Another interesting article (accompanied by twenty fascinating pictures from the New York Times Lens, this one: Toward Visual Paths of Dignity. The article shows how colonial powers used photography to distort views of Africans and create stereotypes.

How Africans were shown in the pictures — especially in the early images — went a long way toward marginalizing them as “the Other.” The visual production of racial stereotypes itself was influenced by the pseudo-sciences of anthropometry and criminal anthropology that had been developed in Europe in order to compare and classify “human races.” Over the years, I found countless examples of photographs composed according to these pseudo-scientific frameworks. The Austrian explorer Richard Buchta was one of many photographers who did mug shot-like front and profile views of his subjects against a neutral background (Slide 9 and below). His images underscore his aesthetic and almost ethnographic obsession with his subjects’ haircuts, clothes and jewels, but he also pictured them in such total isolation from their political and social environment that they were reduced to mere ethnic types.

via Toward Visual Paths of Dignity.

An so another year comes to an end.

2013 was my first full year of retirement.  All things considered it’s been much better than I thought it would be.  I thought I might be bored, but I’ve been very busy.

We’ve been very lucky to see a lot of our younger daughter, Jasmine; her husband Colin and daughter Divya.

On a sad note, my mother-in-law passed away.  She had a long life (almost 90 years) and I like to think that she’s now with her beloved husband who I believe she missed greatly.

On the photography front it’s been a good year.  I’ve taken more pictures than ever before.  Not that this is any indication of quality.  It does demonstrate that I’m more passionate about my hobby.  I also feel that I continue to improve all be it slowly.  My camera collection continues to grow.  I’ve been able to update this blog regularly (150 posts in total this year) and the number of posts per month has even increased in the last few months.  I have no idea if anyone looks at it (I don’t monitor any statistics) but it does help me to continue taking the pictures.

Many many thanks to my lovely wife, Eirah who continues to be an inspiration to me – even if she doesn’t like me to take pictures of her any more.

Happy New Year to everyone and a happy and prosperous 2014.

I definitely recognize myself here. My apologies to family and friends who have all to often had to go through this with me. It’s my hobby and I love it, but sometimes I go over the top when talking to others. I just can’t stop myself.

New Camera News is an interesting site too. As someone else pointed out something like “The Onion” for photographers.

via Family Bored as Uncle Talks Cameras | New Camera News.

I enjoyed this post from Ming Thein – particularly the last paragraph:

The most fundamental counterargument is that uniqueness doesn’t automatically imply instant recognizability: two things can be subtly different, but unless you’re looking for it, they will probably appear the same. And most people are bombarded with such a visual overload that they’re almost certainly not looking for those differences. We therefore have to work harder to create that difference; but not so hard that nobody understands what they’re looking at. There has to be just enough of a trace of recognition for a photograph to be successful as a new idea: draw on the collective cultural consciousness and back catalog of influences. In effect: evolution is still the way to go. But I firmly believe that the direction and pace of change are within the control of the photographer: I keep saying this, but if I showed you my first work and my current work, you wouldn’t recognize it as being from the same person. Even now, when I insert an older image into a post to illustrate a point, most of my regular readers can tell something is off. As an artist, I want to be different, and recognized for that difference. But I’m also fully aware that I’ll have to lead a little to get there.

This is something I grapple with a lot. With all of the photographs now available on the internet is it still possible to create something truly original or has everything already been done? Ming Thein’s post maintains that it is, but that we need to work harder to do so. Maybe the truly creative have ways of looking and seeing that allow them to take something that you’ve seen thousands of times and make it appear new. I don’t have that kind of creativity, but I continue to hope that if I keep plugging away I’ll be able to improve.

via Originality is dead: or is it? – Ming Thein | Photographer.