CThru.com Presents Tony Ward

……….Orville Robertson follows a long tradition of street photographers whose visual passions are stirred by street life at night in New York City. It requires a certain visual acuity that takes practice, patience and technical verve, all part of the unique qualities ever present in Mr. Robertson’s photographs over the past 25 years.

……….He was awarded a 2002 Fellowship in Photography by the New York Foundation for the Arts and his work is included in many public institutions including; The Brooklyn Museum, Center for Creative Photography in Arizona, Bibliotheque Nationale in France, and the Museum of the City of New York.

……….To learn more about Orville’s photographs, log on to www.newyorkstreetphotography.com.

……….The last time Ed and I were at the beach together, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Our mood seemed to match the calm of the sea as we enjoyed the sunshine, surf, and the beautiful women that bask in the light at the Jersey shore during the summer months. We brought our beach chairs along, some food and beverage as we positioned ourselves as close to the beauties as possible. Ed also brought along a half dozen or so empty plastic containers.

……….Besides the prolific writing on his blog, Ed’s first love (besides women) is his photography. He had been telling me about his idea of mixing in salts from the sea into his printmaking process. Somehow he claimed, he was able to distinguish the tonal effects that Atlantic Ocean water salts had on the tone of his prints, compared to printing in Pacific Ocean water for example. Thus, it was imperative for him to bring some East coast water along with him when he returned to Los Angeles, where he would resume a number of photographic projects; including the documentation of the construction of the new W hotel, that recently broke ground at the vicinity of Hollywood and Vine.

………..The printmaking master discretely made periodic trips down to the shore line to gobble up ocean water, while the beauties were wondering what on Earth he was doing. I felt for sure everyone at the beach thought we were two weirdos, sitting there with empty bottles, and then periodically filling each of them up with the sometimes suspect ocean water, knowing full well we couldn’t drink it. Undeterred by my thought’s, Ed remained vigilant with his plan until all the containers were filled to the brim. Strangely enough the beauties started gathering around us……..

……….Ed got back to Los Angeles eager to begin the alchemystic process of printmaking the old fashioned way, in a dark room. He called from time to time to let me know that he added the Jersey shore water to his chemisty and continued to notice a difference in the distinct oceanic effects on the making of his prints. On a subsequent return trip to Philadelphia, with prints from the W Hotel project in tow, I met with Ed to see the results of our summer excursion to the Jersey shore. I was most impressed. To learn more about Ed Simmons photographs, log on to his blog at www.yeeha.org/art.

Posted by John Grant

Those of us who participated in the September 12th march on the Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall recall the arrest of Cheryl Biren, along with six others. I remember Biren there taking photos, it turns out, for OpEdNews.Com, a news and opinion blog site. Biren was doing her job covering the event when she was arrested by Philadelphia police.
The AEC is a tax-funded, $13 million experimental store selling the US Army as a brand to kids as young as thirteen. It employs violent computer games (“war porn”) and shooting simulators with human targets to entice mall-crawling kids into joining the military — at a time the economy is staggering from a lack of jobs. The Center is controversial and raises serious questions about how we educate our youth in today’s world and how well we equip them to analyze information in a critical fashion. 

Many of us “free-lance” or “independent” or, let’s go all the way, “radical” journalists regularly encounter the kind of difficulty Biren ran into covering the AEC march, since police departments are more and more taking it upon themselves to decide who is a legitimate journalist and who isn’t. 
When cops decide who and what constitutes a real journalist they end up permitting only those working for the mainstream, corporate media, people with corporate ID cards, pre-arranged police permits, backup staff at the office, expensive equipment, van drivers and someone to get them coffee. Anyone on a tight budget and sympathetic to the ideas expressed by demonstrators at marches like the one at the AEC are seen as loose cannons and, naturally, suspect in the eyes of the police. And since no one in the mainstream, corporate media has much interest in covering such demonstrations — well, you can see the problem.

