The NY Public Library has come up with a Stereogranimator:
Create and share animated GIFs and 3D anaglyphs using more than 40,000 stereographs from The New York Public Library.
Witness the Stereogranimator in action:
GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator
Made from this original stereograph:
Acrobats far from their mountain home — grizzly bears in a street at Jacksonville, Florida
ID: G90F124_047F – NYPL Digital Gallery
via Nan Rubin.
A 360° panoramic photo of “Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb,” one of several by Shigeo Hayashi:
“On October 1, 1945, I stood at the hypocenter of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and made a slow revolution. In that instant I had a difficulty grasping that this city had been felled by a single explosion.”
Check out the full-size (and full-screen) panoramas at 360Cities: Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb (1 of 5) by Shigeo Hayashi in Japan
Shinichi Maruyama creates in Kusho, an “abstract collection made with sumi calligraphy flying in mid-air:”
Water Sculpture from Shinichi Maruyama on Vimeo.
Artist Shinichi Maruyama throws a water and ink mixture
while a camera captures his work.
A nice blend of map-based selectable sounds/images at “The Soundlines Project.” It’s a project-in-progress done by Andrea Hammer’s Cornell students about the town of Endicott NY.
Assignment Afghanistan: Writer/photographer Elliott Woods gathered some devastating sounds & stories during his 2010 embed with Lima Company, US Marines. HV collaborators, Jesse Dukes with Shea Shackelford, produced the slideshow series for the Virginia Quarterly Review.
Here’s “Our Deepest Sympathies:”
[jwplayer config=”HV600″ mediaid=”8378″]
The Library of Congress exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color displayed some of the only color photos of Great Depression rural and small towns in America. Photographers in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information shot these images between 1939 and 1943, during Kodachrome’s dawn. The Denver Post selected a few dozen for their blog-post “Captured: Great Depression Photos: America in Color 1939-1943.” Here’s just a few:
Barker at the grounds at the state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941 More…
NYTimes Lens blog has a great post on what to bring and “What Not to Bring to Tahrir Square: Stephen Farrell Learns to Pack a Smaller Camera Kit.”
CAIRO — It is rare that the most important piece of equipment in your bag is the bag itself, even more rare for that bag to be a black plastic trash sack slung over your shoulder as you walk past pro-government thugs on a bridge over the River Nile. The trash bag’s purpose, of course, is to conceal your large nylon camera bag, which is likely to get you grabbed off the street by the aforementioned thugs.
Sometimes the hardest part of a story is getting there. Sometimes it is getting around. Sometimes it is obstructive intelligence agencies and soldiers. Sometimes it is lawlessness, sometimes overattentive law enforcement. Sometimes it is lack of transport, poor communications, power blackouts, accreditation difficulties or a hostile local population.
Though my colleagues and I have worked in far more dangerous places and under far more primitive conditions, I don’t think I’ve ever before covered a story in which all the above-mentioned obstacles were present and taking turns on a daily — sometimes hourly — basis to become the principal barrier to getting the journalist in and the story out.
Things to take:
Jake’s in Bangkok and snapping away…
[UPDATE: Added Paul Rose’s memorial song.]
Lost another friend and great keyboardist, Dave Arnott (Band Universal and & Triumphant, FOG ) died at 49yo.
One early 1980s night, I was leaving KGLT about 3am, and this wild, ethereal piano was echoing up the stone stairwell. Odd, since the building had been closed for hours. Tracked it down to the grand in the 1st floor lounge, being played by one very serious and very accomplished young man. I introduced myself, so did he: Dave Arnott.
He was (as I recall) on a break from helping sound-wire the Student Union Theatre. I sat and listened. He played another half-hour.
I’ve seen some of this land’s best musicians of many genres in excellent venues across USA. But that pre-dawn Dave solo performance, to an audience that had just increased from 0 to 1, was among the most memorable concerts I’ve ever attended.
Music (“Yellow Jacket” by FOG from Rain) and Footage by David Arnott. Edited by Tol. Additional Footage by Tol, Blue, and Mike. More…
Hearing Voices from NPR®
106 Courage to Create II: Interviews with Artists
Host: Russ Germain of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Airs week of: 2010-12-15
“Courage to Create II” (52:00 mp3):
The conclusion of this 1978 NPR/CBC radio classic, featuring interviews with artists on the origins of the creative impulse (part one). Interviewees include:
Psychologist Rollo May (author of The Courage to Create
Produced by Carolyn Jensen Chadwick and Tom Steward; narrator: Russ Germain; technicians: Jim Anderson, Jan Stewart; executive producer: Digby Piers.
In HV’s not-so-humble opinion, Carolyn Jensen Chadwick was NPR’s best producer. She died August 2010; a few remembrances: All Things Considered | The Atlantic | Hearing Voices | LA Observed | Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Morning Edition.
