2 Volume 2009 - 25 Soura Magazine | Issue
25 AED 25 QR/SR 2.5 KD/BD/OR 12,000 LBP 8.99 $US$/CAN 4.99 £GB 6.90 €EUR 2160 ¥YEN 11.99 $AUS 12.70 $NZ
GOING GREEN 4th Anniversary on our
CONTENT | ISSUE 25 10 soura | issue 25
14 | Gordon McBryde 22 | Yousef Khanfar 30 | Teodoru Badiu 38 | Ebru Sidar 46 | Hugh Schneider 54 | Alicja Rodzik 62 | Brett Cohen 70 | Field Guide: Natural Instincts 76 | Twelve ways to be an environmentally friendly photographer 80 | Gulf Photo Plus 2009
Vol. 2 | 2009  11
© All Images courtesy of Gordon McBryde
| Gordon McBryde
Gordon McBryde
Through a Painted Lens
It was only when Gordon McBryde moved back to England from the Middle East that he began to develop an interest in photography. He believes this was due to the vivid greens and blues of the new surroundings, which can be seen as a central theme to many of my photographs. His father was an inspiration to him, having taken many magnificent photos during his lifetime. Gordon’s school didn’t offer photography as an academic class, but he started to use the available darkroom in his free time and attended some of the extra-curricular sessions. Shooting with film was satisfying, but the use of a digital SLR quickly boosted his photography’s appeal. Conceptual photography is a style that greatly appeals to McBryde, he aims to amalgamate surreal ideas with interesting locations. Minimal environments with plenty of color seem to suit the style he strive to achieve. He is greatly inspired by Rodney Smith, whose work he respects a lot. After having shooting for about four years, Gordon would hope to include photography in a future career. Currently he is studying Philosophy at Southampton University, which he hopes will merge with his passion for photography. www.gordonmcbryde.com
Right: Please don’t fall, Cloud 14 soura | issue 25
Sponsored by
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| Gordon McBryde
This Chosen Tree
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Sponsored by
Ground Inspection
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| Gordon McBryde
Vertigo
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Step two
Sponsored by
Dreaming in Colors Photography is a process that I use to personally express my inner joy at the world around me. I take photographs for myself, and to reflect upon a particular moment that happened to inspire me. It seems that many artists use their medium as a catharsis to purge their strongest emotions, but I prefer not to see my art as a release from sentiment. Conversely, I would rather the piece reveals qualities that we all posses; quite simply a feeling of carefree contentment.
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I like to bring a fresh perspective to my photos. A certain quirk or concept that either makes you smile or look twice, not unlike a Magritte painting. My aim is to use photography to unlock some of these simple emotions, and to change simple perspectives. To allow you to look at the world a little differently for a few minutes. When I come across a new location, I immediately look at it through a photographer’s eye, trying to source out the best position and angle for light. The use of natural light and landscapes are paramount to most of my works, so I attempt to look at the world in terms of these attributes when I am looking for a potential environment. Colors, and the way that light interacts with them, interests me greatly. I don’t seem to have a particular subject, but this allows me to experiment with many different photography styles. By using a simple structure of composition, the eye is free to roam without unease of distractions. The use of strong color is an integral part of my photography, and by combing this aspect with an elementary composition I feel the combination results in a piece that gives you room and freedom to breathe. Spatial awareness is something that I would hope the viewer will feel and be mindful of when looking at one of my photographs. My desire is that you are drawn in with a sense of longing to immerse yourself into the piece. Perhaps you are reminded of a song or a happy memory. However this feeling manifests itself, my intent is that it is a joyful one. Beauty is all around you, but there is always room to dream of more.
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| Gordon McBryde
We Used To Vacation
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Sponsored by
This is a chair
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YOUSEF KHANFAR
On the Side of Humanity
Yousef Khanfar is an awardwinning international author and photographer who capture images that transcend the dark corridors of our world and take us to a place of splendor, where we can find peace and humanity. Yousef is from a Palestinian origin that was born and raised in Kuwait, where he grew up exposed to images of war and violence. He needed a voice to express his inner turbulence, and photography gave him that voice. As he has said, “I have chosen to carry my camera instead of a gun to promote peace around the world; I believe peace is a finer horse to ride than violence.” At eighteen, he left for the United States, where he continues to reside and where he has found sceneries of immense variety. He distilled the beauty he saw around him with his camera, and as Ken Whitmire, President of the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum said, “Out of the Arabian Peninsula, came a lone and landless photographer who has listened to and chased the light like an animal and a predator for twenty years. He has created a breath-taking and dazzling body of work.” In 2000, his first book was published, Voices of Light, a collection of his poetic musings and fine art landscape photographs taken throughout the world. The images in this book embody the touchable and untouchable, secretive and evident mysteries of nature. Yousef’s photographs are at times dreamy, at times suggestive, and other
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© All Images courtesy of Yousef Khanfar
Voices of a Misty Forest | YOUSEF KHANFAR
times, spiritual, a journey that takes us to the intimate corners of the Gods. In 2006, his second book was published, In Search of Peace, an original body of work designed as a Visual Symphony of three movements, entitled Sublime, Freedom and Divine. In this book, Yousef aims to provoke us and lead us into dialogue and awareness of humanity and ourselves. Whether the photograph projects the conflict between earth and sky, the movements and arguments of mood, or the wreckages of souls, one always hears his symphony. In 2007 Yousef’s book, In Search of Peace, win the award of the 2007 IP Outstanding Book of the Year, in the Most Life-Changing category. He also was selected as artist of the year by Mont Blanc to help with United Nation to promote literacy around the world. In 2003, he was listed as one of the World’s Top Photographers by RotoVision in London among only 38 photographers. His work has been featured in many magazines including: Oprah, International Photo Art, Amateur Photographer, Persimmon Hill, Photo Life, Outdoor Photographer, and Nature’s Best. His art has been collected and exhibited in galleries, cultural centers, and museums worldwide, and his work is included in the permanent collection of the International Photography Hall of Fame. Yousef’s images and writings continue to seduce us, leaving us spell-bound and perpetually fascinated by the visible and invisible shadows, by the loud and quiet chaos, by the breathing and breathless light which insists that harmony exists, and that peace is an attainable possibility. www.yousefkhanfar.com
Virtue
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Voices of a Misty Forest | YOUSEF KHANFAR
Luminous
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We do not own the photographs, we only borrow from the Gods” - Voices of Light
Wisdom
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To live in hearts we touch with our art, is to never die” - In Search of Peace
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Voices of a Misty Forest | YOUSEF KHANFAR
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Voices of a Misty Forest Photography can rise to the most sublime moments of humanity and transform the way we see ourselves, others and our environment. For years, images have provoked us, inspired us, comforted and enlightened mankind. We, as photographers, have a platform and a responsibility where I believe we can express our voice to the world on issues that we believe in. It is my hope to create images to interest and not to convince the viewers, for my hope is not to answer questions, but to ignite them.
