PEOPLE GET READY

Jeff Widener

 A lone man stops a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square, 1989 Beijing, China

This recent headline:

"23 years after Tiananmen, China is still paying: The annual crackdown on commemorations of the June 4 anniversary of the brutal suppression of student-led demonstrations based in Tiananmen Square in 1989 Beijing is under way."

reminds us that the right to freedom of expression also requires consistent defense.

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce "People Get Ready: The Struggle For Human Rights", a major exhibition of  dramatic photographs from significant human rights struggles in history. The exhibition opens with a public reception Friday, July 6, 5 - 7 PM, and continues through September 23, 2012

The belief that everyone, by virtue of her or his humanity, is entitled to certain human rights is fairly new. Its roots, however, lie in earlier traditions and documents of many cultures; however, it took the catalyst of World War II to propel human rights onto the global stage and into the global conscience. 

Yet, every day we still see images of people struggling for their freedom; their right to live without fear, their right to speak and their right to worship the god of their choice. In the past several months, we have watched as citizens in Egypt and Libya took to the streets to air their politics and struggle for freedom; and here in the United States, the Occupy Wall Street movement championed the cause of economic and social rights. The struggle around the world is unrelenting. Dedicated photojournalists have been, and continue to be, there to bring the voices and the images of the people as they rise to fight for basic human rights. (According to the Committee To Protect Journalists, 19 journalists have been killed in 2012 and 179 are currently in jail world-wide.)

Photographers in this exhibition illustrate the power of photography to inform, persuade, enlighten and enrich the viewer's life. Many of the photographs featured in this exhibition not only moved the public at the time of their publication, and continue to have an impact today, but set social and political changes in motion, transforming the way we live and think.

Many global human rights movements are documented in the exhibition, including: Civil Rights in America, Women's Rights, Democracy rights, People's rights, Worker's rights, Gay rights, and other causes. Also included are stark photographs of stalwart defenders of the-then status quo, from segregationists to proponents of sexism.

Photographers in the exhibition include: Eddie Adams, Nina Berman, Margart Bourke-White, Bill Eppridge, Ashley Gilbertson, Yuri Kozyrev, Ken Regan, Steve Schapiro, Paul Schutzer, Grey Villet, Jeff Widener, and numerous other renowned photojournalists.

AP’s ‘napalm girl’ photo is savior, curse for survivor of attack in Vietnam 40 years ago

 

Nick Ut: Villagers Fleeing a Napalm Strike, Village of Trang Bang, Vietnam,

June 8, 1972 © 2004 The Associated

Via The Washington Post

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, May 31, 2012

"TRANG BANG, Vietnam — In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing “Too hot! Too hot!” as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village.

She will always be naked after blobs of sticky napalm melted through her clothes and layers of skin like jellied lava.

She will always be a victim without a name.

It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut to snap the iconic black-and-white image 40 years ago. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of America’s darkest eras.

Full article here

UPDATED POST HERE

REVIEW SANTA FE 2012

Review Santa Fe, May 31 - June 3, 2012

All events take place at the home of the CENTER offices, IHM Retreat Center, 50 Mt. Carmel Rd, Santa Fe, 87505.

PORTFOLIO VIEWING - FRI, JUNE 1, 5:00-8:00PM

CENTER is pleased to present Portfolio Viewing, a photographic walk through the Review Santa Fe 100 portfolios. Attendees can view contemporary photography and engage in dialogue with the artists as well as the extended photographic community.

EXHIBITS & TOURS - FRI, JUNE 1, 6:00-8:00PM
SAT, JUNE 2, 12:00-2:00PM & 3:00-5:00PM

CENTER will offer docent led tours of the art exhibitions held in conjunction with Review Santa Fe. Tours of the following exhibitions are free and open to the public.
· The Curve special indoor/outdoor exhibition of the 2012 Choice Award winners
· Review Santa Fe Alumni Exhibit
· UNM Graduate Students Exhibit
· Spooky Little Landscapes, an installation in a haunted hallway of the historic monastery.
· Special guest Billy Hunt’s Scream Portraits with the Scream-o-Tron 3000 - a volume based camera.
· Special guest Axle Contemporary, an innovative vehicle for arts distribution.

