

When one of my students on the Photojournalism Masters at LCC asked me if he could send me his first multimedia feature I said sure. A decision I started to regret that when he told me that it was a ten minute feature on ‘Japanese Ferries’. It sounded like an exercise in self-indulgence.

True to my word I sat down to watch the feature on election night, thinking I’d take in the first minute and fire back a polite and encouraging response. This is what I actually wrote,

‘Quite simply one of the greatest pieces of multimedia I’ve ever seen. I am utterly in awe of what you’ve done here David. Will be putting this up on the blog. Magnum in Motion eat your heart out.’

Ok so I was seriously pissed at the time. I watched it again and had the same response.

David Willems work transcends any experience of photo films I’ve had before. Watching it is a form of meditation.

How do you do that? Take a subject as ugly as a Ferry and turn it into a film that slowly and effortlessly walks the viewer into a space of nothingness, of peace?

You have to go the full distance though and you have to watch the CODA at the end (after the credits) which kicks you out of thoughtfulness and brings a smile to the face.

Someone should put this on as an installation in a gallery in the heart of London. Meditation for the masses.

Japanese Ferries from david willems on Vimeo.

An exploration into ferries to and from Shikoku.

part 1 ferries by day
part 2 ferries by night
part 3 coda with music by eddie wally

Please use headphones to fully enjoy the slow journey.

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Inspiration: Stuart Freedman (where it’s at)

duckrabbit — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:14:25 +0000

I popped up some interesting words by Stuart on the blog last night, but if you want a masterclass on how a photographer can cover gritty stories, without reducing the people in the photos to freaks for pity and pennies, then spend some time on Stuart’s website.

It’s a masterclass in thought provoking reporting of the kind we rarely see these days because of the emphasis on aesthetic over story. In Stuart’s work the story comes first. Even more important are the people in the photographs.

In Rome David asked me why I loved photography so much. I couldn’t remember. Stuart’s work reminded me why.

You know the reason why we have a pop sometimes on duckrabbit is not because we don’t care about photography.

Sometimes we care so much it hurts. But we don’t believe that you can care too much.

In that we are not alone.

You should also check out his blog too. Well worth a read.

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Where it’s at – Gregory Halpern

duckrabbit — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:01:22 +0000

“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.

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Salão Escola de Beleza Afro – Tiana Markova-Gold (where it’s at)

Tiana — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:22:13 +0000

Some photography creates distances, puts the people in the pics out on some distant horizon you’ll never reach, nor would you want to. Other photography closes the gap, creates understanding and feels like a genuine conversation. Mostly, but not exclusively, that’s the photography I love and that’s the photography Tiana Markova-Gold creates.

I first came across her photos on one of the webs best blogs, Photography Lot. What do I love about her work? Just the feeling that it wouldn’t matter to Tiana whether she is photographing people in New York City, or Haiti, she’s going to approach those people exactly the same way. That’s a precious and all too rare quality to find in a photographer, the maturity to put the person in the frame, to put their story before your style.

Professionally that’s a lonely road to take because the photography world celebrates style over everything else. I’ll let you into a secret though, on a personal level its much more satisfying. Awards give you a rush to the head and afterwards nothing. The relationships forged here last a lifetime in peoples hearts.

duckrabbit would like to thank Tiana for generously sharing this work with us and our readers. Please do leave comments.

DUCK

Home to some of the world’s most beautiful beaches and luxury hotels, Rio de Janeiro is also a city of the starkest inequalities imaginable.

Roseli, 35 years old, grew up and continues to live in the streets of central Rio with her mother, two sisters and one brother. Roseli has seven children, none of whom are with her. Both of her sisters are pregnant. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

In addition to the four million people (one third of the city’s population) living in favelas, there are thousands of women and children who make their home and their living in the city streets. The instability and dangers of life on the streets have created a complex subculture that is little understood by the rest of society.

Juliana, 22 years old, and Stefani, 26 years old, live in the streets of central Rio. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

Women and children living in the streets are easy targets for police brutality and other forms of mistreatment and exploitation. Many sniff glue, called cola, or smoke crack to give them a temporary escape.

Glauciette, 24 years old, Juliana, 22 years old, and Roseli, 35 years old, live in the Praça de San Francisco in central Rio. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

Founded in 1994, Centro de Estudos e Ação Excola empowers women and children living in the streets of Rio de Janeiro to make long-term positive changes in their lives. In 2003 Excola began the Salão Escola de Beleza Afro (Salon School of African Beauty) program, which trains and certifies 20 young women each year as beauticians.

Glauciette's six children live with various family members in a favela outside the city. She has been living in the streets of central Rio for five years. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

These women also received counseling, access to condoms and health information. The women are continuing to meet in the small salon space Excola rents in central Rio, and many of them have started offering hair and beauty treatments in their neighborhoods.