In my case, I was there and I took some photos. I, then, chose not to challenge the cops and I left as they began pushing people out the doors. My timidity, of course, is precisely what the police approach is meant to encourage. Any reporter who stayed behind to assert their first amendment right to witness and report the arrests was subject to arrest. This is what Biren did.
We see this sort of thing a lot these days; it’s a variant on the Facts On The Ground strategy. Act first — deal with the repercussions later. The police make an arrest to eliminate a journalist, no matter how illegal the action might be, then they drop the charges and employ public relations later. During the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia, the city paid out millions in lawsuit settlements for illegal arrests. On January 13, the Philadelphia DA followed this pattern and dropped all charges against Biren – four months after her arrest and an uncertain amount of grief and legal expenses later.

The 1st Amendment outlaws “abridging” the “freedom of the press.” It does not say “freedom of the well-paid, corporate press with police permits.” When the 1st Amendment was written there were no press badges; all the bureaucratic hurdles and mazes came later. 
A.J. Leibling added this famous nugget to the mix: “If you really want freedom of the press you have to own one.” Leibling could not have foreseen the age we live in, but, now, with the advent of the internet and the capacity for virtually anyone to fashion a news blog and get out there and cover news, Leibling’s observation may be more than just a witty remark.
Maybe it’s time for those of us on the left to take a hint from James Bopp Jr., the right-wing conservative lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana, behind the recent Supreme Court case that opened the flood gates to corporate money in campaign ads. He calculated the whole thing and designed the case to obtain the decision recently dropped on American democracy like a bomb. He is now about to launch a similar case aimed to eliminate any and all restrictions on corporate funding of political campaigns.

Maybe it’s time we tip our hats to the Bopps of this culture and do some original legal thinking of our own — pull off our own “Bopp coup” in the courts — to establish that the police cannot use prejudice or whim as a basis to decide who shall report on and document their actions and who shall not. As long as a reporter is cooperative, not violent or not actively participating in whatever the cops are focusing on, it should be made clear in law that sympathy for a cause or action being covered by a reporter is not a valid reason to lump that reporter in with those being arrested. 
It’s an important Constitutional question. Can a government police force quash, silence or prevent a reporter from doing his or her job by making a phony arrest? It happens so much these days it has become part of the fabric of our times, and it contributes to the distancing of citizens more and more from the decisions and actions of their government.

As the recent corporate funding case suggests, the current Supreme Court tends to come down on the side of money and power. But the Constitution clearly does not require a reporter be equipped with money or power, or more to the point, to be connected to a corporation. Current police practice in cases like Biren’s amounts to the harassment and silencing of reporters for failing to have the proper political “juice” behind them.
If the democratic vistas of the internet we hear so much about are real, then all a reporter needs to legitimately assert 1st Amendment rights is a pen & pad, a camera and a blogsite. 
To borrow the famous film line from The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges.”

Photos Copyright John Grant 

…..I first noticed Monica standing outside the studio smoking a cigarette during a break at her place of employment, the offices of Mark Norris, a boutique advertising agency, in Philadelphia. Mark’s offices were right next door to the studio, so I noticed Monica frequently coming to and leaving work.

I knew right away that I wanted to photograph her, so I waited until I saw her boss Mark around the neighborhood to ask him to introduce me to the talented designer at his company. Monica contacted me days later to let me know that she was interested and we agreed to meet for drinks to discuss the shoot in detail.

We carried on well in to the evening and had a good time together. The chemistry and imagination shared during our meeting, created the recipe for a sensuous erotic shoot……..

Monica grew more comfortable as the shoot evolved. So comfortable that she agreed to reveal her natural beauty…….

…..to be continued…….

Posted by Ed Simmons

The costs of War, always exceeds whatever may be gained by way of the Spoils of War. It is pointless, unless the true motivation is to thin the herd. A lot of wealth to be made in the manufacturing of weapons. War can become an addiction. These weapons dealers step right up, just like any dealer, of any commodity steps up, when he senses a hunger for his product. The world would do much better if it were at peace, we all know the devastation that would come from a nuclear bomb, this thought is so frighting. It keeps us from thinking about the devastation brought upon the Earth by conventional weapons daily. Every bomb, every jet or helicopter that crashes, every artillery shell, leaves a scar. We know that our Earth, at this time in history, is having a little trouble keeping up and cleaning up all our messes. Wouldn’t you think, we could give her a break?

