This is a really nice little video/slideshow if you are looking for a little inspiration today and insight into the mind of one of the world’s leading photographers, Maggie Steber. I first became aware of Maggie and her work when I was lucky enough to listen to a presentation of hers, when I attended Look3 in 2008. It was a really interesting talk and I wanted to take this opportuntiy to share this video here and share some of her insights into photography.

Thanks to the ever thought-provoking Duckrabbit for posting this over on their blog earlier this week.

Saturday 26th March 2011 marks this year’s ‘Earth Hour’, a global event aimed at raising awareness across borders about the effect we have on our climate and inspire action to manage humanities impact on climate change.

According to Earth Hour’s website: “On Saturday 27 March, Earth Hour 2010 became the biggest Earth Hour ever. A record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.”

China has embraced Earth Hour with gusto with advertisements popping up everywhere in Beijing recently promoting the cause. Last year I headed out the the Bird’s Nest, Beijing’s centerpiece for the 2008 Olympic Games, to capture Earth Hour using timelapse video. The resulting piece shows the crowds who were there to witness the turning off of the lights at this magnificent stadium. In real-time, the change wasn’t quite so dramatic but speeded up to one minute, makes for more interesting viewing.

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

If you happen to be in Washingotn DC this week, you may want to drop by the Newseum to check out a slideshow that will be on show in the main lobby. The show is being hosted by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and National Geographic Society to mark World Water Day, showing images from around the world depicting the global water crisis.

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

I’m very happy to have a couple of my images from China included in the show. The show runs from March 17 to April 1, so should hopefully reach out to many people passing through the main atrium in the Newseum. If you’re in town, stop by and let me know how it looks!

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

A quick post today to share with you a great video from a TED talk by David Griffin, former Director of Photography, at National Geographic. It’s a few years old now but it’s well worth your time to watch, in case you missed it the first time around.

From TED: “The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.”

Philip Jones Griffiths | (c) Alice Smeets | Used with Permission

Tomorrow marks the 3-year anniversary of the passing of Philip Jones Griffiths, one of the leading photojournalists of the 20th Century. Born in the small town of Rhuddlan, in Wales, Philip became a member of Magnum Photos in 1971 and was most famous for his work in Vietnam, most notably for his book Vietnam Inc., a seminal piece of photojournalistic war reporting on the Vietnam War which was credited as helping change the tide of western opinion on the conflict.

Philip was one of my heroes. It’s not often that people get to meet their heroes. It is less often that they ultimately can be able to call them a friend. I am lucky that I can, if only for a short period of time. On this anniversary, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts about my time with this inspiring photographer and man.

Vietnam Inc.

I first discovered Philip’s work in 2003, whilst undertaking a 1-month internship at Magnum, in their London office. I spent my brief internship filing slides and cataloguing prints. It wasn’t glamorous but I had fortuitously gotten the job when I rang Magnum by phone to see if they had any internships. I was fresh out of studying a Zoology degree and I was looking for any chance to learn about photojournalism. Another intern had just cancelled and they asked me if I could start two days later. I jumped at the chance.

As I stood there filing slides, I became distracted however by the bookshelves which contained many of the photographers’ books. One of the first books I picked up was Vietnam Inc. The book took my breath away. I had never realised the real power of photojournalism until I picked up this book. Leafing through the pages, every image captivated me. Philip’s witty and intelligent captions intrigued me and brought about another level of relevance and importance to these images. I was entranced.

In 2004, I was invited back to Magnum to undertake their 1-year paid internship. This was a wonderful year, which allowed me to spend time with many of the wonderful staff and great photographers. I was most excited though when the opportunity arose for me to meet and spend time with Philip, whose work I had been pouring over since my first encounter with Vietnam Inc. the previous year.

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Before - February 26, 2011 - "NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response."

After - March 12, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. - "NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response."

The NASA Earth Observatory just released these two satellite images showing the view from space of the Japanese coastline around the city of Sendai. This, as I am sure you know, is the region that was hit on Friday by an offshore earthquake and subsequent tsunami. View some of the scenes which resulted here.

