Nostalgia is a Powerful Drug

There is not much in my life that I can say that sends me into a deep nostalgic place more than images of Thailand...
For the almost three total years in the Land of Smiles, I have an ample amount of love and connection with the country which I lived it so peacefully.
Recently, I have been offered another photography exhibit and the curator enjoyed a lot of my "travel" photos. So, in my attempt to gather some of my favorites, I had to dig through my photos, dating way back to 2006 all the way up to today. I have barely scratched the surface of the amount of thousands upon thousands of photographs that I need to look through because most of the time, that sweet sweet taste of nostalgia comes in and sweeps me (and my productivity) away.
But the beauty of it all is that I have images to bring me right back to that time, place, smell, sound, feeling, etc.
At the request of a friend interested in some of my work -- whom I lived in Thailand with for six months -- I scoured through my photos, but only of Bangkok, and narrowed down some basic BKK life shots. In between flipping through folders, I looked at my fellow photographer/Thailand lover/Ajarn Rich's photos on his blog at http://dickmarks.com
...His work is stellar and I highly recommend looking at his stuff and his writing.

Courtesy of Richard W. Marks

I also stumbled upon another talented photographer whom I am a fan of on Facebook named Luciano Mortula. This picture of his brought me right back to Ramkhamhaeng Road in Bangkapi. It was just a rush of memories and feelings when looking at both Rich and Luciano's photos from Thailand.

Titled: C I T Y O F A N G E L S Courtesy of Luciano Mortula

So without any delay, I needed to post a few images that remind me of the life in Bangkok. If you have lived there, I hope the memories come rushing back to you as they do for me. If you have never been there, hopefully you'll get a better understanding of the jai dee life.

*Be sure to head over to my website for more photos in my Nostalgic Thailand gallery and wander around the rest of michaeltirone.com for some new photos.
**If you are interested in some of my photos (whether it be to print, frame, or just have a digital copy) please contact me at wmtirone@gmail.com

Black and White Wednesdays: A Collection of Other Photographer

Since a lot of my photography is based around the many colors of the world (and since I am far too busy with past photos) I enjoy looking at other photographers work and how they portray things without color. So here are some of my favorite black and white shots for this week.

This photo is from Scott Nichols Gallery and this image alone is why I aspire to take black and white photographs. It's beautiful simplicity has a slight complexity to it, like a painting. The rest of his work below is also incredible, go to his site and take a look at all!

Here are some black and white night shots...

All of these images are from the photographer Marcin Stawiarz. Check out his black and white portfolio, it's fantastic. His use of contrast and extremely white whites and dark blacks without overpowering the image is fantastic. His ISO must be quite high and probably taken on a tripod considering all of these photos are taken at night.

I have an image very similar to this (as it sort of looks like the Chao Praya River in Bangkok) that I hope to put up in the next few days.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesdays and go to these two artist's sites, they are truly talented photographers!

Black and White Wednesdays: Barack Obama

Since I am still experiencing some problems with my computer, I do not have access to my personal photographs, but my friend Russell, pointing me in the direction of some oldie- but goodie- black and white shots that I saw in Rolling Stone a couple years back. So enjoy these black and white ones while next week I'll get you back on track with my black and white photographs.

Barack Obama, 1980. Pho­tos by Lisa Jack /​ M+B Gallery. 

My favorite of all of these. Such a great candid photo with interesting lighting.

This is a very close second favorite. Great emotion from this picture and it seems like I've seen a similar pose from our President many times in recent photographs. Perfection.

Head over to the website I grabbed these from to see the rest of the photos.

~Mike

Premiere of Black & White Wednesdays

To go along with our Travelog Thursdays, this week is the premiere of Black & White Wednesdays. The concept is simple, I'll be posting some black and white photographs of mine (or other artists). Enjoy!
~Mike

Photography's Impact

I just recently read an amazing article on Gizmodo.com which discusses the dramatic impact that photography had on the civil rights movement, specifically in the Project C protests in Birmingham, AL in 1963.

Please read this article, as it addresses the overwhelming influence of the photographs portraying the despicable treatment of African-Americans in the streets of Birmingham.

http://gizmodo.com/#!5763793/sound-familiar-photography-and-americas-civil-uprising

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I look at this article and make many comparisons toward recent events and/or social conflicts that I have lived through. For instance, the Coup De Tat of 2006 in Thailand, the hidden societal slandering of the Chinese government of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, and the violent protests of Bangkok in 2010.

Thai, "Yellow shirt", protestors take over the Government House in downtown Bangkok, Thailand in August, 2008.

The affect of today's technology has obviously played incredible roles in all of these issues, with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks being the face of modernized uprisings and protests (as seen in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya). So much so that even one Egyptian man named his newborn daughter "Facebook" after its largely influential impact on democratic overthrowing of Hosni Mumbarak just a few weeks ago.

But what has remained constant, over time, through struggle and discourse, is the element of images. Whether they are moving or still, colored or gray-scaled, focused or blurred, being able to capture the essence of a society, emotion, movement, or event is something any photographer strives for.

The beauty of capturing significant moments in time can only be as valuable as to document that moment accurately, justly, and appropriately. To skew a reader/viewer toward your bias or perspective is what some say is the right of every artist. But in a time of important change or struggle, say within a country's political system like Egypt's, putting your own spin on the situation is disgraceful.

I mention the Egyptian revolution specifically as my friend, Ghazala, has recently taken what is said in Gizmodo's article on the impact of photography during the civil rights movement and morphed it with the modern-day necessity of technology. Ghazala, a former fellow teacher of English in Thailand with me, has recently moved to Cairo for graduate studies. Upon arriving, the push for a change in power within the country occurred right before her eyes. And just like she did in Thailand during the protests of downtown Bangkok, she went into the heart of it like a good journalist would do -- not to mention a courageous journalist. And with risk comes reward. After snapping hundreds and hundreds of amazing images. Instead of concealing them for her own portfolio, she announced them with backstories and details into every incredible moment on Facebook and Twitter. Without bias, without prejudgement, but allowing for the photos to speak for themselves. With excellent photos comes emotion and reaction and that is precisely what happened with Ghazala's work. She was constantly on Facebook updating statuses and photographs, and on Twitter communicating with every person she knew about the crisis in Egypt but also informing the world of a fellow young adults view of the action. There were no CNN reporters standing on pedestals in front of crowds dressed in newly pressed shirts or even video of the chants echoing from Tahrir Square, but rather just raw images of struggle and hardship, all for one cause -- freedom.

After a few days, Ghazala's images reached a larger scale than her Twitter followers, but the Al Jazeera network, then featured in photography blogs, then publishing companies, then Egyptian individuals that simply want to document this revolution accurately for their children. The work of an inspired individual, foreign to the country, has passed inspiration to others, by being able to capture change and emotion.

You may not know Charles Moore of the Black Star who has many important photographs during the Project C protests in Birmingham in 1963, and perhaps you may never had the privilege to know Ghazala Irshad, but there work and their freeze frames in time -- in history -- is what you will remember. That's the beauty of a photographer. Being behind the camera may seem less glamorous to some than to me be in front of it, but all is relative. In a world where images of people are absorbed in and spit out by the hundreds a minutes, with advertisements and "famous" celebrities providing eye stimuli, the genuine nature of good images by a talented photographer is what matters in history. Fame may make the front page of newspapers and the back page of high school yearbooks, but photography makes all of the pages in history books.

Because when all else fails, when news networks can't get there, writers lose their words, and stories become misconstrued, truthful, compelling images will always prevail.