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I suffered from regular nightmares as a child and would constantly wake up screaming around 11pm until I was about 12. Occasionally I still have them, although they are now different every time and based around more tangible fears I have, such as being caught in a fire and losing everything (I had one of those last night). I also had regular nightmares in India which I could blame on many things ranging from altitude to sobriety. This video I found posted on the Getty Images Creative Blog originally from vimeo is pretty close to the regular childhood nightmare I used to have, although I would not have the office-type setting around the lines. The second video is how it would sound. Terrifying.

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Brilliant Noise from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

This story caught my eye on BBC news. In India the caste system allows for some very strange circumstances to come about. I have often thought that without this system, the country would grind to a halt. Although I strongly disagree with being born into castes, and think that the whole idea is outrageous, there are many jobs that would not get done without it. It seems that it takes a certain acceptance of fate to be the person who manually shovels turds out of toilets. There are apparently 340,000 women who perform this task daily, they are known as ’scavengers’ and are part of the untouchable caste (Dalit). The women move from one house to another, performing the demeaning task of cleaning human excrement using their bare hands to smpty the toilets. This has to be carried for long distances to be disposed off, and they often carry it on their heads.

Mission Sanitation is an NGO that is working to help these women. they just put on a fashion show in New York that had some of them modeling and included many dresses that had been worked on by them. A group of Indian women, rescued by the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation from the degrading task of manually cleaning toilets, joined leading fashion models on the catwalk before representatives from more than 150 countries at UN Headquarters in New York, USA. The ceremony was especially poignant for Usha Chomar, because she was unofficially crowned as princess of sanitation workers.

I love spending time browsing through websites of photographers and often hit the link at the bottom of the emails when an event photographer emails Getty. Normally their work is much better than anything I have ever done commercially and they are much better at making money with photo than I probably ever will be. They seem to be able to catch better moments and use the depth of field and angled shots that add to groups of basic images. Then sometimes they add another portfolio called “Fine Art.” It nearly always comes at the end of the list of all other portfolios (eg. Event, Weddings, Portraits, Fine Art), as though it is something to be ashamed of (or maybe proud of but they know it won’t make them money). A great example of this is this guy Mike Larson (not from Getty, I just found him) whose wedding work looks really good/very sellable and makes all the brides and all the grooms look great. Then their Fine Art section has images like this one below, and I begin to wonder about peoples perception of what Fine Art Photography is, and whether I really needed an MFA.

This Youtube video was posted on the blog horses think. I am about to start editing photographs for a Bar Mitvahs photographer for some extra work and this video is a good introduction into how ‘fun’ those events can be. I would be proud to have a son make a speech like this, although my son wouldn’t be Jewish, so that would be impossible. I don’t know a huge amount about the traditions around Bar Mitzvahs. I did used to work as an assistant to a friends dad who was a videographer specializing in Jewish ceremonies. It generally entailed a lot of carrying of equipment and then sitting in a corner holding an extra microphone for ambient sound. For $150 a day when I was not a Green Card holder, my job as a glorified mic stand was well worth it. Sadly that job ended prematurely and I haven’t been on the scene for over 8 years.

And here are some “Haiku’s for Jews” from this site:

Today I am a man.

Tomorrow I will return

To the seventh grade.

AND

Yenta. Shmeer. Gevalt.

Shlemiel. Shlimazl. Meshuganah

Oy! To be fluent!

“If I knew how to take a good photograph, I’d do it every time.” - Robert Doisneau

And here is an advertisement for a more modern polaroid camera with Hugh Laurie in. Over here you will know him from the TV medical drama “House,” but back home in the UK he is well known from things like “Blackadder” and “A Bit of Fry and Laurie.”

There is something that makes me giggle about this website that turns seemingly normal pictures into hungry monsters. I am not sure that it is as much the idea, and certainly not the quality of the images, but more this statement posted below every photo and what that sounds like when sitting at your desk in an office at 1am.

“If you’re not saying ‘Om Nom Nom Nom’ out loud at the same time as looking at these pictures then you’re doing it wrong.”

I found a great website that showcases old snapshots in organized collections based on content, the site is called Square America.. My favorite album is called “the party” and has loads of dated images of people being wild in the 60’s and 70’s. Here are a few of my favorites.

“Pictures, regardless of how they are created and recreated, are intended to be looked at. This brings to the forefront not the technology of imaging, which of course is important, but rather what we might call the eyenology (seeing).” - Henri Cartier-Bresson