‘Rooftopper’ captures vertigo-inducing cityscapes (via blog.flickr.net)

When I was young I was really afraid of heights and it took me a long time to get over that fear. I think that's why the work of Daniel Cheong really inspires me to re-look at the angles of life that I have missed when I was younger. Check out this article from Blog.flickr.net that I found about Daniel Cheong and his remarkable photoghraphy:

Most of us would have a panic attack standing hundreds of feet up in the air, hovering above a bustling city. But for Daniel Cheong, known on Flickr as DanielKHC, there’s no bigger thrill than “rooftopping” — a heart-stopping photography movement which involves daring photographers climbing to the top of city skyscrapers, capturing incredible and adrenaline-pumping views beneath them.

“The feeling being so high up is indescribable, it’s like you almost own the city from a photographic point of view,” Daniel tells The Weekly Flickr in the accompanying video. “It’s just a surreal experience to capture that moment.”

Living in Dubai, Daniel is surrounded by some of the most architecturally beautiful and tallest buildings in the world. Apart from a couple of photos he took from a helicopter, all his shots are taken from high balconies or rooftops. Daniel describes being up so high as an exciting experience that offers spectacular 360 degree views that most people would only dream of.

“It’s so exciting to watch a big city look like a big jewel, with so many millions of lights shining on buildings nearby,” Daniel says. “You can spend the whole night shooting there — shooting wide, shooting with a tele[photo] lens or close to a building, etc.,” Daniel explains. “At the end of any rooftop session, you can walk away with hundreds of different shots, and it’s incredible.”

It helps that he isn’t afraid of heights. Daniel, however, does encounter dangerous and unpredictable situations on his shoots.

“In order to get the best pictures, I put my tripod close to the edge [of the buildings],” Daniel explains. “But I’ve been on some rooftops where the ledge is too high, so I find myself climbing a ladder [that he carries with him] to reach the ledge. And the whole time I just sit there, trying not to move too much, using my camera on a very fixed space. I won’t lie, it can be frightening at times.” What makes Daniel’s photos so captivating is they border the line of surrealism. He does this purposely by using a process called digital blending, which consists of combining multiple exposures of the same scene (but taken at different shutter speeds) to create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image.

“When you apply that HDR process to a cityscape, the results can be extremely beautiful,” Daniel explains. “The clarity and the level of details just pops. Also, because I’m using a camera that has a very high megapixel size, sometimes you can see up to a window or even past it. This is why I call my photography ‘hyper-realistic cityscape photography.’ I try to enhance the image and details so it’s even beyond what the human eye can see.” One of Daniel’s favorite photos to capture are called “vertigo views” which is simply shooting the camera looking down but away from the building. This style of photography is striking and incredible, but it can induce a sense of vertigo, which Daniel says has caused some of his viewers to feel uncomfortable.

One of the scariest experiences Daniel’s ever had was shooting a vertigo view called Glamorous.

“I had the chance to get access to the 101th floor of a building under construction in Dubai Marina,” Daniel explains. “There were amazing 360 degree views from there, however there was no ledge. In the end, my camera was low on the tripod, looking down literally hanging, and I was crawling on the floor to compose the shot. It was terrifying but the photo came out beautifully.”

Today on Flickr, Daniel has over 20,000 followers and over 10 million views. The challenge he faces is to produce a new image that’s better than the last. He constantly strives to find new rooftops, angles and viewpoints that inspire viewers.

“At the end of the day, the reaction I want from the viewer is ‘Whoa’,” Daniel admits. “Every shot I post, I want the viewer to say ‘Wow, he did it again.’ That’s what makes me happy. I love to share what I see with everyone else, and that’s what keeps me going back up for more.”

Visit Daniel’s photostream to see more of his photography.

