Moody blues red & greens

These mid summer days are devoted to travel and colour with william eggleston and 60's art in mind. For this I will mostly use a little cannon ixus 75 which was lent by a good friend in exchange for pics of her family. This use of digital should help with a part of the project about Europeans having fun....... before War once again is forced on the people.

Obama has a mountain to climb

The Boston tour bus 1989

By Matt Frei ...................................AFP
BBC News, Washington

The man who once walked on water has been limping of late, his feet weighed down by a whole catalogue of sinking issues - race, elitism, an excess of academic aloofness in times of gritty gravity.

For millions of Americans, who have not read his book, who do not read the New York Times and who do not follow politics obsessively on the cable TV networks, he is a blank canvas, which his opponents can paint on.
That is dangerous and that is why one recent opinion poll suggested 15% of Americans still believe - astonishingly - that he is a Muslim................ ends.......

God may bless America but only the spirit of the founding fathers will save America.......these coming months will test that spirit in a way not seen since the sixties......Martin Luther King climbed a mountain 45 years ago, looked over, saw the promised land......and paid the price...this time around let the people not the gun speak ......loud and clear........

War News.....is Oil News

Thursday, 22 May 2008 14:37 UK

By Anthony Reuben
Business reporter, BBC News

"Who knows why oil prices are so high"


"It's the fundamentals, stupid," says Mark Lewis from Energy Market Consultants.

Its the increasing demand from China and India, a stand-off between the US and Iran, a hedge fund having to sell a particular oil contract so it does not end up receiving a tanker-load of oil - or a trader deciding it would be fun to be the first to trade oil above $100 a barrel.

It was the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, to over-optimistic expectations of oil production by non-Opec countries -the rocket testing in North Korea.......................

"We really don't know what the fundamentals are doing at any point in time," Mr Lewis says.

"The markets are looking for signals from the fundamentals. Some of them are irrelevant, some of them are wrong, some of them are meaningless, but they affect prices nevertheless."...........ends.................................................................................

What is the matter with people to listen to such claptrap........don't they know there is a war on and someone has to pay for it......and the oil tax is as good a way as any to pay off a war bill currently standing at three trillion whatever.....after all it was conducted by concerned democratic governments on behalf of the people and for the welfare of the people.......

#18 The Army of Evil

Italy Police to protect Gypsies
By Christian Fraser
BBC News, Rome

There is deep suspicion throughout the country of the Roma community..............The government is preparing controversial anti-immigration measures targeting Romanians in particular..........a 16-year-old Roma girl was caught inside an apartment last weekend, allegedly trying to steal a six-month-old baby girl...........vigilante groups in the suburb of Ponticelli took to the streets chasing the Roma out of two squatter camps....... Silvio Berlusconi has described the Roma and those committing the crime as "an army of evil"..........ends

Is Mr Berlusconi also referring to forces in Iraq? In a democracy there is a thing called due process.............

The "Madness" that plagues the hearts and souls of the easily frightened mind tours the world endlessly looking for a temporary home........it is parasite by nature..............but encouraged by the black hearts of politicians............people get exactly what they vote for...............

#18 Is Pluralism Finished

Roma in Bucharest
1997 ............................................A Bucharest theatre 1997
The world service tonight discussed the
topic "will the internet revolutionise democracy?"
From around the globe came the response that for most people in the world the internet is but a dream.............the exporters of western Democracy should look closer to their own houses and the growing practise of collective punishment against groups of people less able than
others to defend themselves.

#17 Archive.Photographer.RU

Игорь ГавриловКонкурс парикмахеров в
Москве. 1975................................................. Рождение человека. 1970-е

For the essay I have chosen No 8 ...... did a distinctively different 'new photojournalism' developed in the 1980's or was it simply a repackaging of traditional values.....For me this is an interesting topic as it can be viewed as during the watershed of contemporary photojournalism and the consequent degrading of the media's responsibilities to uphold fundamental principals of questioning the role & actions of government in a democratic society...Some say history has a way of correcting itself......

