4th November 2006
You are invited to take part in the largest demonstration of People Power that London has ever seen on Saturday 4th November 2006, by turning off all your lights, and switching off all your non-essential electrical equipment.
Monthly Archive for October, 2006
A very strange day yesterday. I spent it at the Frieze art fair in London. The whole place stank of money, but I had a pleasant time. But then, the minute I was leaving after 5 hours of art overload, I got a phone call from a foreign number. It was from Associated Press in Rome.”I believe you have taken a photo of the journalist Kash Gabrielle Torsello?”"Yes”"And you have that photo on your website?”"Yes”
(I’m thinking “weird, has Kash spotted it, and perhaps wants it taken down?”)
“We’re getting reports that Kash has been kidnapped in Afghanistan. It seems that you have the only photograph of him online. I got your telephone number by going to your website and viewing your CV. Could we use your photo to put out a press release about his kidnap”.
Very strange. I sent him the photo – which involved some serious improvisation, as it had “fallen off the end” of my free Flickr account and I had a train to catch from London back to Sheffield. By the time I reached Sheffield, it would have been too late for Italian press deadlines. I managed to find an Internet café, login to Flickr, pay the $24 to upgrade my account to Pro, recover the photo, mail it off, and catch my train, just.
I only met Kash once, when I took this photo: it was at an art gallery in London nine months ago. We chatted for quite a long time: I was just getting together the courage to try some street photography, in fact it was the day before I wrote this blog entry.
I was somewhat overawed at his courage as a photojournalist in Kashmir and Afghanistan. He told me “in Afghanistan, you never lift your camera quickly. There have been several assassinations by people disguised as journalists.” He told me about his work out there, about some of the incredible and heart-rending things he had seen. I was quite moved by it all.
I emailed him afterwards, then we dropped out of touch. A month ago, I discovered his profile on Lightstalkers and mailed him again. We chatted briefly by email. I saw that he was back in Helmand province. My last words to him were “Stay safe!”
More on the kidnapping:
BBC news
Observer/ Guardian newspaper
Editorial Photographers UK
I’m feeling very strange about this. It’s not as if I know the guy, but that makes this feeling even more peculiar. I just hope he makes it through this OK.
Update: Kash’s kidnappers have been in touch with the Italian authorities. In exchange for Kash’s return they have asked that Abdul Rahman, the Afghani who was sentenced to death for the crime of apostasy (abandoning Islam and converting to Christianity), be returned to Afghanistan. They have set a deadline of the end of Ramadan (which is next Tuesday, 24th October). I hope above hope that the kidnappers have a change of heart, although I am not very optimistic. I certainly can’t see the Italian government returning Rahman to Afghanistan to be executed.
The NUJ have set up a page for the latest news updates on Kash’s situation, where you can also leave messages for Kash.
I just bought myself a new lens (which I can’t afford) – a Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM. It’s beautiful, such good low-light performance, fast focus, and beautiful bokeh. Here’s a picture of Gizmo the lurcher taken with it.
Gizmo Originally uploaded by Dan Sumption.
A few people have asked me how I made this HDR-type image:
I’ve posted an explanation on the Flickr page, and versions of the original RAW file here for examination.
This article goes against everything I had previously heard about (Li-ion) rechargable batteries. Now I understand why the batteries in my laptops and mobile phones rarely seem to last more than a few months before they’re down to about 50% effectiveness. Note to self: recharge more!
Another night another gig – photos here. Actually, these are from a week after the last set. And I’ve managed to whittle this down to a manageable size (20 photos).
These were shot at the same place as the Whitehouse pictures, The Grapes, but have much less blur (it was lighter, people didn’t move as much, and I even got my flash out for a couple of photos). Thomas Truax was incredible, he played some beautiful music on (mostly) home-made instruments and had the audience in hysterics. Very photogenic too.
Thomas also ran around the stage switching lights on and off in between songs. He must have known what he was doing, because each instrument seems lit with just the right colours to suit its character.
Of the previous bands, Michael Eden was very good, but barely moved, and I just couldn’t concoct any interesting photos. Tim Pare’s band was dull, so I had even more problems (hence there’s just one picture, of his guitarist, and he looks like a waxwork). But it was all worth it for the Hornicator!
Plus a few bonus photos at the end, from Club 60, Sheffield’s secret speakeasy.
I’ve had a minor overhaul of my Life photo pages - not quite the overhaul that they so badly need, but I have added categories to most of the sets of photos there (gig, art performance, family photos, etc.) to try and make them a bit easiier to dive into.
I’ve also added three new sets of photos: the first one is from the sold-out Whitehouse/That Fucking Tank/Martin Archer gig which was organised by Freenoise on 15th September. The next two are photographic explorations for ongoing art-photography projects. Pastoral includes photos taken at and around Bole Hills while I was walking the dog (I’m keen on making a set out of these rather creepy high-contrast woodland photos), and Turquoise Aqua Cyan is an extension of the Light of my Life theme (featuring photos which could have been taken by my kids, but weren’t), this time paying a little more attention to colour as well as light.
I hope you enjoy them. Please leave any comments here.
It’s been an interesting couple of days. Saturday’s Guardian Weekend magazine had a new section called “In Pictures” – a set of around half-a-dozen photos on a theme (this week: water). They were asking for submissions for the next week’s mag (theme: Parklife), and the best one selected would win a Canon Ixus camera and a photo-printer.
I have a few interesting park photos (in particular, this one), so I thought I might give it a shot. Unfortunately, details on the competition were pretty thin, and I had to read the small print to find out where to send the photo, and what the deadline was. Good thing I did. The terms were not nice! The story is perhaps best continued by quoting the post which, with small alterations, I submitted to the Guardian Unlimited’s talk website, Flickr’s Utata and Flickr Central group discussions, and the Lightstalkers website for professional photographers. (Oh yeah, I also posted it to the Krautrock Message Board, just to keep friends in the loop): Continue reading ‘Fighting for Photographers’ Rights’
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