Photoded

> North Korean women perform during the Mass Games in Pyongyang. Photo: Sam Gellman > View all When Sam Gellman booked a trip to North Korea, he knew people would be interested in seeing the photos he brought back. But he had no idea the work would go semi-viral. Over the past month, Gellman’s North Korea set on Flickr has received more than 220,000 hits from people across the globe wanting to get a glimpse of one of the world’s most secluded nations. Gellman, who is an experienced travel photographer but makes his living working in financial services in Hong Kong, said all the attention has been instructive. “I think that the world is really just intrigued with what normal life looks like in North Korea,” he said. Some of Gellman’s most popular North Korean photos are from the Mass Games, a choreographed spectacle held on special occasions with thousands of performers moving in unison to show nationalistic unity. The images capture the sheer enormity of the games along with the precisely calculated symmetry that he said is intended to promote the idea of the group over the individual. Gellman said the event, while visually striking, was clearly meant to deliver this message to tourists and is actually one of the required stops for Americans who are let into the country. It was one of the few places where his North Korean guides encouraged him to take pictures. Some of Gellman’s other photos, however, show a quieter or more private side of life. “What other place can you take a picture of waitress or kids playing and get 30,000 hits on Flickr,” he said. Gellman’s guides were not as enthusiastic about his public photos. While they didn’t prevent him from taking pictures, he said it was obvious they were nervous every time he picked up his camera. “The guides really wanted us to have a good time, but it got weird if we had our camera out for too long,” he said. The trip to North Korea was surprisingly simple to book. After striking out with a few agencies he found through Wikitravel , Gellman finally came across Koryo Tours out of Beijing who had him flying into North Korea just three weeks after he contacted them. After a brief orientation the morning of his travel he was off. When he landed in Pyongyang he was greeted at the airport by mandatory tour guides who doubled as handlers. The itinerary for the trip was decided well in advance and allowed for little deviation, with even an unscheduled morning jog considered a significant transgression. Tourists are to remain within eye-sight of their handlers at all times. Gellman said he saw his fair share of nationalistic propaganda and his pictures capture the Eastern-bloc aesthetic we’re used to seeing. Overall, however, it’s the quotidian life he captures that make his photos stand out. “It was such an interesting place to visit and is clearly different from anything we know,” he said. “But at the same time you realize that no matter where you go, people are all very similar.” To see more of Gellman’s work from North Korea, please visit his Flickr page . See Also: North Korea Jams GPS in War Game Retaliation North Korean Jammer Forces Down U.S. Spy Plane Japanese Publisher Wipes North Korea References From Homefront Koreas Clash: Howitzers Blast, Jets Readied, 2 Dead . . . → Read More: An American Tourist in North Korea

Lytro has officially announced its first consumer light field camera, which captures all the rays of light in a scene, opening up new possibilities such as the ability to focus a picture after it’s taken. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Lytro Unveils World’s First Consumer Light Field Camera

Adam Groffman from Wimdu explores how to use social media to share your travel photos. Read the article . . . → Read More: Using Social Media to Share Your Travel Photos

As part of its worldwide Imagine More campaign, Manfrotto has launched the Imagine More Factory Roadshow. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Manfrotto Imagine More Factory Roadshow

Olympus has announced that the most talented members of its PEN Flickr group will get a chance to have their best work featured on the Olympus website as well as in upcoming PEN adverts. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Olympus Seeking Flickr Member Photos for PEN Ads

The 2012 Fujifilm Student Photography Awards are now open and accepting entries. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Fujifilm Launches 2012 Student Photography Awards

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the Nikon 1 Factory in China. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Behind the Scenes at the Nikon 1 Factory

The Canon EOS-1D X is a new professional digital SLR camera with a full-frame 18-megapixel sensor, a continuous shooting speed of 14 frames per second (12fps with AF) and a new 61-point AF system. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Canon EOS-1D X

Canon Europe has posted a detailed, 12-page explanatory article on the new Canon EOS-1D X digital SLR camera. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: The EOS-1D X Explained

