Endangered Species Postings

In response to the conservation efforts of ILCP, I chose a small range of endangered species in North America and featured them in images that I hoped would catch passerby's attention in an everyday situation. In the city not a lot of people are willing to stop and read something on the street, even if it's eye catching, so I made a few choices to make these images more efficient.

1. Posting them in bathrooms, as opposed to outside. Here people will be more likely to pause and notice something for a brief period of time instead of ignoring it completely

2. I included just the basic information on the image to spark interest and raise awareness. The purpose of these images was not to necessarily provide an opportunity for individuals to perform an immediate action in order to change the situation, as this is generally unrealistic, but just to get them to think about a situation that they otherwise wouldn't in the course of the day. I believe that encouraging this collective awareness and interest will effect change in a strong, although more gradual, way.

-Kat

McDonalds AdBust Complete!

Born into Brothels

http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/bornintobrothels/

About the Film:

Multi-award winning documentary film Born into Brothels is heart-wrenching depiction of children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, and whose mothers work as prostitutes. With little options for themselves other than prostitution, Zana Briski, a New-York based photographer, steps in. The children are given a camera and shown a new way of viewing the world; their photos are then sold in an attempt to raise money for a brighter future. This film is poignant "tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art." The full presskit can be seen here.

Trailer:

Why should you care?

No child should be left without the opportunity to grow. Without the efforts of the Born into Brothels fund, many of these children would be subjected to the same disastrous fate as their parents. To break free from oppression, and help those to do so, is the spirit of compassion and change. The film, which is exceptionally incredible, will move you in a way my words never could; watch it.

How you can help:

The photos taken by the children are on display on their official website, and can be purchased for a donation of $175-500. 100% of the proceeds from these purchases go towards helping children born into brothels in Calcutta. A companion book is also available for $65. The DVD is $20, and a portion of the proceeds go towards the education fund. So buy buy buy!

Paul Nicklen: Leopard Seal Encounter

Some of the shots produced from Nicklen's one-on-one time with a female leopard seal.
For more information, see the YouTube video posted below.

-Kat

Paul Nicklen

One of ILCP’s most well known members, Paul Nicklen has been feautured in many major publications. Currently working as a freelance photographer, he has done at least nine stories for National Geographic magazine. After studying marine biology at the University of Victoria, BC, Nicklen became a wildlife biologist within the Northwest Territories of Canada. His interest in the wildlife of this region (including lynx, polar bear, grizzly bear, bison, caribou) was instilled in him since childhood: Growing up within a small Inuit community in Canada’s arctic, he was taught how to hunt and navigate the land. "We didn't have a television...telephone...radio...so all of my entertainment came in the form of playing outside, and that meant being around animals...seeing my first polar bear when I was five years old."
"…You really learn from the time you are young how these animals work, what makes them tick. You learn about social hierarchy, and then most of all, the best thing you learn is their connection to the ecosystem.” -Nicklen
His pastime of observing the native wildlife has since grown into a full-blown passion. After working as a biologist in the field, Nicklen came to the realization that he could make a greater impact and perform a greater service to the animals he worked with by photographing them. Since 1995, Nicklen has specialized in photographing Arctic wildlife as a nature and wildlife photojournalist. Many of his better known and more widely published images are underwater shots, including his notorious leopard seal photographs.

“If I really want people to care about polar species, my images have to be wild and raw," Nicklen writes. "I want people to feel what it's like to be in the water, swimming three feet from a polar bear. I want them to experience what it's like to be offered a penguin as food by a leopard seal. Only then will they really care about that habitat and that species."

-Kat

Images and Text for McDonalds Bathrooms

Both images and text have long been used together in order to create a desired effect, especially for political or social reasons. There is something that happens in our brains when we see plain text, as opposed to seeing text and an IMAGE. Why are we more inclined to read text if there is an image involved? And what does that say about our society?
Most adbusting is done purely with images, such as on billboards and posters. I chose to utilize a relatively long text on top of, or next to, an ordinary image that I found on Goggle Images. Half are in Spanish, half in English (mimicking the fact that all text in McDonald's are in both languages). I posted them in bathroom stalls, thinking that would be the place where they would stay up the longest.
The aim of this project is simple - to raise awareness. It doesn't matter if I manage to do something as little as make a mother think twice before ordering her toddler a Happy Meal or plant an idea in an employee's head. Some revolutions start small.

-Taylor

Climate Change/ NOOR/ FINAL

(1993)

(2009)

Tomorrow December 7^th 2009 is the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conferences. The NOOR photojournalist will be hanging their projects showing the affects of climate change in non-commercial places and galleries around the Bella Center where the conference is taking place.

Along with the exhibitions one Danish newspaper has printed 50,000 picture driven English issues of their newspaper dedicated to projects by NOOR. (20.000 copies to be distributed for free inside the Summit Center and 30.000 free copies will be available at metro and train stations, and other public spaces)

The intent of the NOOR photographers is to persuade the men and women in the conference that climate change is affecting our world today and we need change now.

The subjects include: a massive pine beetle kill in British Columbia, genocide in Darfur, the rising sea level in the Maldives, Nenet reindeer herders in Siberia, Inuit hunters in Greenland, a looming crisis in Kolkata, India, coal mining in Poland, oil sand extraction in Canada and the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest by Brazilian cattle ranchers.

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My final project in response to climate change and the projects of the NOOR photographers was to try and find somewhere that I saw the affects of climate change.

These are two images of my friends’ vacation house in Texas. The two pictures were taken about 16 years apart at the same time in June. You can distinctly see how the water level in the lake has significantly lowered in just a few years. This is due to the lack of rainfall during the winter and spring moths and the increase rise in temperature during the summer.

The Union of Concerned Scientists report states that, “global warming already has altered the U.S. climate, with the average temperature rising by 2 degrees over the past 50 years. They are projected to rise another 7 degrees to 11 degrees by the end of this century if pollutant emissions are not significantly cut.”

Another lake that is seeing the affects of climate change is the great lakes in the Midwest. The report also says, “Climate change is predicted to substantially reduce Great Lakes water levels by 2100.”