Chernobyl and Fukushima

Last Friday, I was sitting at my desk, editing photos for my upcoming Chernobyl exhibits when the phone rings. My dad says: I am watching CNN. There may be a nuclear meltdown in Japan after the earthquake. I am horrified, after my years in Chernobyl, to think it is happening again. It is with prayers for the people of Fukushima Prefecture that I share this:

It's a curious feeling to stand at the epicenter of a disaster.


Original post continues here.

New version will be posted here.

Alexia Competition

Today I am watching the judging of the Alexia Foundation photojournalism competition. The judges have just chosen a winner in the professional category:

Bharat Choudhary, for his project The Silence of Others about young muslims in the US and UK. One judge, Bob Sascha, commented early on that "This project stands out above all the others. It is the only entry this year where I said 'I have to learn the name of this photographer'." Seeing Bharat's portfolio, I must agree!

Another stand-out finalist was Aaron Huey for his project on Pine Ridge. Aaron has been a finalist for the past 3 years, and according to former Alexia chair David Sutherland, his work on this story keeps getting better and better.

It's always an inspiration to see this great work and hear the judges commentary. The other finalists:
GMB Akash, Deanne Fitzmaurice, Dominic Bracco and Jennifer Emerling. Info on all finalists will be up on the Alexia website soon.

wishes granted

My son Jacob peers out the window. No, this photo has nothing to do with this post, beyond the fact that I shot it last week.

Sometimes I spend a lot of time applying for grants and it looks like a giant waste of time. But then, when I actually win something, it all feels worthwhile.

This week I am celebrating two wishes granted.

I was accepted by the New York Foundation for the Arts to participate in their MARK Program for artist professional development.

And I received a grant from the National Press Photographers Association for Multimedia Immersion.

Both will be great programs.

Unfortunately, the third grant I won recently — a Rotary International month-long exchange to Taiwan — I had to decline because my life is too full right now. Maybe next year.

I am flattered...

This week, I am flattered to report, my local paper ran a lovely profile story about me and my new Fracking Pennsylvania photography project.

Here is what managing editor Cassandra Miller wrote in her kind intro:

The area seems to be teeming with artists of all types. I was overwhelmed by responses after asking friends (via Facebook) for suggestions of artists to feature.

One of the suggestions was Oneonta-based professional photographer Michael Forster Rothbart, who I’d met but hadn’t seen his work (or his impressive resume) until this week.

Not only is he a nice guy, he’s a talented photographer and artist, and he’s newly back from a yearlong Fulbright Fellowship to work on his “After Chernobyl,” an independent documentary photography project about Chernobyl survivors in Ukraine.

His photos have appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, Psychology Today and the Washington Post, to name a few. Forster Rothbart shared some of the photos from his “Fracking Pennsylvania” project on the hydraulic fracturing situation in Northern Pennsylvania and upstate New York. His photos, along with their stories, are captivating.

Read the full article here and here.

Happy New Year!

My son Jacob and I built and photographed this winter scene together. Jacob, who is already 4 1/2, says he wants to be a photographer when he grows up. Or a fire dog. Or a T-rex.

2010 has been a wonderful year for us, and we hope it was great for you as well.

In the coming year, I hope our lives (yours and ours) are full of activities and people that bring us joy and happiness. May our days be free from worry and our nights free from fear.

It may sound cheesy but I mean it. Happy new year!

Fracking exhibit opens 12/7

Some photos from my new project Fracking Pennsylvania are in an exhibit opening this week in New York City.

In Dimock, PA, Craig and Julie Sautner are among 14 families whose drinking water wells became contaminated after gas drilling on their properties. Here the Sautners drive by a new drilling rig on a neighbor’s property.

FRACKING: Art and Activism Against the Drill
An art exhibition and public dialogue about the ravages of natural gas drilling

Dates: December 7, 2010 - February 5, 2011
Opening Reception: Tuesday, December 7, 7-9pm

Exit Art
475 10th Avenue, at 36th Street
New York, NY 10018
www.exitart.org/exhibition_programs/current_programs.html

Exit Art announces Fracking: Art and Activism Against the Drill. Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is a new means of gas extraction that is now beginning in New York and Pennsylvania. This exhibition will expose this process of gas extraction that is contaminating water supplies and polluting the air worldwide. Artists were invited to submit documentary videos, photography, paintings, sculpture, mixed media, and works of literature. Through public lectures and calls to action, this exhibition will engage the public in dialogue on this issue, and encourage audiences to continue educating themselves and their communities on fracking and its detrimental effects.