The Nikon 1 V1 is the company’s long-awaited entry into the rapidly growing compact system camera market. Based around the brand new “CX” format sensor, the Nikon V1 is all about speed, with fast auto-focusing and up to 60fps continuous shooting. The V1 also offers an electronic viewfinder, 3 inch LCD screen, full HD video, and a range of innovative modes like Smart Photo Selector and Motion Snapshot Mode. Can the Nikon V1 successfully carry on the long tradition of the company’s DSLRs? Read our in-depth Nikon 1 V1 review to find out… Read the review . . . → Read More: Nikon 1 V1 Review

The Photographer’s Path is a new 12-month teaching programme launched by photo expert and consultant Selina Maitreya. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: The Photographer’s Path

Apple has released an updated version of its Aperture Raw-conversion and photo management software. Version 3.2 adds compatibility with the company’s iCloud online storage functionality and the latest iOS 5 operating system. The update also resolves minor bugs and adds miscellaneous improvements. It is available for immediate download from Apple’s website. . . . → Read More: Apple releases Aperture v3.2

Sony has released firmware v1.03 for its SLT-A77 and A65 cameras. Currently only available via the company’s Asia site (the first region in which the cameras are widely available), the upgrade promises to improve the responsiveness of the control dials and function buttons, along with the speed of switching between EVF and LCD modes. It also adds support for the HVL-MT24AM macro flash accessory. . . . → Read More: Sony posts firmware updates for SLT-A77 and SLT-A65

Apple has released iPhoto 9.2. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Apple iPhoto 9.2

Sigma Germany has announced a wood-veneered version of its SD1 high-end DSLR. The ‘Wood Edition’ emphasizes the camera’s premium appeal by adding a casing made from Amboyna Burl, an expensive and decorative veneer taken from complex growths on a Southeast Asian tree. The case takes around 60 hours to cut, mill and polish. Ten examples of the special edition will be available, body-only, for a recommended selling price of €9,999. (From PhotoScala) . . . → Read More: Sigma Germany announces SD1 Wood Edition with burl veneer

After checking out our neighborhoods and some cool landmarks on Old S.F. , we found a couple shots from 1929 of the building where the Wired offices are now located. That’s us in the tallest building on the right. It looks pretty much the same then as it does now. No more trains on the road, but the building across the street is still there as well. Old S.F. geographically arranges historic photos of San Francisco so that you can see what each block and street corner looked like during a certain time period. If you live, or have ever lived, in San Francisco, this site is a time suck. The New York Times did a great write-up about Old S.F. last month. We’ve taken a photo from the same perspective so everyone can enjoy this bit of history. Bottom photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com . . . → Read More: Check Out the Wired Offices Circa 1929

Rankin has announced the launch of his brand new biannual, THE HUNGER and its live, digital embodiment, THE HUNGER TV. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Rankin: THE HUNGER