Hearing Voices from NPR®
105 Courage to Create I: Interviews with Artists
Host: Russ Germain of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Airs week of: 2010-12-08
“Courage to Create I” (52:00 mp3):
Interviews with artists on the origins of the creative impulse (part one of two):
A 1978 NPR/CBC radio classic, featuring interviews with artists on the origins of the creative impulse. This first of two hours includes:
Psychologist Rollo May (author of The Courage to Create
Produced by Carolyn Jensen Chadwick and Tom Steward; narrator: Russ Germain; technicians: Jim Anderson, Jan Stewart; executive producer: Digby Piers.
In HV’s not-so-humble opinion, Carolyn Jensen Chadwick was NPR’s best producer. She died August 2010; a few remembrances: All Things Considered | The Atlantic | Hearing Voices | LA Observed | Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Morning Edition.
Took this picture of two otters at Trout Lake in Yellowstone National Park. The one on the right is chowing down on a good-sized cutthroat trout:
{click pic for full-size 80K image)
Now showing at the Seattle Art Museum a photo-audio exhibit, by HV producer Jake Warga, of “Faces: Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya.” Features digital stills projection with field recordings:
One hundred faces introduce individuals from many cultures in five African countries, a collection that became part of Jake Warga’s response to his work as a public radio producer since 2007. As he states, “Journalism’s tendency is to talk only of numbers — numbers starving, numbers infected, numbers displaced — while individuals are easily hidden, their unique details lost in the shadows.†He started out with a conventional search for numbers and statistics, but Warga later decided to take a “tree-for-the-forest approach†by focusing on individuals.
Chris Engles, photographer and radio producer (site | blip.tv | prx), blends the two skills expertly in this audio-slideshow of Boston’s Weberdance:
Wired has selected some staggering NASA images of islands in “Out of the Blue: Islands Seen From Space:”
Atafu Atoll, Tokelau, Pacific Ocean
Made up of coral reefs that surrounded the flanks of a volcano that has since become inactive and submerged. Like many tropical atolls, Atafu is very low lying and vulnerable to sea-level rise. This photograph was taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station in January.
Galapagos Islands, Pacific Ocean
…are the tops of volcanoes on the sea floor off the coast of South America along the equator. This image was taken by the Landsat 7 satellite in 2001.
Something beautiful, haunting and appropriate about Jack Warga’s photo exhibit “Leaving Iraq:”
Jake was embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, US Army. He snapped several dozen back-of-head portraits before he left. More Iraq images and audio in Jake’s Iraq Xmas 2009 HV posts.
Black and WTF is “a photoblog of really strange black & white photos”, such as:
and:
via Colter.
December 26, 2009
Tuz, Iraq
5 dead, 17 wounded
The IED explosion happened in the morning, 1200yards from where I was walking to get a breakfast falafel at the police station. The boom was deep, not like fireworks from the sky, but a percussion from the ground, the earth wounded for a moment, insulted. I could not control an ‘oof’ as air was punched lightly out of me. Gunfire followed, the Iraqi Police firing into the air to disperse crowds and let them know they’re there — security?
Iraqi police and American MP’s had been up all night in preparation for a Shiite Pilgrimage called Ashura. Boom. Not allowed to be practiced under Saddam, the devout whip and cut themselves in observance, faces covered in blood, white shirts crimson with the owner’s blood, of the very devout, when things go right.
The explosion was near a Mosque on the route. I had walked that route at 3am with soldiers, either we missed it or it was planted after us, I like to think it was planted after we passed, can take only 1.3min to place, Iraqi police are known to sleep at their posts. Some of the devout are now dead in a deep disruption of earth, air and peace; many are covered in blood, not by their own hands, maybe not their own blood.
The devout bleed, the devout weep.
Back at the station, wearing my armor because I still want to get breakfast, Iraqi Police, knowing I’m there to take photos, “Want photo?†one asks, making a contorted dead face, “go hospital, many photo,†he is smiling, I don’t know why.
I’m sorry, I wish I had seen the bomb on our patrol, it was near a bridge, it was dark, I remember the bridge, I feared walking under it, bridges are where bad things happen, I didn’t look for bombs, it’s not my job, I don’t know what to look for, I am not trained, I was told to stay near walls, or in the middle of the patrol of soldiers, if the patrol leader holds his hand down in a certain way we were to get on one knee, I did not look for things out of place, I concentrated on not stepping in sewage water seeping from canals, I did not use a flashlight because I didn’t want to be seen by a sniper, instead I fiddled with my recorder, I increased the ISO of my camera, I did not look at the side of the road unless an angry stray dog was threatening, the soldier near me aiming his pistol at it just in case, they protect me, I did not see a bomb, I wish I did, I’m sorry, I’m here to observe but It was dark, I did not see, it may not have been there yet.
I’m so sorry.