Organized by Lauren Rosati, Assistant Curator, with Peggy Cyphers, Ruth Hardinger, and Alice Zinnes.

ABOUT FRACKING
Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is a means of gas extraction that accesses gas trapped more than a mile below the earth’s surface. When a well is fracked, small earthquakes are produced by the pressurized injection of millions of gallons of fresh water combined with sand and chemicals, releasing the gas, as well as toxic chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive materials that contaminate air and water.

Read more about the exhibit here.
See more of my photos here.

Nanotech story for the Washington Post

Last week I shot a story for the Washington Post about nanotech research at the University of Albany. It ran today. I particularly liked this portrait, which I shot from under the honeycomb tabletop where he was working.

Caption: ALBANY, NY - OCTOBER 26: Willie Murchison, IBM Senior Lab Technician, plans recipes for upcoming experiments at a laptop in the NanoFab North cleanroom at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Researchers in the CNSE NanoTech Complex at the University of Albany-SUNY are developing new nanotechnology materials in an enormous 35,000 square-foot cleanroom. 2010. (Photo by Michael Forster Rothbart/For the Washington Post).

The light in a cleanroom is bizarre, so yellow that my camera could not compensate for it. So I put a flash on a stand to clean up the edges a bit and set my WB on Flash.

See the rest of the photo essay here.

Permalink: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/02/AR2010110205134.html

skeletons in his closet

Got a skeleton in your closet? John Hawks does. His physical anthropology lab at the University of Wisconsin contains cupboards full of skulls and bones. These skeletal remains and reproductions used for teaching range in age from decades to millennia old.

Hawks, an associate professor of anthropology, has published genome research revealing that the rate of human evolution has increased over the last 10,000 years.

I shot this photo for Science Illustrated last time I was in Madison, but it didn't get used (they ran a portrait I shot instead).

Anyway, I just wanted to say

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Out in the mountains

A group of backpackers, including Katie Peeso and Carolyn Rein, sing spiritual songs beside their campfire at Crane Mountain Pond, elevation 2620 feet, in Adirondack Park near Johnsburg, NY. The hikers are college students participating in the LIFT program, a semester-long discipleship and leadership training program operated by Camp-of-the-Woods, a Christian family resort and conference center in Speculator, NY.

This week I spent time up in the Adirondacks shooting the beautiful fall foliage. One night I ran into this group of Christian college students camping and singing up on Crane Mountain.

I have to thank Strobist for changing what I carry in my bag. In the past, I would not have hauled flashes and pocket wizards up such a seriously steep mountain, just in case. Today I do, and this photo is why.

Tech geek details:
Lens (mm): 20
ISO: 1250
Aperture: 4
Shutter: 1/60
White Bal.: Flash

1 Nikon SB-26 flash on a rock at right, with orange (1/2 CTO) gel, about 1/8 power, just skimming the smoke and background boulder.

What color temperature is a campfire, anyway? I shot some frames on Tungsten and the fire still looked orange but the fill flash light looked too neutral to match it.

Up the Delaware

Basket Creek flows into the Upper Delaware River near Long Eddy, NY. The Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, part of the National Park Service’s Wild and Scenic Rivers System, stretches 73.4 miles along the New York – Pennsylvania border.

I spent time in northern Pennsylvania this week shooting a magazine story about fracking. (What is fracking?)

The upper Delaware River is a really beautiful place. Amazing how pristine it is considering how close it is to NYC and Philadelphia. I can understand why local residents are worried about plans for 35,000 natural gas wells along the river. (As of 2009 there were already over 77,000 gas wells in Pennsylvania, but none yet in the protected Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River area.)

Researchers have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, methane and xylene found in contaminated drinking water near drilling sites. Other environmental concerns include surface water contamination, air pollution, forest fragmentation, and human health problems. The 2005 Energy Policy Act exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act (plus some regulations of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act), and exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during fracking.

On the other hand, gas companies and property owners stand to earn up to one trillion dollars in profits from drilling in the Marcellus Shale. And it's clear that these small towns need income, with nothing else but tourism to hold up the economy.

The article will be out in October and I'll post my full photo essay then.