MAGNA NATION - A MODERN ODYSSEY: November 2010

CRUDE AWAKENING

Fine art photographer Jane Fulton Alt has made a series of images commenting on the affect of the Gulf oil spill on Americans. The photos, in her collection “Crude Awakening,” are eerie and still portraits of swimmers and beach-goers drenched in oil. Some of her past work includes a chilling and intimate look at the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina in her book Look and Leave.

Also, like much of her work, Alt’s portraits aim to make a powerful statement. Alt says:

Living on the shores of Lake Michigan, I am acutely aware of the disastrous toll the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has taken on all forms of life, especially as our beaches opened to the 2010 swimming season. This environmental, social and economic catastrophe highlights a much larger problem that has inflicted untold suffering as we exploit the earth’s resources worldwide.
We are all responsible for leading lives that create demand for unsustainable energy.
We are also all responsible for the solution and we must work together to protect the balance of life.

Here’s a video with more of Alt’s “Crude Awakening” series:

To view more of Jane Fulton Alt’s work, visit her website.

DISASTER AND RECOVERY

When Hurricane Alex flooded Diego Huerta’s hometown of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, the Texas-based photographer sprang into action to document the aftermath and recovery efforts. The Category 2 Hurricane Alex pummeled northern Mexico with heavy rain, torrential floods and high wind, destroying infrastructure and taking out phones and electricity.

Huerta tells us:

On July 1, Hurricane Alex flooded my hometown Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. I was glued to my monitor reading Mexican newspapers and watching TV streaming from Monterrey but I didn’t see any media or news from the rest of the world. I now live in Austin, Texas and I didn’t want to stay at my home reading the news about how it was being affected. I wanted to help and let the world know what was going on.
Hurricane Alex devastated my city, it destroyed my hometown, buildings, bridges, factories and especially homes. I documented these photographs on my visit to Monterrey from July 2-July 7th. I shot them so I can post them in my blog and let the world know by the spreading of word how affected my neighbors are and how much we need everyone’s help.
I traveled along the state of Nuevo Leon wanting to bring hope and help by what I do best and what I love the most: photography.

Huerta’s hometown is a major industrial center and is the third most populous city in Mexico, and is the capital of the Nuevo Leon region. The Nuevo Leon region was the hardest hit by the hurricane, and many of its roads and highways were covered in mudslides.

Visit Huerta’s site to see more photos and for information about recovery efforts

SNOWFALL ODYSSEY

photo credit: Jon Cornforth

Snow can change a landscape photo into a winter wonderland photo. The whiteness of the snow tends to add a nice contrast to the normal colors of a scene which makes for very effective photos. Snow photos can also make for unique nature photos and can often sell for a higher price because they are so appealing. Unfortunately some snowy locations where the very rare animals live such as penguins and polar bears are very hard to reach and require a great deal of risk and effort.

Bright and white snow can be trickier to capture effectively then most photographers think. The light readers on cameras tend to see snow as very bright so it sets the exposure for the brightness of the snow leaving the background and other objects almost as dark as a silhouette. Most experienced photographers overexpose the snow photos they take leaving the snow as bright as it is in real life and the rest of the frame well-exposed as it should be. Snow can also disrupt the camera’s automatic white balance sensor so you should also make sure that you either adjust the white balance to suit the snow or switch the auto white balance mode to the snow white balance mode.

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