2013 Sony World Photography Awards Shortlist (1)

Thanks RS for opening my eyes...

The calm of both human and animal. The things we miss as we are preparing. My partner was getting her flippers on and I was already prepared and ready to get in so I swam out to see if I could get this shot, I could have never imagined that in a million years I would have a turtle just cruising by at the moment I stuck my head under. How blessed. (© Nathan Wills, Australia, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

One Day in History. Portraits of children and youths who survived the massacre on the island of Utoeya outside Oslo, Norway on 22nd of July 2011. "I bear my scars with dignity, because I got them standing for something I believe in." Ylva Schwenke, age 15, from Tromso¸ hid by a path called "the love path". She was shot in the shoulder, her stomach and in both of her thighs.(© Andrea Gjestvang, Norway, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

I took this photo in spring 2012 in Rome, my hometown. It was taken with a monorail view camera (5x6 film) and manually developed, after it was scanned and post produced. I took care of the entire process and working on film, it took me quite many tries to have the perfect shadow and exposure; I had to go back to the location several times to and always hope it was sunny enough, once I spent the whole day in front of that wall, just to check at which time of the day the shadow was looking more geometrical, eventually I decided on 2pm.(© Martina Biccheri, Italy, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

A huge wasp measuring 2.5 inches in length, visiting the banana tree in my front yard.(© John Matzick, USA, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Melissa Wu of Australia practices during a diving training session ahead of the London Olympic Games at the Aquatics Center in Olympic Park, on July 25, 2012 in London, England. (© Adam Pretty/Getty Images, Australia, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

"Love Grows" is an ongoing project that started in 2011, representing the two most important moments in a woman's life; pregnancy and maternity. These are moments of complete change, both physical and psychological, a change of identity that can take on different connotation for better or for worse. I think it's an experience that leads up to an ancestral connection with nature that accompanies the woman to a deeper understanding of herself. (© Michela Taeggi, Italy, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

A view from Szczeliniec to Owls Mountains and Klodzko valley, Poland.(© Pawel Uchorczak, Poland, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Photo from the Portraits category, Youth Competition. (© Berta Vicente, Spain, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Colorful field on the Plain of Castelluccio di Norcia in springtime during an explosion of blossoming. Italy, 2012.(© Roberto Bettacchi, Italy, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Ghoramara island is located on a delta region in West Bengal. Due to the dramatic increase in sea level, resulting from the effects global warming since the 1960s, the shores of this island are being perpetually washed away. Since the 1980s more than 50% of the territory has vanished due to erosion by the sea. Many of the people still living on the island are farmers and fishermen who depend on the island's resources for their livelihoods. According to a civil servant I met, in 20-25 years the Indian government could abolish the island and has already formulated a plan to evacuate villagers to another island named Sagar. However, this evacuation plan does not ensure any financial support or compensation for those having to relocate their lives. I situated villagers on the shore and took portraits of them in juxtaposition with the beauty of the vanishing island. There will come a day when these people will have no choice but to move out of their homeland. (© Daesung Lee, Korea, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

A feeble attempt to justify a just war!

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Yet another American glorifying Muslim bashing terror slashing military procedural film which looks at American problems as world problems. Their gung ho way of handling terror is through more violence and more might and fire-power!

I was quite surprised that this movie received many rave reviews and praises from critiques. Personally, it is just another lob sided depiction of terror without addressing the issue holistically but from a very miopic unintelligent view of a jaundiced American vision. I guess this type of 'patriotism' is gaining momentum of late. 

History tells us that Hollywood plays its stellar 'tour of duty' role whenever the going gets tough in America. During WW2, the silver screen played its role as a morale booster when the war was heading nowhere. It cushioned the sad news of the fall of their young soldiers by trumpeting American's just fight for liberty and freedom. After its faithful duty all these while, now, of buffering its economic recovery, what better way can there be then to fan nationalistic sentiments. Evidence of this is evident in the number of patriotism reminiscing movies by big directors - like this one by Kathryn Bigelow, Lincoln by Spielberg, Django by Taratino (but looking at US history in a rather cynical way).

Kathryn Bigelow who, in 2009, received many accolades for her other patriotic flick 'Hurt Locker', did this movie in the same fashion. Fighting in a just war, trying to protect their homeland from invaders who do not their idea of liberty and freedom, Maya, a green horned CIA agent, who was head hunted from high school, goes on personal vendetta on a crusade to hunt down terrorists with the information obtained through her interrogations of suspected terrorists. The interrogation techniques which were in the news for all the wrong reasons like violent torture, water boarding and 'walking the dog' are shown here. 

This story is a semi historical narration of the events which precede and subsequently ended with the death of Osama Bin-Laden. Stereotyping of Muslims are its fullest heights here. I wonder why all the leaders who were crying foul over the depiction of their counterparts in 'Vishwaroopam' are mum here. Well, we all know that all the hullabaloo which preceded its launch was business in origin, not religious in origin. What better way to stir emotions for personal reasons than to fall on racial and theological sentiments?   

James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano of the series 'Sopranos') plays a memorable role as a CIA chief here. His way of acting is exactly like how he acted in 'Sopranos' as a mob boss- with the arrogance, attitude and the explicit superlative expressions. Guess they are all the same - law enforcers and law breakers, only that one uses the law as a shield whilst the other shield themselves from the law with lawyers!