Roseli and her sisters were raised in the streets and are now having their children in the streets. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

Stefani bathes on the steps of the church in Praça de San Francisco. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

The hairdressing skills these women have learned provides them with the possibility of becoming economically independent, creating a viable alternative to begging or prostitution and increasing their self-confidence and self-esteem. For many of the women, the salon also provides their only reprieve from the dangers of the streets.

Putting on lotion and perfume after bathing on the steps of the church. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

The Salão Escola de Beleza Afro (Salon School of African Beauty) program trains and certifies 20 young women as beauticians each year, many of whom are living in the streets when they join the program. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

The Escola de Beleza (Beauty School) program rents a small salon space in central Rio where the women can see clients, practice their skills and spend time together in a safe place off the streets. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

Joelma and Isabela braid Jucelia's hair. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

For many of the women involved with Escola de Beleza, the time they spend in the salon is the only reprieve they get from the streets. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

Roseli puts drops in her eyes to relieve irritation. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

Wenderson is the name of Glauciette's youngest son. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

Juliana and a boyfriend. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 2009.

For more information about Centro de Estudos e Ação Excola:

http://www.excola.org.br/novo/index.php

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Photo: the last night of the noughties on the hill of Masailand (Kenya)

duckrabbit — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:16:48 +0000

Thanks Yasuyoshi … stunning work as ever.

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David Campbell – Photojournalism’s future – Where it’s at

duckrabbit — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:35:08 +0000

If you are one of the few who haven’t already taken time to read David Campbell’s post on photojournalism’s future duckrabbit highly recommends you do. Much of what he is saying is both simple and obvious, it’s just some photographers are still aching for a long lost dream whilst fading painfully into history. Others will change and make good.

The truth is there is no panacea for the crisis that photojournalism finds itself in. Despite the acres of crap written to the contrary photojournalism does not have itself to blame, nor are there internet models lurking out there, just waiting to be discovered, that are going to solve the problem.

Even if paywalls work, the revenues won’t fund photojournalists in any sustainable way. The money will go elsewhere.

The issue is an economic one. Photojournalism, or the single news image, has largely lost its value and it will not get it back again. The web will not save photojournalism, but it will continue to offer fresh opportunities to photojournalists who have the talent to shift the way they work and then market themselves.

The wires will continue to provide solid and sometimes brilliant photography from the world’s hot spots, so the artform will not disappear. Brilliant and inspiring on-line publications like Burn will publish self-funded stories which will mainly be viewed by other photographers. Burn will make a few quid but little of it will trickle down unless David can find a way to get the stories out beyond the magazine’s niche audience of would be Magnumites.

Where is there hope? Photography is great at selling things and that’s its biggest economic value. Photographers who become great storytellers will find work, but as David suggests they will need to embrace new ways of thinking. Isn’t that the way it’s always been?

Here’s a few words from Campbell, follow the link for the rest:

* The web is where it is at. Photographers must not ignore the full range of outlets (print media, books, exhibitions etc) but the Internet is the only platform with a growing audience for news stories

* To be on the web means producing multimedia stories. ‘Multimedia’ can mean many things, from simple photo galleries through to stand alone topic sites with stills, audio, video and text together, but it is the combination of sound and image which offers the basis for the most compelling form for storytelling

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Roy DeCarava

duckrabbit — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:56:57 +0000

It sucks that the first time you often find out about photographic talent is when they’ve gone. It’s great that their work lives on. Great art will be discovered and re-discovered, buried and uncovered, defaced, replaced, exhumed, resuscitated, reappraised and at some point gradually returned to dust. You can’t own it, there are no pockets in shrouds, you can just keep it selfishly from others.

Some art will settle heavily in your heart. Some art will become your guide and your light. So it must be for some of the people who tread lightly around the work of Roy Decarava.

It’s true that duckrabbit isn’t a big fan of black and white photography. Well not the digital kind produced by a lot of kids now. No wonder because when you come across the work of someone like Roy DeCarava, whose carefully measured shadows carry the weight of history, everything else looks light.

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Joseph Rodriguez – Where it’s at part 5

duckrabbit — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:01:02 +0000

I was recently was given a much coveted copy of Joseph Rodriguez’s East Side Stories. It’s lush. It just re-confirms for me that the best place to see photography is in a book.

Galleries are good, but they often carry an elitist edge and rednecks like duckrabbit can feel a bit out of place.

The computer screen is good too, but photographs often get lost in the noise and knocked about unfairly by snap judgements.

Book print runs are often very small and expensive. They reach a small and often pretty exclusive group of people. I’d like everyone to see Joseph’s pictures, so if you come by my house there’s a good chance you’ll get the book put down in front of you.

Of course if you want to reach a really wide audience than the internet is the place to go That’s why Joseph’s latest project has its own website, and bloody good it is too.

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The Snakebox Oddessy by Paul Close (where it’s at)

duckrabbit — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:56:53 +0000

Bang. Bang. Bang. WOW.

This blew me away.

I mean this REALLY BLEW ME AWAY.

For more info look here and here.

If you only look at one thing on the web this week go here.

If you are a blogger please spread the word on this amazing work.

Paul Close, duckrabbit salutes you!

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