Farm hack in the field

A photo posted by hollynoir (@hollynoir) on Apr 19, 2015 at 2:25pm PDT

Wotsit all about

See more of James Ostrer's people shellacked in junk food here. 

#FreeAJstaff

Today is indeed a dark day for journalism. Three members of Al Jazeera english have been trialled and sentenced to more than 7 years each in Egypt, for "endangering Egypt's national security."

Read more in the Guardian and follow the discussion on twitter.

This news reminded me mainly of two things. The documentary 'War Photographer' on the inspirational photographer James Nachtwey, and this TED lecture from journalist Janine di Giovanni 'What I saw in the war'.

black family

And here is my very handsome grandaddy Robert Black. With my equally handsome Nanna Agnes. Agnes was a secretary in Belfast. I never got to meet my Granda on this side, and very briefly knew my Nanna. This makes me incredibly sad, because if they are anything like my dad and his twin sister, I believe I would have loved them very very much. 

Visualizing occupation

Freedom of movement. 

Or rather, denial of freedom of movement. 

Other corkers include: Prisoners, water access, and protest.

Dear Coal

This letter is taken from this site originally written by this person. Gold. 

nyc

ooo aar

tumblr

Article 27 have a great tumblr.
take a wee look right here.

transit

This past weekend I went for a little trip down the entire breadth of this huge country to Oslo. It was my birthday, and my birthday plan entailed two things. The second being the Nobel Peace Center (the first to follow shortly).

The Peace centre is hands-down the best museum I have ever been to. The interactive Nobel peace prize winners room glowed brightly with numerous kindles detailing those awarded, their exploits and the reasons behind their importance. There was an interactive story book, an interactive children's room and the most fantastic interactive time line with quotes, videos, articles, pictures and a room full of enamoured american schoolchildren asking "But Liu Xiaobo is a criminal in China?".

It. was. great. 

The first part of the museum was an exhibition of photography works by Espen Rasmussen a Norwegian photographer focusing on the plight of refugees, including a close up portrait of a young refugee living in Norway; Rahman. The pictures were fantastic, the captions honestly interesting and the portrayal of refugees was, for a change, not entirely grim and negative. It gave a slightly positive humanistic dimension to the experience of being a refugee showing a glimpse of family life in amongst the harrowing and shocking majority of the photographs. 

Highly recommended. 

Oo, there is also a great looking website for the Transit exhibition here. 

my talented friends

Please let me show you miss aurelia lange (she has already featured on this blog: here, as the artwork for emily teague's album, and here, as a good luck card for my trip to Sweden to embark upon my current adventure. 


Just look at her lovely thoughts and website and blog and enjoy her beauteous imagery. It is just yummy. 

I am living her klubb based dream right now by being in the 'filmklubb' of Tromso Kino. She is one of the greatest and I hope you enjoy her talented talents. 


All images copyrighted to aurelia lange. 

Arctic Circle

I have just moved to Tromso for my final semester.

I will mainly be looking at cultural and indigenous rights, and trying to focus on my research questions for my dissertation, knitting, secretly reading novels, walking everywhere, joining Tromso filmklubb and learning litt Norsk.

I will be searching the night skies for the aurora borealis and seeing colours like salmon pink and fishscale blue beginnings behind cut out mountains and mirror clear lakes.

This is the only polar bear I have seen thus far. tbc.

not in my country

I saw this piece in the Guardian many a moon ago. But speaking with a friend regarding comparative immigration issues and policy cross-nationally, it reminded me of this Joe Sacco pull out; Not in My country. The short piece details the significant and overwhelming issues that concern immigrants on the small island of Malta. Read it here.

I am currently half way through Sacco's 'Safe Area Gorazde' which has made me cry about 5 times so far. Such a heartbreaking account of the war in Bosnia and a really personal feel of Sacco's intimacy with the both the places and people that he meets. More so here than in other works.

For more of me on Sacco look here. He has two absolute corkers on the Palestinian situation: Palestine and Footnotes to Gaza. Read them. Now.

nanna annas

lui bolin

just look at lui bolin's work

just look at it

amazing

sacco

Ever since I came across Joe Sacco's 'Palestine', a graphic novel I borrowed from my friend Hannah, I have been in awe of the ability of Sacco to translate in pictures the struggle of Palestine.

