Englandesh project

Here’s Sam Strickland’s fascinating photography project about migration from Sylhet to the UK.

http://www.engladesh.com/

The Writings on the Wall

My good friend Abdul Kargbo, has put up an interesting post on all the photos he has taken on his camera phone in and around the Washington D.C. area of anti-establishment and anti-war graffiti. Those with a keen interest/research in visual culture and anti-war activism will certainly enjoy his commentary.

I hope that the American public finally wakes up to the reality of what 8 years of Bush has done to ruin the US, and elects someone who has the foresight to fix and truly heal the nation!

Sanaz

New Book/DVD-ROM Project: Transcultural Documentary Practice

Projecting Migration – Transcultural Documentary Practice
Edited by Alan Grossman and Áine O’Brien

Migration is one of the major political issues of the current era and increasingly determines who we are and how we define ourselves. Projecting Migration: Transcultural Documentary Practice is a groundbreaking book/DVD-ROM project that explores migration in locations as varied as Lebanon, Ireland, South Africa and the US/Mexico border. Through its diverse collection of essays, films, photography and audio recordings, the project offers a dynamic, fresh approach. Each essay is cross-referenced with DVD chapters of original footage to provide unique practical examples of ethnographic filmmaking, as well as perspectives on the subject not usually portrayed in the media.

‘Borders’ Exhibit in Barcelona

Sent in by photographer Lauren Hermele, an exhibit at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona

“The examination of boundaries we propose in this exhibition is an exploration of borderline territories which somehow express the contradictions of a world that moves between hypercommunication and deep schism. The closer we move together, the more labyrinthine the world becomes.”

From 4 May to 30 September 2007.

‘Borders’

A Story from Slovakia: Cultural Meanings of Hot Buchticky

 

 

A Story from Slovakia: Cultural Meanings of Hot Buchtičky.

by Dickie Wallace, Instructor, Department of Anthropology,
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

 

Slovakia was still part of Czecho-Slovakia then. Independence was still a little more than a year away; it would happen on January 1, 1993. As an American living in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, I was finding that many Westerners seemed to think of “slovakia” as a suffix to the word “Czech”. I often was explaining that Slovakia was more than an afterthought to the Czech nation and that Slovaks were not just the Czechs’ country cousins, not just a bunch of quaint, barely literate villagers. Instead, they were a modern people who, as it would turn out, would create an independent nation-state sooner than almost anyone had expected.

Along with some other jobs, I was teaching English-as-a-Second Language. I’d gotten rather good at it because I was able to use my increasing knowledge of Slovak to explain the idiosyncrasies of English and was able pick and choose what ESL classes I wanted to teach.

Photography Competition

To mark Refugee Week 2007, the Refugee Week Team is organising a photography competition. The deadline for the submission of works is Monday the 21st May.
For information about the competition, how to enter and prizes, go to http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk/Events/Refugee+Week+2007+Photography+Competition.htm

 

Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees

From Max Martin, a freelance journalist based in Bangalore, a recent series of photographs on Sri Lankan Refugees:

2006 marked the highest number of arrivals in 23 years – more people are coming. Their safe passage across the Palk Straits is a major issue – largely unaddressed yet.