Tikrit, Iraq
Woke up in a palace today, stared-up at huge golden chandeliers dangling from the ornate ceiling of a former palace. Mahmoon Palace or “Birthday” palace. Where Saddam’s birthday was celebrated. Less glamorous at eye-level: I lay on a dusty cot, and my neighbor in a public storage-like plywood cubicles was playing Alvin and the chipmunks Christmas. They had little warning that a reporter was coming, they were told I wanted to cover Christmas stories, I came to the Middle East to avoid it.
The famous balcony, where Saddam fired off his famous gun.
Troops posing outside the Palace bandstand
It’s kind of sad the disrepair here.
Large plasma TV, Xbox, PS2’s, internet terminals. Soldiers play war games, up to 4 at a time, executing their training in play. Boredom is the greatest threat here, complacency is its danger. They are very good warriors, I rarely see their screens turn red with electronic blood.
“People of Wal-Mart” website went viral in the banquet room, for that’s what this huge room was, ultimate of class and luxury, marble marble everywhere. We gathered around to look at the website: “Aw, no way!”s and “Shit, is that a dude? Fuck that!”s and “Hell no!”s, everywhere. One of those came from my lips.
Nice soldier, Joe, likes metal, from California as well. He tells others “man, we grew-up an hour from each other” but light-years. He turned 21 the day before, old enough at last but not a drop to drink. I asked him why he joined: “The health benefits, my wife is on expensive anti-seizure meds.” Â He loves to talk about weapons–a grenade launcher, I forget the caliber, is his favorite. Weapons weapons everywhere. Not guns, weapons. He pretended to defend me as I got a haircut. Has a 6mo old daughter, took her to Disneyland recently. Old enough.
It takes a while for soldiers to open-up to reporters. I know what they’ve been told about us, but I’m not supposed to know, so I won’t say. I needed an opening. A horror movie was thrown on late last night, a break from the gory video games to just gore. The man who I call dad in my life, his name came up, director of photography “hey, that’s my dad” I said. One mouth fell open. I said I too used to work on horror movies, more looks my way. I was in at last.
It’s “hum-vee” not “hummer”. The former is driven, the latter drives.
Comforts of home. It’s not REAL mountain-dew, it’s called “squiggly-dew” because it’s in Arabic and, the greatest complaint: it uses real sugar cane instead of high-fructose corn syrup. The Sergeant showed me the stash of a yummy caned coffee drink for us old-timers. Pallets of bottled water water everywhere. Tap water comes from the Tigris, never open your mouth while showering, don’t taste history.
Text, audio, images © 2009 Jake Warga.
[“Iraq: Christmas 2009“: observations, images and sounds from Iraq, Christmas 2009, a series of posts by Jake Warga.]
Oh the things I’ve seen.
I shall never complain about long lay-overs again.
I have flown in a C-17 transport.
I shall never complain again of uncomfortable seats again.
I have ridden in the belly of a Stryker.
What do you get when you stick a public radio guy with a Fox TV crew in the back of a Black Hawk for a multiple re-fuel hop up to Northern Iraq?
A bumpy ride.
I saw an injured dove in Baghdad trying to be nursed back to health on a blast wall away from cats. It had a saucer of water and feed, don’t know who put it there. I saw a dead dove come evening.
I got a serious cold sleeping in a 20-man tent during a thunder storm, closest I’ve come to being attacked.
I am now with these 3rd Infantry Division.
I have yet to meet someone who wants to be here. I have met some wonderful people.
For lunch the other day I had crab legs, the desert bar is endless, burger king is everywhere. Where else in Arabia can I eat bacon and watch Fox TV on flat screens throughout a mess hall?
Ugandans hired by KBR guard entrances to buildings on bases, the Peruvians have the evening shift. They look at my passport, I don’t think they know what they’re looking for.
A papier-mâché Mount Rushmore and Statue of Liberty are in the DFAC (Dining FACility). Pakistanis do the dishes. You’re not allowed to bring bags into facilities or wear a hat, but you are required to have a weapon. I am unarmed. I know now the difference between an M16 rifle and an M4 Carbine. Both are 5.56 Caliber, I don’t know what that means but I was given a pamphlet.
The military is run by acronyms. I’m staying in an LSA (Life Support Area).
It’s almost encouraged to have a bad hair cut, in this I feel at home.
I go next to JCC in Tikrit with PSD (Joint Coordination Center…Personal Security Detail), I feel important, I may be a fool. I spend Christmas Embedded with the Chaplin…why not. Here’s what soldiers want for Christmas (4:07):
Black hawk gunner
Dust goes to one lung, trash burns go to the other.
Met a soldier young enough to be my daughter, I become a grandfather when she tells me about her 5yo back home. Everyone dresses the same, it’s confusing, uniformity, conformity, camouflaged in green in a land where there is only brown.
With love from the war on terror. Pictures at Flickr.
Jake
Keffiyeh for sale in Dubai
Text, audio, images © 2009 Jake Warga.