MARCO PALLADINO

NO-TAV protesters in Rome use the pacific Murga to oppose the high velocity train project

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 16:25:00 +0100

Born in the early twentieth century in Uruguay, the murga soon was overtaken in Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires, during carnival, to break with normality, subvert the rules. So as the slaves made fun of the bosses by wearing a tailcoat, the classic dress of lords, so the murgueros chose tails as their "uniform", by reinventing it and colouring it. Then they added an hat and gloves, other symbols of wealth. It is today a form of street theater which combines music, song and dance.

In Rome , about ten years ago, was founded the first Italian murga , called "Sin permiso". The murga is a peaceful criticism on society and politics.

The murga consists of a dance troupe, a band of percussionists and a group of singers who, by their actions and their words, criticize with sarcasm the politics and the society. Nuclear energy, public water, even the Arab-Israeli conflict, all can be represented. The murgueros become the mouth for many social causes. A protest that takes place in a peaceful manner A typical motto is: “with bumblebee we will do more noise than with bombs.

As such is used also by protesters in Rome against the high velocity trains in Northern Italy, the so-called NO-TAV as seen in this gallery. This way protesters wish also to demonstrate their pacific opposition to the High Velocity Project that is usually opposed with very harsh fights.

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Expo 2015 in Milan, the city is changing its face

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 21:18:00 +0100

Expo 2015 is the next scheduled Universal Exposition after Expo 2012, and will be hosted by Milan, Italy, between 1 May and 31 October 2015. This will be the second time Milan hosts the exposition, the first being the Milan International of 1906, of which the old structures remain but undergo a demolition/reconstruction these months.

The theme chosen for the 2015 Milan Universal Exposition is Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. Embracing culture, traditions, technology, innovation and creativity and how they are related to food and diet. Expo 2015 will further develop themes introduced in earlier Expos (e.g., water at Expo 2008 in Zaragoza) after the view of new global emerging issues, with a main focus on the right to healthy, secure and sufficient food for all the world’s inhabitants.

Images in this gallery tell the city of Milan in the period very close to the opening of the Expo 2015, the new district of Porta Nuova, the still unfinished structures and buildings, the sites where old buildings of the ‘900 exhibition undergo a demolition and are replaced by modern infrastructures, finally some shots on the downtown of

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Shipbreaking Yards of Alang, Gujarat (India)

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Wed, 4 Jun 2014 15:21:00 +0200

From chapter 2 of the book “Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India”

Alang is the largest ship recycling yard in the world, a kilometres-long expanse of sites where gigantic carcasses of ships are waiting to be disassembled by hand-workers, who recycle parts and components. Here are employed about 40000 workers, as much as a medium town. It’s a dirty, dangerous, exhausting and deadly job. They climb on these metal giants that stay torn apart and half-cut into the sea. They handle oxyhydrogen flames throughout the day, the air is unbreathable and saturated of combustion gasses, of oils, lubricants and acid fumes, the air is pungent, stinging, it burns the eyes and the nose. Here as elsewhere the workers are poor labourers coming from agricultural areas even poorer than here, like Bihar, Assam, Orissa, West Bengal or the neighbouring Pakistan, they flee from hunger, do not have any formal training to deal with toxic materials, are willing to make this life for the equivalent of a few euros per day. For this little money they are daily exposed to arsenic, lead, contaminated by asbestos, all of which under deafening noise. In the closer village people live by sheep farming and by a related industry (recovery and distribution of spare functioning pieces of the ships). It’s like stepping back 200 years when you exit the shipyards and visit the village. But even here the pollution is terribly high.

Scrap materials, however, are a big business and thanks to cheap Indian labourers a too little costly one, and these environmental risks are not taken into any account. India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and Turkey are the homes of the world’s shipbreaking facilities. Every year the shipping industry sends around 600 ships of all types to be dismantled on their beaches. Workers here are totally unqualified, having very little education and are thus easy to be exploited. Workers are being provided neither with the adequate training nor with the equipment to work in such a dangerous and toxic environment, although shipbreaking is considered by the International Labour Organisation as one of the heaviest and most hazardous occupations in the world. Their general living conditions after migrating to the yards are extremely bad. Every year thousands of workers are the victims of deadly accidents at the yards of India, Bangladesh and other shipbreaking countries. The working conditions are extremely bad and safety measures hardly exist. If the shipbreaking workers don’t die or get seriously injured because of an accident, they suffer a big risk of falling ill or dying from toxic waste-related diseases.

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INDIA - Preindustrial Villages of Rajasthan

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Thu, 29 May 2014 11:46:00 +0200

Here we present the synopsis from chapter 6 of the book “Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India”

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India today exists on a multiple level including high industrialization and traditional farming communities, and this leads to a growing social gap. Talking about preindustrial society would make more than a historian upset, but this is exactly what is to be seen. Farming communities that are still in the preindustrial era, which do not know the use of machines to work in the fields and do not participate to modern life. These villages are obviously not impenetrable by modernity, which comes in the form of objects that elsewhere would be considered trash or waste. They don’t ignore what is in their surroundings. Their culture and way of life, however, are anchored to a preindustrial scheme and so are traditions, familiar and social networks, so the rules of the village and the religious codes. The people of these villages are not educated nor culturally prepared to face the challenges of the modern world in which they are increasingly going in contact. They are not able to understand the choices made at the top, by the governments, nor to politically organize themselves as a pressure group, despite the democratic principle guaranteed by the Indian system: “one man, one vote.” These communities suffer more than others the strong government interferences as a mediator of the multinational enterprises that would induce villagers to abandon traditional sustainable farming and to adopt intensive farming and OGMs. There is an invisible struggle that these villages face every day against very powerful enemies.

