Great, great news for Newfoundland writer Lisa Moore. She is one of the 12 writers on the longlist for The Man Booker Prize for her novel February. It’s a really excellent book following a spouse of one of the men who lost their lives in the 1982 during the Ocean Ranger oil rig disaster. The book is about grief first and foremost. Lisa has written a very emotional and yet restrained book that never slips into being pathetic – a feat that a lesser writer would not be able to pull off.
This is a photo of Lisa from a shoot earlier this year for The Guardian.
Croatian word of the day: nagrada award
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Auntie Crea’s – our favourite Saturday spot and a few photo links:
I am currently reading Don McCullin’s autobiography Unreasonable Behaviour and, understandably, his time in Vietnam features prominently. Here is a collection of photographs from Vietnam published on-line in Denver Post on the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb have an interesting set of images from Cuba in Visura Magazine.
Kottke provided a fascinating link to the work of photographers employed by Albert Kahn in early 1900s. You can see a selection of the work at the book’s official website.
Croatian word of the day: sol salt [sol]
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It’s fairly busy these days, but the reason for lack of blogging is mostly that I have also been doing real world stuff like reading. I finished Iain M. Banks’ The Algebraist which was good – even very good. Banks’ science fiction is quite a different kettle of fish in many ways than your usual run-of-the-mill stuff. It tends to be provocative, imaginative and fun to read. If you like SF, I would give Banks a try. I haven’t read much of him, just two books, The Algebraist and The Player of Games and both were good. I also caught up on my magazine reading and managed to make my way through about a half of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, which I cannot recommend enough. In fact, I am going to finish this as quickly as I can so I can keep reading.
I also had a chance to attend a talk at The Rooms yesterday. Edward Burtynsky was discussing his approach to photography with emphasis on his latest exhibition, Oil, which opened its Canadian tour in St. John’s. Listening to Burtynsky was very interesting because he seems to have found his political legs, which made for a much more engaging and passionate discussion than any of the interviews you might have seen before. The exhibit itself is quite spectacular. The Rooms were able to hang the entire show, over 60 very large prints, and it is disturbing and breathtaking. I highly recommend it. From a photographer’s perspective, Burtynsky’s talk was also interesting because he talked about a very consciences decision of trying to walk the thin line between not being a photojournalist, but not being an art photographer either. It works for him. If you have a chance, go see the show. It’s in the Rooms until August 15, so plenty of time.
This is a supply vessel for offshore installations moored in St. John’s harbour.
[UPDATE] CBC Newfoundland and Labrador has an online feature on Burtynsky exhibit that, among other things, includes work of a Newfoundland photographer Greg Locke. Definitely worth seeing.
Croatian word of the day: nafta oil [naphta]
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