peace is in our hands

annie liebovitz

I went to the Annie Liebovitz exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery today and was very moved by the small rectangular gallery that features the pin-up walls that Liebovitz created to define the book/exhibition that covers her life between 1990 and 2005. Alongside the familiar shots of celebrities, politicians and heads of state are sensitive snapshots her family, friends and lover. The juxtaposition of these tender, funny every-man images enhance and inform. The image of Liebovitz's mother dancing on the beach with her grandson resonates more powerfully than the portrait of Mikhail Baryshnikov posing on another shore.

There is no question that Liebovitz is a true master of celebrity portraiture - but what is revealed in this exhibition is her humanity. Her love and deep affection for her parents, siblings, children, and soulmate, Susan Sontag. There are a few villains in this piece ... but many more heroes. It is Liebovitz's personal heroes that are celebrated here, and it is her clear, unreserved love for them that is the most moving thing about this exhibition.

'When she shot the veteran photographer Richard Avedon – then nearing 80 and frail – he fretted about the result. Later, calmed, he wrote to Leibovitz: "Thank you for taking care of me." Care, perhaps, is what makes her great.' Charles Darwent, The Independent

earthrise

Robin McKie's article in The Observer celebrates the 40 year anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission to the moon - the first human journey to another world - and the photograph taken by Bill Anders on Christmas Eve, 1968.

'Arguably, his picture is also the most important legacy of the Apollo space programme. Thanks to this image, humans could see, for the first time, their planet, not as continents or oceans, but as a world that was 'whole and round and beautiful and small,' as the poet Archibald MacLeish put it.

'Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark,' the US astronomer, Carl Sagan, noted. 'There is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.' The opinion is shared by Sir David Attenborough. 'I clearly remember my first sight [of the Earthrise photograph]. I suddenly realised how isolated and lonely we are on Earth.'

Indeed, says the UK space historian Robert Poole, the first popular expressions of ecological concern can be traced to the publication of that picture: dazzling blue ocean, the jacket of cloud and the relative invisibility of the land and human settlement. 'It is a rebuke to the vanity of humankind,' says Poole. 'Earthrise was an epiphany in space.'

'It was,' Borman later recalled, 'the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life, one that sent a torrent of nostalgia, of sheer homesickness, surging through me. It was the only thing in space that had any colour to it. Everything else was either black or white. But not the Earth.' Or as Lovell put it, our home world is simply 'a grand oasis'.

However, of all the efforts to sum up the story of Earthrise, the best is made by TS Eliot in last of the Quartets:

'We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.'

extracts from Robin McKie's article,
The mission that changed everything
guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 30 2008
The Observer, Sunday November 30 2008

photo credit: NASA

mumbai

I was staying at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai when the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya was destroyed by Hindu nationalists on December 6th, 1992. I reported from the hotel to RTHK, BBC Radio HK, and remember clearly describing how India Gate was deserted and a city that was normally in perpetual motion had been stalled. I travelled through the city with Indian film maker, Vasudha Joshi, and witnessed the city under siege. It was anticipated the riots at Ayodhya would spread to south - thankfully they didn't and within days the city was back to it's chaotic self.

The shocking events of the past 24 four hours have captivated me in a peculiar way. As did the weird firework display of the first Gulf War - and later, two Boeing 767 jets flying headlong into the twin towers, New York. Something strangely familiar. Fact or fiction?

A major 21st Century metropolis brought to a screaming halt by an extremely well organised, informed, efficient and fanatical group. The targets : high finance and religion.

wear good shoes

Photograph because you love doing it, because you absolutely have to do it, because the chief reward is going to be the process of doing it. Other rewards -- recognition, financial remuneration -- come to so few and are so fleeting. And even if you are somewhat successful, there will almost inevitably be stretches of time when you will be ignored, have little income, or -- often -- both. Certainly there are many other easier ways to make a living in this society. Take photography on as a passion, not a career.

Alex Webb Magnum

hide now

Hide Now by Glyn Maxwell has been shortlisted for the T S Eliot Award. The winner of this prestigious award will be announced in January.

Maxwell's slim book of poetry was reviewed by Adam Newey in the Guardian on Saturday.

We would love Hide Now to win especially as Umi is appearing on the cover!

I received this message from Glyn in the summer - "By the way I love that cover image - my 11-year-old daughter asked me why I didn't use her face, so I said oh they used a professional model... Anyway your daughter did great, I'm delighted to have that cover!" best Glyn

precious lives

My photo essay was published on the guardian.co.uk today and after the terrible stories of child abuse this week it is good to know that there are many that treasure life and strive to save those in dire need.

obama

in praise of uclh's neonatal unit

Yesterday I had the privilege of photographing the last few hours of UCLH's Neonatal unit at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital on Huntley Street before they moved to their new high-tech home. My children, Umi and Sol, both received treatment in the unit in 2001 and 2003 respectively.

