Photography

Fascinating China.

 
The Atlantic consistently uses excellent photography, but their 41-image photo essay about China raises the bar to a new level.

“As China’s population and economy continue to grow, the country is scrambling to solve challenges in housing, elder care, cultural and political institutions, the environment, and other areas of everyday life. Today’s collection, a recent gathering of images from across the nation, covers a range of subjects from wheelchair dancers to bear bile farms, a monkey-controlled robot arm to a Tibetan exile protester who set himself on fire earlier today, and much more.”

Brew some coffee, and enjoy this cultural feast through outstanding imagery. The complete set is here.

An elderly man peers from a door in a nursing home in Hefei, Anhui province in China.chinese photojournalism

Photography

Visual Serendipity.

 
Serendip­ity: noun; the occur­rence and devel­op­ment of events by chance in a happy or ben­e­fi­cial way.

I love reflections and colors, and also have a strange fascination with mannequins. This image, shot just a few days ago on 23rd Street near Baruch College, captures everything, including myself.

The source for the word “mannequin” comes from the Middle Dutch “mannekijn,” which means “little man,” or “little doll.” Mannequin is the French spelling from this Dutch source. Even though the word means “little man,” the literal French meaning is, “a young woman hired to model clothes.” Go figure.

Photography

The best 25 pictures of the year.

 
This is the time of the year for the very bests, top 25, top 100, etc. I don’t usually follow those lists, but I’d like to share some of the images that this year really made me stop and marvel at the world, sometimes in joy, most often in horror. Here they are:


A monstrous dust storm (Haboob) roared through Phoenix, Arizona in July. Source: DanBryant.com


Firefighters of Ladder Company 4 — which lost seven men on 9/11 — perched together on their aerial ladder, watching a news bulletin in Times Square declaring that Osama bin Laden was dead on May 2. Source: lens.blogs.nytimes.com


Facebook played an extremely important role in the uprisings throughout the Middle East. Source: theatlanticwire.com


84-year-old Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed during a peaceful march in Seattle, Washington. She would have been thrown to the ground and trampled, but luckily a fellow protester and Iraq vet was there to save her. (Joshua Trujillo / Seattlepi.com)


Australian Scott Jones kisses his Canadian girlfriend Alex Thomas after she was knocked to the ground by a police officer’s riot shield in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canadians rioted after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins. (Getty Images / Rich Lam)

(more…)