PRECIOUS (and beyond)...

I had no immediate plans on seeing this movie thinking it yet another feel good, Oprah approved, after school special about "The Black Experience." Fortunately, fate had other plans and I wound up taking some of my clients with developmental disabilities to see it. This flick does not pull any punches, it is as real as real gets, brutally so- much kudos to Lee Daniels for doing it just like that. And while Gabourey Sidibe made it shine, it was Mo'Nique, the all time abusive, ghetto momma from hell who really left me asking if she was acting.

This film is not meant to portray your typical mother/family relationship from the inner city (such a disclaimer should be anything but necessary, but society to this day pays little notice to the countless minions who struggle to survive against daily odds that would lay low any of their most boisterous of critics)- but it does offer some insight into those children who are the walking wounded that inhabit many a classroom in any major urban center you choose. We are just beginning to recognize the effects of PTSD on veterans- and if we are nowhere near proper treatment when it has been officially recognized in adults, what chance do children have who have suffered the same exposure in an environment of daily violence, stress and abuse?

Oh, and my clients- they got it just fine...

Conflict Photography Yesterday, Today and... Tomorrow?

(AP Photos/David Guttenfelder)

So there I was scrolling transfixed from one outstanding image to another until I get to the money shot, or as it was in this case, the pure and simple gag shot- a US soldier in his boxers, firing away, rifle in hand. One absolutely incredible set of images (via Tywkiwdbi), and the most famous in David Guttenfelder's entire essay is the joker. So what, if anything, does this say about the current state of (conflict) photojournalism?

Think of the Viet Nam images that have been seared into our collective consciousness: the wounded black soldier rushing to the aid of his stricken white comrade, the impromptu execution via gun to the head, the "napalm girl" running down the road, the bodies littering My Lai... With all our digital high tech, supermulti megapixel immediacy- will the boxer photo be the iconic image to inform and remind us of this current debacle? A war initiated by a dunce then conducted like some token forgotten afterthought- perhaps it is only fitting it be commemorated by a comic strip image shooting an invisible enemy. Perhaps that's the true legacy of a history we were once allowed to remember by the lives that were lost and the blood that was shed- modern conflicts where even our own dead are purposely shunned, ignored, and forgotten.

Important Then, Now And...

I'm not about to feign I know the slightest concerning the ins and outs of professional photojournalism. But I do remember back in the day (the 70's to be exact) when the first wave of "the end of photojournalism" hit the scene. LIFE died, budgets were slashed, and ironically, more magazines than ever populated the planet. This time however, the internets and digital ubiquity have changed the gameplay considerably. Newspapers closing, Flickr rising- you know the scenario...

Competition was vicious back then, I can only imagine now with online amateurs giving it away and vacuous celebrity photos devouring anything and everything of meaningful societal value. And while I (or anyone for that matter) certainly don't know the future of photojournalism, I can only marvel at and applaud young bloods (like Mike Mullady) who continue to enter the field and give to it their all. They may not end up changing the world, but their effort leaves the rest of us little excuse for not knowing, or addressing said situation(s). It only remains to be seen if we continue to descend further into our escapist womb as our environment (economic and natural) continues to collapse, or live up to the challenges that we all confront.

Of course, it would also be nice if the future also meant an increase in "Third World" peoples being able to better document their own affairs- something rarely mentioned when the subject's discussed at length (see links below). But I'm not what you'd call an optimistic kinda guy. And finally, this excerpt was particularly unique and thought provoking:

With only a few rare exceptions, the photos that have gone down in history did not make the front page the day after they were taken; often they were spotted much later, or rediscovered on contact sheets. Now with digital photography, shots can be erased if they don’t appear to be of any immediate relevance. Digital technology may mean that great chunks of history could be lost.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0003ol

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0003on

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue9912/editorial.htm

http://my.opera.com/Nikio/blog/2009/09/16/photojournalism-is-dead

http://www.lightstalkers.org/i-dont-really-care-about-the-future-of-photojournalism

The Greatest Color Photograph Ever Made

Sure, it's a  ridiculous statement. But it's the first thing I thought when I first saw this photograph, and it's the first thing that comes to mind when I see it to this day...
RIP  Evelyn Hofer.

Eugene Richards- No One Much Cares

Finally caught up to Eugene Richards' No One Much Cares  via A Developing Story. And now that I actually work with adults with developmental disabilities, that slight tinge of guilt associated with viewing subject matter that is so horrific in reality and yet translated into such stark "beauty," becomes ever the more focused, transparent and "real."

