Friday, October 11, 2013

Afghan Girl
From the news today, Steve McCurry the photographer who took the starkly beautiful picture of Sharbat Gula, called at that time “Afghan Girl,” which was the cover photo on National Geographic of June 1985, has published a book of his work. It is called Steve McCurry Untold: The Story Behind The Photographs and is available from Phaidon Press as of September 3, 2013. Sharbat Gula was in a refugee camp in Pakistan when the picture was taken, orphaned by the Soviet assault on Afghanistan. She was twelve years old at the time, born in 1972. Now married and living in Afghanistan, she has three daughters who, she hopes, will receive the education that she was unable to get. Her name was unknown at the time the picture was taken, and McCurry tried a number of times to find her. Finally a team from National Geographic located her brother, who got word to her. After a series of false claims by other Afghan women, she was finally identified by iris recognition.
McCurry, in an interview with Newsweek, says “Successful photography is about embracing your spirit of curiosity and exploring subjects that you have a strong interest in—and that can be anywhere. You can go a thousand miles from home, or you can go a thousand miles deep within your own community. Bill Owens did a book about suburbia. Bruce Davidson did a lot of work in his home neighborhoods in New York. Sally Mann photographed her family and subjects close to home.”
“The medium or technology—Instagram, digital or film, or what camera you use—is not important. A successful photograph has to be about telling stories, being creative, having your own interpretation and your own voice to say what is important to you, and to convey that through your photographs. These are just tools, so if the photograph speaks to you, that’s all that’s important in the end.”
About his photographs of the 9/11 scene he says: “Everything was covered in this white ash. And it was very fine, almost like confectioners’ sugar. It was everywhere. The other thing that was really striking was that there was office paper everywhere. It was almost like a late-fall day, when leaves are everywhere. I was ready to go through and see if it was anything important and try to send it back to people. It was a funny kind of instinct.
Right across the street from Ground Zero, there was a deli. It was totally evacuated, but all the sandwiches were laid out on the counter where they had been making lunch. It reminded me of Pompeii. There weren’t any people at Ground Zero, but all the stuff that they had been doing was just frozen in time.”



Sad News About Human Rights
From NBC News

The decision not to reward Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai with the Nobel Peace Prize was met with disappointment and derision across the world, but at least one group was pleased: The one that tried to kill her.
The Pakistani Taliban called the decision "very good news" and praised the committee for "not selecting this immature girl for this famous award," according to a statement by spokesman Shahidullah Shahid

After receiving death threats from the Taliban for defying the Islamist militant group with her outspoken views on the right to education, the 16-year-old was shot a year ago while on a school bus near her village in Swat in northwestern Pakistan. 

"If we get another chance, we will definitely kill her and that will make us feel proud," Shahid said.
The also have reportedly threatened to kill the shopkeepers in her home country if they are found selling the teenager’s new book, "I Am Malala." 

Yousafzai started her campaigning by writing a blog in 2009 in which she described how the Taliban prevented girls like her from going to school. She said being shot had only strengthened her resolve. 
There was also widespread support for Malala in Pakistan and despite her loss the country’s politicians were quick to pay tribute to her.
"Malala is a beacon of light for and an example to be emulated by others for education, she is a proud for Pakistan,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told the country’s state TV station, PTV. 

9:59 AM I'm reading my mystery again, Death Of A Witch, set in a modern day hamlet in Scotland, where there is only one police officer named Hamish MacBeth. From his description I would say he would be appealing to women, but he is quirky in the extreme and ambivalent toward the opposite sex. He is always looking for a new romance, but doesn't lay a claim on the woman who is said to be “his one true love.” He does make an interesting detective as he follows his intuition and digs in on his own, since his Superintendent Blair dislikes him intensely and doesn't support him in his work. He is investigating the death of a new woman in the village who has been distributing Spanish Fly to the local men for a large fee, and some of the villagers are superstitious enough to think she is a witch. Then another death occurs, for which there seems to be no motive and no suspect. I'm continuing now.