CROWDED HONG KONG APARTMENTS BY MICHAEL WOLF (Via blog.gessato.com)

Posted by Kimberly on Feb 27, 2013 in PHOTOGRAPHY
Known for his series “Architecture of Density” that depicts the brutalist, compact apartments of Hong Kong, photojournalist Michael Wolf takes a more humanist approach to portraying the desperate, and often abhorrent, housing situation. Furthering the protests from the Society for Community Organization, the series of aerial snapshots of the interiors of Hong Kong apartments depict difficult juxtapositions. A man eats his dinner only a few feet away from the peeling paint on the apartment wall, while two siblings share a bed surrounded by shelves stuffed with shoes, boxes, and their life belongings. The aerial perspective is not just an artistic choice; it is a necessary one for lack of space, which is far too expensive per square foot for those living in poverty. Wolf’s continued choice to position himself as an outsider in his role as a documentarian highlights the cramped quarters, and draws attention to cry for proper government response.

via

FaceboookTwitterPinterestGoogle+Share on TumblrStumbleUponLinkedinDIGG

ABOUT KIMBERLY LI - Kimberly is a graduate from MIT's Department of Architecture, and has recently joined the publication team at MIT OpenCourseWare. While architecture remains her first love, her interests encompass literature – epic poetry and Medieval romances are her favorite – and also fashion. She delights in various design projects, featured on her website "unkliched".

Mike Brodie 'A Period Of Juvenile Prosperity' a Glimpse Of Absolute Freedom by Adam Hogue

There is always train hopping.

Everyone has a deep desire to escape from society. In some it is stronger than others, but it is there in everyone. Karl Marx (I know, Marx) developed a theory that human nature is unified only in our need to labor on nature for survival. Human nature becomes a product of labor and, being human, the more we build on nature, the more we change ourselves.

We are a species in constant building from our imaginations and in constant building over what people have already created. We are trapped in an ever-growing society in both scope and complexity.

It is through this that there exists a desire to escape in some way.

To some, the search for solitude means taking to the woods of Maine for 27 years likeChristopher Knight or going off to see America like Chris McCandless, a story with a sad ending many are familiar with from Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. There is a whole spectrum on what disconnecting means for each person, but there is indeed some intrinsic need to escape and it will inevitably manifest itself in some way.

It is the escape that made Walden, that made On the Road, that made A Walk in the Woods,that made Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and that made Fight Club. It is the desire to burn everything down until there is nothing but the basic human left, simply living with an abandon of everything else around them; even if it is for something as small as a one-hour jog.

A recent set of photographs made me think. They are photos by Mike Brodie from his book A Period of Juvenile Prosperity. When Mike was a teenager, he met a punk-rock girl. While sitting on her porch one night, he met a train-hopper.

Two weeks later, at the age of 17, he hopped on his first train.

"I had no idea what I was doing, but I just got on a train and went somewhere." -Mike Brodie  

From the series "A Period of Juvenile Prosperity" #0924, 2006-2009 C-Print

Mike Brodie, courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York 

It is not often that I get moved to write about something immediately. But, this world of train hopping did it. The piece brought about a distinct memory that seems to have dug itself into the recesses of my mind. I was walking down Main Street in Keene, New Hampshire after work one evening and I ran into a shabby couple with a dog advertising on a sign that they needed a ride. They were sacked out on a bit of grass off the sidewalk with a couple of bags and a guitar. The guy came up to me and asked if I knew where he could hop on a train out of Keene as they had driven in with a friend from another town.

They told me they had been train-hopping for the past year with no destination or goals in mind. While seeing two people asking for a ride on the side of the road didn’t immediatelyawaken a sense of wonder in me, something about the absolute freedom that comes with getting rid of everything really resonated with me.

To just walk away from status and money and technology and routine and replace it with concrete basic interaction really puts a perspective on what living means. Are we here or inhere?

(The hand gestures made that a bit clearer, I pointed to the floor when I wrote, “here” and I pointed at my laptop when I wrote, “in here”)

From the series "A Period of Juvenile Prosperity" #5060, 2006-2009 C-Print

Mike Brodie, courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

The idea of train hopping and Mike Brodie’s photographs has the feel of a bygone era that is still very much alive and immortalized. In my mind, I think “train-hopping” and I think of hobos with a sack on a stick and in reality, that’s totally what it is. Train-hoppers are a stereotype for a reason. But, it is a snapshot of a freedom that exists at the very core of being once everything else is burned away.

