Local Testimony 2010 (Edut Mekomit) עדות מקומית (לוקל טסטימוני)

this years local testimony juried photo show, which is exhibited along side the world press photo is showing at the Haaretz museum in tel aviv. the show has been around since 2002 and is highly regarded in israel as a stage for photojournalism. almost all active photojournalists have been selected in this show at one point or another.

aside from crazy funny english captions (thanks to the obvious apparent use of google translate or any other israeli english language experts).

actually, alot of them sound just as silly in hebrew, there were also a few weird selections and other ok selections with weird placement choices.

Haaretz reports that out of the 8000 images entered by 400 photographers the shows jury selected 250 images representing 45 photographers. there is a great number thing to analyze here.

for full disclosure, i submitted about 30 images (of which none were selected). there is something strange about  the fact that only about half of the jurors are related to photography in any way (one is a full time veteran photojournalist, and one is a commercial portrait photographer who actually has a photo by her in the show, i dident say conflict of interest).

so lets look at the numbers again.

out of the 45 photographers one, Daniel Bar-ON has won 5 number one entries in different categories including photo of the year.

Yuval Tabol got in with 3 series, totaling 28 photos.

Oriel Sinai got in with 3 series as well, totaling 31 photos.

Tomer Yfrach got in 2 series totaling 19 photos, and also 2 photos in the single categories - total 21 photos.
Nikita Pavlov got in with 2 series totaling 16 photos.

if we put all this together we find that out of the 250 photos that were chosen for the show 101 represent 4 photographers. that means that almost HALF of the show belongs to less then 10% of the participating photographers. this comes from the 8000 photos submitted by 400 photographers.

i guess thats one of the less disturbing things about this show. the real question after viewing all of the photos in the show is how is it different from last years show and what does this years show have to say about the world?

funny that I, who despises these questions when they are directed at me be the one who stumbles upon them.

perhaps it is a perfect fit for what it is, much like this BBC example.

Rear ashelon + 3 years 5 months and one day

I posted THIS a while ago and it seems to be getting a ton of views. i wonder why.
in any case here a few statements about the now and then thing:
the city is Boston (was jeruslem), obviuosly this is the USA and that was NOT.
i have no roommates. this is a canon 5D not a 30D. this has Neopan 400 in it and its my film. i cant remmeber what was in the older one but i know it was not mine. there was a party going on outside the bathroom then, and there lots of unshaved overweight nerdy hebrew university economics and mathematics students all over the house. it was a million degrees and no ventilation. this time it was just me and smigel and a double digit below Zero outside.
i guess all the rest is the same.

Welcome (learning from the top hat carriers, "Next, is nothing")

welcome to the USA. welcome to where politics means every one has the same opinion with a choice of 2 parties that represent the same thing and same poeple. wlecome to where protest is something to do but not really believe in. welcome to where democracy means dollar signs and dollar signs mean race. welcome to where if you are poor your fucked and you take it quietly. welcome to where all the poor poeple have the same color. welcome to where students pay more money then they will ever make for an education that gives them absolutely nothing. welcome to where a chosen few, who dont really need tobe educated can do whatever they want. welcome to where a country in recsetion sells more new cars there anywhere else in the world. welcome to where everyone has a nice car, big tv, new gadget phones shopping power, but they don't really do anything and cant really afford what they (temporarily) own. welcome to where students will never protest about anything. welcome to where having an opinion other then the all powerful free enterprise expansionist liberal economy is worse then killing someone. welcome to where crossing the street on a red light is worse the killing someone. welcome to where libertarianism is often confused with neoliberalism. welcome to where poeple make separation between the private life and public life as if they were two separate entities. welcome to where all the options are open to you if you would just conform to the norm. welcome to where criticism is often confused with racism, and where racism is worse then Nazism. welcome to where racism is just fine when it is socially or economically justified. welcome to where moral judgment is passed by the morally challenged. welcome to where the economy is based on slavery but is called a free market. welcome to where regulation is bad world when it refers to the government but a good word when it refers to the protection of profit margins. welcome to where hypocrisy is the core base of language and a way of life. welcome to where fake is more real then reality. welcome to where poeple understand you as long as you say what they think you are saying.

welcome to where we could have had it all but had no choice about it.

Welcome to the United States of America.

in the back seat of the car

cycles are ending, and i find my self at the end and closing point of many circles. i am back near that place, where katrina rented a room from a crazy divorcing couple on the corner of pond street and centre. not far from Rachels house next to the gas station. not far from where i lived on goldsmith. all the same place only now i am here and no one else is. i had so many things to write about but i cant remmeber any of them now.

Life Cycle analysis (LCA101)

its strange. i find that the presence of the cats, in the house and near me makes me feel good. i feel that they are with me out of their own interest. their presence comforts me in a way and makes me feel less alone. for the rest of it i am happy that this semster is comming to an end. there is ofcourse the problem if the thesis, but considering i enjoyed writing a 10 page paper this week about something i know only a little about but had some interest in i am feeling not as bad. i am still experiencing extreme yawning as a response to the stress. i guess i am all done creating.

Green Card #2

Green Card

what does being in the place mean, as apposed to be being somwhere else?
i have a tendancy to get attached to places and feel that there is a good reason for staying where i am if it is what i want to do. but really what diffarence does it make if we are here or somwhere else? i feel that i am overwhekmed by mever ending consumer propogranda around me. buy buy buy every time of year is marked by its special buying graces. when i had a job and made some money it was not a problem. even though i could not pay my rent, health insurance or tuition with the money i made, i felt that if i want to buy somthing or do something i am doing it with my own money and need not think twice about how i spend it. now i have no job, no money and its not that i need to buy stuff, but i am thinking ahead in to the future and wondering weather or not this will always be the case? i am not a career person and i doubt i will ever be. my self employment scheme is a complete failure and i will not persue it much longer. ia msurrounded buy shit i dont need but cant get rid of. i cant keep a lid on these feelings of loss and useleness. really it is pointless i am not moving forward i am not moving anywhere at all for that matter.
all of a sudden my school seems to be a nice place to be in, even though nothing has changed and the things that bother me there are still all there. the peopel around me have managed to convince me that whatever it is that they are doing and what i am inviolved in is important to me and that i should play along with it.
but wait - its time for realization and disillusionment - nothing have changed. its still as pointless and silly as it was before and the discussion cannot save it. it needs to go to a whole other level for it to actually mean something, and even then i am not sure it will make a diffarence for me. like the world i am running out of resources to handle this stuff. i want to know what to, where to go. i want clear goals.