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Private Residence (Owners Deceased). South Philadelphia. November 4, 2008. Copyright © 2010 Ryan Donnell. All Rights Reserved.
Ryan Donnell‘s ‘Behind The Curtain‘ is just fantastic and surprising.
There is a long interview about the series on Eat The Darkness blog.
“When the 2008 election came around I was feeling a little weird since I wasn’t doing anything of importance photographically or journalistically, and it was such an IMPORTANT election (remember that feeling?). So I felt I should participate somehow. I started researching some of the more unusual sounding polling places in the city. The Philadelphia Elections Board actually posts a list of all the polling stations and every place has a small description next to the address, such as “Residence” or “Storefront” or “Water Department Laboratory.” So I made a list of the weirdest sounding places, packed-up my Hassy, tripod and film in my car and basically just drove all over the city of Philadelphia for about 10 hours on Election Day. I’ve done that every election since Nov. 2008.”
Anonymous Mexican Men photographed in Altar, Mexico, 2006 © Chris Floyd/Getty Images
Photographer, Chris Floyd was shocked to find one of his photographs depicting three Mexicans IN Mexico from a 2006 editorial assignment being used by Republican candidates Sharron Angle (Nevada) and Sen. David Vitters (Louisiana) for “reds under the bed” scare-mongering TV campaign ads.
Floyd doesn’t know how the Angle and Vitters campaigns acquired the image. It’s feasible they did so legally via Getty Images. But if that were the case why would they ignore the lengthy caption detailing the non-illegal status and circumstances of the three men?
Floyd provides the full caption included on the Getty site:
“ALTAR, MEXICO: Mexicans pose for a portrait whilst gathered in the town square of Altar, Mexico. Altar is located 40 miles from the US border and is the last major town that Mexicans reach before the dangerous crossing. Much of its economy is dependant upon these congregated Mexicans who can purchase numerous necessary provisions. The Minutemen, most of whom are white, retired, armed citizens devote much of their time to musters or vigilante border watches in the Arizona desert, preventing Mexican illegal immigrants flooding into the US. These Minutemen, who claim to simply watch and report to the border police, have received criticism for being a cover for white supremacists whilst others hail them as heroes. Either way, they have struck a cord with many Americans who sympathise with their mission to make an impact on the illegal immigrants that are flooding across the Mexican border at a faster rate than ever. It is estimated that around 750,000 illegal immigrants entered America in 2005, amounting to more than 2000 per day, joining the 12 million that already live there. (Photo by Chris Floyd/Getty Images)”
More from WaPo here.
“SnapScouts was designed and developed for children to use, before they form stereotypes of other people. They’re the perfect reporters, unbiased and unprejudiced by media concepts.”
“[SnapScouts] leverages modern technology to address the timeless threats to democracy and freedom.”
THIS is one of the best pieces of satire in a long time, at least I think, I hope, I know it is satire.
A NEW WAY OF EARNING BADGES
From SnapScouts:
Want to earn tons of cool badges and prizes while competing with you friends to see who can be the best American? Download the SnapScouts app for your Android phone (iPhone app coming soon) and get started patrolling your neighborhood.
It’s up to you to keep America safe! If you see something suspicious, Snap it! If you see someone who doesn’t belong, Snap it! Not sure if someone or something is suspicious? Snap it anyway!
All this is a great play off America’s worst paranoia and best humor. Good stuff!
The FAQ page is hilarious combining fears of soft drugs and illegal immigration with a contempt for foreign CCTV culture.
“My eight-year old caught the gardener smoking something suspicious. It wasn’t marijuana, but it turns out he was illegal!” – Phyllis Specter, 32, Idaho
and
“After only a three-month trial of SnapScouts in England, Indonesia, and Germany, we are proud to report over 600 crimes reported.”
Nothing to do with anything prisons, but a hilarious story that I can’t resist … and, yes, I do want a U-Boat Barge!
© Sebastian Friedman
A reader got in touch recently to point me in the direction of Sebastian Friedman’s work Segurismos. Friedman deals with self-imposed imprisonment of individuals and families brought on by their personal wealth above and beyond the norms of their “host” society.
Sure there are elements of humor to the work, but also a great misfortunes. When I have visited countries with economic inequality and histories of instability, I wonder if I’d put myself behind bars too. (I have stayed in what could only be described as “compounds” in both Cochabamba and La Paz in Bolivia). I conclude, in a similar position of wealth, I would probably lock myself up too.
I imagine that the peculiar stresses of living behind “voluntary” bars become normative after an amount of time, especially if one considers in how many cities across the globe in which these simplistic security measures are put in place?
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Thomas Locke Hobbs (who offered the tip for this post) has been featuring some interesting work from South America on his blog recently, notably Felipe Russo, Cyrille Weiner, Marcos Lopez, and Pietro Paolini.
Love this. Found over at Elodie Drouard‘s twitter page –@elodienelson
Reminds me of A Photo Editor, Rob Haggart‘s twitter background – @aphotoeditor
Peter Barry has been documenting the Rest In Peace tags in Baltimore for over ten years:
“In 1999 I started documenting these. I have lived in Baltimore Maryland twice, from 1969 to 1974, and 1985 to present. Statistics of Baltimore Maryland, since 1990, POPULATION DROP: 100,000, HOUSES DEMOLISHED: 50,000+, READING GRADE LEVEL: Low, HIV/AIDS: High, HEROIN ADDICTION: High, and a MURDER RATE of approximately 300 per year. It is this murder rate as manifest through the graffiti “R.I.P.” that I have been documenting since 1999.”
I wanted to post this and try to figure out how this tallies with Daniel Shea’s project Baltimore, which I featured earlier this year.
More on R.I.P. Baltimore here and here.
© Larry Wolfley
Last month, on a flight from Oakland to Seattle, I sat next to an energetic, punky, wide-eyed young lady. Her view of the world was full of naivete, optimism and anti-capitalism. She lived for music and she talked about the Gilman Club … a lot.
I lived in the SF Bay Area for several years but not being punk, garage, shed or synth-krunk I’d never heard of it. A week later I came across Larry Wolfley‘s photography. As well as photographing at underground shows and East Bay clubs, Wolfley has been a makeshift “house photographer” at the Gilman Club for 12 years.
Wolfley recently did an interview with Maximum Rock and Roll. He has a PhD in English Lit from Berkeley, he taught at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the seventies, abandoned academia, returned to Berkeley, became a carpenter, had a son, took photos, realised he knew nothing, resolved to teach himself photography, and decided street punks on Telegraph Avenue were a good topic. The homeless punks told Wolfley he had to go to the Gilman Club if he were to understand their culture. He’s been shooting punk and music gigs since.
Wolfley is more than twice the age than the majority of the crowd. All the kids know him, his Canon and his black beanie hat.
Just wanted to give a shout out to a local hero whose recognition has been a long time coming. Visit his website.
Prison Photography 