Atmospheric fireworks | Dordogne, France

Photographer Julien Looten: ‘Last winter, I ventured to the foot of a medieval castle in France to capture the Milky Way’s winter arch. An exceptional airglow illuminated the sky, resembling multicoloured clouds. This phenomenon occurs due to a chemical reaction in the upper atmosphere, emitting faint light known as chemiluminescenc. You can also see, from left to right, Sirius and the constellation of Orion, Mars, the Pleiades, the California nebula, Cassiopeia, the double cluster of Perseus, and the Andromeda galaxy’

Photograph: Julien Looten/2024 Milky Way photographer of the year

A photography exhibit at the Newton Free Library has ignited outrage in the wealthy Boston suburb, sparking questions about free speech and the role of public libraries in civic discourse.

The exhibit, by Cambridge photographer and activist Skip Schiel, shows portraits of displaced Palestinians in the West Bank and the locations where their families once lived in Israel. Several hundred protestors, as well as supporters of the exhibit, showed up to the exhibit’s reception on May 9, where three Palestinian residents of Newton were to speak on a panel.

But protestors effectively shut down the event before it could begin.

Event organizers described a tense scene inside the library, with pro-Israel protestors taking over the front row of seats and carrying fliers referencing “jihad” and other anti-Arab language. A video circulating online shows one protestor calling the scheduled speakers “terrorists.”

Newton police were onsite at the event, which quickly devolved. Organizers were interrupted by shouts of “liar,” “shame” and “antisemite,” while pro-Palestinian attendees responded with chants of “free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea.”

Library staff had left the building and locked up the PA system, so Schiel tried to give his speech over the commotion without amplification.

“Nobody could hear me, even in the front, with all the noise, with all the shouting,” the photographer recalled.

Event organizers soon gave up on the reception and led their supporters outside to nearby Newton City Hall, where the chaos continued. Protestors waving Israeli and American flags and displaying affiliations with local right-wing groups heckled Palestinians trying to give speeches.

Things had been heating up for weeks. Newton was still reeling from an incident in March in which a display of posters of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas was defaced. Many residents of Newton, which has a large Jewish population, felt an exhibit focused on Palestinians in the West Bank was insensitive given its timing.

Schiel said the exhibit had been approved last July by the independent panel of Newton artists and art professors, which selects the exhibits shown in the library’s gallery and main hall throughout the year. The Cambridge artist has been active in leftist causes since the Vietnam War, and has been documenting Palestinian life in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel since 2003. His process for the photographs in the exhibit, he explained, was to photograph and interview Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and then try to find the sites in Israel where their families lived before they were displaced.

“Those Palestinians cannot go back to their former homelands,” Schiel said. “But I can.”

The photos featured in the exhibit at the library were taken in 2018 and 2019. The black-and-white images depict old and young Palestinians in tight closeups, interspersed with photos of vast arid vistas and crumbling buildings.

“The potential value of my show is that it shows the human beings that were involved in this, and the places they come from,” Schiel said. “I’m trying to humanize the story, to give a different point of view that people generally don’t have.”

For the May 9 reception, Schiel had invited three Palestinian Newton residents to speak on a panel about their reactions to his photos. One of them was Laila Kassis. She planned to talk about her family, Christian Palestinians from the upper Galilee in Israel.

“Here I am, trying to share a piece of myself and a piece of my family’s experience and a piece of my humanity as a way of creating understanding. I’m bringing forward a vision of peace, and I’m not even allowed to utter one word,” Kassis said. “And they’re calling me a terrorist?”

Some protestors took issue with the title of the exhibit: “The Ongoing & Relentless Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948 to Today.” “Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and it refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians that occurred when Israel declared independence in 1948.

Schiel chose the title to draw an explicit connection between the events of 1948 and the continuing displacement of Palestinians due to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza precipitated by the war.

Kassis agreed it was a fair title.

“I think it’s really hard to deny that the Palestinians did experience trauma in 1948 and leading up to it and in its aftermath and continue to experience a lot of trauma today,” she said.

Newton resident Jeff Kosowsky, who is Jewish, saw it differently.

