Ninja July 23rd, 2008

Here are some more of the sights that I saw while in Taiwan.

What used to be someone’s small rose garden.

More freshly hung laundry. I’m a sucker for laundry. If you take a look through any of my vacation photos, you will see hung laundry, graffiti, peeling posters, doors, type, and occasionally people.

Some kind folks offered to take us out for rides to see the sunset, but I never had the time. I was stuck indoors grading homework, prepping for the next day, and oh yes, in long meetings (thought I could get away from all that).

Meet Alex the cicada (the kids named him for some odd reason). Before Taiwan, I had never seen one.

Unlike Alex, this ugly fellow did not get a name. We were constantly finding dead roaches in our showers and classrooms. These bad boys were over 3 inches long and they flew!

There were over thirty of us living in one house. People left their personal items scattered about the house. As I was heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I passed this—Whitemen Toothpaste! When I asked the owner about it, she said, “We have Blackmen Toothpaste, too. They are exactly the same, but with different labels. You do not have these brands where you live?”

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Ninja July 21st, 2008

I haven’t even come close to downloading all the photographs I’ve taken! But here are a few from the first batch.

NvP, waiting at the airport.

Giddy with excitement! Can’t you tell?

Here’s the view from my window seat. What a glorious, unreal blue sky.

Off to Feng Yuan!

Here is the sleepy town of Feng Yuan (literally translated means “fragrant garden”) waking up at 6 AM. I had to balance on the edge of a 3rd floor balcony to get this shot. I wrapped my arm around a nearby clothesline just in case. It was really sturdy, I checked, no worries.

I love the sight of freshly hung laundry.

Two of the local Feng Yuan kids chatting before school starts. I wonder what they’re saying?

On to the next town—Wan Nei!

Here is one of the houses in Wan Nei. Wan Nei is near Suan Tou (translated, its name means “garlic.” So I went from fragrant garden to garlic. ^__^

Here’s one of the fruit stands I pass on my walk to school. There are many farmers in this town, and as you might imagine, quite a bit of competition to sell their goods. Each stand is lucky if they can bring in $10 US a week.

This is one of my students from my last class. His name is Ken. He is incredibly sweet and kind-hearted. And I love him dearly. His mother passed away from some form of brain disease a few years ago. He lives with his father, two sisters, aunt, uncle, and grandmother in a shed-like house with a dirt floor and a thin corrugated metal roof. After class ended, he invited me and some other teachers to visit his home. He rode his rusty bike ahead of us, and he’d stop at each corner and turn around to check on us. While we were walking, he gave us a tour of all the different crops. To the left, you can see rice starting to sprout.

I think I will head off to bed. I will post more photographs and stories during the week.

See you around,

Ninja

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Penguin July 1st, 2008

Wired has a gallery of lenses cut in half:

I knew that lenses were intricate, but this is nuts.

-Penguin

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Ninja June 30th, 2008

Sometimes I just need a good, gentle reminder…

Via Ffffound

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Penguin June 26th, 2008

Wired: Gun Camera Adds Graffiti to Other People’s Photos:

Berlin based artist Julius von Bismarck uses his oddly named camera-mod to project images onto street furniture where they appear in the photos of strangers, but remain invisible to their eyes.

How? It’s simple. The device has a slave unit on top which is triggered when it sees a flash fire. This triggers his own flash, which fires through the back of the camera, through a film slide containing his slogan and then on and out through the lens at the front. This works because a camera is pretty much a projector in reverse.

I’m all for graffiti, especially things like Banksi. But there’s something invasive about it. Maybe because it’s the nature of photography that makes it really personal that makes me uneasy. It’s a good thing I don’t use the flash.

-Penguin

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Ninja June 19th, 2008

The Australian Centre for Photography’s current exhibition, Hijacked, features the exciting, new work by 44 of Australia and America’s emerging photographers! Their work has a sense of wanderlust and documents subcultures, alternate lifestyles, and urban landscapes. Hijacked runs until July 19.

Australian photographers
Brad Rimmer, Caitlin Harrison, Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy, David Griggs, Duncan Barnes, Emily Portmann, Fiona Morris, Flavia Schuster, Gareth Willis, Graham Miller, Greta Anderson, Jack Pam, James Mellon, Janelle Ryan, Joshua Webb, Juha Tolonen, Mark McPherson, Martin Mischkulnig, Michael Gray, Nathalie Latham, Toni Wilkinson, Tony Nathan and Karron Bridges

American photographers
Brian Cross, Jonathan Gitelson, Shen Wei, Amy Stein, Angela Boatwright, Todd Fisher, Timothy Archibald, Nick Chatfield-Taylor, Bill Sullivan, Dean Karr, Lisa Kereszi, Alana Celii, Ed Zipco, Tod Seelie, Robin Schwartz, Grant Willing, Suzy Poling, Sarah Small, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, Jason Lazarus

If you can’t trek to Sydney, the book, Hijacked: Volume 1 Australia and America, will be launched with accompanying shows in Fremantle, New York, and Berlin.

