my life is nothing..

a severely malnourished child covers his face in grief at a feeding center in kondor, sudan. civil war and widespread famine have ravaged sudan for decades, resulting in more than 2 million deaths and over 4 million people displaced since 1983.

picture by viviane moos

444 days

the female iranian wearing an islamic chador passes by a painting of a revolver in front of the former US embassy in tehran during an anti US rally. the rally was held to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the occupation of the united states embassy in tehran. iranian students occupied the embassy on the 4th of November 1979 after the US granted permission to the late iranian shah to be hospitalized in america. fifty three american diplomats and guards were held hostage by students for 444 days. november 04, 2006.

picture by abedin taherkenareh

caro bay-bay

defaced

a photograph that was found by a bosnian family when they returned to their home in a suburb of sarajevo bosnia, march 17, 1996. the serbians who had occupied the house left as the city was reunified under the muslim led bosnian government, taking the families furniture and the rest of the belongings from the house and leaving only the photograph.

picture by ron haviv

afghanistan: a video portrait

i cant get over the beauty of this country, the things our government doesnt show or care to teach us.

muslims & christian protest

egyptian muslims and christians raise a copy of the quran and a cross in shubra district of cairo egypt to protest against the terrorist attack on a church in alexandria. the bomb exploded in front of a coptic christian church as a crowd of worshippers emerged from a new years mass, killing at least 21 people and wounding nearly 80.

russian soldiers of grozny

russian army offensive on the chechen capital city of grozny, the city is circled by the russian army and hit by artillery shots and bombings.

picture taken by patrick chauvel

tepito drug cartel

the drug war has escalated to new heights of violence never before thought possible, the mexican governments has scrambled to deploy troops in attempt to control the sitauation as drug abusers huff glue and inhalants on the streets of tepito, mexico citys toughest neighborhood. tepito is controlled by drug cartels and access to the neighborhood is strictly guarded. police are only allowed to patrol its streets 2 days a week.

photography by brian l frank

kurdish rebels

The Kurdish rebels mounted a large campaign during the early 1980s against Iran, Iraq, and Turkey in an attempt to regain sovereignty over their homeland. © Michel Setboun

qamaruddin

the little boy at the center is named qamaruddin, he was knocked unconscious by a suicide bombers bomb in 2010 in kabul, awaking in the hospital with injuries that included a fractured left leg. sadly, the fracture was not set properly and his family could not afford to have it reset.

bosnia & herzegovnia - uzdol massacre

“blood is spattered high onto the ceiling of a central bosnian farmhouse. an elderly married couple had been sprayed at point blank range with high velocity machine gun fire in a grisly execution by bosnian serb forces in the village of uzdol, bosnia. their heads exploded instantly, spraying arterial blood onto the walls. the white fragments at the bottom left of the photograph are the shattered remains of the old couples skulls. although i was present when the bodies of the old couple were still lying on the bed, the image was far too horrific for anyone to publish and also, in my mind, quite unnecessary to photograph. however as i turned and was about to leave with the british united nations soldiers who had the awful task of cleaning up this ungodly horror, one of the young soldiers carrying the remains and i looked back at the wall and i knew i had the shot.”

-sebastian rich, 1992

the last jew in vinnitsa

one of the iconic images of the 20th century let alone the war or the holocaust. found in a germans photograph album with the words "the last jew in vinnitsa" written on the back.

fasting buddha at wat umong

we are used to seeing buddhas in chiang mai usually golden and sitting serenely but this buddha at the forest temple wat umong was a shock and unlike any i had seen before.. this emaciated statue is called the fasting buddha and represents the buddha at the end of his long fasting period before he gained enlightenment.

respect

african american doctors attempting to save the life of a klu klux klan member, such a powerful photo. it just goes to show that through the eyes of charity, humility, and selflessness, we realize that anyones life is worth saving. this left me speechless, this is what respect is.

life of a formula 1 racer under 2 mins

still wishing i was a formula 1 driver.

sweet life

what does space smell like?