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I am constantly searching for ways to express myself and what I believe in. I go into phantom trails of thoughts; I cut through time like a shark fin cuts through water. I take small bites from paintings or music and create ideas for my images. Every once in a while a voice comes out of the misty forest and I go in to listen more. And when I stand at the edge of my quite imagination, fresh leaves rain down and find their way into the ragged pockets of my heart. Then I examine them, and the young boy curled up inside me awakens and runs with the new idea like the wind. Sometimes, it vanishes into the void yet sometimes it reaches the light and eternity. All art has the same point of departure which is imagination. Artists can create their art from within themselves or from within their surroundings. The honey bee creates her honeycomb by collecting from the surrounding flowers. However, the spider designs his web from his own body. I believe artists must become intoxicated with what they believe in and become one with the subject. Then, they will stop creating art and start releasing art…art with passion.
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To capture the ferocious lion you must have strong steel net, to capture the delicate butterfly you must have a fine silk net, but to capture the soul of the desired image, the photographer heart must be that net.
When I photograph, I am free. I am the land, the river, and the tree. I am the frame and the art is inside me. Bear Mountain State Park
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Voices of a Misty Forest | YOUSEF KHANFAR
Sierra Mountains
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Poetry
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TEODORU BADIU
A Viennese Vision
© All Images courtesy of Teodoru Badiu
Driven by Imagination | TEODORU BADIU
Teodoru Badiu (aka Apocryph) was born in the beautiful town of Sibiu, Romania, which is where he grew up. He studied traditional art at Volkshochschule in Vienna, and later discovered the wonderful possibilities presented by Photoshop, Bryce and Poser and thus entered the world of digital photography. His main influences include Hieronymus Bosch, the 15th century Flemish mystic, and Dadaist Andre Breton. They gave him both the necessary freedom that fantasy brings, along with the necessary subtraction of logic to create these incredibly surreal digital images and illustrations. Badiu’s inspiration comes from many sources: religion, mythology and everyday life. With a goal to create surreal worlds and creatures using real life elements and, at the same time, delve into thoughts and ideas to create a grander art. His works consist of dark fairy-tale environments that combine wired-dolls, clay sculptures, bones, feathers, decorative trees, and much more. “I like to work with the thought that I am not restricted by a specific media and so I can free my creativity from any kind of chains,” Badiu says. Adding, “I love to experiment with different media because I can create images with a unique collage effect and it is always a challenge to combine different media in a way they perfectly fit and blend together”. In the end, Badiu believes he is giving his viewers the freedom to interpret his images, with a certainty that his desired messages will be heard. www.theodoru.com
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Pegasus Devided
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Driven by Imagination | TEODORU BADIU
The Rain Maker
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Atlas
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Driven by Imagination | TEODORU BADIU
The Vampire Flower
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Dear Pear
Driven by Imagination To create the images I have in my mind, I use Photoshop as the main software.
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My imagination drives me, it feels like everything is possible when I am able to implement my vision and turn it into reality.
I believe I have the skill but without Photoshop I wouldn’t have been able to create images like the ones that I present to you today. I have used scanned textures, digital photographs 3D elements, and drawings to enhance my photographs. But when something can’t be fixed with Photoshop, there’s always an alternative, so do not give up! Using different software like Illustrator, Cinema 4D, Photoshop or different textures and drawings open new scopes. To me, creativity is not a one way road, neither a dead end, hence you should always keep experimenting. My work is influenced by my surrounding, my world, my life, my thoughts, politics, environment, mythology, art, design, fashion, music and movies everything could trigger innovation. I believe it is not wrong to learn from others but it is important to put in practice what you have learned.
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Driven by Imagination | TEODORU BADIU
Walking House
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The Painted Horse
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© All Images courtesy of Ebru Sidar
The Language Of Nature | EBRU SIDAR
EBRU SIDAR
Unveiling the Soul
Ebru Sidar was born in 1975 in Trabzon, Turkey. She has moved around several Turkish cities but finally settled in Ankara. Ebru is a geological engineer by profession who began photography in 2005. She took photos of models for two years, but her passion was more towards nature. Sidar aim has always been to touch the souls not only the eyes. Each of her photos reflects a different story as if they are talking silently. Ebru always loved traveling to take photographs and hopes to travel around the world to find the most interesting compositions for her photos. “I dream to hold an exhibition of my works and open an art gallery in the future” she says. www.ebrusidar.net
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The Language Of Nature | EBRU SIDAR
Way to go
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The earth between us
Nowhere for run away
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The Language Of Nature | EBRU SIDAR
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The Language of Nature I am curious and ambitious. I work hard to achieve my dream. But most of all, I love life. In 2005, one of my friends sent me a link to a photography website, while I was watching the photos I got excited and uploaded a photo of my friend which I had taken with the webcam. After receiving a lot of criticism on my work I felt the urge to become a better photographer, and since then I began learning different techniques until I got here. However I think i still have a lot more to learn and explore. I believe that my photos speak the language of nature.
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There is no certain place I like to take photographs of but, I can’t leave the places where I feel something strong calling me to stay in.
