robert giraud et romi (1947)

fourth of fourth – what in the mondo does that mean? well i didn’t know either until rhan tagged me! basically, you’re supposed to take the fourth picture or image out of the fourth folder on your computer. the image above is what i found, one of my favourites by robert doisneau.

l’apres midi d’un faune, with maurice baquet (1957)

he became one of my favourite photographers ever since i bought a calendar in a steveston village gift shop three years ago. i was just sifting through the shop’s inventory when i came across a calendar of doisneau’s rare photos featuring the cello! it turns out that the store owner’s wife is a cellist too, and she thought that this particular calendar would be a nice addition to their shop. i walked out with two of the exact same calendars that fine afternoon, one for me and one for my cello teacher.

just to show you how much i really do admire monsieur doisneau’s work (and not just because he loves the cello too), here’s one wall of my current room.

it’s covered in poster-sized calendar pages of early 20th century paris street photos – by who, you say? well you can probably guess by now. the top row second image from the left is the famous le basier de l’hotel de ville. my bed is right below these gems so they are the first things i see when i wake, and the last things i see before going to bed! on that happy note, i in turn tag danica, mette, natsumi and yasu :)

well, we’re about an inch away from the biggest, most important election since who knows when, so i’m gonna spiel about it a bit (as a canadian). media and american politics – they’ve become one and the same, inseparable, almost synonymous. is media helping or hindering the campaigns, or both?

first there’s the presidential candidates using mainstream media advertisements to promote themselves and or to desecrate their opponents. on the other hand, there’s sarah palin being incessantly attacked by the press. she calls them out for being ruthless and in return, journalists call her out for her refusal to address them in the first place. even non-politicians are getting all caught up in this media crossfire – people are now finding other things to complain about, things like, to name a few, the lack of barack obama as an object of ridicule on saturday night live. sarah palin’s opportunistic cameo on weekend update and lorne michaels allowing her to do so. john mccain cancelling his appearance on david letterman to “fly to washington to save the economy” but instead doing an interview on cbs news.

throughout all this we can see how media is politics this election season, at least more so than ever before, but in a vehemently negative way. in this war of words and emotions we seem to have forgotten about the still moments, the contemplative moments where we realize that these candidates are all regular people too. callie shell addresses this factor particularly well in her photojournalist series on barack obama. i don’t see this as a “they would do this to idealize obama but they wouldn’t do this for mccain” thing… it’s just good, powerful photojournalism to me. and this makes me appreciate the photographs all the more.

i guess photography doesn’t clearly define itself as a form of ‘mainstream’ media because it is characteristically still, and stillness doesn’t exist in politics. it’s always about movement, about change and reform, about moving forward. through callie shell’s work, however, we are given access to privileged moments in which the fervour dies down and the election machine grinds to a halt. in these photos, all is quiet and ordinary on the road to the white house.

simple and intelligent packaging