There is currently great enthusiasm in the United States to lift the embargo and start
tourism to Cuba. For David Alan Harvey, however, Cuba has been like a second home
for many years now. His affection for the island is almost as legendary as the Magnum
photographer himself, having spent over 20 years photographing Latin America. All of
this is evident with each image seen in the book, and with the turn of every page.
David’s lens captures poignant moments from a high spirited nation.
The photographs are accompanied by the writings of National Geographic staff
writer Elizabeth Newhouse, who provides a historical overview and discusses the
country's culture, heritage, and the prevalent social conditions. "But above all Cuba
is music," Newhouse writes, "expressing Cubans' intense joy in life, sensuality and
machismo.” This is always what the imagery successfully conveys.
The book captures the beautiful countryside, strong, proud people, the lively city
life and the multicultural heritage. It does so while exploring the daily concerns of
the impoverished locals who are living under a totalitarian government. The book
remains, for me, one of the best examples of travel and documentary narratives
in photography.
— Written by Aditya NairTitle: Cuba: Island at
a Crossroads
Authors: David Alan
Harvey and Elizabeth
Newhouse
ISBN: 978-
Publisher: National
Geographic
Price: USD 157 (approx.
Rs. 9800)Book RevIeW
Cuba: Island at a CrossroadLensCulture Exposure Awards Winners Announced Google Acquires Odysee,
D a Photo Backup App
anila Tkachenko won the
LensCulture Exposure Awards for
best series, while Raina Stinson won
first place in the Single Image category.
Danila's series Restricted Areas look at giant
snow covered structures that once defined
the Soviet era but now lay in ruins. On the
other hand, Raina's winning image is from
her series Millennial Revolution.
These awards were launched to
discover and showcase the best works
from photographers to look out for, on aO
dysee, an iOS and Android app
created by Nimbuz Inc, which
was working on smartphone software
for backing up and sharing photos and
videos, has been acquired by Google.
By automatically sending backups to
computers, the app could free up space
on a user's phone without needing to
sign up to a cloud-based storage system.
It also allowed private and automatic
sharing with other users as well.
However, the app is no longer available
as a standalone on either iTunes or the
Google Play store. Once Odysee stops
backup operations on February 23,
all photos and videos already passed
through the service will be available as a
downloadable archive. “Odysee’s vision
was to be the easiest way for everyone
to capture unlimited memories and
access them everywhere,” the team
writes. “We are very excited to join
Google where we’ll continue to focus
on building amazing products that
people love.”
The Odysee's Platform team
will become a part of Google+.
Also, rumours have been around about
Google planning to spin off Photos
into an app separate from Google+.
Whether Odysee will be integrated into
that remains to be seen.Danila Tkachenko Raina StinsonForgotten Camera Found In Neil Armstrong's Closet
P
reviously undiscovered, a bag kept
by Neil Armstrong was found by
his widow, who gave its
contents to the National Air
and Space Museum, USA.
Amongst the trinkets was
a 16mm Data Acquisition
Camera that documentedthe landing and the astronaut's first steps
on the Moon, on 20 July 1969. “As far as we
know, Neil never discussed the
existence of the items and no
one else has seen them in the 45
years since his return from the
Moon,” wrote museum curator
Allan Needell.global scale. This edition of the awards saw
photographs submitted from across 118
countries, out of which 31 photographers
were selected as finalists.
In the Series category Ioana Cirlig from
Romania and Franky Verdickt from Belgium
won the second and third place respectively.
In the Single Image category, Marcin Ryczek
from Poland and Pierre Terdjman from
France won. You can check out the other
finalists here, http://www.lensculture.com/2014-
lensculture-exposure-award-winnersDane PenlandSNAPSHOTSBETTER PHOTOGRAPHY FEBRUARY 201524