Despite being a desert region, Rajasthan is an area where water is abundant due to the monsoons. In the centuries the need to manage a resource on a seasonal base has created a true culture for water that is not only declined in the sacredness by which in this country waterways are venerated but also and especially into complex hydraulic systems that already the British did not completely understand and let them deteriorate. Rain is also called ‘megaphusp’ (flower of clouds) and there are at least 25 names that refer to as many hydraulic systems for irrigation and drinking water and made Rajasthan the most flourishing desert on earth. Throughout its ancient history there is not a single description of this desert as a barren and desolate land. Obviously these systems do not require electric pumps or fuel and allow villages that have preserved them to overcome the drought affecting on contrary the “modernized” villages. Traditional crops and irrigation systems have been first attacked by the so-called “green revolution”, which included monocultures of species that require a lot of water, fertilizers and pesticides; then by the large water constructions, financed by the World Bank, that have depleted aquifers. People travel miles to find a source of drinking water and it is a tragic reality that someone at home opens the taps and in a few minutes consume as much water as during one of those trips.

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The "Anti-Racist Mediterranean " a sporting event against racism

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Sun, 25 May 2014 16:40:00 +0200

The "Anti-Racist Mediterranean " is a sporting artistic and cultural event, whose first edition was held in Palermo in June 2008. The goal of the event is the promotion of intercultural relations between the different components that live in the metropolitan city, trying to questioning dichotomies such center/periphery and inclusion/exclusion. In this historical moment speaking about a different kind of Mediterranean is more important than ever: the riots and the desire for liberation that comes from the southern shores of the Mediterranean is presented to the public as a problem of refugees and illegal immigrants. The Western imperial barbarism, unable to read beyond its economic and commercial interests, has skillfully staged yet another bogey of a "barbarian invasion".

PROJECT 2014

The project "Mediterraneo Antirazzista 2014" will take place in the city of Naples (Scampia), Rome (Metropoliz), Genoa (S. Gottardo - Molassana) and Palermo.
The project aims to promote an intercultural vision of our society and to break the barriers of racism, hardship and degradation through sport and cultural production, intended as a vehicle of social comparison and socialization. The six previous editions have shown that the encounter and the interweaving of relationships, in fact, brings the opportunity to meet and overcome fears and prejudices, which in most cases give rise to the phenomena of social exclusion.
The seventh edition of the Mediterranean Antiracist will be divided into two parts: "Mediterraneo Antirazzista on the road" and "Mediterraneo Antirazzista 2014".

Images show the meeting and events in Rome c/o Metropoliz on 24th May 2014

For further infos: http://www.mediterraneoantirazzista.org

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Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India. Book preview and buy in Google Books

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 13:27:00 +0200

The humble people, the poor, the exploited ones, are the bearers of great dignity . They embody the full meaning of this word, because they live in a world where dignity is not easily achieved.

Elegance and Dignity by Marco Palladino is made of 10 photo stories across India and goes through the recent industrial development, tells about the labour and poor classes, and then describes the preindustrial and archaic agricultural villages of India. This book is the result of a unique project realized in one expedition in order to describe and tell one of the most interesting and important country in the world. The book focuses on the strict relationships between new industrial development and traditional ways of life in India.

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The Slums of Mumbai. Urban Issues or Functional Networks?

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Wed, 5 Feb 2014 17:39:00 +0100

Here we present the synopsis from chapter 1 of the book “Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India”

FULL-RES EDITORIAL PHOTOS >>

The inequalities generated by our global economic system seem nowhere as visible as in the megacities of South Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where decades of foreign and domestic investment in real estate have produced globalized cityscapes in parts of the city, while others remain entrenched in supposedly pre-modern living conditions. This produces, almost by default, the vague category of the “slum”, which becomes self-referential to nearly everything that falls outside the ambit of the high-rise, modern city.

Mumbai is the place where the greatest democracy of the world shapes its new myths of modernity and suffers with it the silent multitude of the miserable. It’s a modern and dynamic city, the largest and richest among the Indian cities, the city where half of the population does not have a house. In its typical image, the capital city is made of modern buildings that stand like islands of modernity in a dark sea of slums. There is a prevailing perception that apart from its southernmost colonial quarters, Mumbai is essentially a schizophrenic urbanscape where emergent islands of modernity are surrounded by an endless sea of informal shacks. This image of a city sharply divided between opulence and poverty is used across the political spectrum to justify redevelopment projects in the name of equality.

The true Gateway of India is its impressive net of slums spread along the railway lines, or in the neighbourhood of Dharavi, the largest slum of all Asia, which is less than a mile from Bandra West, the most chic district of Bombay, where the stars of Bollywood live. The so-called slums come from a long history related to migration flows. The first economically and culturally marginalized caste groups migrated in the 1930s - from the southern regions of the country - to this unused, marshy, mosquito-infested territory adjoining a centuries-old fishing village.

Shacks, huts, shelters, built with everything except the materials that are used for construction. Shelters that do not repair, which do not keep you warm or cool, which are useless apart from the illusion of a firm foothold on this sea of garbage. But they do respond to a precise history, that shaped the network. The habitats of Mumbai have traditionally been as diverse and heterogeneous as the city’s migratory flows. Coastal fishing villages, vernacular urban structures, grand colonial monuments, contemporary bungalows, working-class barrack-like enclaves, and modern apartment blocks have jostled for space on this tiny island through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. However, in spite of this diversity, Mumbai is usually reduced to three broad urban archetypes: the historical city, the slum, and the high-rise.

In Mumbai, the high-rise building, that ubiquitous symbol of modernization and the ultimate architectural affirmation of middle-class status, is typically presented as the answer to the organically developing, unplanned, low-rise, hyperdense, and slum settlements that are said to house 60 percent of the city’s residents. The Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) and the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme (SRS) projects, conducted by the government of Maharashtra, have for long pioneered the provision of housing to the poor by private developers. Only 35% of the slum dwellers seem to be eligible for the project and the government has not considered 35,000 families living on lofts and first floors. The scheme allows private developers to redevelop slum pockets with the consent of 70 percent of the “eligible slum dwellers” living in that pocket, in exchange for construction rights in more valuable parts of the city. Many faces of Bombay coexist without overlapping, from Dharavi slum up to the largest monument to modernity, a bridge of six kilometres (see above) that connects the richest parts of the city otherwise separated by the sea or the slums.

Above all a dusty, yellowish polluted wet air.

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Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Dì VC USD short field’s review

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 22:12:00 +0100

Lens images from photozone

I went to shop today to purchase the Canon EF 24-70 F/2.8 L II that is going to become my workhorse for next years. Since I could not sell all the lenses I had for the change, they gave me the Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 for trying, if I am not satisfied I can purchase the Canon 24-70 later. They are so sure I'll like the tammy (since many other professional photographers buy it and are happy with it) to let me use it for some days and I wanted to give it a chance.

