The massive disco ball which stands on the prom at Blackpool, just south of the Pleasure Beach. From last Autumn’s trip, but with the weather this week showing a few chinks in winter’s armour, it seems apt.

[also gives me a chance to test WordPress' Tumblr-style reblog feature]

Photos from olvwu | 莫方 , sunshine莊信賢影像世界, PAPA GO!!!, nans0410 and Sunny Life. … Read More

via Flickr Blog

“You know, when they forced Khruschev out, he sat down and wrote two letters to his successor. He said – ‘When you get yourself into a situation you can’t get out of, open the first letter, and you’ll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can’t get out of, open the second letter’. Well, soon enough, this guy found himself into a tight place, so he opened the first letter. Which said – ‘Blame everything on me’. So he blames the old man, it worked like a charm. He got himself into a second situation he couldn’t get out of, he opened the second letter. It said – ‘Sit down, and write two letters’” – An old anecdote, quoted in Traffic

Barack Obama needed a response to the loss of Teddy Kennedy’s old seat to the Republicans, and while he talked about being more direct with the voters, and, as per the advice from Khruschev (or was it Stalin?), he landed a punch on the old guy as well:  ”Here’s my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts but the mood around the country — the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office…. People are angry and they are frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

Fine stuff, but it’s the first part of Obama’s reply that’s really interesting – and perhaps shows his true character, an incisive, but remote observer comfortable with theory, even at his own expense. To be a compelling politician, to achieve his remarkable victory, he needed to be an expression of cultural forces, views and desires.

So what then, is David Cameron – who at times has tried to harness some of the Obama magic – an expression of?

It’s a question directly posed by the Conservatives’ new poster campaign:

It’s very striking. It’s direct and engages the viewer. As well as making you think of Cameron, it makes you think of other political leaders, and given their lack of popularity with the public, this is a good thing for the Conservatives. The poster relies a lot on your impressions of Cameron though, as much of the meaning is implied. There aren’t many words, and the first sentence is surprisingly elusive  - what exactly is meant by “like this”? The second line is fine-but-bland; which politician from any of the major parties wouldn’t say that? So it’s just the image of Dave – and it seems to work very well – he looks right at you, open, calm, but resolute too. He can be trusted. He trusts you, too.

In fact, it’s quite clear how little the words matter once you start messing around with them, as you can with the brilliant Make Your Own David Cameron poster site. It allows you to easily swap out all the text – both poster and party slogans and easily use your own.

Clearly, the first thing you’re going to do with these powers is to take the piss:

See? The image doesn’t look inappropriate at all. Here, Dave looks… well, a bit like a trendy Dad who’s read a lot of parenting columns in the quality press. He’s not going to get mad and shout. He’s being even, fair, talking to you like an adult. He’s not losing his temper with you. But he’s being firm.

All of which makes the fact the tie has been nicked even funnier.

So what next? Well, how about Dave dispensing the wisdom of…. The Matrix:

Again, not exactly a boiling cup of dissonance is it?

Nope, he looks… well, as bland and impassive as all the other actors in the Matrix. If you had one criticism, it would be that his suit should be black.

So… well, let’s try and push it further. How about one of the best moments from The Wire? You can see it for yourself 40 seconds into this spoiler heavy compilation of Wire goodness – but it sees drug gang boss Stringer Bell attempting to remodel his crew along the lines of a real business. In the show it’s very funny, creepy and prefigures a lot of what will happen to Stringer. How does it sound coming from Dave?

Ok, now we’re getting somewhere.

But it still doesn’t look completely wrong. And that, in itself is deeply wrong.

So why is the poster so adaptable? In part because it never makes any attempt to be saying anything other than “Hey, you like David Cameron, right? Look, he’s so nice and reasonable. At least he’s not the other guy!” It’s also because his face has been Photoshopped past the point of no return and thrust fully into the uncanny valley. It looks like some kind of pink, fleshy mask. The reason his expression looks right with pretty much whatever text you want to put next to it is because there is no expression. Literally then, the poster may as well just say:

Which is to say, it’s not a very good poster. It reinforces the dangerous idea that mainstream politicians are all the same (something that for a portion of the electorate will mean greater interest in fringe, loony parties). It also doesn’t serve the Conservatives well, because it moves the discussion away from not just ideas and policy but any expression of meaning at all. Morally and semantically horrible, of course, and yes, it’s just one poster campaign, but if what it embodies becomes a wider trend of the campaign, it could also have political ramifications, in terms of landing Cameron in parliament with a very small majority.