“‘Nakba’ is now being used as a way to essentially say that Israel was conceived in original sin,” he said. “‘Ongoing and relentless’ is code for ‘Israel has no right to exist.’”

Kosowsky is the Newton resident whose posters of hostages were vandalized. He was part of a group of pro-Israel protestors at the library who seemed to be the main instigators of chants, songs and epithets aimed at the panelists. He said he had tried to get the library to add a speaker to the program who shared his perspective, and that when that failed, he felt he had to make his voice heard from the audience instead.

According to Kosowsky, it was the moderator’s request that attendees be completely silent during the presentation and submit questions on notecards that angered the protestors.

“There was a sense of, this is not, this is not speech, this is not dialogue, this is not a nuanced handling of a very complex subject, this is not sensitive,” he said.

Kosowsky said he hoped the lessons from the incident would improve civil discourse going forward.

But for people involved in organizing the event, it felt as if protestors were the ones to shut down dialogue.

“There was no exchange, no back and forth,” said Hani Murad, a Palestinian resident of Newton who was supposed to speak on the panel. “One side was belligerent, violent, and shut down the exhibit. And we could not even speak.”

At least one protestor agreed with him. Newton resident Doug Hauer organized a silent vigil outside the reception to protest what he saw as a one-sided exhibit. But he said he supported Schiel’s right to free speech.

“He had a right to conduct his reception peacefully with people who wanted to come in and hear him,” Hauer said. “It’s just unthinkable to shut people down, and to shut them down in a manner that is not consistent with how we should operate as Americans.”

Art exhibits have long been the target of public outrage and protest. But the incident in Newton seems to be part of a troubling trend in American libraries.

“Within the last five years, libraries have seen an increase in book challenges and in displays across the country and Massachusetts,” said Massachusetts Library Association president Michelle Filleul. “It seems to be part of something that is bigger than libraries and it is requiring a whole new skill set for librarians and library staff.”

Newton Free Library leadership declined to comment on the incident. Before the reception, it released a statement citing free speech as its reason for leaving up the exhibit, which is scheduled through the end of May.

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – In front of family and friends, recently retired Chuck Sibley was gifted a key to the city by Rochester Mayor Kim Norton Monday night.

Mayor Norton says this key was given to Chuck for his more than 50 years of service to the Med City.

“There’s a reason I’m behind the camera because I have a great face for radio, right?” Sibley said. “It feels good.”

Chuck retired from KTTC in May after 51 years as the station’s photographer. Through the years, his presence was felt in the communities that KTTC covered.

“It was a great experience to cover a whole bunch of stuff,” he said. “Some fascinating, some not so fascinating but you do the best to your job you can and just be your good-hearted self.”

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Copyright 2024 KTTC. All rights reserved.

The 60-year-old building is now a serene space where artists and researchers from diverse disciplines can engage in field studies that dig deep into the local ecology, culture and history.

To mark its opening, two exhibitions by Hong Kong artists Ki Wong and Pak Chai are on show until August 4. Both completed a two-year residency in the village, their works exploring stories of Chuen Lung residents.

Wong’s exhibition, “The Rock and the Gaze”, reinterprets historical photos shared by villagers, with a strong focus on the role of women.

During her residency, Wong spent her days drawing, conducting interviews, and photographing and collecting material for her art, while forging bonds with the villagers, especially the sense of “home” that ties together families of three or four generations.

The result is a series of silk-screen prints and paintings, the artworks paired with fictional stories written by Hong Kong poet Lau Chi-wan.

“Everything is frozen in a photo, yet it contains more than fragmented imagery – it is a continuation of fleeting, lived moments,” Wong says.

“These old photos gave me an opportunity as an outsider to engage with these pockets of time, where historical snippets of this place – of those who lived, struggled and felt deeply – may live on.”

In one image, a woman sits at her dresser applying lipstick in front of a mirror. Wong imagined she had worked hard for years and now, in her midlife, is enjoying a quiet moment.

Wong embellished the silk-screen print with tinges of paint, as if giving the image a “touch-up”.

“What is encapsulated in these photos is the feeling of intimacy between the photographers and the subjects,” she says.

