Looking at this gallery of images of body builders, I reminded that; physical factors that are used to determine gender are obsolete and possibly, useless, cultural ones are of course either even more ambiguous or rigid depending on your camp.
You decide?
Leads to all sorts of discoveries. This site for example, I found from Brian's blog [not if but when]
[click! Photography Changes Everything]
Just when you think it is afe to go back in the water, another flood comes tearing along.
A sense of humour IS required
[A kitten on an iPhone at (HDR) sunset on Flickr - Photo Sharing!]
Photography's power re-confirmed
[One rainy night eight years ago, in Watertown, Massachusetts, a man was taking his dog for a walk. On the curb, in front of a neighbor’s house, he spotted a pile of trash: old mattresses, cardboard boxes, a few broken lamps. Amidst the garbage he caught sight of a battered suitcase. He bent down, turned the case on its side and popped the clasps.He was surprised to discover that the suitcase was full of black-and-white photographs. He was even more astonished by their subject matter: devastated buildings, twisted girders, broken bridges — snapshots from an annihilated city. He quickly closed the case and made his way back home.]
Powerful stuff.
While we are on history and documentation, 'The Age' online newspaper now has a photo gallery section, not sure how new it is?
...but have we ever
[From Valleywag]
sorry the article isn't about photography or identity per se, but a thought provoking read anyway, particulalry if you are paranoid about your identity online.
Talk about grass roots art, meets corporate technology. This link thanks to twitter.com
[From STREET WITH A VIEW: a project by Robin Hewlett & Ben Kinsley]
More of it I say.
In old news Aviary, recently went public, and is a subscription based online photo editing service.
Aviary joins the other companies that offer this service, including picnik, & photoshop express.
Picnik and Aviary differ somewhat in their services offered. Aviary it seems is attempting to create more of an online community, where picnik, taps into existing communities such as flickr and facebook for example.
With CS4 released and soon to hit the shelves here in Australia, I can't help but think, what of the future of desktop computer applications? The average person's needs are being driven down in terms of their must-have software, [it's all online now] factor in the increasingly narrowing focus of users of software such as photoshop, and I'm left thinking, where can this [and other packages] package actually go? Packages, such as Fireworks, Corel Paint. Why would anyone buy software, when there are ample alternatives to the big players?
Several packages have been released over the last 12 months, that have the potential to completely usurp programs like Photoshop, there's Iris, [$79.00 AU] Seashore [freeware], LiveQuatrz [donationware], and I'm sure this list will grow.
It's about time some one told it like it was
'A photograph is not an opinion. Or is it?' asked Sontag in the introduction to Leibovitz's Women, lightly implying that the photographer might have some opinions of her own. If she does, they are not discernible in the portraits for which she is famous. George W Bush, the exhausted surgeon in Sarajevo, Scarlett Johansson in gold knickers: they are all one in Leibovitz's drastically neutral view of human nature. All the energy spent on celebrating the outward appearance of her subjects leaves little for what goes on inside
[From Too many stars in her eyes]
It's all about self promotion really
Should we be alarmed?
[From Filtering out the fury: how government tried to gag web censor critics]
Same old same old?
trawling my news feeds today, and I re-discovered this gem
[From City Traces ]
on several levels
Also fwiw, my contempt for bean counters and bureaucrats, has reached a new low.