Сто авторов и пятьсот фотографий на выставке CCCP «Фото 60-70»

Вадим Алексеев

#16 On the Blower for street work

Armed with what can be described as a Wild card, I walked along the South bank of the Thames from the Eye to The Tate Modern' view of St Pauls.....Later in the Week I went to Exmouth and at last to see the famous Dartmoor. The Wild card was my old fashioned mobile phone and these are some of the results.........Homer and I agree that change can be a good thing. Even to change from Nikon to Nokia can help the process of development and break the chains of stagnation.

#15 LCC main projects 1

Divided Cities.........For a main project I want to continue with the project on divided cities. The cities want to tell their/my story through portraits streets scenes and architecture. It was primarily a European story but then these things have a way of spreading. The cities in question are Berlin, Jerusalem, Belfast, Nicosia & a recent addition Mitrovica. I want to use this year and the first half of next year to update and present the sequence up as far as 2009.......the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Nicosia, 10 years of peace in Belfast, a breakthrough in Jerusalem and for Mitrovica an uncertain future.

#14 Recession ahead

Now...is the winter of our discontent.......As recession looms from across the pond, is it time to accelerate the plan to relocate to the Benelux? Will there be pictures about akin to those of the F.S.A.? I think the West is not so broke. I see more that there could be opportunities to visit the house of Brussels to propagate ideas.
Street boy in
East Europe 1996

#13 Silva's “Sanpietrini”

"When you are in a car, (or near one as in my case), which pass from the smooth tarmac to the sanpietrini, the tyres make a characteristic noise."..........Silva talking on the sound of the “sanpietrini”. Something very familiar in European cities.

Reading Silva's account of walking home and hearing the “sanpietrini” as the car passed the guard hut gave me a flashback to when I lived in Bucharest's leafy diplomatic quarter during the nineties.

It also reminded me of by own borders. Borders are different things to different people.....

When I made this picture in the Royal palace, converted to the national museum after the communist takeover and during an exhibition on the '89Romanian revolution I could hear the continuous smack & rumble of the “sanpietrini” outside in the "Revolution Square." It was as if the “sanpietrini” played to the gallery inside

You know, all that time I never knew there was a name for that sound.......thanks for that Silva.....ps. the picture is of the gallery on fire.

# 12 Eden project/Irish DancerTwo magazine projects

As for the features during the first break............ I went for two subjects that interested me with the view to winning some images that can join the Europaeus project........

The Eden project in Devon was the first and it certainly lent its self to the theme of Post Modernism and the aesthetics of engagement with the natural environment for the 21st century.

It was a beautiful rainy west country day and as flat as a pancake..........this was perfect for working with the brightness and contrast controls to get an Eden effect...........





The second was how to illustrate the progress of peace and cultural pluralism in Belfast.....for this I got lucky.....on my return home I noticed a competition which might produce an image I had in my head for some time.....as it was..... the image was not exactly the same but was better........the lady was not Chinese.........but a beautiful black English girl from London participating in the Irish world dancing championships in Belfast.

# 11 Borders

I have finished a trip to England and return home today...the group decided on the topic "borders" for the group project.....

I will listen to the archive to understand the concept.....






Thorpe Park London 2008
by Tom Nangle 16yrs

#10 Easter/Holy Week

We are discussing the group project and it seem that FAITH is the clear front runner....Thinking in pictures this can be quite visual as well as topical. I just hope we dont give faith too much respect and allow for a healthy spectrum of views.

# 9 Stormy weather

I watched the recent storms from a Co Devon (west england) window still thinking about the projects ahead.

The weather/energy/environment topic needs to be addressed if only lightly in some shape or form....even Salgado feels the same....if only to have it in the flow of final portfolio and not ignore such an important issue......

I raised the question during the Bresson lecture on whether magnum chose correctly not to cover the 1930's german story.....

I now ask myself if there is room for me to be political or ethical in doing what I feel is my privilege to record what interests me as a photographer without considering the views of Sontag or others...........

# 8 London Town

I've been in London for a few days and unfortunately I'm leaving this afternoon. I haven't been in town since 1994 and what a difference a decade makes. I wanted to do a Sco and use the mobile phone in dark and underground places. I have no idea what the picture quality will be if any at all but still it was a thrill to be able to use the digital format candidly in areas where I would have stood out as a professional photographer with my bulky nikon.....I will try to post on my return......This has put me in the mood to seriously think of a good digi for night time life and subdued situations.......