PHOTOGRAPHIC PANEL DISCUSSION - SUN, JUNE 3, 10:30AM-12:30PM
Join us for a panel discussion on Photography’s Cultural Impact moderated by the Museums Curator of Photography, Katherine Ware, DCA, at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Panelists include: Keith Jenkins, Senior Multimedia Producer, NPR; Verna Curtis, Curator of Photography, Library of Congress; Denise Wolff, Editor, Book Program, Aperture; and Kathleen Hennessy, Exhibit Director, PhotoPhilanthropy.

Full event schedule here.

Three War Photographers: Feel Fear, Keep Going

When other people ran from danger, they ran toward it. They went into battle armed with nothing but courage. They experienced fear — and they kept going. These are war photographers.

MEMORIAL DAY 2012

©Eric Smith: Funeral for Iraq War Soldier, Lake Orion, Michigan,2006

A link for reflection on this Memorial Day:


BEDROOMS OF THE FALLEN

"These bedrooms once belonged to men and women who died fighting in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. These fallen men and women were blown up by IEDs, RPGs, hand grenades and suicide bombers. They were shot down in ambushes and by snipers. They died in helicopters, in humvees, and in tanks. It all took place thousands of miles away from home, and the country they fought to defend.

The purpose of this project is to honor these fallen – not simply as soldiers, marines, airmen and seamen, but as sons, daughters, sisters and brothers – and to remind us that before they fought, they lived, and they slept, just like us, at home." Click to view


See Also:

  "As Memorial Day Nears, a Single Image That Continues to Haunt"

                 Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery

                Monroe Gallery of Photography: Memorial Day, 2011
         
                                                                      Memorial Day, 2010

MINE: Jonathan Blaustein Exhibit

Icicles-photograph by Jonathan Blaustein

New Mexico Arts:
CENTENNIAL PROJECT SPACE
PRESENTS

 
MINE
JONATHAN BLAUSTEIN

OPENING: FRIDAY MAY 25 5-7PM
Closing: July 6, 2012

54 1/2 East San Francisco Street, Suite #2 (Above Haagen Dazs)

Jonathan Blaustein, the Taos-based artist, will be debuting his new conceptual project "MINE" at the NM Arts Centennial Project Space on Friday, May 25th , 2012.

For "MINE," Jonathan spent four seasons mining natural resources on his property in Northern New Mexico, and then brought the harvested objects and animals into his studio to photograph as temporary sculptures. The goal was to objectify Nature and present it as a commodified good in the 21st Century. In the Centennial Project Space, Mr. Blaustein will be exhibiting the photographs, along with a new sculpture, as a site-specific installation.

Contact: Eileen Braziel 505-699-4914
http://eileenbraziel.com/pages/projects.html

 braziel2@mindspring.com

The state of the world's human rights

Amnesty International has just released the 2012 report The State of the World's Human Rights.