Sometimes it’s a cosmopolitan place, at other times a pure one, it is just about my connection to that place. I think it is very important to specialize in one field in photography if you want monetary gain from it. But if you take photos just for yourself, I think that a photographer may take the photos of anything s/he wants and not what others want. That person must chase what interests and excites him/her. I long for the day i hold an exhibition of my work and travel around to find the most interesting trees of the world! Far Left: Transition Top: Hidden acces Left: Silent Death
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The Language Of Nature | EBRU SIDAR
Blue way
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Out of the time
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HUGH SCHNEIDER
Traveling Images
Š All Images courtesy of Hugh Schneider
The Muse Chaser | HUGH SCHNEIDER
Hugh Schneider was born and raised in Australia, studied architecture and design at university and has worked both as photographer and designer. His photographic skills are the result of hands -on experience in many varied fields, together with knowledge gained from experienced colleagues and a great deal of autodidactism. For many years he worked as a photojournalist, managed photo labs and was employed by commercial studios. Naturally enough Hugh also ran his own studio catering to the needs of an ever growing clientele. Most of his spare time was taken up with photography workshops, teaching university students basic and advanced technical and creative skills. A lot of this involved the study and use of alternative and historical processes, which aimed at presenting images in the most artistically expressive manner. The rest of Schneider’s time he indulged himself, once again photographically, in the most artistic way he could, by exploring photography as a medium for art. This led Hugh to a greater curiosity about the world around him, especially the world of nature. So he suddenly sold up everything and started travelling to study it first hand for himself. During this time photography itself was going through a dramatic change as it progressed into the digital age. Over the years that followed, Schneider systematically converted his analog camera and darkroom skills into their digital counterparts and consequently became very excited about the digital medium and how it now addresses many of the previous shortcomings of the film based processes. Digital cameras in tandem with software post-processing present new opportunities to him as a photographer and artist. This world
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The Muse Chaser | HUGH SCHNEIDER
The Secrets Of The Sun
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The Sun Is Also A Star
Air Of Wilderness
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The Muse Chaser | HUGH SCHNEIDER
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Chasing my Muse Even though I prefer to regard my photographs as records of chance encounters with impressive subjects or lighting, that’s not really how they come about. Usually I have some pieces of music or songs playing over and over in my mind which drive me to represent them as pictures. Consequently I venture out into fields, mountains, forests whenever the light and sky seem to be cooperative to seek a suitable subject that could be rendered into a visual reference to the music. My explanation for all of this is that-to memusic seems to be a form of expression that reaches the senses (aural and emotional) in a way that it bypasses language. I’m intrigued by the prospect of doing the same visually. By playing upon the imagination, both music and pictures can act as catalysts or stimulants enhancing or modifying perception. The idea of transporting someone into another world or to experience the world in a new way is my ultimate objective. To perform this, of course it is necessary to get to know how to capture an impression from a scene in a manner that will equally impress an audience. This usually involves lots of experiment, fortunately accommodated elegantly by the digital medium with its immediate results. These can be so easily compared to what was intended, adjusted and compensated for in such a manner as to allow greater control at each step. But more importantly is how a composition will appear as a final product, either on screen or printed paper. These two media are so very different from each other that for an image to work both ways, particular techniques need to be used. I have found that the most successful of these is to lean heavily upon the inspiration derived from the works of other artists
proven to be effective. That is, if a picture is especially impressive to me, as well as to a lot of other people, I proceed to study what essential elements are presented with the intention of incorporating those into my work.
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Whatever the case, each and every subject can usually be rendered in a manner that will make it impressive. It’s simply a matter of finding the appropriate technique to achieve this and have the motivation to strive for it. This brings up the most important part of creativity; how to be enthusiastic enough to work with available subjects. When I first arrived to Europe from Australia I was not only impressed by the wealth of new and unusual subjects, I was also deeply concerned over the quality of the light. I was accustomed to plenty of intense sunshine with well defined shadows and contours. So I had to find new ways to deal with the astonishingly diffuse light, especially in forest areas. Often the light level is so low that it’s equivalent to that of semidarkness. On the other hand, this natural lighting can yield quite subtle and beautiful results far removed from the harshness I needed to avoid in the antipodes. The result of all this was to discover that the challenge of overcoming technical difficulties, namely operating the camera in the appropriate way always helps me overcome any inhibitions I may have to be creative. When we look at the great works of photography we can’t help but be reminded of the skill required to capture such beauty as can be found in our world.
Left: Planting Tree
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The Muse Chaser | HUGH SCHNEIDER
The Other Side Of Twilight
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Life In The Greenwood
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ALICJA RODZIK
In Touch With The Human
© All Images courtesy of Alicja Rodzik
The Sound Of A Picture | ALICJA RODZIK
Alicja Rodzik have come from Poland and lived in Scotland for several years. Due to her interest in arts and crafts, she used to sew ethnic costumes. Since photography became Alicja’s passion, her life has been possesed by it. “Photography records my journeys, thoughts, experiences, emotions… I have been a loner by nature, a silent and careful life observer but in photography I express myself.” she says. Alicja is interested in everything related to humanity and humans, from birth to death, moments of joy and moments of sorrow, escapes into fantasies and collisions with tough realities to make unforgetable stories told in a single image.
Follow Me
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The Sound Of A Picture | ALICJA RODZIK
Bluish II top: Anaphora
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Harmonious top: Do you love me?
Freshness
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The Sound Of A Picture | ALICJA RODZIK
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The Sound Of A Picture I believe music is photography’s best friend. I have always been fascinated by this wonderful connection of sound with a picture; the interaction between the two, their synthesis, fusion. Color and light There is a struggle deep inside me and uncertainty whether words and pictures are able to speak the truth about me? I think many artists feel the same.
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I alway had a feeling that I lived in two worlds. The one I would like to live in and another one I am living in now. ‘I Am Vertical, but I would rather be horizontal. I am not a tree with my root in the soil Soaking up minerals and motherly love So that each March I may gleam into a leaf, Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed Attracting my share of ‘Ahs’ and spectacularly painted, Unknowing I must soon unpetal. Compared to me, a tree is immortal And a flower-head not tall, but more startling, And I want one’s longevity and the other’s daringness. Tonight, in the infinitesimal light of the stars, The trees and the flowers have been strewing their cool odors. I walk among them, but none of them are noticing. Sometimes I think that when I am sleeping I must most perfectly resemble them-Thoughts gone dim. It is more natural to me, lying down. Then the sky and I are in open conversation, And I shall be useful when I lie down finally: Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me.’ Sylvia Plath
Left: Wish you were here
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The Sound Of A Picture | ALICJA RODZIK
Sweet Blush
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Cold Kisses
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BRETT COHEN
© All Images courtesy of Brett Cohen
Capturing Magic | BRETT COHEN
Uniting the Elements
One of today’s most dynamic and enthusiastic award-winning photographers, Brett Cohen integrates his passion for the outdoors with his photographic talent for capturing a distinct moment in time that lasts forever. Influenced by his mentor and friend, Tomas Kasper, this largely self-taught photographer of landscape and nature travels to various locations which he feels have helped sculpt his individual shooting style. Constantly searching for the precise moment where an instant of light can articulate the true beauty of nature, his images are generally taken in the extremes of the day, such as dawn or dusk. Using the tools of modern photography and documenting his personal experiences as he envisions it through the lens, he seeks to extract reality into a personal vision. Most recently, Brett’s work was featured in the March 2009 issue of Digital Photo magazine, the 2009 Coors Tek calendar, as well as the February 2009 issue of Popular Photography magazine, where he won second place in the Your Best Shot contest. He was also the overall winner of the 2008 Florida State Parks photo competition. Currently, Brett’s photographs are on exhibit at SaxBy’s in the Philadelphia area. www.eyeonphilly.com Elowah falls
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Capturing Magic | BRETT COHEN
Wissahickon Valley Park
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Acadia National Park, Maine
Multnomah Falls,Columbia River Gorge
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Capturing Magic | BRETT COHEN
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Capturing Magic Photographing the natural beauty of landscapes is how I attempt to capture a distinct, magical moment in time and express the true magnificence of it. My passion for photography set in motion a selftaught adventure that also integrated my love of being outdoors and traveling to new places. This unity constantly has me searching for these “magical moments.” Over the years, this challenge has driven me from hobby to art.
