Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, also known as T-E-E-D, released a new track yesterday. It’s based on a mainstream and quite catchy electro loop accompanied by a pleasant vocal line which makes it sweet & easy for background music. Also, it gives me an opportunity to show you an old, random photo from Barcelona that I don’t think I ever posted here. Click it for big. If you want to.. I mean, I know it’s kind of weird.
Crown Princess Mary of Denmark opened the “Welcome World Citizen no. 7 billion” photo exhibition in the town hall of Copenhagen on the 9th of November. Copenhagen’s Mayor of Culture and Recreation, Pia Allerslev, and Denmarks Minister of Development, Christian Friis Bach, spoke about Denmark, sustainability and the growing world population. UNFPA’s director, the incredibly friendly Safiye Cagar, presented the latest State of World Population report, entitled “People and Possibilities in a World of 7 Billion“. I realized that the Danish Minister of Development is as charming, funny and well-spoken as the Crown Princess of Denmark is beautiful. And I have to admit I like him just a little bit more as we share the same last name.
The exhibition, organized by National Geographic and UNFPA, will be open for visitors until the 19th of November, and if you live in Copenhagen you should really try to stop by – it’s very good. Click here for more details.
Today I attended the global launch of UNDP’s Human Development Report at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen.
You can download the report and see the new data from UNDP’s website: http://hdr.undp.org/en/
The role that media plays in protest settings is huge. I’ve been there, seen it, been part of it. We, the photographers, reporters, people filming with mobile phones, have a huge responsibility. Both in getting the material out there, but also in trying our best to show the right image of what actually happened.
The young Italian photographer Ruben Salvadori has made a study and a presentation about the phenomenon of when people taking part in protest tend to get more violent when in front of a camera in order to give the photographer a good shot.
Barcelona sin miedo. Photo taken by me during the protests of #Spanishrevolution. Barcelona, May 2011. Current stats in flickr: 8,380 views.
The camera is a very powerful weapon, but it is also important to remember that it often is difficult to get media attention if there is nothing “sexy” in the images that come out from popular protest. And without media attention, the chances of actual change decrease significantly when dealing with a counterpart with more power. A great example of this is the village of Bil’in in Palestine, that I visited in 2010.
My photo of a woman protecting herself against teargas during one of the weekly demonstrations in Bil’in in April 2010.
With weekly demonstrations every friday since 2005, they have had to stay creative in order to keep the attention of the media, while trying their best to continue insisting on protesting non-violently, despite deep frustration.
These are excerpts from the very interesting movie Bil’in Habibti from 2006, by Israeli activist and filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak, who’s brother I met in April 2010. As some of you know, I wrote my Master thesis on constructive non-violent action in Israel.
So, while photographers and media sometimes try to create visuals more dramatic than the actual setting, there are much larger quantities of serious violence and injustice that go completely unnoticed. The protests of #spanishrevolution were very poorly covered in Swedish media, not to even wish for any updates from places like Burma, where all footage must meet with the approval of the censorship board.
If you ask me, I think it’s perfectly okay to ask for attention where outer influence is of significant importance, but the photographer’s responsibility is to be very careful in order not to lose credibility or, in worst case, spark violence.
A grundvän is the person you can just always hang out with. With or without dancing shoes on, with or without a movie, with or without a specific thing to do. It’s the person you can spend hours with without talking, or doing nothing but. Or dancing, or laughing, or singing, or eating.. You know, no limits, no rules, no layers. Now, Vogue.
I am subscribing to the releases of Bad Panda Records on Soundcloud so whenever they upload something new, my phone blinks and I have a fresh tune to listen to. Two days ago I woke up to this darling. Perfect for the mood I was in then, and perfect for right now.
You can download the Rainbow Reef EP from Athens based Monday Night Fever for free if you click the link above. If you haven’t tried Soundcloud yet, do it. It’s a great tool for keeping track of your favourite labels and all those random creative artists you just love to love.
Earlier today, the United Nations’ Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, addressed all UN staff in the new UNICEF warehouse in Copenhagen. He spoke about sustainability, the current world situation, the Millennium Development Goals, and about working together as One UN in the new UN City building that will be inaugurated next year – bringing together all UN agencies in the world’s sixth largest UN city. He also mentioned the UN reform and how we have to be more effective, creative and cooperative between the agencies in order to work for less and “cut off the fat”, i.e. reduce unnecessary costs. “Because nobody wants to carry the body fat. [sic!]” Ban Ki-moon was a humble man with a sense of humour and an ability to make a formal speech sound informal and simple. In the end a photo was taken with the Secretary General together with the entire UN family. I hope I didn’t blink.
Here are some more photos from the magical deer park north of Copenhagen that we went to this Saturday. Jægersborg Dyrehave is just a 15 minute trainride from Copenhagen so I will definitely be going back when it’s covered in snow.
This weekend we are saying goodbye to our friend Rubén who is leaving Copenhagen. It was also my first weekend off since a very long time so I really wanted to relax and have fun. I have been spending time with great people and the weather has been perfect so I consider my mission accomplished. Following are some details from Friday to Sunday. Adiós Rubén, you will be missed!
On Friday Avina crossed the bridge and after staff bar all happy people danced the night away. Saturday was spent in the sun with heaps of deer at Klampenborg Dyrehave and later in Habibi’s place where Rubén was an angel and cooked for us very tired people. Later we met up with more people and went dancing at Christiania’s 40th anniversary festival. Sunday was spent at Hotel Habibi where we were invited for bottle-chicken and shisha by the very courteous host. After dinner and some TV we all walked down to the beautiful Hotel Habibi gardens to enjoy the last moments of sudden summer. I biked home alone through Copenhagen listening to music and… *insert cheesy punchline* haha
Some photos from the Yelle concert we went to four days ago. It was part of the Safari Disco Tour they are doing now to promote their 2011 album, Safari Disco Club. We danced, Yelle was hopping and being super-energetic on stage and apparently.. people are very bad at doing hearts with their hands. haha
I wasn’t allowed to bring my SLR so all above is taken with my Canon IXUS 980is. Click here to watch the quite funny video for Safari Disco Club. Dance!
