Travel & Humanitarian Photos
Some links to juice up your weekend:
Brenda Ann Kenneally is the winner of the 2008 Canon Female Photojournalist award. The prize of €8,000 will “allow Keneally to shoot a report that sweeps away the clichés coming from glossy TV series such as ‘Desperate Housewives’.” Two things I noticed about Keneally’s truly excellent web site, the first is that none of her pictures is wasted. There’s not a single one, to my eye, that doesn’t have impact and which is not thought provoking. The second is that it’s one of the best executions of multimedia story-telling that I’ve seen on the web. No fluffy and unnecessary music, just the words of her subjects to accompany the illustrations.
Photo District News brings us the story of Zoriah, a photojournalist embedded with US forces in Iraq. Zoriah posted pictures of US Marine fatalities on his blog. His blog shows gruesome photos of the dead and dying in the aftermath of a suicide bombing. Military officials claim that Zoriah broke the rules of his embedded status but Zoriah refutes this, saying “They embedded a war photographer, and when I took a photo of war, they disembedded me. It’s as if it’s okay to take pictures of them handing lollipops to kids on the street and providing medical care, but photographing the actual war is unacceptable.” The photos are horrifying. Shouldn’t that be the point of a War Photographer’s work?
On a much cheerier note, I subscribe to Anna Kuperberg’s blog and am always delighted to see the photos she takes at weddings. Her photos have a lovely look to them and I’m sure that the newly-weds are invaribaly delighted. I think she must be a very personable character. Interesting how her personality comes across on her work. Anyway, her latest shots really appealed to me and I think the picture of the two boys is one of the funniest wedding photos I’ve seen. You’ll immediately know the one I mean when you look at her site.
It’s not big and it’s not clever but if you’re looking for a daily dose of the quite, quite mad for momentary distraction then I recommend the Scaryduck blog. This is the man who regularly writes to local newspapers under the guise of Kim Jong Il suggesting that the local borough council should fund giant statues of the Minogue twins in order to cheer the hearts of the local populace – and gets them published! Become a regular reader and I guarantee that you’ll find the catchphrases “sick inna hedge” and “done a poo” leaving your lips at inappropriate moments.
Not a link but just an interesting snippet of local information: I went to the the local Apple authorised reseller yesterday to buy some extra RAM for my MacBook Pro. The nice lady in the shop opened up the package and grabbed the memory chip quite indelicately. I politely suggested that it might at least have been worth her discharging the static from her body before handling the sensitive electrical component. She regarded my with a sympathetic look that Thais reserve for bemused foreigners and said “it’s OK, we don’t have static electricity in Thailand”. We agreed that I’d take an unopened chip home and install it myself.
Lastly, I’ve noticed that as well as me being away from home, David’s in Hawaii, Matt’s in Malaysia, Mitchell’s in Indonesia and Tewfic’s in London. Don’t these people have homes to go to?