The Week that Was in Photos: Devastation

Someone I know who has lived in Japan greeted me yesterday by saying, "And how are things in your little universe?" I understood exactly what she meant; the self-important worlds we build around ourselves look awfully small and fragile compared to the devastation we have seen in the past week. We can take that sentiment as the theme for this review of images.

1. The Shock

 How do you express the jarring shock of an earthquake in a still image? Itsuo Inouye of the Associated Press Tokyo bureau photographed two of his fellow journalists taking shelter under a table as the world shook.

 This photo, credited to Xinhua/Gamma/Rappho/Getty, shows two office workers watch smoke rise over Tokyo after the earthquake. Like them, we too are helpless spectators.

2. The Wave

In general, the power of the tsunami that followed the earthquake was far more effectively captured in amateur videos (which surfaced on YouTube soon after ) than in still photographs shot by journalists from a safe distance or from the air. This image, credited to Reuters/Mainichi Shimbun, shows what was happening in Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture as the tsunami wave was approached. This one made me understand.

 This photograph, credited to Kyodo/Xinhua, provides some perspective on the size of the wave.

3. Calamity

 The houses in this Reuters image, all washed away by the wave, begin to burn. The combination of fire and water in a single scene stirs the imagination.

4.  Inundation

 The of the storyteller is to suggest the vastness of the destruction in the aftermath of the wave. Photographs did this far better than any other medium. This aerial shot from AFP/Getty shows vehicles that had been awaiting shipping at Hitachinaka City.

Our eyes and minds do not like to see things where they shouldn't be. This photo from Reuters/Yomiuri shows a ship grounded in Kamaishi City.

Cargo containers heaped together by the tsunami became modernist sculpture in this shot by Itsuo Inouye for Reuters.

The human toll is given perspective in this photograph from Kyodo/AP, in which rescue workers carry an earthquake victim in Miyako.

5.Radiation

As I noted in my previous post, images telling of nuclear catastrophe resonate strongly. One assumes they have a particular reference of fear in Japan. This image of workers at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, was taken by Kim Kyung-Hoon for Reuters. Almost formal in composition, it suggests the invisible danger.

Kim Kyung-Hoon shot this image or workers checking chiildren near the power plant for signs of radiation. Here the faceless danger is given a face.

 A mother talks to her daughter, who has been isolated while checked for signs of radiation in the Fukushima area. In this photo by Yuriko Nakao for Reuters, suggests a variety of fearful thoughts.

Iconic Monday: Meltdowns in Our Time

Japan faced mounting humanitarian and nuclear emergencies Sunday as the death toll from Friday's earthquake and tsunami climbed astronomically, partial meltdowns occurred at two crippled plants and cooling problems struck four more reactors.

That the was lede of the New York Times's coverage of Japanese earthquake yesterday. As the hours passed after the earthquake and tsunami struck, the story veered toward damage assessment, but more ominously toward the looming disaster from radiation leaks at the country's nuclear power plants. The Times's report said the emergency "appeared to be the worst involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago." We have been assured that the Japanese nuclear plants are of a different design than that of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, but the imagery already emerging from Japan is filled with the frightening visual cues of atomic-age paranoia.

An official in protective gear and an evacuee from the area around the Fukushima Daini power plant in Japan. Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoom/Reuters

Chernobyl remains the gold-standard for man-made disasters, of course. Unlike the disaster in Japan, the Chernobyl meltdown on April 26, 1986 wasn't caused by nature's violence, but by a combination of technological prowess and ineptitude—exactly the kind of thing we'd all been worrying about throughout the Cold War. After the Soviet Empire broke apart and its secrets began to spill out, Chernobyl became a cautionary tale about nuclear-age environmental catastrophe and an emblem of a deep-seated modern anxiety. Meltdowns occupy the psychological space that lies, as Rod Serling colorfully put it back in the day, between "the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge."

At Chernobyl, the worst fears were realized after workers at the nuclear plant, near the town of Pripyat in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, were conducting a routine test. A cascade of events led to power surge in reactor number four, which led to a rupture of the reactor's containment vessel, then explosions and fire that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere. It blew over a vast area of Europe and the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of people had to be resettled. At first, the event remained enveloped in Soviet secrecy and the town of Pripyat, where plant workers lived, was not immediately evacuated. It would be years before the real human toll of the radiation damage would be seen clearly.