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My goal as a landscape photographer is to have the ability to capture the precise moment where an instant of light can articulate the true beauty of nature.
To facilitate this, my images are generally taken in the extremes of the day, such as dawn or dusk, when “golden light” appears for brief moments. Using the tools of modern photography and documenting my own personal experiences as I envision them through the lens, I seek to extract reality into a personal vision. It is so rewarding when all aspects and elements come together in unison and I am able to grasp that moment in time. Often times, it is not recognized how difficult this can be to accomplish. I can return to the same location numerous times and still not have a shot that I feel appropriately translates the passion, beauty and drive behind it. This is one of the reasons I enjoy when people take the time to comment on my work. Even if it’s a dislike, it shows appreciation of the art, and I will use the critique as a motivator to improve upon something. I enjoy visiting various locations and striving to add a new look to a place that may have been shot thousands of times before. It allows me the opportunity to share what I personally envision unique about it, and the power of modern digital photography provides me with the tools I need to facilitate getting the most out of a shot. Left: Wissahickon Valley Park
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Capturing Magic | BRETT COHEN
Ricketts Glen State Park
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Ricketts Glen State Park
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Field Guide | NATURAL INSTINCTS
NATURAL INSTINCTS Your Camera’s Union With The Natural World
By Alessandro Maggi
Taking photographs of a place or moment in time that left us breathless: a charming sunset over the sea, an explosive sunrise from the top of a mountain, the sun breaking through the clouds to lighten up a colorful poppy field with painted rainbows. This is what landscape photography is about: showing the world the sublime art of nature through the eye of the camera.
The relationship between man and nature has always been a complex coexistence of conflicting aspects, but today we can say that modern society tends to consider nature a good to protect and glorify on the whole, much like dying out protected species of animals. Nature may still be a mysterious and frightening entity to face for many of us, but those who learned to fear it have often learned to love it as well. If you consider yourself in the latter category, then there are good chances you’ll enjoy nature photography. Nature photography is a large category that includes lots of very different kind of photographs, like wildlife, close-ups, and much more. A very popular theme is (natural) landscape photography, which implies taking photos of generally vast natural areas as the name suggests. The primary objective of landscape photography is about capturing special environmental conditions and/or places pursuing the “aesthetic perfection” inspired by nature. This is the main reason why we can experience even wide differences between two photographs of the same landscape: every photographer has a different idea of what nature’s perfection is about. This is not a matter of technical settings and instruments (though they usually play a very important role in this kind of photography), it’s about what makes your hearth tremble and your thoughts open up. The first step towards landscape photography then is perhaps “curiosity”, with a pinch of sense of adventure and bravery of course. Without the passion for traveling and the desire to discover the unknown, landscape photography tends to become an unimaginative technical exercise of repetition. A good suggestion to start could be to not carry your camera in the very beginning: do not rush yourself to the aim of “taking a picture”, because you may even take a good picture, but you’ll be missing the whole point of it. It’s not a matter of mathematic here: “great sky” + “great foreground” + “great background” doesn’t equal “great photo”. You have to feel the beauty before portraying it, you must have your camera with you only when you’re able to see both with your naked eye and through the viewfinder. Assuming we’ve achieved this kind of self-confidence with nature, we’ll then need to apply the proper techniques to successfully carry out the photo we’ve seen inside the landscape in front of us.
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Useful Tools and Equipment: The tools required (or recommended) to get into landscape photography may fill quite a large list, and depend strongly on the kind of landscapes a photographer wants to shoot. For example, a one-day photographic session in an easy to access natural location will require a certain kind of gear and equipment substantially different from the gear needed for a one-week hike in a wild environment. The same holds for a long excursion, whether you choose to do it in the Sahara Desert or in the Amazon Rainforest. For extreme situations, like the ones just stated, it is highly recommended to read up on other photographers’ experiences and study travel guides about the features of your destination and precautions you should take. If this is not your case, then there are some general guidelines on how to pick the proper equipment: Choosing the Proper Clothing: One thing that many beginners tend to underestimate is the choice of proper clothing to wear on the field depending on the atmospheric conditions and the kind of environment to face. Some of the most important aspects to take into account are temperature (and temperature changes), humidity, proximity to large water masses like seas or lakes, precipitations,
soil structure, and so on. You’ll also want to consider what kind of experience you’re making, especially if you have to sleep outdoor or if you have to take long walks on uneven paths. A good idea is to start from the bottom: the shoes. They have to be comfortable and adequate for the task. This means that if you’re going to face high humidity and walk through the grass or explore a place where it has just rained or snowed, you’ll be probably better off with waterproof boots. Uneven and rocky terrains, often coupled with difficult slopes, are an easier match with field shoes or hiking boots, while watery environment could be approached with more ease with gumboots or even hip boots (in case you want to get “dirty” in water without getting “wet”). All in all comfortable boots are often the way to go, unless you’ll be dwelling in more friendly and hot places in which case you may prefer to travel lighter with a pair of solid trainers (carefully leaving sneakers at home for more appropriate occasions). The rest of the apparel depends strongly on the weather and the temperature. Nevertheless it’s always a good idea to wear waterproof clothes, unless you’re going to face long explorations under hard sun and heat. In
this case, though rain may seem an unlikely eventuality, having a spare pocketable rain jacket is always a good habit. Lenses and Filters: Switching to optical gear, choosing the right lenses to carry for landscape photography is luckily a much easier task than guessing the perfect apparel. If you want to take only landscape photos, then all you need is wide to normal focal lengths. Ultra wide-angle and fisheye lenses are also options that can be taken into account if you want to play with perspective, but you should be careful not using them just to make the landscape fit into the frame: landscape photography is not about finding a good landscape and choosing a lens that has enough field of view to contain it. Fish-eye and ultra-wide lenses are often used to emphasize an element in the foreground of the landscape very close to the camera, or when you find yourself in a situation where you can play with geometries and perspective (this is the case when shooting in the woods, for example). Otherwise you’ll prefer a less-wide approach to frame a peculiar portion of the environment or realize a bigger panorama using multiple shots at longer focal lengths.