Man is the only species on the planet, that entertains itself, by destroying all that is around him. I read once, the meaning of life, was to make shade where it will benefit others. Maybe we should start making some shade. There have been a lot of wars in my lifetime. The only one we ever had a chance of winning, was the War on Poverty. We had that enemy on the run in this country, even around the world. I can remember when it changed, the idea of letting the rich get richer, that the fix would trickle down, and raise the poor out of their despair. To have meaningful agreements, first, we have to find all that is common, with blinders on. We have to navigate through all that is uncommon. It is not local or national , truly it is global. Minus a couple of nuts, I don’t think there is a man or woman on this planet who wants to see it destroyed.

Why not set a date in the future, say 10 or 20 years out, where a world treaty could be signed, declaring a moratorium on inflicting any damage to the earth. I don’t think we wait for 10 years to end the wars, its all a waste, there’s never nothing left. We could use all that money, working for solutions for a future.

I remember Kennedy putting the challenge of Space Exploration before the people. The Moon seemed, at the time, just out of reach. I know a guy that talks of his time, under a console at Johnson, with a slide rule in hand, figuring it out, as they went along. We got so much more from these efforts, than just the landing on the Moon. Our lives today, for better or worse, are what they are today, because of all this. The problems we would encounter, setting up a colony on the Moon, are all the problems we face today on this planet. The science we would gain without question would justify the costs. This science is priceless. If I were to talk about grabbing the Brass Ring, many young people wouldn’t have a clue, to what I was talking about. On the Merry Go Rounds, as I was growing up, an arm, stacked with Brass Rings would drop. As you went around, you would reach out, trying to grab the ring. You didn’t turn your rings in at the end of the ride for a prize, grabbing the ring was the prize. You didn’t keep it, you gave back.

It may sound to simple, but we as people, are at our best, grabbing for the brass ring. World war II, the War to End All War, the Moon Landing, the Special Olympics, the War on Poverty, all things I see as grabbing the brass ring. Our Planet spins, like the Merry Go Round spins, the arm is down, the rings are there. When are people going to forget about all the arcade games, the cupie dolls, whack a mole, ping pong balls in a fish bowl, and reach for the brass rings again.

Posted By John Grant

…….I was there in 1987 visiting a doctor friend who worked in a clinic in the middle of the island and made two-hour treks to tiny villages up in the mountains three days a week. One thing I will never forget is watching a man who worked in the clinic use a pair of common pliers to extract a tooth from the jaw of a 30-year-old peasant woman. He was having a hard time wriggling the thing out, and she was suffering immensely. But she did not let out even a peep! It gives me the chills just recalling the scene.

The 23-year-old memory of that woman’s stoicism actually inspired me six months ago to extract a painful, loose tooth of my own. In my case, it was considerably easier, and I saved a $100 dental bill. As comfortable Americans, we should purge ourselves of any sense of superiority vis-a-vis Haiti and learn to respect and honor Haitians for the suffering they have endured — and are enduring at this moment.  In that spirit, we should extend our hand.

If nothing else, the earthquake disaster should wake Americans up to what an amazing place Haiti really is — absolutely unique in the Western Hemisphere, an island liberated by Africans brought to this hemisphere in chains as slaves. While poverty and horror are the usual images that pop into Americans’ minds when they hear the word “Haiti,” the real story is much more complicated and full to the brim with stoicism, art and music. And, folks, if we get all superior and see voodoo as third-rate theatrics and nonsense, it’s no different than all religions — it’s people trying to make sense out of darkness and death. The fact is, we could learn a lot from Haiti.  

….The studio is pleased to announce that Kalina Isato, a photography student at the University of Pennsylvania who was featured in an earlier blog, participated in a Undergraduate Juried exhibition and won a Jurors Choice award for this series of images. We congratulate your achievement Kalina……..

Posted by Catherine Keszei

Here were my thoughts about this piece:

A mixed media fusion between classical illustration and elemental graphical visual echos, this piece acts as an on-the-spot commentary for a world where fashion and beauty is, in itself, a class of visual graffiti.

…….to learn more about Catherine Keszei’s work log on to www.catherinekeszei.com…….