# 7 Planning for spring

I can't seem to get beyond the idea that a major trip has to be planned for this spring summer and autumn......for the past two years I restricted travel to the Netherlands as there had been a major tour in 2005.....Now a re-think on how travel should be planned is shaping around the future of my projects that have taken on a life of their own and are challenging me to forget other ideas and focus on their completion and development for its sake and its sake alone........

I had heard this forecast and predicament during a conversation with an artist friend in his Bucharest studio in 1999.....

# 6 on the wall.

Last week I took a trip with my brother to the city of Londonderry......While he attended some meetings with local drama people I walked on top of the historic walls....about a square mile.......there was hardly anyone around but the few who were there were enough to make a couple of pictures.....nothing specular...... but because the place was a different environment to my usual abode it stimulated me.......I got a sense that the discussions on changing approach to the way I see and make pictures is gonna be not just beneficial but also fun.......

I think I'll keep an eye out for an old rolliflex or something similar......I mean they must be as cheap as old boots right now........and ask kodak to supply the film....

#3 50/35mm

I have decided to finish the 50/35 mm assignment tomorrow. The weather here has been putting me off.......dark and damp......still the dark can be a friend if it is dry. There is a gentle sweep into night time were the city lights and the fading sky do justice to one of my worker subjects.......a large ferris wheel parked in the centre of town which has litterly lifted the spirts of the people..........this is the 35mm shoot. The 50mm shoot went well even though it was pretty dark in the guy's workshop. The 50mm is my most used lens so I treat my 23yr old nikkor F1.2 with respect. In fact if anyone one wants to make me happy out there in cyberspace.......post a leica F1.0 noctilux.

# 2, 50/35mm

This first assignment is a good exercise. Like everything else, we need from time to time to tune, repair and service everything. Working with one lens is a great exercise to sharpen the senses.......but I see it as an exercise and I'm not sure I can pass over a good picture, if it presents itself, by not selecting the lens for the job......so should I focus on subjects which matter little to me or to my projects????? Its also hard to give full attention to that which comes and goes, but then, isn't that part of the business.......... I'll think about........

My Diary, intro

Classmates,

This diary will serve as a record of the journey I've commenced, with the help of the LCC course, to becoming a full-time documentary photographer/photojournalist focusing on the topics, projects and issues that have interested me as a photojournalist/documentary photographer. If during this transition I manage to carve out a decent living to accompany this lifelong goal.... then I will be one hell of a lucky person.

For me, like the most of us, this blogging is also a first. When I made the picture of the baby camera above earlier this summer, I was thinking it would serve as a logo for an old fashion business card.....the same week while viewing the graduate photography exhibition in the Hague Netherlands the students were asking not for a visit card but an internet address. Don't get me wrong I've been at the website photo-sales counter since the outset but those little requests for a blog address made me think.

I am astonished at the speed and development of the digital era and more than surprised at the complete shake-up or shake down of our newspaper industry over the past number of years....my last two post were on the picture desks of iffy national tabloids ........but that's part of the life in being involved in a technological revolution, which these days, is simply continuous. You never know what's around the corner.

I returned to the UK after enjoying the nineties and the first part of this decade, living, travelling and working in central and south east Europe, the Med basin and the near East from my base in Bucharest, Romania..........As people in a similar situation you can imagine my amazement at the change of attitude towards the status of the once respected press photographer. It all got summed up in a footnote on the BBC's website news pages inviting the world's citizens to help out and donate their pictures to the agency with a short line cautioning them on laws and personal safety.
Everyone was now the worlds press.......but strangely enough....rather than humble our work as professionals, it seems this surge in cheaper digital visual communication has enhanced the general public's awareness, appreciation and appetite for the best photography this remarkable medium has to offer.....we need to find new highways and by-ways to feed that hunger. For me, as a student once again, the LCC programme is a revolution in itself. A programme that has stepped forward in a time of change to lead and guide...........so good luck to ye all and lets work as a team to achieve our common aims.............