shutter to think

day 2

a few from today's pictures...an incredible day.

tuesday, june 15, 2008. san francisco, ca
same-sex marriages

 

 

day 1

i decided to go to SF to shoot the same-sex marriages on monday, the first day. since i don't really shoot news at the newspaper i work at, i thought i ought to go out on my own and cover the event as a freelancer. my pictures are up on atlas press photo agency. the light that evening was really nice. my mental conflict about freelancing/documentary vs. shooting for a community newspaper is for another post.

june 16, 2008 5pm: City Hall, San Francisco
same-sex marriages

Burma junta/NYT article

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/world/asia/07delta.html

The Burma (Myanmar) junta evicts cyclone victims from monastary shelter back to the delta....
unbelievable. There's an insightful quote about the Burmese people in the middle of the story.

long live the concerned photographer

Cornell Capa (b. 1918, Hungary) died today at the age of 90. He was the brother of Robert Capa; a former Life magazine and Magnum agency photographer; and founder of the International Center of Photography; coined the term "the concerned photographer" which is the title of his book published in 1968.

from a ny times article: the concerned photographer
"He used the phrase often to describe any photographer who was passionately dedicated to doing work that contributed to the understanding and well-being of humanity and who produced “images in which genuine human feeling predominates over commercial cynicism or disinterested formalism.”

link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/arts/design/23cnd-capa.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

he also photographed one of my favorite vintage cars! the ford falcon in the early sixties.

sichuan wedding

This wedding photographer continued to take pictures during the sichuan earthquake.

a turbulent wedding day...
http://blog.photoshelter.com/2008/05/a-wedding-in-sichuan.html

and if you can read chinese, here's the story;
http://news.sohu.com/20080517/n256926605.shtml

the photographer's blog and photos -
http://www.xanga.com/lelandwong/657607591/photographing-a-wedding-and-then-an-earthquake.html

our upside down world

there is a picture of a woman lying on the ground, with her arm around her dead son, taken by jason lee of reuters. that is the picture that broke me. i actually cried from the photograph. it wasn't a compelling image, but rather how straight-foward it was. there was no complexity necessary to make it an interesting picture. i didn't need to see pain on her face but rather it was her body language, her arm around her dead son. and she was with him while the dead person next to them was left alone. the earthquake in china is devastatingly sad. it was so disasterous that it literally took the Chinese army to be the first responders. if only our country could have responded as fast as the Chinese govt to the Katrina disaster....

and shame on the burma govt....they are literally killing their own people by preventing humanitarian aid, food and water to enter the country, while people in China are trying to survive, under concrete rubble, in hospitals, or on roadsides, with broken hearts. It doesn't take a natural disaster to act in genocide. and it doesn't take a war or religious differences. it takes a government's stupidity and selfishness...to do something like this. intentionally. when the people are strong again, they will remember how were neglected. and with their unity, they will overthrow their government.

Celebrating Israel from Napa

Napa's local Jewish community celebrates the 60th Anniversary of Israel......

"Israel"

"Pioneer"

Beard trimming: "Theodor Herzl would not look like a cave man."

Backstage of "This is your life Israel."

A little Israeli folk dancing in the synagogue -

The Mojito Revolution!

What Abel said in an interview. This is a man who has been waiting his lifetime to leave an island. He arrived as a boy and will leave as an old man. He's obligation to help his ailing father and to keep a business afloat, to make the Chinese dream a success only proved a disappointment when the Revolution happened. They then lost everything, including their only ticket back to China: just enough money. He held my hands and said: Go and live the life I never had. Abel awaits his Cuban wife and the right papers to reunite with his son in Costa Rica.

"What is written on your arm is in the past. It is not who you are in the future."

assignments

every now and then i'll lift my head from video editing and shoot a couple of assignments. here's a few from last week:

student art exhibit opening -

a liquor story to run on sunday -

and a biz expo -

Peace Walk for Burma over GG Bridge

I'm not sure why I thought the peace walk was about Burmese Monks walking across the golden gate bridge...but i suppose it was an esoteric way of doing it in spirit, afterall, the walk was in support of the monks who are in hiding, incarcerated and abused by the govt in Burma. Ah some things are just not so literal like photographing Burmese Monks walking across the Bridge. Instead, hundreds of supporters and a monk did do the walk. as did a couple dozen photographers. while the purpose is significant, the hoards of photographers make it seem ridiculous. anyway, i was one of them. here's some from yesturday morning...

This one is my favorite - the cityscape in the background...

(pls remember that all pictures on this blog cannot be downloaded or published in any way, shape or form. pls contact me!)