photojournalism

The Lotus Eaters

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000

When I read a book that keeps me enthralled to the final page, that is so absorbing I have to tear myself away from it, I find myself amazed (and envious) that anyone can be so gifted. That’s how I felt after reading The Lotus Eaters.

Having attended my share of writing seminars, I realize you can’t really soar as a writer until you have truly mastered the craft; however, some writers seem to have talent that defies reason. A few paragraphs into this novel, I realized Tatjana Soli's powerful prose would haunt me.

I rarely read war novels, but the plot of this one intrigued me. The main protagonist is Helen Adams, a young American photojournalist covering the Vietnam War, and in Helen, Soli created a character that is complex, courageous, and real—yet flawed at the same time. Both Helen’s father and brother were in the military, and her brother lost his life in a Special Forces operation in Vietnam. Helen always felt excluded by the camaraderie between her father and brother, and she is plagued by the sense of having something to prove. This lingering demon has driven her to being in the midst of this historic point and place in time, and Helen is willing to risk almost anything to get a defining, iconic photo. Many of the characters in this novel are addicted to war, like a drug that must repeatedly enter their bloodstream.

Within hours of arriving in Vietnam, Helen meets Sam, a legendary war photographer, and Linh, a Vietnamese photographer and translator. Sam becomes a mentor and guide to Helen, who quickly learns that women are not welcome in the macho world of war. Linh helps her to navigate the murky landscape of a dangerous country that is shifting on a regular basis. Helen's human interest assignments also shift as her willingness to take risks proves her mettle as a serious photojournalist.

Soli's prose is gripping, moving, and unflinchingly places you in the middle of the action. I had to stop reading from time to time because the story affected me in a way that was hard to shake off. Told through the multiple viewpoints of Helen, Sam and Linh, we get a 360-degree view of the nightmare that is war and the bond these individuals developed with each other.

I was deflated and relieved when I turned the final page of The Lotus Eaters. It was unlike any other book I’ve read recently: beautiful and somewhat unsettling. If you want to know how to write a great novel, ask Tatjana Solis.

Written by: Gita Tewari, March 22nd 2010

India Exposed: The Subcontinent A-Z

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:00:00 +0000

By Clive Limpkin

Abbeville Press

The dust jacket of the enigmatic picture book India Exposed displays row upon row of bright blue Kali figures prepared for a festival. Nude goddesses sticking out their intense pink tongues, each statue garlanded with human heads (all male, as far as I can tell), dwarf the lone craftsman at work among them. The powerful image summons up the mystique of India: outsized, crowded, frenetic, sensual, and yet somehow austere.

Throughout the colorful pictures and text, photojournalist Limpkin stresses the paradoxes of what he calls an "anarchistic madhouse" of a country rich and poor, scholarly and illiterate, traditional and modern. He offers us fascinating glimpses of a civilization that poses more questions than answers. In photo essays of one or two pages—though occasionally more—he traverses the alphabet from Army to Zebu. This approach leads to surprising juxtapositions; we learn on one page that anger at high prices for onions spurred Indira Ghandi's rise to political power, and on the next we find out that the Central Narcotics Bureau licenses farmers to grow opium poppies.

Larger topics tend to overflow these essays and recur under different headings. Feminist readers interested in the status of women, for example, will find insights clustered under themes such as Corruption & Crime—human trafficking and prostitution; Families—a sister tenderly feeds a small sibling and a grandmother combs her grandson's hair; Sex Discrimination—"sex-selective infanticide," education, employment, and domestic treatment; and Weddings—elaborate ceremonies that contrast horribly with "the grotesque practice of bride burnings" that still occur, despite its being illegal. Despite the bitter taste of such customs, don't overlook, the photos under the rubric of Color, such as "a female work gang" carrying loads of mud on their heads—each one clad in pink, orange, green, blue, or yellow—in a "glorious, impulsive addiction to color...that lightens their lives and ours." _India Exposed_ is a gold mine of images and information, not to be missed.

Written by: Kittye Delle Robbins-Herring, December 12th 2009

True Norwegian Black Metal

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:59:00 +0000

By Peter Beste

Vice Books

Photographer Peter Beste spent seven years researching this book, including thirteen visits to Norway where he photographed and interviewed the musicians who are his subject. The result is a photojournalistic epic that looks and reads like crime fiction.

The meat of _True Norwegian Black Metal _is the pictures, mostly black and white. Band members dress like demons or corpses, splattering their faces with black and white stage makeup. They wear bullet belts, spiked armbands, and rags or leather gear designed to look like burial garb or battle armor. Inverted cross necklaces and medieval style weapons also abound. The overall effect is theatrical, but these are not publicity or promotional photos. One of the most striking is Nattefrost, front man for an eponymous band. He stands bare-chested in an alley, glaring at the camera, his face painted white with black stripes. A middle-aged woman stares at him with disapproval as she walks down the street, but Nattefrost is oblivious to her presence.

That picture, and others like it, sums up the message and appeal of black metal. The band members reject mainstream society. To the Norwegians, that society is embodied in the Christian religion. The musicians feel that Christianity has robbed them of their heritage, and so they embrace Odinism, Norse legends and symbols, and satanic or demonic images.

In the early 1990s, several infamous church burnings were linked to the black metal scene. Near the same time, a young singer who called himself Dead committed suicide. Dead was the lead singer for Mayhem, a prototypical black metal band. In addition, Varg Vikernes, founder of the band Burzum, was convicted and imprisoned for the murder of Euronymous, his friend and fellow musician.

These events and others caused controversy and attracted international attention for a time. Beste’s book does a good job of explaining these events without condemning or praising the participants. Instead Beste shows readers where the music came from and gives them an idea of why it became so popular so quickly in Norway. The pictures are the main focus, but there is plenty of good writing, too.

Metalion, founder of the underground magazine Slayer, wrote the introduction. This is important because Metalion was involved in the scene and knew the people first-hand. There is also a graphic timeline of black metal and its myriad influences. In the back of the book are magazine and newspaper clippings as well as hand written letters from members of the groups.

True Norwegian Black Metal is worth reading for the photos alone. The stories and reminiscences will help readers better understand this aggressive, insular, much maligned form of extreme metal. Peter Beste has crafted a book that will appeal as much to black metal fans as to those who are just curious.

Written by: Steve Watson, April 30th 2008