Some years ago I found myself in Tutzing, am Starnberger See, and Munich just before Christmas.  It was a sort of revelation, a transportation into an old world Christmas. And really everything was like a picture postcard.  Particularly memorable was the Christmas Market, walking along in a thin layer of snow, bright lights in the stalls, beautiful Bavarian glass decorations for sale, and lots of yummy things to snack on.  Maybe it was the beer, but the whole scene was magical.

This morning I was sitting down to write today’s post and I was focusing on gloomy things.  It has, as I have said, been a particularly depressing year.  But then I came across this beautiful photoessay by Andy Eckhardt for NBC News on the German Christmas Markets.  I was delighted and cheered by the images particularly by two.  First, there are the children gleefully looking at a display of Christmas cookies. Second, is this attractive smiling Christmas angel walking among the crowd in the Christkindelmarkt in Nuremberg.

So for a few moments this morning, I saw the world through the eyes of a child.  Such is the magic of photographic imagery. It is a world filled with awesome cookies and beautiful smiles.  And while, I know that I will soon wake up to the cold of morning, I find myself wishing that we could bottle these wonderful feelings and maybe ship them out around the world to melt the evil doers. Such is the magic of photography.

If you want to avoid the gruesome in the year’s photographic bests then it’s worth a visit to the National Geographic Photocontest 2014 site.  I am hugely taken by Grand Prize and People Winner “A Node Glows in the Dark” by Brian Yen, taken in the Hong Kong subway.  It speaks of isolation and at the same time connectedness, and certainly reflects on modern social norms.  The glow of the woman’s cell phone pictorially emphasizes her as if to cast a spotlight.  She is occupied at least in some form of social interaction. The other passengers bear the see-through-you stare of well-trained subway riders. And the ethereal blue glow creates a science fiction tone to the image.  Are we in the subway or perhaps on “The Matrix?“ Indeed, the concept of each of us being a node in a massive communication network is the central theme here.  In intimate contact, but all alone.  It is the strange ambivalence of modernity.

It is time to explore not merely the “Best Pictures of the Week” but the “Best Pictures of the Year.”  I spent some time yesterday looking at NBC News’ rendition of the best news photographs of the year, and got to revisit all of the miserable news of the year.  Things do appear to be going to hell “in a hand basket!” What can I tell you. The only good news images seem to involve baby pandas and sports competitions.

A couple of these photographs are really worth mentioning from a photographic view point.  Case in point is the haunting photograph by Justin Sullivan from Getty Images of a protester at a demonstration in Ferguson, Missouri. “Black Lives Matter.” The bright outline of the shadowy figure and the way in which the police cruiser’s lights seem to pass right through him, confirms the fact that this is truly Ellison’s “Invisible Man.”  He is there, but we see through him and are left to wonder whether it is really possible, a hundred and fifty years after emancipation to still live in so dichotomous a society.

Figure 1 – Photograph by Michelle Bogre for the U.S. Information Agency, ca. 1978

I believe that there is an inherent dignity to labor.  And today, labor is underappreciated and under attack.  This afternoon, I came upon a simply amazing online exhibition about American labor from the U.S. National Archives.  Unfortunately, the original exhibition was in 2005, unfortunately because I wish that I could have seen it.  But in these online images there is something truly wonderful and really it is worth a visit to the site  – The Way We Worked: Photographs from the National Archives.  I’ve included a couple of images here.

Figure 1 is a photograph by Michelle Bogre for the U.S. Information Agency showing “Jean Schnelle pulls weeds out of a planter while balancing her six-month-old son, Dwight, on her hip.”  It was taken in Lockwood Missouri, ca. 1978.  When I first saw this it gave me the shudders.  Farming is one of the most dangerous professions.  But really?

And then there are the truly dangerous professions.  Figure 2 comes from the General Records of the U.S. Department of Labor, and was taken by an unknown photographer in an unknown location on May 23, 1958.  It shows nurses being instructed on the use of a respirator for polio victims.  A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking with an intensive care nurse at our local hospital about the hospital’s preparedness for ebola patients and about the degree of her training to deal with such cases.  This photograph reminded me of that conversation.  Some years ago, I saw a documentary about polio, and they interviewed a woman about her experiences with the disease as a young child.  She talked about the terror and about everyone being in white coats and trying not to touch her.  She asked if someone would hold her hand, there was a pause and then a nurse took her hand.  That is the dignity of human labor.

