the olympics start today!

yay for the olympics!

i'll be paying most attention to the swimmers since it's the only sport i really understand (makes me think about my 'glory days' as the co-captain of my high school varsity swim team).

savor these images of british olympic hopefuls, taken by nadav kander and published in the daily mail online.

heathrow terminal 5 reputation staked on new photo campaign

london's heathrow airport is taking an innovative approach to managing and enhancing the poor reputation of its terminal 5 operations through daily image campaigns. these images were actually taken the previous day, and are of real life people in their real life situation at t5.

with the onset of web 2.0, where the web is basically a community tool, blogs and social networking sites have opened up avenues for consumers to post comments - negative and positive - on their experiences. thoughts and ideas can't be controlled and people are smarter consumers now than they ever have been. maintaining brand control as they've done in the past is something that a lot of companies are struggling with.

i'm impressed that heathrow has taken such a creative and innovative approach to showing its customers that they are concerned and are taking real steps to improve their product. most of the time, this is done through online responses - for example, tripadvisor allows management responses to negative review - but there is nothing more tangible than an image, let alone real-time images. i'm eager to see the results of this campaign.

the site, Terminal 5 is Working, just launched this week.

thanks to PDN Pulse for the heads up and for the image.

"...favors safe streets and finds no romance in poverty"

says q. sakamaki, whose book "tompkins square park" recently hit the stands. an award-winning documentarian, sakamaki's photographic coverage has taken him from the brothels of south asia to war-torn areas of africa. however, it's this photog's set of images from this manhattan neighborhood that has romanced the new york times. the streets of new york city have provided inspiration to many an artist, from joel meyerowitz to weegee to andy warhol. i feel that all have, in some way, tried to portray the reality of this city, but it's difficult avoid its seduction. its this seduction, the obvious awe and love that is felt through images of the city, that makes it hard for me to believe sakamaki's quote, as beautiful as it sounds.

it's hard not to be pulled in by the 'plight' of the situation and it most often starts as awe and disbelief. i felt this in honduras; i was in shock by the living (or lack of) conditions that people in the two mountain villages we visited lived in. in a nutshell i sincerely felt that i needed to be the visual conduit between their lives and potential financial donors back in dc. i shot my ass off, and everyone was so gracious about having their photo taken, even the man who was writhing from a bullet being pulled out by the doctor. i admit that i totally fell in love with the project, i was so compelled by everything i saw and committed to producing the most poignant images i could. this is the'romance' that sakamaki refers to in his statement; there is absolutely no romance in poverty, but there is a period where the photographer falls in love with the subject/project; otherwise, there would be little personal motivation to shoot at all.

Chinese citizen photographer sent to work camp for posting images from May 2008 earthquakes

The Chinese government has ordered Liu Shaokun, a school teacher from the region destroyed by earthquakes back in May of this year, to be "re-educated for a year" for posting his images of the disaster online.

"[Liu]was detained on June 25, and the principal of his school was told that he was being held for “disseminating rumors and destroying social order,” [Human Rights in China] said in a statement."

Parents of the children killed in the collapsed school building believe that this is the government's way of redirecting attention from accusations of poorly constructed buildings in the area.

affordable art fair slideshow

I posted some info on New York's Afforable Art Fair show about a month ago. I wasn't able to go, but just happened upon a slideshow of some of the pieces for sale at Domino's website, my interior design reference almanac.

My fave of the slideshow is this lil' Frenchie.

project friendship

3191 is a daily project/blog maintained by a pair of friends who live 3191 miles apart. The concept is to pair a set of images taken on the same day, from their respective parts of the world. I have no idea if the images are staged, or the amount of effort that goes into pairing the images, and I'm not sure if I really care to know. From a creative perspective, I'm absolutely curious to know, but from the viewer perspective, I really don't care because the concept is really lovely and warm. What's special is that it shows the depth of their relationship and a real effort to stay in touch with each other through visual means.

PS. I picked this particular image because I'm sitting at my desk and am completely starving. The asparagus looks delicious.

Image copyright of Stephanie Congdon Barnes and Maria (of port2press.com)

thai coke cans

Yay Thailand! I was caught off guard when I first saw Coke cans with Thai writing circulating here in DC. In celebration of the upcoming Olympics, Coca-Cola has distributed commemorative cans with logos from all over the world. You can see more by clicking on the Beijing 2008 link at their website.

I really like the design of the Thai page; it's fun and cute and I love the purple, but I do need to point out some discrepancies in the information on this page:

1. You could see fruits and veggies on a bike, but more likely on a truck bed. we're catching up with the world, and not as primitive as one might think =p

2. Actually, for those who don't take spicy food very well, I wouldn't suggest drinking coke since the bubbles can make the effect worse. try eating plain rice or having some kind of dairy product to neutralize the burning sensation in your mouth

3. One might see rickshaws, but not really in the city unless you're in touristy areas. I wonder if they mean tuk-tuks, which is basically a motorised 3 wheel, open air sister to the golf cart

4. Very upset about their inadvertant plug for elephants on the streets of BKK. This is animal cruelty at its worst, and to even mention it on their website promotes this horrible tourist-centric practice. Shame on Coca-Cola

5. I can't believe they left out the motorcycle taxi experience! Fastest way to get around BKK for sure (but not necessarily the safest)