ABOVE AND BELOW, from (“Life of Noemi“)
© Eric Setiawan, 2009
We don’t take pictures because we want to know what we’re seeing now… we already know that. We take pictures because it makes us feel good to know that years later, when nostalgia for that moment comes around, we’ll be ready.
— Seth Godin
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”
— Martin Luther King, Jr. (via)
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Sorted Books Project“)
© Nina Katchadourian
The Sorted Books project began in 1993 years ago and is ongoing. The project has taken place in many different places over the years, ranging form private homes to specialized public book collections. The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom. The final results are shown either as photographs of the book clusters or as the actual stacks themselves, shown on the shelves of the library they were drawn from. Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library’s focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies — a cross-section of that library’s holdings. At present, the Sorted Books project comprises more than 130 book clusters.
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Waiting For The Bus“)
© Eric Setiawan, 2009
If you’re curious, yes, I changed the previous title, “Between Bandung & Bekasi“, because I realize that this is not a story about my trip (from Bandung to Bekasi and back again) but more about the people (including me) waiting for the bus. This series is special because I’ve been doing this — the waiting and the trip — to see my wife and daughter in Bekasi every week for the past six months. I hate to wait though, especially when there’s no bus schedule and it’s raining.
Looks like somebody forgot about us
Standing on the corner
Waiting for a bus
Say hey mister driver man
Don’t be slow
‘Cause I got somewhere I got to go— Waiting For The Bus by Violent Femmes
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“We Don’t Live Here Anymore“)
© Ch’ng Yaohong
Yaohong is a Singaporean photographer (and also a web designer, programmer, blogger, doodler) famous for his Asian Photography Blog but he also takes interesting pictures. I especially love this series, “We Don’t Live Here Anymore“, about his old house.
In December 2008, my family moved out of our house. It was more of a necessity forced by life’s circumstances. The place contained many memories, eight years worth of tears and joys in a tumultuous period of my life. The project revolved around the bits and pieces of us left behind. After our departure, would the walls still remember us?
Unfortunately, this work-in-progress can never be revisited.
TOP TO BOTTOM (“Family Moments (2002-2005)“)
© Rania Matar
These are photographs of my children: my children living their lives and just being themselves; my children who live in a world of their own, a world where time doesn’t matter and where the simplest thing can be a source of joy. They are happy and unselfconscious, with minds open to the wonders of the world. These photographs document the magical world of their childhood expressed in the simple moments of their daily life, the moments that happen in every family and that often pass by quickly and unnoticed, the sad moments, the happy moments and the normal nothing-is-happening moments, because the magic is always there.
I photograph them living their lives, playing, dressing up, blowing bubbles, running around naked, painting their bodies, being hurt, laughing, crying and just being children. I photograph them to freeze these magic instants and make them eternal through a collection of images which provide a truthful and intimate documentary of their childhood before they turn into adults and the magic is gone. They are the unselfconscious models fully focused on their own self and their own world. No multi-tasking, no rushing and no time constraint. This is for the world of adults. Time stops as I photograph them or maybe it flies or maybe it just doesn’t matter.
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“The Cinemas Project“)
© Zubin Pastakia
This series visually traces the lives of Bombay’s single-screen cinema halls.
On the one hand, this collection of images is a repository of the architectural form and detail of these buildings that range from the classic to the idiosyncratic. These halls seem to exist today in defiance of the generic aesthetic and cultural experience of the city’s new multiplexes.
To look at these halls merely nostalgically, however, would be to deny their existence as lived spaces whose contours have been shaped and inscribed over time by interactions with both audiences and inhabitants. As sites of escape, anonymity, mystery, fantasy and residence, the relationship that many of these halls share with the city changed significantly as colonial Bombay metamorphosed into post-industrial Mumbai.
I will start to compile and organize a new series in 2010. This is something I’ve been doing for months and will be doing for a while longer.
Making trips from Bandung to Bekasi and back, every week.
But this is not a journal of the trip though. This is a story of people stranded together on the street side while waiting for arrival of the bus. And you know that waiting can be a pain, especially when it’s way too long. Lucky for me, I have my camera. Snaps away. More pictures to come later.
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Bangalore – Steady State 2012“)
© Mahesh Shantaram
Mahesh Shantaram is a photographer based in Bangalore. He has some interesting series on his website and I especially love the “Bangalore Diary” and “Bangalore – Steady State 2012“. I believe that a photographer’s most interesting and passionate work can be seen when s/he’s shooting their hometown. I see that he started this series after returning home from US. To leave his hometown for a long period of time and back again can give him a refreshingly new perspective of the city.
I believe that 2010 will be better than last year.
Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through for youLight up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That’s the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what’s the use of crying?
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile— Smile by Nat King Cole