journalism in danger

Throughout history, photographers and journalists have put their lives on the line to try and portray different events around the world. There have been many cases where images like this one taken in Vietnam and this one taken in Sudan, both pulitzer prize winners, have fostered change around the world by tapping into a basic sense of humanity and not allowing people to ignore what is going on in distant places. However, to take a picture like this, the photographer has to distance themselves to a certain extent. I will not try to attempt to describe what this is like because I am not these photographers, however i have been in similar but far less severe situations where i have come to the realization that i either engage in the situation or i take the time to make a picture and disengage with the "real life" action.
Found over at Exposure Compensation, I was engaged with this article about yet another image that won a pulitzer prize, yet ironically by taking a photograph of another journalist being killed in Myanmar during the protests in September of last year. The absolute senselessness of the killing is a striking reminder of the senseless murder that is going on all over the world, both on a street level and by governments. Even while the journalist was being shot, he was still trying desperately to film - i cannot even imagine the fear one would feel in this situation and yet he is so dedicated as to film the person who is shooting him! I think we should all be aware of not only the scene portrayed by documentary photographers and the fear and desperation often portrayed but also the sacrifice that people go through to make images like this and put them out into the world to bring about a much needed global awareness that is still severely lacking...

editing...

So, when i read this quote
"When you begin a picture, you often make some pretty discoveries. You must be on guard against these. Destroy the thing, do it over several times. In each destroying of a beautiful discovery, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather transforms it, condenses it, makes it more sustainable. What comes out in the end is the result of discarded finds. Otherwise, you become your own connoisseur. I sell myself nothing." - Pablo Picasso (1935)
found over at wan.der.lust.ag.ra.phy I was initially reminded an ex girlfriend, and good friend, who once commented on a painting that i did when i was still getting to know her that she found hanging in our highschool one day.... She said something like "i dont understand why you destroy all the beautiful things that you create"... a thought that has always stuck with me.
But this quote is not about creating something beautiful and destroying it to make the final product, its about the process to make something beautiful (not necessarily in the aesthetic sense of the word) enough to be sustainable. So from there i am reminded of the ongoing process of editing in photography... There is of course great amounts of editing that goes on in other art forms but photography is surely near, if not at, the top of the list of editing... One could argue, most of photography is a process of editing, from the edit, or cropping, of the image in camera to the final edit of a cohesive body of work. One can not say enough about the process of a successful edit in photography... something to be left for another time.

Contemporaneous emotions

So, I have been feeling quite horrible lately... my stomach will not leave me alone, I feel nauseous for most of the day, i'm not exactly happy, not exactly depressed... just kind of in this strange in between state that im not quite sure how to put my finger on. But today i received an anticipated letter in the mail which made me smile, but much to my delight -despite the lack of text- it was accompanied by wonderful visuals including a very beautiful Polaroid which made me smile all the brighter. Not to mention Polaroid is no longer made (products will be available until late '08, early '09 according to Polaroid corp.) and so experiences like this will soon be a memory rather than a reality. very sad indeed. the good news is that Polaroid is making the product licenses available to any company that wants to buy them but i wonder who will have the start up cost to go through with that when the profit margins have to suck...
Anyhow, cheers to nice girls with polaroid cameras and blah to feeling bad and Polaroid abandoning the products that we all love and cherish.