pictures to prove it™

those who know me, know i love comic books as much as a love photos. i was thrilled when i stumbled onto this story at PDNonline. ive been suggesting that ben lowy do a graphic novel of his first trip to Iraq, but draw it himself. maybe this will inspire him.

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“Drawings and photographs are like oil and water,” says graphic artist Emmanuel Guibert. “One always wants to kill the other. They are like enemies.”

Despite this esthetic antipathy, however, Guibert’s graphic illustrations blend peacefully and seamlessly with the black-and-white photographs taken by his late friend Didier Lefèvre in The Photographer (First Second Books, 2009), a deeply compelling narrative in words, drawings and photographs. The book, a 278-page graphic memoir, describes Lefèvre’s first mission to Afghanistan for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in 1986, during the Soviet occupation of the country. (continued here…)

http://blog.planet5d.com/2009/05/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-manual-exposure-control-firmware/

my dear friend Rachel Sauer is one of the greatest and most genuine voices i’ve ever known. i find great joy in the fact that she has packed her wagon and scuttled to china for a bit to teach english and to learn a bit about the world.

she has an amazing blog that chronicles her adventures. every word is worth reading, but i’d suggest you start with this current post about how her camera bridged a gap between her and a train full of locals.

she is wonderful. this is proof.

The New York Times photoblog Lens has a interesting video of Tony Cenicola, “the master of The Times’s basement photo studio” showing how he made this illustration for the Wealth & Personal Finance section of the paper. pretty cool. you can see it here.

© Kurt Weston

Time.com has this great photo essay featuring the work of blind photographers exhibiting their work at the California Museum of Photography. the exhibit called Sight Unseen includes work by; Kurt Weston, Ralph Baker, Evgen Bavcar, Henry Butler, Pete Eckert, Bruce Hall, Annie Hesse, Rosita McKenzie, Gerardo Nigenda, Michael Richard, Alice Wingwall and others.

A glimpse at my roomie Ami’s exhibit done in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. (from the photoshelter blog.)

© 2008 Tim Hetherington

i just stumbled across this post of Tim Hetherington’s World Press Acceptance Speech on Gary Knight’s site dispatches. it just struck me in a way i can’t seem to verbalize, but i wanted to make sure people go back and read it. it’s simple, honest and good.

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A lot of people have asked what this image means to me. It’s a question that I’ve tended to sidestep because it touches on some fairly personal issues. But I thought perhaps I could try and answer it tonight.

For many people, this photograph represents the larger political idea of war. It’s said that the man portrayed shows the exhaustion of a nation. Some people see it as propaganda for the war, others as an indictment of the war. But it doesn’t need to be either.

For me, this image isn’t about a nation, or an idea. It’s about a young man stuck on the side of a mountain in Afghanistan. His world has become the four dirt walls he dug by hand. A quarter of his platoon has been killed or wounded, and he knows that he may never see his wife again… (continued on dispatches)

08:04 am CDT May 12, 2009
(K2Climb.net) Central Asia Institute’s founder Greg Mortenson shot over the following news Sunday:

“Teru Kuwayama, the NYC photographer who has helped Central Asia Institute (CAI) for several years, was in a near fatal accident on the road from Peshawar to Islamabad last Saturday evening,” Greg Mortenson reported. (story continued here)

and a much better more thorough story in PDN here.

and American Photo here.

The 2nd International Day for Sharing Life Stories will take place on May 16th, 2009. This day is an opportunity to celebrate and promote life stories, as a way to encourage critical thinking, cultural democratization and social transformation. The International Day is organized by The Museum of the Person International Network (Brazil, Portugal, USA and Canada) and the Center for Digital Storytelling (USA, Canada, Denmark, Czech Republic, Ireland and Portugal)

The chosen theme for this years’ Day is Journey for Justice – Migration and Refugees… (continued here)