Jump to content

Image of the Day


Drosophila

Recommended Posts

My friend I met at a psy-house-party at someone's house years and years ago... Made this... It's made out of glass.

Very expensive. I'm just blown away by it. He's a visionary artist, meaning, he sometimes uses psychedelic experiences to inspire his work: website here: http://www.visionarytemple.com/

 

It's strange that this guy out of all the people there became my friend after that one meeting at the party... we seemed to connect and find each other later on. Is now I count him as one of the best friends i've had in life.

 

Posted Image

Link to comment
Share on other sites

oh and in case you didn't know, this one got the World Press Photo Award of 2011

I don't know what to make of that competition. If you look at the past winners, you'll notice that it's been mostly running in a circle between the latest (US) war, riot and natural disaster. They could almost announce the winning topic beforehand, and then hand over the prize to whoever manages to shove his lens closest to the victims. €10000 to the lucky winner, thanks but no cigar to the subjects.

 

I guess it still manages to illustrate an important issue of the year and highlight some well-timed photos, but there's little originality or creativity left if only variations of the same scenes get repeated for over 50 years.

 

The other categories usually manage to show a bit better, what could possibly fit in the wide concept of a press photo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I don't know what to make of that competition. If you look at the past winners, you'll notice that it's been mostly running in a circle between the latest (US) war, riot and natural disaster. They could almost announce the winning topic beforehand, and then hand over the prize to whoever manages to shove his lens closest to the victims. €10000 to the lucky winner, thanks but no cigar to the subjects.

 

I guess it still manages to illustrate an important issue of the year and highlight some well-timed photos, but there's little originality or creativity left if only variations of the same scenes get repeated for over 50 years.

 

The other categories usually manage to show a bit better, what could possibly fit in the wide concept of a press photo.

 

 

hmm well I get what you're saying but at the same time, it is precisely those kinds of pictures that impress most people. And they're not completely usseless BTW since they show the public some absurd sitation (suffering caused by war most of the time). For example this particular picture played a major role in retreating the US troops from Vietnam back in the days:

 

Posted Image

 

 

Also for the recognition going to the photographer and not the subject I think that's logical since the photographer took the picture so... I mean, I can understand the exploitation point of view but I don't really think some other way of remunerating this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hmm well I get what you're saying but at the same time, it is precisely those kinds of pictures that impress most people. And they're not completely usseless BTW since they show the public some absurd sitation (suffering caused by war most of the time).

 

They can. Unfortunately, they can just as easily distort the truth by what they omit. For example, I recently learnt some of the story behind the other famous Nam photo:

 

Lém was captured and brought to Brigadier General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, then Chief of the Republic of Viet Nam National Police. Using his personal sidearm, a Smith & Wesson Model 38 "Bodyguard", General Nguyễn summarily executed Lém in front of AP photographer Eddie Adams and NBC television cameraman Vo Suu. The photograph and footage were broadcast worldwide, galvanizing the anti-war movement; Adams won a 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his photograph.

 

South Vietnamese sources state that Lém commanded a Viet Cong death squad, which on that day had murdered South Vietnamese National Police officers, or in their stead, the police officers' families; these sources said that Lém was captured near the site of a ditch holding as many as thirty-four bound and shot bodies of police and their relatives, some of whom were the families of General Nguyễn's deputy and close friend, and six of whom were Nguyễn's godchildren. Photographer Adams confirmed the South Vietnamese account, although he was only present for the execution. Lém's widow confirmed that her husband was a member of the Viet Cong and she did not see him after the Tet Offensive began. Shortly after the execution, a South Vietnamese official who had not been present said that Lém was only a political operative.

 

The photo won Adams the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, though he was later said to have regretted the impact it had. The image became an anti-war icon. Concerning General Nguyễn and his famous photograph, Eddie Adams later wrote in Time:

 

The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths ... What the photograph didn't say was, 'What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American soldiers?

Adams later apologized in person to General Nguyễn and his family for the damage it did to his reputation. When General Nguyễn died of cancer in his new home of Virginia, Adams praised him: "The guy was a hero. America should be crying. I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him.

In 1975, during the Fall of Saigon, Loan fled South Vietnam. He moved to the United States, and opened a pizza restaurant at Rolling Valley Mall, in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Burke, Virginia. In 1991, Loan was forced into retirement when his identity was publicly disclosed. Photographer Eddie Adams recalled that on his last visit to the pizza shop, he had seen written on a toilet wall, "We know who you are, fucker".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They can. Unfortunately, they can just as easily distort the truth by what they omit. For example, I recently learnt some of the story behind the other famous Nam photo:

 

ummm it depends on how you look at it... in that particular case the pic turned against the executor, still the overall anti-war message is intact IMO. I mean, if there wasn't any war, there wouldn't be such situations in the first place, no?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ummm it depends on how you look at it... in that particular case the pic turned against the executor, still the overall anti-war message is intact IMO. I mean, if there wasn't any war, there wouldn't be such situations in the first place, no?

 

I don't dispute that the war was a bad thing. It's the fact that the guy in the photo had to hide his identity or face reprisals because people didn't know the full story that's the problem. How many of us can honestly say we wouldn't have done what he did to a guy who had just murdered six of our Godchildren, given the chance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't dispute that the war was a bad thing. It's the fact that the guy in the photo had to hide his identity or face reprisals because people didn't know the full story that's the problem. How many of us can honestly say we wouldn't have done what he did to a guy who had just murdered six of our Godchildren, given the chance?

 

well we'd be tempted to but we shouldn't... karma my friend ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...