Lessons from POYi - Freelance/Agency Issue Reporting Picture Story

This week, I've gotten to attend several sessions of POYi, notably the Freelance/Agency Feature Event Picture Story and the Freelance/Agency Issue Reporting Picture Story.

For the Issue Reporting picture story, it was defined as: A story or essay that explores an important social, economic, or political issue.

"Love Me"

Story Description: Love Me reflects on the cultural and commercial forces that drive a global obsession with youth and beauty. The project explores how a new form of globalization is taking place, where an increasingly narrow Western beauty ideal is being exported around the world like a crude universal brand. The project spans five years, and involves photography in 17 countries across five continents.
Image Caption: Katie, age 9. Winner. Universal Royalty Texas State Pageant. Texas, USA.

The first picture of the First Place essay kind of creeped me out because it reminded me of JonBenet Ramsey and the very evil things that happened to her. It was cool to see an essay, rather than a photo story win something. The judges really responded to the message of the essay - how the Western 'ideal' is seeping all over the world, despite how negative it is.

Caption: For more than 20 years strict social rules have required modest dress and covered hair. Laws forbid women to publicly sing, dance, or wear make-up. There are reportedly more nose jobs being performed in Iran than in any other country in the world. Elham, 19, and her mother, 55. Rhinoplasty "nose job" operation. Tehran, Iran.

Lessons from POYi - Freelance/Agency Feature Event Picture Story

This week, I've gotten to attend several sessions of POYi, notably the Freelance/Agency Feature Event Picture Story and the Freelance/Agency Issue Reporting Picture Story.

For the Feature Event picture story, the feature event was defined as: A candid, unposed story or essay of a significant planned or unplanned event that does not qualify as “hard news” or focus on “social issues.” Examples are: Michael Jackson’s death and memorial, President Barack Obama’s inauguration, spiritual celebrations or pilgrimages, cultural festivals, or any number of other event-based experiences.

Caption (from the First Place picture story): WASHINGTON - JANUARY 20: Barack H. Obama holds in a crowded hallway backstage at the Capital moments before walking out to be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts as the 44th president of the United States on the West Front of the Capitol on January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected to the office of President in the history of the United States.

I mentioned the definition because there were several good stories that were eliminated because they didn't fit the definition of what category it was entered in. One such story was Tomas Van Houtryve's essay, The Great Leap Backwards.

Caption: A portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong is seen reflected in wet pavement in "The East is Red" square (Dongfanghong square) of Nanjie village in Henan province, China on 31 October 2009.

As only 12 images were allowed for an essay, the ones entered are #1-6, 8, 16-20. Because it didn't seem to be of a specific event (as per the caption and story summary), say the anniversary of Mao's death, it was disqualified, even though the judges liked the story and the images. One comment that sticks out to me from their judging: "It's interesting to think of the Communist government as a brand name."

You're About as Useful as a Poopie Flavored Lollipop

They had Dodgeball: An Underdog Story on FX last night and I was reminded how many goofy things Patches O'Houlihan said.

The 5 D's of Dodgeball:

• Dodge
• Duck
• Dip
• Dive, and
• Dodge.

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!

Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine? No. But I do it anyway because it's sterile and I like the taste.

I get better runs in my shorts!

If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball!

You couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat!

Hey, Hey, Hey!

As I was walking to class today, migraine pulsing and the light piercing my brain, I pulled my wool hat (the one my dad hates) over my eyes to see if I could see (hee hee). I could. And it made me think of Fat Albert's Dumb Donald and Mushmouth and that funny language that he used to speak.

It got me thinking... what was that weird language that Mushmouth used to speak? "Whatbuh webuh gonbuh dobuh?" So I did a little investigation and found out that Fat Albert was on TV for 12/13 years (1972-1985)! The weird language Mushmouth spoke was a variant of a language invented for kids on the old TV program, Zoom, called Ubbi Dubbi. To speak it, all you have to do is put ub in front of any vowel. Mushmouth, instead, put a buh on the end of all of his words.

Here's a few episodes featured on YouTube.

This one, "Busted," has Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids catching a ride in a stolen car and ending up having to go visit a prison to see what a life of crime will bring them. It was hilarious to watch the creepy prisoners but I would have really been scared of them if I was a kid. They were freaky!

I also found the Fat Albert Christmas Special, where Fat Albert and company help out a homeless family. I don't remember many Christmas specials from when I was a kid, but I remember this one. I think it was because Fat Albert and the Junkyard Gang really worked to help a homeless family who just had a baby.

Google Doodles

I don't know how I came across this, but I stumbled on Google's contest over doodles of its logo. Called Doodle 4 Google, it is a competition for K-12 students to "work their artistic will upon our homepage logo." It's been around since at least 2008. This year's theme is "If I could do anything I would..." and the winner will be featured on the Google.com homepage on May 27, 2010.

Here's the link to Google's collection of doodles with its logo.

Here's some of my favorites:

For those of you who aren't familiar with Asterix and Obelix, they are characters created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, and are well beloved by me and by a large percentage of the population of France. Asterix the Gaul is the lead warrior in his small Gaulish village during the time in history when Rome had conquered Gaul. He and his best friend, Obelix, like to pound Romans, both aided by a potion developed by Getafix which gives super-human strength. This doodle was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the characters.