Unproductive? Yes.

Escapism? Sure.

Pointless? Quite possibly.

But it is real.

There is a distinctive freedom that is captured in the photos that might be fleeting, even whiletrain hopping. But, it is a freedom that exists nonetheless and it can only be engaged when one is completely separated, even for a moment, from the world that history has created and we continue to contribute to. It is what Jack London refers to in Call of the Wild as the paradox of living:

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.

From the series "A Period of Juvenile Prosperity" #5286, 2006-2009 C-Print

Mike Brodie, courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

If anything, the photo series shows that the world is still a very big place and there is no right way to do anything. There is still a world beyond the Internet and tourism books and department stores. The scope of human experience has never been any bigger than it is now and quality can exist in anything.

If a bunch of dirty hippies in boxcars don’t awaken your spirit as they did mine, at least take away that we can all still wake up and choose to be our own person.

Or to put it more visually:

From the series "A Period of Juvenile Prosperity" #5126, 2006-2009 C-Print

Mike Brodie, courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

“I don’t miss time spent on the trains that much because I can get back on anytime; it’s a free country.” -Mike Brodie

You can buy this book on Amazon:

A Period of Juvenile Prosperity Hardcover – March 1, 2013

by Mike Brodie (Author) , Jack Woody (Editor)

9 Used from $65.5023 New from $75.009 Collectible from $199.99

At 17 Mike Brodie hopped his first train close to his home in Pensacola, FL thinking he would visit a friend in Mobile, AL. Instead the train went in the opposite direction to Jacksonville, FL. Days later, Brodie rode the same train home, arriving back where he started. Nonetheless, it sparked something and Brodie began to wander across the U.S. by any means that were free - walking, hitchhiking and train hopping. Shortly after, Brodie found a Polaroid camera stuffed behind a carseat. With no training in photography and coke-bottle glasses, the instant camera was an opening for Brodie to document his experiences. As a way of staying in touch with his transient community,Brodie shared his pictures on various websites gaining the moniker The Polaroid Kidd [sic]. When the Polaroid film he used was discontinued, Brodie switched to 35mm film and a sturdy 1980s camera. Brodie spent years crisscrossing the U.S. amassing a collection, now appreciated as one of the most impressive archives of American travel photography. When asked about his approach to travel and photography Brodie has said: sometimes I take a train the wrong way or...whatever happens a photo will come out of it, so it doesn't really matter where I end up.

The Hyena and Other Men by Pieter Hugo (Via ispyanimals and agonistica)

Now wouldn't it be a bit scary to come across a gang like this? 

I think so! Even though they have a muzzle on their....uh...hyenas.

Yes, those are Spotted hyenas; the most aggressive and the largest of the four different hyena types.

How large are they?  Check out the size difference between Hyena Man and Hyena:

That's a pretty big predator to have leaning up against you! 

Did you know that hyenas have the strongest bite force of any mammal?  They crush bones. A five-hour old hyena pup can crack the leg bone of an antelope.  Yikes.

So why do the Hyena Men of Nigeria even have hyenas? 

Though reported in an African newspaper that these guys were "bank robbers, body guards,...and debt-collectors", they are known to locals as Gadawan Kura...hyena handlers.

Hyena Men are really traveling performers who sell traditional herbs, potions and charms. 

They use their hyenas, baboons, and a few rock pythons to attract and entertain crowds. The baboons do somersaults and dance to the beat of drums; the hyenas mesmerize the onlookers.

The Hyena Men even sell charms to people who want to pet the animals without fear.  A self-generating business!

Hyena Men claim they can also capture wild animals for others.  How?  They track the animal, stun it with smoke mixed with certain herbs, give it charms to make it tame, and bring it back to the customer.  

These guys don't mess around...they're tough.  

And smart.  Business is booming... and booming well enough for these Hyena Men to establish for themselves yam, maize, and cassava farms; an impressive retirement plan for wandering minstrels.

