SnapperTalk

Well, it’s been a long, long time since I posted anything but hopefully I’ll find time to get back into things. Since the last time I posted (err… back in November, is it really that long?) I visited Iran, spent 6 weeks covering the Kenyan crisis earlier this year, and then somehow it’s just been busy ever since. I hope to get around to making a slideshow of the Kenya pictures but until then here’s a few things of note I found on the web:

David Viggers of Reuters posted a thoughtful article on disaster coverage. Choice quote:

“When I finally got to sleep my nightmares were full of people but my pictures were not. They showed wreckage and desolation but failed to give it a face. In the misguided belief that I needed somehow protect what shreds of dignity the victims had left by not exposing them to wider scrutiny, I not only completely missed the point of my being there but also let them down …. In such circumstances if you are not doing your job you are just in the way”.

Absolutely true and very well put.

Sion Touhig created “Blingapore” – a great little multimedia piece on Singaporean streetlife shot entirely using a Canon Powershot G9 recording timelapse video at one frame per second, then edited in Final Cut Pro. Nicely shot and edited, and an interesting example of how new technology can be used in different ways.

I stumbled across one of the best uses of the multimedia format that I’ve ever seen – Your Greenham. I’m not sure how significant the words “Greenham Common” are for people these days, especially to non-UK readers as I guess it was primarily a British affair, but growing up during the cold war with that nuclear missile base a few dozen miles from my house wasn’t quite so relaxing shall we say. Actually, as a child I remember hearing of the effects of nuclear fallout and having nightmares about it.
The Greenham Common base quickly became the site of a permanent women’s peace camp for over 10 years and was the scene of many confrontations between the protesters and authorities. In current times I think we’ve managed to rather quickly forget how during the cold war the threat of nuclear war was ever-present and how we lived under its shadow.
Film director Beeban Kidron and GuardianFilms produced the website looking back at the history of the camp and the people who lived and protested there. Even if all this sounds a bit hippie to your liking, the execution of the multimedia is superb and the site is well worth a visit.