–

Thanks to Metafilter for the link, and the first two made-up posters – the last is mine. If you want to see more, the MeFi thread is stuffed with them.

Previously on The Wired Jester: Too Much Photoshop.

Plant portraits

Stalk of Fire. An old photo that I rescued from a dusty folder on the hard disk to brighten up a dull winter day. Taken an August ago, in the gardens of one of South East London’s best days out, Eltham Palace.

Nature will find a way. Close up of an abandoned WW2 tank on Peleliu. I think it made a nice memorial; nature is reclaiming it. The full story on my trip to Peleliu is here.

Engine lichen. Another shot from Peleliu, this time of lichen-spotted machinery in the engine bay of an old landing craft.

Garden views

A path winds through the grounds of Wuhou temple in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, China.

Reflections of the garden in a cup of tea at the teahouse in Wenshu temple, Chengdu. The city’s temple teahouses are full of people reading the papers, chatting and playing cards and relaxing on rickety bamboo furniture over endlessly refilled cups of tea. As a tourist they’re a perfect experience; everything from the colours to the smells feels right. The only strange thing is that most of the Chinese there are old. The kids are all in KFC or Starbucks.

“The typescript of George Orwell’s latest novel reached London in mid December, as promised. Warburg recognised its qualities at once (“amongst the most terrifying books I have ever read”) and so did his colleagues. An in-house memo noted “if we can’t sell 15 to 20 thousand copies we ought to be shot”.

- From the Guardian’s look back at 1984, the “Masterpiece that killed George Orwell”.

1984 is no longer the book that’s most influential on me, or my favourite, but it is still a part of who I am – like a literary tattoo. I read it at just the right age and the right place – a wordy 17 year old at college in Luton, obsessed with books and how they describe the world – and I’ve got some beautiful copies of it at home (including a beautiful illustrated one) as mementos. Penguin recently posted up a competition on Twitter to win a signed print of the Shephard Fairey image adorning the the current 1984; you had to come up with an image Penguin’s publicist can use on his Twitter page that reflects the book. I pulled two contenders from my Flickr account:

It’s a shot of the Colossus computer at Bletchley Park. I liked the flatness of the colours, the lack of shadows, and the suggestion of words being monitored. And also, of course, the reference to “the commons”. In the end though, I went for this one:

A favourite of mine, snapped on the iPhone at Tate’s Rothko show. I think it’s funnier and stranger than a lot of 1984-derived images tend to be; of course, it doesn’t shy away from the central darkness of the novel, of how bleak life is when words cannot be trusted.

Update: I won!

This post from a while back on a flash hack for the Nikon D40 has been one of my most popular pieces here, but sadly the original images it linked to are long since gone. Today I found this article over at Instructables which is just as good – in fact, because it uses the foil of a cigarette packet to act as the flash difuser, instead of just cardboard, it’s probably even better. Read the full how to here.

i. The Far East, specifically Japan. Having visited the Far East specifically, and having a Japanese fiancee, it’s no surprise that I’m fascinated by Japan, and I think there’s also a sense of me trying to understand it – culture, people, places, feelings – through images.
ii. Fast lenses. Quite a few of my favourite Flickr images rely on fast lenses (f1.8 and below).
iii. Simple, strong, compositions. If you look in the group devoted to these lists of 12, a lot of the photographers suggested are ‘high concept’. Lots of PhotoShop, and self-consciously arty compositions. Not for me – as with film, music (where I’m a big fan of 80s and early 90s alternative US groups such as The Replacements, Pixies, Nirvana), I tend towards images which are more strongly rooted in reality.

My favourite 12 are after the jump.

