A man dressed as a traditional character “Haji Firouz” heralds the Nowruz celebrations on March 20, 2014 in Tehran, Iran. Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is calculated according to a solar calendar, this year marking 1393. Iranians traditionally decorate a ceremonial table of Nowruz with goldfish, wheat grass, candles, mirrors and other symbolic items. By Amin Mohammad Jamali/Getty Images.
Fourteen-week-old twin polar bear cubs play during their first presentation to the media in Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, Germany on March 19, 2014. The male and female twins were born in the zoo on December 9, 2013. By Alexandra Beier/Getty Images.
Yusuf, a keeper, sleeps with three orphaned baby rhinos at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya. The youngest rhino on the right was orphaned when poachers killed his mother on Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The largest rhino, Nicky, is not an orphan but is being hand-raised because her mother is partially blind. On the woman who took the photo:
Montana-based photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale is shedding some much-needed light on the illegal wildlife trade and poaching of animals taking place in northern Kenya. She recently launched a crowdfunding campaign in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy and the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), using photography as a platform to show how local communities are working to protect their wildlife from the heavily armed criminal networks of poachers that are devastating to the rhinos, elephants and many other plains animals of Africa. … While her initial goal has just been reached, she has now turned her sights on to other related and achievable goals, like providing educational, visual storytelling initiatives for the NRT—a collective of 26 indigenous groups in northern Kenya.
In addition to Vitale’s website, you can follow her work on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Nikon, her Montana workshops, and her storytelling seminars with NatGeo. Previous Dish on animal poaching here, here, here, here, here, and here.
This year St. Patrick’s Day and the Hindu festival of Holi fall on the same day, so what better way to commemorate the coincidence than two Irish-looking Dishheads in Hyderabad?
After finding out that a friend had been sentenced to 36 years in prison, Trent Bell began to photograph inmates at Maine State Prison:
The project was to capture and print large, almost life-sized photographs of inmates from within Maine State Prison, have them write a letter to their younger selves and superimpose those handwritten letters as vignettes around the inmate. The idea behind it being to display these images in a gallery for public viewing, in hopes that it brought a much more human element to individuals we often look at only as convicts living in a cell.
Leon Watson quotes from some of the letters:
[One inmate], named Peter, starts off his letter saying: ‘It’s great to be able to talk to you, I’m 55 years old, and living in prison for the last six years. Let me tell ya kid, it’s no way to live.’
Jack told himself: ‘Much more will be expected of you from these so-called friends. However impressing them won’t be worth it because in the end it’s you sitting in a cold cell.’
In another heart-wrenching letter, a prisoner, who did not leave his name, said: ‘I want to reach out to you and hopefully help save you from becoming me.’ On a similar note, Wes said: ‘Dear Wes, I’m reaching out to you today and I pray that the words of my heart are encouraging enough to keep you from making bad choices that could change your life forever.’
Photographer Sarolta Bán connected her work to a cause:
Budapest, Hungary-based photographer Sarolta Bán is best known for her stunningly surreal scenes that include sky high paintbrush trees and flying origami birds. To help change the perception of abandoned shelter animals, and to help find them homes, she recently embarked on a new series that all feature a furry friend. The project is called Help Dogs with Images.
On her Facebook page, she’s asked her over 103,000 fans to share a photo of a dog, cat or other animal who needs a home. To increase their visibility, she will create a spectacular photo montage of them and then share that image on her Facebook page. As a nice gift, the future owner of that animal will get a free print of the picture.
Ellyn Ruddick-Sunstein elaborates:
Bán’s work is so successful because its soulfulness never veers into saccharine or cutesy territory; each image is hopeful yet serious, its emotionality heightened by stark contrasts and high resolutions. In one desperately heartrending photograph, a dog and cat watch an hourglass begin to count down; each knows the gravity of his situation, and they are left within a darkly tinted frame, anticipating uncertain futures. Shining canine coats and piercing feline eyes entreat the viewer to consider the dignity, humanity, and thoughtfulness that each creature possesses.
See more of Bán’s work here, and submit your own photos of homeless animals here.
(Photo by Sarolta Bán)
In this handout image provided by Taronga Zoo, an unnamed baby Goodfellows Tree Kangaroo joey is seen in its mothers pouch in Sydney, Australia on March 10, 2014. Taronga Zoo is celebrating the successful birth of its first Goodfellows Tree Kangaroo joey in more than 20 years. Zookeepers have only just begun seeing her peeking out from first-time mother, Qwikilas, pouch after she was born in September last year. By Taronga Zoo via Getty Images.
The former US secretary of state and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff facebooks:
Throwback Thursday – I was doing selfies 60 years before you Facebook folks. Eat your heart out Ellen!
Protestors clean their eyes after police fired tear gas during clashes with riot police after the funeral of Berkin Elvan in Istanbul on March 12, 2014. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters in Ankara and Istanbul on Wednesday as tens of thousands took to the streets to mourn a teenage boy who died from injuries suffered in last year’s anti-government protests. Mira/AFP/Getty Images.
Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan takes questions from the audience after addressing the Council on Foreign Relations in in Washington, DC on March 11, 2014. Brennan denied accusations by U.S. senators who claim the CIA conducted unauthorized searches of computers used by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence staff members in an effort to learn how the committee gained access to the agency’s own 2009 internal review of its detention and interrogation program, undermining Congress oversight of the spy agency. By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
My take on the constitutional crisis created by Brennan’s CIA is here.
The Dish 