It was the photographers who went in to document the catastrophe who showed us, and who continue to show us the effects of the radiation cloud--effects that have lasted generations. The photographers are still at it--a look at the VII Photo Agency's list of Chernobyl-related essays shows how over time Chernobyl has in fact become a photographically-driven story. (Photographer Gerd Ludwig, who brilliantly documented Chernobyl's aftermath a decade ago, is currently planning a return trip for the 25th anniversary--go here to see how you can help send him.)



Very early on, photographers saw Chernobyl as more than another of history's disasters, and journalism gave way to art. In May of 1991, five years after the accident, Robert Polidori spent three days shooting in and around Chernobyl-- the so-called "zones of exclusion" made uninhabitable after 1986. Polidori was not a photojournalist by trade, but a master architectural photographer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Architectural Digest, and Nest). He turned the burned-out wreckage of reactor four's control room into a symbol of technological hubris.

 The ransacked apartments and schools of Pripyat were beautifully rendered and cataloged, like the remains of Pompeii and the Titanic.

Photographs suggest more than they explain, which is one of reasons they remain so steadfast in our memories. Images of the Chernobyl disaster captured something "between science and superstition," but it wasn't the Twilight Zone. It was real. Meltdowns are real.

The Week in Photos: Days of Rage

 My weekly review of photography from newspapers and magazines is up today at Le Lettre de la Photographie. Here is a sample:

1. Ivory Coast: Palpable Rage

 
The country erupted into turmoil this week as protests against the rule of President Laurent Gbagbo met resistance from security forces loyal to him. (Curiously, every reference "security forces loyal to Gbagbo," rather than "Gbagbo's s security forces," which suggests the president's rule may be less than firm.) These anti-Gbagbo demonstrators gathered in a section of Abidjan where six women had been killed. The picture makes their rage palpable. Photo by Issouf Sanogo/AFP/ Getty Images.

2. Libya: Precarious Moment

Rebels hold a man accused of being loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The revolution in Libya turned sharply this week from popular demonstration to violent civil war, and the photography has followed suit. This image, which captures the precarious moment between life and death, might be a useful visual metaphor. Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

3. Tunisia: Rapid Transit

 Egyptians living in Libya have been fleeing the country, and as this picture shows they're leaving as quickly as possible: The bus this man is boarding is leaving a refugee camp near Euchoucha, Tunisia. Photo by Joel Saget/AFP

4. Afghanistan: Fog of War

 An Afghan army recruit takes part in a graduation ceremony at a military training center in Kabul. Perhaps we can view this picture as another metaphor: The U.S., which has made the training of an effective Afghan army a centerpiece of its war policy, certainly hopes the force will be more than smoke and mirrors. Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters

5. Yemen: Roller-Coaster of Emotions

 Revolutions have their ups and downs. Here, anti-government protesters in the nation's capital show that an uproar can be a lot of fun, as long as you're not the one going up. Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP

 

Visual Culture Wednesday: Where is Kim Kardashian's Asp?...Epic Polaroid Paper Trail...and more

 Fashion: Kim Kardashian 

When you sit down and imagine what might have happened when Kim Kardashian posed as Cleopatra for outlandish fashion photographer Terry Richardson, her layout in the March issue of Harper's Bazaar seems pretty tame. In fact, it's a little lifeless, and I would have liked some more bad taste—Roman soldiers with breastplates, figs, eunuchs, and for goodness sake a big ol' asp. The real problem with the pictures is that Kardashian doesn't project much personal energy into the lens. Reality TV stars do better when they play the same people they play on TV, which is themselves. It's the most interesting role they seem to be able to imagine. 

And who knows, maybe it is better to be Kim Kardashian than the Queen of the Nile. Her life is already a lot more fun than Cleopatra's ever was. Who needs a barge when there's a limo waiting? Or an empire when you've got the E network? Or Caesar, when there is Caesar's Palace? So forgive her for looking slightly bored.

Nature: Volcanic Masterpiece

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is at it again. (I've never had the chance to go there, so it may be just my imagination, but does it ever stop erupting?) Apparently, last Saturday, while I was cleaning the house up, the volcano's Pu'u 'O'o crater collapsed, and a fissure about a third of a mile long opened up across the volcano, from which lava has been venting, sometimes up to 80 feet in the air. National Geographic has a Kilauea story up with a number of Kilauea photos. One of them (above) caught my eye, because it's astonishingly beautiful and eerie—a real landscape-from-hell. Turns out it's not a shot from the current eruption, however, but a Nat Geo file picture, which tells you what their files must be like. It was only after I looked at the photo for a few awe-filled moments that I realized it was by the great Frans Lanting. The way this picture makes me feel is the way I should have felt looking at Kim Kardashian as Cleopatra.