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Field Guide | NATURAL INSTINCTS
Filters are also a must for many landscape photographers. The circular polarizer should already be in every photographer’s bag, more so in a landscape one. The polarizer effect on photographs of landscapes is often priceless. Used in the proper conditions it brings back contrast in the sky and regulates reflections on water surfaces, giving a whole different (and usually more appealing) look to a photo. Note that when using a polarizer you should evaluate carefully both exposure and white balance. Shooting digital with polarizers is easier: pick a little warmer white balance and take a test shot to see if the exposure is OK, then repeat. If you’re shooting film you may want to consider buying polarizers that include warming 1A or 1B filters to achieve warmer results with the same film. Other popular filters are graduated filters, both neutral density (GND) and colored ones, or neutral density (ND) filters. The former are filters that darken the frame by one to three or more F-stops at one edge and become completely transparent on the other (with different transitions in the middle categorizing the filters as “hard edged” or “soft edged”). They are mainly used to compensate brighter skies bringing them into
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the dynamic range of the sensor or the film, thus they have to be wisely chosen depending on the dynamic range of the whole scene you want to capture. The latter are completely dark filters that cut the light transmission by a certain amount all over the frame. These filters are often used to get longer exposures even when there is plenty of light available to obtain creative effects such as motion blur. If you plan to explore seriously the possibilities given by ND filters, it is highly advisable to pick high quality ones: cheap ND filters tend to produce fairly heavy color casts on photos taken with long shutter speeds. It may sound obvious, but you also have to note that for successful use of such filters a tripod is necessary. Other Gear: There are a number of additional things that every photographer should check twice before leaving. The first is the bag. If you’re going to do only landscape photography you won’t probably have to bring a huge backpack for your optical equipment alone, but since you are not likely to grab your camera at every turn of the road and you may have more non-optical stuff to carry, you may probably want to have a single bag on your back instead of many shoulder-bags sawing your neck. If forecasts are uncertain
about rain or if you’ll have to cut through tall grass filled with morning dew, you may want to have a rainproof backpack or at least a waterproof cloth to cover it.The second thing would be the tripod. The tripod is probably one of the best friends of the landscape photographer. It is important to have a stable, solid, reliable tripod with you on landscaping photographic sessions, and it gets definitely vital if you’re shooting long exposures and/or you’re on a medium/ large format camera. To exploit the stability provided by a tripod, you may also want to have a cable/wireless remote to control your camera, especially for bulb exposures. General Tips And Tricks: As every photographic discipline, landscape photography has its own tricks that can get quite handy in most circumstances. The most important is: plan in advance! Landscaping is like a hunt: the first time that you have the prey in sight does not necessarily have to be best moment to capture. Before shooting, a landscape photographer has to scout locations and evaluate at what time of the day they can be at their best, whether they could look better in a certain environment or another, and so on.
Some general advices could be: Gather information on the places you’re going to visit: studying maps and guides will help your sense of direction while on the field, also giving you the possibility to know with good approximation where the sun will be at a specific time. Follow the light: light is the key element in every photo, and so it is with landscapes. With nature you don’t have control of it, but you know in advance that the most peculiar moments of light in a day are sunrise and sunset, so try shooting around these moments: you may get unusual effects that will make your photos more interesting.
high contrasts and a very wide dynamic range, knowing that the apparently lost detail in the shadows can later be recovered with postprocessing. However to exploit the full potential of digital sensors and recover as much dynamic range available out of a photograph you will have to set your camera to record images in a digital negative“lossless” format, also known as “RAW” (actually not every camera is really
enabled to record true lossless RAW images, but that’s because it would require lots of computational power often not needed as compressed RAW formats are usually more than enough for any task). RAW photos do retain the whole imaging informations captured by the sensor, but need also to be processed to be viewed and printed, so they require additional time and treatment.
Keep an eye on the sky: the atmosphere in a landscape photograph is highly influenced by meteorologic conditions, so stay tuned to forecasts. On The Field There Are A Couple More Advices That Could Be Used: Do not rush, use patience: to get the prey you must hunt with patience. Thinking that you could get more than a few successful shots out of a photographic session is often too optimistic: it’s not likely going to happen, even though luck happens. Scout new subjects first, then focus on one of them one day at a time. Work with depth of field and perspective: without a careful study of perspective, a landscape photo can easily look flat. To prevent this from happening the photographer has to learn how to compose the picture, exploiting the depth of field. Aim at making evident that some elements in the landscape are closer to the camera than others, try making the observer feel the depth of the landscape you’re portraying. If you’re using a digital camera you may also want to consider shooting RAW to exploit the full dynamic range of the sensor, taking multiple photos of the same subject to make an High Dynamic Range (HDR) photograph, or even grabbing different portions of the same scenery with multiple shots to compose a higher resolution panorama later during post-processing. Exploiting Raw Dynamic Range For Digital Landscape Photography In Adobe© Photoshop© Lightroom© 2 If you’re shooting digital you may be aware that digital sensors have different response to light compared to films. While film is able to preserve quite a lot of details in the highlights, a digital sensor “burns” bright scenes with ease. The other side of the coin is that digital photos retain much more details in shadows than photos developed from films do. Keeping this in mind, the digital photographer has learned to underexpose when the scene presents Vol. 2 | 2009 73
Field Guide | NATURAL INSTINCTS
Now we’ll see a step-by-step example of how to process a landscape photograph from a RAW photo in Adobe© Photoshop© Lightroom© 2.
2. The first aspects we want to tweak can be found in the “Basic” settings in the panel on the right. Since the photo has a well exposed sky but a very dark foreground, our first move is to increase the “Fill Light” slider. We notice now that while the photo looks overall brighter and more homogeneous, we still have very poor contrast and pale colors. To give the photo a little punch we can play with the “Contrast” and “Blacks” sliders, while to bring colors to the photo we can use “Vibrance” and “Saturation” ones: the names are quite self-explanatory. We don’t really want to mess too much with contrast at this stage: we’ll have better means to deal with it later on. Before leaving this section we can fiddle with the “Recovery” and “Clarity” sliders a little: the former equalizes highlights bringing them back progressively towards midtones, while the latter enhances local contrast.
3. The next step will be taking care of contrast using the “Tone Curve” settings panel. We can directly edit the RGB curve or use the simplified approach of Lightroom©. Taking the easy way we can adjust the whole curve choosing the option “Strong Contrast” in the “Point Curve” menu, and then tweak the four sliders representing the four sectors of the luminosity spectrum.
