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regardingseas · 4 years ago

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Ttile: Echoed Vexations (Part One, part two linked)

Fandom: Hermitcraft

Rating: Teen and up audiences (violence warning)

AO3: here! (Full story at once)

•••

Plot Summary:

It's all too easy to turn a blind eye to the past-- to believe that because someone has been shielded from harm's way, they should no longer fear the wrath of their opponent's creed. They're safe now, after all, so why would they..?

Yes, Scar and Cub are certainly "safe", but they're still haunted by memories of the Vex and their deals all the same.

An average afternoon during the HCB Base Swap is cut short when Mumbo accidentally digs up a remnant from Scar's Vex partnership days, and unfortunately for the town's mayor, the other Hermit is far from aware just how triggering the topic can truly be. Things only dissolve from there, and in the end, Grian lends a helping hand to console a friend.

•••

Additional Content Warnings:

Depictions of trauma disorders, panic attacks, flashbacks, paranoid thoughts/delusions, manipulation, gaslighting, threats, injury, and violence. Mentions of religious themes, unintentional self-harm, and non-permanent character death.

Do be careful, but otherwise, enjoy!

•••

The sun was still high in the sky even as Scar finished decorating the monument's support chains, sweltering rays beaming down and adding to the oppressive humidity of the jungle around him. With his usual jacket set aside to fight the heat, he wiped away the beads of sweat that had gathered on his forehead and grabbed a stray bucket from the sidelines. He'd nearly finished the waterfall aspect of the design-- crystal blue streams cascading over the edges of four white spanners, all joining together in the octagonal pool at the base's foundation. It was looking quite spectacular, if he were to say so himself, with the vine-coiled braces and additional water currents tying the otherwise juxtaposing themes together nicely.

Scar scooped up a fresh pail of water, filling it to the brim and hauling it towards the last pillar. He glanced down at the container as he carried it, catching a glimpse of his reflection from the liquid inside. His face shone red with effort, misplaced strands of hair having clung themselves to his tan skin.

Though unsurprised, he still couldn't help but laugh at the rippling image. "It's just my luck I'd swap with another jungle dwelling Hermit. I swear, I can never escape this climate for long. First the island last year, then all this."

With a shake of his head he returned his gaze upwards, continuing to muse aloud to the landscape before him, "You tropics are wonderful and all, but it sure would've been a nice change of pace to set up camp in somewhere like the mountains. Or pull total 180 and have landed in the tundras!"

Concepts for each design raced through his head, each idea fighting the others for dominance and tacking details onto itself, trying to land its place on the metaphorical pedestal of his imagination. A cottage with medieval influences? No, that would be far too typical, amp both of those components up. An entire village with a steampunk driven aesthetic, built into the mountainscape itself; no doubt with custom terraforming to integrate the buildings into the natural environment. That was more like it.

Scar could envision working windmills and waterwheels accompanying purposefully makeshift farmlands, historic blimps having reclaimed skies where they'd soar high overhead. Below them, eye-catching pops of colour, shining through as floating lanterns that hover above connective rope bridges.

As for the arctic concept? Something more grand would be ideal. In his fantasy, he'd created an absolute oxymoron of the words cabin and mansion jumbled together, and he adored it that way. A bottom floor made of bricked stone, the top made of logs and large windows to oversee the view. Accompanying them in the same manner would be a balcony, propped on columns that hugged the building and curved around its corners. The top deck would be open for clear days, and the space below it safe on harsher ones. Sloped roofs would be adorned with chimneys, and the interior warmed by cozy flames that were kept organized with inviting lofts. The living area could be split leveled, sinking down to create its own margin where guests could comfortably gather by the fireplace and--

There was a tug at his ankle, and next thing he knew, a bemused Scar went crashing to the ground, having been too caught up to notice the trailing plants blocking his footway. His hands shot out to catch himself, palms scraping against the concrete floor in a way similar to the childhood stunt of crashing and burning on the pavement. A stinging snapped up his arms, and the water bucket dropped from his grasp, clattering down with a metallic rumble before spilling its contents across the floor.

Scar pushed himself upright with a hiss of air through his teeth, shaking off his grazed palms and wiping them on his jeans. Pulling his foot free from the greenery and gathering himself up was no problem, what was a problem, however, was the troubling sight now before him.

The water had spilled all over one of Mumbo's redstone contraptions, causing the device to short circuit and emit a sort of maroon-grey smoke. The wires fashioned from the compacted dust had been all but washed away, any remaining pieces hanging on by threads and failing miserably whenever a signal attempted to fire; more so sizzling rather than surging alight with energy.

"Oh, crud!" he shouted, racing towards the machine and yanking on the shut-off switch to divert any further input from the broken setup.

It powered down, but Scar was still left swatting the coloured smoke from his face, coughing as the scent of burnt metallics filled his nostrils. When had he gotten so absorbed in possible building opportunities that he'd managed to miss the foliage in front of him? Why had he even been wondering so deeply about it, anyway? This event was about improving one another's bases by adding their own personal touches, not starting a new project entirely.

Scar sighed, he wasn't sure why his mind had begun drifting so far. He'd like to blame it on the wild imagination of a builder, but he had a feeling there was a little more to it. Sometimes, when the world wasn't too much to handle, it was too easy to let fall away. Maybe he spent too much time daydreaming-- he was sure there was a word for that, when trances became so all encompassing, so engrossing.

"But I don't have time to think about that right now," he reminded himself, "I really need to fix this. It doesn't look like most of this redstone is salvageable, I'll have to get new supplies to repair it. Maybe some of the circuits are okay..?"

Scar nudged a repeater with his shoe, the device making an unnatural sloshing noise in his attempt to change the feed-in. He scrunched up his nose, "Okay, nope, gonna need to replace that, too."

Running a hand through his hair in defeat, he glanced towards Mumbo's storage system before shaking his head. It wouldn't be right to use the other man's supplies without asking, let alone waste them on a mistake made due to Scar's own carelessness. He'd have to make his way back to his original base and gather the materials from there once more. When he dropped by initially, he figured he'd gotten everything he needed, but apparently hadn't accounted for dissociation-induced redstone mishaps.

"I guess we're making a trip back," Scar announced to no one, finally picking up the empty bucket to set it safely aside. He made his way over to his tent, temporarily discarding any excess materials and bidding adieu to Jellie before grabbing his elytra and setting off.

Taking to the skies, Scar squinted against the wind as it roared in his ears. His hair parted itself from where it had stuck, short locks brushed back by the flowing breeze. With arms extended for balance, and maybe a dash of amusement, he lit his rockets and propelled himself into the distance.

-----

It wasn't long before he encroached on his base again, allowing his faux wings to glide him downward where he kicked out his legs to come to a soft landing. Scar stopped before the massive drill site just on the outskirts of the forest, heading towards the agglomeration of crates and boxes he had haphazardly stowed aside. He was certain there had to be the necessary hardware in one of the many containers, though which that may be was lost on him. At least, thanks to Mumbo and his new storage system, the chest monster he'd created would soon be a thing of the past.

"I wonder how that's going for him..." Scar pondered, striding over to a random shulker and beginning his sure-to-be protracted search.

"Scar?" a familiar voice interrupted, making him peer ahead to see the moustached man himself rounding the corner. "Hello there! I see you've made yourself rather at home at my base," Mumbo teased.

He couldn't help but chuckle, "That I have. I just needed to stop by and pick up some redstone and iron. With all the ore this place has quarried up, I was sure there's bound to be more of that here than back at Larry."