I do usually avoid third part lenses, not that they are bad, but for reliability, assistance, compatibility, autofocus and other small things I always prefer to use Canon lenses, even if they cost more. And the Canon EF 24-70 F/2.8 costs A LOT more! My decision to purchase it depends on the cash-back Christmas offer they make now (ok, let’s make some adv for Canon, they need it! ^_^ SEE OFFER). Even after the 250eu refunding, the difference between the two is still a lot, about 750 eu.

I must then say that for almost half the price of the Canon I am very very tempted to keep the Tamron. Let’s see why. The Tamron has image stabilisation aka VC, which can be very useful, especially for the photography I make. I don’t do landscapes and if I do I prefer to use specific lenses (although I must say, before going on the details, that to my eyes the Tamron is a bit better than the Canon EF 17-40 F/4 L I used for it @24mm). For reportages, wedding and travel photography, no use of tripod, the VC is a good thing (Canon 24-70 is missing) but only at 70mm I do feel I need it. After testing, it seems to compensate to max 2 stops (not the 3-4 rated by Tamron, but it is very subjective), which is good nevertheless.

About shape and weight: It is a very compact lens although very large too, 82mm of diameter, it is not heavy (same as the Canon) and surprisingly feels less on the hand than my Sigma EF 35mm 1.4 Art I used for comparison, they are close though. Tammy weights 825 grams, it seems a solid tool to use. Is rated as tropicalized and the construction is indeed very good, although all plastic, good plastic. The lens barrel is mostly made of plastics but it is of high quality and it is tightly assembled. The new weather sealing is very welcome, of course. Same goes for the very fast and silent USD (ultrasonic AF drive).

I don't like the reverse ring for changing focal lengths, which pushes you to use the left hand in a not correct manner, then I find the very tiny focusing ring disturbing, but usable, and hate the fact that the lock is usable only at 24mm. But the zooming is good, mean there is not a chance that the focal length could change, the ring is neither too hard nor to loose to move. I tried a polarizer I had, 82mm, never used on other lenses, it made the focusing imprecise and the images blurred, probably due to bad polarizer itself not the lens, it is a cheap one.

Let’s see the IQ which is the most important thing for many (I was more concerned about AF). The image quality is very good, I suspect a little front focus what I have to try to assess later, as for now sharpening and contrast of images appear quite good @ F/8, even at the corners. I tried the Sigma 35mm 1.4 for comparison. It is a marvellous lens, we know it, an high quality prime. The Sigma is quite sharper, especially at corners. But the differences are not big. The Tammy is good, mean they are both high quality lenses, the Sigma is so much of an excellence that it does not make justice to the also good Tamron.

Let’s see some images (they are nothing special, sorry, soon I’ll ad some pictures I would make even if I was not to test a lens ^_^):

This image is 35mm wide. I tested the Sigma that is native 35mm and the Tamron at 35mm. Both at F/8 to see the best sharpness in situations such as landscape photography (although it is not the reason I bought it for).

All pictures were processed with ACR 8.3, I only corrected the chromatic aberrations (which is very low for both lenses), not the distortions nor vignetting. Also the default sharpening of ACR (25%) was reduced to 0.

Sigma 35mm, 100% crop, centre:

And the Tamron:

At F/2.8 (what interests me more) the Tamron is definitely better than the Canon 24-105 F/4 L IS USM (at F/4) that I gave to the seller for change. We can see that at centre and F/8 the Tammy is just very slight less sharp than the Sigma. Bad light is confusing, afterward we show another image where we can appreciate how sharp the Sigma is, better even at F/8 in the centre. But let’s see further.

Sigma 35mm @ F/8, corner:

Remember that NO sharpening at all is applied, even not the default sharpening applied by ACR, Lightroom DPP, etc.

This is the Tammy @ F/8:

Not bad at all!

Now I want to show another image’s crop after the pictures has been sharpened in PS. I applied a sharpening of 100% with a radius of 0.5 at the original size file (full resolution). Here is the image (again, not a nice one, I know! ^_^):

Sigma @ F/8, centre, sharpened:

This is the Tamron @35mm & F/8 and sharpened:

Even after sharpening the Sigma is a tad sharper, it is visible but just at pixel level. And Sigma has more contrast, what can be added in post-production. Lateral CAs are very low which contributes to the high sharpness perception even at the corners, as we will see now. Indeed when you remove chromatic fringing the halo around objects remains. Both the Sigma and the Tamron have no problem with that. Let’s see.

The Sigma is impressive. Look at the red car or the windows in the very corner, so sharp. Light was low. Here’s the Tamron:

Less sharp, here the difference is bigger than at centre. Let’s remember that this image has not been post-processed, mean the contrast could be improved.

Finally I wanted to test something that you can not test: zoom vs. prime. Sigma is better, end. But, what happens if you are on the field and a dramatic sunset happens in the far away and the only shot you can make is a narrower (field of view) FOV? You have to zoom. I repeat that I’m not interested in landscapes but the same can happen when photographing people. This is the shot we could take by zooming up to 70MM:

So I wanted to see if by taking a Sigma 35mm image (the best) and up-resizing it to the same magnification of the Tamron @70mm the higher quality of Sigma could make it against the magnification given by a zoom. The answer is: NO…of course. Here the crops:

After this I made some other shots on field using the F/2.8. At centre the Tamron is not loosing much in comparison to F/8. And you don’t need corner-to-corner sharpness when shooting with that aperture. Sometimes you do, but the VC is useful by allowing you to narrow the aperture at F/4 or F/5.6 for better DOF.

One of the thing that also positively impressed me is how well chromatic aberration is under control!. Lateral CA is really so few that it easy correctible in Camera Raw, Lightroom or DPP with no detail lost. By this picture taken at 70mm & F/2.8, we can appreciate it.

This is the Lateral CA, very low. Of course it can be more with a stronger light:

This is after activating the simple chromatic aberration correction in ACR 8.3 (and no need to further increase the correction on green/purple channels):

All this determines a good perception of contrast/sharpness also at the borders.