Figure 2 – Nurses being trained in the use of a respirator to treat polio victims, May 23, 1958, photographer unknown. From the archives of the U.S. Department of Labor.

I’ve been thinking a lot about social media and its relationship to photography lately, in particular about Facebook.  It is a marvel of ingenuity, in that it is free to use.  What is more marvelous than free? Hmm, I seem to remember somebody saying that there was no free lunch. No doubt this and sites like Flickr are ideal ways of sharing photographs with your friends, and posting photographs that you will regret twenty years from now.   Buy hey, this is a kind of narcissistic “live for the moment period in history.”  The problem with Facebook is that it is, or should be, a post for the lowest common denominator kind of place.  Those who are keeping score, whoever they may be (I’m not really sure who they are) count up the number of friends that you have.  So in the mad frenzy for “friendship,” which it isn’t really, you friend everyone on site (sic) and then you have a fundamental problem, anything that you post, text or image, must be shared with everyone.  So if your smart you’re only going to post what you want everyone to see.

I will skip the diatribe on all the dumb people, friends of friends, who insist on posting political BS filled with xenophobic prejudice, sexism, and racism, and well, just plain stupidity.  Yes, you are stupid.  please unfriend me!  I believe in a kinder, gentler world. one filled with beauty and photographs. You, my unfriends, are the polluters of the planet!  Oh sorry, I wasn’t going to talk about this…

Which takes me back to the point.  there are several great photo-groups, known as User Groups, on Facebook: “Black and White,” ” Strictly Black and White,” “Worldwide Photography,” and “Life after People,” to name some of my favorites. And I have seen some beautiful pictures on these groups.  I have also seen some poor taste stuff and even pornographic stuff – there is a line, you know.  If I see for instance a woman in a compromising or suggestive position, I am not shocked, but I am saddened that it doesn’t promote my kinder, gentler world.

The plus side to sites like Facebook is visibility.  It is after all a concentration of friends. I get about equal viewings of my blog on Facebook, where it comes in on an RSS feed, as I do directly to subscribers on my own website.

The real difficulty, I shouldn’t say problem, with Facebook groups lies in the fundamental streaming nature of the site.  Things pour in and, as a result, if you don’t dig for them, are intrinsically ephemeral.  You want to belong to a popular group, because you want your art seen.  But your images rapidly disappear from easy viewing; so in a sense popularity is self-consuming. We can have our fifteen minutes of fame, but nothing more.

Facebook serves what Facebook serves, and I am a big fan of it.  I have also seen some beautiful images on Facebook and despite their limitations, I enjoy the photo-groups.  But, as always the case, with e-technology, where there’s a demand there is a solution (albeit never perfect) and that will be the discussion of an upcoming blog.

There was another image from “The best of …” series last week that really caught my attention.  It is by Andy Rain of the EPA and shows an auctioneer for Christie’s posing with the “adamantium” claws worn by Hugh Jackman’s in his role as the Wolverine in the X-Men: The Last Stand film. The image is both amusing and just a bit creepy.  In my mind, I think that its power comes from the dichotomy between the demure look of the pretty auctioneer and her delicate necklace set against the viciousness of the claws themselves.  Then too there is the gesture of peaceful submission of supplication (so too the downward almost eyes closed glance), the arms crossed and held to the chest, which again contrasts with the metallic aggressiveness.

I need to start with an apology for failed notifications, multiple notifications, and extra notifications. Hati and Skoll is now in its third year, and websites tend to run into mail problems at about this point thanks to an army of e-parasites.  I am working on a “permanent” solution and hope to have it in place over the weekend.  But in the meanwhile please bear with me.

Week’s end and I have been going through the usual “Best Photographs of the Week” sections on various sites and there are a few beautiful images to share this week.  There is a wonderful silhouette by Anindito Mukherjee for Reuters showing workers building a rail bridge over the River Yamuna in New Delhi, India.  Silhouette is one of those over done art forms, but when it works, as in this wonderful image, it can be gorgeous, a surrender of grey tones towards a simple geometric statement in black and white. In fact, the man on the right with his blue shirt represents a kind of contrast to the otherwise pure monochrome of the image. Here the appeal is in the vertical geometry of the bars that essentially eclipses the workman.