Here’s a quick round-up of some stuff I’ve been reading by way of information and entertainment for your weekend. Whatever you have planned, I hope you find it enjoyable.

Guardian Article - Are Photographers really a threat?
We already know the answer to this question but it’s good to see the Guardian speaking with a reasonable voice on this one.

Look3
James Nachtwey featured at last week’s Look3 event and PDN are running excerpts of an interview he held with Mary Anne Golon together with a video round-up of the festival.

Julian Love - Getting started as a Travel Photographer
Julian’s blog post is a couple of weeks old now but it’s refreshingly free of an false encouragement for budding Travel Photographers. There’s also my own FAQ page if you’re seeking advice and guidance.

Matt Brandon’s vlogging a dead horse
Trying to get an Indian visa in San Francisco can be a problem but at least it gives us a chance to see Matt’s first video blog entry.

How to be creative
The Gaping Void guide to creativity is something that I return to occasionally, if only to remind myself of the first of the 36 steps to creativity: “Ignore everybody”


Mark Tuschman in Bhutan
Lastly, I’ve been looking forward to my Bhutan trip in October (I know, I’ve only just arrived in Bangkok, what can I say, I’m a rolling stone) and enjoying Mark Tuschman’s photos from there. Click on “International” and then “Bhutan” on his site.

Tags: guardian, matt brandon, creativity, bhutan, photography in public places

There aren't many things that really get my goat these days, apart from discourteous driving, which always gets me reciting a list of expletives. Oh, and poor customer service. And any sort of automated phone system. And the lack of anything remotely watchable on the TV. OK, that's the start of what might become a long list if I let it continue.

One thing that rarely annoys me is looking at other photographers' work. There's always a lot to learn from other photographers, especially those who manage to earn a living from their trade. Which is why I was surprised to feel the hairs on the back of my neck pricking up yesterday when I read a National Geographic interview with Lynsey Addario.

I'll share just two excerpts from the interview with you, the full text can be found in the link in the previous paragraph:

"In one house there were these two little girls—one was maybe ten and the other seven—and their mother was working out in the fields. I walked into the house and said hello, and one of the girls just stared and started crying, because she had never seen a foreigner."

and

"But he just said, “Not possible.” For him, he couldn’t fathom bringing a photographer to a funeral. They aren’t used to people documenting their lives."

Lynsey Addario has photographed Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Miss India Beauty Pageant - all potentially dangerous locations for a photographer and she's taken photos that I would be hugely proud to have taken (check out her impressive web site) but, and it's a big "but", why on earth does she think that walking into somebody's house uninvited is not going to freak children out and in what world is she living if she thinks that arriving at a funeral with a big camera is going to see you welcomed with open arms?

This is an attitude that I've encountered quite a lot, sadly. Westerners who trot around Third World countries like it's their personal adventure playground, sticking their cameras into people's homes and lives as if the fact that because people are relatively poor (financially) it makes them little more than colourfully convenient photographic fodder. Seriously, to suggest that, "they aren't used to people documenting their lives" is the reason why people wouldn't want you to photograph the funeral of a loved one seems hugely ignorant and insensitive to me.

Grrr! It really made me bristle. Perhaps Lynsey was quoted out of context and I may be doing her a huge disservice, in which case I apologise. But her comments do reflect an attitude that I've encountered previously and, if nothing else, serve to illustrate the pompously arrogant and superior attitude that a lot of Westerners seem to have when visiting certain places in the world.

I'm going to give this some thought and see if there's not a more rational explanation for such behaviour and perhaps a more reasonable response to be made by me. In the mean time... Grrr!

PS - Whilst we're on the subject of annoying things: web sites that resize themselves to take over your computer screen!

Tags: bhutan, rant