Nikola Tamindzic (photography)

homeofthevain.com

Born in 1973 and based in New York City, Nikola Tamindzic established his reputation when he started shooting nightlife reportage for Nick Denton's notorious Gawker in 2004. The photo galleries fused Gawker's irreverent editorial vision with Tamindzic's photographic talents to present the faces of the time in a less mediated way. Today, he lives and takes pictures in the Lower East Side, and his distinctive style has breathed much needed life into the somewhat jaded genre of nightlife photography.

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The history of "Afghan Girl" (the photo of Steve McCurry)

National Geographic has published two texts about "Afghan girl": the original, and about when the NG staff returned to Afghanistan.

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Kurdistan (photos)

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurdistan4all/ 

Interesting pictures from a interesting place.

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Israel takes control of more West Bank land (photo and politics)

(peace!!!) image from here

Israel has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent West Bank settlement, paving the way for the possible construction of 2,500 settlement homes, officials said Monday, in a new challenge to Mideast peacemaking.

Successive Israeli governments have broken promises to the United States to halt settlement expansion, defined by Washington as an obstacle to peace. Ongoing expansion is likely to create friction not only with the Palestinians, but with President Barack Obama, whose Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has long pushed for a settlement freeze. Obama has said he'd get involved quickly in Mideast peace efforts.[complete text]

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Raphael - The School of Athens (painting)

The Academy, by Raphael

A legendary hero in Greek mythology, Akademos (originally Hekademos) or, less correctly, Academus was linked to the archaic name for the site of Plato's Academy, the Hekademeia, outside the walls of Athens. By classical times the name of the place had evolved into the Akademeia and was explained by linking it to an eponymous Athenian hero, a legendary "Akademos," at least as early as the beginning of the 6th century BC. The site was sacred to Athena and other immortals; it had sheltered religious cult since the Bronze Age, which was perhaps associated with the hero-gods, the Dioskouroi (Castor and Polydeukes), for the hero Akademos associated with the site was credited with revealing to the Divine Twins where Theseus had hidden Helen of Troy. [source]

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Stephen Perry (Photography)

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I took up photography after travelling the far east with my Yashica F1. Being on my own with a camera in such a varied world recording the people and places was so fantastic that I was convinced that photography would be my life.

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Prestes Maia, by Tatiana Cardeal

link, link, link

Prestes Maia, was considered the largest vertical occupation in Latin America. The building was an old textile factory abandoned more than 20 years ago, and the owners owe millions in taxes to the municipal government. Some 2,000 people were living there, members of the Downtown Homeless Movement.

I've been documenting some fragments of their social changes since june, 2005. It's a bit of the history of São Paulo's society, where I was born. The building, it's people, their constant fear of loosing everything, some smiles, the fight.

As one said:
"What supports this building it's not the building in itself, but this people".

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"War is a spectator sport"

Robert Fisk (about Israel-Gaza conflict):

War [is] a spectator sport whose careful monitoring – rather like a football match, even though the Middle East is a bloody tragedy – assumed precedence over human suffering.

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