Of course, it's rather easy for us to pat ourselves on the back, and self righteously proclaim that we don't lock up human beings in institutions under such subhuman conditions here in the good ol' USA, while all one has to do is walk the streets of any major urban center to view how we continue to ignore and abandon so many of our own citizens with disabilities right in open sight.

And Not One Collision...

Quote Of The Week...

I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says you shouldn't get breast implants. -former Miss California Carrie Prejean  
(Or make masturbation videos).

White Beauty...

This blatantly racist five part skin tone epic is more pathetic than anything when you get down to it. Alas-seven more recent racist ads...  (via HuffPo)

On Sheer Strength of Talent Alone!

While some of us have contented ourselves with seeing fit to demand and encourage diversity friendly juries and panels in regards to race and gender, the good folks at NYPH'10 have single handedly led the charge to ensure that the aforementioned are also free of anti-celebrity bias.

Anyone doubting Lou Reed's curatorial bona fides in photography has merely to peer at the photos included in this revelatory feature- nothing like a few infrareds to truly assure and inspire. His third (3rd!) book of photographs is published by Blurb Steidl- and if you ask him real nice when you see him there, he may not only play ya a tune, he may just let you borrow his new $24,000 medium format Leica!

20 years Yesterday...

Checkpoint Charlie 8/90

Twenty years ago I still held to the naive belief that the "monumental" creations of my lifetime were just that- monuments meant to endure... Communist China, The Berlin Wall, The World Trade Center- never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd outlive any of them. And that said, can only hope to see the destruction of the Israeli Wall ASAP...

And if you haven't seen The Last Border by Brian Rose, wait no further. In it are the memories, ironies and beauty that is the tragedy called mankind...

Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered A Young Girl- (Not) Taken Down

All good things come to an end, and after proving and winning his counter claim, Isaac Eiland-Hall has taken the "offending" website down- a class act. Class I would not have afforded such a shameless buffoon who has repeatedly proven just how low he can go...

Update:  It Lives!  See Comments...

A Developing Story

A Developing Story is a new and intriguing site for both mind and eye launched by John Bennett in conjunction with Benjamin Chesterton of DuckRabbit fame. Ben is a big time promoter of superlative multi-media presentations, and this already is just that...

A Coupla Things...

Peter van Agtmael has his cross country photo essay set to various radio chatter- it feels equal parts fleeting, episodic and yet very intense... And the rest of the up and coming work on Fader (featured on the right hand side) also looks quite the promising... (via APAD)

Managed to have a post (featuring Paolo Wood amongst others) published yesterday on Bag News Notes concerning various aspects of colonial and current day Africa...

What We Became, And Still Are...

Remember all that wonderfully mellifluous bullshit about transparency? If even the least of it were true, certainly this would not stand. Nor this...

Medication Madness

Dr. Peter Breggin has stated that if you've read two or three self help books, you effectively have a greater psychological background than your average military psychiatrist. Meds anyone?

"Logic" Personified...

I'll admit Glenn Beck quite the laughable buffoon on his own merit, but Jon Stewart's impersonation expertly reveals and revels in the ludicrous logic of his moronic right wing popularity.

Rep. Alan Grayson- Congressman, Hero...

True, it doesn't take much these days- and that's why it's so incredibly extraordinary when someone with a brain, a heart, and a set of balls actually walks amongst us and takes it to the next, and logical level...

No. 27!!!

Congratulations, New York Yankees! (New York born and raised folks)

Mariano Rivera (Photo: Dave Kaup/Reuters)

Underwhelming "Landslide"

After leading the charge to overturn term limits (which he previously stated he was for) and outspending his opponent 14 to 1 with $100,000,000 of his own money (approx $200 per vote) to win his third term as mayor of NYC, Mayor Bloomberg managed to eke out a victory by some 5% despite predictions of a double digit landslide...

And for the best election pundit analysis ever (go 5 min into it)- applicable any year, any election....

Republicans For Rape (the website)

Thirty (30) proud, patriotic Republican Senators voted against Senator Al Franken's anti-rape amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill... (Click on Banner for website).

Spectacular?

Gotta admit I was completely underwhelmed by the egg sized jpeg I kept seeing of this supposedly "stunningly spectacular" 3,000 photo composite of our own Milky Way Galaxy- till I finally caught up with the high res image...