One thing that needs further testing is the image stabilisation. It is very effective. Tamron does not claim, as Canon does, how many stops it can stabilize, and the thing can change a lot whether you shoot indoor with safe conditions or outdoor with wind and quick action. Of course remember VC does not freeze action, it only compensates the hand-shaking. By a short test you can see that the images start to be a bit blurred (only visible at 100% magnification, not visible after reduction to web dimensions) at 1/15. We talk about the long focal length, @70MM. So 1/15 is very good. I show the 1/15 image as the large one, at 600x600px, just to show how at a web resolution even a bit blurred image appears sharp enough:

One thing I noticed is that the VC can be very effective at very low speeds such as 1/15 but sometimes “fail” at much safer shutters such as 1/80, 1/50. This is confirmed by the DPReview’s site too. They say it fails to compensate the pressure on the shutter button. Let’s see an example, both pictures at 1/50:

By the way, I remember shooting similar test images with my EF 24-105 F/4 IS L at F/4 (not 2.8 as here) and the focus area (centre) was not at all so sharp as Tamron’s. No sharpening has been applied.

This is an example of the bokeh at 24MM and close distance. It is good, not the best ever seen but to my eyes it is prime’s quality:

Bokeh seems also ok by other images I made, transition is always very smooth, but I’ll test it with specific shots outdoor at 70mm.

Finally I liked the autofocus a lot. It is fast and silent, it works well even with low light (I use an Eos 5D Mark3). I also liked that it can focus quite close with a good MFD (about 0.38) and AF is definitely better than the Sigma’s one which is ok. It seems also more consistent to me, mean the Sigma is not precise if near infinite or at MFD, the tammy seems better. You can see it in the VC-test images above, they were sho with AF and quite close to the subject

I do generally shoot very close to the subjects, even if not interested in macro photography. As reported in other reviews, the Canon 24-70 2.8 USM L II has some issues at short distances. Another good point for the Tammy.

I’ll expand this review in future…

EDIT: This is a full resolution image (ugly picture), the Tamron @35mm & F/8, so for landscape. This image has been a bit post-produced, a 50% of sharpening applied in ACR. Sigma 35mm is visibly sharper ONLY at the extreme corners. Just look by yourself, I’m impressed!

RIGHT BUTTON THEN CLICK OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW

I finally had the time to make some shots with good light, these are not what I intend to use the lens for but can give a good idea how much the lens can resolve. This image is shot at 70mm (very usefull when trying to get an image without distortions and as flat as possible) and F8. Image has been processed in ACR and a sharpening of 100% (radius: 1.0px) has been applied in Ps). In ACR distortion and perspective have been corrected, chromatic aberration too, some green fringing remains at the border, see the fench on top/right but is barely visible):

RIGHT BUTTON THEN CLICK OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW

Naval Cemeteries of Gujarat (India). Photo Reportage in Witness Journal Issue #59

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 14:56:00 +0100

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Elegance and Dignity - Women workers from a poor village of India

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 18:06:00 +0100

Here we present the synopsis from chapter 7 of the book “Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India”.

FULL-RES EDITORIAL PHOTOS CLICK HERE >>

India is a land of extreme inequalities, with a new rich class who lives light years away from the poorest population, which is still a great silent majority. Sometimes they share the same physical space, but are connected within a logic of exploitation of labourers without any humanitarian attempt.

It is not uncommon that the same local government, which should protect the rights of the poor, it’s the one that exploits the people of poor villages or lower social classes for making jobs that are related to public services, otherwise too expensive, such as cleaning the streets or such as in the villages of Hawala, a few kilometers from the most sumptuous residences of Udaipur, these women, children and elderly, who do heavy work as a bricklayer.

These works are not only underpaid but also odd, or rather not guaranteed. If the State or a private enterprise, as in this case, has to build something, then they agree with the village’s chief and the community organizes itself. Women are equal to men when employed in heavy and strenuous labour, but they also have to accomplish all other matters such as child care and housing. Often these are young girls, who are already married at very early age.

Women and children of the pre-industrial villages are workers who have no qualifications or education, that means easier to be exploited and are poorly paid. Unlikely laws will ever stop this. India indeed has the world record for employment of minors.

According to estimates of the International Labour Organisation here concentrates the largest number of workers between the ages of 4 and 14 years old, about 44 millions according to their data, “only” 17 million, according to the Indian government. In the villages, furthermore, the community survives in a limbo far away to modern society. They are organized in a collective manner and the work is done by all members, regardless of sex or age. They are often underpaid and strenuous work.

These buildings furthermore will ruin a beautiful and almost untouched natural corner a few kilometers from Udaipur, in an area around a lake that is a natural park. The logic of speculation first uses inhabitants of the areas that will soon be filled with concrete and then depletes them of the only richness that they have: the land.

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Hampi – The Pearl of Karnataka, India

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 16:42:00 +0100

From chapter 10 of the book “Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India”

Hampi is a village in northern Karnataka State of India, on the banks of Tungabhadra river and within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. The city of the ancient Vijayanagara continues to be an important religious centre, housing the Virupaksha Temple, as well as several other monuments belonging to the old city.

In the area is located a large number of buildings and monuments that originally belonged to the ancient city and Hampi is located in the centre of the ancient site of Vijayanagara. Ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.

The central areas of the city, which include what are now called the Royal Centre and the Sacred Centre, extend over an area of at least 40 km². The natural setting for the city is a hilly landscape, spotted by numerous granite boulders. The Tungabhadra river runs through it, and provides protection from the north. Beyond the hills, on the south bank on which the city was built, a plain extends further to the south. Large walls and fortifications of hewn granite defended the centre of the city. The city flourished between the 14th century and 16th century, during the golden age of the Vijayanagar empire. During this time, the empire was often in conflict with the Muslim kingdoms which had been established in the northern Deccan. The victorious Muslim armies proceeded to raze, depopulate, and destroy the city and its Hindu temples and icons.

Even if the empire continued to exist, thereafter it went through a slow and long decline, the original capital was not reoccupied or rebuilt. It has not been occupied since.

