EntreUs Photoblog 2011

EntreUsphotoblog

2011

EntreUs Photoblog Contest 2011

People always have more stories than they get a chance to tell and more photographs than they get a chance to share.

At least that was my theory when I put out the call for the photoblog

contest. The idea was to open up a space for scholars from the Trudeau Foundation to put up a few images

and thoughts that stuck out for them from among the kaleidoscope of

experiences that we all move through in our lives and our research.

I had another theory too; if you

want to get the attention of grad students...offer them gift certificates

to a book store! It looks like I was right on both counts.

Over the month of February almost a dozen photos and stories

come in. They are beautiful, funny, inspiring, and thought provoking. Each post that went up on the blog

had new surprises, and from all the e-mails that I received, I know that I

wasn’t the only one who logged on with anticipation each morning to see what the evening’s catch had been.

To capture a bit of that energy, and make it possible for people

without access to the blog to enjoy it, I decided to put together this ebook. It includes 10 of the photoblog

entries. The winning photo and the

two runners up are first, followed by seven other excellent pictures.

Whether or not this happens again next year is up to you. This is my last year with the Foundation, so I

won’t be around to run it. But if you are thinking that you might like to

take up the mantle, I’ve got a secret to tell you: it’s dead easy!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone

who took the time to submit their words and photos. And to everyone

else:Enjoy!

- Alex Aylett

ENTREUS PHOTOBLOG 2011


Here's a photo taken by an Afghan refugee youth in Tehran. In 2003 I worked on a research project that used participatory research methods to understand the coping mechanisms Afghan children used to deal with their unsettled lives in Iran. We set up youth clubs in 'underground' Afghan schools and encouraged the youth to express themselves through video and photography. This image is from a photo contest we held (o the irony that I would enter it in this contest...) with the theme Afghans at work. In general, the youth chose to highlight the menial, poorly paid jobs which were often the only employment opportunities available to Afghans in Iran.

I was particularly struck by an encounter I had with a pair of boys who gave me their entries to the

competition. I downloaded their photos, and saw that they showed two young men collecting garbage. In all the photos, the faces of the garbage collectors were not visible – either because their faces were turned away or blocked strategically.

I thought the photos were good, and said so, then teasingly added, hey, I know that guy! Because I could tell that one of the faceless garbage workers was the youth submitting the photo. The boy in question said: awww!! but took my teasing gracefully as the other boy laughed and punched his shoulder. I then asked the boys if they could explain why they had chosen to take such pictures. They asked for some time to think about it, and I nodded. They came back later. I said, "well?" The boy who was not in the photo deferred to the one who was, and he

looked me straight in the eye, a thin, dark-haired handsome boy with deep lines on his face that I associate with old age, and said, "we took this picture because we want people to know what Afghan youth have to do." There was an honesty and dignity in his straightforward gaze. "This is what I do when I'm not in school. I'm a garbage collector."

I smiled and thanked him sincerely for an excellent entry. And later as I thought about it, I knew what it was that had made this moment so striking to me: I cherish the memory of that other boy, the one who was not in the picture, smiling as his garbage collector friend spoke to me, quietly leaning an arm on his friend's shoulder and seeming as though his chest might burst with pride.

Another Kind of FieldworkSarah Kamal


No one ever claimed doing archival research is glamourous. But it is interesting. Particularly when archival sites inform how we read the information inside.

I went to Australia to learn more about the history of Chinese refugees who attempted to seek shelter there after the Second World War. Australia has a bad reputation as far as refugees go and I was prepared to discover evidence of entrenched

discrimination. What I hadn't quite anticipated is how deeply sites of historical memory in Australia are intertwined with contemporary immigration politics and legacies of discrimination.

The National Archives of Australia office in Sydney is located in a suburb close to where the 2005 Cronulla race riots took place. The barbed wire set the tone for my visit. Inside, the records spoke for

themselves: restrictive immigration controls that documented the movement of even the youngest of Chinese migrants and official correspondence that revealed just what officials thought of those who tried to seek refuge Down Under.