Returning to the hospital brought back so many memories. I recognized - and was remembered - by some of the amazing staff that work tirelessly to save the lives of babies 24/7.

It was an emotional day - to experience again this strange warren of rooms where babies born many weeks early are sustained and protected until they are strong enough to be sent home. I met Mothers who had been by their babies sides for seven months, cradling tiny doll-like limbs, hands, feet and delicately fragile heads, until little by little the babies pull through. And new mothers with their precious scraps of life encased in plastic bubbles that they gently reach to hold and caress like no other treasure. My heart goes out to them.

The Neonatal unit is a world apart - a place between spaces - where miracles really happen right alongside the most unbelievable heartbreak.

book launch - street or studio

Tate Modern are planning a launch for the book on the evening of Friday 7 November as part of November's Late at Tate Britain.

'We'll be there with our friends from Flickr and Blurb, and we'll have some copies of the book for you to look at and a slideshow of the winners'. Tate Modern

The launch is part of the monthly Late at Tate Britain, and there's a bar, DJs, talks and tours, exhibitions and lots more - so come along and join the party!

nearly nothing

In the summer Louise Forrester, curator at the Viewfinder Gallery, invited me to be part of the Nearly Nothing exhibition that rekindled the historic debate as to whether photographers can be considered image makers rather than purely documenters. The exhibition further questioned how much information we need to read an image, whether we need to be able to read an image at all, and what level of accompanying text is required to make such images comprehensible.

It was a good experience to be invited to take part in the exhibition which bought together a group of international artists. I was extremely impressed with how Louise curated and organised the work and I look forward to the possibility of working with her on projects in the future.

Thank you Louise - and good luck with all future ventures.

Nearly Nothing...

By Viewfinder Photogr...

Book Preview

street or studio tate modern

In the summer the Tate collaborated with Flickr and Blurb to create a photobook of urban portraits to coincide with the major exhibition Street & Studio : An Urban History of Photography, held at Tate Modern, London 22 May - 31 August 2008. 

Photographers were invited to contribute urban portraits via the Street or Studio Flickr group. From the thousands submitted 100 were selected by Juergen Teller, Ute Eskildsen (Curator of Street & Studio) and Heather Champ (Flickr). 

My image of a girl reading her text messages on her mobile phone outside the silent rave at the Queen Elizabeth Hall was taken on the summer solstice 2008 and made it into the photobook.

destinasian:viewfinder

My image Behind the Taj will feature in a photography exhibition at the Viewfinder Gallery in Greenwich.

Curated by Bombay Mix, DestinAsian:Viewfinder is part of a multimedia festival celebrating the Indian Subcontinent. The photography exhibition at the Viewfinder Gallery runs alongside events at the National Maritime Museum and the Greenwich Picture House. 

The exhibition has been selected as the top exhibition to visit during Photomonth 08 - the largest photography festival in the UK, by 24 Hour Museum.

DestinAsian:Vi...

Exhibition catalogu...

By Exhibition guest ...

Book Preview

for my daughter by glyn maxwell

If I call this poem that, I have as new 

A pattern of three words to learn as you

Have everything. The day you get the gist 

Of what is becoming you'll have missed 

The point you were. Then you'll have reached the stage

You stay at, insofar as every age 

In writing is a step along a shelf

Where words are stowed and weather like a self.

The height is dizzy but it stays the same

And the ladder gets you there when you make a name 

Of something I keep calling you. That date 

We won't forget to celebrate,

Like rain we needed after a long spell

Of what was blissful but incredible

hide now

In Hide Now, Glyn Maxwell shows how the times have begun to warp time itself: in the poet's vision, the past rears up again with its angry ghosts, the present is racked by nightmares marital and climatic, and the future has already come and gone. All the stories of the earth seem menaced by just one - some cover their eyes and ears to it, some run and hide.

Glyn Maxwell selected my picture of Umi behind glass for the cover of his latest collection of work, published in October by Picador Poetry.

treehugger

sensitive dependence was recently featured on treehugger

sensitive dependence

sensitive dependence is a series of images that explore our relationship with the natural world as though through the eyes of a child. It is a body of work that looks at the fragility of the world around us, a child's affinity with nature and concerns I have with environmental damage and the legacy we are leaving our children.

sensitive dependence refers to chaos theory and the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain reaction culminating in large scale alterations of events. 

The images relate to the idea of cause and effect and the transience of existence - they are beautiful, compelling and ephemeral. They suggest we hold this fragile world in our hands.