It is quite clear from these images the extent of the movement of water inland as a result of the tsunami. The ‘before’ image (click here for HighRes) clearly shows a clear, well defined coastline whereas the ‘after’ image (click here for HighRes) is less than clear and appears to have been inundated approximately 5km, according to the key provided on the images.

According to NASA’s Earth Observatory:

“Water is black or dark blue in these images. It is difficult to see the coastline in the March 12 image, but a thin green line outlines the shore. This green line is higher-elevation land that is above water, presumably preventing the flood of water from returning to the sea. The flood indicator on the lower image illustrates how far inland the flood extends.

Both images were made with infrared and visible light, a combination that increases the contrast between muddy water and land. Plant-covered land is green, while snow-covered land is pale blue. Clouds are white and pale blue. The paved surfaces in the city of Sendai colors it brown.”

I, like many others, are shocked and saddened by the events that have occurred in Japan over the past 36 hours. I lived in Japan for a year and feel desperately sad for the Japanese people and those affected by the recent earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Some of the footage that has come out of Japan has been quite incredible, although disturbing to watch. Having been glued to my computer, watching updates from those on the ground and the news agencies covering the crisis, I decided to collate some of the most striking videos that have emerged. A selection are below.

This view was one of the first I witnessed via Al-Jazeera. The terrifying tsunami washing over coastal lands, swallowing houses and farmland…

A rather terrifying ground-level view of the tsunami rushing down high streets towards the camera…

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Sandstorm over the Taklamakan Desert | NASA | NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response. http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/

What you are seeing above is a sandstorm hanging over the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in western China, taken by one of NASA’s satellites. To get a really good look at it, click here for the HighRes. The Taklamakan is China’s biggest desert and is an immense sea of shifting sand dunes, which dominates the west of the country.

I was lucky enough to spent a couple of weeks travelling around the Taklamakan desert, as part of my Pulitzer Center sponsored work on desertification in China. The fringes of the desert are most susceptible to desertification, as overgrazing on farmland bordering the desert tends to strip the lands of their grass and hence allows the desert to take hold and expand. It’s a worrying trend which is having serious consequences for the people of this region.

A sandstorm in Ningxia Province, China. 2009

During the spring, winds tend to increase in intensity in the west of China. As the spring winds blow, they pick up the sand and dust lying on top of the degraded land and carry it into the air, creating these massive dust and sand storms.

During my travels in western China, I found myself in a number of these storms. Photographically, they are a challenge as you try to keep your camera equipment safe from the sand. The resulting pictures however are quite spectacular and offer a very surreal viewpoint sometimes, such as the image above.

If You Pay Peanuts, You Get Monkeys

Apparently this is a genuine image used by Canon in a campaign to advertise the  Focus-on-Imaging photographic trade show which is being held in Birmingham, UK at the moment. Canon decided to pull out of the trade show but I think their advert deserves to live on a little longer, hence the post.

Love the f8 at 98.5% tagline.

Hope it brought a smile to your face today.

Thanks to Olivier Laurent over at BJP for originally posting this on their blog.

[Now, I know that technically, chimpanzees are not monkeys. They are great apes. Both are primates, but alas are different. Maybe the headline should be, 'If you pay peanuts, you get primates' ...doesn't quite have the same ring to it though. Please forgive the slight discrepancy. I hope no Zoologists are reading this!]

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Very excited to announce here on the blog the launch of a new partnership with tour agency Tibetan Connections, offering photography workshops and tours in western China on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Tibetan Connections, a small grass-roots company, have been based on the plateau for a number of years and are actively involved in encouraging responsible tourism in the region. Their ethos is to work with and hire local Tibetan people and visit communities to help support the people of the region through ethical tourism. They will be our logistical partners on the trip, looking after travel, guides and accommodation for us.

Our first collaboration begins in June with a 5-day tour from June 10-14, around the Eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, focusing on the monastic lifestyle and rituals in this region. I visited this region in November of last year and it really is a stunning part of the country, relatively unexplored compared to many other regions in China.

Below is an outline of the June tour. Be sure to check out the Tibetan Connections website for more information and to confirm your place on this trip.

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