And think of the stories they'll have to tell!

The Hyena and Other Men by Pieter Hugo

  

These photographs came about after a friend emailed me an image – write Pieter Hugo - taken on a cellphone through a car window in Lagos, Nigeria, which depicted a group of men walking down the street with a hyena in chains. A few days later I saw the image reproduced in a South African newspaper with the caption ‘The Streets of Lagos’. Nigerian newspapers reported that these men were bank robbers, bodyguards, drug dealers, debt collectors. Myths surrounded them. The image captivated me.

Through a journalist friend I eventually tracked down a Nigerian reporter, Adetokunbo Abiola, who said that he knew the ‘Gadawan Kura’ as they are known in Hausa (a rough translation: ‘hyena handlers/guides’).

A few weeks later I was on a plane to Lagos. Abiola met me at the airport and together we took a bus to Benin City where the ‘hyena men’ had agreed to meet us. However, when we got there they had already departed for Abuja.

In Abuja we found them living on the periphery of the city in a shantytown – a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons. It turned out that they were a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. The animal handlers were all related to each other and were practising a tradition passed down from generation to generation. I spent eight days travelling with them.

The spectacle caused by this group walking down busy market streets was overwhelming. I tried photographing this but failed, perhaps because I wasn’t interested in their performances. I realised that what I found fascinating was the hybridisation of the urban and the wild, and the paradoxical relationship that the handlers have with their animals – sometimes doting and affectionate, sometimes brutal and cruel. I started looking for situations where these contrasting elements became apparent. I decided to concentrate on portraits. I would go for a walk with one of the performers, often just in the city streets, and, if opportunity presented itself, take a photograph. We travelled around from city to city, often chartering public mini-buses.

I agreed to travel with the animal wranglers to Kanu in the northern part of the country. One of them set out to negotiate a fare with a taxi driver; everyone else, including myself and the hyenas, monkeys and rock pythons, hid in the bushes. When their companion signalled that he had agreed on a fare, the motley troupe of humans and animals leapt out from behind the bushes and jumped into the vehicle. The taxi driver was completely horrified. I sat upfront with a monkey and the driver. He drove like an absolute maniac. At one stage the monkey was terrified by his driving. It grabbed hold of my leg and stared into my eyes. I could see its fear.

Two years later I decided to go back to Nigeria. The project felt unresolved and I was ready to engage with the group again. I look back at the notebooks I had kept while with them. The words ‘dominance’, ‘codependence’ and ‘submission’ kept appearing. These pictures depict much more than an exotic group of travelling performers in West Africa. The motifs that linger are the fraught relationships we have with ourselves, with animals and with nature.

The second trip was very different. By this stage there was a stronger personal relationship between myself and the group. We had remained in contact and they were keen to be photographed again. The images from this journey are less formal and more intimate.

The first series of pictures had caused varying reactions from people – inquisitiveness, disbelief and repulsion. People were fascinated by them, just as I had been by that first cellphone photograph. A director of a large security company in the USAcontacted me, asking how to get in touch with the ‘hyena group’. He saw marketing potential: surely these men must use some type of herb to protect themselves against hyenas, baboons, dogs and snakes? He thought that security guards, soldiers and his own pocket could benefit from this medicine.

Many animal-rights groups also contacted me, wanting to intervene (however, the keepers have permits from the Nigerian government). When I asked Nigerians, “How do you feel about the way they treat animals”, the question confused people. Their responses always involved issues of economic survival. Seldom did anyone express strong concern for the well-being of the creatures. Europeans invariably only ask about the welfare of the animals but this question misses the point. Instead, perhaps, we could ask why these performers need to catch wild animals to make a living. Or why they are economically marginalised. Or why Nigeria, the world’s sixth largest exporter of oil, is in such a state of disarray.

You can buy the Book on Amazon: The Hyena & Other Men Hardcover by Pieter Hugo (Photographer)

New from          $905.98

Used from         $437.79

Collectible from $875.00