Wong also took “memory-holding” stones found in the village and combined them with crushed weeds and seeds collected from Koon Man School before its refurbishment.

“We will replant these seeds as a way to connect the past and present, and to represent the cyclical evolutions of life,” she says.

For the second exhibition, “Photovoice: Bits and Bobs from Chuen Lung Villagers”, Chai and Wong feature collected stories from both the artists’ residencies and images seen through the lenses of three villagers: Heidi Ching, Chan Wai-cheong (“Cheong Gor”) and Tsang Kim-man (“Man Gor”).

“This exhibition allows those who live in the village to tell their stories through photography,” Chai says. “We also hope that, through these works, we may understand Chuen Lung a little bit more.”

The exhibition includes faded family photos from the 1980s supplied by Chan, a second-generation Chuen Lung resident. The photos have been placed on top of new ones taken by Chai in the same locations, the blending of old and new framing the past with the present.

“Tracing back time with the photos, Cheong Gor returns to where some of the shots were taken, and I took a then-and-now photo as a documentation of the changing landscape in the village,” Chai says.

Man Gor, who learned photography when he was young, spent a carefree childhood exploring the area’s hills, swimming in natural ponds and sometimes feasting on eels, catfish, snails and freshwater shrimps.

For the project, Man Gor went searching for some of the sentimental places and objects from his childhood. But the landscape had changed: much of the flora and fauna had vanished, Chai says.

“He took photos of where he wandered as a child but the mountain is not how he remembers it – some insects and places have gone.”

Koon Man Space will also host creative exchanges. Some have already taken place.

In March, British artist Alice Cazenave completed a one-month residency in the space during which she hosted sustainable photography workshops that showed the use of hand-mixed, plant-based compounds sourced from plants in Chuen Lung, including watercress.

In another workshop, Cazenave – who has a background in molecular science – transformed the broad leaves of the alocasia plant, also known as elephant’s ear, which grows abundantly in the village hills, into light-sensitive paper.

This simple photographic process uses sunlight to bleach out pigments from the leaf, creating different tones in the trace of a negative. No chemical emulsion is added to the leaf, with the images created by the sun.

Koon Man Space is also collaborating with the environmental education non-profit Outdoor Wildlife Learning Hong Kong on research into Chuen Lung’s freshwater ecology to gain a better understanding of the village’s changing environment.

A two-year visual study exploring village history, cultural heritage, and fauna and flora is also planned, along with touring exhibitions and workshops.

“The Rock and the Gaze” by Ki Wong; “Photovoice: Bits and Bobs from Chuen Lung Villagers” by Pak Chai and Ki Wong, Koon Man Space, 338 Route Twisk, Chuen Lung village, Tsuen Wan, until August 4.

Times: Thursday (by appointment), Friday, Saturday and Sunday (11am-2pm, 3pm-6pm). Closed Monday-Wednesday. Tel: 2777 0955

Truly affordable macro lenses, especially for hobbyists who are just starting out, are tough to find. The Pergear 60mm Macro lens promises magnification beyond the standard 1x reproduction ratio, but at just $200, can it really deliver usable results? In this hands-on review, I’ll test out this lens and take a detailed look at its performance.

The Specs

The Pergear 60mm Macro isn’t an insignificant lens in any sense, except price. With all-metal construction, it’s chunky and weighs around 600 g. The size is similar to 105mm macro lenses I’ve used in the past. While the lens isn’t unwieldy, I’ve definitely seen more compact macro lenses in the past, even accounting for the 2x magnification capability.

This lens supposedly covers a full frame image circle, with one important asterisk: vignetting at infinity on full frame, with the issue getting worse at around f/8 and smaller apertures. I feel this note from Pergear undersells things: vignetting is significant beyond about 5 feet, with the edges of the frame being unusable at infinity. APS-C cameras, with the smaller image circle required, won’t see this issue, but advertising this as a full frame lens feels disingenuous.

The front filter ring is 62mm, with the front element taking up most of the space. There is an unusual rectangular cutout behind the glass that is reminiscent of an anamorphic lens (this is a regular, spherical lens, however). Shooting distant subjects with lights in or near the edge of the frame reveals this odd addition via prominent flares.

