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We are in the middle of a massive winter storm in the Southeast. There is snow and rain and sleet. Crazy winter weather. I'm trying to shoot a story in the middle of this, and weather doesn't make things easier. The drive from one site that I am shooting to another should have taken 4 hours yesterday. Instead it took 12 through rain sleet and snow. I have to shoot today operating on 4 hours of sleep.
On the upside 1/2 a foot of snow makes everything pretty.
-Stephen Alvarez
Rogersville, TN
Last week Human Rights Watch released a report saying that abuses by both the Northern and the Southern security forces threaten to undermine the upcoming elections. That corroborates what I found in my informal survey in October. As one man told me, "at least during the war I knew who my enemies were."
-Stephen Alvarez
Stanley Greene is a brilliant photographer. His new book Black Passport is available for preorder ($37.80 here
Thanks to Aphotoeditor.
-Stephen Alvarez
Ok this photo is a bit misleading. Yes the bat is dead, but it died thousands of years ago in Belize. It is sealed in rock deep inside Chiquibul cave.
But there is something killing bats in the US (here). White Nose Syndrome has killed close to 90% of the hibernating bats in the Northeast US and the disease is moving south. I am researching a story now and frankly I am scared.
Continue reading "White Nose Syndrome, what is killing the bats?" »
We had a tornado last night. Even though it passed right in front of my office I missed it. My friend Ben Beavers, however, was standing on the front porch of his restaurant and made a series of photos as it passed.
Luckily no one was injured, though there is extensive property damage in Midway. Ben made the pictures with his s90, the same one that I reviewed a couple of month ago (here). I am glad that photographically Ben took my advice to heart. The camera
in his pocket worked a lot better than my cameras
locked inside my office.-Stephen Alvarez
"Life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference. Opinion often consists of a kind of critisicm, But criticism can come out of love."
-Robert Frank
In response to criticism of The Americans
Burn Magazine is publishing a Nachtwey essay on tuberculosis (here). 2 important things about this;
1 it is well done and scary as hell. If you weren't worried about TB before watching this you will be when you are done, and that is Nachtwey's point. As always he hammers it home with the subtlety of a wrecking ball. However a wrecking ball with stunning commitment to the subject.
2 Burn got sponsorship for the essay. That means that Burn is moving into the realm where photographers can be paid for what they do. There is nothing wrong with making a living at social documentation. Thank god people like Nachtwey and Richards have been able to stay in business all these years. They are an important part of our social conscience.
-Stephen Alvarez
Photography is a singular occupation. We tend to work alone. It is unusual for me to see another photographer in the field ever. The only place I ever run into my fellow photographers is the NG freelance room. Every time I go in, there is someone I admire sitting at one of the cubicles talking about something interesting. It offers a rare sense of camaraderie in an otherwise solitary profession.
Here is the scene on Friday in the NG freelance room: left to right, David Alan Harvey, William Albert Allard, and Ira Block. What are they talking about? A camera bag...
-Stephen Alvarez