Recently, several projects to redevelop the area have been put in place, the bazaar area that occupied the first row of columns on the sacred avenue has been reallocated. This has caused riots and protests, but it was one of the crucial steps to redevelop the area for tourism, supported by UNESCO itself. Hampi receives thousands of tourists (the last decade has been a boom time for tourism in Hampi, with the visitors on the rise from one million to 1.3 million between 2009 and 2010), but the highest percentage is made of pilgrims attracted to this holy place, not of foreign tourists. Tourism has the potential to become a resource for local development by improving living standards and rising the level of infrastructures and services, yet it can also be detrimental to the area and the society it supports.

The concentration of population and of tourism activities within the most sensitive area has, in the recent past, resulted in several conflicts of varying degree and nature. Unregulated development, uncontrolled expansion of tourism activities, rural-urban migration, shifting of livelihood, changes in lifestyles, fragmentation of the social structure specially at the household level, these are the big risks.

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Ruins of the ancient city as well as temples, or what remains of them, are still inhabited places, daily used by the population and the visiting pilgrims. There are also many homeless people who sleep here, even families, you see them in the evening while preparing their simple beds made of towels and gathering around a little light or just staying under the moon. The tropical climate encourages this lifestyle and ensures acceptable outdoor living conditions, except in the monsoon season. It is an India out of time, seemingly indifferent to its modernism, simple and naive. These places are considered sacred and many go there for pilgrimage, they sleep wherever is viable.

The Tungabhadra river was the lifeblood of the capital. Many well-developed channels brought water to the capital. These channels also fed cultivable areas of the walled city and beyond. The features were so advanced to be maintained by the Tungabhadra River Authority in their projects of 1950. The conservation and recycling of water had acquired enormous importance in arid areas.

There were several irrigated areas within the walled city making the fortress very self-sufficient and able to withstand long sieges. Rivers and collection tanks, today as in the days of the Empire, occupy a vital role for irrigation as well as for the local ecosystem, in many regions of South India.

They are a source of drinking water for rural communities and for their livestock as for fish-farming, but also to recharge the groundwater, to control floods, etc. However, the most significant supply has drastically decreased due to various socioeconomic and institutional factors, particularly due to changes in the pattern of land ownership, caste, class configuration. Too much emphasis is given to the sewer systems and to exploitation of groundwater. These valuable resources are in a state of collapse, contributing to an increased vulnerability during drought.

Vijayanagara kings were known for their (Hindu) religious patronage, and it is mostly likely that their emblems too reflects their affiliations. The Royal insignia of the Vijayanagara kings spots 4 elements: Sun, Moon, Dagger and Boar. The most unusual for an ancient Indian emblem is the image of a boar, though it is a significant symbol in Hindu Mythology. The third avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu is in the form of a boar (Varaha).

The mythical layer of Hampi has some strong association with Ramayana. In the sacred cave different modern icons are to be seen: Ganesha (the elephant) and Shiva (with the trident). Symbolically Shiva is often represented with a phallic icon called Linga, it is to be found often in front of the ancient temples.

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Just off the tourist tracks, in the countryside, life seems to be hanging at the time of the Vijayanagar. In the empire, most of the people lived on the cultivation of rice, wheat, ragi, cotton, sugarcane. There were plantations of coconut, areca and betel. The Portuguese influence introduced the cultivation of onion, tobacco and nutmeg. The magnificence of that time is lost but this is where the most important challenges for the future of the site are to be faced, which is very important from the point of view of nature and landscape conservation. Here we meet again those communities we have defined as preindustrial. They alternate with modern and crowded city, having with them commercial connections. However, the lifestyles of the poorest villages are anchored to a bygone era.

The farming villages are places that are not overrun by garbage and pollution, where traditional methods are still used for irrigation, crops and pasture. Work is done by humans and animals, using a simple plow. Countryside, however, has not gone unchanged throughout the infamous green revolution.

Intensive crops, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides were the ingredients of this "green revolution", sadly encouraged in many countries of the developing world. Here too, many farmers are returning to a sustainable approach to agriculture. Rice cultivation is particularly abundant and heavily dependent on monsoon and therefore on climatic factors that regulate them. One of the worst problems brought about by the policies of "development" is the introduction of eucalyptus plants (a plant native from Australia), that have literally dried up streams and groundwater.

Temples and rice fields, orchards, expanses of sugar canes, reminiscence of the colonial era, palm trees and banana trees, pilgrims and sadhus, farmers immersed in emerald fields, monoliths. Visions that follow each other and rise imagination. This place undoubtedly has a unique and indescribable charm.

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Aramaics - Remnant of Syrian Church Communities in East Anatolia

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Thu, 9 Jan 2014 12:03:00 +0100

Eastern Anatolia has always been the cradle of different ethnicities and religions. In search of the last Christians of Kurdistan, the Aramaic Christians of the Syrian church, after knocking on the doors of the few monasteries still in use in the town of Midyat, I came across quite by accident in a story unknown to the big history books. A story about a community of thousands of people who 50 years ago was brutally expelled from their lands, in the silence of the Turkish government. To get in contact with the Christian villages of Syrian culture was made possible thanks to two expatriates, respectively in Switzerland and Germany, who return each year in these lands, their land of origin, to bring basic supplies to the villages sited south of Midyat, at the border with Syria, in the heart of the mountains still partially controlled by the militias of the PKK.

A story apart is the small town of Kafro, the most important centre of the community, which unlike the smaller villages, where some survivor resisted living inside homes destroyed decades ago (see photos of the elderly), Kafro was completely abandoned over 50 years ago as a result of the assault of the Arabic-speaking and Muslim peoples. Today the village is becoming an experiment of home-return by some of the many migrants who, unlike my companions, came back permanently.

In the pictures you can see the streets of the new city, the mayor and the guests visiting the modern church just rebuilt over the ruins of the one that was destroyed 50 years ago. The main church has remained in ruins (the interior is completely devastated, neither altar nor the paintings survived) On top of the mountain considered as the "Second Jerusalem by the Syrians," there is a beautiful monastery, Mor Malke, where currently only two monks reside. There are some visiting young learners. The senior priest refuses to be photographed but he tells me in detail the story of the struggle, that of the decades of abandonment after the invasion of the Islamic people, as their faith has allowed the monastery to remain almost intact. He talks about long periods of self-sufficiency thanks to the cultivated vegetable and water sources, in a very arid region where once agriculture and commerce towards Syria flourished. This was once a crossroads of peoples and rich valley. The monastery itself housed hundreds of pilgrims, today those visiting are to be counted on the palm of a hand. Photos show the meeting between the priest and the two migrants. Then, moments of the sacred ritual, where now only few people from neighbouring villages participate, a ritual made of songs and movements that recall the early Church, all people facing the altar, the priests and the common people, nobody officiating. It is not allowed to participate as external.

