Category: Face Of The Day

Well this is just weird:

People pose for a photo in Suruc district of Sanliurfa as the smoke rises from Ayn al-Arab city (Kobani) of Syria after the US-led coalition bombed the targets of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Ayn al-Arab, on October 7, 2014. By Emin Menguarslan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.

Erika Turner (R) and Jennifer Melsop (L) of Centreville, Virginia, become the first same-sex married couple in Arlington County during a ceremony, officiated by the Rev. Linda Olson Peebles (C) of Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlingon, outside the Arlington County Courthouse on October 6, 2014. The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will not hear the five pending same-sex marriage cases, paving the way for gay and lesbian marriage in 11 more states. By Alex Wong/Getty Images.

For her series Iranian Fathers & Daughters, Nafise Motlaq photographed families in their own homes:

Motlaq’s subjects encompass a wide range of economic and cultural backgrounds. Some families are religious, while others subscribe to a more secular lifestyle. Motlaq explains that Iranian Fathers & Daughters has allowed her to reevaluate some of the prejudices she herself held about her home. Since the government regulates national television and other media outlets, she found she had a limited view of those living outside of her community. Says the artist, “Putting these portraits together shows the reality of us; it shows how diverse we are.” She hopes to continue the project during her next trip home.

Motlaq, who currently works as a communications instructor at University Putra Malaysia, described her inspiration for the project in an interview:

I was driven to begin “Fathers and Daughters” after my father nearly passed away. His illness and then eventual recovery brought us much closer. When I visited Iran in 2014, after seven years away from the country, the idea sprang to mind. …

I strongly believe story-telling is important in photography. Photo-stories not only describe what’s in front of the camera but also who is behind it. The editing of a series of images reveals the photographer’s perspective and his or her views about the issue. For example, when I’m in Malaysia, I find it very easy to make street photographs—quick, slightly distant work, that’s done in public. But it is only in Iran where I can reach deeper levels of communication with my subjects. My familiarity with Iranians lets me know how to deal with them and allows me capture their real moments.

See more of her work here.

Gannon Burgett explains the process behind Seung Hwan Oh’s project Impermanence:

[I]t’s a series of microbe-mauled portraits that hardly resemble what they were originally captured as. Seung-Hwan gets these results by immersing developed film into water and then adding in various collections of microbes. Over the course of a few weeks, months or years, the microbes destabilize and eat away at the silver halide particles in the emulsion. The final images are what remains of the organic process taking place, where the dyes and emulsion run off and change color over time.

Stephanie Chan comments:

It’s an interesting approach to photography that takes a normally still medium and adds a dimension of something active, live, and dynamic. When you view Oh’s photographs, the question is no longer the significance of what is depicted; instead, what catches your eye is the tension between what is shown and what is already lost. Though art is naturally created to be consumed, in this case, the art itself is the act of consumption, the parts of the photographs that have been literally eaten away by a relentless force of nature. The result, in Oh’s word, can be witnessed as something that is “entangled creation and destruction that inevitably is ephemeral”.

See more of Oh’s work here.

People clean the face of a protester after he was sprayed with pepper spray during a pro-democracy protest in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong on October 4, 2014 in Hong Kong. Thousands of pro-democracy supporters continue to occupy the streets surrounding the city’s financial district. By Thomas Campean/Getty Images.

 

A Syrian Muslim pilgrim poses for a picture outside a hotel near Mecca’s Grand Mosque on October 1, 2014. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshipers started pouring into the holy city for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and is mandatory once in a lifetime for all Muslims provided they are physically fit and financially capable. By Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images.

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson prepares to testify to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the White House perimeter breach at the Rayburn House Office Building on September 30, 2014 in Washington, DC. Pierson is giving an account of an incident involving a security breach at the White House after a man jumped the fence and was not subdued until after he had entered the mansion, deeper into the building than what it was previously reported. By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Bua Noi, the only gorilla in the Pata Zoo in Bangkok, Thailand, is seen in her enclosure on September 25, 2014. Located on the 6th and 7th floors of the aging Pata Department Store, the zoo is being criticized by animal rights activists for having cramped, inadequate facilities. A recent campaign to free Bua Noi has received over 35,000 signatures and the chief of Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has agreed to meet with activists to discuss the matter. By Taylor Weidman/Getty Images.