Ahmedabad’s Trailblazing Bootstrap Startup, Pod-Photographer on Demand, Secures Seed Funding – A Visionary Leap into the Future of Photography Services

By in Photography

Ahmedabad’s Trailblazing Bootstrap Startup, Pod-Photographer on Demand, Secures Seed Funding – A Visionary Leap into the Future of Photography Services

Revolutionizing Moments: The Pod-Photographer on Demand Saga Unveiled!

In the bustling landscape of startups, Ahmedabad’s pride, Pod-Photographer on Demand, emerges as a beacon of innovation. Founded in 2021 by the visionary Tapan Human, alongside the dynamic duo Shivani Human and Jainam Shah as Co-Founders, this Bootstrap gem has swiftly carved its mark on the canvas of on-demand photography.

Fueling their journey is the backing of investor extraordinaire Mr.Dishit Nathwani Director Gulaboils whose strategic investment has propelled Pod into the limelight. Established in the heart of Ahmedabad, Pod has already spread its wings to 15 cities, including the vibrant hubs of Delhi, Mumbai, and Goa.
 Pod isn’t just a photography service; it’s an experience. Offering an affordable starting price of just 999 per hour, Pod brings photographers to your doorstep through a seamless app interface. The platform boasts key features like express image delivery and a unique ‘Book Now, Pay Later’ option, ensuring convenience and flexibility for users.

Their tagline, ‘ab bulaoo photographer kahin bhi kabhi bhi,’ encapsulates the essence of Pod’s mission: to make photography accessible, anytime, anywhere. Step into the future of capturing memories – Pod-Photographer on Demand, where every moment is a masterpiece waiting to be crafted.

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We StartupNews.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.

The Year in Pictures

By in Photography

The Year in Pictures
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A selection of images from 2023.

Until 1910, The New York Times never ran photographs on its front page. Until 1997, those photos were always black and white.

For the last several decades, however, photography has been central to our journalism. And the internet has allowed us to show readers more photos than we ever could in print alone. Photography shapes most major parts of our report, including this newsletter.

A signature part of our coverage is our Year in Pictures feature, published every December. The 2023 version is now available. As Marc Lacey, one of The Times’s two managing editors, writes in an introduction:

Every year, our photo editors try to capture the best photojournalism in one intense presentation. The Year in Pictures is a way to commemorate the big news events from January to December: the ones that traumatized us — and there are many of those — mixed in with some moments of bliss.

Below are a selection of 10 photos from the Year in Pictures, with brief captions.

Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Evgenia Simanovich ran to her home’s concrete shelter in Ashkelon, Israel, moments after a rocket siren sounded on Oct. 7.

Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

Palestinian children playing in a courtyard in Gaza City paused to look skyward at the sound of airstrikes on Oct 7.

Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Caitlyne Gonzales, 11, danced to Taylor Swift songs at the grave of her friend Jackie Cazares, who was one of the 19 students killed last year in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Amir Hamja/The New York Times

Fans dressed in their “Renaissance” best, right down to the manicure, for the Beyoncé concert at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 30.

Dave Sanders for The New York Times

The Brooklyn Bridge, along with much of the Midwest and East Coast, was shrouded in reddish haze from wildfires in Quebec and Ontario on June 7. New York experienced its worst air quality on record.

David Guttenfelder for The New York Times

Ukrainian soldiers rested inside a destroyed building on the outskirts of Blahodatne on June 15. The newly liberated but desolate village was one of a handful that Ukraine said it had retaken during the first weeks of its counteroffensive against Russia.

Damon Winter/The New York Times

From left, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy were among the seven candidates who sparred in the second Republican presidential primary debate in Simi Valley, Calif., on Sept. 27.

Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times

Hundreds of migrants at a makeshift camp waited to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection during a wind storm on May 10.

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Migrants from Afghanistan passing the Statue of Liberty en route to Ellis Island to fill out asylum applications on Aug. 16. Arezo Mohammadi, at rear in a white head scarf, texted her sister, “She’s very big, you can see her, she’s incredible.”

Mette Lampcov for The New York Times

Visitors admired the sunset at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park on Nov. 1. A lake formed in the normally dry salt bed earlier this year when Tropical Storm Hilary dumped 2.2 inches of rain, the most that had ever fallen in the park in a single day.

