The Distance Between Us

This Kickstarter campaign for photographer Christopher Capozziello is really worth your support. The subject of his book is his relationship with his twin brother Nick, who has cerebral palsy. The photography is extraordinary. Full disclosure: Chris shot our wedding and I'm a big fan. He's very close to meeting his goal on Kickstarter, but could use your help. 

Flex Is Kings

So many great projects to support on Kickstarter. The site's really creating a renaissance for artists who've had no outlet before. Count Flex Is Kings as another great one in the making, certainly worthy of your support.

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Photography: Painted Streets

Nice work by my brother Christopher Stribley aka PlasticRobot: He recently debuted his book of street art photography on Blurb.com. See it/buy it here.

Photos: Occupy Wall Street

I'm currently uploading a series of photos I took at Occupy Wall Street yesterday and today. The protests are in interesting thing to behold. There's a variety of different types of people there: hippies and hipsters, sure, but also war veterans, union workers, elderly people, and folks from all other walks of life. It's crowded but not terribly dirty. I saw several people cleaning up at the time. There's a volunteer medic tent and library, and they were serving up food for $2 a plate, I think. I also saw people getting free haircuts and suits in order to join a protest march to Times Square today. Whatever you think of the "occupation," it's a fascinating thing to behold and I feel fortunate to be able to witness it first hand, whether I agree with every point being made or not.

Nina Berman - Homeland

Border Watcher with Dogs, Arizona and Mexico border, 2008 - Nina Berman

If you're dawdling around Spring Street in NoLIta any time soon, drop into the Jen Bekman Gallery at 6 Spring and check out exhibit by documentary photographer, Nina Berman. It showcases 14 photos from her newly published monograph, Homeland. In her artist's statement, Berman describes the theme of her exhibit:

I came to this series after having spent the last few years photographing very graphic examples of the human cost of war. Many of the subjects I photographed said they grew up thinking war would be “fun.” Many watched the first Gulf War on TV and thought it was "awesome." Several said that becoming a soldier meant they would finally do something good in life.

Rather than continuing to show evidence of war, it seems appropriate for me to show the fantasies of war, the selling of war, the institutions of war, the culture of war and with it the militarization of American life.

Berman's photographs are matter-of-fact, even sterile sometimes, which only adds to their impact. The resulting conflation of the military industrial complex with ordinary American life - often including small children - is all the more haunting. I recently wrote about Berman's moving set of photos depicting Iraq veteran Ty Ziegel and his girlfriend. None of those pictures are on display, but may appear in the book.

More images from the exhibit
Nina Berman's Web site

Banksy's Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill

Saturday night, we paid a visit to Banksy's first New York exhibit, the delightful and disturbing Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill.

Here a few photos I took there. The exhibit satirizes our comfort level with the processing of animals for human consumption and their use in product testing, as well as surveillance society and other themes. Many folks, however, just seemed to think it's cute. It certainly is entertaining, and I encourage you to go by, as the photos don't do it justice - each of the creatures depicted move and interact via animatronics.

Also, a brief BBC story on the exhibit with photos.

Subway Photography

I'm quite a fan of subway photography and have a set of subway photos on Flickr, as well as a public group I founded, which now has 45 members and some great photos. 

I just happened across this set by mcbnyc, who takes a photo of every subway train he rides as it arrives. Looks like he often rides the same line I do. 

I stumbled across mcbnyc's efforts reading this thread about the legality of taking photos on the subway. It is legal, but apparently MTA employees regularly harass people taking photos, threatening to fine them or have the arrested. Earlier this year, photographers met in Brooklyn to protest MTA harassment. 

The MTA's Web site actually explicitly allows photography, though if forbids tripods, unless you're a member of the press with identification.

Nachtwey's Wish: Defeat TB

I didn't have time to write about this last week when it rolled around, but James Nachtwey's TED Wish turned out to be a series of photos highlighting a particularly resistant strain of TB, which is taking many lives globally: XDR-TB. From the site:

[I]n 2007 alone, TB killed 1.7 million people. That’s 4,660 deaths a day, or one death from TB every 20 seconds. TB is the leading killer of people with HIV: Individuals are able to live with HIV but are dying from TB. Without proper treatment, 90% of those living with HIV die within months of contracting TB.

This Time magazine article also includes the above video with Nachtwey's photography. 

James Nachtwey's TED Wish

I don't know what James Nachtwey is working on for October 3rd, but if he's delivering it, I'm there. As you probably know, winners of the TED Prize are given the opportunity to fulfill a wish. Control Room director Jehane Noujaim, for example, decided on a concept of international short-film sharing, which turned into Pangea Day. What we know about Nachtwey's project: 

James Nachtwey is preparing to reveal his photographs, which highlight a shocking and underreported global crisis. Over the past 18 months, the TED community have been working with James to gain access to locations he wished to photograph, and to prepare spectacular plans for unveiling these pictures.

Here we learn that the results of Nachtwey's project will be projected on buildings and shown on screens in public all around the world at the indicated times and places.

Regarding the Pain of Others

Over a passage of time, this series of photos by Nina Berman depicts Iraq veteran Ty Ziegel and his girlfriend. Berman captures the couple before Ziegel went to war, Ziegel as a handsome soldier serving overseas, Ziegel disfigured by a horrible accident on the battlefield, Ziegel and Kline on their wedding day, and Ziegel alone, after the couple separated and eventually divorced three months after their marriage. It's not my intention to sensationalize those events in a young man's life, only to point out the power of photography to place his story before us. We know war is hell, but we're seldom confronted with its consequences. I don't think I'm politicizing Ziegel's story if I say, we this series of images serves as a pointed reminder that we should be damn sure we're initiating a war for good reasons before sending our young men and women over there, the length of their lives stretched out before them. I have to note that I feel somewhat trite even writing the preceding, since the point seems obvious. If only we'd adhered to the principle.

