this is my first shot with my new lens, a 24-70. replaced a worn out 28-70 which canon no longer manufactures. but it is a successful frame like this that reminds me of how much you can do with a wide angle –
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Trackbackby Antrim Caskey
WHITESVILLE, WV — Several years ago, Sarah Haltom painted a mural on the side of the Coal River Mountain Watch office in Whitesville, WV. The mural of the Coal River Valley has stood now for years as a surprising (for first time viewers) and beloved site in a town that seems to be hanging on by its fingernails.
About a month ago, in February, in the midst of a recent sustained campaign of peaceful non-violent civil disobedience in the Coal River Valley targeting the plethora of mountaintop removal operations that have engulfed this Appalachian valley, someone amended Ms. Haltom’s mural by adding six bulldozers/excavators; artfully stenciled them on in fact, with “big machine” yellow paint.
Coal River Mountain Watch let the local and state police know what happened; they promised to keep an eye out. But some wonder if it was guerilla artists who are responsible for the big yellow machinery. Sgt. Michael Smith of the West Virginia State Police (Whitesville detachment) commented to me when I was in his custody recently that “no one is talking…we don’t know who did it.”
I stopped by the CRMW office today to document the latest response in this visual conversation between strangers. Sarah Haltom has responded. Yesterday Ms. Haltom painted six “protesters,” locked down to the yellow bulldozers with long long chains, while holding amongst them four different banners reading in part, “Windmills Not Toxic Spills,” a reference to Coal River Wind project and the Dec.22, 2008, TVA coal ash disaster in Harriman, TN.
A man from Sylvester pulled up as I was shooting the mural. His son was driving – he hopped out to go run an errand. His father hollered to me, “You’re not from around here are ya?” I turned around and smiled and told him that I was from around here, I live in Rock Creek. His head kind of snapped back in surprise and we began to discuss the issues.
“My Daddy worked underground at Blue Pennett for 35 years,” he told me. “Underground. Why can’t they do that today?” He went on to lament with much anguish the losses West Virginia has suffered at the hands of coal. “What they’ve done is terrible. They’re things I’ve seen that he’ll never see,” he said, gesturing to his son who had now returned to the car. “But you can’t do anything about it.”
We turned to the mural and discussed it a bit more. “It’s like a conversation,” he said.
As the son revved the engine to start, the silver haired man, clad in deciduous hardwood camo–the standard in West Virginia– stuck his arm out the passenger window and shook my hand, “It was very good to meet you.”
Comments rss Trackback Comments rss TrackbackPlease drop by the Wimba Arms Monday evening. Bring Your Own Beer (BYOB)
if you do not have the key, use this link to enter as a guest:
Comments rss Trackbackhttp://www.viiphoto.com/vii_membership.html
Photo Agency
DUE: 5 JANUARY 2009: Call for Portfolio Submissions to VII and the VII Network
PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION RULES: VII Membership and the VII Network
Submission deadline: 5 January, 2009
Your submission will require the following items:
Documents Requirements: All in English as a word.doc or a printed hard copy
(1) in English: A brief explanation of your desire to join VII or the VII Network
(2) in English: A short biography with your email address
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Image Requirements:
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(2) 72 dpi, longest axis no greater than 1440 pixels, JPEG compression of 8, Mac-compatible CD
(3) Label each image as follows: Your initials than the sequence number
ex. XY-001, XY-002, … XY-060
(4) Place all images in a folder titled as your name
We regret that we will not consider applications that are not compliant with these criteria.
The address for submissions is:
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Comments rss TrackbackEighteen months after American troops were banned from using a number of social networking websites, the Pentagon yesterday unveiled its latest plan to prevent classified material leaking on to the internet: its own version of YouTube.
The US military pulled back the curtains on TroopTube, a video-sharing website it hopes will satisfy both the demand for communication from serving members of the armed forces and the department of defence’s requirements for secrecy.
