Andris Bjornson - Photographer

"To Empathize is to Civilize": An engaging talk on the science behind the empathetic nature of the human race.

2010-07-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

As I've said before, one of the things that drives me to photograph is the goal of helping viewers connect with subjects...of allowing viewers to understand a bit of what it's like to be the person in the photograph. By doing that, I hope to reduce the empathy deficit we seem to have in our global civilization today.

This 10 minute YouTube video by author and political advisor Jeremy Rifkin of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) presents an encouraging viewpoint: that we are "soft-wired" by cultural evolution to empathize. He goes on to say that new media technology is giving our global society new ways to connect and empathize, and may in fact be one of the keys to keeping us from destroying our planet.

Scientific proof: using new media to tell the stories of individuals in difficult conditions helps save the world!

Trying my hand at video

2010-04-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

My job with Inveneo installing wireless networks in rural and remote regions of the developing world keeps me pretty busy, hence the lack of updates.

Recently, though, I had the chance to edit together some video. It's a timelapse showing the performance of our low power Fit2 PC against a standard desktop when running on identical battery power setups. It's a bit crude since it was shot with a consumer point and shoot...but definitely does a solid job at getting the point across.

As a sidenote, after some initial learning curve pains I found Apple's iMovie '09 to be a pretty full featured editor. I've worked with Premiere in the past, but for this simple project iMovie got the job done.

Enjoy!

Goat*Net: Bleating Edge WiFi Mesh Networking from Inveneo

2010-04-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

In the tradition of Google, ICTWorks (a platform to encourage collaboration between ICT practitioners in the developing world) needed a good story for April Fool's Day.

I haven't been writing as much as I'd have liked lately, but I'm pretty happy with this short piece on Goat Powered Mesh Networking I put together with Wayan Vota, Inveneo's Senior ICIP Director.

The WiFi hackers at Inveneo, famous for their long-distance network in Haiti, are piloting a new Internet connectivity solution that they hope will bring Internet access to currently unreachable corners of rural Africa. Deploying collar-mounted wireless transceivers on a herd's worth of goats, they've created a mobile, self-healing, self-configuring network they've dubbed the Goat*Net.

To learn more about Goat*Net, read the full story here.

Note this is not my photo, it's courtesy of Eliya, thanks to a CreativeCommons license on flickr.

Inveneo: Image Featured on Front Page

2009-06-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

My current job installing rural wireless networks and training IT companies in developing regions with Inveneo has already taken me to some fascinating places.

This image, currently featured on the front page of the Inveneo website, was taken in a UNHCR refugee camp for displaced Congolese living in Rwanda.

The picture shows an engineer from Inveneo's Rwandan partner, RockGlobal, installing a long distance wi-fi antenna that will link the camp's classroom to the internet.

Matador Goods: Photo Contest Win

2009-06-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

I heard that the guys at MatadorGoods were running a "favorite mountain" trekking and climbing photo contest. Since those are both things to do, I submitted a favorite of mine from Nepal.

Forget favorite mountain, this has to be one of my favorite spots on the planet: period. Khopara ridge is within a day or two’s trek of the popular Annapurna circuit in Nepal, but only sees 10s of visitors a year. A single rocky trekker’s hut graces the top of the ridge, and lets you sit and contemplate life high above the clouds.

Apparently the MatadorGoods photo editors and I have similar taste, and my win scored me a copy of Trekking + Climbing: The Andes by Val Pitkethly and Kate Harper.

The book features 26 treks and 18 climbing Peaks in the South American wilderness. I've never been to South America...I'm hoping maybe this will inspire me to plan a trip.

NRIDS: Building wireless networks in Nepal

2009-03-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

While I was in Nepal, I spent time working with my good friend Sudip Aryal. Sudip started a organization called NRIDS (Nepal Rural Information-technology Development Society) to increase access to technology in his home district of Syangja.
Sudip and I spent a lot of time planning a rural wireless network to beam internet from the tourist hotspot of Pokhara over a nearby mountaintop, and down to five villages in Syangja district. The entire project could be done with the same hardware you use to get wifi access in your local coffeeshop.