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Ninja June 12th, 2008

NvP reader, Tiffany Nelson, was kind enough to share her photos from the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit, Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy (which runs until September 1, 2008).

Enjoy!

Cheers to Tiffany!

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Ninja June 11th, 2008

Mike Stimpson (aka Balakov) recreates classic moments using LEGOs.

Original photograph: V.J. Day Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Original photograph: The unknown rebel, Tiananmen Square by Jeff Widener

Original photograph: Lunch Atop a Skyscraper by Charles C. Ebbets

Original photograph: Burning Monk (Thich Quang Duc’s protest over persecution of Buddhists in South Vietnam) by Malcolm Browne

Original photograph: Behind the Gare Saint Lazare by Henri Cartier-Bresson

Related link
+ For more photos, visit Mike Stimpson (Balakov)’s Flickr set

Purchasing link
+ Mike Stimpson LEGO prints are also available here

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Tags: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Charles C. Ebbets, Flickr, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jeff Widener, LEGOs, Malcolm Browne, Mike Stimpson

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Ninja June 9th, 2008

There are 3 great exhibitions currently showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Jeff Koons on the Roof, Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960, and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy.

It was a bright, sunny, 95 degree Saturday at the MET, but the Jeff Koons rooftop exhibit was well-worth the wait (long line to the elevator) and the heat. The rooftop garden was quite crowded, but I managed to snap a shot of the balloon dog statue without anyone else in the frame (you can see some of the crowd in the reflection though).

Jeff Koons on the Roof

Exhibit runs until October 26, 2008 (rooftop access ends at 5 PM)
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden (weather permitting)

+ View images from the MET for this exhibition

+ Jeff Koons
+ Balloon Dog (Yellow), 1994–2000
+ High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating
+ 121 x 143 x 45 in. (307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 cm)

It’s about celebration and childhood and color and simplicity—but it’s also a Trojan horse. It’s a Trojan horse to the whole body of artwork.
– Jeff Koons, on his Balloon Dog

Photography on Photography

Exhibit runs until October 19, 2008
Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography, 2nd floor

+ View images from the MET for this exhibition

+ Hiroshi Sugimoto
+ Fidel Castro (Wax Figure, Madame Tussaud’s Museum, London), 2001
+ Gelatin silver print
+ 58 3/4 x 47 in. (149.2 x 119.4 cm)

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy

Exhibit runs until September 1, 2008
Special Exhibition Galleries, 1st floor

Inspired by Superman’s costume, Rossella Jardini, the creative director of Moschino, substituted Superman’s iconic letter “S” with the letter “M,” for Moschino. For the men’s version, she placed the “M” into a heart-shaped field, a symbol used in Moschino’s branding.

Meet William, the MET hippo

Photo of William from the MET website

+ Statuette of a Hippopotamus, ca. 1981-1885 B.C.E.; Dynasty 12; Middle Kingdom
+ Egyptian; Middle Egypt, Meir
+ Faience
+ H. 4 3/8 in. (11.2 cm), L. 7 7/8 in. (20 cm)

If you have some spare time, you should also visit William, the MET museum’s mascot. You can find William in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Egyptian galleries. He is made of faience and is covered with lotus blossoms, which represent the hippopotamus’s creative forces in nature.

An Englishman, Captain H. M. Raleigh, and his family owned a picture of the hippopotamus, which they named William. In 1931 the captain wrote an article for the magazine Punch about his picture of William. The name caught on, and since that time the little blue hippo has been known as William to almost everyone.

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Tags: Balloon Dog (Yellow), Exhibits, Fashion, Fidel Castro, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jeff Koons, Jeff Koons on the Roof, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moschino, Photography on Photography, Rossella Jardini, Superheroes

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Ninja June 4th, 2008

If you’re bored, why not take a peek at WhereWeDoWhatWeDo, a photo collection of workspaces? I would upload mine, but it’s an awful mess right now. And I’m far too embarrassed by my clutter.

I will tell you this though: I had a toy light saber and Chinese yo-yo on my desk that would end up in new spots each morning (from various co-workers or cleaning crew battling with them the previous night).

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