Art: Mikhael Kennedy's Polaroid Epic

 He isn't the first fine-art photographer to use the Polaroid SX70 camera, but who knows, he could be the last. (Those cartridges of Polaroid 779 film are, of course, not as plentiful as they once were.) Mikhael Kennedy has probably taken Polaroid art farther, if not further, than anyone else, however.

 Kennedy, like an instant-film version of Jack Kerouac, has wandered all over North American with his SX70 and has produced an epic seven-volume series (called Passport to Tresspass)  of self-published books detailing, in Polaroid's dreamy, creamy aesthetic, the people and places he has encountered. The latest installment, called Hunt Them Out, winds back through his previous journeys, catching up with previously-seen characters. Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art has a portfolio of all twenty of the new images. You can also read an interview with Kennedy here.

Iconic Monday: Camillus Fly Documents the Surrender of Geronimo

Geronimo (third from left) negotiates in a scene probably arranged by Camillus Fly

 I'm tempted to call Camillus Fly the Zelig of the Old West, a first-hand witness and bit-player to events that became legend and then myth. Perhaps he had an innate sense for being at the right place at the right time, or perhaps it was luck, or fate, if you believe in that sort of thing. There was the day in 1881 when the gunfight broke out in the vacant lot next to the boardinghouse he ran in Tombstone, Arizona--a dirty little corner of earth known as the O.K. Corral. And there was the day seven years later when he set up his camera in a ravine just south of the Arizona border and documented the tense negotiations that would lead to the surrender of the Apache warrior Geronimo. It happened 125 years ago, in March 1886. Though Fly is largely forgotten, his picture is an icon.

Fly was raised in California, but soon after his marriage to Mary E. Goodrich the couple moved to Tombstone, a silver boom town, to open a boarding house at 312 Fremont Street. Fly and his wife were photographers, and they opened up a portrait studio in the back of the boarding house. On October 26, 1981, Fly was on hand when the gunplay between the Earps and the Clantons broke out next door. At one point Ike Clanton fled the fighting and took refuge in the boarding house. After the smoke cleared, it was Fly who disarmed Billy Clanton as he lay dying just outside. For some reason, Fly didn't photograph the scene—one story has it that the Earps used threats to stop him from doing so.

In March of 1886 Fly accompanied General George Crook, an aggressive Indian fighter, on what was perhaps his most famous mission. Geronimo had been leading a small band of Apaches who terrorized the Southwest, but he sensed the time of resistance was over. He'd sent word to Crook that he was willing to surrender. He chose the site for the occasion--a place Mexicans called Canyon de los Embudos (Canyon of the Funnels) that would allow the Apaches to escape at the first sign of treachery from the soldiers. Geronimo arrived with 115 warriors; Crook, as Geronimo had demanded, came with a small band of officers, interpreters, and Indian scouts. And a photographer who had somehow talked his way into the group.

Geronimo and Crook negotiated for three days. On March 25 and 26, Fly set up his camera to make a number of images. The photo above shows Geronimo, third from the left, in a scene that Fly almost certainly arranged—one gets the feeling that all participants understood the history that was unfolding. At the end of the negotiations, Geronimo left Crook with these words: "Once I moved about like the wind. Now I surrender to you and that is all."

But it wasn't. Two days later Geronimo fled with 38 followers, launching another five months of war before being captured. In the meantime, Fly's image of the Apaches and soldiers seated in a semi-circle spread across the country in the pages of Harper's Weekly. Fly would later take his pictures on tour around Arizona—by that time his marriage had ended, largely because of his heavy drinking. He had a photo studio in Phoenix, then returned to Tombstone. He was elected sheriff of Cochise County in 1895, later became a rancher, and died in 1901. His wife continued to run the Tombstone photo gallery and in 1905 published Fly's images of Geronimo's surrender under the title: "Scenes in Geronimo's Camp: The Apache Outlaw and Murderer."