Mumbo faked surprise with a hearty grin, "Getting into mechanics, are we? Have the inner workings of the temple really had that much influence on you after only a few days?"

"Now I wouldn't say that," Scar shook his head and closed the lid of the grey shulker, seeing no point in hiding the truth. "I took a tumble holding a bucket of water and it kinda spilled on one of the contraptions. I'm sorry for the trouble-- but don't worry! I came here to fix it right up. I just didn't wanna waste your materials fixing my silly error."

The suited man waved his hand dismissively, "Nonsense, it's no trouble. Have you seen the improvements you've made to that place? I mean, of course you've seen them, you built them, but rhetorically speaking--" Mumbo cleared his throat, "Just don't fret over it, I trust that you'll have it fixed right up in no time."

Scar smiled, "Thanks, dude. Now I just have to find where on Earth I put those ore…"

Mumbo gave another laugh, "You know, you can feel free to use some of my things if need be. I have no idea how you expect to find anything in this mess. I'm only trying to do a basic look through so I know where to begin when it comes to the item sorter, but even that doesn't seem to do much good. I swear, it's like trying to play a very intense game of memory, with thousands of nonsensical cards all scattered about."

Scar snickered sheepishly at the comparison, "Yeah, no kidding. But being able to use some resources without flying all the way over here would be great. Thanks again, Mumbo. I don't know if there's anything you'll need here while working, but hey, consider it free range. We're doing these things for each other in the long run, anyway."

"I'd say, 'unless we don't switch back our deeds', but in all honesty? I'm beginning to miss the ol' living monument already."

The two exchange a chuckle before returning to their previous tasks, both going back to digging through the pile of chests in preparation for their projects.

It took longer than Scar wanted to admit to finally find the crate stocked with valuables-- sighing in relief at the sight and immediately beginning to pile the items into his inventory. There were pre-smelted metals from an iron farm, so he didn't have to bother with the ore, and the redstone he'd gathered was already in dust from, meaning all he'd have to do was craft the items after returning.

"I wonder if it would've been easier to stop by the shopping district and buy these directly, instead of making them by hand..." he said, "Oh well, saves on diamonds, and these had to be used some time, I guess."

"Talking to yourself over there?" Mumbo asked.

"Just thinking aloud is all."

"I see," the moustached man nodded, pushing himself up from where he'd been examining the supplies. "I found something neat from last year! Do you wanna see?"

"Sure!" Scar agreed, setting aside his intent of flying back in favour of seeing what it was Mumbo had to show him.

He smiled and stepped over to Scar, holding out a faded piece of paper for them both to see, "I found it stuck to the bottom of a shulker box! Can you believe we used to be competition so recently?" He joked.

Scar could only stare at the advert before him, a steele blue page embellished with a vault-like ring in the center. It meant nothing to the untrained eye, but to him, all of the company's horrors were sealed underneath. ConCorp read bold text in half-connected lettering, the logo finalizing its signature with a black bow tie adorning the bottom.

"Hardly," managed Scar, having just remembered he'd been asked a question, "But it wasn't that recent."

"It was practically yesterday if we're talking business," Mumbo snickered, "but we aren't. I'm not very good at business."

"Me neither, I prefer mayorship," he said in an attempt to change the subject.

Mumbo, however, didn't seem to notice, only turning to stare at Scar with eyes wide. "Are you kidding me? You were quite literally the richest Hermit of all last year! You're wonderful at business. Sahara was amazing, and I don't for a second doubt it was the most ambitious project of our group to date, but she had plenty of bugs, being the machine powered industry that she was. ConCorp, however? That was an utter monopoly! The thing lasted two bloody seasons!"

Scar chuckled awkwardly, "I know, I know, Cub and I worked very hard. But it wasn't all us, we couldn't have done it alone."

"Give yourself more credit," Mumbo insisted, "I'm more than convinced you could have gotten your business up and running even without the help of your Vex friends. Weren't they less prominent in your company last year, anyway? You did change your guy's name from ConVex to ConCorp, after all. I think that would imply less input on their part."

"Not really," he explained, though the tension building in his body was becoming harder to conceal. He had to keep his arms rigid so that they wouldn't shake, forcing in deep breaths to avoid the shaky ones that threatened to take their place. "We just thought it would be better for business, rebranding to something more gentlemanly and all."

Mumbo nodded, "Ah, that makes sense. Though I still don't understand how you managed to work with them to begin with. I likely wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. I mean business partners with the Vex? Friends, even? How'd you do it? Not to mention why? With all due respect, what makes one seek that out?"

Scar blinked hard at the influx of questions, "Oh, it's- it's really complicated, you might not understand. Cub started it, though. I joined the team not long after, but I wasn't there when he first struck the deal with Them."

"Huh, some deal," Mumbo remarked thoughtfully, and Scar nodded.

He had no idea.

"So what made you leave that behind?" Mumbo continued.

"What?" he asked, finding his thoughts hazy. They were static nothingness, but somehow also crashing into his skull. He found himself having to dig his way through them, while at the same time trying to bury them once he passed. The last thing Scar wanted was to do was hark back to the Vex, to beckon forth Their memory with his own.

The other man simply chuckled, oblivious to Scar's inner turmoil. "ConCorp, the Vex. Did you two just get bored? Having done the same thing for too long?"

"In a sense, you could definitely say we were tired of it. It just- well, it wasn't what we wanted to do anymore. We wanted to move on to new things."

"That's fair enough. Do you blokes still get along? Or did they take the corporation's end like a sour breakup?"

This time, Scar couldn't contain his wince. "We're still friends!" he insisted, "Of course the Vex are my friends."

Mumbo finally quirked a brow, "Are you sure about that? You don't have to worry about hiding some burnt corporal bridges from me, I'm not here to judge."

"Oh yeah, I'm positive," he nodded eagerly, "I'm just- I'm gonna go work on fixing that contraption I damaged, best to get it fixed before we have to switch back."

"Buddy, are you sure everything's alright? I'm sorry if I upset you or anything."

"Nah, I'm just peachy!" Scar announced with far too much false enthusiasm, internally cringing at his failed masking abilities. Not allowing any more time for his ruse to be cracked, he uttered a quick goodbye before adjusting the straps on his elytra and dashing off, leaping into the air and back towards the ruins.

"Scar, wait!" Mumbo tried, but he was already gone.

------

The returning flight was far from the peaceful journey he'd made to the excitation site. His artificial wings beat frantically, struggling to keep up as he charged forward with excessive firepower. He paid no mind to the safety protocol regarding the rocket's cool-down period, simply heralding through the air as fast as his elytra would carry him. Scar arrived back to the monument in a trip overall much faster than when he'd left, but it seemed to drag on for an eternity. The entire excursion consisted of a battle with his own mind-- a war in which he knew he was bound to lose, but he had to hold down the fort until he was on solid ground.

Scar was lucky not to crash into the debris upon landing, frantically stumbling to the dirt and having to grasp onto a piece of wreckage to maintain his balance. His legs nearly buckled under his weight, form trembling in spite of the deep breaths he gave it his all to draw in.

He grasped hard to the rubble, trying to anchor his brain into focus. He couldn't let his thoughts spiral, he couldn't think about Them. He knew grounding techniques, and he tried to rush his way through them.

Five things you can see.

