Dr. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney at the University of Wisconsin has been digitizing some very old Japanese texts about the Ainu first people. The real benefit is that there are wonderful drawings of the unique clothing that the Ainu wore, which indicated which clan they belonged to.
The user interface has to be one of the worst I've ever used, but still with a little browsing, you can get images like the one to the right.
One of the more interesting panels at the Association for Asian Studies meeting Chicago was the Japan Image Use Protocol Guide workshop. This was organized by the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources.
Basically, the Image Use Protocol Guide is designed to help academic authors and publishers navigate the somewhat circuitous path to getting image use rights from Japanese copyright holders. The most useful portion for me is the Permission Request Templates that you can use to send to image rights holders (museums, publishers, etc.) asking for permission to reprint photographs in your papers and monographs.
The protocol guide is still in the beta stage and they are asking for comments:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ncc/imageuse/index.html
Global Compassion is running a series of photographs from:
Masaru Goto is a highly regarded Japanese photographer known for his compassionate documentary work “highlighting the plight and resilience of ordinary people caught in conflicts, suffering under oppression, or economically disadvantaged.’This exhibition is entitled “NIHONJIN, BURAKUMIN: Portraits of Japan’s outcast people.”
You can see the exhibit here: http://www.globalcompassion.com/2008/05/19/masaru-goto/
One of the doctoral students asked me in May which digital camera he should get for his summer predissertation fieldwork. He was leaning towards getting a digital SLR but I suggested he instead look at high-end compact digital point-and-shoots -- specifically the ones in the 8-10 megapixel and $400-600 range. He ended up getting the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2.
Just as I believe that film rangefinders are superior to film SLRs for ethnographic work because of their portability and inconspiciousness, I think the high-end compact digital camera has now come of age. They now have just as many megapixels as their dSLR brethren and if the engineers can work on the noise reduction of high-ISO images just a little bit more (and put back in optical viewfinders), they'll be perfect.
Fast forward a month later and I'm in Japan looking at the various options for my own fieldwork this summer and fall. After a couple of hours playing with the various cameras at Yodobashi Camera in Umeda (Osaka Station), I ended up choosing the same camera -- the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2. Here are the things that I particularly like about it:
There's some shutter lag, but if you prefocus you can take sports photographs with a little practice (see photograph of one of my informants playing ball). I'm also playing with the movie mode and finding it isn't nearly as unusable as I thought it'd be.
Now the big news is that the new Mac OS 10.4.10 update now supports the Lumix RAW format of the LX2. I'm storing all my fieldwork photographs in Apple Aperture and using its powerful organizing indexing functions.
There's a very nice review of the new Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 ballhead on the-digital-picture.com:
For many years, the Arca-Swiss B1 Ballhead was the standard by which all other ballheads were judged. The Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 Ballhead replaces this model and delivers the same performance in a smaller size and at a significantly lower price. There is not much to dislike about this change.
The reviewer compares it against the old standard, the Arca-Swiss B1 (which I have and love and review here on my website) as well as the Really Right Stuff BH-55.
Steve Borsch has an excellent blog entry on why using Picasa's web album is a particularly bad idea -- because posting your images on it gives away all of your photograph's duplication rights to Google, without compensation and in perpetuity:
Your RightsGoogle claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Picasa Web Albums. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any Content you submit, post or display on or through Picasa Web Albums and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Picasa Web Albums, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such Content through Picasa Web Albums, including RSS or other content feeds offered through Picasa Web Albums, and other Google services. In addition, by submitting, posting or displaying Content which is intended to be available to the general public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such Content for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services
"Promoting Google services" is very vague. A coffee table book about Google could be construed this way. Definitely an advertising campaign -- how pissed would you be if Google used your photograph on billboards across America and didn't pay you a penny? They have every right to since you gave them that right.
Furthermore, this is hidden in the Terms of Service which no one reads. How many other photo sharing sites have similar rights grabs in their TOS? Previously, I've blogged about why you should never enter most photo contests, but now it appears you shouldn't ever post anything on the web unless you own your own server.
For the past four weeks, I have been following the northern land route of the Silk Road from the ancient capital of Chang'an heading west. I've been visiting various archaeological sites (mostly dealing with 4th-8th century Buddhism) along the way. The above photograph was taken near the Mogao cave site at Dunhuang, right on the edge of the Gobi Desert.
I'm heading into the Taklamakan Desert in the next few days, heading further west towards Kucha and then Kashgar. Then we head down the southern route of the Silk Road, before arriving at Urumchi. My Leica and Canon are holding up well and I'm looking forward to sorting through and posting the photographs when I return.
I suppose it goes without saying that I'm having the time of my life.
