Ed Kashi wrote an article for liveBook's new blog, Resolve, describing his experiences teaching a National Geographic Photo Camp in India. I especially liked what he had to say about the educational role photography plays within a global context:
I believe strongly in the power of photography to teach, to raise awareness, and to intimately and dramatically bring to life our stories, our issues, and our subconscious concerns. I have witnessed this power in countless situations, including refugee camps in Uganda, rural villages of Oaxaca, Mexico, the Latino district of San Francisco, and the South Bronx. These are the other National Geographic photo camps I’ve been a part of, but beyond this one set of experiences, I’ve been reminded repeatedly that photography has an uncanny, unique power to inspire, to prick the questioning mind, to discover beauty, and to express the intimate and personal.
It is this nexus of passion for, belief in, and commitment to the unique universe of visual storytelling that compels me to keep on driving forward, moving against the current odds, the dire predictions and blatant economic and structural trends. I cannot stop, nor do I believe I should. There is a usefulness, potency, and necessity to photography.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Kindle 2 has launched!
See Jon Stewart interview the boisterous founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, about Kindle 2. This product started shipping as of yesterday, February 24, 2009.
This interview is aptly titled "Jon Stewart vs. Kindle 2."
This interview is aptly titled "Jon Stewart vs. Kindle 2."
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Troll or trawl?
Some may find this to be a tad picky, but it is a pet peeve of mine that people substitute the word weary for wary. It happens more often that you'd think. The former refers to a state of feeling tired, and the latter means to be cautious. So, when someone says "I am weary of that suspicious looking man," my initial reaction is more likely to be annoyance for their mistake than concern for their safety. Perhaps my priorities are out of whack, but it's still true.
The other day I was listening to a David Sedaris audiobook (highly recommended way of passing time on a treadmill, by the way), and he was describing the act of "trawling" through something. I can't remember through what it was that he trawled. But it made me wonder if, when I refer to "trolling" through something - say, the Internet - I am using the word incorrectly. When I use the word, it's usually referring to something vaguely seedy, and I believe he was using "trawl" in a similar context:
Trolling is a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are drawn through the water.
This meaning of the term 'troll' as 'to wave a bait' is probably a heavy influence on the adoption of the term for describing certain negative social interactions in internet discussions.
"Andrew enjoys trolling the Internet for cute guys."
Obviously, this is an important issue that needs to be addressed, so I consulted Wikipedia:
Trolling can be phonetically confused with trawling, a completely different method of fishing, where a net (trawl) is drawn through the water instead of lines. Trolling is used both for recreational and commercial fishing whereas trawling is used mainly for commercial fishing.
This meaning of the term 'troll' as 'to wave a bait' is probably a heavy influence on the adoption of the term for describing certain negative social interactions in internet discussions.
Thank you, Wikipedia! The last sentence is particularly interesting: at least now I know how I came to use the word in the first place.
How's that for random Saturday morning musings? Stay tuned for my next linguistics topic, the fascinating and unusual Pennsylvanian usage of the word anymore! Included will be an interview with the Pennsylvanian that brought this phenomenon to my attention, my husband.
Yep, exciting stuff.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Guerilla Disco
Has anyone else noticed the advertising trend of creating guerilla-style, theatrical interruptions in public places? I'm sure everyone's heard by now about the flash mob dance-off at a London rail station courtesy of T-Mobile on January 15, 2009. I can be a little behind the curve at times regarding news, so I'm just now catching up.
Just in case you haven't heard, T-Mobile hired 350 dancers to put on a "spontaneous" dance-off to the puzzlement and amazement of hundreds of folks on their way to work, home, wherever. This is an innovative approach to their Life's For Sharing campaign. If you haven't watched the commercial, click play on the video below. It's fantastic!
This ad has spawned not only a multi-million YouTube cult following in the past few weeks but also - you guessed it - a copy of the event courtesy of Facebook. A couple of weeks after the launch of the ad, approximately 13000 people crowded the Liverpool Rail Station for a 25 minute silent disco. I must say, after reading an article from UK's Weekly Telegraph, I so wish I had been there!
Last year, Gossip Girl hopped on the bandwagon with Jenny Humphrey's fashion debut. She hijacked a fancy schmancy New York benefit with her own show. Yes, this is a fictional television series on the CW, but still. Check it out:
Last year, Gossip Girl hopped on the bandwagon with Jenny Humphrey's fashion debut. She hijacked a fancy schmancy New York benefit with her own show. Yes, this is a fictional television series on the CW, but still. Check it out:
Schmap Attack
Schmap included another one of my photos in their Key West travel guide. These are digital guides that can be viewed on your computer but also downloaded on iPhones and blogs. Handy.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Scanner Madness
In an effort to post some photos using my Nikon N70 film camera, I decided to take advantage of the super-snazzy film scanner at school today. I walked into the lab feeling confident in my embrace of modern technology (after spending hours in a medieval darkroom developing the film to be scanned, that walk felt like a time warp to the future). Unfortunately, this wonder of modern technology had a ragged sheet of copy paper taped to it stating "Broke - do not use."
The other available scanner is a flat-bed style that can be rigged up to scan film, but not easily. Well, at least I couldn't figure it out after messing with it for an hour and a half. This is a test strip I used to see if I could get the darned thing to work.
It took so long to do this I feel compelled to post it. Phew! I took these shots as part of an assignment in capturing "light." That was the extent of the explanation of the assignment; it was our job to interpret that as we like. These are not my favorites, but I kind of like them as a triptych...plus, this really took forever! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they fix the decent scanner!
The other available scanner is a flat-bed style that can be rigged up to scan film, but not easily. Well, at least I couldn't figure it out after messing with it for an hour and a half. This is a test strip I used to see if I could get the darned thing to work.
It took so long to do this I feel compelled to post it. Phew! I took these shots as part of an assignment in capturing "light." That was the extent of the explanation of the assignment; it was our job to interpret that as we like. These are not my favorites, but I kind of like them as a triptych...plus, this really took forever! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they fix the decent scanner!
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