He could see the golden heart, plants, stone, the golden heart again-- the thing was too anatomically correct, he'd seen horrors too similar to it before. And the sound, it was too damn loud, too hard to ignore. Its unsteady rhythm hammering in his ears alongside his own faltering pulse.

Forget visuals, four different noises?

Scar squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to listen, focusing hard on the world around him. Still, he could only hear the heart. He could only hear it pounding, its once melodic notes like nails on a chalkboard. He could remember far too many times when he was left alone with nothing but his heartbeat and his pleas.

Tactile. Texture. What can you feel? Three things you can feel.

Internally, he screamed at his dulling senses to return. God, he didn't want to think about Them, it wasn't worth the risk. They'd been inside his head before, and the mere idea of having his thoughts broadcasted again made his stomach churn. Scar tried harder and harder to suppress the images bubbling to the surface, festering like maggots in an old wound. The more he tried to push them down, however, the fiercer they'd rise back up, and he choked down a sob in attempt to list the sensations he could currently identify.

He could feel the stone-- but he already said the stone, didn't he? He could also feel the sun. It was hot against his back. So hot. He was overheating.

The notes should have been a success, but the drops of sweat felt too akin to tricking blood. The sting of his hands felt too much like the friction burn of a rope. It felt too much like he was back with the Vex again, and as he finally sunk to the soil, he could no longer swim against the onslaught of memories crashing over him like a tidal wave.

They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still get him--

------

The day he and Cub first found the courage to try and cut ties with the Vex had been a hellish one, and the two men weren't even successful in their attempt. Hence, of course, it being the first.

Still, it had taken ages for Scar to persuade Cub that it was even worth trying, the other man having believed it was impossible to sneak anything past the Vex on their own. Scar was persistent, however, and eventually convinced his friend they had a shot if they played their cards right, if they made the right proposal without their intentions being discovered.

They'd constructed their plans in secret for weeks; discussing them only inside of untold locations with hushed whispers, or in the form of coded scrawls they'd burn immediately after reading. They couldn't be too careful, that's what they'd tell themselves whenever they worried their precautionary measures may be over the top. Even so, when a so-called conference was put on the schedule --such events were far from any type of cordial meeting, despite having been assigned the title of one-- the men were hardly prepared for it.

Their conference room consisted of a needlessly grandiose suite, with floors of marble and walls carved from deep umber wood. The polished lumber was adorned with expensive paintings in aureate frames; antique laden shelves taking up the spaces they did not. Aesthetically pleasing decorative tactics were discarded in favour of showing off their riches in a possessive cluster, with the only average items being the table and its chairs sat in the dead center of the area. A chandelier of gemstone and gold swung from above, dangling by the same chains fated to one day bind their vassals.

"Concordats, greetings!" A Vex declared as the men were led through the doorway, hovering in the air at the opposing end of the surface.

"Greetings," parroted Cub minimally, Scar giving a plain nod beside him. Fewer words meant less chance at letting their guard down.

"We've been needing to speak with you," a different Vex chimed.

"Speak with you about the business," yet another visitant confirmed.

"We actually need to discuss similar matters with you all," Scar noted, voice and expression a façade of tranquility.

"You do?" the first asked, wide smile replaced with inquiry.

"Yes," managed Cub, "we want to make you an offer, one you can't refuse."

"I do like the sound of that!" the second snickered.

"We'll hear your offer," the Vex grinned, "we only have one question first!"

"Of course, what is it?" asked Scar, in mental awe of how well their exchange was going.

"Do you recognize these?" it asked, gesturing towards the white table where a blue light flashed, fading away to reveal a small pile of ash.

Cub and Scar glanced to one another in evident confusion, the latter of the two speaking once again, "Forgive me, but we're not sure what you're talking about."

"Oh, silly me!" the Vex giggled, another flash of luminesce encompassing the soot and leaving a stack of papers in its place. As if caught in a controlled gust, they blew from the surface and organized themselves midair; levitating in a cloud of magic.

All of their once burnt notes were lined up before them, cyphers needed to crack their messages included.

Still beaming with innocence, it continued, "How about now? Look familiar?"

The blood drained from their faces, and Scar could have sworn his heart was going to burst from his chest with how hard it was drumming. He wanted to wake up, because this had to be a nightmare.

"No, we have no idea what those are," he tried.

LAIR!

Overlapping voices screamed in his head, all sounding in haunting unison. Scar hastily clapped his hands over his ears, but it did nothing to silence the uproar emanating from within.

You try to break our contract then lie to our faces?

Foolish concordats.

Terrible secret keepers, terrible subjects.

Cub seized hold of Scar's arm and made a break for the door with the brunet in tow, reaching the exit and tugging desperately on the handles. They refused to turn under his grasp, and his eyes darted back towards the Vex; floating creatures growing ever closer to their imaginary bubble providing them with the illusion of safety.

More of Them were phasing in through walls, forms non-corporeal and having no need for the sealed entryway.

Apologize.

They all ordered, Scar flinching at the simultaneous projection. He lowered his hands and turned towards Them, watching Their unmoving grins with wide eyes.

Kneel before your gods and divulge your prayers, we may just show you mercy.

"I'm sorry-" Scar whimpered, but Cub was having none of it.

"No!" the man barked, "Screw this! This isn't worth it! None of this is worth it! He's right! The business, the money, the power, it-- it means nothing! Not when you treat us like this!"

They watched him step forward, his furious yells echoing through the expanse of the room, "We're done! And we mean it! You're going to get us go or else!"

An orchestra of shrill cackles filled the air.

Oooh, it's angry.

They're fighting back!

Teach them a lesson.

"You won't dare make another-" Cub's retaliation was cut short with a cry, the bearded man dropping to the ground in a swift crash.

"Cub!" Scar called, but his attempt to step towards his friend was met only with a searing pain through his legs and the subsequent buckling of his knees. He fell to the marble, limbs heavy as if they'd been weighted. It took considerable force to balance on his arms, appendages left shaking as he peered back up towards the Vex.

He regretted it instantly.

•••

(Part two)

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft fanfic #goodtimeswithscar #grian #mumbo jumbo #mcyt #the vex #cubfan135

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elming26-blog · 4 years ago

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letexman · 6 years ago

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Same street, rue des Archives

(last one is the new HCB foundation)

#Paris #door

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tndda · 4 years ago

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Job Posting – Statewide Director of Employment Innovations

As a national leader in progressive and person-centered Day Service options and a contributing member of the Employment 1st community at large, Tennessee is firmly committed to the foundational reality that diversity brings value to every workplace. To continue to promote and elevate these efforts, the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is seeking mission-driven applicants for our Statewide Director of Employment Innovations.

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seniorcaresolution · 5 years ago

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The Duty of a Caretaker —-- American Liver Foundation

The absence of self-care is an issue that caregivers should solve and also recognize. To start, caretakers ought to begin to notice the food that they consume.

Time Administration.

As my father was transferred from healthcare facilities and helped living houses, I normally obtained involved with the other people, both the literally and also psychologically ill. I intended to come to be well-informed of each condition I came across.

I withstood physical and psychological misuse at the hands of my mommy as well as stepfather from the ages of four to 11. When, at the age of 11, I called the authorities to save me from my very own "moms and dads" she made a decision sufficient was enough and also she took me in, taking over every parenting role after that. My mom as well as I deal with looking after my papa's requirements that I can't do on my very own like showering him, and also feeding him. We are tied with the exact same drive, stitched with a similar genuineness to aid and also heal.

The Caretaker Duty.

