Hogs Gone Wild

You’d think after a long self-assignment and you find yourself still caked with pig slop in your ear, it’d be a shitty day. And you’d be right, it was a shitty day, a wonderfully shitty day.
If you’re going to get filthy, do so in Wisconsin, home of Hog Wrassling, part of the annual Wild West Days in Viroqua.
(BTW, I swear to Baby Jesus, I’m smelling bacon while typing this entry, which is better than the stench I smelled on Saturday.)

There’s something I’m diggin’ about Wisconsin. And it’s not just the insanely addictive fried cheese curds. People there are funny and quirky, two of my favorite traits.
Last year, Bittle and I roadtripped from Chicago to Hayward, ‘sconi for the Lumberjack Champs. This year, we drove to Wisconsin’s Amish country to go back in time in a big way.
Viroqua goes all-out for its Wild West celebration. Felt like I was on the set of Deadwood, a much more hygienic version anyway.
They had shootouts, hangings and a town drunk. A stagecoach shuttled people from 2010 to 1870. Dare I say it was wild?

I actually had to pace myself a little that day. Bittle and I were there for the hogs and I didn’t want to lose steam – or CF card space – with that wonderful western distraction.
Access for the event was great. Too good in fact. Unless you happened to have a change of clean clothes for the drive back.

It was interesting editing through my 70.1 GB of RAW images. Overall, I had no sense of what I got. The action was faster than you’d imagine and I simply hammer-locked on anything that looked interesting. The Decisive Motor Drive ™ in action (**)!
I was happy to discover that most of my images were tack sharp. Felt smart that I spent a recent day with good buddy Dan Root, calibrating all our gear in his backyard. WWDRD?

Brompton Bike Competition, England
The makers of these lightweight, foldable commuter bikes sponsor the annual Brompton World Championships every year, and this year’s will be on October 3rd in Oxfordshire, England. Jackets and ties are required.

Cheese Rolling, England
Every spring, the citizens of Gloucestershire throw a wheel of cheese down Cooper Hill and chase after it. The winner of the race gets to keep the cheese. Due to hill’s steepness, the wheel can reach speeds up to 70mph, injuring many racers along the way. Safety concerns like this led the 2010 race to be cancelled.

Korfball, Netherlands
This is a Dutch version of basketball that’s also played throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. As one of the few mixed-gender ball games, it was a demonstration sport in the 1920 Olympics in Belgium. There’s a beach version of the game too.

Iceboating, United States (Great Lakes)
Similar to sailboats, but fitted with skis and runners, traditional iceboats were used to ship goods across frozen lakes in the 19th century. Iceboats are now more often used for recreation and racing. To me, they look more beautiful than odd against their frozen backdrops.

Camel Racing, Middle East
While popular in the Middle East and India, the most notable camel racing event occurs in Alice Springs, Australia. While the sport has a questionable number of children as jockeys, there is a growing trend to hire adult racers. Regardless, camels are just plain funny, so I can see why the sport draws crowds.

Kickball, United States
For many of us, this sport serves as a reminder of a time when all we had to worry about was whether we could kick a rubber ball that was never inflated enough. Many adults are taking up the sport again, and teams with no sense of irony appearing all over the US. Unlike, the Brompton race above, tube socks and pigtails are strongly encouraged.

Chessboxing
We’ve covered it before, and we’ll cover it again. This is like beer pong for nerds.

Toe Wrestling, England
The World Championships started in 1976 in Derbyshire, UK. The object is to lock big toes and force your opponent’s foot to the ground. Not a game for the foot-phobic.

Snowmobile Racing, United States
This sport, popularized in places with lots of space and snow such as the American Midwest, Alaska, and Scandinavia, can be grueling, with some races going as long as 500 miles. While probably the least eco-friendly of all these sports, the photos are lovely.

Fire Jumping, Middle East
While this fire jumping shot was taken as part of an urban race in California, the sport has roots in a Persian New Year ritual that dates back the Zoroastrian era. Meant to symbolize rebirth–or in these guys’ case, bromance–it’s pretty exciting too.

Cardboard-Tube Dueling
Members of the Cardboard Tube Dueling League fight on the battlefield of Gas Works Park in Seattle. The individual winner receives a fancy, custom-made cardboard tube. Losers risk bruised egos and paper cuts.

