CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

As I mentioned in my posting of this past Friday, the $1 trillion infrastructure package would pass the Senate around now.  Note that President Biden did not immediately sign it.  That is because Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing some politics to maximize passage of the larger $3.5 trillion Democratic goodies package for social welfare, the environment, renewable energy and assorted liberal wish list items.  That too will make it because of something called reconciliation in the Senate.  Both will become law, and a lot of money will flow into the economy.  However, this will come slowly, for that $1 trillion will be spent over a five-year period. The Dow Jones Industrials today broke another all time high, rising 163 to 35,265.

My final Tokyo Summer Olympics feature has to do with this photo:

That is Lee Kiefer of the USA with her gold medal for individual foil, and, in her right hand, what looks like a doll adorned with flowers, plus blue bow.  Why?

The bouquet symbolizes the rise of Japan from the Great Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear cataclysm that came on 11March11.  20,000 were killed or are still missing.  The general area remains quarantined.

The flowers are from the three prefectures crippled by this disaster:

• The green/frilly Eustomas were from Fukushima, the home of those destroyed nuclear power plants.

• The sunflowers came from Miyagi, where more than 10,000 died.  These flowers were planted by parents in memory of their children who passed away.

• Purple Gentians are famously from Iwate.

• The green leaves were grown in Tokyo.
• These flowers are worn by Miraitowa, the Games' mascot.

Note that the color of Miraitowa  in the bouquet was not blue, but gold for the gold medal...etc.  I was not able to find why the blue bow, except that it is the color of Miraitowa.  For the Paralympics, roses from Miyagi will replace the sunflower, and the mascot will be Someity, with a pink bow.

The Tokyo Paralympics, incidentally, will begin on August 24, and extend until September 6, with around 4400 athletes.

Today I'll feature some of the world's most creative photographers with just one of their photos.  Here is an article that picks landscaper Ansel Adams as the most famous.   If you went ahead and clicked on it, might as well also read the comments, for an author or reporter suffers from reader condemnation, like this one:

What exactly is the point of this list? 10 photographer’s names I can remember at moment?   Should any of them feel grateful that the author decided to to include them on the list?What does it mean to be famous anyway?   There are photographers who are famous but in no way they are artists or pioneers, on the other hand there are pioneers and artists who remain fairly unknown. Is “fame” really more important than anything else?I consider compilations like that to be a waste of time.

Anytime I try something like this, I'm sure the same thoughts occur to some of my readers.  Anyway, here are three of Adams' shots:

Here is another list, and I too came to a negative conclusion, as you shall see.  Jimmy Nelson, UK, photographs tribal people:

Rehahn, France, images of contrasting cultures:

Lee Jeffries, UK, black and white photos of homeless people, but here is a colored one:

Joe McNally, U.S., from celebrities to companies:

I'm beginning to wonder why only people are featured, and not mountains or space or microorganisms or...  Well, anyway, one more, because I featured this photo when my blog first started a dozen years ago.  Steve McCurry of the U.S. is best known for his Afghan Girl:

She is 13-year old Sharbat Bibi in a Pakistan refugee camp, who went missing for 17 years, but was found at the age of 30 by a National Geographic team:

Other creative photos sent to me for your viewing pleasure:

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