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Tribal villages of Kutch in Gujarat, minorities at risk

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 12:36:00 +0100

The tradition is exploited to motivate tourism which actually does not bring any benefit to the local population if not through intermediaries. In some villages, such as Khavda, the producers are able to export their wares all over India at a fair price, but the situation is very different in others. A significant example is one village that is very close to the most visited hot-spot, a lookout over the white desert where groups of Indian tourists and school classes arrive by bus and never stop in the villages below. Here, however, is where low-cost goods are manufactured, then sold in tourist areas up to five times the cost.

It is clear however what is the current aim for development: tourism. Numbers are exponentially growing, hand by hand with the growth of well-being, and statistics aside the amount of tourists not only at the sites of the desert, even for recreational activities that are organized on the reservoirs, is visible.

It is a domestic tourism, but coming from the rest of India. All the benefits declared by the central government remain to be seen, what you see are conditions of a widespread poverty. Despite the industrial wealth of the State, the living standards of the poor are very low.

These villages can be considered relatively lucky, although there are important mineral resources (excluding gas reserves, in the salt desert there are lignite, bauxite and gypsum, in particular) the government has not subcontracted land use to any multinational companies nor started any campaign of displacement. Not likely for the time being, as in other parts of India, where people are removed or harshly repressed. Many statements about development projects are done in Gujarat, in line with the model of the large dams. There are ninety-seven small rivers in the district of Kutch. Twenty large dams and several smaller dams retain water in the rainy season runoff. While most of these dams do not affect, since being on rivers that flow directly into the Arabian Sea, in others the storage of water during the rainy season, and its use for irrigation, has significantly reduced the flow of available fresh water. A mainly pastoral society does not receive great benefits from projects designed for the agriculture and the tourism, even more so if we consider the enormous costs. And the needed resources are huge.

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Tor Bella Monaca. Urban Degradation and Social Issues. Report from an inconvenient suburb of Rome

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 21:01:00 +0100

Report from one of the municipalities with the highest demand for social services in the capital

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The neighborhood of Tor Bella Monaca shows in a very large part most of the issues that afflict large segments of the population living in the suburbs of the capital of Italy. It 's a district with a unique history and specific problems, it was already born with a destiny of ghetto to house many poor families from different backgrounds and social exclusions (including many ex-prisoners) who can not afford an home and need to access the social housing.

Along with other areas of the Eighth Municipality of Rome this suburban district attracts a huge demand for social services, services which are in charge of the public administrations and of social enterprises who have contracted such a delicate task. The neighborhood has seen a lot of alarming situations and has gone into the headlines for many episodes of degradation and mismanagement, but it is a place that despite its problematic nature hides many valuable initiatives that are completely self-managed by the people, with the aim to culturally and socially re-evaluate this territory in which they live, and is often made, indeed almost always, in the absence of public institutions.

This is true in part. The Theatre of Tor Bella Monaca and other social services were possible thanks to local authorities. Government in such social frontiers like this suburb, is the only intermediate between people and municipal or national governments and oscillates between a role of single resource of vital services to citizens and at the same time acting as a serious obstacle to the full realization of important associative or private initiatives.

This ambiguity too often happens in this country, where the public affairs seem to be managed in an almost feudal manner.

Corruption is a major concern of Italy, which now lies in international rankings in positions like those of Uganda, over or around the 70th. The case of the Eighth Municipality is truly exemplary for this national moment.

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Local administration in a very non-transparent series of acts has reallocated the already limited resources for basic social services such as those for the disabled people or the not self-sufficient elders, whether are these provided in the form of home or school care whether are provided in special structures that offer a more active assistance (day care centres).

Public money is very little today but what surprises is that in times of deep crisis such as these, in this country a very unclean use of public money still can so negatively affects basic services and skilled jobs, and local administrations do not even bother to deal with the public stakeholders. In times like these, transparency should be the top priority of any political class.

Obviously there is little wonder, that's still the way it is run most of the country. In places such as the Eighth Municipality of Rome - which is so starved of vital services - corruption or the simple inability to manage public money by the political class are responsible not only for paralyzing the economy but also to bring down the welfare of entire families. Families with elderly disabled children, to whom also a minimum of welfare is subtracted.

In the stories we present here, there is also the struggle initiated by users of a cooperative enterprise in the social area, mostly elderly, disabled or in need of vital assistance. The protest is due to the sudden shift of funds for day-care centres and other services to the person, that risk to close within a few months.

Several requests to meet with politicians have never been answered, thus forcing the people to occupy the municipality to get a response from the institutions. The last occupation took place on 22 October, in fact there was a risk that within a month all funds were suspended.

In the gallery we also present some portraits of the elderly, disabled or not, in the day-care centre, where they join various recreational and training activities, which allow them a continuous social interaction and cultural stimulus what in the solitude of the home-care they could not experience.

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Udaipur, Rajasthan, city of arts and beauty

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 11:47:00 +0100

Udaipur is a unique city. Located in the heart of Rajasthan, it is one of the three capitals of arts in the Indian State but also a crossroad leading to the neighbouring state of Gujarat. Its university welcomes many students from different parts of India. Economic development driven by tourism has made it home to various visual arts, with many renowned artists and photographers today even quoted in the entire country. It is also favoured by the proximity with both Delhi and Mumbai.

It is not only a tourist destination, it’s also a place chosen by the growing rich elite living in the modern and luxurious villas on the outskirts of the city. The historic centre, in the old quarter, still maintains the traditional connotations and characteristics. Several painters have painted the walls with images inspired by the traditional emblems, figures of elephants and Rajahs, and even today this tradition is kept alive by many artisans.