A watershed year for activism

"2011 was a truly tumultuous year. Millions of people took to the streets to demand freedom, justice and dignity – some of them securing memorable victories.
Successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt early in the year ignited protests across the region and then the world, stretching from Moscow, London and Athens in Europe, to  Dakar and Kampala in Africa, to New York, La Paz and Cuernavaca in the Americas, to Phnom Penh and Tokyo in Asia.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the pent up grievances and demands of a rising generation exploded onto the streets, sweeping aside or threatening the survival of autocratic regimes that had ruled with iron fists for decades and had seemed invincible.
Inspired by these events, people elsewhere in Africa also risked reprisals by protesting against their desperate social and economic conditions and expressing their desire for political freedoms.
In Europe and Central Asia, as well as the Asia-Pacific region, people repeatedly challenged injustice and violations of their rights. In some cases, governments responded by stepping up already stifling levels of repression. The autocratic regimes in several of the successor states to the Soviet Union, for example, strengthened their grip on power by crushing protests, arresting opposition leaders and silencing dissenting voices.
The demand for human rights also resounded across the Americas – on the streets, in national courts, and in the Inter-American system. The calls for justice from individuals, civil society organizations and Indigenous Peoples gained strength, frequently bringing people into direct confrontation with powerful economic and political interests.
At the heart of many of these conflicts were economic development policies that left many, particularly those living in poverty and marginalized communities, at increased risk of abuse. Many forms of discrimination also continued to engender a sense of injustice that sparked and were reflected in protests around the globe.
All these events and trends are reflected in the Amnesty International Report 2012, which documents the state of human rights in 155 countries and territories in 2011 – the year that Amnesty International celebrated its 50th anniversary.
The report highlights the endemic failure of leadership at a local and international level to protect human rights. It shows that the response of the international community to human rights crises was often marked by fear, prevarication, opportunism and hypocrisy. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the Middle East and North Africa, with markedly different responses to government crackdowns on mass protests across the region.
The failure in leadership was also apparent as governments continued to exploit legitimate concerns over security or high crime rates to justify or to ignore abuses by their own security forces, and failed to hold business corporations to account for their impact on human rights.
As Amnesty International moves into its sixth decade, this report bears witness not only to the plight of those living in the shadow of human rights violations, but also to those who are inspired to take action, often at great personal risk, to secure human rights and dignity for all."

--Amnesty International

Related Exhibition - "People Get Ready" The Struggle For Human Rights"
Monroe Gallery of Photography
July 6 - September 23, 2012

Anatomy of an iconic photograph

(Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune / May 20, 2012 )

A Chicago police officer throws a punch at a protester who broke a stick over another officer's head.

Via The Chicago Tribune

James Janega interviews the Tribune's Brian Cassella, who is the photographer behind the photo of a Chicago police officer punching a protester during the NATO summit.

NPPA WORKING TO RELEASE PHOTOGRAPHER ARRESTED AT NATO SUMMIT

 

 Via National Press Photographers Association

CHICAGO, IL (May 21, 2012) – At least one photographer was arrested and another struck over the head with a police baton late Sunday while covering anti-war protesters marching in opposition to the NATO summit in Chicago.

Details are sparse, but photographs posted on Twitter and other Web sites show Getty Images freelance photographer Joshua Lott being arrested on Sunday night,while another photograph shows Getty's Scott Olson with blood streaming down his face after being hit with a Chicago police baton.

Sixty heads of state gathered in Chicago for a two-day NATO meeting to discuss the war in Afghanistan and other global defense issues. Reports say more than 2,500 journalists are there to cover the thousands of protesters who converged on the NATO meeting. Chicago's police responded to the influx of protesters and reporters by deploying thousands of police clad in riot gear, not only Chicago officers but also police pulled in from departments outside of the city.

NPPA's lawyer Mickey H. Osterreicher joined forces with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to support a hotline for journalists arrested or assaulted while covering NATO protesters.

NPPA's lawyer was allowed to meet with Lott in an attorney interview room to let the photojournalist know that NPPA was there and working on his release, and Osterreicher then waited outside a Chicago police station for Lott until he was released shortly before 4 a.m. Monday morning.

Osterreicher said that for the most part, outside of Sunday night's late clash that included Lott, the Chicago police had been "very restrained" in dealing with photographers.

Calls and emails to Getty Images at the editorial picture desk in New York asking for more information have not been answered. Unconfirmed reports say that Lott's cameras were smashed by police, and that while he had been originally arrested on a more serious charge it had been reduced to a lesser charge before he was released on a personal bond.

The photograph posted on Twitter by The Toronto Star of Lott being arrested was credited to Spencer Platt.

There will be more NATO protests in Chicago on Monday.

Related: Department of Justice Warns Police Against Violating Photographers' Rights

Department of Justice Warns Police Against Violating Photographers' Rights

Via PDN
Photo District News


The Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice doesn't mince words in a May 14 letter to the Baltimore Police Department. Citizens have a constitutional right to record police carrying out their public duties, and it is illegal for police to seize and delete the recordings, the letter says. The DOJ goes on to give the BPD a blueprint for re-writing its policies regarding journalists or citizens recording police activities.

