Eco photo

Us

Jonathan — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:58:17 +0000

The magic of music

Jonathan — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:25:01 +0000

The last night at rework the world there was a concert with a band called no more lullabies. It was a truly awesome concert with lots of passion in it. I particularly enjoyed when they were playing dragspel. The person who played dragspel seemed to truly enjoy what she did and was immersed in what she was doing.

This was not the only occasion no more lullabies played for us. Throughout the conference various artists played bits and pieces of their music on stage in between the speeches. I guess that’s what I call creativity. During the the flow of music it also seemed like it embraced all the participants and made them think differently about what they heard some minutes before. The music deepened what was just said and made it more profound.

It’s not just the intellect that we need to use, we have to utilize every skill we have to make the change that we want to see.

(during that last concert, it was such a bliss photographing. Dancing and photographing. Doing it together with the rythm. It was such an amazing experience.)

Portrait in the summer evening

Jonathan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:36:12 +0000

Sometime ago I was enjoying the summers breeze just outside the library a summer evening. Some of my corridor mates had a beer and nice time together. A guitar was involved and some great music. Just lovely. So I thought that this portrait in an sense emodies a portrait in a summer evening.

People save the world

Jonathan — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:00:02 +0000

The second at Rework the world at the first session I planned going to the people session. Apparently a lot of more people thought the same thing. That session was so packed to the brim some of the people wanting to go weren’t able to.

However, some people began sitting just outside the premise on the lawn. We had our own self-organized unconferenced version of the people session. Everyone sat in a circle and we started by presenting each other’s name and why we were there. After that a discussion emerged. It was all very interesting to follow. It was much like any conversation between two people. Sifting through various different subjects but which all had in common on how to grasp the subject on how do we actually rework the world towards a better future. I think having these kind of sessions would have been more productive rather than having people lecturing you which happen during quite many of the sessions. Maybe the only thing that was lacking during this people session was a more prounced goal. How do we start, right now. What kind of road shall we pave from now on? What needs to be accomplished until the next YES summit?

I guess that If I would write about all the things that we talked about it would easily be a couple of blogposts. But I’ll briefly write about what kind of subjects we talked about. We talked about leadership, how do we use leaders and role models. The meaning of words, is it important to use different words on different occasions? About organizations and what kind of role they fill. There is obviously a fundamental difference between organizations and individuals. How this movement should be worked, from top to bottom or bottom to top.

Those were some of topics that emerged. Chime in and ask away on what you think was interesting and I’ll write more about it.

Sustainability or Thrivability

Jonathan — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:33:32 +0000

During the conference Rework the world which ended just a week ago I met the founder of the concept of thrivability. A couple a weeks earlier I bumped into this video where the CEO of 7th generation talked about sustainability. He profoundly announced that “Less bad does not mean good“. A statement that really reverbated within me. In the world there is much talk about doing less harm, reducing your impact and having a small carbon footprint as possible. Even the concept of eco-efficiency which the current Swedish government talks a lot about seems slanted. If we are efficient enough we’ll have no impact at all?

So if we are efficient or managed to reduce our impact enough we would be sustainable. We would be able to sustain ourself. That sounds like a quite miserable existence to me. Isn’t sustainability more about break even rather than the state that we would like to live in?

So last week I met the founder of the concept of thrivability, Jean Russell. In essence she told me that living should be about thriving. About letting relationships grow and about doing good rather than doing less harm. As I see it when we apply these concepts to reality it’s about setting goals. What kind of future do we envision? A future where we thrive or a future where we only manage to sustain ourselves.

In setting the goals we have reached halfways in achieving them.

© Jonathan for Eco photo | Direct link | Add to del.icio.us
Tags: brown, environment, people, portrait, thrivability, woman

Woman portrait #1

Jonathan — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:11:41 +0000

I decided a morning that it would be nice to have a little photoshoot. So me and my girlfriend decided that it would be a good idea. Think about some great photos that you’ve seen in your life. What do they have in common?

First, I would say most good photographs have simplicity in common. Some kind focus is present. Of course there are exceptions to this rule. (I can’t think of any photo right now, but I remember seeing it). In this photo there isn’t much that you might get distracted by. Not even a nipple, which might be mightily distracting for the male counterpart of the population ;).

Second, all good photos have lighting that enhance or focus on the person or the subject. I myself prefer natural lighting, especially window lighting is marvelous in my opinion. Light coming sideways from the window will make the photo much more lifelike and 3d. If you take a look on all the old paintings from 17th century like Rembrandts paintings, you’ll see that lighting always comes sideways. (I love those paintings).

Third, an interesting photo tells a story. I would say that this is the most difficult part. This is also quite subjective. There was a photographer named Arnold Newman who took some quite compelling photos in my opinion, he managed to tell a story about the person he portrayed by just add some characteristic elements. One of the more famous ones is probably this picture of Stravinsky.

All in all, if you manage to follow these simple priniciples you’ll sooner or later end up with some great photos.

In the field

Jonathan — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:34:00 +0000

Tabuchi is one of the japanese people I wwoofed at. This was in the end of february. I had some holiday from school and it was still a bit cold outside. Although this day we would harvest some beans that was leftover from last autumn. The beans he grew was soybeans. There were several type of soybeans he grew, at least four different types.

When we think about eating food we think about the stuff that’s possible to buy in a supermarket. But when coming to more rural areas where they actually grow food there is this huge plethora of vegetables that you’ve never even heard of. Isn’t that curious? Are we heading towards a society with less diversity in our food culture?

Branching towards water

Jonathan — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:03:30 +0000

A visit to the world of trees. This reminds me of interconnectedness there is everywhere. The circular flows that exist everywhere in nature. The water is needed by the tree but sooner or later it is returned to be used by someone else.

We, humans, seem to have a habit of breaking these cycles. Did you know for instance that a pair of jeans use up 10 000 litres of water to produce? If those jeans are produced in a country where water is a scarcity and moved to another country that country’s water cycle is broken and crops and other necessities would suffer. Life is indeed intricate

Next move…

Jonathan — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:52:45 +0000

This is the guy that lost to our corridor’s chess master. I don’t blame him though. I would have lost as well. I do like strategy games like this, but the games I prefer are more social in character.

Chess master

Jonathan — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:38:25 +0000

A master of Chess at work. He is beating his opponent without losing much at all. It’s impressive to see really good chess players at work.