Photojournalism

You may or may not know that I studied photography when I was at school. It was and still is a passion of mine. I love that you can capture a split second in time and preserve it forever on film.

Many years ago I sold my camera (to help pay for a mountain bike!) and it is a decision I still regret today. I often rue the fact that I sold it and that I have not really been in a position to buy another one since. This is in fact one of my goals once we get to Australia, to buy a camera and start taking pictures again. Black and white still remain a favourite. Somehow black and white potrays a deeper message and I like that you can develop them yourself in your garage.

One of my dreams when I was learning photography at school was to become a photojournalist. However that was not the path my life took so now I take a great deal of interest in the work of other photojournalists. I have two in particular that I like, Zoriah ( http://www.zoriah.com/ ) and James Nachtwey ( http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/ ).

Zoriah has documented many of the worlds trouble spots, mostly based around Europe and recently Iraq. His pictures are SCARY and show the realism of what is going on in those places. We sometimes forget just how good we have it here. He is currently working in Gaza.

James Nachtwey has taken images of the human side of conflict from Africa, Europe, Ireland and Asia. His pictures are terribly moving. He has caught the human pain caused by other humans and presents them in a respectful but powerful way. Last year he was given a TED award ( http://www.ted.com/ ) which granted him one wish. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and each year, leaders in certain fields are invited to give the talk of their life and are granted one wish. James Nachtwey's wish in 2007 was to get help documenting a tragic problem afflicting areas of India and Asia: a form of Tuberculosis that is becoming resistant to drugs. Now, after a year of documenting this, he and TED have released their project with the aim of raising awareness and getting help to these places.

The thing that makes this all so tragic is that this disease is preventable. So sad. Here is a video released yesterday that has James explaining his vision and motivation and then a sample of the pictures he has taken for the project.




Here are a couple of websites with some awesome photos. Take the time to check them out, some of the pics will take your breath away:

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/ Landscapes and people.

http://www.widelec.org/ Human, animal, landscape and technology.

Speaking of new posts at my favourite websites, Zaproot has a new episode up ( http://www.zaproot.com/ ). Be clean, think green, think Zaproot! (You will know what that means once you have been to the website and watched one of their videos.)

Have a great day no matter what you are doing and where you are.