NRIDS has a network plan, it also has technical volunteers willing to work for free. Now all it needs is money to buy the hardware: USD $8000 to be exact. Check out the fundraising piece I did for NRIDS, and if you feel like it...give a few bucks by PayPal. Every bit helps!

NetSquared Referenced my article

2009-03-21T02:58:00.000-07:00

NetSquared mentioned (if not quoted) my 'Giving Back to your Subjects' article in their discussion of 'Pentaxploitation: do photography and social change really go together?'

...ok, so I'm several months late in knowing about it, their mention was in November 2008. Still, just goes to show it's worth googling yourself every once in a while.

Slideshow: San Francisco Brides of March 2009

2009-03-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

...back in San Francisco for less than a month and I'm already shooting drag queens in wedding dresses. I love this town. Check out my slideshow for the event, and remember: beware the brides of March.

Slideshow: Glimpses of Nepal

2009-01-30T02:33:00.001-08:00

This is a quick slideshow I put together of some of the things I've been shooting over here in Nepal. Music is the beautiful "Latika's Theme" from Slumdog Millionaire.

Images published in Himal Magazine

2008-12-03T03:59:00.000-08:00

The Nepali magazine Himal ran two of my images in print and on the web in a story on trekking to Khopara Ridge in the Myagdi District of Nepal. Now I know that शैली बस्नेत is Nepali for Andris Bjornson, as listed in the photo credits.

Roll Your Own Peace Corps

2008-11-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

"Whether it’s the trekking guide who shares a closet-sized apartment with his sister, the homestay host who can’t scrape together the cash to repair her leaky roof, or the bright-eyed children who study in a thatched-roof schoolhouse, people in developing regions bring you face-to-face with the massive gaps in standards of living.

Confronting this economic divide can generate powerful emotions ranging from shock to shame to outright anger at the state of the world.

Point these emotions in a constructive direction, though, and you may find yourself planning your next big trip around finding a way to help."

I've been quiet for a few months now, but the whole 'packing up everything I own and moving to Nepal' thing has kept me busy. Here's a piece I just did for MatadorChange.com on planning your own volunteer experience by getting in touch with local NGOs in developing countries that need the skills you already have.

Enjoy!

Another KPAM Radio Interview: Exploring Malaysia

2008-09-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Pat Boyle at the Azumano Travel Show on KPAM 860 in Portland interviewed me again, this time it was a broad overview of exploring Malaysia. Check out the audio below:

It seems like every time I talk to them, we end up talking about leaches. I'm really not that fixated, they just keep coming up...I swear.

Images on the UNA-USA Media Blog

2008-08-28T00:05:00.001-07:00

A few select pictures from my June trip to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina with Adopt-A-Minefield are up on the UNA-USA Media Blog along with some audio I recorded of a demining metal detector in action.

Hopefully more images to come from this trip soon. I've almost completed work on a slideshow telling the story of the tight bond between demining dogs and their handlers.

Landmines are bad, people...really bad. Visit landmines.org to learn more and donate.

Cambodian Dirtbiking: Another interview with KPAM

2008-07-21T19:50:00.001-07:00

Apparently the guys at KPAM in Portland liked my first interview on Borneo trekking enough to ask me back to do another, this time on my Cambodian dirtbike trip to Preah Vihear.

Incidentally, Preah Vihear has been in the media spotlight lately. On June 8 it was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, and Thailand wants in on the tourism dollars. The Thai government is disputing Cambodia's claims to the temple, and hundreds of Thai and Cambodian troops have been in a standoff on the temple grounds for the past week.

Hopefully the standoff won't turn violent, but it sounds like tensions are high. Now might not be the best time for a visit.

Giving Back to your Subjects

2008-07-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

(photo by Thomas Holton)

"As traveling photographers, we are often in the unfortunate position of taking from subjects less fortunate than ourselves without giving anything back. On an ideological level, I like to believe that a great image comes from a collaboration between photographer and subject. However, we capture images, show them off to friends and relatives, promote ourselves professionally, and maybe even sell prints. For the barefoot pilgrim, the hungry child, and the lonely grandmother with the tattered shawl though, life continues unchanged."

