Photoded

An Intimate Look at Egypt’s Youth in Ongoing Revolution

By Wired, on January 27th, 2012

> Crowds erupted in jubilation at the news of Mr. Mubarak’s resignation in Cairo, Egypt on Feb. 11, 2011. Photo: Ed Ou/The New York Times > View all If you’ve been following the Arab Spring, you’ve seen Ed Ou’s work. At age 25, he has made some of the most impactful photos of the revolutions in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. His photography has helped translate the ongoing uprisings for a Western audience and he continues his work on the ground there even now. This month Ou is back in the news. A series of his photos of Egyptian youth have been released this week in conjunction with the one-year anniversary of the protests in Tahrir Square that unseated President Hosni Mubarak. The photos give us some of the most intimate looks at life in Egypt and take us beyond the photos of yelling protestors and clouds of tear gas. “When you have a foreign media, everyone tends to shoot the same thing, everyone has the same photo in their minds or shoots whatever is right in front of them,” Ou says. “But what people forget is that while there is ‘news’ happening, there is also 99 percent of the scene you don’t see.” Ou’s photos provide access to an Egypt that other photographers were unable to see. He followed young Egyptians as they played a crucial role in last year’s revolution and who continue to be central voices in the ongoing process of change. The photos tell a larger story about what happens after the gaze of the mass media turns away. Ou shows the quieter moments that allow individuals to stand out from the visual repetition of anonymous protesters. In many ways, this path was a risk for Ou. He was working for daily news outlets and feared he would miss “the shot” if he looked away or followed another lead. Asking for access and drawing attention to a community that feared being targeted by the Mubarak regime was also perilous. While the group he followed was initially hesitant, Ou said they opened up almost immediately. They related to his youth and saw him as someone who was also trying to navigate the chaos that was Egypt. “I had my own close calls with the police, and it was such an intense experience that we all had something in common,” says Ou. “We became friends immediately and we’re friends now.” Ou, who was born in Taiwan but grew up in Canada, said he was drawn to the story not only because of the young people’s role in the revolution but also because of their intense conviction. Something he knows a bit about, having left a USC International Studies program in Jordan to take photos of the war in Lebanon in 2006. “I was absolutely humbled by just how much they put on the line, how much everyone in Egypt has put on the line,” he says. “It gave me the resolve, it assured me that this was the story I needed to tell.” While many Egyptians just want things to calm down, some of the people he followed are unsatisfied with the outcome of the revolution and are pushing for more change. “Only a year out do we realize how wrong we were. [The revolution] was not the end of problems in Egypt,” says Ou. “That’s why I wanted to stay with the story after the media had left, long after attention had shifted elsewhere.” “The same issues are still there,” he said. “Freedom of speech is kind of there, but not really. NGOs are still being rounded up, etc.” Ou says he’d like to eventually expand the project to look at youth throughout the Middle East. Young people, he says, have been key players in all the ongoing revolutions, and he wants to try and tell their stories as well. “What’s happening in Egypt sets a precedent for what may or may not happen in Libya or Syria or wherever,” he says. “But it is so important to keep attention on Egypt to show that it is not a happy ending.”

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An Intimate Look at Egypt’s Youth in Ongoing Revolution

Kata Launches Take A Shot Competition

By Photography Blog, on January 27th, 2012

Kata has launched a photographic contest calling for entrants to submit shots of their Kata camera bag “in action”. Read more and comment

Mystery Canon DSLR Spotted in the Wild

By Photography Blog, on January 26th, 2012

A mysterious new Canon DSLR has been spotted in the wilds of Africa. Read more and comment

Kodak Easyshare M5370 Review

By Photography Blog, on January 26th, 2012

The Kodak Easyshare M5370 is a new entry-level compact camera with some advanced features, including a 3 inch LCD touchscreen interface, wide-angle 5x zoom lens, 16 megapixel sensor, and 720p HD video. Retailing for £109.99 / $159.95, read our expert Kodak Easyshare M5370 review to find out if it’s worth the modest investment. Read the review

X-Circle by LockCircle

By Photography Blog, on January 26th, 2012

The new X-Circle kit by LockCircle allows Nikon F-mount manual-focus lenses to be used for cine-style work on any Canon HDSLR camera. Read more and comment

Fujifilm X-Pro1 Gets Japan Price, 18th February Launch Date

By Photography Blog, on January 26th, 2012

The Fujifilm X-Pro1 will officially be released in Japan on February 18th, priced at around ¥135,000. Read more and comment

Sony Develops Next-generation Back-Illuminated CMOS Image Sensor

By Photography Blog, on January 26th, 2012

Sony has developed a new next-generation back-illuminated CMOS image sensor with higher image quality, faster speeds, lower power consumption and better functionality. Read more and comment

Small Town Shows Scars of Economic Struggle

By Wired, on January 26th, 2012

> An abandoned lumber mill in Martinsville, Virginia, rests in overgrown brush. Many residents depended on mill and factory jobs to provide for themselves and their families. Photo: Jared Soares > View all Jared Soares has traveled to Bolivia and Paris to find compelling photo projects, but for his latest he only needed to walk out his front door in Virginia. Soares’ new documentary photos focus on the small town of Martinsville — near Roanoke, where he lives. The factory city has a population of approximately 14,000 people, and in recent years it has suffered from outsourcing and the economic downturn. “For 75 years the textile and furniture industries in Martinsville employed thousands of people who produced American-made clothes, linens and furniture with familiar names like Bassett, Stanley and Fieldcrest,” says Soares. Now many of those jobs have been shipped overseas and the town is plagued with unemployment. A quarter of the population lives below the poverty line and the children growing up there have no concept of the town’s previous prosperity. “Martinsville is a shell of what it used to be,” says Soares. Soares, a seasoned documentary photographer who has worked with big news outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post , has been documenting the plight of Martinsville since October 2010. The year before that he had traveled to Bolivia to cover the re-election of Evo Morales, then spent time documenting a Roma community outside of Paris. His storytelling style involves developing a rapport with the people he photographs through shared common interests and listening. So when he started learning more about the dire straits of Martinsville, he hit the streets to meet the people in his community. “I went skateboarding at the park, drank coffee in Uptown and attended a few community meetings,” says Soares. “I wasn’t aware of it at first but I was connecting with people who were like me … I would just spend time hanging out — a lot of time hanging out.” Through the connections he made with people within the community, he was able to make images that captured an intimate portrait of this small town. Soares hopes his on-going project will raise awareness for the economic issues that face the region, and is striving to get the work in front of policy makers both locally and nationally. “If Martinsville’s economic condition is an indicator of what America will look like in the near future, then it must be documented and it must be seen.” To see more of Soares’ work, visit jaredsoares.com .