I took my time to read the novel, dipping in and out of its pages when I felt I had the time and energy to confront the situation in Palestine. As a medium I find the graphic novel impressive, as it not only has words (and quotes of real life people due to 'Palestines' nature as a documentation of experiences), but it shows faces and families and street scenes, bringing it all to the present because its not only engaging us through text, but also by the intense pictures allowing each page to come to life.

I finished reading Palestine a week before my trip to the West Bank. And I am so glad of this timing, for i can honestly say, hand on heart, that Sacco's representation of Palestine is completely accurate, even today. He argues himself in footnotes that the struggle is timeless, as it has no conclusion, no outcome. It is continuous. The way in which he describes his experience of being a journalist within the daily naturalization of violence and suffering, until you realise every family has a story, every son has a brother in prison, every mother has lost a son or nephew to the struggle, the nature of every story and the changing reaction of the listener is documented so perfectly in Sacco's book. It becomes 'normal' to hear of martyrs and settler attacks and imprisonment without reason.

For Christmas this year I received Sacco's most recent work 'Footnotes from Gaza'. Ironically I also gave this graphic novel as a present to the very same friend... And again, I find myself taking my time to work my way through the chapters, as each page deserves attention to the detailed drawings and experiences being discussed scene by scene.

but read it for yourself.

and if you need more persuasion, here is an article on Al-Jazeera with Sacco himself.

Interview: Joe Sacco by Laila El-Haddad

active stills

This group: active stills, have been doing some amazing work in Palestine and Israel...

Some of their photo essays are breathtaking and oh so very beautiful and still extremely shocking.

They have a series of essays:

joint struggle - The photos included in this essay are astounding, and from both sides of the wall. Anarchists against the wall joined with Palestinians across the length and breadth of the Israeli Security Fence in order to resist the racial segregation enforced by the Israeli government

Life under occupation - This series shows the every day life of many Palestinians.. the checkpoints, housing demoltions, the imposition of the wall, the desructions of olive groves, contamination of water, settlers attitudes.. the list goes on.

pictures

Pictures from Palestine

from holly

zaytoun group


The ordeal I went through with my nerves at the airport when leaving Palestine and Israel, especially in relation to my photographs was actually quite significant. I had heard various horror stories of activists leaving Palestine being black listed for having visited the west bank, or having volunteered for a pro-Palestinian organisation, or being questioned initimately about number in their phone books or emails on their computer, really put the fear of god in me. I made sure i cleared my brothers camera of pictures in Jerusalem (with the help of a very sweet guy called Omar, who, having lived in the USA for eleven years, felt more like a european than a Palestinian until his neice wandered in with a drawing for him.. which he praised in arabic and gave many smiles and hugs for- and like a true palestinian made me sit and drink tea in his store for a good hour before leaving for dinner. It was a fascinating conversation and i really admire him for returning to palestine to be with his family) anyway, photos on a CD, sealed in an envelope, placed in the hands of a good friend who was leaving for a cyprus a few days later... i went to the airport physically free of photos, but fearing my reaction to the israeli security and my ability to act nonchalant and passive when being questioned.

but i feel that every picture was worth the worry.
I only wish i had taken more of my friends.

bye bye

it is the last weekend of banner road...

everything is packed up into cardboard boxes and bin bags, shoved against walls and awaiting their new adventure to the new house on the new road in the new part of town...
This year in banner road feels like it has set me up for a lifetime. the fear of leaving university and being confronted with a big wide world full of big choices and hard decisions and struggles to realise dreams has been softened by the banner road family and their antics keeping the magic alive.

I want to write a list of some of my favourite times in banner road, as it has been the beginning of a bristol journey that has made me smile every day...

i love our house rules written by marcroy smith for the kitchen wall...
i love our one hour crescendo and team quiz in the basement on new years eve 2008...
i love being two steps away from carnival...
i love the steps, sitting on them, smoking on them, drinking tea on them and stroking meusli on them....
i love drawing the houses across the street
i love ping pong in the basement for hours with strangers and friends (until the light bulb went)
i love how it is a second home
i love how there always seem to be 30 pairs of shoes in the hallway
and enough bikes for a small army chained up outside

bring on effingham

direction