1. The first step is of course loading the image in Lightroom© (adding it to the catalog). Once we have access to a large preview of our photo it’s time to start editing selecting the “Develop” tab from the top panel.
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4. Now that we’re more or less satisfied with the overall contrast of the photo we want to deal with colors. The way to go is tweaking the settings of the “HSL / Color / Grayscale” panel, selecting “HSL” for our purposes. What we are able to do here is basically change the hue, saturation and luminosity of all the different colors in the photo divided into eight primary tones. The fine tweaking is up to our tastes, but it’s worth to note that in this case we used the “Blue” and “Aqua” luminosity sliders to make blue portions of the sky darker and deeper giving an additional contrast boost to the background.
Once the settings are chosen, we can draw on the photo our graduate filter so that its central fading line will remain a bit on top of the horizon (we don’t want to make the cliffs in the background too dark, we’ve just worked hard to pull them out of shadows!). After applying the filter you can still change its settings if you’re not feeling satisfied: the best thing about RAW photo editors is that every action is reversible, non-destructive. In our case, we feel we’ve worked enough on our landscape and we’re ready to export it as a compressed image and enjoy it, almost like how we remember to have felt being there.
5. At this point we can take our time correcting any optical problems the photo may show, such as vignetting or chromatic aberrations. In this case we also took the chance to sharpen the photo and use a little more luminance noise reduction through the “Detail” settings panel (bringing back the whole foreground from shadows has of course the downside of producing more noise). 6. If we were using the previous version of Adobe© Lightroom© we would have probably be done with the photo, leaving further processing to third party editing softwares. Luckily the new version integrates quite a number of additional tools that can be used to selectively edit the photo without the need to convert the RAW image to a compressed format, thus saving time and hopefully producing better results. In our case (and with landscape photography in general) we can find the “Graduated Filter” tool a really quick and painless way to give our photo that “little something” that’s still missing. We’ll go for a custom graduated filter. We want it to make the sky a little darker, more contrasted and bolder. To achieve this objective we can go for negative values of “Exposure” and “Brightness” and positive (high) values of “Contrast” and “Clarity”. Vol. 2 | 2009 75
Epic Edits | A Photography Resource
Twelve ways to be: An Environmentally Friendly Photographer by Brian Auer
© Al Zahraa S.
The nature of photography is to preserve a scene, emotion, mood, idea, concept, piece of history, etc, via the photograph. We capture what we see at a particular point in time, space, and perspective using the tools of the trade. But as photographers, we also have an obligation to preserve something more important — the environment. Nature photographers have long been on the forefront of environmental conservation. Art Wolfe, for example, is not only known for his impressive nature photography, but also for his love of the environment. But nature photographers aren’t the only ones responsible for the environment; we all are. The following tips can certainly be applied to natural environments, but many of them are just as applicable in other situations such as street photography — the environment doesn’t end where the streets begin. Here are 12 ways that you can personally save the environment and ensure that future generations will have the same photographic opportunities that we have. 76 soura | issue 25
1. Tread Lightly Be gentle on your surroundings with as little impact as possible. The environment will help reclaim itself, but not if you keep beating it down. 2. No Trailblazing If you’re outdoors where trails are available, don’t make your own. If everybody with a camera left the trail, the impact would be massive. 3. Don’t Alter the Scene Staging a shot by moving or removing parts of the environment is a big no-no. Either make the shot work, or find a different scene. 4. No Souvenirs If everybody took something back with them every time they went out to photograph, there would be nothing left to photograph. Get your souvenirs in your camera.
5. Keep Your Distance When it comes to wildlife, stay far enough away to keep your presence unknown. Disturbing animals can have severe effects on the local ecosystem.
11. Document the Ugly Capture things that disappoint us. Let everybody know that the environment needs our help.
6. Pack It In — Pack It Out It’s fine to bring wasteproducing items with you on a photo outing, but don’t leave it out there. If you had the room to bring it, you have the room to take it away. 7. Clean Up After Others Packing out our own trash is good, but packing out the trash others left behind is great! Make the next photographer’s experience a better one. 8. Carry a One Gallon Bag Not only can this handy item protect your camera in wet weather, but it’s also a great trash receptacle.
12. Be a Leader If you see somebody doing things that will harm our environment, stand up to them and make them aware of the impact they’ll have.
9. Use Rechargeable Batteries If you have a compact camera or a flash unit that uses AA batteries, use rechargeable — they can last for years and help reduce unnecessary waste. 10. Document the Beautiful Capture things that amaze us. Let everybody know just how beautiful that place can be.
So next time you’re out with your camera, think about the impact you’re having on your surroundings. Be mindful of sensitive outdoor areas, and leave each place you visit in better shape than you found it. Happy trails!
Brian Auer is a part-time independant photographer residing in San Diego, California. He’s actively engaged in the teaching and exploration of photography and fine art, and he shares his experience through his blog (http://www.epicedits.com).
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The best of photography is here! The annual Gulf Photo Plus brings to Dubai, world renowned photographers and week-long workshops with them. Beginning on the 30th of March this annual event runs up till the 4th of April and brings with it photography greats such as McNally, Mautner, Rafiqui, Gardner, and Hobby. Witness the best in the business at work this year at Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) 2009. Now in it’s 5th year, it is the region’s only hands-on dedicated Photography Event. GPP will be held at Dubai’s Knowledge Village boasting a wide range of the best photographic skills at display. This year the event has attracted 13 international photographers and image software experts who will conduct workshops for photographers of all levels. According to chief organiser, Mohamed Somji, interest in photography continues to grow, with many participants keen on improving their skills to take better photos, while others are polishing their technique, intent on earning an income from their hobby or perhaps harbouring a secret desire to start their own photography business.
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We will kick off the event with ‘Kaleidoscope’, featuring a collection of images from the acclaimed visiting talent at the Empty Quarter Gallery. The Gulf Photo Plus event itself, will feature more than 50 workshops as well as the extremely popular ‘Photo Friday’ event which features lectures, product demonstrations and workshops.” Last year’s overwhelming number of requests for Bridal and wedding photography is being met this year. With Cliff Mautner, one of the Top 10 wedding photographers in the world, being roped in to share his knowledge at the event. Talking about the annual event, Somji said:
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It’s a not to be missed event for enthusiasts and attracts participants from all around the Middle East. We 80 soura | issue 25
create unique experiences that would normally be quite difficult for individuals to arrange for themselves. In some cases, participants borrow cameras and lenses, which is all part of the experience.”
