Sicilia!

The Artist is going on a photo trip to Sicily! It can't be more exciting! Palermo, architecture, temples, Mount Etna and Favignana Island! Here we come!

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Polina Pen @ Palpable Pictures on Facebook

UPDATE - National Portrait Gallery Competition

UPDATE:

I registered! Taylor Wessing Judges, Elle Magazine editors, hold yourself strong on your chairs - I am submitting photos!!!!!!!!!! Whole 3 of them!

I have a great feeling about this one!

Results come out end of August - September. Come back for updates!

Love,
Madame

New Lens :)

The Artist is very happy.

Upon the eve of her anniversary, she received a fantastic gift from her biggest love - a new lens!

It is a Tamron AF 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 Canon.

For the unfamiliar with the crazy terminology, the above translates into - a cheap lens in this range able to shoot at a reasonable distance and allowing you to capture the world in a miniature level as well.

I think it is a very good value for money at the moment. I can't wait to receive it and start experimenting. I thank my biggest fan again for the present. (Ti amo!)

Thank you all for sharing my excitement!

Love,
Po

Self Portrait with a Towel, June 2009

Yesterday I got a tripod! It might seem obvious that a self-respected photographer should have such a basic equipment, but I didn't.

Anyways, this is my first self-portrait using the new acquirement. The light was natural (and insufficient.) Nevertheless, I am happy with the result.

What do you think?

Love,
Po

Where is this world going?

Bruce Gilden, a Magnum Photographer, visited two groups on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group list: The ‘Knights Party’ an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan, and also the Detroit-based ‘National Socialist Movement’ (NSM) one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the USA.

American experts are calling it the perfect storm for white supremacist recruitment: the sinking US economy, the election of Barack Obama, and increased attention to immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere. At the same time, extremist groups are trying to enter the mainstream and they’re having some success.

All this above is deeply disturbing to me. I wonder what experts and politicians make of it. And as usual, the images provide much more descriptive narrative to the story and visualize it perfectly. Seeing young boys dressed as Hitler and grotesque-looking white people thinking they are better than the rest, coupled with religious symbolism, makes my stomach shrink and shiver.

I thought we passed the Middle Ages. I guess we have not. I really want to read some more research in greater depth about the reasons behind this rise in hate groups. There are so many things that come to my mind, so I will leave it here for now. Take a look at the photo story here:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/c.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.StoryDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3RTM1J8G

Where is this world heading to?

Polina Pen
June 11, 2009

My World Through My Lense