TroopTube.tv says it is a site “designed to help military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart”. It offers personnel and their families the chance to upload videos and share them with each other.
The website is being overseen by Military OneSource, a branch of the defence department that specialises in supporting troops and their families. The website works in a similar fashion to YouTube. Users sign up by identifying themselves as military personnel or a relative and are then able to upload videos. However, all videos are screened by Pentagon employees to make sure there is nothing that threatens national security or uses copyright-protected material.
Dozens of videos have already been uploaded, including messages of support from spouses, parents and children. Some are intended to show serving troops what they are missing – including the first steps by the baby daughter of one marine – while others give a taste of home: a series of clips from a baseball game, for example.
The move is the latest in a long-running struggle between defence officials who want to reduce the cost and the security threat of internet access, and troops on the ground who want to use the open web for communication and entertainment.
Last May it emerged that the Pentagon had blocked its computer networks from accessing a number of websites – effectively banning YouTube, MySpace and similar sites. According to official documents, it was felt that the sites not only threatened troop safety, but also placed an undue burden on the department’s internet capability.
The Pentagon has struggled to cope with a new generation who use social networking tools and communications to carry uncensored versions of their life at war. In 2006 it ordered troops to stop posting so-called trophy videos – homemade films used as mementoes – and later it tried to close down or silence a number of blogs and message boards by active personnel.
Most famously, Colby Buzzell, a machine-gunner, wrote a blog detailing his Iraq tour and rapidly built up a huge following. But after six weeks an order came down that his blog should be stopped. It later became a book.
Comments rss TrackbackA disturbing video of police detaining a photojournalist from the Oakland Tribune.
Comments rss Trackbackphoto essay by tyler hicks in the new york times.
i just saw this, it is very powerful…very good storytelling…very good photography.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/11/01/world/20081101AFGHAN_index.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
related article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/world/asia/01afghan.html
Comments rss TrackbackTED, a New York-based organisation that brings together leading scientists, thinkers and designers committed to social change, grants $100000 to three outstanding people each year and gives them one wish to change the world. James Natchtwey is now using his skills as a photojournalist to raise global awareness of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis and in the process demonstrate the power of news photography in the digital age. He travelled to countries as diverse as Cambodia, Siberia, Rwanda and India documenting the XDR-TB and the efforts of governments and NGOs to pioneer new treatment programmes that may arrest the disease’s progression.
Last week TED unveiled a slide show of more than 50 images at the Lincoln Center in New York and the National Theatre in London and over the next few weeks the same photographs will be shown on outdoors screens in 50 cities worldwide and on the internet as part of a multimedia campaign that aims to harness the power of viral marketing techniques on the web. The aim is to bring TB into the mass consciousness in the hope of starting an action campaign that can leverage more funds for aid and sponsorship for research.
Comments rss TrackbackBorder
Bor”der\, n. [OE. bordure, F. bordure, fr. border to border, fr. bord a border; of German origin; cf. MHG. borte border, trimming, G. borte trimming, ribbon; akin to E. board in sense 8. See Board, n., and cf. Bordure.]1. The outer part or edge of anything, as of a garment, a garden, etc.; margin; verge; brink. Upon the borders of these solitudes. –Bentham. In the borders of death. –Barrow. 2. A boundary; a frontier of a state or of the settled part of a country; a frontier district. 3. A strip or stripe arranged along or near the edge of something, as an ornament or finish. 4. A narrow flower bed. Border land, land on the frontiers of two adjoining countries; debatable land; — often used figuratively; as, the border land of science. The Border, The Borders, specifically, the frontier districts of Scotland and England which lie adjacent. Over the border, across the boundary line or frontier. Syn: Edge; verge; brink; margin; brim; rim; boundary; confine.
I like the idea of the border lands … if there is a budget available i’d like to go shoot the borderlands between afghanistan and pakistan around the Durand Line…One intersting border closer to home is the Mason-Dixon line…I’m feeling kind of constrained by this project rubrik…anyone else?
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