A different way of seeing photographs

Yesterday my wife and I were sitting in department store waiting for my in-laws.  My wife pulled out a yoga guide she had just purchased and started flipping through it.  Each two page spread features step-by-step directions for one yoga pose, illustrated with a series of a dozen images.  As I looked over her shoulder while she flipped through the book, what I began to see was what a huge (and probably tiresome) photography job this book represented.  Altogether the book must feature hundreds of such photos.  This has nothing at all to do with the layout and design of the book, simply the work that went into capturing and editing all the images.

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How Do You Photograph A City's Bankruptcy?

I like the empty spaces and the emphasis on form and color in this collection.  

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Assignment Five: Narrative

Introduction

I don’t know if I could have found a more interesting subject for this assignment.

When I started thinking some months ago about how to spend my 8-week my summer holiday, I knew I wanted to do something to extend my photographic practice.  I began looking around the internet for classes, most of which seemed to be rather expensive and not in the direction I would be travelling, toward my in-laws in Japan.  I found a few organizations offering internships with newspapers and magazines in several developing Asian nations, but it seemed fees were too high for unpaid work experience.  I then came upon Unite For Sight, a US-based NGO supporting eye clinics in several developing countries and offering volunteer opportunities to photography students.  Three of their network hospitals are in India, east of and very close to Dubai.

With a reference from my OCA tutor and other supporting documents, my application to the program was accepted and my plan set in motion:  to do this narrative assignment on some aspect of life at Kalinga Eye Hospital.   Besides meeting my own needs, I wanted to do work that would be useful to the hospital, but communication from India was sparse.  The NGO claimed the hospital staff was busy and would be able to discuss things with me once I arrived. 

Review: War Photographer (2001): James Nachtwey

I had heard the name before but knew little about Natchtwey.  What comes to mind is Farah Nosh mentioning him at our Photojournalist workshop as one of the greatest modern documentary photographers.  I found the film online and had downloaded it some months ago before firing it up last night.  I find myself hanging out with the in-laws during the summer holiday and with some hours to spare, a great opportunity for catching up on reading, blogging, and films.

What struck me most about the film was Natchtwey himself.  He reminds me a bit of me, of someone who has spent a good deal of his life living outside his own culture and in doing so learned to modify his behavior in ways that insure his continued acceptance and survival.  He speaks slowly and articulates clearly. There is only a trace of an accent.  His words are careful and deliberate. As someone regularly in high stress situations, he has learned to manage his emotions and doesn't seem like the kind of person quick to anger, nor quick to excite.  His story of waking up one morning and deciding to be a war photographer seems mostly believable. He seems like the kind of person I would like to know.

Photographically, it was interesting to see someone working at the end of the analog age.  Most of the film seems to have been shot in the late 1990s and there are several scenes showing the photogrpaher changing film or labeling canisters.  I was surprised at how closely he gets to grieving subjects.  Just watching him made me feel uncomfortable.

I don't plan on  being a war photographer, but it was inspiring to witness someone giving his life to documenting suffering.  I'm afraid not many of us could do even half as much.

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Looking at paintings: French impressionists from the Clark

Théodore Rousseau, Farm in Les Landes, 1844–67

Perhaps the last time I went to an art museum was in 2007 during a visit to Atlanta.  An old friend took my wife and I, as well as some Thai friends then studying in Savannah, to the Atlanta High for the Annie Leibovitz exhibit, A Photographer's Life.  It wasn't long after that I began studying in Nepal, and thereafter moved to the UAE.

But here I am in Japan.  My wife is on a two-day whirlwind visit to Kyushu, and the in-laws felt obliged to show me a good time.  There isn't a whole lot to see or do in Kobe, but fortunately a special collection was on at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum.