West Seattle residents have saved an unpermitted sculpture of Rolf Neslund, who earned the nickname “patron saint of the broken bridge” and was murdered by his wife.
In West Seattle, a rogue sculpture of the infamous Rolf Neslund is saved
Sacramento photographer documents war in Ukraine, shares 1,000 photos in midtown exhibit
“The First Year” – a photography and artifact exhibit documenting the war in Ukraine – was held at CLARA Auditorium in midtown Saturday and Sunday.The exhibit featured more than 1,000 photographs taken by photographer Alina Tyulyu of Sacramento.Tyulyu was born in eastern Ukraine. Her family moved from Ukraine to Sacramento as refugees in 1999. With friends and family members still in the country when it was invaded by Russia, she planned a trip to the border to assist them however she could. The trip was supposed to be for three weeks.“It ended up being almost a year,” she said. “I was completely moved by everything I was seeing.”The photographs displayed Sunday show birthday parties and people cooking alongside images of the wreckage and of soldiers resting. Items from the front lines were also displayed.Tyulyu is an experienced photographer, however, her subject matter, she said, largely was within the hospitality industry. Wine and parties, as she described it. She said she started posting images on social media and quickly realized how important it was to her to share them with the world.“I want people to listen. I want people to see,” she said. “I want people to remember. I want people to remember what war looks like. What this is.”Profits from the event will be used towards humanitarian projects in central and eastern Ukraine.Tyulyu encouraged anyone who wants to learn more about the photo exhibition or about her efforts in supporting Ukraine to contact her via social media.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
“The First Year” – a photography and artifact exhibit documenting the war in Ukraine – was held at CLARA Auditorium in midtown Saturday and Sunday.
The exhibit featured more than 1,000 photographs taken by photographer Alina Tyulyu of Sacramento.
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Tyulyu was born in eastern Ukraine. Her family moved from Ukraine to Sacramento as refugees in 1999. With friends and family members still in the country when it was invaded by Russia, she planned a trip to the border to assist them however she could. The trip was supposed to be for three weeks.
“It ended up being almost a year,” she said. “I was completely moved by everything I was seeing.”
The photographs displayed Sunday show birthday parties and people cooking alongside images of the wreckage and of soldiers resting. Items from the front lines were also displayed.
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Tyulyu is an experienced photographer, however, her subject matter, she said, largely was within the hospitality industry. Wine and parties, as she described it. She said she started posting images on social media and quickly realized how important it was to her to share them with the world.
“I want people to listen. I want people to see,” she said. “I want people to remember. I want people to remember what war looks like. What this is.”
Profits from the event will be used towards humanitarian projects in central and eastern Ukraine.
Tyulyu encouraged anyone who wants to learn more about the photo exhibition or about her efforts in supporting Ukraine to contact her via social media.
How We Perceive and Are Perceived: Memory Map, the Art of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is an Indigenous artist and a member of the Salish and Kootenai Nations in Montana. Her rich art shows a wide range of subject matter, inclusive of joy and lightheartedness, as well as the dark depths of suffering, historical and ongoing. Her work is complex visually and politically, and yet as the viewer I felt drawn in, never alienated. I wanted to understand more about her experience, her vision in relation to the natural world, ancestors, cultural traditions, and our modern society. I found her work to be paradoxical, heartbreaking, yet full of hope and potential. Throughout her many decades as an artist, Smith has also been an art teacher and an activist. She influences younger and older generations in vital ways. Even now, in her 80s, she continues to impress and is quite prolific in her creation of artwork.
Her work is currently on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, offering an impressive recognition for her work, long overdue. She recently said that she could only ever imagine partaking in the group show Venice Biennale, never imagining she would one day have a solo retrospective. Having just encountered her artwork, I felt a great sense of joy for Smith, and for me to be exposed to such meaningful activist art. As the artist states of her younger days:
While working as a full-time artist, I also consistently organized and curated exhibitions for Native artists for over 30 years. One of my most memorable was the first touring Native women’s exhibit: Women of Sweetgrass, Cedar and Sage. After receiving the catalog, one woman wrote me that she laid the catalog against her cheek and cried. She had no idea there were so many Native women artists out there and she no longer felt alone.
(Brooklyn Museum)
As an engaged Buddhist, I find it imperative to interact with artists and works that explore what it means to be fully human and alive today. Addressing such conundrums as the “meaning of life,” how humans hurt one another, and what awareness is; how awareness includes both ultimate and relative levels, intertwined, is one facet of the arts. Art has the power to transcend these two levels and interweave them, leaving the viewer or experiencer to absorb and metabolize what they will. This is a form of meditation in action and compassionate activity—to listen, to observe, or to hold space for dialogue with viewpoints familiar or foreign to us, holding them in positive regard. It is a way of looking both backward and forward in a linear timeline held within the mandala of timeless time.
If the path of meditation is to transcend or liberate all from suffering, it is not a practice we engage merely for our own benefit. Engaging with the arts as a maker, viewer, listener, or participant is a form of meditation in action, where compassion for oneself, others, and our cultural systems are embraced in our bodhisattva vow. This encompasses all possible human emotions—anger and confusion, joy and sorrow—giving us a tangible path to walk in communicating our needs and desires, our hopes and failings. As we wish to know others better through their expressive means, we strive to understand and therefore care for them—and all relations, i.e., sentient beings—in ever more skillful ways.
As the exhibition materials state:
Smith’s work persistently draws attention to the fact that indigenous peoples exist and flourish in the United States, despite centuries of attempted erasure by waves of European invaders, subsequent generations of white settlers, and the policies of the federal government. She feels strongly that her works should, in her words, “leave an imprint on the land that says we are here. We have been here, and these are our stories. These are my stories, every picture, every drawing is telling a story. I create memory maps.”
(Whitney Museum of American Art)
Much of Smith’s artwork combines painting, collage, lithographs, and mixed media to convey the interrelationships of her people with the land, the elements, animals, and the experiences her people and the Earth continue to face under cultural repression and brutality. The way Smith incorporates humor, satire, and multi-layered meanings, as well as forms, imagery, and colors, give her work a truly unique and expressive style. Smith’s “driving concerns [are]: ecological disaster, the misreading of history and the genocide of Native Americans, but also the restorative power of kinship and education. Rejecting a strict chronology, the exhibition instead offers moments to discover the linkages between Smith’s images and ideas across time.” (Whitney Museum of American Art)
I have traveled extensively in the world and seen art in many places. But one thing I almost never do is take part in a guided tour of a museum exhibition or gallery. I suppose I’ve always thought that I would rather let the works speak for themselves, to make their impression upon my heart, mind, and visual senses without someone elses’s commentary. However, in Smith’s show, there was a tour underway, and I overheard the guide giving extensive and fascinating commentary on the works.
He—and, in fact, all the guides—had obviously been educated directly by the artist about what she wanted verbally conveyed about her work. I was riveted by the talk. As we moved through the gallery, the guide spoke at length about four different works of art, encouraging questions from the group, engendering a lively and deep conversation. This was yet another opportunity for me to learn something about my own learning style and my preset notions. In the future, I will pay more attention to the option of an excellent guided tour. It feels liberating to cut through one’s own limiting beliefs!
Employing satire and humor, Smith’s art tells stories that flip commonly held conceptions of historical narratives and illuminate absurdities in the formation of dominant culture. Smith’s approach importantly blurs categories and questions why certain visual languages attain recognition, historical privilege, and value.
(Whitney Museum of American Art)
After viewing about 80 per cent of the exhibition, far more than I predicted, I descended in the elevator to the lobby, ready to leave the museum. One of the docents asked me if I would do an exit survey. I was happy to oblige. She asked many questions about my experience at the museum and of the Smith exhibition, which was the only one I saw. There were several other compelling exhibitions, but I could not add anything more to my emotional or mental palates. And in fact, I did not want to disturb the mood I had been left in through experiencing Smith’s moving and impactful work.
It was, and remains, an emotional journey, delving into her experience even a little bit and letting it penetrate through the layers of my ignorance and tenderness around the issues of genocide, cultural erasure, and the dominance of one culture over another. Since I belong to the typically dominant white culture, it takes effort to engage with such bodies of work that bring up a painful collective past. Although I am committed to, and deeply interested in, the Indigenous activist arts, it takes energy to engage with challenging material. Thus, self-care and replenishment are required. I did not want to mix up my mind with any other artists or viewings that day, but simply to rest in the deepened awareness and appreciation for Indigenous voices and creativity. This prolific and impactful artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, with her very apt name, is an artist to seek out. Educational art such as hers stands out as a much-needed antidote to the nonsense pervading US political culture today in terms of further erasure of vital voices, Indigenous among them, who ought to be seen, heard, recognized, and appreciated for their unique human being-ness.
See more
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Brooklyn Museum)
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map Apr 19–Aug 13, 2023 (Whitney Museum of American Art)
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map (YouTube)
Exhibition Tour | Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map at the Whitney Museum of American Art (YouTube)
Related features from BDG
Indigenous Art Matters – The Bold, Contemporary Work of Artist Gregg Deal
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Restoration and Justice: An Interview with Dr. Natalie Avalos on Indigenous Spirituality and Buddhist Allies
Buddhistdoor View: Indigenous Relations – Restoration and Restitution
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AI and the future of professional photography: evolution, not extinction
In the era of artificial intelligence, industries across the board have been subject to transformative changes. The photography industry, like many others, is poised at the precipice of a revolution. The rise of generative AI, capable of creating unique, never-before-seen images in response to a given prompt, threatens to upend the conventional norms of professional photography. But does this signify the death of an industry, or merely its evolution?
The capabilities of AI have grown at an astonishing rate, with its algorithms creating art, composing music, and even writing text that is nearly indistinguishable from human work. The arrival of AI systems that can create realistic images based on specific briefs presents an undeniable potential for disruption in the realm of professional photography.
This evolution calls into question the very relevance of traditional, human-centric stock imagery and commissioned shoots. With the costs associated with AI-driven image creation expected to decrease over time, the prospect of generative AI replacing certain aspects of the photography market seems plausible. After all, why would a picture editor pay for stock imagery when AI can generate it quickly and economically?
Yet, as alarming as this prospect might seem for professional photographers, it is crucial to consider the whole picture. While the capabilities of AI are impressive, there is an array of elements intrinsic to human-driven photography that, as of yet, remains out of reach for AI.
Photography, at its heart, is not just about snapping pictures—it is a form of communication, telling stories through a blend of technical skill, creative instinct, and an eye for detail. It is about capturing moments, evoking emotions, and creating narratives. This nuanced understanding of context, empathy, and the human condition is something AI currently lacks, despite its impressive strides.
Moreover, there’s a significant element of human experience that feeds into a photographer’s work—understanding a client’s needs, their personalities, their brand ethos, and more. These subtle, yet critical, nuances often make the difference between a good photograph and a great one. Until AI can demonstrate this level of sophistication, there will always be a niche for professional photographers.
So, what’s next for the professionals? Will they become obsolete in this brave new world of generative AI? Far from it. Rather than fearing the rise of AI, it would be more constructive to embrace it as a tool that can elevate their craft.
Generative AI can help alleviate the mundane tasks and allow photographers to focus more on creativity and innovation. It can serve as an aid, providing preliminary drafts that photographers can build upon, thus augmenting their capabilities rather than replacing them outright. Photographers can also harness AI to offer a greater range of services and open up new avenues for their businesses.
The future will likely see a blend of AI and human creativity, with each pushing the other to new heights. The intersection of photography and AI is not a death knell but rather an opportunity for photographers to explore new terrains, push their creative boundaries, and redefine their roles in this evolving landscape.
Change is inevitable. Like every other industry disrupted by technology, professional photography must adapt. However, one thing remains certain amidst this flux: as long as there is a need for human connection, empathy, and creative expression, there will be a need for the human touch in photography, AI or not. So, rather than killing the market for professional photography, generative AI might just breathe new life into it.
When aesthetic mobility meets mobile photography
As the twins spent more time with the IONIQ 5, they were thrilled to discover how well it could integrate with their creative workflow.
They were particularly impressed with the V2L (Vehicle-to-Load) feature, an innovative technology facilitated by the IONIQ 5’s electric powertrain. V2L allows the car to function as a large power bank on wheels, providing electricity to various devices such as laptops and lighting equipment through an external socket on the car’s charging port or an internal V2L socket located under the back row of seats.
For professional photographers like the Yusmans, a reliable power source is invaluable and V2L enables them to keep their gear charged and ready to capture those fleeting moments. They also appreciate having all the power they need to work on post-production and editing without any interruptions to their creative flow due to low-battery issues.
“Today’s mobile phones can endure for quite some time, but you may need to charge your laptop, especially if you’ve been using it to run demanding applications, like editing photos or videos for a few hours. This ability to charge your devices is a feature I would definitely look out for in a car,” said Yais.
The IONIQ 5 itself is no slouch in the charging department. When plugged into a 350kW DC charger, its battery can be recharged from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in just 18 minutes.
A FLEXIBLE SPACE
The legal danger of southern hospitality — A Case Against Cutting Tomatoes at The Fayetteville Farmers Market
— OPINION —
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of papers written by students in the Food Safety Litigation class taught by Professors Bill Marler and Denis Stearns in the LL.M. Program in Agricultural and Food Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
You hear them say, “Oh my God, I love it so much,” with happiness in their voice, a smile on their face, eagerness in their demeanor, and love in their eyes. You’ll be curious find out the object of their affection. If you look closely, you might be dismayed to see that it’s simply a tomato fruit. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled more than 125 years ago that a tomato is a vegetable rather than a fruit for the purposes of tariffs, imports, and customs, but I digress.
The southern region of the United States is known for its warm welcomes, politeness that isn’t pretentious, and genuine helpfulness. Strangers are made to feel welcome in a Southern house by the practice known as southern hospitality.
Corporate America has discovered a way to use Southern hospitality as a weapon that makes customers feel welcome in corporate spaces. Shops feel like home for customers. When they enter any place of business, American customers have come to expect to be welcomed like guests in a Southern house.
“For all its ups and downs, Walmart is no doubt a genuine American institution.”
“In our culture, we have excessively high expectations,” Robin Kowalski, a psychology professor at Business School told Vox in an interview.
“The way we evaluate things is a function of expectations…If we’re used to a level of customer service, which Americans are, and then things change, like prices go up or things slow down, the violation of that expectation is what causes disappointment, anger, all of these sorts of things,” Deborah Small, a marketing professor of psychology at Wharton was quoted in the same Vox interviewer.
Meeting expectation of consumers is the vehicle on which businesses and to a large extend the American society run. “Consumer society, in fact, is not just about the satisfaction of needs, but in many ways, it is about the forms through which we view the world and our position within it … The arrival of consumer society during the last one hundred years has transformed not only our material existence but also our ontology, our very being itself.”
Walmart became the largest retailer in the world by perfecting meeting the needs of the American consumer.
Walmart’s genuine Americanness, however, was the cause of its failure in Germany. One of the American practices was requiring sale clerks to smile at customers. In Germany, customers interpreted the smiling to be flirting. “People found these things strange; Germans just don’t behave that way,” said Hans-Martin Poschmann, the secretary of the Walmart employees’ union told the New York Times in 2006, when Walmart pulled out of Germany after almost a decade of failing to make profit in the market. People do not expect their business to have a personal touch to it in Germany and as the New York Times pointed out, in other countries.
The Arkansas native-founded Walmart is not the only company that perfected the art of adding a personal touch to doing business. Georgia-based Delta Airlines, for example, touted its personal touch as a show of their Southern hospitality.
“Delta garnered the reputation for being a service-oriented southern airline with all the graciousness the Southern Hospitality is an expression that has historically been used to refer to the graciousness and civility that is associated with people from the southern part of the United States.
“It is no exaggeration to say that we are among the nicest people you are likely to meet,” Writer Florence King is quoted to have said.
“The most common qualities of southern hospitality include politeness, charm, kindness, helpfulness, and charity. These qualities are seen as aligning with the idea of what it means to be a good host.”
Southern Hospitality is often on full display at the Fayetteville Downtown Square every Saturday since 1974 when a city ordinance designated that space to be used as the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market. The setting at the market is relaxed, pleasant, inviting, and welcoming. To make customers feel like friends, farmers extend a kind greeting to their booth, inquire about their personal life, and enthusiastically volunteer information about their personal lives.
The market’s small-town neighborhood atmosphere can occasionally conceal the reality that it is a business district governed by laws established by the Fayetteville City Council and different departments of the state of Arkansas.
The primary laws that govern the market are summarized in the Farmers’ Market Vendor Guide. The latest guided of the document was drafted by the Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Department of Agriculture in September 2021.
The Guide quotes Arkansas State Act 1040 of 2021, allowing the sale of Non Time/Temperature Control for Safety (Non-TCS) Foods directly to consumers.
Non-TCS Foods was defined as “food that does not require time or temperature control for safety to limit pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin production and as defined in the rules of the Department of Health.”
“Uncut fresh fruits and vegetables” were explicitly named to fall under the non-TCS foods. The Guide named Ready-to-eat foods as food, which are covered under the non-TCS foods.
“Any ready–to-eat food that is prepared on site or any food that is provided to the consumer in a non- prepackaged form can only be sold or served from an ADH permitted and inspected facility. Any establishment preparing, selling, or serving any of these food items must fully comply with the Arkansas Department of Health’s Rules and Regulations.”
A tomato is a non-TCS food, however, a cut tomato may be considered a ready-to-eat food. And there lies the issue.
“The intention of the regulations that do exist is to mitigate the risk of foodborne illness. Any time a food is “processed” the risk for pathogens to contaminate the food is increased. As such the rules allow a vendor to offer an uncut cherry tomato as a sample, or a small muffin, but if the vendor has to cut the product in order to offer a sample (like slice a tomato or slice bread) it must be either pre-prepared in a commercial ADH inspected kitchen, or the vendor must have appropriate prep means at the market, that have been inspected and approved by an ADH Health inspector (similar to the requirements for businesses like Food Trucks or our sellers who prepare drinks like coffee at market)”, Julia Den Herder, one of the managers of the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market and a vendor herself, explains the distinction in an email.
A tomato fruit (or vegetable) is a non-TCS food but when it is cut and offered to the consumer, it is considered a ready-to-eat food which will require the permission of the Arkansas Department of Health to be sold on the market.
The American consumer, who is accustomed to getting what they want, purchases tomatoes for their appearance, texture, flavor, and aroma. The consumer can evaluate the tomato’s appearance and texture fairly with an uncut tomato (just by touching it). It provides no indication of its taste. Before making a final decision, the customer wants to taste the fruit. Although the tomato cannot be taste- tested if the customer purchases it from a Walmart, the Fayetteville Market’s relaxed attitude leads the customer to believe that this is exempted from the grocery store’s guidelines that Walmart is governed by.
The seller informs the customer that “the market does not permit us to offer samples to consumers” in order to please the customer while upholding the graciousness associated with Southern Hospitality. The supplier gives the customer a better deal. “I will offer you a sample in secret,” he says. “Come inside my booth so I may cut it for you in private.” The customer accepts the sample based on the seller’s claim after believing both claims provided by the vendor. The vendor has thus misrepresented the rules on sampling to the customer, in their bid to be polite.
“The market does not have policies that make it illegal to offer samples to buyers; however, sampling food products is regulated by ADH and RMPE rules about offering samples are in compliance with those regulations. Some of these rules are consistent with grocery store requirements for food sampling (like needing a three compartment sink for appropriate sanitation) and some are specific to Farmers Markets due to the nature of markets being distinct from other retail environments”, Julia Den Herder clarified.
The vendor has thus opened himself up to legal issues by the “innocent of politeness” that the “market does not allow us to offer samples.” Under Arkansas law, fraudulent inducement to contract (making a sale being a contract) is considered both a criminal offense and a ground for voiding a contract. The Arkansas Supreme Court explained the effect of fraudulent inducement in Wal-Mart Stores v. Coughlin.
Each situation in a food safety lawsuit has a slightly different liability. Some of it directly affects the market, and some of it affects the vendor. For instance, the Arkansas Department of Health will decide who is responsible in cases of food poisoning after looking into the source of the infection; if the vendor is discovered to be the pathogen’s original source, they will be held accountable. The market will find it simpler to hold the vendor entirely responsible if there has been misrepresentation.
Even though southern hospitality is generally excellent, it is not an acceptable alternative to a direct, firm response to a request, whether the response is a yes or a no.
About the author: Anthony Owura-Akuaku is a Former Paralegal, 1st Law Legal Practitioners/Consultants and Former Communications Assistant to the President, Musicians Union of Ghana LL.B., Central University Secondary School Certificate, Business, St. Peter’s Boys’ Senior Secondary School.
WeWork modernises brand identity with bolder and more functional new look
Global coworking space provider WeWork has unveiled a revitalised brand identity that aims to modernise the brand while maintaining its soul as it looks to bring the brand into a new era.
The rebrand was led by WeWork and creative brand agency Franklyn and consists of an updated logo, colour scheme, hand-drawn illustrations of people and spaces, and a custom typeface that will be available on all WeWork channels.
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Consumers can expect to see changes as WeWork updates their assets on a global scale on digital, social, internal and external communications as well as through member touch points across its locations worldwide and on its app.
“As WeWork members, we have firsthand experience of the magic you feel working in a WeWork space,” said Patrick Richardson, co-founder, Franklyn. “WeWork blurs the line between art and science, emotion and intellect; and it was this duality that inspired the company’s new visual identity.”
WeWork’s new logo retains the subtle curves and lowercase approach of the original with a more functional design that can be easily scaled by connecting the lines of the top of the W.
The new custom typeface, titled “WeWork Serif” was developed by A+ in collaboration with Franklyn and creates continuity between the logo and copy for brand consistency which will complement the secondary typeface, Aperçu Pro, for body copy.
With regard to the introduced secondary colour palette, the saturated pastels of blue, mustard, coral and lilac complement the black and white logo and showcase the brand’s more diverse personality.
The new brand identity also comes with new hand-drawn illustrations to encourage continuity in the brand system by carrying the human element of the office to the brand and showcases WeWork’s product range and amenities.
Additionally, WeWork will be doubling down on their photography approach by utilising detailed shots to exhibit the functionality and human centric design of their spaces and how they can be used.
WeWork joins a list of brands who have updated their identities with modern and refreshed looks this year. One of which is soft drink brand Fanta which recently rebranded with a bolder and more vibrant look.
The refreshed look features brighter, more colourful and more vibrant colours as well as an updated and more simplified wordmark with the removal of the classic orange circle and green leaf. The rebranding, which was led by Coca-Cola’s global design team and creative agency Jones Knowles Ritchie, reportedly aims to inspire people to find the fun in life and to “make the plain playful” with a look that remains “unmistakably Fanta”.
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Stepping Through Film: Man trots globe blending scenes into film locations
Thomas Duke/Stepping Through FilmAn Essex photographer who turned a “passion project” into a full-time job that has taken him around the world said it had been a “truly amazing adventure”.
As a film student, Thomas Duke, 24, started lining up scenes from movies or TV series with the locations where they were shot or inspired by, and took photographs of the result.
He put his examples of the technique, known as rephotography, on social media and gained a following.
Soon he was approached by companies to celebrate film releases or locations and now, under his Stepping Through Film banner, he has gained almost 300,000 followers on Instagram and 131,000 on Facebook and works at it full-time.
The photographer, from Newport near Saffron Walden, said he always wanted to be an animator and studied film and TV.
It was while at university in London that location photography became a separate hobby.
He said: “I’ve always liked travel and going to film locations and I love photography, so I thought, why not put them together?
“It’s a passion project and is something I never thought I would do [as a job] – it was just marketing on social media, really, it’s quite surreal.”
The process involves printing as many shots of the film or TV show as he can and then lining everything up as closely as possible when he finds the location.
“I love trying to get it as perfect as possible,” he said.
“I’m always excited to see what might have changed from when it was filmed. Is the building the same, is anything different?”
Mr Duke said he tried his first photograph using this technique at the National Portrait Gallery, where a scene for 007 blockbuster Skyfall was shot.
He went on to take many images around London, including visiting Whitehall, where Atonement with James McEvoy was filmed, and photographing outside the Ministry of Defence, where the Edge of Tomorrow was shot – an experience he described as “quite scary”.
“They don’t allow you to take photos of it, so you have to ask permission and a security guard comes with you,” he said.
He was first approached to take photos professionally in 2019 to celebrate where the new Men in Black movie had been filmed in the capital.
Since then he has travelled in the UK and around the world and captured moments like the final beach scene from Netflix hit Heartstoppers in Herne Bay, and he has been in Sheffield for his latest project on the new TV spin-off of The Full Monty film.
With Hertfordshire’s growth as a filming county, he has worked with Visit Herts to promote screen tourism.
He has been to St Albans Cathedral, where madcap spy Johnny English, played by Rowan Atkinson, was crowned King. He has also worked at Knebworth House, the site of about 90 films, and Hatfield House, recognisable in The Favourite, Bridgerton, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and more.
Earlier this year, the South Carolina Tourist Board asked Mr Duke to record all the films that had been shot there, including The Notebook and Forrest Gump.
He said that at “particularly iconic locations”, like The Notebook house, it felt “surreal” not only to think the actors had stood there, but also that “a story that has touched millions of lives around the world was right there”.
“There’s only one spot for this story and that never changes,” he said.
Beach scenes were among the most difficult to get right, he said, especially if the weather was bad – such as when he went to a windy Dunkirk.
It was also hard to find some locations in animated films like areas of Paris for Ratatouille and Regent’s Park for 101 Dalmatians.
But at the same time, he said animation was a favourite genre because it was “more of an art form”.
“I love how animation is inspired by the real world around us and that inspires me to see what can be created,” he said.
The “most magical” experience for him was going to the Cinque Terra on the Italian Riviera, where the Pixar team went for inspiration for Luca.
“I stayed where they stayed and with the crystal blue waters, it really looked the same as the animated world,” he said.
The coronavirus lockdowns were also difficult for the travel enthusiast, but he said it just “forced me to be more creative”.
“I couldn’t help trying some supermarket shots from films in my local Sainsbury’s, such as from Elf and Hot Fuzz,” he said.
“I also did A Bug’s Life in my back garden – I cut out tiny pictures of the characters and stuck them amongst the tiny blades of grass.
“I just tried to work with what I had.”
In the future, he said he would like to go to Iceland, as many of his favourite films were made there.
“Interstellar used an ice glacier as a stand in for another planet and then there was Batman Begins, Game of Thrones and the Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Ben Stiller,” he said.
As well as the excitement of visiting a location, he said he loved how his images sparked conversations about film.
“It’s always lovely [on social media] to talk about a film, why we love it, our favourite moments and how the location was found,” he said.
“I have no idea if I’ll be doing my photography forever,” he added. “It’s been a truly amazing adventure whatever the case and I have so many memories from it all.”
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Prudence urged in street photography
Unauthorized snapshots may infringe on portrait rights, lawyers cautioned
Whether street photography and filming constitute infringements of privacy and portrait rights was the topic of heated discussion on Chinese social media platforms over the past week after a former State-owned enterprise official was filmed in public holding hands with a woman.
The controversy involving Hu Jiyong, a general manager of a Beijing-based company affiliated with China National Petroleum Engineering Corp (CPEC), arose when a video clip of him strolling along a street in Chengdu, Sichuan province, holding hands with a young woman went viral on Wednesday. CPEC is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp.
Netizens quickly identified Hu, who was on a business trip to Chengdu, and noted that the woman was neither his wife nor his daughter.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hu, who served as the executive director, Party secretary and general manager of Huanqiu Project Management (Beijing) Co, was removed from his posts and placed under disciplinary investigation, according to a release issued by the company.
The incident, dubbed “hand-holding gate” by some media organizations, quickly topped the most-searched list last week on various social media platforms. It also sparked heated public discussion of whether street photography can constitute an infringement of privacy.
On Thursday. the photographer in question told Dahe Daily, a news portal in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, that he received messages from Hu and the woman after posting the video online and that he had removed it from the internet.
He said that neither Hu nor his companion objected to being photographed at the time and that he would not take photos or videos of people if they were unwilling, much less post them online.
“Taking photos or videos on the street, as was the case in Chengdu, doesn’t infringe upon the right of privacy, because the street is public space,” said Yi Shenghua, a lawyer at Beijing Yongzhe Law Firm. “But the act can infringe upon a person’s right of portrait.”
Wang Weiwei, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, explained that if photographers take photos of passersby without their permission and post them publicly, or use the images for profit, they could be guilty of violating the portrait rights of those photographed.
Under the Civil Code, all residents hold the legal rights to their portraits. Without the owner’s permission, portraits may not be posted, copied, published, rented exhibited, or used in other public areas.
But if portraits relate to the public interest, such as is the case with news reports, performance of duty or supervision, or are used for personal studies or for illustrating a specific public environment, they can be posted without permission, according to Shan Yanwei, a lawyer at the Bluerule Law Firm in Henan.
All the lawyers interviewed have called for street photographers to abide by the law and respect the legitimate rights of passersby, and suggested prudence while working on the street to ensure their behavior complies with the law, ethics and morals.
“This doesn’t mean that street photography should be completely rejected because of this incident, but photographers and citizens should be more aware of the legal risks of taking public photos and be careful not to create disputes,” Wang added.
While the Chengdu photo resulted in scandal for the former official, it also brought the city’s Taikoo Li, a business and fashion zone, back into the public focus.
With the rapid development and popularity of short videos in recent years, Taikoo Li in Chengdu, like other areas such as Sanlitun in Beijing and Anfu Road in Shanghai, has become a favorite spot for visitors, including online celebrities and fashion stars, to take photos and make videos. They are also popular locations among street photographers.
On Thursday, when Jimu News visited Chengdu Taikoo Li, it found that yellow notices had been placed along the street reminding passersby to be more aware of protecting their right of portrait and clarifying that filming shoppers would not be supported.
Service staff at Taikoo Li told the news portal that the signboards have been in place for several years, but that it was still possible to take photos in the area.
They pointed out that taking photos for business purposes requires permission, but that there was no restriction on private photography.
Beijing’s Sanlitun Taikoo Li also issued a “street photography reminder” on Friday evening, stating that there are multiple warning signs in prominent locations in the popular shopping area, reminding customers to be more aware of protecting their personal portrait rights.
Sanlitun Taikoo Li does not support any unauthorized commercial photography and has a formal application channel for commercial photography, it said.
