Ed Giles Photojournalist's Blog

The Veils of Aleppo: Photographs by Franco Pagetti

edgiles — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:58:25 +0000

They are a familiar sight to anyone who has been on the frontlines in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo: striped sheets—formerly store awnings, curtains and drapes—that once blocked the harsh sunlight or a neighbor’s prying eyes, now acting as shields against more lethal threats.

The sheets are strung between buildings (what’s left of them, at least) and across streets. They are meant to obscure a sharpshooter’s line of sight, providing a small measure of protection from an assassin lurking in the shadows of these often abandoned and devastated neighborhoods.

‘Time to Break Bread’ – Video work for The Economist Magazine

edgiles — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:07:17 +0000

Video shot very recently for The Economist – OVER a quarter of Egypt’s 83m people live below the poverty line. President Morsi will have to build political consensus to implement a credible austerity plan and secure foreign aid

Sound and snow…

edgiles — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:42:02 +0000

I’m a big fan of Sydney electronic act Seekae… and it’s been a while since I was somewhere that it snowed. So this one is an obvious choice.

I’d like to go to somewhere it’s snowing. Lots of sand, desert, dust and heat lately. Crisp winter skies, please, and some electronic music on a good sound system.

Faces Of The Day

edgiles — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:57:37 +0000

Reblogged from The Dish:

An alleged member of the Muslim Brotherhood is dragged through a crowd of protesters after being beaten on the head during clashes between opposition demonstrators and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood on March 22, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt. Opposition demonstrators converged on the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Cairo suburb of Muqattam to protest against the government of President Mohammed Morsi, who is closely connected to the Muslim Brotherhood movement. By Ed Giles/Getty Images.

One of the pics I took last week during violent clashes between supporters of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and opposition protesters in the Cairo suburb of Muqattam up on Andrew Sullivan's 'The Dish'. Friday the 22nd was an incredibly violent day in the small Cairo suburb that hosts the Brotherhood's national headquarters, and the level of hatred the was on display between the two sides made me very concerned for Egypt's future. Major political groups, and their public supporters, are now incredibly polarised in their opposing views, and calls to violence are becoming much more common.

“In the midst o…

edgiles — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 07:44:22 +0000

“In the midst of the wreckage at ground zero, I had a realisation. I’d been photographing in the Islamic world since 1981. Not only in the Middle East, but in Africa, Asia and Europe. At the time I was photographing in these different places, I thought I was covering separate stories. But on 9/11, history crystallised, and I understood I’d actually been covering a single story for more than 20 years and the attack on New York was its latest manifestation.” James Nachtwey, TED talk, 2007.

The above quote is from photographer James Natchwey, who, like many photographers of my generation, was one of the people whose work inspired me to become a photojournalist.

The quote is from Nachtwey’s 2007 TED talk, and he is speaking about the experience of covering the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGKZhNK_pHw&feature=youtu.be)

Nachtwey will be speaking at the Reportage Festival in Sydney this coming June 9, and tickets are now available here: http://www.vividsydney.com/events/james-nachtwey-testimony-presented-by-canon-australia-in-co-ordination-with-reportage/

It’s going to be just one part of what is shaping up to be a pretty amazing lineup for Reportage, which I’m super excited to be part of the creative team for. Can’t wait to be back in Sydney in May to get cracking on the projections!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGKZhNK_pHw&feature=youtu.be

Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Domestic Violence

edgiles — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:22:27 +0000

Reblogged from LightBox:

Updated: March 24, 2013

Photographer Sara Naomi Lewkowicz has continued to document the story of Maggie and her life since November 2012, when she was the victim of a violent attack by her now ex-boyfriend Shane. In an assignment for TIME in March 2013, Lewkowicz visited Maggie and her family in Alaska to document their life as they continue to move on from the incident.

Egyptian Pound to US Dollar over 12 months.

edgiles — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:10:00 +0000

This is a graph I nabbed from http://www.xe.com on the exchange rate for the Egyptian Pound to the US Dollar over the last 12 months.

The drops visible here began around December 15, the day Egyptians went to vote on President Morsi’s highly controversial constitutional decree. The very steep drop (as a friend from the Wall Street Journal has helped me understand a bit more) began after Egypt’s central bank introduced an auctioning system in an attempt to preserve the country’s dwindling foreign currency reserves.

I tried to buy some new hard drives last week, and the price had risen since I ‘priced’ them at the same store five days before that. The difference in exchange rates is now beginning push the price up for imported goods here in Egypt.

Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat and a net importer of oil.

Any significant increase in food and fuel prices in Egypt will put further pressure on an already difficult day to day economic situation for people here.

It’s looking likely that 2013 will be another difficult year in Egypt’s chaotic transition after the 2011 uprising.

Kathmandu Workshop July 9th - 14th 2013

edgiles — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:55:49 +0000

Reblogged from Communiqué | Documentary Photography Workshops by Stephen Dupont And Jack Picone:

Mourners wait for the cremation of a family member - who has passed - Kathmandu's holy Pashupatinath ghats. © Photograph by Jack Picone

For all enquires about our next amazing workshop event in Kathmandu July 9th - 14th email Jack Picone here: jack@jackpicone.com

This will be a fantastic opportunity to improve your photography in one of the most visually interesting cities of Asia - Kathmandu, Nepal. Spots on the workshop are filling up, so if you have any questions please drop workshop principal tutor Jack Picone a line on jack@jackpicone.com.

Adam Freeland … and some memories.

edgiles — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:45:42 +0000

Adam Freeland … and some memories.

I used to live in Sheffield, England, about ten years ago. We went to a lot of great gigs in those days, but one guy whose music I’ve kept listening to is Adam Freeland, from the UK.

I stumbled across his Soundcloud account recently, and have been listening through some
of his sets, tracks and remixes as I edit pics and work. This one’s classic Freeland… good sound, good memories.

On not criticising moderate toning by photojournalists…

edgiles — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:05:38 +0000

I have to say, I don’t buy the argument made by Allen Murabayashi in his recent articles criticising the level of toning being used by some photojournalists – at least not with the specific example he’s chosen.

The kind of toning that’s present in the winning 20012 World Press Photo of the Year is no different to shooters using different film stocks, and nothing as far as actual content in the image has been changed.

You know, I see people set the white balance on their cameras wrong, or just to ‘auto’ all the time. Shooters file these images to various wire services and those images, whose colours are often wrong because of the incorrect white balance operation, are then taken as ‘real’ representations of the world. I make a real effort to set the white balance manually/correctly when I shoot news work, and it’s amazing how different my pictures look sometimes to pictures carried by other wire service photographers shooting the same events here in Cairo. (I also desaturate slightly, in camera, for the sake of being clear.)

In fact, I’d say the image originally printed by the Swedish newspaper has an incorrect WB setting, and is far too magenta, and that the image in the WPP has a correct (slightly cool) daylight white balance with some extra desaturation. The tone curve has been pulled up, especially in the highlights, and the shadows have been set deeper. That’s probably about it.

In fact, the winning WPP tone is maybe closer to what winter light in Gaza looks like, with a bit less colour.

http://www.petapixel.com/2013/02/20/darkrooms-are-irrelevant-and-the-truth-matters/