Talk to your medical professional if you have difficulty getting a great evening's rest. Numerous neighborhoods have classes specifically regarding the illness your enjoyed one is facing.

to look for the HCBS Waiver and the Neighborhood Care Program. Call the Department of Human Being Provider' Adult Safety as well as Area Providers Branch at for qualification details and just how to make an application for the Hawaii Job Provider Program. to get more information about the Grownup Family Living program, qualification criteria, and just how to use.

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Many caretakers battle to make ends meet while still offering appropriate care, creating a tough scenario for those without other forms of financial backing.

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Existing Caregiver Tax Obligation Advantages.

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What do you call a caregiver?

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This often consists of providing support with financial and legal events too. Erin Pratt is a pupil at Life College who is learning chiropractic care neurology and caring for her 95-year-old granny. Rashelle Quinn is a pupil at Regis College who is learning nursing and also caring for her daddy, that endured an extreme mind injury in a car crash when she was a child. By being a caregiver for my mommy and father I obtain the special capability to exercise healthcare as well as refine my nursing ability on practically an everyday basis. When either of my moms and dads have inquiries on drug, I have the sources offered to me via my education to aid them recognize every little thing they need to recognize concerning their medications.

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ka-ssa-blog · 5 years ago

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Museum of the Revolution: ‘Decolonisation’ within the major capital cities of Africa

Photography Exhibition

GUY TILLIM – MUSEUM OF THE REVOLUTION

FEBRUARY 26 - JUNE 2, 2019 [Paris, France]

The South African photographer Guy Tillim (born in 1962) is the winner of the 2017 HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON Award.

With this new series Museum of the Revolution, he observes the effects of decolonisation within the major capital cities of Africa.

His wanderings have in recent years Guy to Johannesburg, Durban, Maputo, Beira, Harare, Nairobi, Kampala, Addis Ababa, Luanda, Libreville, Accra, Abidjan, Dakar and Dar es Salaam. The avenues, named and renamed, act as silent witnesses to the ebb and flow of political, economic and social changes. They have become “the museum” of the two major revolutions that have emerged in these countries in recent decades: from colonial regimes to post-colonial regimes, borrowing from socialist practices, then from African nationalism to capitalistic states.

Biography - Guy Tillim was born in Johannesburg in 1962 and lives in South Africa. He started photographing professionally in 1986.

More information & tickets:

https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/expositions/guy-tillim-museum-of-the-revolution/

Azikiwe St, Dar es Salaam, Tanzanie, 2017 © Guy Tillim, Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg

Praça do Metical, Beira, Mozambique, 2017 © Guy Tillim, Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg

The HCB Foundation:

For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously.

https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/fondation/

#Event #photography #cities #exhibition #Paris #decolonisation #capitalism #modernism #post-modernism #post-colonialism

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kristinsimmons · 6 years ago

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Healthcare is Coming Home

SPONSORED POST

By DIANA CHEN

Meals furnished to the enrollee beyond a limited basis

Transportation for non-medical needs

Pest control

Indoor air quality equipment and services

Other benefits to address social needs

coaching app to engage consumers with their healthcare

non-intrusive sensors for at home monitory of acute disease patients

apps to support caretakers with burnout

To learn more about the challenge, please visit the website. To sign up for updates on the challenge, please click here.

Diana Chen is a Program Associate at Catalyst @ Health 2.0.

Healthcare is Coming Home published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

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hodgesjbitiwnmic-blog · 6 years ago

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What I Learned From Magnum's The Art Of Street Photography

As an academic myself, I always enjoy learning from reliable sources and what I consider to be authorities in a field. I've given my life to photography, my greatest passion and love, so basically I always connect stuff with photography.

Learning about photography is one of the most pleasant things for me, and after 10 years of walking with my camera, there is a lot still left for me to know.

Among many other institutions, collectives and photographers, Magnum Photos has been a huge source of inspiration and knowledge for me. Approaching the end of 2018, they decided to launch a new platform that could be a sustainability experiment or not. Frankly, I hope they continue with this project which they called Magnum Learn.

Photo by Maaria Lohiya

Today I want to share with you my very own and personal opinion about this course that is called “The Art of Street Photography“. I rarely (if not ever) read reviews or comments about certain stuff like movies, books, podcasts or series. These sort of courses often get reviews online, so I didn't read any, it was Magnum, and I was in for it.

I'm telling you this before starting to give my own opinion on the course because I just remembered the online course from Annie Leibovitz that many criticized.

People were expecting to take images like hers simply from that course, and that was obviously something that was not going to happen at all. Therefore, you won't become a Magnum photographer or a highly successful street photographer from watching this course.

This is a course designed to think and inspire, not to train or program you into a brilliant photographer in no time.

The course starts with a pretty disruptive statement by Chris Boot, and it is the only quote I will share with you from the course:

“It's often assumed that the Magnum tradition is about subject matter. That it's always driven to tell stories about the world and communicates issues that interests and concern them. But really what the Magnum tradition is about is compelling pictures. They are picture makers.”

This was amazing for me because this is definitely a side that I wasn't seeing from the Agency, and that idea shortened the distance between me and the reverence I'd held for Magum.

The course divides into the following 10 fantastic lessons or topics:

The Street and The Decisive Moment

Photo by Federico Alegría

Magnum + Street Photography = Henri Cartier-Bresson. This was the only thing that I saw coming, something related to HCB. Here the lesson revolves around defining Street Photography, something extremely complex even for all these photographers.

It is amazing how each and everyone had a completely different concept about street photography, and that honestly, was a relief for me. I define street photography as my personal approach towards everyday happenings that deserve to be seen by the society around them.

There is a lot said and even preached about the Decisive Moment, and oh boy, you've been having it wrong. Agnès Sire is the artistic director of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris, and she explains a lot of enlightening things about this phrase that sounds really nice but hides a deeper meaning.

Hitting the Street

Hitting the streets is something all photographers in love with capturing the streets do. It might be a single street or several places, it doesn't matter, what really counts is to get out there and shooting.

Here you'll see how all the photographers selected for this course face the street, and you'll understand why everyone has a different concept of street photography. In the end, it is a personal thing, and we must never forget that.

In Focus – Bruce Gilden

You might like his photos or not, and it doesn't really matter because he takes the photos that fulfil him. And that is what you'll get in this episode, a very intimate moment with his way of seeing the streets and taking the photos that make him feel good. There will never be another Bruce Gilden, but the point here is not to replicate his style, it is to listen to a crazy man that is in love with what he does.

Here he shares advice and even some of the influences that he had when he started out. You will be definitely surprised by them if you already know his iconic style. Gilden has a reputation for his approach to photographing people, and after 45 years of doing it, it is nice to hear him talk so fiercely about street photography.

Framing the Unexpected

Photo by 13on

I've talked about framing in photography before. Framing is for me the area within a scene that lives forever. It is defined by the boundaries that we decide as photographers, and in street photography, this happens really fast. Here the lecturers discuss the act of deciding what will and what won't be included in a frame. They talk about patience and even being able to react in no-time.

In Focus – Martin Parr

Martin Parr has been chronicling and documenting society in a way that clearly reflects the aforementioned quote by Boot. For me, he is a master of documenting leisure and even the kitsch side of society. In this lesson, he shares with us his methods and even his editing process. Having access to such information and insight is priceless, and is worth every penny (the course costs $99).