You can find the rest of the Year in Pictures here.

Lloyd Austin, left, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of Israel.Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters

  • Many Israelis, disenchanted with the prospect for peace following the Oct. 7 attacks, are becoming more conservative in their politics.

  • “They looked like shadows of children”: Doctors treating Israeli children freed from Hamas said that many spoke in whispers and that some regressed developmentally, The Wall Street Journal reports.

  • Google said that it would allow app developers to collect payments directly from consumers and that it would pay $700 million to settle an antitrust suit brought by a group of state attorneys general.

  • A judge sentenced the founder of Nikola, an electric truck start-up, to four years in prison for inflating his company’s value with extravagant, false claims.

  • The E.U. is investigating X, accusing it of lax moderation of illicit content and disinformation.

  • Apple will pause the sale of new versions of its smartwatch, after the company lost a patent dispute over technology used to detect pulse rates.

  • U.S. Steel, formed by J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie over a century ago, agreed to a sale to the Japanese company Nippon Steel.

  • Drugs like morphine and insulin have been in short supply. American officials have discussed price floors and government manufacturing to address the shortages.

  • A jury ordered Monsanto to pay $857 million to students and parent volunteers who were exposed to dangerous chemicals at a school in Washington State.

A view from Reykjavik.Brynjar Gunnarsson/Associated Press

  • After weeks of warning, a volcano in southwestern Iceland began erupting. The size of the eruption was larger than expected, but it currently poses no risk to people.

  • An earthquake in northwestern China killed at least 120 people, crumpling buildings while residents slept inside.

  • Russia is using secretive shipping workarounds to avoid export restrictions.

  • Abdel Fattah el-Sisi won a third term as Egypt’s president. He had the advantage of his authoritarian grip on the country, and the war in Gaza also helped him.

Henry Kissinger’s critics forget that his brand of diplomacy brought results, Charles Kupchan writes.

Democrats have long taken advantage of Black Americans. Instead of blaming Trump, they have to look at their own faults, Mara Gay writes.

Here’s a column by Paul Krugman on the economy.

The Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster.NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.

A cosmic Christmas: How astronomers find holiday cheer — and scientific wonder — in the cosmos.

Late-night leftovers: Researchers say it’s worth reconsidering your midnight snack.

In memoriam: The first female Supreme Court justice and a convention-flouting Brazilian musician are among the notable figures who died this year. See the full list.

Lives Lived: Jeanne Hoff, perhaps the first openly transgender psychiatrist, shared the experience of her transition in a documentary to encourage her patients, many of whom were also transgender, to live openly and confidently. She died at 85.

N.F.L.: The Seattle Seahawks scored in the last minute to hand a third straight loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Soccer: The National Women’s Soccer League expansion draft for its two new franchises is drawing ire from stars and coaches.

College football: Dylan Raiola, a top quarterback prospect, flipped his commitment from Georgia to Nebraska, where he has family history.

A magazine cover.Charities Aid Foundation America

Wartime satire: For two years, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Curt Bloch, a German Jew, lived in a tiny crawl space of a Dutch home. In addition to food and care, his helpers also provided him with pens, glue and newspapers. Bloch used the materials to create 95 issues of a satirical poetry magazine called Het Onderwater Cabaret, or The Underwater Cabaret, between August 1943 and April 1945, when he was liberated. Now, decades later, the magazine will be exhibited in a museum in Berlin.

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Braise chicken with white wine, mushrooms and leeks.

Play the year’s best video games.

Grab a gift at the grocery store.

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was occupant.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David

P.S. The Republican-led House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton 25 years ago today.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

Daido Moriyama’s long-lost series from a cult 80s erotic mag

By in Photography

Daido Moriyama’s long-lost series from a cult 80s erotic mag

An exhilarating new book compiles the complete set of photo stories the Japanese photographer made for Shashin Jidai, the radical and experimental 1980s photo magazine that rode a fine line between photography and pornography

19December 2023

Daido Moriyama has been on fire this year. The great Japanese photographer took to Tokyo’s streets to lens Y-3’s new collection for AnOther, printed his photographs on toilet paper at Paris Photo and, of course, is still bowling audiences over with a major show at The Photographers’ Gallery. One of the great successes of the London retrospective is its reading room, which is packed with an array of photo books that stretch across his epic portfolio. That said, while Moriyama is indeed an inveterate bookmaker, less widely known is the fact that much of his most famous series appeared in magazines before they appeared in books. For Moriyama, as well as his peers who broke onto the scene in the 1960s and 70s, magazine spreads were like testing grounds – experimental laboratories where boundaries could be bent, broken and smashed.