Here's an interesting fellowship announcement that dropped in my emailbox:
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I am writing to you about the S&R Foundation, which sponsors a wonderful award for young artists in the fields of music, fine arts, drama, dance, dance, photography or film. Awardees receive a $5000 cash prize, and the Foundation also sponsors a gallery showing, concert or other showcase for the winner. It's a great opportunity for a deserving young artist.
Eligible applicants are 18 years of age or older, currently NOT enrolled as a student, and contribute to U.S.-Japanese understanding. I was wondering if you -- or anyone you know - has any Japanese or Japanese-American former students who could be good candidates? (Or Americans who have incorporate Japanese techniques in their art could also be eligible.) We are interested in expanding our applicant pool, and would appreciate it if you could pass the word on to anyone you think might be appropriate. Please let me know, and feel free to pass along the news. The deadline for applications is October 1, 2006. Go to www.sandr.org for more information. |
This morning was the annual New Haven Road Race. It just happens that the race runs right by my new house on City Point. If you look at the course map, I live near the intersection of Howard and Sea street on the very bottom. My whole block was out to cheer the runners (and two wheelchair racers) along.
I'm writing this right now from conference room #4 of the United Nations in New York, where we're in the 6th session of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. I'm observing the proceedings that are going on this week and next (August 1-12).
Why is there a need for an international convention on disability rights? Aren't people with disabilities covered by previous international conventions on human rights?
 I've now uploaded my photoessay coverage of the 2005.05.12 disability protest in Japan to my web gallery page. Organized by DPI-Japan and several other major disability organizations, this is the fourth and last national protest against the proposed Grand Design of social welfare services for people with severe disabilities.
For background information, see my earlier coverage of the 2004.10.20 demonstration, followed by the 2004.12.13 demonstration, and the 2005.02.15 demonstration. The photographs in this series were taken with a Leica M7 film rangefinder and 35mm f/2 Zeiss Biogon lens. The film used was Fuji Neopan Acros 100 for the black and white work and Fuji Provia 100 for the color work. They were scanned on a Nikon LS 4000 Coolscan film scanner and processed in Adobe Photoshop CS. All of the photographs on this site are copyright 2005 Karen Nakamura and cannot be used without prior written permission. Continue reading the "2005.05.12 disability photoessay." |
I'm still recovering from the two week field trip to Tokyo, Akita, and Hokkaido that I took a few weeks ago. I've finally finished processing and scanning the film, but haven't gotten around to organizing the some 50 gigabytes of data. I'll be posting a full gallery from the trip to this blog, here's a sneak preview:
This is from the disability protest organized by several groups on May 12, 2005. This particular photograph is of Hiroko Nakamura (no relation), the head of the Center for Independent Living in Matsue (Shimane Prefecture), reading a statement to the representatives of the Lower House of Parliament. Taken with a Leica M7 and 35mm f/2 Zeiss Biogon on Fuji Acros 100 film
Hara Kazuo is a Japanese documentary filmmaker (and photographer) famous for works such as the The Emperor's Army Naked Marches On. His first film, Goodbye CP (さようならＣＰ or Sayonara CP) was made in 1972 with the cooperation of the radical disability group Aoi Shiba no Kai (青い芝の会), which was composed of people with cerebral palsy (CP). The film's portrayal of the plight of people with severe disabilities in the early 1970s in Japan was darkly disturbing and the film was criticized for its tone at the time. For several decades, Goodbye CP was not widely available but Hara's production company Shissho Productions has recently rereleased it on DVD and VHS (Japanese language only). Dartmouth's Jeffrey Ruoth has a good write-up of Hara's filmography.
The New York Times has a wonderful slideshow by photographer Robert Stolarik (registration required) of cab drivers spending time waiting for rides at Kennedy airport. Depending on where they came from, they play soccer, cards, dominoes, or backgammon, pray towards Mecca, or engage in other activities like studying for their citizenship exams. A wonderful example of the multiple ethnicities that make New York City such an exciting place to live. Next time you take a "shorty trip" to Queens from JFK, remember to tip your driver well. He might have been waiting in line for several hours before picking you up.
I met this fellow while walking in the Bunkyo ward of Tokyo last November. It was a gorgeous autumn day and I was on my way to a Center for Independent Living for people with disabilities in the area. For some reason, Bunkyo ward has a lot of cemetaries and Buddhist temples. In Japan, we associate Buddhism with death and burial rituals. The cat is sitting on a family gravestone -- most people in Japan are cremated and buried in family plots. To the right of the cat is a wooden placard, made by the temple priest. It reads "Namu-ami-dabutsu" (南無阿弥陀仏) and is a prayer to the Boddhisatva Amitabha/Amida who promises that all believers who chant this will be given everlasting life in the Pure Land. For more information, google the Jodo Sect of Buddhism.
Equipment: Leica M7, 90mm f/2 Summicron, Fuji Provia 100F.