The Content and the FormLaura Madokoro


The man in the middle - a civil servant and entrepreneur - owns a stable of fighting cocks in Aceh, Indonesia. While one of many, this bird is prized among the rest and sleeps in the same room as his owner.

In the second photo, a full-time attendant tends to a wound sustained during this bird's last victorious bout.

In the last image, untested cocks are first pitted against birds from the same stable before competition with rivals.

While these debut fights stop short of fatal blows, they provide an indication to owners of how their birds will perform when money and status are at stake. Here two cocks display aggression and manage to delay a young boy from dressing.

-- For the full story see Scott’s article "Images of the cockfight in Aceh": www.insideindonesia.org/stories/images-of-the-cockfight-in-aceh-12031403

Men and their cocks: Images of the cockfight in Aceh, Indonesia

Scott Naysmith

http://www.insideindonesia.org/stories/images-of-the-cockfight-in-aceh-12031403






http://entreus.blogspot.com/2011/02/men-and-their-cocks-images-of-cockfight.html





This little origami gem was pasted in the bathroom stall at the 10th Conference of Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan (October 2010). It cracked me up (I was at the COP doing research on global biodiversity policies). The photo quality is not so great....understandably so.

Bathroom OrigamiJessica Dempsey


The first photo is of a UN peacekeeping base in Bukavu in Eastern DR Congo where I conducted fieldwork in the summer of 2009. I find this picture to be a great metaphor of the UN mission in general.

The peacekeepers shelter themselves from the mean and dirty world around them. By avoiding clashes with rebel and government forces, however, they have been relatively

ineffective in stemming the violence affecting the region.

The second photo is of martyrs' square in Beirut, where I conducted fieldwork in the summer of 2010. The square is situated on what was the "green line" dividing the Christian neighborhoods of East Beirut from the Muslim neighborhoods of West Beirut during the civil war. The statues are meant to commemorate the victims

of the revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Yet, the statues themselves became victims during the civil war and are maimed and riddled with bullets. In this way, I think the statues acquired more meaning with time.

Photos from the FieldSimon Collard-Wexler


Tout le monde sait bien que Jésus ne s’est pas réincarné, mais que Dieu l’a ressuscité, dit la tradition chrétienne. La différence sémantique est de taille, et tranche doctrinalement les deux traditions.

Mais quand on regarde certaines représentations de ce rabbi de Nazareth en Inde, les perspectives changent... Une nouvelle incarnation iconographique se dégage progressivement. Il ne s’agit plus seulement d’indianisation du christianisme, mais d’hindouisation.

Le Christ devient tour à tour sannyasi, yogi, guru – sadguru. Plus qu’un avatar du divin, selon la terminologie hindoue, il demeure Fils de Dieu, mais à partir d’une matrice sanskrite.

Et voilà que le christianisme prend un nouveau tournant. Des ashram chrétiens existent depuis plus de 75 ans. On se réapproprie sa culture, qu’elle soit tribale ou mainstream. Entre le rigorisme d’un catholicisme parfois intransigeant en matière interreligieuse, les mouvements pentecôtistes peu portés vers le

dialogue interreligieux et les mouvements nationalistes hindous qui peuvent virer au fanatisme, se faufile un christianisme métissé, qui n’a pas peur de revendiquer son patrimoine religieux hindou tout en restant résolument chrétien.

Ces quelques images donnent à penser sur les différentes facettes que peuvent prendre les traditions religieuses quand elles se rencontrent les unes les autres avec estime plutôt que dans la violence.

From the field: Jésus réincarné

Xavier Gravend-Tirole


Apperception and appreciation vary depending upon the viewpoint: seaward, shoreward, substrate-ward, from a boat, from a dyke, up to your waist in salt hay, or belly-cushioned in sphagnum and mud. Wetland ecologist Peter Moore observes, “Each of the great global systems has its own story to tell: its characteristic geographical distribution; its pattern of energy flow and nutrient cycling; its distinctive soils or bottom sediments, vegetation cover, and animal reinhabitants; and its own history of interaction with humanity” (xi).