its strange to think that the near vacuum of space could have a smell, and stranger still that humans atmospheric creatures can actually experience it. astronauts have consistently reported the same strange odour after lengthy space walks, bringing it back in on their suits, helmets, gloves and tools. its bitter, smoky, metallic smell—like seared steak, hot metal and arc welding smoke all rolled into one. NASA have asked a chemist, steve pearce, to reproduce the smell to use during acclimatization training, mapping out the likely chemistry using natural materials to mimic the odor for accuracy. its believed that the smell is caused by high energy vibrations in particles that mix with the air when brought inside. in the future, we might even recreate the smell of the moon, mars, mercury or any place in the universe, provided we have the right chemical information. in fact, we can even recreate the smell of the heart of the galaxy astronomers searching for animo acids in sagittarius B2, a vast dust cloud in the middle of the milky way, have reported that due to a substance called ethyl formate, it smells and tastes of raspberries and rum—much more pleasant than seared steak and metal.

the haute topik

the dallas morning news had some rather nice things to say about the homie jennifer from "the haute topik"

stylist, blogger, photographer, business owner blah blah blah this little 20 something yr old does it all and her hard work is really starting to pay off. jenny baby, im proud of you and i love that humble carefree additude you have going on. love you.

show this babe some love @

www.thehautetopik.com

behind the scenes of the new batman movie

new 13 min look at the making of "the dark knight rises"

eres ruso?

without an introduction or even so much as a hi she asked him a single question "eres ruso?". a silly question and a pretty face that plagued his mind for the days to come, a silly question and a pretty face to break the defensive barrier hes been ever so used to holding and guarding so dear. oh my, is this real? could the new feeling i harbor for her be real? against his better judgement he continued pursuing the pretty dame, hoping and wishing it might be true. but what if? what if im wrong, what if its just a silly hopeless feeling after all? is it "normal" to have such thoughts? he asked in his solace. si, claro que si SOY NORMAL! so very normal indeed.

but, what if im wrong? what if im just a fool with a crush he asked once more. he pushes such thoughts aside, and again in his solace he tells himself. atleast, atleast i know theres someone like me. a thought that made him smirk as he sat with a book and his luke warm coffee at his side, as he waits for the day for his pretty dame to come.

-un tio feo

utopia, frogfolio

every year dallas graphic launches a calendar project called the frogfolio which led to tons of award-winning pieces in the past 16 years. the past talents include brad holland, etienne delessert, chris buzelli, yuko shimizu, sam weber, sam bosma, jillian tamaki, bill mayer, ellen weinstein, joohee yoon.etc. its a great honor to have my name be part of the artists i highly admire.

the subject matter is completely open (as long as there is a frog in the picture), so i took full advantage and had tons of fun working on this piece. thank you AD jim burke for having me on board!!

the human cost of the ipad

in the second of a new york times series about the global tech industry, charles duhigg and david barboza explore the often brutal working conditions at the factories where some of america’s most iconic high-tech devices are made.

in the last decade, apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. apple and its high-technology peers as well as dozens of other american industries have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.

however, the workers assembling iphones, ipads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious sometimes deadly safety problems.

employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. under age workers have helped build apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within china, are often considered reliable, independent monitors.

more troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers disregard for workers’ health. two years ago, 137 workers at an apple supplier in eastern china were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iphone screens. within seven months last year, two explosions at ipad factories, including in chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. before those blasts, apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the chengdu plant, according to a chinese group that published that warning.

andrew swanson

HAPPY 4TH

back in my younger years i remember going crazy and dancing for my mum in the living room every time this song by james brown came on.. growing up it had new meaning and reminded me that i live in the greatest country in the world, no matter how fucked it seems to be at time.

happy 4th of july you guys AMERICA BITCH!

ps. if you dont think rocky 4 kicked ass then fuck you.

pps. RIP apollo creed (1943-1985)

UFO in baltic sea

remember the post about a weird object in the shape of the millennium falcon found through sonar at the bottom of the baltic sea? they finally sent divers down there and the plot thickens! they still dont know what it is but they know its not normal.

according to diver stefan hogeborn: “during my 20 year diving career, including 6000 dives, i have never seen anything like this. normally stones dont burn. i cant explain what we saw, and i went down there to answer questions, but i came up with even more questions. the object appeared more as a huge mushroom, rising 3-4 meters/10-13 feet from the seabed, with rounded sides and rugged edges. the object had an egg shaped hole leading into it from the top, as an opening. on top of the object they also found strange stone circle formations, almost looking like small fireplaces. the stones were covered in something resembling soot.”

stereotypes - no homo

redbull monserrate 2012

marcelo gutierrez has an awesome downhill round in bogota colombia, hope you dont have to ride up this crazy course, not much room for mistakes on monserrate.