The photography blog BagNewsNotes posted an image from this series in early 2007. Reading the comments on that post, it's both poignant and shocking to see how they encapsulate hope and well wishes upon Ziegel's marriage. Yet the full photo series tell a different story. Kudo to Ziegel for allowing the entire story to be told.

Regarding the Pain of Others is, of course, the title of Susan Sontag's book on the impact of photography's depictions of violence and atrocities.

Outsiders NY

It turns out the JR mural I've been photographing lately is part of a street art exhibit entitled "Outsiders NY," which just opened in that building and will be there until October 12th. I walked through it late this afternoon and photographed many of the works on display, including the detail from a JR photomontage above.

Outsiders, NY is on display at 282-284 Bowery in New York from September 26th until October 12th. Open 11am - 7pm daily.

Also, I noticed I've accumulated so many images of Obama in street art , so I created a new set called precisely that.

Mind-Blowing Street Art

I walked down to Houston tonight and was confronted with this, the most gargantuan piece of wheat paste art I've ever seen. I hope some photos, too, which I'll post if they came out OK. Took them in the dark with taxis whizzing by. It's simply jaw-dropping. At Houston and Bowery, dwarfing the Shep Fairey art on the same corner.

Update: Added some photos to Flickr I took this morning (Saturday, 20th), including the one above. Of course, it's already been tagged - over night, I think.

Update 2: Apparently the creator of the above wheat paste, a French photographer named JR, recently completed a number of similar efforts in Rio De Janeiro. According to Boston.com's The Big Picture photo blog, "JR has focused attention on women - relatives of victims of violence - by displaying their large portraits in one of Rio de Janeiro's hardest hit neighborhoods." I'm sure his work on Houston must be part of a similar effort. The Wooster Collective has more extraordinary photos.

There's also a Web site dedicated to explaining the project. There JR explains:

The Women project wants to underline their pivotal role and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting them on the walls of their country.

On the other hand, by posting the same images of these women in Western countries, the project allows everyone to feel concerned by their condition and connects, through art, the two different worlds.

A remarkable project.

Also, JR's site, which currently feature's the Houston mural on the homepage. And a Flickr photo by lucky_dog of the wheatpaste actually going up.

Rosler & Koudelka

New York photographer Martha Rosler has work on display, which I hope to see at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Her Photoshop mashups combine images of war and American consumerism. One particularly striking image, "Point and Shoot," shows a super model strolling the streets of (presumably) occupied Baghdad. Especially relevant during Fashion Week.

Rossler's exhibit, "Great Power" runs until October 11th.



Additionally, New York being the embarrassment of riches for photography fans that it is, there's a Josef Koudelka exhibit, "Invasion 68: Prague," on at Pace/McGill Gallery until October 30th, as well. Koudelka's a Czech photographer, who worked for Magnum in the '70s. Still working at 70, he's certainly among the world's greatest living photographers.

Google image search for Josef Koudelka
Magnum Photo profile of Koudelka

As you'll note, tanks figure in both exhibits.

Update: Some photos I took at the Rosler Exhibit

Cuba & Jamaica

I've added a plethora of photos from my vacation in Jamaica and Cuba to Flickr.

Cuba - Though I had hoped to spend the better part of 2 weeks in Cuba, I spent just 3 days in Havana after American Airlines mislaid my backpack, thereby significantly delaying the rest of my trip. On returning to the United States, I declared my trip to Cuba on my customs form and passed through without incident.

Jamaica - I hadn't planned on exploring Jamaica much, but ended up staying in Kingston for several days with an additional side-trip to Ocho Rios, which took me through the mountains and across the center off the island.

I rather hurriedly uploaded these photos, but hope to go back and add details and description.

Additionally, here's a post I wrote back in May, 07, which provides background on my decision to travel to Cuba. I could write a more detailed piece and may yet, including advice on how to travel there and back. I'd encourage anyone to do it as an appropriate and peaceful act of civil disobedience. If more American citizens traveled there openly and declared their trip on their customs forms, I think the government would be forced to remove the restrictions.

Here's some helpful, detailed advice on traveling to Cuba

Sign a petition requesting Congress pass legislation allowing travel to Cuba

Civil Disobedience

I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. ...

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform?

- Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"

Read Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" online.

A search on Flickr for "civil disobedience" surfaces some remarkable photos, including several depicting the above action in Izbet Tabib, where Israelis and Palestinians joined to remove part of the wall between the two states.

Hillary & Obama

I've added several new photos to my Photostream on Flickr, including this one of Hillary and Obama graffiti on the corner of Houston and Bowery. That large one is a Shepard Fairey, and there's a different one by him across the street. It's a colorful part of Manhattan to live, the East Village, and I love it for that.

You may have guessed that I like street art: I also recently added a Graffiti & Street Art set on Flickr.

JPG

I've started posting some of my photos to JPG Magazine for possible inclusion in upcoming issues. Drop by and see what you think.

Bleecker Street Window Display

This lovely window display was at a store for baby clothes on Bleecker Street.

More photos over on my flickr site.