My Book on Photography
March 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
It all started when a friend approached me with, “Have you ever thought about doing a book?”
I’d heard that about a million times so I gave my usual, “Yeah, that sounds like fun,” never expecting it to go anywhere.
Well, this time it went somewhere. I ended up writing a complete guide to photography (as I see it) for Zibtips.com, complete with a selection of my photographs. At the Zibtips website you can find my guide, which covers photography theory and technique at the basic and intermediate level.
Writing is a tough job. There were many times in the project where I felt like I was running a marathon and my brain just wouldn’t go any further. In those dark moments I would turn to the Xbox360 and play a thirty-minute (okay, sixty-minute) session of Crackdown, a videogame where you play a superhuman-type cop in a rough city.
(Description from xbox.com: Low on ammo? Never a problem. Thanks to an amazing amount of props and a deep physics system, you can use whatever you get your hands on as a weapon: Trash cans, vehicles, even people.)
Yes, using people as weapons turned out to be a great way to relieve the stress and get my mind back on task during these intensive writing sessions. Such are my memories of June 2007. I was so proud when I earned the “Body Juggling” achievement. Who knew I was so skilled with a rocket launcher?
Mother and Naked Child vs. Riot Squad
March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
“An indigenous woman holds her child while trying to resist the advance of Amazonas state policemen who were expelling the woman and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a privately-owned tract of land on the outskirts of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon March 11, 2008. The landless peasants tried in vain to resist the eviction with bows and arrows against police using tear gas and trained dogs. REUTERS/Luiz Vasconcelos-A Critica/AE (BRAZIL)”.
This isn’t my photo. It’s from Reuters’ Luiz Vasconcelos and it is breathtaking. More symbolism than you could shake a club at. A woman with a naked child confronting a squad of faceless riot police. What more could you ask for?
But what really got me thinking were the comments about the photo on the Reuters blog, which you can see by clicking here.
The first comment that got me thinking said: “Serves her right she should not be there anyway!!!”
Pretty harsh, was my first thought. Then more comments expressed concern for the child, asking why this mother would endanger her naked child in an act of protest? Other comments called for more context, saying the photograph didn’t provide them enough information to judge the situation.
Now I’m not going to defend, oppose, or even try to explain the Landless Movement to you in this short blog post. But this photograph and the resulting comments demonstrate that without background information and a clear understanding of the situation, even great photojournalism (which this photo is) can create confusion as viewers attach their own feelings on society, authority, and culture to someone else’s experiences.
More than a few referred to the photograph as nothing but propaganda. And I’m sure I’ll see it on display at Revolution Books the next time I’m in Berkeley. But regardless of how organizations use the photograph, it’s a powerful moment. And that’s no matter who was wrong, be it the police, the mother, the Landless Movement, or even me.
Found Sign
March 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Just picked this one up on my lunch break in Bountiful.
The End - HS State Championships
March 14, 2008 | 1 Comment
This year Skyline won. These post-game celebrations are full of great moments and faces. It’s a shame I can’t stop time (yet) so that I could do some real compositions. These chaotic moments when players go crazy become a frenzy of grab-shots. Both of these frames were made with the camera held up over my head. The key is to know your camera and know your lens, so that you can point it at a scene and know what you’re capturing even when you aren’t looking through the viewfinder.
That’s Skyline senior Jenteal Jackson, letting out a scream after they beat American Fork for the state championship. Key player, key moment. I’ll admit it: Luck.
5th Foul - HS State Championships
March 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Richfield - Piute High School’s Krystyna Lamas (left) wipes a tear from her eye after fouling out of the game in the 4th quarter of the 1A State Championship game. Rich High School went on to win the title.
Another series of state basketball championships and the only photos that matter to me now are the storytelling moments. The jump shots, steals, rebounds, and scrambles that I captured at high shutter-speed— you could literally throw them all out and I would never notice them missing.
For those of you like Ben Weasel who don’t care about high school sports, just one more post and we’re out of this series.
