INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A celebration of life at the Harrison Center will pay tribute to late artist William “Bill” Rasdell. Though he died late last year, his work continues.

Rasdell was a digital artist and photographer. He was the first artist to have a studio at the Harrison Center, and was a Greatriarch of the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood.

Rasdell used his photography to share stories about how migration impacted culture in Indianapolis and globally.

Executive Director Joanna Taft spoke with News 8, reflecting on Rasdell’s life. “One of the things that he did through his art was to explore the effects of the African diaspora on the Americas, and so, he was a traveler that went to many different countries.”

During his life, he traveled to Cuba, Ethiopia, and many parts of West Africa. He also created the program “My City, My World,” which partnered with the Indianapolis Museum of Art and traveled with youth from Indianapolis to Capetown, South Africa.

“Not only was Bill an artist and active artist, but he was a mentor,” Taft said. “He helped our younger artists, whether they were photographers or whether they were painters or whether they’re muralists or potters. There was a conversation that added depth and strength to their work.”

The tribute to Rasdell will be from 6 – 9 p.m. on Feb. 2 inside the gymnasium of the Harrison Center. The celebration will include viewings of Rasdell’s past interviews, his photography, and more.

There will also be Cuban dance and jazz performances by Cathy Morris, Arts With a Purpose, Rob Dixon, Richard “Sleepy” Floyd, and others.

The event is free to the public.

The winners of the 2023 Canadian Photos of the Year competition held by Canadian Geographic have been announced.

Taking home the grand prize of 5,000 Canadian dollars ($3,700) and the title of Canadian Photographer of the Year was Brandon Broderick from Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

Broderick captured grizzly bears, waterfalls, and a Canada lynx as he traveled relentlessly around the Canadian west coast in search of great photos.

Published by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Canadian Geographic magazine is published six times a year and all the winning images of the competition will be published in the March/April edition, hitting newsstands on February 19.

The competition is supported by Nikon and Canadian Geographic actively seeks out and nurtures Canadian photographic talents via its Photo Club.

In a year that AI will make it almost impossible to know the truth and convincing deepfakes will saturate the internet, authenticity has never been more important. Nodle’s mission is to combat misinformation and create a ‘digital trust network’ where users of its Click camera app can easily authenticate photo and video content. 

When you take a photo using the app, a Content Credentials verified digital signature can be attached to the image using Nodle’s blockchain, proving where, when and what camera it was taken with, among other key details that prove it’s real. 

Nodle isn’t the first on the scene. Leica launched the world’s first anti-AI camera last year while it’s reported that Sony, Canon and Nikon will also introduce digital signature authentication tech in future cameras. However, the early word is that the Content Credentials approved tech will only be found in professional cameras typically in the hands of paid journalists, and that leaves a big hole. 

In a Nodle keynote, Nodel CMO Jeff Roberto and co-founder Micha Benoliel noted that 3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video are shared online every day, the majority of which are taken with smartphones, so it’s clear that the anti-AI moves from the big imaging brands only go so far. That’s what is potentially so exciting about Click’s ContentSign technology – it makes authentication easy and accessible.

The Click camera app was launched for iOS in December, and the Android version is set to follow later this month. Currently it can authenticate photos only, with video coming soon.

Authentication on a potentially astronomical scale

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Nodle’s authenticity tech works through its Click camera app for live images. Once you’ve captured an image, you swipe to authenticate it with ContentSign and publish it on the Nodle blockchain. 

The digital signature is auto-Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) certified. That’s official approval from the industry standard coalition co-founded by Adobe that introduced Content Credentials and includes many of the leading media voices, including big camera brands. 

In addition to the digital signature, metadata including time, date, location, camera and settings can be seen, plus you can publicly share your image through the app to any platform that allows linking, including social. You don’t need to have the app to view certified images taken and shared using the Click app.

In the Nodle keynote (at 20:50), co-founder Micha Benoliel says that even C2PA verified media from the Leica M11-P and potential future camera from the likes Sony and Canon can be added to its blockchain and be part of its digital trust network.

The fight against misinformation is warming up

When I wrote about Sony, Canon, Nikon joining Leica in the fight against misinformation, I was acutely aware that this was just the beginning in what will be an ongoing effort against AI-generated deepfakes. The free to download Click camera app should reassure humans that the fight for authenticity is far from over. 

As an iOS and soon to be Android app, Click’s userbase is potentially much wider than those shooting with the pro-level cameras featuring digital signature tech. However, you still have to use the proprietary Click app to get that C2PA verified signature and publish to Nodle’s blockchain (we don’t know the potential cost to the user for that, yet), plus you need approval to join Nodle’s digital trust network, and those factors could make it a non-starter for many. 

The Click camera app is armed with the tools you’d expect from your phone’s default camera app, including 4:3 and 16:9 aspect, zoom, plus front and rear facing camera support, with more camera features on the way. What it won’t get, by design, is editing tools.

To blow the door well and truly open, digital signature authenticity needs to be built into the default camera apps by Apple, Samsung, Google and the rest, and for those tech giants to also become part of the C2PA coalition – their names are notable omissions. Something tells me this isn’t the last article I’ll write on this topic in 2024. 

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Cathleen Campbell is fond of taking photos in her West Harlem neighborhood.

One of her favorite spots is the monument called Invisible Man, which is a memorial to author Ralph Ellison, who wrote the novel of the same name and lived across the street at West 150th Street and Riverside Drive.

“The statue really has two incredible personalities. One when you’re looking through the nature side, and the other side when you see the city side, so you can see the buildings through the statue,” Campbell said.

Campbell is originally from Chicago, but has lived in Harlem for decades. She also records images of the people of Harlem, like architect John Reddick, who was on the committee to bring the monument to Riverside Park 20 years ago.

“What I think is really unique about [Campbell’s] work is it’s really rooted in looking at the people and the character of the neighborhood,” Reddick said.

Campell’s work is on display in an exhibition at the Hamilton Grange Library. She only recently began exhibiting her work.

It’s called “Visible/Invisible, Seen/Unseen: Harlem Portraits by Cathleen Campbell.” It’s a look back at the many pictures she has taken over the years of her neighbors in West Harlem and elsewhere around the community.

“One of the things I am trying to address in my portraits is that a lot of the people in Harlem feel marginalized, and my portraits are a way of making them feel visible,” Campbell said.

The exhibition also features Campbell’s photos of Harlem community leaders, dedicated to the people working to make life better in the neighborhood. It’s part of the library’s community showcase program.

“Libraries are about starting a conversation, so one of the ways we can do that is through art,” said Isaac Sorell, a library information assistant at Hamilton Grange Library, which is a branch of the New York Public Library.

As Campbell says, when it comes to Harlem, it’s pretty easy to make fantastic pictures when the people themselves are so fantastic.