The letter, posted on the DOJ web site, could be a powerful tool for photographers (or citizens) who are harassed or arrested anywhere in the country for photographing police activities. It says exactly what National Press Photographers Associations, the ACLU, and others have long argued--one painstaking case at a time-- about citizens' right to record police activities.

"Private individuals have a First Amendment right to record police officers in the public discharge of their duties," the DOJ writes to the Baltimore police. The letter continues, "[O]fficers violate individuals’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights when they seize and destroy such recordings without a warrant or due process."

The letter re-iterated the arguments that the DOJ made to a federal court in Maryland earlier this year in a civil rights case involving the Baltimore Police Department. Christopher Sharp sued the BPD in 2011, alleging that police officers had seized, searched, and deleted the contents of his cell phone after he used it to record the officers arresting his friend. The incident took place at the 2010 Preakness Stakes horse race.

BPD said the claim was groundless and asked the court to throw it out. But the DOJ urged the court to rule that private citizens have a First Amendment right to record police carrying out their duties, as well as Fourth and Fourteenth amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure and deprivation of property without due process.

The court agreed, and has allowed the case to proceed. Among Sharp's allegations is that the BPD has a policy of advising its officers to to detain citizens who record police activities and to seize, search, and delete individuals’ recordings. He is seeking an injunction to force the BPD to change its policies.

In an effort to pre-empt that part of Sharp's claim, the BPD made public in February a general order titled "Video Recording of Police Activity" directing its police officers how to handle the recording of their activities. The order says citizens have the "absolute right to photograph and/or video record the enforcement actions of any Police Officer" as long as they don't "interfere."

The DOJ has reviewed that BPD order, and concluded that it doesn't adequately protect citizen's First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In support of Sharp, the DOJ is now urging the court to order the BPD to amend the general order as part of the resolution of Sharp's lawsuit.

For instance, the DOJ says, the policy does not explicitly state that citizens have a First Amendment right to record police activity. "Given the numerous publicized reports over the past several years alleging that BPD officers violated individuals’ First Amendment rights, BPD should include a specific recitation of the First Amendment rights at issue," the DOJ says.

The letter goes on to provide what amounts to a prescription for a new policy that protects citizens rights. Among the recommendations:

• BPD should clarify that the right to record public officials is not limited to streets and sidewalks – it includes areas where individuals have a legal right to be present, including an individual’s home or business, and common areas of public and private facilities and buildings.
• [P]olicies should instruct officers that, except under limited circumstances, officers must not search or seize a camera or recording device without a warrant.
• Officers should be advised not to threaten, intimidate, or otherwise discourage an individual from recording police officer enforcement activities or intentionally block or obstruct cameras or recording devices.
• Policies should prohibit officers from destroying recording devices or cameras and deleting recordings or photographs under any circumstances.
• If a general order permits individuals to record the police unless their actions interfere with police activity, the order should define what it means for an individual to interfere with police activity and, when possible, provide specific examples.

(With regard to the issue of interference, The DOJ also notes, "an individual’s recording of police activity from a safe distance without any attendant action intended to obstruct the activity or threaten the safety of others does not amount to interference. Nor does an individual’s conduct amount to interference if he or she expresses criticism of the police or the police activity being observed.")

• [The order] must set forth with specificity the narrow circumstances in which a recording individual’s interference with police activity could subject the individual to arrest.
• [The order] should encourage officers to provide ways in which individuals can continue to exercise their First Amendment rights as officers perform their duties, rather than encourage officers to look for potential violations of the law in order to restrict the individual’s recording.
• A supervisor’s presence at the scene should be required before an officer takes any significant action involving cameras or recording devices, including a warrantless search or seizure.
• A general order should provide officers with guidance on how to lawfully seek an individual’s consent to review photographs or recordings...[and] [p]olicies should include language to ensure that consent is not coerced, implicitly or explicitly.

The case of Sharp v. Baltimore City Police Department is currently in the discovery phase. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 30.