Two 'V's' of Rebellion in Iran

Two V's of Rebellion in Iran (place of photo withheld). Your ratings and

critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your superior photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John (former photojournalist with AP

(stringer, staff (briefly) and photo editor, World Service, NYC)

John, I really like this photo. The image is very powerful as the woman is obviously passionate about the struggle going on with her country of origin. The cloth on her face lends a certain mystique which represents for me the unfamiliarity of the culture. I have been curious for a long time about what the people of Iran truely think about the west. Oddly enough I got an answer several years ago when I sent an e-mail to a fellow photographer from this site. I saw a self portrait of a beautiful Iranian girl who was attending University in Terahn. I sent her an e-mail asking what the people of her country really thought about the USA because from all indications from our media, the people of Iran hate us and condisder us the great satan. She sent me a very nice e-mail in which she described a country that was very dissatisfied with the way they are portrayed in the news. I e-mailed her again a couple of weeks ago, mainly to say hello and to let her know that I hoped that she and her family were safe. She responded again and told me how horrible things are there now. My point is, it really makes a huge difference when you can put a name, face, and person with a struggle that you hear about in the news. It is so easy to listen to the news and hear of horrible things going on in the world as you drink your coffee and have a bagle, and never really think much more about it. But the situation seems much more personal when you experience something like you did with this photo, or correspond with someone who is experiencing it.

The girl I e-mailed stopped posting photos a long while back. I encouraged her to start posting again. I love seeing differnt parts of the world and different cultures, and her photos fit the ticket.

 

 

Thanks for another great contribution John. Cheers, Ron Aycock

Thanks for the wonderful commentary.

 

How can I add to that, as it embodies everything that I and my photography stand for.

 

I sent you a separate email for consideration, and I hope you'll take it to heart.

 

The Basiji there are not friendly folks and don't take to dissenters they can identify lightly.

 

My best to you and please consider my idea seriously.

 

I am ,moved by the spirit of your commentary and the passion it shows.

 

John (Crosley)

On the contrary these photos are amusing. The sign should read "Recount" not "Freedom". Freedom is not the issue.

Meir, I respectfully disagree with you. I think to demand a recount would take a freedom that the Iranian people do not have. I may be seeing the news from only one side, but the side I see it from shows me a government that is using overwhelming force against it's own people who want a true recount becuase they smell a rat in the electoral process.

 

Aside from that issue I must tell you that your photos are awesome. I had not seen your work for a few years and looking at it now, all I can say is wow.

 

A few years ago I saw your pictures of sophia and vizr and I thought to myself "wow, this is really edgy stuff that most of us never see, and only hear about". Since then you have added tons of photos to your portfolio and I am excited to see them becuase it is a part of the world that I probably will never get to see and it is very candid. Thanks for sharing your work with us. Ron

Kind thanks for a small favor that may have profound consequences.

 

It has earned my covert service award (think MI-5-MI6-KGB, CIA) award for 'meritorious service' of good deeds which can never be spoken of, at least until the current generation becomes 'long of tooth' and the world has changed significantly.

 

You know who you are, and you know of what I write.

 

Thanks for a small amount of work that means everything.

 

I write publicly so you can have the knowledge of knowing that I acknowledge those who exercise the finest of judgment.

 

Even if only you can know how and why I write.

 

john

 

(no comments will be entertained or answered about this comment: Think how the French Resistance got messages to the Free French forces before the Invasion with BBC phrases such as 'The Bread Is In the Oven . . . . repeat . . . . 'The Bread is in the Oven' Someone knew what that meant, though only the correct person or persons should have known. Here there's no invasion and I have no connection with these people at all; I just drove by and took photos of demonstrators . . . and that's about all . . . . .and worry that the nation wants to Nuke tiny Israel as official policy which disturbs me (and I'm not Zionist or Jewish).

 

I'm a 'live and let live' kind of guy.

 

I hope the above is not too confusing or if it is, you'll allow me my conceit just this once; it's for a good cause and does not exactly relate to this photo at all, much less the subject, whom I don't know and have never met.

 

John (Crosley)

Whatever the circumstances, this is a fine image. I thought at first you might have been lucky and were actually in Iran but the blonde and absence of burkas suggest otherwise.

Not lucky for an Anglo Caucasian guy to be with a camera in Iran.

 

But lucky to get the capture while driving around a major western city and parking in parking garage (handicapped section) then walking to the street corner).

 

I once did riots, war, etc., so I just wade in as though I started the whole demonstration, though I had to drive by once to 'see' that there was one, not an auto accident. I know how to move freely through crowds with little resistence; and to avoid scenes.

 

I got out and took my first photos in one month and more since starting to pass kidney stone (operation next Tuesday).

 

Hospital Wednesday (yesterday -- pre-op)./

 

Then freedom to move without so much pain filling me with narcotics (though it just lessens the pain and does NOT dull my nerves or my senses).