The optical system is relatively simple, with 10 elements in 7 groups. Pergear claims the inclusion of 3 high refractive index elements to help control aberrations. The max aperture of f/2.8 is controlled via a 10-blade diaphragm. It can stop down to f/22.

The aperture ring is clickless, and it has a very dampened rotation. Both the aperture and focus rings are quite grippy, with serrations in the metal, but they are quite heavy to turn. The first few uses, the lens seemed to have a bit of a detent at the focus transition from 1:2 to the wider range, but this has gone away with use.

Notably absent are any controls, rear seals, barrel markings for alignment, or mount communication interfaces. This lens is entirely manual and communicates nothing to the camera. On some bodies, you’ll need to specify focal length for best VR/IS performance and disable any release lock that requires a lens to be mounted.

Performance

Between the heft, need for manual settings, and slower focus process, this is really going to be best suited to capturing static subjects. Chasing bugs and juggling flashes will be a bit of a challenge with this lens. Furthermore, full frame users will want to treat this as a dedicated macro lens, with shots beyond a few feet revealing significant flaring and vignetting issues.

Fortunately, at macro distances, this lens delivers good results. It really does reach 2:1 magnification, allowing you to reproduce a subject on the sensor twice as big as it is in real life. This is a significant jump in magnification compared to 1:1 lenses. You can get incredibly close and detailed shots of very small subjects.

At the 60mm focal length, you aren’t left with a ton of distance at 1:1 or greater, so lighting needs to be a deliberate choice. Additionally, with the heavy focus ring, I often had better luck nudging the camera back and forth for minute adjustments, rather than trying to tweak focus via the ring.

If shooting at normal distances, focus remains tricky as the non-macro portion of the focus ring is quite bunched up. Only a small turn pulls you from infinity down to a foot or two away, making a portrait at f/2.8 a difficult proposition.

Focus issues can also come from the significant amount of focus breathing. Focus breathing means changing the focus distance changes the magnification or field of view, and on this lens, shifting focus visibly changes your composition. That will complicate focus stacking, as well as pulling focus for video.

The center of the frame is good, even from f/2.8. Some color fringing is visible, and the focus challenges can make nailing focus at f/2.8 difficult, but overall the contrast and sharpness are good. At 2:1, a bit of softness is visible at f/2.8, but this clears by f/4. It returns at around f/8 thanks to the impacts of diffraction.

Corners are just OK on the APS-C frame at f/2.8, with significant improvement stopping down to f/4 or f/5.6. Vignetting on an APS-C frame is never really an issue, while even full frame use at f/2.8 is fine, assuming you’re focused at macro distances.

There is a noticeable degree of pincushion distortion, but this can be cleared up with manual correction.

Bokeh, or the quality of the out-of-focus areas, is quite pleasant at f/2.8, thanks to that 10-bladed aperture. As a macro lens, this is important, as many close-up subjects will often have shallow depth of field.

Chromatic aberration is surprisingly well controlled for an inexpensive lens, with basically no false color visible in test shots.

Overall, the Pergear 60mm 2x Macro lens delivers a ton of macro performance for such a low price. It’s certainly not without issues, with the “full frame” claim needing much more explanation for buyers. Additionally, there’s a few things missing that make it clear this lens is targeting a value price point: no lens alignment marker on the body, printed rather than engraved markings, and no lens hood being among the most apparent. Still, if you want to get into macro photography, particularly with still subjects, this is an excellent value option. Additionally, if you need to get 2x magnification natively in your lens, this will be an easy and cheap way to try it out. The Pergear 60mm for Sony E Mount is available for $199.

What I Liked

• Good image quality at macro distances, even on full frame
• Solid construction for an inexpensive lens
• Excellent price to performance for macro applications

What Could Be Improved

• Calling this a full frame lens needs a much bigger disclaimer
• Distance use is challenging due to vignetting and manual focus
• A lens alignment marker on the body would help locating, as the body has few landmarks
• Flare, distortion, internal reflections, and more make this unsuitable for copy-stand use