Photographing People

Photo by Romain Lours

Street photography has been almost a synonym of documenting people or society in urban or rural scenarios. Here the lecturers talk about the challenges and joys that come with photographing people in their natural “habitat”. And well, beyond talking about what it means to them to photograph people, they also share some of their best techniques for approaching strangers both candidly and extremely obviously. Here you also can understand how certain interactions with strangers can go beyond mere street shots.

In Focus – Peter van Agtmael

Peter van Agtmael is perhaps the youngest of the photographers in this course, he works across different subjects and topics, from street to some really harsh global conflicts. Here he shares with us his approach to people on the streets, and you'll be really surprised at how he sees street photography.

Alternative Approaches – Mark Power

Mark Power really blew my mind – in a good way. He approaches street with a very different tool, a 5×4 technical camera with a medium format back attached to it. Here we are able to see a consistent photographer working at a really slow pace, and it is amazing to see how easily he can turn simple elements in the urban scenarios into amazing images.

Editing – Creating Order out of Chaos

Alright, here is where the true magic of the course happens. After 10 years of documenting the streets, this really got me thinking. The editing process (which is not to be confused with post-processing) is the most important stage for a photographer after mastering the tool. Here is where the role of philosophy blooms as well, and for me is the main reason why you should invest (if not indulge yourselves) in this course.

Here the photographers talk about how they approach the editing stage of their workflow, but if you want to get an even deeper experience in this facet, I really recommend this fantastic book. Iconic images are not a product of serendipity, they are a product of a conscientious editing process.

Presenting Your Photography

In the last episode of this fantastic course, there was some insightful advice and guidance on building not only a portfolio or body of work but an interesting look into why we need to do it. In this point in history, where we are flooded by images online, learning how to present our work is fundamental indeed.

So, Why Art?

Photo by Spencer Imbrock

We see the world with a unique perspective, built from the sum of our interests, traditions, philosophy, ideas, influences and maturity. As long as we are able to see inside ourselves, we are able to see the world more clearly.

The art of street photography is about being able to replicate with our cameras the way we see life surrounding us.

The course is at some points poetic, because it is like photography itself, and I'm very sure that the people at Magnum haven't noticed the beautiful metaphor they've created here.

The course is extremely quick, in total it is exactly 165 minutes long, or 2h45m. That is indeed a pretty swift course, and that's why I think it is poetic. The act of taking a picture is extremely fast, it is what happens after that which makes it absolutely meaningful.

And this course is exactly the same, it is what you get by reading at a slow pace the PDFs of each episode (which are basically transcripts, photos and quotes from each lecture) and the further readings are what makes it nurturing for someone like me.

Revisiting the videos, embracing the assignments and looking at those photographers work is where the true magic happens.

You won't become a better photographer simply by watching the videos and reading the texts, you have to allow yourselves to be inspired but what these people have to share with us.

BTW if anyone at Magnum reads this, please consider making a course on Contact Sheets!!!

These are the people (mainly photographers) that built the philosophical discourse that you can witness by taking this course:

Pauline Vermare

Carolyn Drake

Richard Kalvar

Mark Power

Bruce Gilden

Martin Parr

Agnès Sire

Peter van Agtmael

Susan Meiselas

Chris Boot

It is worth your time! If you've taken this course, we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Also, if there are any other courses that you love and have been inspired by, definitely feel free to share.

The post What I Learned From Magnum's The Art Of Street Photography appeared first on Light Stalking.

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savymartinphotostudies-blog · 6 years ago

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Henri Cartier-Bresson

1908 - 2004

Early Life

1908: Born on August 22nd in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne. Educated at the Lycée Condorcet, Paris.

1926: Studies painting under André Lhote. Takes his first photographs.

1930: Spends almost one year in the Ivory Coast.

1931: Discovers a photograph by Martin Munkácsi in the arts magazine Arts et Métiers Graphiques and decides to focus on photography.

First Photographic Experiments

1932: Buys his first Leica and travels accross Europe with his friends Leonor Fini and Pieyre de Mandiargues. First publications in Voilà and Photographies.

1933: First exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York. His photographs are subsequently shown at the Ateneo Club in Madrid.

1934: Goes to Mexico with an ethnographic expedition team. The mission fails, but he decides to stay.

Cinema

1935: Exhibits with Manuel Alvarez Bravo at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico and one month later at the Julien Levy Gallery with Walker Evans and Manuel Alvarez-Bravo. Spends some time in the USA, where he discovers filmmaking with Paul Strand and Nykino Group.

1936: Works as second assistant to Jean Renoir on Une partie de campagne (A Day in the Country) and La vie est à nous.

1937: Directs two documentaries: Victoire de la vie (Return to Life) on the medical care of Republican Spain and With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, on the American soldiers’ life during the Second World War. Photographic report on the coronation of George VI published in the newspaper Ce Soir.

1938: Directs, upon request by the Spanish Secours Populaire, a documentary about the Spanish Civil War, L’Espagne vivra.

1939: Joins Jacques Becker and André Zvoboda as an assistant on Jean Renoir’s La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game).

During the War

1940: Joins the “Film and Photography” unit of the Third Army. Taken prisoner by the Germans on June 23rd.

1943: After two failed attempts, successfully escapes on his third attempt in February 1943. Works for MNPGD, a secret organization created to help prisoners and escapees.

1944: Takes a series of photographic portraits of writers and artists for Editions Braun (Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Claudel, Georges Rouault).

1945: Directs Le Retour (The Return), a documentary on the repatriation of prisoners of war and detainees.

Professional Photographer

1946-47: Spends over a year in the USA. Upon Harper’s Bazaar request, he travels for a few months with John Malcolm Brinnin to photograph artists and writers.

1947: Exhibition Photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Creates the cooperative agency Magnum Photos with Robert Capa, David Seymour (Chim), William Vandivert, and George Rodger.

1948–50: Spends three years in the Far East: in India for the death of Gandhi, in China for the last six months of the Kuomintang and the first six months of the People’s Republic, and in Indonesia for its independence. His photographs are published all over the world.

1952: His first book, Images à la Sauvette, with its cover by Matisse, is published by Tériade. First exhibition in England, Photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

1953: Travels throughout Europe for Holiday.

1954: Publication by Robert Delpire of his books Les Danses à Bali and D’une Chine à l’autre, marking the beginning of a long collaboration with Delpire. He is the first photographer allowed in the USSR since the beginning of the Cold War.

1955: First exhibition in France at the Pavillon de Marsan in the Louvre. Tériade publishes Les Européens (cover illustrated by Miró).

1958: Returns to China for three months for the tenth anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

1961: Creates a set of portraits for the magazine Queen.

1963: Returns to Mexico for the second time. Life magazine sends him to Cuba.

1965: Spends several months travelling in Japan.

1966: Returns to India.

1967: Commissioned by IBM to create Man and Machine. This project becomes an exhibition and a book.

1968-69: Spends a year travelling around France for Reader’s Digest and publishes a book, Vive la France, to accompany the exhibition “En France” at the Grand Palais in 1970.

1970-71 : Directs two documentaries in the USA for CBS News: Southern Exposures and Impressions de Californie.

1972-73 : Returns to the USSR.

Return to drawing

1974: Terminates his active working relationship with Magnum Photos, although the agency distribution retains his archives. Concentrates on drawing.

1975: First exhibition of drawings at the Carlton Gallery, New York.

1987: Photographic exhibition The Early Work at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1988: The Centre National de la Photographie celebrates his 80th anniversary. Creation of the HCB Award.