Back in the mid-60s, Moriyama was virtually unknown. Having only published a few photographs in Photo Art, he was picked up by Shōji Yamagishi, the editor of the revered magazine Camera Mainichi, in which he debuted with his 1965 story Yokosuka, followed by Back Street Theatre. Announcing his jerky worldview and shoot-from-the-hip insouciance, the latter made Moriyama a star of magazine culture, so when he abruptly exited himself from the world of photography in the mid-70s, his absence was palpable. It would be several years before Moriyama would start to shoot again. However, his return was not in Camera Mainichi, but, instead, a new, alternative magazine that rode the fine line between photography and pornography.

Its name was Shashin Jidai, and its subtitle was “Super Photo Magazine”. The inaugural issue – whose 130,000 copies sold out in a flash – featured “Light and Shadow”, a story in which Moriyama appeared to propose photography as a descriptive device – recording flora, animals, and machinery – while breaking from the bure boke style of photography that emblematised the political strife of the 70s. It kickstarted a series of essays – or rensai – which had Moriyama working almost exclusively for Shashin Jidai throughout the 80s, sharing its pages with Noboyushi Araki as well as new kids on the block like Seiji Kurata and Keizō Kitajima. Although these essays, serialised over 63 issues, amounted to a remarkable portrait of the photographer during a crucial period in his development, they somewhat faded into obscurity after the magazine was forced to shut up shop in 1988.

On the release of Shashin Jidai 1981–1988 [published by Session Press and Dashwood Books], a staggering survey of the complete set of essays Moriyama produced for the magazine, we speak to co-publishers Miwa Susuda and David Strettell about the making of their book and what’s to admire about Moriyama.

I want to start by asking whether you both remember your first encounters with a Moriyama book? Do you have any favourites?

Miwa Susuda: My first were the three he made with Hysteric Glamour, the Japanese fashion company, in the early 90s. I remember being struck by the high contrast of black-and-white photography on glossy paper and in full bleed. I must say, they are still my favourite books by him.

David Strettell: It’s hard to pick a favourite. Bye Bye Photography, Dear, from 1972, is such a classic, inspiring book, but, like Miwa, I also loved the Hysteric Glamour series he did later. I spent some time in Tokyo in the late 80s and knew the designer, Nobu Kitmura, when Hysteric Glamour was just getting off the ground and he started to collect photo books obsessively. This was a series of completely impractical, big, floppy, oversized publications that had such an unorthodox feel to them. I’d been working with Magnum and for fashion photographers since 1985, but I’d never seen photo books quite like that. It really opened my eyes to what you could do with books and photography.

How and why did Moriyama get involved with Shashin Jidai? What was going on in his life at the time?

David Strettell: Well, Akira Hasegawa, one of the magazine’s editors, asked Moriyama to take part in the first issue in 1981. He had been going through some kind of a breakdown since the mid-70s. He had barely touched a camera in years and had become dependent on pills. It was a time of full crisis, and his collaboration with Shashin Jidai actually saved him. 

What was different about the work Moriyama was making after his hiatus?

David Strettell: It evolved into something more polished than the very gritty urban style of the Provoke period [a hugely influential Japanese magazine from the late 1960s with which Moriyama was involved]. Moriyama also seemed more open to experimenting with subject-driven pieces.

Miwa Susuda: To me, his work was more free-spirited and totally detached from the dogmas of Provoke. You can really sense his joy and liberation.

Sourcing the full set of spreads must have been some undertaking. How did you go about it?

David Strettell: Back in 2015, I acquired a near-complete set from a dealer here in New York. From there, I worked to get the rest through a network of dealers in Japan who we work with regularly to source our rare books for the shop.

Miwa Susuda: In 2018, I went to meet Moriyama at his studio in Tokyo. We discussed our publications and I gained an understanding of his ideas about photography. He liked the proposal that all his photographs from Shashin Jidai could be compiled in one book since it had never been done before. The conversation went smoothly. As you know, there have been many Moriyama books produced in Japan and abroad. We wanted to make sure that our book was unique and special. Instead of applying the conventional hardcover, we used a mesh one, an idea that came from our designer, Geoff Han, who wanted to reference the famous stocking pictures. I love the book’s intimacy. It has a hand-made quality, kind of like a journal.

Why was it important for you to honour the original presentation of the essays and chapters?

Miwa Susuda: It was definitely important. We wanted to share Moriyama’s vision as precisely as possible. We decided to translate some of his essays across all six chapters so that Western audiences could appreciate his state of mind at the time.

David Strettell: Moriyama was very deliberate about the work he contributed to Shashin Jidai. As Miwa mentioned, there were six essays that continue chronologically through the magazine over multiple issues, each expressing different aspects of his work. It was important to see all of them in order, partly to understand what was going through his mind in real time as he began to grapple with the new style of photography that he was developing. And partly because it’s a unique document. The majority of the negatives were lost, so the magazine tearsheets are the only sources left to us.

It’s been quite the year for Moriyama. Personal highlights include his blockbuster show in London and loo roll installation at Paris Photo. What do you think keeps Moriyama obsessively making work?

Miwa Susuda: Moriyama’s legacy needs to inspire the next generation of photographers, so it’s wonderful that many institutions have consistently shown his work. For Moriyama, it seems, making work is as natural as breathing. It’s his way of living and being in the world.

David Strettell: I think for a lot of photographers whose work is, like Moriyama’s, grounded in documentary, they can’t really help themselves. The world continues to evolve around them, so there’s no other option.

How do you envisage the life of this book? 

David Strettell: The main reason for the book was to bring this little-known body of work by one of the world’s most revered photographers to the public eye. It presents a pivotal period of his evolution and it’s fascinating to see how he comes to life again after his years in purgatory. It was important to include everything so the book can be used as a resource for academics too. 

Shashin Jidai 1981–1988 is published by Session Press and Dashwood Books.

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Astera helps with sculptural solution

By in Sculpture

Astera helps with sculptural solution
Denmark – Forty Astera NYX Bulbs were central to a kinetic light sculpture that was created for London-based creative agency Audience’s design for a recent Deloitte Shared Services Conference (SSC) staged at the Bella Centre, Copenhagen. Audience’s project director for the event, Neil Scrivener, working on it for the third year, explained that the Deloitte team wanted the SSC’s plenary sess

Alchemy + art hosts printmaking exhibit

By in Printmaking

Alchemy + art hosts printmaking exhibit
AMESBURY — Rolling River Printmakers, a collective of artists specializing in printmaking, recently announced its upcoming art show “Formed by Impression” at alchemy + art from Jan. 14 to 28.

Photography wanted for Ocean Center ECHO Gallery exhibit

By in Photography

Photography wanted for Ocean Center ECHO Gallery exhibit
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The County of Volusia ECHO Gallery Committee is seeking proposals for a new exhibition in the Ocean Center’s ECHO Gallery. Artists are encouraged to submit their outdoor recreation-themed photography by 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, 2024. 

The Ocean Center’s ECHO Gallery provides a pre-event space that also serves as a venue to promote and increase participation in the county’s Environmental, Cultural, Historical and Outdoor Recreation assets by displaying rotating, non-commercial exhibits that focus on one or more of the four areas. 

Submissions should be sent to [email protected] and include .jpg files of artwork, as well as a narrative describing the basic theme and subject matter of each submission. Works submitted for consideration should depict outdoor recreation from within Volusia County and be appropriate for public viewing. Artwork must be photography or digital photography. Large-scale artwork is recommended for the space, at a minimum of 18-inches by 24-inches and maximum of 48-inches by 60-inches. 

For full submission details, visit www.oceancenter.com/about-us/echo-art-gallery.stml.

The ECHO Gallery committee will review submissions and select final works that collectively represent all regions of the county for display in the Ocean Center ECHO Gallery from May 2024 through March 2025. Applicants are encouraged to visit and view the ECHO Gallery, which is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please call 286-254-4500 before visiting to ensure that the ECHO Gallery is not in use for a special event.

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