Here's a short article I did for Collective Lens on the one-way "take but don't give" relationship that sometimes exists between photographers and their subjects, and what one photographer did to help when the subjects of his long term documentary peice narrowly escaped disaster.

Andris Bjornson on the KPAM Portland Travel Show

2008-06-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

A producer for an AM radio travel show up in Portland came across my Matador piece on Borneo trekking, and contacted me for an interview. People have always told me I had a good voice for radio...you be the judge!

Sarawak: Trekking In The Kelabit Highlands

2008-05-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

"Sarawak trekking takes more than a little slogging through muddy, leech infested territory. As you remove your sock to flick off what seems like the thousandth bloodsucker to wriggle its way through the mesh of your boot, you may find yourself questioning your choice of destination.

Surrounding you, though, will be some of the most bio-diverse forest in the world: home to 15,000 species of flowering plants, 3,000 species of trees, and 221 species of terrestrial mammals. "

Another one of my articles is up at MatadorTrips.com. It's a destination guide on a trekking adventure in the Kelabit highlands of Malaysian Borneo.

SF Camerawork - 2008 Portrait Party

2008-05-12T19:29:00.001-07:00

I spent my weekend digital teching at SF Camerwork's 2008 Portrait Party fundraiser.

SF Camerawork is San Francisco's only nonprofit photography gallery. For the Portrait Party, they get established photographers to donate their time to shoot portrait sessions at Left Space studios. Donors get a professional portrait session, and support Camerawork all at the same time.

I organized and backed up as many as 6 sittings from each of 8 photographers over two days in a single Lightroom catalog on a Mac Pro. It was definitely up to the task. At one point, I had a photographer editing her work as I imported work from another photographer in the background and burned a CD of exports for a third.

The only real bottleneck was the ancient CF card readers, which couldn't take advantage of the 150x cards most of the photographers brought. I guess that's what you get when you tech with someone else's gear.

It was great seeing such a wide variety of shooters in action. I hope to work with Camerawork again in the future.

297 Talented Photographers - And I'm One of Them

2008-04-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

So this free online promo put together by Rob Haggart, former director of photography for Men's Journal and Outside, got a fair amount of industry buzz.

Basically, he took open submission of 2 images each for over a thousand photographers and edited them down to 297 images. I made the cut, and I'm honored to be among such great company. There's some fantastic stuff in there.

Mike and Brittany - March 29, 2008

2008-04-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

I feel like it's some kind of rite of passage as a photographer that I shot my first wedding a few weeks ago. My good friend Mike got married in Columbus on a beautiful sunny day, and I was there to document the whole thing. A slideshow of some of the highlights is here.

Congratulations Mike and Brittany!

Cambodia Beyond Angkor Wat

2008-03-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

"If you want to see the real Cambodia, round up some friends for a dirt-bike adventure through former Khmer Rouge territory to the stunning mountain temple of Preah Vihear."

...another piece for the guys at MatadorTrips.com. This one's a how-to destination guide on a dirtbike trip to a remote temple called Preah Vihear near the Thai border.

Trekking the Mt. Kangchenjunga Circuit In Nepal

2008-03-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

"If you'd rather share a cup of sweet tea with a Tibetan refugee than a bottle of beer with another backpacker, this is the Himalayan trek for you."

I've been doing some writing recently for a cool new travel site called MatadorTrips.com that runs destination guides on out of the way spots you might want to visit. This piece is on trekking to the basecamps of Mt. Kangchenjunga, the third tallest mountain in the world. Enjoy!

Independent Trekking in Tibet

2008-03-23T15:43:00.001-07:00

"The onslaught of the Chinese tourism machine has most definitely taken its toll on the kingdom at the top of the world, and all-inclusive package tours abound in Lhasa. Tourists pay exorbitant sums to be whisked around the province in Land Cruisers, often by Chinese drivers just as new to Tibetan culture as their clients. For independent travelers there are other more rewarding options available and Lhasa is just a few days hike from a 'real' Tibet adventure."

I did a story recently for a website called TransitionsAbroad on independently planning a trekking adventure in Tibet.

In light of China's recent violent crackdown on protests there, it's probably not even feasible to go at this very moment. If nothing else, though, it should give some insight into why the Tibetans deserve better.