Category: Uncategorized
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A Few Words About My Father
At times like this, weird things come into your head. Like how I’ve never heard my Dad sleep for so many hours without snoring. Or how all life is sacred, and with the exception of mosquitoes, any animal in my house has to be trapped in a cup and released outside. Mom is telling me…
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Madagascar: Solar Eclipse at the Pangalanes Canal
I got an email from somebody at some point, soon after we arrived in Madagascar: there was to be a full solar eclipse, and we were invited to stay at the “Bush Camp” on the Pangalanes Canal, wherever that was. I did some digging and found out that there is a series of lakes and…
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Children of the Street: Ankorondrano
A group of about a dozen kids gathers on a small patch of green with a few benches and trees. Basically a large roundabout. Imagine an oblong Dupont Circle, except Starbucks is 3,000 miles away. The sound of traffic is constant. Two young volunteers lug a bag of supplies to a cement bench and quietly…
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Chennai’s Republic Day Parade
Today was a pretty special day in India – even President Obama agreed, as he spent the better part of the day with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, having been invited as Chief Guest for the annual Republic Day Parade. President Obama is honored to be back in #India to celebrate Republic Day and to begin…
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Found Film: The Alberts at Christmas
This is another post in the series on the photos taken by Raymond Albert in and around Rumford, Maine in the late 1940s and early 1950s (see “Introducing the Alberts”). I’m guessing this roll is from Christmas, 1951. It’s always interesting to see what’s under the Christmas trees from yesteryear. The top photo comes from…
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Varanasi: Walking the Ghats
In previous posts I’ve talked about the “ghats” of Varanasi. People keep asking me, “What exactly IS a ghat, anyway?” Basically it’s a series of steps leading down to the river. We spent hours walking along the ghats. And not just because walking parallel to the stairs is much easier than walking up and down…
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It’s 1914 and Everyone’s a Photo Critic
One hundred years ago this month, much of the world was at war. But in the United States – which would eventually mobilize 4 million military personnel – public opinion in 1914 was still firmly on the side of neutrality. This was very evident thumbing through this 100-year-old issue of “The Camera” magazine, published in Philadelphia.…
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Found Film: The Smith Family Celebrates Christmas
I have no idea who this family is, but now that I have developed a bunch of their pictures, I’ve gotten to know them a bit and it only seems appropriate to give them a name. I’m calling them the Smith Family. The Smiths were pretty good about photographing family events and trips, but it…