To commemorate Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday. His creation, Sherlock Holmes, is one of my favorite characters. Holmes is the most portrayed movie character with over 70 actors playing the part in more than 200 films. The best of those actors was Basil Rathbone. Peter Cushing (aka Grand Moff Tarkin) also portrayed him in several films. The term "red herring" (which means a false lead put to distract the reader from solving the mystery) comes from one of Doyle's Holmes stories.

Just because I love Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. "C is for Cookie" is an awesome song! Another awesome song is "Near... Far..." sung by my favorite Muppet, Grover. He is also the star of one of my favorite kids books: The Monster at the End of This Book.

To celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. Theodore Seuss Geisel wrote more than 60 books under the name of Dr. Seuss. Some of my favorites are The Foot Book;  Hop on Pop; One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish; and Green Eggs and Ham. I also love the cautionary tale of The Lorax.

He was born in Springfield, Mass., and graduated from Dartmouth College. The college builds a giant sculpture each year and several times, that sculpture has been a Seuss-inspired character.

In honor of one of favorite artists, Vincent Van Gogh. I was lucky enough to see some of his pieces when I was at the Musee D'Orsay, including some of my favorites: La chambre de Van Gogh à Arles, Portrait de l'artiste (1889) and L'église d'Auvers-sur-Oise, vue du chevet.

And one of my absolute favorites.

I absolutely love Wallace and Grommit. The brain child of the animators at Aardman Animation. Aardman was also responsible for Creature Comforts (the British version was much better than the American version), which featured real people talking about inane things, but animated as animals. Here's another link to another short.

You Asked for Sheep

In class, Rita mentioned that she would have liked to see more of the sheep in my story, so I thought I would provide some.

Dee surveying some of their ewes.

Some More from the Pereras' Farm

Thought I would provide a few more outtakes from my time on the Perera's farm. I'm thinking about continuing exploring life as a sheep farmer for my 30-Day project. In the spring, there'll be sheering and sheep bearing.

One of the favorites of the set. It's one I debated using as one of my alternates for my 5-picture story.

I like how the sheep are silhouetted but still visible.


The ewes out in the yard.

Glad I'm Not a Photographer in Uzbekistan

The BBC had a report on Umida Akmedova, an Uzbeki photographer who was tried and convicted of slander for the photographs that she took of life in rural Uzbekistan. Here's a more extensive link of pictures that she took. The site's in Russian: Фото Центральной Азии (Photos of Central Asia).

For those of you who are interested in what the Russian on the page says, here's the basic translation (courtesy of me with a little help from Google's translator):

Фото Умиды Ахмедовой

Photos of Umida Akhmedova

В декабре 2009 года в Узбекистане против известного ташкентского фотографа-документалиста и кинооператора Умиды Ахмедовой возбуждено уголовное дело по статьям 139 («Клевета») и 140 («Оскорбление»), максимальное наказание по которым предусматривает исправительные работы от двух до трех лет или арест до шести месяцев.

In December 2009 in Uzbekistan the well-known Tashkent photographer, documentary film-maker and cinematographer Umida Akhmedova was prosecuted under criminal articles 139 (“slander”) and 140 (“insult”), the maximum penalty for which includes remedial work two to three years or detention for up to six months.

По словам Умиды Ахмедовой, следователь Мирабадского РОВД города Ташкента капитан Нодир Ахмаджанов сообщил ей, что по инициативе Узбекского агентства по печати и информации против авторов, сотрудничавших с «Гендерной Программой Швейцарского посольства» в создании ряда книг и фильмов, в том числе и против самой Умиды Ахмедовой, возбуждено уголовное дело по факту клеветы и оскорбления узбекского народа. Непосредственно Ахмедовой вменяют в вину выпуск фотоальбома «Женщины и мужчины: от рассвета до заката», изданного в 2007 году при поддержке «Гендерной Программы Посольства Швейцарии». Альбом состоит из 110 фотографий, отражающих различные бытовые аспекты жизни людей в Узбекистане.
According to Umida Akhmedova, Investigator Mirabad Tashkent and city police department captain Nodir Akhmadzhan told her that on the initiative of the Uzbek Agency for Press and Information, criminal charges of slander and insult to the Uzbek people had been filed against her, and also the authors who had collaborated with the Gender Program of the Swiss Embassy in the creation of a number of books and films. Immediately, Akhmedova blamed the released album, "Women and Men: From Dawn to Dusk”, which was published in 2007 with the support of the Gender Program of the Embassy of Switzerland. The Album consists of 110 photographs depicting different aspects of everyday life in Uzbekistan. 

Ниже – некоторые из этих снимков. Кадры предоставлены «Фергане.Ру» автором. Они не могут быть использованы для перепечатки или воспроизведены в любом виде без письменного разрешения «Ферганы.Ру».
Below - some of these images. The rest is a copyright notice.
And here's a more extensive article. I won't translate this one, but Google Translator can for you...