ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG

From My Ships Window

This was the view from my porthole the other evening.  It is getting cold here and the first snow was today.  My heat, hot water and sewage systems are finally working and only having a few issues with electricity.  Other than that, I hope to get through this winter with as few obstacles as possible!  Now that my internet are working (at least most of the time,) I hope to be able to begin posting several times a week again.  

Yael Naim - She Was a Boy

Two years ago I began a friendship with two of the wold's most kind and talented individuals, Yael Naim and David Donatien. Before I get into our friendship, let me tell you a bit about how we met.

Above is the photo we used for the cover of She Was a Boy

Music plays a big role in my work, although most of you would never know it.  I studied music in university and it has been my passion, probably even more so than photography, for many, many years.  As a photographer, music inspires me both while I am creating images and especially while I am editing them.  My first four years working as a photojournalist I almost always had music on while I was shooting.  As I grew and refined my stile I focused more on getting close to my subjects and relating to them and saved my music for before and after shoots.  But the music is always there.

In 2008 I had an album with me on my travels and this particular album was played more than any other.  It kept me company in Iraq and was my inspiration during my projects in Gaza and the West Bank.  This album was Yael and David's first album together.

It was months later that I would find out that while I was listening to Yael's album in her birthplace, Israel, she and David were watching me on television in my birthplace, Colorado.  

Over the past two years I have spent a lot of my free time with Yael and David and learned to love them, and their music, more than I could have ever expected.  Their music continues to inspire me and I truly hope that my work is able to do the same for them.  

For the past year I have been photographing Yael and David regularly.  I have photographed their concerts, countless recording sessions, day trips, night trips...you name it.  With the release of their new album today there will be a limited edition set of CD's that will come with a photography book of about forty images behind the scenes during the recording sessions.

About the new album, She Was a Boy:  Most of you probably know Yael and David from their hit song New Soul which you may remember from the Macbook Air ads on television.  The rest of that album is also a brilliant mix of styles, languages and sounds and if you haven't bought it yet, do so soon.  She Was a Boy is, in my opinion, an evolution in Yael and David's work.  It is a wonderful journey and I am happy and proud to have been there while it was recorded.  I can tell you that each and every track on the album is an amazing accomplishment in music.  So much time went into perfecting each song, so many people worked with them to make a wonderful fusion of sounds and emotions. 

I would like to quickly thank Yael and David for their kindness and friendship and congratulate them on the album, I know how much work you put into it and all I can say is thank you from all of us who will enjoy listening to it!  Thanks to everyone at the record label, Tot au Tard, it has been a pleasure working with all of you on this project and I look forward to more in the future. 

 

Yael Naim and David Donatien's web site

Yael Naim and David Donatien's blog

 

Here are a few of the images that will be in the limited edition book.  We also plan to work on a full, coffee table book together after I tour with them this spring.  I will keep you all posted on that project.

 

Yael Naim hiding in a tree before a concert in France.

 

 

Yael Naim during a recording session for She Was a Boy in her home outside of Paris

 

David Donatien listening to a recently recorded track

 

Yael Naim working through a new song on her guitar

 

Yael Naim and David Donatien working on the production of a track from She Was a Boy in their studio

 

Yael Naim and David Donatien laying out new tracks in their studio

 

Yael being punished by David for being a naughty girl

 

Yael Naim in the evening light during the recording of She Was a Boy

 

This was one of the press pictures we shot in the forest outside of Paris

 

Yael Naim on the streets of Paris

 

Yael Naim in the car on the way to perform in a concert

 

A shot of Yael Naim in the window of her apartment in Paris.  This is one of the images we considered for the cover. 

PhotoPhilanthropy Awards 2010

There are some really nice new sets of images on the PhotoPhilanthropy website including the winners of this years contest.  This story was a really excellent example of visual storytelling and creating a narrative with still images.  This was a moving set of images about an organization dealing with AIDS.  And my personal choice for the best story this year is really excellent set of images by Fernando Moleres depicting life in prison.  Very nice work.

BP Gulf Oil Spill Images

As with most of the topics I cover, just because the BP gulf cost oil spill is out of the headlines does not mean that the problems relating to it have just vanished.  I think a lot of people, and even a lot of photojournalists, miss important stories because they are only interested in the first couple of weeks of a major event.  These images were taken months after the the oil spill and I am quite sure one could go today and gather similar pictures.  This is why I always encourage my workshop students to cover stories that they believe in and think people need to hear and not just the stories that sell.

You can find part one of this story here.

 
Clean up workers from the US Department of Fish and Wildlife survey a sand bar after fresh oil washed ashore during the previous night.

 

A pelican soars above a white egret with feathers  smudged in oil

 

Clumps of oil litter a beach near Venice, Louisiana 

 

A massive pile of bags filled with oil soaked clean up material after an operation to remove oil from a sand bar

 

A dolphin swims though an area that had been heavily polluted with oil in the wake of the BP spill

 

A volunteer offers free pet food to residents of Grand Isle, Louisiana who rely on the fishing industry to make a living and support themselves and their pets.  Those working in the fishing industry, as well as their pets, face and indefinite future.  Many have chosen to give up their pets for fears of being unable to feed them.

 

A local wears a shirt reading "S.O.S. Save Our Seafood"

 

A sign stands in front of a home for sale in Grand Isle, Louisiana.  Many residents fear that their property may now be worth nothing as the tourism trade in the area has been decimated.

 

A volunteer cleans an oil soaked bird in a bird rehabilitation center

 

Workers try to remove oil from a contaminated beach

 

One of the tens of thousands of offshore oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico

 

A cleanup boat speeds through a waterway in one of the many contaminated regions of Louisiana.  My sincere thanks to the US Coast Guard for allowing me access to their airplanes in order to capture images like the one above.

 

A large clean up crew labors to clean up a beach after yet another batch of oil washes ashore