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Other new names on the Gulf Photo Plus teaching schedule include Asim Rafiqui – a Sweden-based documentary photographer; Vincent Laforet – a Pulitzer prize-winning photo-journalist, renowned for his aerial and sports photography and his foray into integrating video and stills; Carol Dragon – a photoshop whiz and expert communicator with beginners; and Zack Arias, an Atlantabased music photographer who has cutting edge style and will teach GPP participants how to get maximum results with minimal gear. At GPP 2009, workshops will run for half days to 5 full days. Those who cannot afford the time for these, can come along to the ‘Photo Friday’ event and get a load of tips and techniques from a choice of 16 different lecture topics, mini-workshops and live demonstrations from instructing photographers and brand experts.
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For more information about the course content, dates and bookings, visit www.gulfphotoplus.com
1. Drew Gardner 2. Cliff Mautner 3. David Nightingale 4. Vincent Laforet 5. Chris Hurtt 6. David Hobby 7. Zack Arias
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Local Events
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI’S
TREES AND CROWS This great Iranian director showed us the meaning of keeping it simple yet elegant, emotional and intelligent. He once said:
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I think that technique for technique’s sake is a big lie, as it doesn’t answer real feelings and real needs.” His is an effortless way of expressing the truth.
Born in Tehran, Iran in 1940, he graduated from university with a degree in fine arts. It was only at the age of 30 that his career as a filmmaker began. Since then not only has he been regarded as one of the most important figures in contemporary Iranian film but he is also considered a major figure in the arts world. Kiarostami has exhibited his photography, short films and poetry on numerous occasions all around the world. With exhibitions in Japan, USA, France, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Canada, Norway, Dubai and many other countries, Kiarostami is truly a global artist. For his work he won the admiration of audiences and critics
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worldwide, and the support of directors as distinguished as Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and Akira Kurosawa.
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My photographic career started as a matter of fact, when I went to buy a camera for a friend. It was a 1,000-something dollars, and I thought, I want to buy one for myself too. It was the exact year of the revolution, 1979. That is when I started taking photographs. We had a lot of spare time because of the revolution. We couldn’t make films and we were very depressed. So we took ourselves out of the town to deal with our depression. I had this camera, a Yashica, and started shooting. His first photographs were then of the Iranian landscape. Pictures of roads, through rain-flecked windscreen, isolated trees, vast snow plains, and motionless tableaux, each telling its own story indescribably romantic, undeniably modest.
His cinematic career took off with the internationally acclaimed 1987 film, Where is the Friend’s Home? Kiarostami next won acclaim for Through the Olive Trees, which was screened in competition at the 1994 Cannes Festival. In 1999, Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us won him further international acclaim. Another unconventional meditation on everyday life rooted in a humanist philosophy, it won the Golden Lion at that year’s Venice Film Festival. The dominant driving force in his photographic works and his film career is the minimalism he emphasizes in his images, the natural purity. The roads, the trees, the empty desolate landscapes – encapsulate, in the images he creates, a man on a journey to find within his environment a recitation of poetic beauty. Today he stands as an icon, a prodigy, a humanist, a great artist.
© All Images are courtesy of Abbas Kiarostami and MEEM Gallery
NIGHTSKIN CHITTROVANU MAJUMDAR Chittrovanu Majumdar’s photography radiates a different generation, a generation talking about issues that affect society today, bringing to light places and cultures that have long been overlooked or cast in clichés.
Born in Paris in 1957 to an Indian father and a French mother, Majumdar has had access to two different cultures. His work is intensely suggestive of the tying up of his cultural background with a more global perspective. “I guess my work has usually tended to the dramatic”, Mazumdar had remarked in an interview. His recent exhibition of installations, at Gallery 1 x 1, brings to life his thoughts and ideas and does purely that, it dramatizes the narrative. There is literary vividness, a poetic portrayal of life in his work. We are left both walking into his world and then drawing back and standing as spectators. And each time we try and examine his story, by being part of it and being disjointed. What draws one to his work is the depiction of the complementariness which is found between text and materiality, within Indian culture. Not only does he possess a fluency in global language but the added local dictions liberate his work and make it exclusive, matchless. Majumdar is a master director of theatricalities which is extensively mirrored in his work, be it photography, painting or installation art. It’s like he watches simple everyday life and turns it into a grander performance, coloring it up with textures, tones and a tale. In Gallery 1 x 1 his works were distributed in three rooms; two digital works introducing the theme of the show in the first room. In the other two rooms there was a poetic revelation of his subject – a debate, a discussion, a recitation, an interrogative insight into a cultural discourse.
© All Images are courtesy of Chittrovanu Majumdar and 1x1 Gallery
The references in Majumdar’s works range from an amalgamation of his own culturally rich upbringing in Kolkata and Paris and a diverse range of reading in three languages - French, English and Bengali. For three decades now he has been at the forefront of contemporary Indian art giving it an international presence and voice. Vol. 2 | 2009 83
International Events
Maria Kjartansdottir ‘SHAREDFUTURE’ Her pictures place a silent spell; you are transfixed on how her narrative is tied up, how pictures from different places tell an insightful story about the same thing – the changing faces of life, of earth, of humanity. Winner of the prestigious Reykjavík project-award from Myndstef and the Penninn prize in 2007, Maria Kjartansdottir graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2007 with a M.F.A. Now, she lives and works in London with her partner and 7-year-old daughter Hira. Kjartansdottir recently returned from Granada in Spain where she had been living within the regions caves documenting the elusive community that inhabits them. This presents her discovery, her journey, her fascination with life cycles. She does not stop at one thing, she explores cultures – their differences, similarities, and this search often leads her to remote and unusual places. Her latest was an exhibition titled ‘SHAREDFUTURE’, which opened in London on March 4th and ran for four days. It was inaugurated by the Icelandic Embassy and supported by the Danish Embassy. ‘SHAREDFUTURE’ was included in London’s EAST festival. Kjartansdottir’s photographs like ‘Quite cold kitchen’ takes one into the depth of thought, the chase called life, departing time and important moments in one’s life. Her thoughts are clear, precise and yet it leaves enough room for the audience to opine, to relate to her created images. In her photograph, ‘Every Other Planet’ she talks about metaphors and the reality of the altering faces of earth and its relation to the life that inhabits it - thus, creating a mood of evolution, regeneration. She has the power to ask questions through her pictures, to let us wonder where we are headed and where we are coming from. 25-year-old Kjartansdottir’s recent exhibitions include: Berlin New Live festival, Berlin, New York. Nordic moods contemporary landscape photography, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen. Further More, Tramway, Glasgow, De andere Kunstbeurs, Westergasfabriken, Amsterdam and Menier Gallerie-Chocolate factory, London. TOP: Sleigh Dogs photography – 2006. From series ‘Lonely place Dwellers’. Picture taken in Kulusuk, Greenland.