Underwater Hockey
Also known as “octopush,” underwater hockey involves pushing a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into goals. Above, teams compete at the 2006 world championships in Sheffield, England.

The Mud-Pit Belly Flop
Spectators get sprayed at the mud-pit belly flop, the highlight of the annual Summer Redneck Games in East Dublin, Ga. Other events include a hubcap-discus throw and bobbing for pigs’ feet.

Bossaball
Similar to volleyball, the Belgian sport of bossaball also includes elements of soccer, gymnastics and capoeira. Each side of the court has an integrated trampoline, allowing players to bounce high enough to spike the ball.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Fire Away

Back in May, I traveled cross country to shoot what was – at the time – the largest dodgeball game in the world. That was cool and all. But damn if dodgeball isn’t also literally in my backyard.
I’ve had Funday Monday at Col. Sanders Park on my radar for some time, even bookmarking it on my calendar, as if I could forget it happens every Monday.
Sometimes, it’s hard to get motivated for something I can walk to. It’s always there. What’s the rush, right?
Well, here it is, finally.

One of the things that makes the PDX version of dodgeball better is that the court is much more intimate. Less hiding spots. In NYC, folks hung out in the back of the spacious volleyball court, letting others take the fall for them. Smart, but not quite the spirit of this game.

From the series “Children of Black Dust”, Dhaka, Bangladesh
A woman holds her child, blackened by carbon dust. His nose bleeds due to infections caused by exposure to dust and pollution during play in the workshop in Korar Ghat by on the outskirts of Dhaka. Many women bring their children along so they can look after them while working.

Losing
In this picture, Lurlena cries in the back of the family car after losing the contest for Carnival Princess at her school. She spent the day getting ready, with a new white dress and new shoes. The winner was decided based on whose parents bought the most tickets, and Lurlena’s family could only afford eight dollars worth.

New Year’s Eve, St. Jacques, Perpignan, 2006
This picture of a five year-old gypsy boy was taken on New Year’s Eve 2006 in the gypsy community of St. Jacques, Perpignan, Southern France. For Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the men would gather in the Café in their best suits to drink and dance while their wives would prepare dinner at home. It is quite common in St. Jacques for little boys to smoke.

Sewing Machine
A damaged sewing machine after the cyclone hit, Amtali, Patuakhali, Bangladesh 19 November 2007. EPA/ABIR ABDULLAH

New York City
USA. New York City. September 15, 2001. Signing a memorial in Union Square.

Hhaing The Yu
Hhaing The Yu, 29, holds his face in his hand as rain falls on the decimated remains of his home in the Swhe Pyi Tha township, near Myanmar’s capital of Yangon (Rangoon), on Sunday, May 11th, 2008. Cyclone Nargis struck southern Myanmar a week ago leaving millions homeless and has claimed up to 100,000 lives.

Culture

Sandra Gil
A long line of visitors forms in front of Sandra Gil outside the Krome Detention Center in Miami where her husband, Oscar Gonzalez, is being held. On the morning of November 8, Immigration and Customs Enforecment (ICE) officers arrested the family at their home. They detained Gonzalez and released Gil with her son, American born Joshua Gonzalez, 5, with orders to leave for Colombia within weeks, The family was denied asylum after seven years living and working legally in teh country.

Memories
Sitting alone on a little place surrounded by cars traffic. Self-isolation. Waiting for nothing. He talked to me for about an hour. Of a lost life. An ordinary life like mine, like many others. And now…

Tap-Tap
Tap-tap buses waiting to get full and depart for their regular route in the downtown of Port-au-Prince.

Gold Price
In Wall street, a man holds a placard of ” We Buy Gold”, as gold price has increased due to the current financial crisis or economic melt-down.
New York, Oct 13 2008.

Child Labor In Egypt

Construction worker, Soweto Township
Final construction at the Maponya mall in Piville township, Soweto. The 650 million Rand mall is one of the largest shopping centers in South Africa, and its opening is a sign of the commercial awakening of Soweto.

Child Labor. Bangladesh
Child labor is not a new issue in Bangladesh as children here remain one of the most vulnerable groups living under threats of hunger, illiteracy, displacement, exploitation, trafficking, physical and mental abuse. Although the issue of child labor has always been discussed, there is hardly any remarkable progress even in terms of mitigation. 17.5 percent of children aged 5-15 are engaged in economic activities. Many of these children are engaged in various hazardous occupations in factories.

