More geeky than girly.
Posts tagged history
Tony’s List
Mar 20th
I met Tony (along with a bunch of other photographers) in North Beach. He asked how long I had been shooting. I actually never know how to answer this question, but I said I’ve been taking pictures for a long time, but took a more meaningful approach only this past academic year. He asked if I had any favorite photographers. I said I didn’t know enough to answer — I’m such a noob. Then the question was turned on him and he proceeded to name a few photographers who have really inspired him. I took out my notebook and asked him to write their names down for me. He ended up giving me 12 names of photographers/influences and a book title.
Here’s his list:
- Edward Weston
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- W. Eugene Smith
- Josef Koudelka
- Garry Winogrand
- Mary Ellen Mark
- Manuel Álvarez Bravo
- Group f/64
- Farm Security Administration (FSA)
- Edward Steichen and “The Family of Man”
Some Japanese photographers:
- Daidō Moriyama
- Nobuyoshi Araki
Book: On Photography by Susan Sontag
I’ve got some homeworking to do.
*Note: I’m not sure why I took the picture above at 1/30 sec, which is probably why his hands are blurry. But maybe that’s not a bad thing as it captures the “writing” in action.
Pictorial History of the PRC
Sep 4th
2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China. Since 1949, enormous changes have taken place in China, and many events have gone down in history as a part of the national memory. China.org.cn presents a series of old photos to review the past 60 years.
Oath of office of the President of the United States
Jan 14th
The only text that is in quotes in the U.S. Constitution…
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States; and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend, the Constitution of the United States.
Call + Response (Trailer)
Oct 5th
Saw this in church today.
Call+Response is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals a terrifying secret: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. In 2007, slave traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined. Call+Response goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving. First hand accounts from luminaries like Cornel West, Julia Ormond, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Ashley Judd, and Nicholas Kristof provide the backdrop of for this 21st century nightmare. Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek, Rocco Deluca, move this information into inspiration offering this century its first abolitionist songs.
April 4th, 40 Years Ago
Apr 4th
Update (April 5, 2008): Everyone’s knows of his “I Have a Dream” speech, but check out his very last speech in Memphis, the night before he was killed. Part one and part two, which is especially powerful and moving.
Photo Credit: Trikosko/Library of Congress
April 4, 1968- Dr. Martin Luther King was shot dead at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. I was listening to NPR on the way to work this morning and heard a story of Robert Kennedy delivering news of MLK’s death:
It was supposed to be a routine campaign stop. In a poor section of Indianapolis, 40 years ago Friday, a largely black crowd had waited an hour to hear the presidential candidate speak. The candidate, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, had been warned not to go by the city’s police chief.
As his car entered the neighborhood, his police escort left him. Once there, he stood in the back of a flatbed truck. He turned to an aide and asked, “Do they know about Martin Luther King?”
They didn’t, and it was left to Kennedy to tell them that King had been shot and killed that night in Memphis, Tenn. The crowd gasped in horror.
“For those of you who are black and are tempted to … be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling,” he said. “I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.”
Many other American cities burned after King was killed. But there was no fire in Indianapolis, which heard the words of Robert Kennedy.
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.”
Two months later, Robert Kennedy himself was felled by an assassin’s bullet.
Remember history and learn.