So much of the news from Africa is depressing: famine, aids, wars, orphans, despots, you name it. It’s not just the mainstream media; I’ve been hit recently by a kind of “year-end giving blitz” when relief agencies scramble for your 2009 tax planning largesse. Lots of hungry kids with flies in their eyes. I’m told [...]
Tag Archives | Photographs
95% of Cinematography
I’ve been told that 95% of cinematography is pointing the camera at something beautiful.
I’d like to thank the people of Malawi for making my job easy.
Adopt Me: on Madonna, Malawi, and Adoption
When Madonna’s black-with-dark-tinted-windows Land Cruisers came barreling down the dirt road towards the orphanage, the locals thought they were ready. They had printed up t-shirts with the “Adopt Me” slogan and an arrow pointed towards their face. They were ready to run down to the main road with their shirts on, line the road out to the orphanage, and wave at the cruisers as they sped past.
African Sausage
Find a patch of brush. Light it on fire. Catch all the mice as they race to escape the flames. Toss them into boiling water. Wait. Scoop their wet-soaked scraggly carcass out of the water pot. Jam a dozen between two sticks. Run out to the road. Wait for a passing minibus. Sell for 150-250 Kwacha (USD$1.00-1.75)
Chakhala
In 1988, on a trip to Uganda, we carried a polaroid and were able to take family shots, village shots, etc. and give them the photograph right then and there. I can’t seem to find a Polaroid these days. And while everyone seems to get a kick looking at the LCD screen on the back of my camera, it’s not the same.
Pakati
In Chichewa, a pregnant woman is described as pakati (between life and death) or matenda (sick).
Just Another Day at the Beach: 60 Million Years Too Late
Science has a way of creeping up on you. It’s sneaky—like classical music can be sneaky. One day you’re thrashing to the Ramones and Nine Inch Nails and the next you find yourself in tears in the middle of your living room because you just heard Lazlo Varga play a cello in ways you never thought possible and the strings’ vibrations reached out and bent you into a kind of fetal position of perverse ecstasy.
Crane Songs
From out in the fields I hear what has become a familiar spring sound, a loud rattling karooooo-oooooo of a family of sandhill cranes. A sound unique to this season, one that reaches out from primal history:
Such an Uncomfortable Place to Hang Your Ass
When we were kids growing up in the Bible Belt, my mother used to threaten to wash our mouths out with soap if we told dirty jokes. Like a lot of kids in that era, in that place, my older brother and I used to try and juke her out by using off-color biblical references that involved the hint of slightly naughty words.
my brother: “Hey punk, who was the the most flexible man in the Bible?”
A Small Natural Grave
This Northern Flicker egg dropped at our feet while we goofing around with intertubes on the Stillwater River this Memorial Day. It seemed a fitting natural elegiac moment for a day given to remembering the dead.
Wolf Kill, Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (Winter Count #2)
He wasn’t very large by bull moose standards, with a fairly small set of antlers. He didn’t look healthy in fact. He was standing ankle-deep in the river, watching us, not moving, almost unsteady on his legs. Something about the way he was standing didn’t seem “right.” Of all the animals I do not want to tangle with, a bull moose, particularly a sick one, ranks near the top.
Sioux Charley Trail, Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (Winter Count #1)
4:30 A.M. Pitch black. Deep winter. Nothing but darkness and cold. Jack Ballard and I are making time up the trail before first light for an end-of-the-season deer hunt. The light from my headlamp swings back and forth, making me dizzy. I turn it off and move silently up the canyon. We’re aiming for a spot about three miles up and across the river…Out of nowhere it hits us — a howl comes straight out of the darkness.
-
Police Room 619, September 12
-
African Sausage
-
Ten Most Influential Books
-
Sioux Charley Trail, Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (Winter Count #1)
-
Sheep Shearing Video
-
Welcome to Montanamo Bay: Hardin Montana continues its campaign to become Gitmo North
-
Magic City Hen video & Expo this Saturday
-
Some Dreamers Along the Golden Line
-
The Mind Eraser
-
Bright Edges of the Earth
-
Acceptable Blasphemies: Reflections on Opening Day
-
Welcoming Autumn
-
Brad Johnson: Annabel. well, I wouldn't say either sara or i ar...
-
annabel: Sorry, meant Sara....
-
-
Seth Gilcreast: Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog...
-
Sundance: So true. Honesty and evryehitng recognized....
-
Lera Beile: wonderful post...
Subscribe / Connect
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.
Recent Instagram Phtos