Sally Mann
This photo, titled Candy Cigarette, not just displays something, it tells a story. It is both emotional and beautiful. This is what the originality of black-and-white-photography is all about.

Aftermath of Earthquake in Balakot, Pakistan. 2005
This image was taken about one month after the earthquake in Pakistan. People were still coming down from the mountains trying to find shelter and were suffering from trauma. Winter was on the way and the need for shelter was urgent. This father with his child had been collecting food. I spent ten days in Balakot documenting the situation after the quake. People were still digging for their family members.

Seen in Ludwigsburg, Germany

Swiss pilot Yves Rossy
Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, the world’s first man to fly with a jet-powered fixed-wing apparatus strapped to his back, flies during his first official demonstration, on May 14, 2008 above Bex, Switzerland. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

Huge Wave
Kerby Brown rides a huge wave in an undisclosed location southwest of Western Australia July 6, 2008, in this picture released November 7, 2008 by the Oakley-Surfing Life Big Wave Awards in Sydney. Picture taken July 6. (REUTERS/Andrew Buckley)

The Head of a Male Student
The head of a male student, still alive, trapped under the debris is pictured at the scene of the church school that collapsed on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, November 7, 2008. At least 30 people were killed when the three-story La Promesse school building collapsed while class was in session and some of the walls and debris crushed neighboring homes in the Nerettes community near Port-au-Prince. (REUTERS/Joseph Guyler Delva)

Starving Boy and Missionary
Wells felt indignant that the same publication that sat on his picture for five months without publishing it, while people were dying, entered it into a competition. He was embarrassed to win as he never entered the competition himself, and was against winning prizes with pictures of people starving to death. (World Press Photo of the Year: 1980 Mike Wells, United Kingdom. Karamoja district, Uganda, April 1980).

Afghan Girl
And of course the afghan girl, picture shot by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. Sharbat Gula was one of the students in an informal school within the refugee camp; McCurry, rarely given the opportunity to photograph Afghan women, seized the opportunity and captured her image. She was approximately 12 years old at the time. She made it on the cover of National Geographic next year, and her identity was discovered in 1992.

Sichuan Earthquake
A man is crying while he flips through a family album he found in the rubbles of his old house.

Bhopal Disaster
This photograph from December 4, 1984 shows victims who lost their sight in the Bhopal poison gas tragedy as they sit outside the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India.

Arirang Mass Games
Even during the Arirang Mass Games in North Korea, the ultimate expression of the state ideology, an individual can still sometimes stand out from the crowd and break free of the collective. If only just for a moment. (Photo and caption by Brendyn Zachary)

Hard Work in Hong Kong

Jump!

Unknown

Malawian boy running after 4×4
“I took the photo while on my one-month stint in Malawi Africa where I mainly worked in orphan day-care centres, also visiting Mulanji Hospital. The photo was taken from the Mulanji Hospital four-wheel-drive ambulance, travelling on the extremely rough roads from village to village, visiting the sick who were unable to reach the hospital.” Photo taken by Cameron Herweynen.

Man mutilated Rwanda
World Press Photo of the Year: 1994 James Nachtwey, USA, Magnum Photos for Time. Rwanda, June 1994. Hutu man mutilated by the Hutu ‘Interahamwe’ militia, who suspected him of sympathizing with the Tutsi rebels. About the image Nachtwey says his specialty is dealing with ground level realities with a human dimension. He feels that people need photography to help them understand what’s going on in the world, and believes that pictures can have a great influence on shaping public opinion and mobilizing protest.

María A.C. (ernieland)

tbaur

Pilgrim
Tibetans believe, once in their life, a pilgrimage to Lhasa is of exalted purpose and moral significance. Therefore, we see people like this, especially in spring and autumn, on their journey of faith, sometimes thousands of miles long, kowtowing every few steps.

Riot in the city
Riot in Toulouse, France (March 25th, 2007) after the campaign of a politician.

Shelter
Child takes shelter with his mother before the cyclone hit. Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Iguazu falls in Brazil
“On my second day visiting the astounding Iguazu falls on the Brazilian side I was forced to change to my telephoto lens as my wide angle had been damaged by the water vapour. In had rained solid for 10 days prior to my arrival and so the falls were at their most spectacular. Standing on the elevated viewing platform I was able to shoot this school group who stood transfixed, emphasizing the incredible size of the falls. (Photo and caption by Ian Kelsall)”

source: here