2000: Makes plans to set up the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation with his wife, Martine Franck, and daughter, Mélanie. The idea is to provide a permanent home for his collected works as well as an exhibition space open to other artists.

2002: The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation is recognized as being of public interest by the French State.

2003: Opening of the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris. Retrospective exhibition De qui s’agit-il ? at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

2004: Henri Cartier-Bresson dies peacefully in Montjustin, Provence on August 3rd.

http://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/hcb/filmography/

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/967

https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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On a June episode of his show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver went in on a product called the Sock Slider. While discussing the same topic on the Hannity Show, he took a moment to highlight the dwindling number of companies willing to associate themselves with his news program — ”My Pillow, Recticare cream, and of course, the Sock Slider.”

Audience members roared with laughter as Oliver rolled footage of a Sock Slider ad, featuring people moaning and groaning dramatically as they struggled to put on their socks before trying out the device and beaming at the ease of use. The camera cut back to Oliver chuckling to himself as he mocked the device and the people who use it.

You’ve probably seen examples of these kinds of “useless products for lazy people” before. Things like banana slicers, egg separators, jar openers, buttoners, tilting jugs for dispensing liquids, and much more are the subject of constant amusement on the internet: “Who uses these kinds of things?” “You don’t need an avocado slicer.” These products are typically positioned as “useless” in scathing roundups of products no one could possibly need, representing little more than wastes of plastic and resources.

[embedded content]

Imagine being unable to slice a banana over your morning cereal because your hands are paralyzed or joint contractures make it hard to grip both the banana and the knife. If you’re a baker who loves making cakes, what would you do if you couldn’t separate an egg by casually cracking it on the edge of the bowl and using the shell to tease the yolk and white apart? The inability to perform these kinds of activities independently can have huge consequences for people with disabilities.

A variety of impairments can make these tasks challenging, including hand tremors or weakness, paralysis or paresis, limited range of motion, arthritis and other joint conditions, chronic pain, neurological disabilities or stroke, developmental disabilities, and amputations. These issues may be congenital or acquired or even temporary. Some people, for example, just need support while they recover from surgery or injuries. And so those products Oliver and the internet at large enjoy mocking? Not so useless after all.

”If I didn’t have that silly piece of plastic with ropes, I wouldn’t be able to put socks on,” says Emily Ladau, a disabled advocate, writer, and speaker with Larsen syndrome, a congenital skeletal disorder. (She’s talking about a similar device, not the exact as-seen-on-TV gadget.)

Ladau, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, cannot bend over to put on socks. Without a “sock putter-onner,” as she calls it, she would be forced to rely on the assistance of a personal care attendant (PCA) to put her socks on every morning. “Something that people think is a silly piece of plastic is one of the reasons I don’t need a PCA when I travel.”

Ladau, like other people with disabilities, is used to seeing late-night hosts, internet memes, and people on social media mocking the “silly pieces of plastic” that can be life-changing. For her, the sock slider and an extended shoe horn represent freedom; imagine being literally unable to put on socks unassisted before leaving the house on a cold winter day, and not being able to slip your socked feet into a pair of sturdy boots on your own.

Sometimes, living independently as a member of the disability community means having to rely on a little help, and in many cases, a gadget can be very useful. Help may also take a human face: Personal care assistants, aides, home health attendants, and other direct service professionals are vital, though there’s also a heavy social expectation that family members provide unpaid caregiving labor, a practice many people with disabilities oppose along with other exploitative labor practices.

If you can’t use your hands to open a jar of pasta sauce, does that mean you should live in an institution?

In many cases, wasting these services on tasks that people could perform with the assistance of a gadget is not very efficient. Nor do people with disabilities necessarily want to use such services this way.

Kim Sauder, a disability scholar and advocate, notes that people with disabilities may not want to be forced to wait for help with tasks like peeling oranges; there’s something very dehumanizing about the thought of just wanting a snack and being stymied by a rind you can’t remove on your own. Plus, says Ladau: “I get frustrated by the notion that I should always be okay with asking for help. I’d like to try to use my own solution.”

And attendant care is expensive, costing a median of $45,000 annually in 2015, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Few people pay this cost out of pocket: Instead, it’s typically part of the Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) benefits provided to the disability community and older adults under programs like Medicaid and Medicare.

For those who use these government programs to pay for part or all of their services, there’s no guarantee that officials will authorize enough work hours to provide all the assistance someone needs. The amount of benefits provided is dependent on a “needs assessment” in which an evaluator meets with a disabled person to determine the extent of services they require. Many people with disabilities complain that these assessments tend to understate the amount of care they need, taking a “budget-driven” approach.

Furthermore, being unable to perform tasks independently can force people into institutional settings if they lack the support systems needed to survive. Whether you call them useless inventions, lazy products, or pointless gadgets, says Greg Hartley, a faculty member at the University of Miami’s physical therapy department and president of the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy, a component of the American Physical Therapy Association, these tools can enable people to lead their lives on their own.

“[Instead of having] to go to someplace that requires a lot of assistance and ultimately a lot of money, these little things can make huge differences in people’s quality of life, enabling them to be independent and have a sense of self-worth,” Hartley says.

Unwittingly, critics of “useless products” are sitting at the core of a battle the disability community has been engaged in for decades: The right to live in their communities, and to receive the services that enable them to do that. If you can’t use your hands to open a jar of pasta sauce, does that mean you should live in an institution? Republicans attacking Medicaid funding have HCBS squarely in their sights, a policy change that could be devastating to the disability community.

But for those complaining about cost overruns, pushing people into institutions is also bad economics. In 2012, the National Council on Disability found that HCBS is less expensive than institutionalization, and you can see why: Many of these products cost less than $40, while institutionalization can cost more than $300,000 annually in some states, much less affordable than attendant services. (Although many people with disabilities argue attendants should be paid more.)

An adult sippy cup won’t make the difference between staying at home and going into an institution — and the government certainly won’t pay for it — but it can sit at the cusp of a slippery slope between being able to live independently and being forced into institutional care.

Products like the banana slicer, pizza shears, or similar items, says Hartley, can be especially useful for people who can’t safely or comfortably use knives. That can include people with disabilities who have impairments that make it hard to grip and direct their movements, as well as older adults struggling with arthritis and declining hand strength. These products can also help with cooking in less-accessible spaces: A wheelchair user who is using a cutting board on their lap because they can’t reach the counter may not want to use a knife.

Still, not all of these “useless inventions” were developed with the disability community in mind. Monique Haas, of the Hutzler Manufacturing Company that makes the infamous banana slicer, explains: “We are trying to look at what would make life in the kitchen easy for anyone and everyone. We do have a lot of one-handed things, just because it is easier to use one hand.”

While the product became the subject of mocking commentary in the early 2010s, she says, it had already been in their product line for a long time. And in case you’re wondering, the company has a sense of humor about its cult status. “If you read the reviews on Amazon, you will be rolling with laughter. They are really creative, they are really funny.”

These universal design practices are something people with disabilities are aware of. Sauder sometimes likes to turn the conversation back on people who make fun of convenience devices. If an egg separator or a shower chair is “useless,” “I expect you to take things out of the oven without gloves,” she says.

Unfortunately, she notes, the shaming around such items tends to push people with disabilities to try to do without, something Ladau notices as well. “Sometimes I feel like I’m deterred from making some of these purchases,” she says, “because I think society has this mindset that it’s all just another gimmick.”

