Street wise

February 22nd

Team of photographers hit the streets of London in June as part of the The London Street Photography Festival to test the policing of public and private spaces by security firms and their reaction to photographers…

11:07AM // 5 notes // “Consciousness awakened by the camera”

“Yet what nonsense all these sophisticated criticisms of photojournalism are. It seems shocking that commentators in 1993 wasted their breath on the ethics of a photograph instead of urging action to deal with the suffering it showed. The fact that people far away can see with visceral immediacy the facts of a crisis like the one now hitting the Horn of Africa is one of the most optimistic aspects of the modern world.”

“A photograph can put suffering on the front of your paper while you eat breakfast. But there is a danger of merely inviting exhausted pity and helpless horror if the photographs seem to come after the fact – a photograph is by its nature a document of something that has already happened – and to tell a story no one can change.”

Great article on the ethics of photojournalism

April 12th

1:12AM // 5 notes

A woman holds her naked child while trying to resist the advance of Amazonas state policemen who were expelling the woman and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a privately-owned tract of land on the outskirts of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon March 11, 2008. The landless peasants tried in vain to resist the eviction with bows and arrows against police using tear gas and trained dogs.

Winner in General News Singles category, 2008 World Press Photo of the Year.

(unquote)

Photos courtesy of Reuters/Luiz Vasconcelos-A Critica/AE (BRAZIL)

Original Source: Reuters

March 29th

3:00AM // 1 note

Lugano, Switzerland. June 2009.

2:43AM // 2 notes

(click image to enlarge)

“Maneras de matar

Pueden clavarte un cuchillo en el vientre, quitarte el pan, no curarte una enfermedad, meterte en una mala vivienda, torturarte hasta la muerte por medio del trabajo, llevarte a la guerra, etc.

Solo pocas de estas cosas estan prohibidas en nuestra ciudad”

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“Ways to kill someone

They can stick you in the stomach with a knife, take your bread away, not cure an illness, place you in hostile environment, torture you until death by means of work, take you to war, etc.

Only a few of these things are prohibited in our city”.

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I found this and many other sociopolitical signs in El Raval in Barcelona about two years ago. This area of the city is known for its art (mainly street art but not limited to), its eclectic shops (from smoke shops to record shops to shops selling t-shirts with Britney Spears flicking you off and platform shoes), and as I learned being there, its leftist and almost anarchist tendencies. Regardless, it was one of my favorite places to walk through with my best friend. The message on this wall particularly struck me and although the signs on the street were mainly due to impending elections in Spain, seemed to enclose a simple truth.