> Tunnel, Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Photo: Dornith Doherty > View all Dornith Doherty’s documentary images of seed-saving facilities capture the logistics — and existential anxiety — behind the elaborate steps now in place to preserve the world’s crop diversity. Once a traditional, year-to year practice by smallholding farmers to develop sturdy varietals, this simple act of putting seed aside has more and more become the concern of international affairs and corporate policy. “Seed saving and its role in preserving biodiversity is of utmost importance. We are in an era called the Holocene extinction, which is notable for its decline in biodiversity,” says Doherty. In times of accelerating climate change, extinction threats and the commodification of genetic resources by agribusiness, Doherty is fascinated by the sealed, and concealed, activities of seed-saving operations across the globe. Seedbank Critics One of the criticisms leveled at seedbanking by agricultural social justice groups is that multinational corporations along with their patents are dominating the seed “industry.” Food biotech corporations, including Monsanto and Syngenta, fund the Svalbard Seed Vault. Sunita Rao is among those who question the motives of these corporations and the relevance of the seed vault to developing-world farmers. She’s an Adjunct Fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore, India and founder Trustee of Vanastree in Sirsi, India. “The Svalbard Seed Bank means very little to small, local groups like Vanastree, many of whose members will not have heard of this initiative and will not impact their lives in a tangible way,” says Rao. “Seed conservation relates closely to maintaining ecological diversity in a region. Seed conservation should not have the narrow view of a seed bank as a cryogenic facility but look at a landscape as being able of functioning as a seed bank.” Rao argues for local farmers maintaining their seed sovereignty. “The whole research agenda of countries like India is driven by what is dictated by outside agencies with vested interests; they are using state-of-the-art laboratories and trained scientists to work toward the production and distribution of genetically modified seeds,” says Rao. Global efforts to preserve seed stock for an uncertain future are no more evident than at the Svalbard “Doomsday” Seed Vault , which Doherty visited and photographed in March 2010. Located 800 miles south of the North Pole, on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard Seed Vault is the world’s insurance policy against botanical holocaust. The $9 million facility houses over 10,000 seed samples and was likened to a Bond villain’s lair when it began operation in January 2008. Doherty hopped a plane to Svalbard with Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and Ola Westengen, the operation manager of the Vault. She watched in surprise as Fowler and Westengen unloaded the shipment themselves and wheeled the boxes down the long tunnel on a handcart. Not only is the vault impervious to temperature fluctuations and sea-level rises, it can withstand a terrorist attack. “The door is not on axis with the tunnel, there is a small curved wall in line with the tunnel engineered to disperse a blast radius,” says Doherty. For Doherty, the Svalbard Seed Vault embodies the contradiction of hope and pessimism inherent to seed-saving activities. “On the one hand, volunteers and governments from around the world are collaborating to create a global botanical back-up system,” says Doherty, “But on the other hand, the gravity of climate change and political instability creates the need for an inaccessible ark.” In addition to being an engaged observer, Doherty has also adopted the image-making equipment of the facilities she has visited. At the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) in Fort Collins, Colorado, Dornith got her hands on their Kubtec Xpert 80 Digital Specimen Radiography System to image seeds and tissue samples of cloned plants used in global agriculture. The NCGRP preserves genetic resources from animals, microbes, aquatic organisms and insects, as well as plants. “The x-ray machine is not used on a daily basis and Dornith was very flexible in her schedule,” says David Ellis, plant physiologist and curator at NCGRP. “Her enthusiasm exploded when she got here. Her work raises awareness of plant genetic resources, which helps us accomplish our mission.” Likewise, at the Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP) in Kew Gardens, England, Doherty used the facility’s Faxitron digital x-ray machine to make images of seedlings of wild and uncommon land flora species, unique to the MSBP collection. The MSBP holds seeds for 90% of the UK plant species and aims to collect and store 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020. Dr. Wolfgang Stuppy, a seed morphologist at MSBP and a published microphotographer of seeds , sees the changing world as an environmental clock ticking down to extinction. “We are essentially up against a deadline to collect the seeds of plant species before they go extinct,” says Stuppy. “The current worldwide economic crisis makes it difficult to raise the funds necessary for this kind of work.” Redundancy of collections has become a common role of the global network of seed banks. The purpose of the Svalbard Seed Vault is solely to “duplicate collections of seeds from gene banks around the word to preserve biodiversity,” with no actual research taking place on site. “More than 100 countries have deposited seeds in the vault,” says Doherty. “I traveled to Svalbard to photograph the facility as they were accessioning new material into the vault. It is only open a few days a year.” Much of Doherty’s work includes landscape photography, and her equipment is optimized for the extreme heat of the American southwest. She was forced to make adjustments for the trip to Svalbard. “I had to research and purchase almost everything, from boots and gloves to batteries. I brought a digital SLR camera as a back-up,” says Doherty. In spite of 12-hour days working in below-freezing temperatures, Doherty’s 4 . . . → Read More: Seedbank Vaults Hedge Against Apocalypse

Fujifilm has unveiled the MSRP and availability of the Fujifilm X10 digital compact camera. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: Fuji X10 Pricing & Availability Announced

X-Rite has announced a number of free webinars for the month of October. Read more and comment . . . → Read More: X-Rite Announces Free October Webinars