People with disabilities themselves often end up filling the gaps for those who haven’t or can’t access professional services. They swap tips and tricks for products that have worked for them, like using household tongs as convenient reachers. (Tongs are another item Ladau often includes in her luggage, much to the confusion of the TSA.)

This kind of innovative repurposing of tools for accessibility purposes is common in disability spaces. Sometimes no viable product exists at all, and at other times the commercial version comes with an “accessibility tax” that makes it far too expensive.

Take, for example, people with disabilities who started using iPads as communication tools instead of cumbersome and expensive purpose-built tools covered by Medicaid. The Allora Speech Generating Device, for example, starts at $6,000. An iPad Mini can cost less than one-tenth the price, with no lengthy delivery time and a much easier interface. Buying a robot vacuum cleaner can cost a few hundred dollars, which more than pays for itself when the owner doesn’t have to rely on an aide to do light housekeeping.

The internet can have a flattening effect on the way humans view each other. On social media, people jostle for the most memeable, shareable, viral content, and don’t consider the consequences. Sauder notes, for example, that a tweet making fun of peeled and packaged oranges has gained notoriety multiple times, even after people with disabilities have criticized the sentiment behind the original “joke.” Each time it pops up in Sauder’s timeline under a new name, it goes viral all over again.

It’s easy to strip content of both context and empathy, whether intentionally or otherwise. And with the speed of distribution and the internet’s love of screenshots, everything is forever. When content mocking the disability community — like memes about ambulatory wheelchair users getting up to grab something high at the store — spread like wildfire, commentary from the affected community is rarely attached. This has a dehumanizing tendency, creating a world that rewards judgmental, snappy commentary and eliminates nuance.

When viral content dips into commentary about people’s identities, it can take on sinister overtones that cut both ways — a tweet mocking a low-vision person reading a book on the train can hurt just as much as inspiration porn that uses people with disabilities as Very Special Object Lessons. (Think “what’s your excuse” posters featuring disabled athletes, or “heartwarming” viral stories about disabled children.)

For the disability community, that thing the internet mocks may be a lifeline. And pushing back on these attitudes, Sauder says, can be exhausting.

Imagine losing the use of your left arm in a stroke and then seeing people mock the buttoners, zipper pulls, and other tools you use to get dressed one-handed. It’s not just that people with disabilities have a use for items like these and are tired of hearing that they’re wasteful or silly: When the need for such products is called into question, it can exacerbate social divides that contribute to larger policy issues that keep people with disabilities from public life, whether it’s the frenzied call for straw bans, claims that complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act is too onerous, or applying work requirements to Medicaid.

A sock slider, it turns out, is never just a sock slider.

Original Source -> Products mocked as “lazy” or “useless” are often important tools for people with disabilities

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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siddhilaad · 7 years ago

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Module 10: Kertesz and Cartier-Bresson versus Smith and Salgado

Compare the work of Andre Kertesz and Henri Cartier-Bresson versus the work of Eugene Smith and Sebastião Salgado. They are four photojournalists with different approaches.

– What are the main differences and similarities?

– What’s the better journalistic approach?

Similarities Differences Andre Kertesz

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Black and White photografies.

Humanistic photographer, photo essay

They did not accept changes in their photos.

They want to tell a story with their photos.

They both believed that the photographer needs to be invisible to the subject for capturing the decisive moment.

Kertesz influenced art along with journalism

Bresson pioneered street photography, specialises in candid photography

Eugene Smith

Sebastiao Salgado

Black and White photografies.

Their photos are focused on sad subjects and facts, evoking emotions.

They want to tell a story with their photos.

They do not like to make changes in their pictures using the dark room.

Smith developed photo essay into a sophisticated visual form

Salgado does not believe that he is a photojournalist, but a social photographer

Andre Kertesz

Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1894, Andre Kertesz worked as a clerk at the Budapest stock exchange in 1912 when he bought his first camera. Two years later, he was sent off to World War I, when he was 20 years old and picture that miserable and hard life and shared with the world.

It was in 1925 when he moved to Paris because of a lack of opportunities and started to work as a freelance photographer. (Albers, P. 2015)

In 1928 he participated in the First Independent Salon of Photography, where his pictures were notably for his blend of a romantic sensibility with modernist attitude. He was cited by critics and mentioned as a proof that photography could be considered a fine art.

Kertesz published three books with his photographs. Immigrated to the USA in 1936 and settled in New York, where he started to work for House and Garden magazine as a professional photographer. At the age of 60, he retired and started to focus on more personal topics that he used to enjoy when an amateur photographer.

Kertesz is known for his the visual lyricism and humanism that characterized his practice. His camera angles are different, with height and depth. His photos are mostly in an urban scenario.

“I always had a small camera with me on the front line, where I made candid, informal photographs, unlike the official photographers for the War Department. They always came with a huge camera on a tripod after the battle was over to make a scenic photograph that would show the destruction” (Andre Kertesz) (Course Notes Module 9).

Henri Cartier- Bresson

Henri Cartier- Bresson was born on August 22nd in Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne. He studied at the Lycée Condorcet, Paris. He studied painting under André Lhote. In 1926 he took his first photographs. In 1931 he saw a photograph by Martin Munkácsi in the arts magazine Arts et Métiers Graphiques and decides to focus on photography.

In 1932 he bought his first Leica and travelled across Europe with his friends Leonor Fini and Pieyre de Mandiargues. First publications in Voilà and Photographies.

He had his first exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York in 1933. His photographs are subsequently shown at the Ateneo Club in Madrid.

From 1935-39 he worked for cinemas before moving to war photography in 1940. He joined the “Film and Photography” unit of the Third Army in 1940. Taken prisoner by the Germans on June 23rd. After two failed attempts successfully escaped on his third attempt in February 1943. He worked for MNPGD, a secret organization created to help prisoners and escapees.

He took a series of photographic portraits of writers and artists in 1944 for Editions Braun (Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Claudel, Georges Rouault).

In 1947 he held a photo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Creates the cooperative agency Magnum Photos with Robert Capa, David Seymour (Chim), William Vandivert, and George Rodger. From 1948 to 1950, he spent three years in the Far East: in India for the death of Gandhi, in China for the last six months of the Kuomintang and the first six months of the People’s Republic, and in Indonesia for its independence. His photographs are published all over the world.

1952: His first book, Images à la Sauvette, with its cover by Matisse, is published by Tériade. The first exhibition in England, Photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

In 1954 he is the first photographer allowed in the USSR since the beginning of the Cold War.

Later he travelled to China, Mexico, India, France, the USA and USSR from 1955 to 1973.

In 1974 he decided to focus again on drawing and resigned from Magnum Photos. (HCB foundation )

He believed that the photographer needs to be invisible to the subject for capturing the decisive moment. He said, “life is once forever” by which he meant that once the decisive moment has passed, it can never again be repeated. Every minute occurs once and after it is over you can do nothing about it.

He had said that staging your subjects to get a perfect picture is unethical. He thought that was the basic rule of candid photography. But many of his own photographs were posed. Henri Cartier- Bresson admitted that capturing one image to depict the event is very difficult. Therefore, he practised photo essay to capture the entire event from various perspectives.

Similarities with Andre Kertesz:

They both believed that clicking the decisive moment is important. They did not care about the technical aspects of photography. They both did not think of photography as a way of reporting things.

(Lessons W Eugene Smith taught me about photography, 2013)

The Decisive Moment: “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression” (Salgado, 1990, p.147).

