Monday, April 30, 2007

Granny's House

This is a little story I shot at the Cranes' farm in Columbia, Thursday, Apr. 26, 2007. The Cranes have initiated a volunteer program where they bring children from Granny's House (an association that tries to teach children values and manners) to the farm and give them free horse riding lessons. They spent the evening looking at the horses and learning about them, because the weather had been been and it was too muddy to ride.








Sunday, April 29, 2007

MCB

Dan Harris performs on the stage of the Missouri Theatre.

Missouri Contemporary Ballet perform the show Boundless.

MCB thank the public at the end of the show.

Day 14

Missouri Contemporary Ballet is a non-profit contemporary dance company based in Columbia. Their goal is to increase the appreciation of art throughout Missouri.

Karen Grundy (left - MCB's artistic director) and Sean France (MCB's ballet master) thank the public for their support, at the end of a show, called Boundless, on the stage of the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Sunday, Apr. 29, 2007.

Spanish Fly

Last night at the Spanish Fly a fight was about to break over drunken jealousy. The guy in the first picture was accused of hitting on someone's girlfriend.

Day 13

The Spanish Fly is one of the most popular dance clubs in Columbia. It is particulary popular with the immigrant community, mostly because of the Latin American dance music. Nevertheless, many locals have embraced this kind of dance and music.

Tony Broadus (left) and Sony Hing pose for a portrait in the Spanish Fly, Saturday, Apr. 28, 2007. They both study in Columbia. Tony is a sociology major, while Sony is going to be an architect.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Variations

These three pictures of Ben Boggess were my other options for bull-riding. However, I thought that the face in the other picture showed more about how people feel about this thing.


Day 12

Bull riding is big around here. You're not a real man if you have not ridden the beast.

Ed Hodson rides the bull for the first time at Cody's in Columbia, Friday, Apr. 27, 2007.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Ben Reed

Ben wanted me to take a few portraits of him. This was one of my favourites.

Day 11

I took this photo yesterday, but I got home too late, so that's why it's posted with today's date.

Vernita Chapman says goodbye to one of the horses that belong to Robin Crane (right), at the Cranes' farm in Columbia, Thursday, Apr. 26, 2007. The Cranes have initiated a volunteer program where they bring children from Granny's House (an association that tries to teach children values and manners) to the farm and give them free horse riding lessons.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Day 10

Two members of the Shire of Standing Stones practice their fighting skills in a park in Columbia, Wednesday, Apr. 25, 2007. Groups that study and try to recreate moments of medieval history are very popular in Missouri.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Local elections. Mayor Hindman.

We've had local elections here in Columbia at the beginning of April. Long before election day, I was assigned to cover the mayor's reelection campaign for The Missourian.

Darwin Hindman has been the mayor of Columbia since 1995. Not long before deciding to run again for mayor, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He decided, together with his wife Axie, his biggest supporter and unofficial campaign manager, to run for office anyway. His medical treatment went well and the only visible change in his social and political life was that Darwin worked from his home office. He didn't do any door-to-door campaigning, but attended a lot of meetings. He was very confident throughout the campaign.

Darwin Hindman reads his e-mail at home to prepare for a next day of campaigning.

Hindman thanks his friends and supporters on election night, at the election party, just a couple of hours before the official results came in.

Axie and Darwin Hindman share a laugh with Jim Matteson of the Columbia Realtors, at the end of a political forum, where all the candidates met to answer questions from the public.

Mayor Hindman looks on while other candidates answer questions during the Columbia Realtors forum.

At the end of the Realtors forum, Hindman walks out of the room with Jim Loveless, the 4th Ward Counselman at the time.

In his home office, Hindman uses his computer to work on the daily stuff.

Hindman keeps track of his busy schedule in his home office. Even though the doctors recommended that he should take it easy, there were a lot of meetings that he had to attend for the campaign.

Darwin and Axie have lunch in their living room, in the middle of a busy day. Axie has been his closest advisor and guardian.

