The Photography Thread

[North Star]

NYT photo essay & interviews:

Portraits of Reconciliation
20 years after the genocide in Rwanda,
reconciliation still happens one encounter at a time.

Just saw the documentary "Finding Vivian Maier".  For me, it was incredibly powerful and moving. I can't remember the last thing I saw that affected me so deeply.  I can't say why, exactly, so perhaps it is unlikely to hit others in the same way, but if you have a chance to see it, I recommend that you do so.

+1

It's already on my must-see list, your post has moved it up. Thanks for the comments, Bak.

Move it up another notch

[Pat B]

By the Rhine, 1981, shot with an Olympus OM-2 and a Sigma 600mm Mirror, which accounts for the donut-shaped bokeh.

A nice effect! I assume that's why you used such a long lens for a portrait. Nice shots in general.

[North Star]

Nice iceberg photos:

The Last Iceberg
Photographs by
Camille Seaman

California-based photographer and 2011 TED Fellow, Camille Seaman, has been photographing in both Arctic regions, including in Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica, since 2003.
Seaman writes:

"Nick Cave once sang, 'All things move toward their end.' Icebergs give the impression of doing just that, in their individual way, much as humans do; they have been created of unique conditions and shaped by their environments to live a brief life in a manner solely their own."

She explains that some go the distance traveling for many years slowly being eroded by time and the elements; others get snagged on the rocks and are whittled away by persistent currents. Still others dramatically collapse in fits of passion and fury. The Last Iceberg chronicles just a handful of the many thousands of icebergs that are currently headed to their end.

"I approach the images of icebergs as portraits of individuals, much like family photos of my ancestors," Seaman adds. "I seek a moment in their life in which they convey their unique personality, some connection to our own experience and a glimpse of their soul which endures."

[Sergeant Rock]

A nice effect! I assume that's why you used such a long lens for a portrait.

Yes. With that lens I thought the extreme out-of-focus background combined with the mirror's effect on the light reflected from the river and the meadow flowers would make interesting images. Mrs. Rock helps too 




Sarge

[mn dave]

Bleary reading of thread title: The Pornography Thread.

[Sergeant Rock]

Bleary reading of thread title: The Pornography Thread.

I could contribute to that! 

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Three facades:

Church in Albequerque New Mexico




Bank in Leipzig Germany. (I don't know what the blue pipes are but they were running all over the old town.)




House in Großkarlbach Germany with interesting curtains in the top right window.




Sarge

[mn dave]

I could contribute to that! 

Sarge

[North Star]

...and yet more dead flowers...

In colour:

[North Star]

Flowers under Scriabinian influence

[snyprrr]

Why is there a Pornography Thread?

[North Star]

I like how the textures look like this was not a photograph at all, and more like a painting or an etching perhaps.  (editing: monochrome & warming the tone, added contrast)

[North Star]

I went for that Abstract Expressionism vibe

[torut]

I went for that Abstract Expressionism vibe

Are all the photographs at the link (flickr) your works? They are so beautiful. I remember some of them were used as avatar. I liked Play of Light very much.

[North Star]

Are all the photographs at the link (flickr) your works? They are so beautiful. I remember some of them were used as avatar. I liked Play of Light very much.

Yes they are. Thanks!

[North Star]

From Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Images
     

Chang Chao-Tang was a high school student in 1959 when he borrowed his older brother's Aires Automat 120 twin-lens reflex camera without much thought. He liked going for long walks with the camera after school; it eased the burden of his homework. Eventually, he found himself taking photos with the camera every day, photos of common people and places in Taiwan, like youngsters poking out of street corners or at beaches, farm animals, and dolls.

"Those images are so pure and innocent," he said. "You can't go back to that kind of feeling."

Mr. Chang hardly suspected that he would grow up to become one of Taiwan's most important photographers — in fact, he had such little regard for this kind of future that he did not even bother to save his negatives. Yet half a century later, these images have been in major exhibitions, including one that opens this week at the Gallery Tosei in Japan. Called "Images of Youth (1959-1961): The Photographs of Chang Chao-Tang," the exhibition opened April 4 and runs through April 26.

[North Star]

I'm guessing there will be more from this 'shoot'

[North Star]

Some cool street photography from northernmost Russia:

Days of Night/Nights of Day


Photographs and text by
Elena Chernyshova
 

Days of Night/Nights of Day" is about the daily life of the inhabitants of Norilsk. Norilsk is a mining city, with a population of more than 170,000. It is the northernmost city (100,000+ people) in the world. The average temperature is -10° C and reaches lows of -55° C in the winter. For two months of the year, the city is plunged into polar night when there are zero hours of sunlight.

The entire city, its mines and its metallurgical factories were constructed by prisoners of the nearby gulag, Norillag, in the 1920s and 30s. 60% of the present population is involved with the city's industrial processes: mining, smelting, metallurgy and so on. The city sits on the world's largest deposit of nickel-copper-palladium. Nearly half of the world's palladium is mined in Norilsk. Accordingly, Norilsk is the 7th most polluted city in the world.

This documentary project aims to investigate human adaptation to extreme climate, environmental disaster and isolation. The living conditions of the people of Norilsk are unique, making them an incomparable subject for such a study.

[North Star]

I'm guessing there will be more from this 'shoot'

And I seem to have been right.

[North Star]

Bump!

Esa-Pekka Salonen (Juhani Niiranen, HS.fi)