travel: mozambique

nytimes travel essay: “mozambique: africa’s rising star” (subscription) includes neat slide show of images from around the country.

“After nearly two decades of civil war, the country, a former Portuguese colony – and home to over 1,500 miles of undeveloped Indian Ocean beachfront, some of the finest diving and deep sea marlin fishing in the world, and a unique Afro-Iberian-Brazilian culture – is rediscovering its place as one of Africa’s most alluring, and most relaxing, tourism destinations.”

kenya pictures

kenya photo gallery by brian mcmorrow travel photographer? (no info on him from the site) brian mcmorrow trains his d100 on kenya. although the bulk of the images are taken upcountry where the usual outsider is drawn to the natural beauty of the land and animals, there is a nice series on nairobi.

kofia tip: kenyan pundit

this video cost $15

sarah maclachlan took the $150,000 she should have spent for the video for her song “world on fire” (video, quicktime) and distributed it to various charities around the world. here is a list of the recipients of her donations. using budget line items for a video shoot as reference points, the video itself is a shame-inducing visualization of the paltry sums of money it takes to improve lives in the developing world.

this video highlights for me the dichotomy of using media and all other things meant to help the poor, but don’t have a direct impact on their immediate wellbeing. does it make sense to spend money on things like film productions, when the cash itself could be redirected to helping the poor with their clear and present needs? but on the other hand, inspiring hope, firing the imagination, educating, entertaining, even providing momentary escape, all these things are the foundations on which we build our lives and keep going, even in the face of hopelessness. that is the food of the soul; film, music, art provide that.

[via filmaid international]

changing look of photojournalism

i like south african born, london-based photographer brent stirton’s use of lighting on his photojournalism images. seems like the aesthetics of commercial photography are starting to filter into the photojournalism field. cool.

focus on south african photography

the current (june 2005) issue of B&W magazine has a look at the past and present of photography in south africa. included in the article is a profile of jürgen schadeberg who was photo editor of the 1950’s black urban magazine drum. from his site, check out the following links(1):
the 50s
jazz
mandela

(1) would link to them myself but for those damn frames. should be abolished, they prevent deep linking.

sometimes in april on pbs

africa has a deep scar on its heart from the effects of colonialism, ethnic hatred, and competition for resources. the only way to heal that scar is to confront the pain it causes and somehow try to move past it.

that is the metaphor roiling around in my head after watching “sometimes in april” on pbs last night. thankfully, raoul peck’s movie was not a gorefest depicting the slaughter, but more how individuals are trying to cope with and transcend the pain of having lived through those 90 days in 1994.

geographically, rwanda is in the heart of africa. that metaphor scales from the individual to the whole continent. i am not sure if that was the message behind the film, but it resonates very strongly with me for that reason.

p.s.: peck has a unique ability to visually represent modern day africa on the screen … with the beat up renaults and peugeots, the scattered clothing on the streets, the sets, etc. even though “sometimes …” had that “made for tv” feel in the strength of its story (characters not very well developed), visually the film was top notch.

p.p.s.: i was also struck by the pan-african nature of the cast, drawn as it was from rwanda, south africa, nigeria and the uk. not sure how to react to this, although a part of me feels that this is an african story, it should be told the most effective way possible, by africans regardless of their origins.

lost boys

magnum photographer eli reed’s african stories.

the power of the still image

is photojournalism still relevant in this day of flickr, photoblogs, and the “take now and consume now” aesthetic of digital photography? yes, judging by the output of this year’s world press photo contest of the best news photography of the year. per the new york times, pj’s are responding to the changing game of image taking by making better images (using medium format, slowing down) and by better researched and executed projects that lift their work above that of amateur photogs who happen to be in the right place at the right time.

“Still images continue to have a surprising degree of power. You wouldn’t think that people in the age of the Internet and television would still go out and buy $45 coffee-table books, but they do. It’s still the still image, and not the television footage, that sticks in your head.”

via new york times