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

Iranian (Persian) people are very handsome people generally - they're closer to the Russian people and the Eastern Europe and also similar to the people of the Indian subcontinent and the Pakistanis. An interesting and very nice and appealing ethnic mix (to me at least) with some very beautiful (and nice) women.. I've never been to Iran, but in law used to represent some Iranians long ago.

 

I always appreciate your comments.

 

John (Crosley)

I like the expression on her face. as an iranian journalist working on tv i should say this picture has lots of things to say in a single shot.

You don't identify what television or in what 'journalistic' capacity you work.

 

Nor, of course, as a journalist can you ethically state any preference for or against her 'protest' if you adhere to 'uninvolved' standards, which are the standards I generally try to adhere to, even though it has been almost four complete decades since I was a working journalist.

 

I did work as a writer/editor/photographer for Associated Press, but left at age 25, even though it was pointed out by the General Manager (Wesley Gallagher) to me personally that I might become eventual 'General Manager' and he likely would support that quest.

 

Reason: AP was too cheap. I left almost immediately after meeting with him. He made me pay for the lunch in which he gave me the supposedly 'encouraging news'.

 

I learned all I needed to know about 'journalism' right in that one meeting, after having three postings, from San Francisco, Reno to New York City headquarters where I sat in on the daily Bureau Chiefs and Department Chiefs meeting for all of Associated Press (by far the youngest at the time to do that).

 

The handwriting was then on the wall; the pictorial magazines largely had folded ,stranding a great number of amazingly talented print photographers, television had taken over, and newspapers ( and their wire service, Associated Press -- wholly owned as non-profit or cooperative by US newspapers, was cheap, really, really cheap.

 

Television was 'where it was at' but even then it was greatly superficial.

 

I longed afterward for access to governors, senators, representative (of Congress), and knowing that EVERYBODY would take my call when I was working if they'd take any call, except perhaps they might sometimes prefer their attorney.

 

It was a position of great 'power' but no perquisites and no pay - and I had become married.

 

I quadrupled my salary in one job move.

 

Enough said?

 

In the new job, business journalism, I talked several times a week often with the man who was to become the richest retailer in the world (Sam Walton).

 

I thought he might be a crook; little did I know (or perhaps I saw him for what he was; he advertised 'Buy American for decades, even though his shelves were stocked with goods largely made in China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other places.

 

I learned a thing or two from those talks and with other business leaders.

 

I also took a few photos, not many of any worth (except one standout).

 

(and on my own time.)

 

Frankly,I do not regard this photo very highly, and worse, the Photoshopping is very pedestrian (I was deathly ill at the time, confined to bed, and just good enough to go out one afternoon for an hour or two, and happened by chance on this demonstration, into which I waded.

 

Demonstrators tried to say I was on 'their side' and still may, despite protestations that I'm not on anybody's side. This is the Iranian/Persian fight, and not my fight/my job is to be faithful to the depiction of what I see, not this 'cause' or 'that'.

 

This is what I saw.

 

I may (now that I am very healthy, comparatively speaking) work it up again to clarify the cloudiness on her face (unshielded sun on the lens) in Photoshop CS4.)

 

Really, I can do a much better job; this is an example of what I can do when I have a brief respite from a near-death experience that had me in excruciating pain and wasting away for almost four months in what I considered a 'hostile environment' personally (and medically, too).

 

So, I thank you for the praise; coming from a journalist, it is very heartwarming.

 

I assure you, I can do much better, and could from the first days when I owned a camera (within weeks my photo of a street memorial for the assassinated Robert Kennedy ran on the near inside pages of the New York Times, for which I was paid 'handsomely' even by today's standards, but it is a photo that is both historical and has endured as a 'good photo'.

 

This is historical in a way, but not really very historical, as happening and events in Iran have far eclipsed it.

 

I will not get a big head over your compliment, but I do accept it willingly.

 

Best to you; you must be VERY BUSY.

 

I hope you are safe and that your reporting is in the best traditions of good journalism (I haven't seen/heard/read it).

 

John (Crosley)

 

Just happened to come back and read your comment above on my comment above. Thank you for the kind compliment on my photos. As for this photo..this is in America so I cannot say... mostly college kids that have nothing better do to than demostrate which is generally what college kids do now days. However Iran is different. One group screams" death to the dictator" and the other is "death to america". I am not sympathetic to any GROUP or Nation screaming for death. The GROUP mentality is the same. And I don't recall anything about searching for Democracy in Iran. Its all about Theocracy, but they disagree on who should be in charge.

I saw Ron's comment, unreplied to by you, yesterday, and almost sent you a link; I'm sorry I didn't.

 

But I am aware you follow my comments, and was pretty sure you would find it.

 

I'll try to be more pro-active in the future. He said some pretty wonderful things about your work; it must make you very proud and satisfied.

 

(I think that your 'edginess' he sees in your photos is a reflection of a part of your personality which I find in my communications with you . . . . an essential part of Meir Samel, if that reflection has any place in your pantheon of feedback, even as you reflect on your (now longer line of) of descendants.

 

Best to you.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)