1. The first of several photographers on this list based in Japan, I wouldn’t say I ‘like’ .:*ghost*:.’s photos – rather, I’m drawn to them. There’s a sense of darkness in many of his photos that goes beyond spooky or creepy, but the subject matter is never, ever explicit. If anything, it’s the slightness, even vagueness of the subjects – little chunks of light, cats, sunglasses, empty parks – that gives the images their unsettling feeling. It’s the sense you might have when you’re in a strange place, in a strange mood, and the day is changing to night, making shadows and shapes out of normal objects. .:*ghost*:.’s ‘burari’ set is well worth exploring.

2. dannybird is the main photographer at the publisher where I work, and when it comes to still life product photography, he is simply one of the best photographers I’ve ever seen. A genius when it comes to using flash lighting to make even the dullest objects appear interesting, as you can see from this shot.

3. davemason is based near me in South-East London, and his subtle compositions slice up mundane scenes and render them surreal and intriguing.

4. A journalist in real life, there’s a strong narrative to many of greenwood 100’s photos, linked to a great visual instinct. Well worth adding as a contact, as the updates vary between the topical and the personal, proof positive that far from coolly observing the world, the best photographers are in the thick of the action.

5. Yes, yes, I’m a sucker for the Far East and from the moment I saw this terrific shot I’ve been a fan of Gori-JP’s photos. His shots are frequently bright, colourful and best of all are shot from a vantage point that’s completely immersed in the scene.

6. Tim Rudder is another photographer based in Japan, Tim’s portraits are fantastic – there’s a directness to them which I often find lacking photos you see online. He has a way of shooting that renders the glass of the monitor between you and the subject invisible. He’s also never content with the obvious shots either, which in a world when it seems everything has already been photographed, is a real talent.

7. Not only a fantastic photographer, Alieh is also based in fascinating place that is often represented in the media in a very one-sided manner: Iran, specifically, the historic city of Isfahan.

(This is my fave shot of hers, but she’s disabled off-site images.)

8. Navid J. There’s a real sense of poetry to his shots, and his sense of composition is very strong – frequently managing a fine balance of simplicity, abstraction and intrigue.

(This is my fave shot of his, but he’s disabled off-site images.)

9. Horses and Tigers provides subtle travel photography from places such as China and Iran; it gives the viewer a sense that there’s another world out there, and that strange as it seems, it’s not as radically separate from your one as you might think.

10. I’m a big fan of fast lenses, and re.mo always inspires me with the way he uses his Nikkor f1.4 turning simple objects into scenes filled with wonderful blobs of bokeh.

(This is my fave shot of his, but he’s disabled off-site images.)

11. Jonas Peterson is a pro and you can see why. Unlike many photographers on Flickr he’s not drawn to maximum contrast and whacked up colours – instead, what you find are a sensitivity to muted tones and the power of soft light.

12. There’s nothing showy about Kimicon’s photos – if anything, at first glance, they’re homey snapshots, almost to the point of being dowdy, but spend some time really looking at them and they’re have an undeniable charm which really communicates a strong feeling and humanity. You’re never in any doubt of the warmth of the heart and hands that held the camera and framed each shot.

(This is my fave shot of hers, but he’s disabled off-site images.)

Another excellent set of photos on The Big Picture today, focussing this time on animals in the zoo. As always with The Big Picture, there’s a real (if subtle) sense of a narrative running through the post, thanks to the ordering of the shots. I couldn’t help but be grabbed by this one of a six-week-old North Chinese Leopard from Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany.

It makes a very strong impact thanks to the strength of the subject. At first it’s funny and cute, thanks to the disparity between the dinky little cub, doing his best to snarl, and the photographers. The wicker basket makes him appear all the sweeter, as if he’s a pet on a picnic or something.

Look at it longer though and there’s a toughness to it – there’s a predator’s cruelty in the leopard’s eyes. Cub or not, there’s no mistaking the fact he’s (supposed to be) a hunter and a killer, which makes the way he’s trapped quite poignant. Increasing this sense are the partially obscured faces of the photographers leering out of the blown, smudgy white highlight on the right. The super-saturated light gives a feeling, I think, of the outside forces shaping the cub’s life.

Other highlights from the post include shot 23, which features some very clever use of shadows and picture 26 which is a flat out super composition – the human hand makes it a much more interesting shot than 27, despite the fact that 27 is, on the surface, more action packed.