Udaipur homes a flourishing craft, not only paintings but also refined manufacturing of all types of metals. Walking through the narrow streets in the morning is a unique acoustic experience, the rhythm of the hammers that forge fabricated metals comes to the ears as a background music.

Just beyond the lake and canals that have given this city the abused epithet of Indian Venice, the countryside starts, set by peaks and crags, where life takes place in a whole different rhythm.

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The White Desert of Kutch in Gujarat, tourism and natural resources

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 12:25:00 +0100

Every year, on the borders of the great White Desert in the northern Khutch, in Gujarat, a gigantic ethnic festival is organized. It attracts hundreds of thousands of Indian tourists. The large region of Kutch is the home for several ethnic minorities and its tribal villages are renowned for the handicrafts made of the most beautiful and varied metals, jewellery, textiles and pottery. However, the situation in many villages is of extreme poverty. Tradition is exploited in order to motivate tourism which actually does not bring any benefit to the local population if not through intermediaries. In some villages, such as Khavda, the producers are able to export their products all over India at a fair price, but the situation is very different in others. The big White Desert. This inhospitable salty lowland, rich in natural gas, was one scene of perennial border disputes between India and Pakistan that, in April 1965, contributed to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. The Little Rann of Kutch is known for its traditional salt production and various references mention this to be a 600-year-old activity.

During the British period, this activity increased. It was used to fund a substantial part of the military expenses of the British government. Communities involved in salt production are mainly Chunvaliya Koli, Ahir and Miyana (Muslim), residing in 107 villages in the periphery of Lesser Rann of Kutch. These communities are traditionally known to have the skills of salt production and are known as ‘Agariyas’. Water quality in 107 villages of Lesser Rann of Kutch is saline, thus agriculture is not an option. Hence, salt production is the only livelihood option for Agariyas.Today there are 45000 Agariyas working in the salt pans of Kutch. The traditional extraction techniques, as well as those for mining, date back to a time before the industrial age. They do not devastate the environment, are limited to the needs of the local population. When taken over by a company that must export all over the world, in addition to the destructive techniques, the extraction intensifies up to the collapse.

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Fishing at Casino – Traditional Fishery conflicts with Casino Boats in Goa

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 14:38:00 +0100

From chapter 9 of the book “Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India”

The project of "off-shore casinos" supported by the state government is the cause of serious conflicts with the traditional fishermen and a threat to their livelihood.

The concept of a floating casino - a first for India - was introduced in Goa about 10 years ago and has caused more than a few discontent also in the important Catholic community. Since years, Goa is inflamed by the protests of the local fishermen, from the villages of Assolna, Velim, Ambelim, Betul and Cavelossim in South Goa, protesting "only" to protect their livelihoods.

Works to dredge the river undertaken by the State Government intended to facilitate the five-star hotels to anchor their huge boat casinos on the river Sal. They are gigantic boats that could not stay in the bay. The conflict is unequal, the casinos pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the state, while fishermen, well, they are simply considered an issue.

Dredging means that they lose much of crustaceans and molluscs and thousands of local fishermen lose their daily sustenance. It's already happened and will continue to happen.

About 500 fishermen and about 5,000 workers dependent on fisheries survive on the fishery resources of the river Sal. A group of traditional fishermen consortium was set up about 10 years ago, when the state government decided to start to dredge the Sal river.

Over the years the dredging has never really stopped despite interruptions due to the protests. Opponents in fact organized (and still organize ) meetings in the affected villages and put pressure on the government to completely abandon the plans.

In Goa, as well as having introduced the casino offshore, they also have a legislation that supports the opening of casinos in five-star hotels. At first only five offshore casinos were authorized by the government, including the Caravela, the first of its kind in the country. Caravela was the first offshore casino to become operational around ten years ago.

Of the five companies, to which at the beginning was given license to set up casinos in Goa, three kept waiting for the waters to calm down. Today "by sight" there are at least 7-8 gigantic boats visible from the promenade of Panjim, in Goa they are about 20 in all the bay. New casinos are in the process of opening (see photos).

The tourism in recent years has changed a lot in Goa, which attracts more and more foreign moneyed tourists (many Russians ) who come here especially for the casinos. Meanwhile, the two realities coexist "peacefully", while new dredging works are continuously started.

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Pollution and overfishing damaging the villages of fisher(wo)men in Gujarat (India)

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Sun, 8 Dec 2013 19:28:00 +0100

From chapter 4 of the book “Elegance and Dignity – Stories from India”

This is another Indian story, extracted from my book “Elegance and Dignity”, that connects tradition with modernity, but not in agricultural areas rather in the sea. These fishing villages of Gujarat, where the whole community receives sustenance from fishing, are seriously threatened by the invasion of foreign ships that make large industrial fishing. The number of species and quantity of fish are in drastic decline since several years. The community depends on this activity: as narrated by the images the men go to sea with boats often no bigger than a lifeboat, women take care of the drying process.

Once again there is an aesthetic, which also contains the goodness of these simple lifestyles. It is an hard work but very decent. The community participates in solidarity and women portrayed here have serene faces and keep goofing around while they work.

The pollution of the sea, along with overfishing are, not so slowly, impoverishing these villages of their only resource. The repercussions are also at a social level, many young people are forced to emigrate. They can not get married, families slowly disperse. Some of them will go to work as cheap laborers in various industries of Gujarat, some to sites like Alang. Children, like many others I portrayed in different parts of India, already have a strenuous work to accomplish inside the community of fishermen, in this village it is the drying of fishes, while the men are at sea.

Overfishing, destructive and unsustainable fishing practices are some of the main causes of the collapse of fish populations: gigantic ships using km-wide nets and machines that literally exhaust entire shoals of fish. These industrial fishing extinguishes a species at a time, then turning to the next species.

Rising temperatures and ocean acidification are two threats to ocean life resulting from industrial development, with increased levels of carbon dioxide as a result of reliance on fossil fuels.

The pollution is widespread in all the oceans. All types of pollutants generated are degrading the marine environment, not just those emitted by factories, but as well by pesticides and nutrients from agriculture, as well as sewage, plastics, toxic chemicals and oils derived from discharges, even from radioactive nuclear power plants, located near the coast.

