Tag Archives: photography

France on strike

France on Strike

Weeks of strikes, protests and demonstrations have brought much of France to a standstill as workers, students and others voice their strong opposition to a government proposal to raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62. A quarter of the nation’s gas stations were out of fuel, hundreds of flights were canceled, long lines formed at gas stations and train services in many regions were cut in half. Protesters blockaded Marseille’s airport, Lady Gaga canceled concerts in Paris and rioting youths attacked police in Lyon. The unpopular bill is edging closer to becoming law as the French Senate is preparing to vote on it today. Collected here are recent images of the unrest around France. Update: Pension reform bill just now passed by French senate. (40 photos total)


A man holds a placard which reads “Listen to the public’s rage” during a demonstration in front of the French Senate in Paris October 20, 2010. French trade unions kept up their resistance on Wednesday to an unpopular pension reform due for a final vote in the Senate this week. (REUTERS/Charles Platiau)

View more photos here.

Global citizenships

"Be/longing" Yaseem Ahmad, 2008

“Be/longing”, Yasmeen Ahmad, 2008

Global Citizenships is an online exhibition that is part of CONTACT, the Toronto Photography Festival.

The Global Citizenships project is curated by Yasmeen Ahmad and is an extension of her masters of education project, which she completed at UBC last year. In her project Ahmad created a participatory space for showcasing diverse, multiple and shifting interpretations of the meaning of global citizenship from personal perspectives. Of the project, Ahmad says,

Mine is a grassroots, inductive approach to defining global citizenship that is distinct from more deductive approaches suggested by some institutions, organizations or individuals.  Rather than defining global citizenship and having participants write about it or photograph to match a definition, individuals are invited to contribute stories and images related to the way they have experienced and related to this concept themselves.  In doing this, I hope to provide a platform for self-representation and for many perspectives to be expressed, valued and understood.

The exhibition poses the question: What does global citizenship mean to you? and showcases diverse personal perspectives and shifting interpretations. Global Citizenships aspires to connect with all levels of society about the ways we are and hope to be.

Everyone is invited to contribute photographs and stories that represent connections with these ideas. The focus of the project is to explore the concept, definition and associations of global citizenship through personal story and photographic image.

Detroit, America’s most epic urban failure, part 2


Michigan Central Station, Detroit’s main train station, opened in 1913 has not been used since 1988. (Photo by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre)

Earlier this month I blogged about Detroit as America’s most epic urban failure. My buddy Detroit Rich just tipped me off to a depressingly beautiful Time magazine photo essay of Detroit—Detroit’s Beautiful, Horrible Decline—which features the photography of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Also check out the Marchand and Meffre “Ruins of Detroit” photo essay on their web site.