Wetlands comprise 6% of the planet; wetlands cover an estimated 14% of Canada, 127.2 million non-contiguous hectares. Because of the predominance of wetlands throughout Canada, “unlike most ecosystem types,” in Canada they “engender thoughts of specific places, peculiar flora and fauna and a definitive biological setting often cherished by citizens. These wetlands provide threads that wind their way through all of our ecosystems” (Moore vi). And,

through much of Canadian literature, as well, though too often represented as backdrop, obstacle, eye-sore.

Bioregionalism claims that to cultivate environmental ethical behaviour an individual must discover, understand, and engage on various social, ecological, cultural, political, and communal levels with her local place. In other words, proximity creates intimacy; intimacy deepens rootedness to place, and from such personal investment will grow ethical engagement with the natural world.

How then can we pull out these "threads," reveal the importance, the value, and the beauty of wetlands? How to see beyond the bog, swamp, marsh cow-muck-thick in colour and mud, plants growing low-to-the-ground, twigs, reeds, spartina, stunted black spruce tangling, slanting, contorting, lying flat? A willingness to lose a rubber boot, spend a day with a soaker and dirty, damp knees, and scratched and bitten flesh despite a slathering of insect repellent and long-sleeves? At certain times of the

year, such commitment goes a long way.

All seasons: standing on the edge with nothing more than a slow and eye-darting patience flushes out yellow legs, beaver, moose, black bear, gathers out the red of bog-cranberry or pitcher plant, or the yellow of wild arum or water lily, snares the red fox, the muskrat, hooks the mummichog, jigs the eel, senses—hears, tastes, smells, touches, sees—the threads that make up the story, the lives of a wetland.

I spent this past summer touring the coastlines and interior of Nova Scotia, photo-documenting wetlands, interviewing ecologists, geologists, and talking to locals about these “great global ecosystems.” This small salt marsh between Canning and Blomiden Park lives out and shares its many stories in Minas Basin.

Mosquitos and Mud: The Beauty of Wetlands

Lisa Szabo


Okay, so clearly these are in need of explanation.

When I get frustrated about ideas or connections in my work, I like to go near water, preferably with other species. The first image is a favorite summer place, with our Newfoundland dog Nanna. The beach here has great red clay like many do in Nova Scotia and is almost always empty.

The second image is of the Thames River in London, Ontario. During the winter it floods, freezes and rises and falls, which produces ice-necklaces on all of the trees. These are both places where I take to the field for work, though it is not of the data gathering type. More of a field for gaining perspective on the data.

“Field” Broadly Interpreted... “Work” speaks for itself?

Jeremy Schmidt


I met this school headmaster in northern Uganda this summer. I was there to find out how support from The Guardian newspaper had affected his school.

The man seemed morose, and I asked how he was doing. He said he was depressed and fearful. His house had been burned down, and he had only been able to save these

burnt scraps of his teaching certificate.

He knew the arsonist, he said, and feared he would be targeted again. But due to the personal nature of their quarrel, and the alleged arsonist's status in the village, the authorities would do nothing. So the schoolteacher lived in fear, and hardly slept at night.

This was far, far outside my research topic. I had no means to solve the problem. But in fieldwork, you can suddenly find yourself in the narrative of a stranger's life. It feels as if there is an obligation to discharge, even if you don't know what it is.

Fieldwork and Ethical Loose Ends

Chris Tenove


These people are crazy! But in an awesome way. This is a photo from a DePave event that I was at this summer, and I though it would be a great way to kick off our photoblogging contest.

DePave is a community based group based in Portland (OR) that has declared war on the unnecessary swaths of concrete and pavement

that cover over huge chunks of our cities. Their weapons of choice: motorized saws, pick axes, crowbars and ... small children!

They partner up with different organizations (a school in this case) and help them convert asphalt desserts into productive green community spaces. You can see a short video that I put together on

DePave here. What I love about them is their attitude that if you don't like something, you should just get some people together and change it.

DePaving Portland Alex Aylett

http://depave.org/

http://depave.org/

http://openalex.blogspot.com/2010/06/parking-to-paradise-depave-portland-in.html

http://openalex.blogspot.com/2010/06/parking-to-paradise-depave-portland-in.html

EntreUs Photoblog 2011

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