Along with the environment, all eco-friendly traditional fishing communities are losing the ability to self-sustain. They ere increasingly turning to small fish species, such as the photos and the fishermen of Jafrabat refer.

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GERDA TARO – Shots in the shade of a legend (Robert Capa)

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 11:55:00 +0200

by Silvio Zappi

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Gerda Taro in Guadalajara Juli 1937

Gerda Taro (real name Gerta Pohorylle) was born in Germany in 1911. She is defined as one of the first war photographer and she is still remembered for his political commitment to opposition to fascism. Jewish and coming from a middle-class family, was arrested in 1933 accused of propaganda against the Nazi regime and subversive activities; once at liberty soon finds refuge in the Paris of the '30s, home of a cultural and artistic enthusiasm fueled by a variety of motivated artists, intellectuals and photographers from around the world.

It was in Paris that met the man of her life, Endre Friedmann, a Hungarian photographer, Jewish like her and two years younger, in search of affirmation. A photographer as there were many, but that soon Gerda turned into legend. In fact, she proposed to Friedmann a commercial expedient inventing an imaginary successful photographer, and pretending (under the name of Gerda Taro) as assistants of the unreal character. Unfortunately, the strategy brought international fame only to him, after few years he became the greatest war photographer of all time - in fact the name of the invented photographer was Robert Capa.

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VIVIAN MAIER, A baby-sitter storyteller of America ‘900

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 22:36:00 +0200

Sometimes between oblivion and fame there is just an ordinary event. It was the year 2007, and during an auction, for a few hundred dollars, Mr. John Maloof, bought something like 40,000 negatives of unpublished images. Shots made by a nanny between the '50s and '80s, that narrate life of people living in the largest American cities streets.
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Indian Portraits. From Stories recorded in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka. Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 19:56:00 +0200

In January and February of 2013 I made a long journey to India in search of stories through which to tell a much visited country under a new light and in my opinion a more true one. It was the period of the Maha Kumbh Mela and I started with the desire to go to this huge religious festival, like my colleagues, to capture one of the most beautiful mass rituals of the modern age. The fate instead led me elsewhere.

I discovered the Gujarat, very little kwown by tourists and I was able to photograph an India that is very different from that illustrated on the postcards. At short a book will be published (both English and Italian) containing eight reportages and various littler stories. After that I’ll publish the photos. But here's a preview that collects portraits, excerpts from stories that will be illustrated in the book. Good vision.

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A religious business journey – new businessmen in India

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 13:52:00 +0200

This is the visual chronicle of a trip with a young entrepreneur of Gujarat, a self-made man, who is building a real industrial fortune from scratch. Sharing rooms in filthy guesthouses, that are a common routine for a young Indian businessman on the rise, his jeep bought two months before but still having the plastic on the seats, his and his gold Rolex to be shown and a smartphone always attached to the ear, to direct his enterprise while going from the southern ports to the yards where his warehouse was, at Jamnagar. He is a young man of 24 years already having a family to grow, a man who lives inside his jeep (often sleeps there), perhaps a prisoner of his own quest for success. He is part of the largest business of recycling industry, but of course he is at the top, or tries to get there.

The young entrepreneur and his fortune are the other side of the huge industrial development of Gujarat, he is the face of the success in this incredible industrial evolution that the leading state of India is experiencing, where any engineer I met is employed in some sector related to the steel production. In the middle of the trip we stopped in a Ashram where the local community celebrated a feast to honour an orange deity that according to the local myths unexpectedly rose from the earth years ago in the shape of an anthropomorphic rock. Here a holy man with a shrewd face built his sanctuary.

Before going on the next day we even stopped by an astrologer. An intellectual, small man with a clever, charming smile. He predicted the future to the entrepreneur and to his travelling companion, who had been introduced to me as a colleague but I understood soon to be a subordinate. Then he started to read my hands too, after consultation of an aged yellow paper full of symbols that I could not decrypt, and predicted for me a future as a man involved in politics. A thing that is just absurd.

The spiritual dimension of Indian people is represented by this little story. Gurus and spiritual guides are just the top of the iceberg, what they protect and often exploit is a spiritual connection shared by all, even by businessmen. Call it superstition if you want, but certain religiosity (‘connectivity’, in the etymological sense of the word religion) crosses all social classes in one way or another, it is in fact a connection of meanings. Through religion and its patterns in a way India absorbs and mitigates the assaults of materialism yet, in others aspects it also metabolizes and defuses the issues related to social classes, in order to justify the exploitation of man by man and to keep the status quo. Indian religions appear fascinating and disturbing at the same time. Civil rights, or the western humanitarism, here have little sense, but it is certainly not lacking in this country a strong trade union and a political movements clearly inspired by Marxism. Religion is, however, transversal and mutual.

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Students’ Photo – A monthly pick among the photos sent by my students for critique

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 22:41:00 +0200

Every month or so I choose the best photo posted on the Facebook page that is dedicated to the students of the courses I held for Fotobiettivo. The selection is open to other amateur photographers who attend the group.
The photos come from a contest ina a specific topic. The winning photo is chosen by myself with advices by other photographers and various factors are take into account, such as the author's personal research, the semantic consistency, the visual suggestions. The photo may not be technically perfect, the selection is for those who are learning and the contest is seen as an opportunity to improve.

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Wedding Photography – Samples of my style.

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 02:01:00 +0200

Samples from the last weddings I worked.
For receiving information please email me at marcopalladino@scuolafotografia.net or call (+39) 320 8937525

(slideshow with music ... ACTIVATE HD see LOW / DX)

What a beautiful picture ... Photoshop did it? About post-production and retouch.

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Palladino) — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:52:00 +0200

ARTICOLO IN ITALIANO >>

What a beautiful picture, who knows what treatments you have made in Photoshop? Willy-nilly any photographer is today confronted with such questions. Just think about the winner photo of the World Press Photo Award 2013, the beautiful photograph of Paul Hansen, that has aroused so many reactions, as it should be, the vast majority however addressed to the editing, that many have considered excessive, and once again all complaints against the photographer, who is guilty according to many of creating drama in picture out of retouching, with an almost painterly use of light and color, definitely got in a fake way, according to many critics.

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