Maybe because I do not particularly fancy purposeless shooting of people just because they wear a turban! And it is quite difficult to fathom civil servants fighting their superiors because of public interest.

Another look into Psy's psyche!

Hey, this guy is  quiet cerebral. He has low self esteem, he likes Freddie Mercury, he likes Hitchcock and he thinks a lot, like us! I thought it would be another pompous star talking shallow things but how wrong I was!

As long as there are suckers!

American Greed Season 4 (2010)

After immersing myself in murders and death with Hitchcock and Tarantino, I decided to dwell on another of man's favourite desires—greed. I managed to watch the whole fourth season, 12 episodes of American Greed.

It is the same story again and again. As long as there are suckers, they will always be cheaters. This is just one season I watched; imagine what will be shown in the 8 seasons! Looks like the whole of America is sprawling with cheats and conmen. Everywhere you see, people are so gullible. It is always the same modus operandi, the end point is always money.

The gullible victims are not just mere laymen. In one episode, we even see Bill Clinton introducing a so-called philanthropist, Raffaello Follieri, who had pledged half a million dollars for a vaccination project in South America. Follieri even hooked up with actress Anne Hathaway. He turned out to be a fraud and a dropout from Italy who failed in many business ventures till he finally used his alleged Vatican connections to buy abandoned churches for a song in the US.

 Then there was a story of 2 ladies who pick up homeless men in different parts of the country, buy insurance policies and eventually kill them off to collect their insurance money. A pair of sisters supplying nuts and bolts to the Army started to fleece the US Armed Forces of millions of dollars when they realised a loophole in postage charges in the system. A devout Jew who had a passion for women and gambling is also shown to cheat people of their hard-earned money. Members of the medical and pharmaceutical industries were no angels either. A dermatologist convinced people to undergo unnecessary treatment, and Pfizer is shown to be involved in unethical practices of giving loads of goodies to doctors to promote Bextra, a painkiller.

Men will never learn. These types of cheats and cheating are bound to continue despite advancements in security features and awareness of the general public.

Do the Harlem Shake!

After the sensational Korean's internet hit which went viral and spurned a few copy cats and disasters (like Malaysia's lame hit 'Dabbangkoothu'), the latest craze that seem to hit the cyberspace is the 'Harlem Shake'!
Psy, an ardent Hitchcock admirer who fashioned his name after the thriller 'Psycho had rocked major events like super league games and political party games, 'the shake' had got many institutions shaking.
The Harlem Shake is actually a short 1-minute snippet which starts in a setting of office or organization where one character (with a mask) would be dancing alone to an instrumental techno beat music while the rest would be buried in their own work. Suddenly after the first half, all the others would join in the mayhem, dancing away in asynchronous movements donning loud colored costumes like feathers or animal costumes to an upbeat Spanish song. The dancing steps can be construed as lewd, funny, inappropriate or devoid of social etiquette (depending on which generation the viewer belongs to). Just so that you know!

A touching story

A Stray Hero from Hisyam on Vimeo.

The Sorcerer and Bug slayer!

Finisher trophy

So, my inner demon was at work again. This time he got some help from his minute friend of the electron microscopy type. Bogged by an intestinal bug, I was losing precious electrolytes. I had two minds of making it a DNS (did not start) for health reasons. That is when my haloed friend turned up. I thought I was not running for my life or living to run, so run as much as I could and then I can always take the shortest way home! With that defeatist outlook towards completing the race, I armoured myself ready to slay the demon in me.
The race, this time around was chaotic. My suspicion of the demonous businessmen making headway in the arena of recreational appears to be true with every race. The registrants keep growing bigger but the goodies gets smaller! Somebody must be laughing all the way to the bank!

The Sorcerer

Starting off was a non-event, minus all the pomp and usual excitement. I had to wait a good 4 minutes of crawling to clear my chip on the mat. As I started running in the back of the pack, I kept bumping into others and getting away from the pack proved futile. I thought it was either I was getting slow or the runners were getting younger and faster but of course the real reason was the sheer number! Nobody actually had any space to run. It was beelining and beehiving all the way and I thought it would clear after the treacherous hills, it never did materialize. The 10km fun runners were at it again - jaywalking, wiping their profuse sweat again and again and chit-chating, holding hands. Even at 20km mark, runners had to manouvre themselves away from others' sweaty bodies and posteriors!
As for my running, as if manouvering my sub-optimal lethargic body through the crowd was not difficult enough, I had to combat the humidly hot climate of 28 degrees C and still air. After 9km, the going was getting tough. Power gel popped in then proved its mantle by 12km and slowly its effect waned by 15km. With all the shuffling and shoving, I almost wanted to saunter off to my car to drive back home....
Being the lazy runner that I am, I just continued with the pack albeit at a slower pace. Negativity to stop came in many forms. Seeing the St John Ambulance's paramedic at km 15 performing CPR on a collapsed runner did not boost anyone's confidence.
Dragging my weary body, against all odds, managed to complete the race but a much slower than usual timing. Oh, what the heck! The first outing as a senior Veteran did not have to gone well. But it will definitely be the last outing in Brooks! The much sort after run in the grandiosity of the National Stadium also never materialized. Like what someone commented, "The nearest we got to the stadium, beside the car park is the toilet!"