Supporter Jean Goldstein hugs Hindman, after the preliminary election results showed he was way ahead of his opponent, John Clark. The preliminaries were confirmed by the final results: Darwin Hindman got 74.76 percent of the votes.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Petrut Calinescu

My friend Petrut Calinescu, one of the best Romanian photojournalists, recent winner in POYi, has just launched a new version of his website. Check it out here: www.petrut-calinescu.com

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Fashion

I photographed the Stephens College Spring Student Design Fashion Show today. Here are a few pics.

Abbey Campbell (left) and Brook Clausen watch a model during the Stephens College Spring Student Design Fashion Show in Columbia, Saturday, April 21, 2007.

A model displays a dress during the show.

A model poses during the show.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Bees

The honeybee population in the US have been declining in number over the last few years, due to cell phone radiation, according to specialists. Though the situation is not tragic in Missouri, the newspaper did a story about it this week. Here are a few pictures I took of Jann Amos, a beekeeper who works for the University of Missouri.




Sunday, April 15, 2007

Award-winning photographer loses job over manipulated photos

Allan Detrich, a one-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and four-time Ohio News Photographer of the Year, resigned when The Toledo Blade started an investigation about the authenticity of his images.

Here's the NPPA article: Toledo Blade Discovers Dozens Of Doctored Detrich Photos

Here's The Blade's apologetical article, including a PDF with some of the images: A basic rule: Newspaper photos must tell the truth

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Nachtwey

Here's a 20 minute speech that Jimmy gave when he accepted his TED award. I'd watch it every week, as a constant reminder that "not every story has to sell something".

http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2007/04/2007_ted_prize_.html

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Blue Chicago

I spent the weekend in Chicago. I was on tourist mode for most of the time. Blue is what I remember from the city.
It was damn' blue cold.

Patricia Scott and Matthew Skoller Blues Band really rocked the Blue Chicago Blues Bar.

Little alien

Little aliens have just landed from planet Romania.
My little alien, Bogdana.

Friday, April 06, 2007

30-day thing

The 30-day project has undergone some modifications. First of all, a good sugestion from David Rees made me no longer limit the project to small towns. Secondly, I will take a two week break from the project. During these two weeks, I might take pictures, but I will not look for any stories. I will only post for this project if I come across something that fits my understanding of Americans.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Day 9

Local elections in Columbia, Missouri.
Loren and Augusta Reid relax during an election party, while votes are still being counted, in Columbia, Missouri, April 3, 2007. They have voted and are really proud of it. Loren is 101 years old, while his wife is two years younger.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Day 8

Coach Mark Gilliland speaks to his students, Team 11 of Adam One League, at the end of their first baseball practice at Cosmo Park in Columbia, Monday, April 2, 2007. The team doesn't have a name yet, since this was the first time they got together.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Karen House

The 30 day project took a break over the last two days, because I was in Saint Louis to cover a story for the newspaper.

So I ended up in a shelter for homeless women and children in a neighbourhood in north Saint Louis. Me and my colleague spent the night in the shelter. It took people a while to get used to us, so for the most part I have photographed Keila Banks, a nineteen year old who was very kind and allowed me to take pictures of her from the moment we walked in the place. With time, the others loosened up and a few asked me to take their picture.


A big smile reveals Brenda Cotton's favourite tooth. The tooth is quite shaky, since two years ago a neighbourhood drug dealer punched her in the mouth repeatedly, in a failed attempt to steal the small piece of gold.


Robert McGee, 12 years old, plays basketball in the backyard.


Sincere Banks, 3 months old, sleeps in the house in the dark, after a strong storm cut down the electricity in the house.


Sincere sleeps as his mother Keila is on the phone trying to find a place to stay for the night. After the power went out, the volunteers who were in charge of the house advised all the women to find another place to stay for the night. Still, people who could not find a place to go to were welcome to stay.


Keila walks Sincere down the hall.


Keila gives Sincere a kiss. The boy is very quite, as opposed to the other children in the shelter.


Keila listens to her CD player while waiting for an answer from the friends she wanted to sleep over at.


Keila walks in the library, while Robert takes a break from his Playstation.


Robert poses for a portrait in the frame of what used to be a window.


Robert takes a very short break from his Playstation.


Aileen Atkins has dinner in the dark during the power outage.