BOTTOM: Quite Cold Kitchen photography – 2007. From series ‘Clearly remote’. Gravitating the set of crucial moments in life: puberty, love, life, death and the thought of eternity. 84 soura | issue 25
The Green Island Project
Atelier le balto Licht-Garten (Garden of Light), 2006. Courtesy Atelier le balto & aMAZElab
The Green Island project has been aimed at bringing into the forefront multiple, practical, constructive uses of public space. An editorial on Green Island beautifully sums up what the project is all about, it reads:
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Green Island has promoted a cultural reflection on the forms of contemporary living, stimulating dialogue between the languages of photography, architecture and design. Originally based on the need to give a strong sense of overall planning to the various interventions, ideas and art projects, it represents the desire to involve new urban spaces and to reflect on the pressing issue of collective spaces and public park areas”.
In 2008, aMAZElab decided to publish Green Island. On City, Hortus and Wild Gardens, a publication that brings together the first six years of the project. The book divided into three broad sections gives an insight into the topic. It comprises essays by some of the most authoritative names on the topic: Andrea Branzi, Catherine David, Manuel Gausa and Gilles Cléments. There are also numerous contributions by a dozen artists, architects and activists who work in various ways towards the creation and safeguarding of urban park spaces and temporary green areas.
A section is dedicated to the group project in Milan on Via Pepe in the Isola neighbourhood. This project sheds light on the question of sustainability, the combing together of artistic languages in an urban setting. Now, aMAZElab proposes the 7th edition of the event Green Island. The edition of 2009 is centred on a project about the work of the ‘artists of the green’ Lois & Franziska Weinberger of Vienna, Austria. The project includes a selection of plants and seeds from their Archive Of The Memory dedicated to arboreal essences in danger of dying out.
This archive will also be presented at Milan’s Quartiere Isola, an area undergoing huge transformations and still lacking a public green area. The project hopes to partly and temporarily overcome this by the creation of large images, scientific descriptions of the various species of plants. Lois & Franziska Weinberger have played a key role in the new debate about the relationship between art and nature since the 1990s. Their works centers around the idea of a garden as a ‘temporary perfect territory’ in borderline areas. They take into account the exsiting biodiversity in certain areas and interaction amongst the enchaining forces of cultural growth and nature. In their images, texts, video installations and site-specific works, the Weinbergers create a larger experience – they fuse art and nature, thus bringing about a fusion of elements that, for centuries, have fallen naturally together.
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BOOK REVIEW
GREEN GREENER GREENEST by Lori Bongiorno
Green, Greener, Greenest takes into account your life, your pocket and your capability before offering you a host of tips for everyday living, all categorized under “green”, “greener”, and “greenest.” It understands that there isn’t just one ‘right way’ to change the world, to take your first step towards making a difference. It gives the readers choice, they get to pick the advice that fits their schedule, their budget, and their nterests. As Walker Wells, Director of the Sustainable Cities Program, Global Green USA, says, “Lori Bongiorno shows how we can reconnect ourselves with the ecologic cycle with Green Greener Greenest by highlighting how what we eat, buy, wear, build, and clean has a direct link to the health of the environment and the health of ourselves and our families. For anyone who has struggled to figure what do to make a difference, this book offers a clear and concise map to a more connected future.” This book endeavors to find a way to reach you at the level of commitment you can show, the commitment you are capable of. The “Green” section reveals the easiest behaviors to change and least expensive products to buy. The “Greener” section is aimed at the reader who is willing to dedicate both a little more time and a little extra money on the issues important to them. And for those readers who have the right mix of time, money and the inspiration to step it up another notch and completely take on an issue can flip to the “Greenest” sections. Green, Greener, Greenest is your guide to your first baby steps into going green. It’s what each one of us should be doing, a little extra to help us go a long way. It’s the small decisions you make, the little choices that will determine how the future of our planet will unfold. Here is an excellent guidebook to read and understand where you can start the change, where you really stand and how your ordinary acts can make extraordinary impact. Author and sustainability educator, Ann Lovejoy sums it best when she says, “Hopeful, helpful, and packed with well researched tips, Green, Greener, Greenest is a great family guide to living the genuinely good life.”
SAVING PLANET EARTH by Tony Juniper
Saving Planet Earth captures the grace, the charm of our planet, all that’s living and all that is on the brink of being destroyed. It’s the BBC’s followup to the multi award winning and bestseller Planet Earth. This book ties in with the series. Each chapter delves into the causes for our depleting landscapes, earth’s natural beauty. It examines the reasons - fishing, deforestation, pollution etc - and looks at what it might take to stop these. A sentence in the book reads, “Until the rise of humankind, the diversity of life on earth was at its greatest in its entire history”. This makes one think about the relationship between the degeneration of our forests, wildlife and scenic beauty, and human activities. The photographs are worth a thousand words, they are moving, disturbing, spectacular and worrying. They drive us into wondering where our planet is headed. Tony Juniper explains how the human race is tearing down, demolishing the planet by endangering species all across the globe, contributing to climate change, and raiding natural resources. Saving Planet Earth travels through our cities, our forests, our plains, across continents and it raises questions about our way of life, about human greed and basic necessity. It takes us through a soul-searching voyage and tells us about how it all began – how the danger that our planet now faces needs to be addressed before we fall prey to it. The photographs are fantastic pieces of art and history. But it’s time to ask the question: Is this the history we want to leave our future generations? The author of this book, Tony Juniper, is a resident of England. He is the director of Friends of the Earth and vice-chair of Friends of the Earth International. His work spans more than twenty years and ranges from public awareness activities to international campaigns to protect the environment. Juniper’s outstanding book also offers solutions to help reverse some of the dangerous trends we have now begun to witness. Equipped with the latest information and analysis, Saving Planet Earth provides an amalgamation of knowledge and tools needed to protect our environment. It gives us hope, it raises an alarm: We can all save planet Earth, but we must start now.
This book can be found in Borders Bookstore, located at the Mall of the Emirates and Dira City Center. A copy of this book is available to one of our lucky readers. Just send us an email with your name and address to: books@soura.ae and your name will be entered in a draw to win this faboulous book. Correction: The Borders’ book review, published in our last issue, had text which did not correspond to the book being presented. We regret the error, expect it will not recur and we apologise to our readers. You can check out the correct info by visiting www.souramagazine.com 94 soura | issue 25
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A RT D U BA I 18 – 21 M a rch 2009
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