New Delhi Train Station, India, 2007
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Monthly Archives: September 2010
Daniel in Bolivia
September 14, 2010
I wrote in a previous post about Daniel Hofer’s project to photograph the people working in the pilot lithium mines in Bolivia. Well, he’s off and he’s keeping a journal of his stay over there: Daniel in Bolivia.
New Delhi Train Station – 2
September 13, 2010
New Delhi Train Station, India, 2007
I still find it incredible that I didn’t take any notes during my second trip in India, I keep going back and forth through my journals, hoping to find something that, sadly, isn’t there.
Oh, well, this photo was taken between the end of August and the beginning of September 2007. The monsoon season is ideal to visit Delhi, if you can live with a couple of hours of rain per day: the air is a bit cooler, not too many mosquitoes, and much less pollution. For the Indians, the rainy season is also the romantic season: the heat that has been getting worse and worse from April ’til June finally breaks. I guess it has also to do with wet saris.
The train station in New Delhi is a fantastic place for photos: the light, the people, the small stories – a few worth telling – all builds up in a perfect narrative. Sadly, it is forbidden to take photos in train stations in India, so you just got enough time until the a policeman says that you should stop.
Is copyright overrated?
September 6, 2010
There are different things that bring me to believe that copyright is overrated in our society:
- In eastern societies the influence of Confucius replaces the influence of Aristotle. Copying someones’ works or thoughts, according to their view, is not stealing their ideas but acknowledging their mastership and creativity. Unluckily our cultural model is dominant in the world. I wouldn’t mind a change.
- All the recent fuss about the glass negatives that should have been Ansel Adam’s (and worth 200 million $), but turned out to be from some guy named Earl, therefore worth the 45$ paid at the garage sale. So it looks like the same photo is worth different prices according to who is the author.
- The “right to your own image”. Photons come from the sun, hit you, are reflected back in different directions, some hit my camera. In which way do people think they own those photons? The truth is that this approach has killed street photography in continental Europe.
- The record industry: these blokes are crying that “hometaping is killing business” since the ’70s, thought that burning CDs is evil, copying mp3 even worse. You get fined if you do it and get caught. These guys are stinking rich. Thanks to copyright.
Now, probably it isn’t a good idea to abolish it, but I seriously start thinking that some things have gone to far. I need to look better into Creative Commons.