In 2000 he set up the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation with his wife, Martine Franck, and daughter, Mélanie. The idea is to provide a permanent home for his collected works as well as an exhibition space open to other artists. And in 2002, The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation is recognized as being of public interest by the French State.

Henri Cartier-Bresson passed away in Montjustin, Provence on August 3rd, 2004. (HCB foundation )

(Magnum Photos, 2014)

Eugene Smith

American photojournalist

Worked extensively and popularised photo essay

He was a humanitarian photographer

He always believed in having a purpose for clicking a photograph. This shows the focus that he had while photographing.

He wanted his photographs to convey an emotional resonance with his viewers.

He also wanted to change people’s view about war. He was ready to risk his life for clicking a photograph if people would realise the negative side of war and stop wars in the future.

He said that if a photographer does not know the answer to ‘why am I clicking this?’, then they should stop photographing.

Eugene Smith also tried to capture the reality behind the war. He photographed the lives of people who were a part of the war. This shows his humanitarian approach to photography.

Eugene Smith was considered by many to be aggressive in person but he always cared deeply for his subjects. He was always respectful to them. And if he found injustice being done to anyone, then he would like to photograph it and bring that topic to light.

Unlike Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Smith thought that it was alright to stage photographs. If staging added authenticity of place to an image, then it could be used.

He used to print his photographs a number of times till he thought that the photograph looked fine to him. He always wanted to control the final image in post-processing. While Henri Cartier-Bresson did not post-process his images. He would get a trusted printer to do his work. He was more interested in photography.

He was never concerned about his finances, fame and recognition. He just wanted to do his job as best as he could.

(Lessons W Eugene Smith taught me about photography, 2013)

He also worked as a photojournalist war correspondent for Flying Magazine from 1943-44 and one year after that for Life magazine. He followed the American offensive against Japan when he got severely injured. He had to undergo surgeries for the next two years.

After recovering, he focused on making a number of photo essays that went on to become very popular.

His largest photo essay is of 1975 Minamata village in Japan. The entire fishing villages faced huge troubles due to mercury dumping be a chemical company.

(Howard Greenberg Gallery, 2018)

JAPAN. Minamata. Iwazo FUNABA’s crippled hand, a victim of the disease. 1971.

JAPAN. Minamata. Iwazo FUNABA’s crippled hands. She is a victim of the Minamata disease. 1971.

JAPAN. Minamata. Takak ISAYAMA, a 12 year old fetal (congenital) victim of the Minamata Disease, with her mother. 1971.

(Magnum Photos, 2014)

Some think that Eugene Smith was very hard on himself and sacrificed his health to concentrate on his career. He said that photography is everything for him and rest of the things do not matter that much. This lead to him passing away at the early age of 59 due to a heart stroke. He left behind $18 in his bank account and tonnes of photographs which continue to inspire photographers to this day.

(W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, 2004-2017)

4. Sebastiao Salgado

Sebastiao Salgado was born on February 8, 1944, in Aimorés, Brazil. A region with no access to a good education, which made him travel about 180 kilometres until Vitoria, for schooling. Salgado attended one of the best universities in Sao Paulo and got his MA in Economy. He also got married to Lelia Wanick and had two children with her. Today he is an award-winning photographer known by his arresting documentation of communities around the world.

Salgado has a monochromatic style, he believes that it forces his viewers to focus on the pictures’ topic, other than colours. His style combines complexity with a high sense of drama, and his work is dedicated to awareness of conditions of both wildlife and humans. Salgado’s photography has often focused on the effects of hardship, poverty and oppression on people of various cultures, and with the effects of industrialization on the natural landscape. Inspired by the photojournalism of Lewis Hine, W. Eugene Smith and Walker Evans, Salgado has tackled subjects like famine, poverty and social inequality in black-and-white photos that are unsparing yet often beautiful.

Salgado has earned fame for his stark photos of people coping with the effects of poverty, famine, industrialization and political oppression. He has received numerous awards for his photojournalism and has twice been named Photographer of the Year by the International Center of Photography. He and his wife founded the photographic agency, Amazonas Images and co-founded the environmental education centre, Institutio Terra that works on the restoration of Brazilian rainforests.

“My pictures gave me 10 times more pleasure than the reports I was working on. To be a photographer was, for me, an incredible way to express myself, an incredible way to the see the world from another point.” (Sebastiao Salgado)

– What’s the better journalistic approach?

It is true that the path of these four artists was not easy and all of them are inspiring, creative and good examples of photojournalism photographers. They wanted to tell people a story and they did it very well. Despite all that, we came up to a conclusion that Andre Kertesz and Henri Cartier-Bresson’s way of working is better. They follow the code of ethics in journalism, and their pictures are exactly what the real moment was, no changes, the real life and the real fact.

References:

Albers, P. (2015, March 27). André Kertész. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andre-Kertesz

BIOGRAPHY (2014, April 02). Sebastiao Salgado. Retrieved April 03, 2018, from https://www.biography.com/people/sebastião-salgado-40046\

Course Notes Module 10. “Presenting the moment: Eugene Smith and Sebastiao Salgado” (2018).

Course Notes Module 9. “Capturing the moment: Kertesz and Cartier-Bresson” (2018).

Getty Museum. (n.d.). André Kertész. Retrieved April 1, 2018, from http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1847/andr-kertsz-american-born-hungary-1894-1985/

HCB foundation . (n.d.). Biography. Retrieved from henricartierbresson HCB foundation : http://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/hcb/biography/

Howard Greenberg Gallery. (2018). W Eugene Smith. Retrieved from Howard Greenberg Gallery: http://www.howardgreenberg.com/artists/w-eugene-smith

Kim. E. (2015, March 02). 5 Lessons Sebastião Salgado Has Taught Me About Street Photography Retrieved April 1, 2018, from http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2015/03/02/5-lessons-sebastiao-salgado-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

Lessons W Eugene Smith taught me about photography. (2013, May 13). Retrieved from Eric Kim Photography: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/05/13/7-lessons-w-eugene-smith-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

Magnum Photos. (2014). Henri Cartier- Bresson: Portfolio. Retrieved from Magnum Photos: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&ALID=2K7O3R14TE52#/SearchResult&ALID=2K7O3R14TE52&VBID=2K1HZS2RBPID4&POPUPIID=2S5RYD1EZGYV&POPUPPN=50

Magnum Photos. (2014). Portfolio- Japan.1971.Minamata vs. the Chisso Corporation W. Eugene Smith. Retrieved from Magnum Photos : https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&ALID=2TYRYDDWZXTR#/SearchResult&ALID=2TYRYDDWZXTR&VBID=2K1HZS2O2M5AO&POPUPIID=2S5RYDY592XK&POPUPPN=17

Salgado, S. (1990). In Galeano E. H., Ritchin F. and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (Eds.), An uncertain grace. New York, N.Y.: Aperture Foundation.

The Art of Photography. (2015, May 14). Sebastião Salgado Photographer (Brazilian). Retrieved April 1, 2018, from http://theartofphotography.tv/photographers/salgado/

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. (2004-2017). W. Eugene Smith legacy. Retrieved from W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund: http://smithfund.org/smith-legacy

Kertesz and Cartier-Bresson versus Smith and Salgado Module 10: Kertesz and Cartier-Bresson versus Smith and Salgado Compare the work of Andre Kertesz and Henri Cartier-Bresson versus the work of Eugene Smith and Sebastião Salgado.

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