From a modern perspective, there are any number of ways to view Fly's images of the meeting in Canyon de los Embudos. My own philosophy on these matters comes from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a movie made by John Ford, who also made My Darling Clementine, which was about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. "This is the West, sir," says one of the film's characters, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Photos of the Week: Muammar Fail...Space Shuttle Awesomeness...and more

You can find my entire weekly collection of images from newspapers and magazine at Le Lettre de la Photographie. Here is a sample:

1. Signs of Liberation

 You can't have a revolution with character assassination. For Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the time to leave Libya seems to have arrived. He will leave behind a nation rich in oil and caricature. The sign in Arabic mocks Qaddafi's self-declared title, "The King of Kings of Africa." It says, "The Monkey of Monkeys of Africa." Photo AP/Alaguri
 
2. The Missing Man

 British Prime David Cameron held a press conference in London this week with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. This picture turns what might have been a run-of-the-mill political photo op into something transcendently edgy by leave Karzai out of the frame. Photo by Ben Stansall

3. The Last Rendezvous

On its final flight, the Space Shuttle Discovery approaches the International Space Station during rendezvous and docking procedures. The photo is credited only to NASA, but by all rights the astronaut aboard the Space Station who made this majestic image should be named.

4. Bees Doing It

 Without bees and all the other creatures that pollinate our food crops and make biodiversity so diverse,  our own species wouldn't be here. National Geographic explains it all in its March issue, which includes a smashing collection macro photos of the birds and bees at work. Photo by Mark W. Moffett
 
5. Home Bodies

Here, a couple in Christchurch, New Zealand look at what was once their house, destroyed by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck on February 22. Of all the images from the earthquake, this is the one that will become an emblem of the event, and the comfort of having someone to lean on. Photo by Mark Baker/AP

Modest Proposal: The Photo Contest Playoff Series (P.C.P.S.)

 This is the time of year when the photo world has its own version of March Madness. We begin learning the winners of the big annual photo contests, starting in late February with the World Press Photo awards and the Pictures of the Year International awards, leading up to the Pulitzers, the ICP Infinity Awards, the Overseas Press Club awards, and probably several more that I'm forgetting. Actually, there are so many photo contests and grant competitions, big and small, that it's become a year-round job to keep track of them. I'm beginning to think that there are so many photo contests, and so many that feel a bit self-serving, that the idea of entering and winning one is getting diminished. Which brings me to the subject of this post: I propose a photo tournament pitting the winners of all sorts of contests against each other in order to name a single image (and/or photo story) of the year. Really. Imagine it.

The idea occurred to me when I saw a sampling of the winners of the first-annual World's Rarest Birds international photo competition. The photo below, of New Zealand's kakapoo (not to be confused with this non-endangered animal), won first place in the "Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild" category. The kakapoo is a large, flightless bird with obvious star quality, and I hope this picture, and the award it won, help bring attention to its precarious hold on existence.

The New Zealand kakapoo rocks this winning photo by Shane McInnes

 So, I asked myself, how could we make the World's Rarest Birds international photo contest much better known? The answer: An NCAA-type photo contest playoff series. Pit the winners of various contests against each other, with brackets organized by genre--nature, photojournalism, travel, fashion, and on and on. Simple. You could also add a super-elimination final round, in which the winners of the various brackets faced off against each other. I know, I've judged lots of contests, and nobody enjoys comparing apples and oranges, but think of the excitement of naming the Best Photograph of the Year.

Excitement, and clairty, are the points here. There's not enough of either with all the contests nowadays. For instance: The same news pictures are entered into all the big photojournalism contests, and in one contest a certain picture may win a first prize, while in another it may come in third. We are left to determine for ourselves whether the shot is the best or not. Kind of like college football used to be before the Bowl Championship Series.

Seriously, wouldn't you want to see the winner of the POYI spot news award face off with the winner of the World Press Photo spot news category in a single tournament?

Peter Lakatos, MIT took first place for spot news in the World Press Photo contest with this shot of a suicide jump in Budapest, Hungary on May 22, 2010

Athit Perawongmetha won the Picture of the Year International spot news (general division) award with this photo of an anti-government protester in Bangkok.

 Or the winner of the POYI portrait series (general division) vs. the winner of the World Press Photo's People in the News category?

Palani Mohan (Reportage Getty) won POYI's first place, portrait series (general division) with this shot.

Flood victims in Pakistan were the subject of this photo, part of a series by Daniel Berehulak (Getty Images) that won first prize in World Press Photo's People in the News category.

 Now just imagine adding the Pulitzers into the mix. Or the Visa pour I'Image Visa d'Or winner. Don't worry, there will still be plenty for fans to argue about: As any college basketball fan can tell you, tournaments are all about the brackets. Think of all the photo contests on the bubble who don't qualify for the Photo Contest Playoff Series each year. Oh, the outrage! At any rate, if I were running something like the Lucie Awards, whose winners always seem to be arrived at rather mysteriously, I would jump at the idea of running a tournament-style competition. Hey, bring in the pep bands and supermodels if you want...it's all good.