Travel the world with the Nikon D90 Movie Mode from Aled Ordu on Vimeo.
By [Brian McMorrow]
TUNIS, April 1, 2009 (TAP) - Tunis Afrique Press (TAP) news agency was awarded the first prize of the Photography Competition held by the United Nations Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) and the Center for Arab Women Training and Research (CAWTAR).
The competition is part of the initiative taken by both institutions on "Reinforcement of female leadership and the participation of women in political life and decision-making in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia."
Last Saturday night, riding the empty metro with some jerk friends nd taking some memorial photos (refer to my photolog) when suddenly a security customer (usually assigned to the metro through the hottest nights with increasing violence in Saturdays and beyond the midnights service) get out the driver booth and told me :"taking photos in the train is prohibited !! give me your camera !", so my reaction was a big exclamation, my friends stood up and I told him that we were taking self photos, as he smelt the breeze of alcohol he gave up his fury.
The point is every time I tried to take a photo some guy usually the security forces, or even a simple employee, shows up and ask me to stop taking photos, as if I were shooting a nuclear plant or his daughter naked, damn world ! how can I practice photographing if everywhere my cam becomes a spy's gadget ?
As locals taking photos of the market, people, the little wood next to your city around is always are not welcome : they will ask you to stop, or who you are ? or in some extreme cases :"show me you ID !", ans so on, even I have developed many techniques of camouflage such as holding the cam in my hand and press the trigger, or try to find a hideout where nobody would notice me, or just talk with the people around creating some kind of friendship that leads to a unlimited photographing license, sometimes I have even paid to take shots.
Despite, If you're a tourist to a resident foreigner (or just look like), you'll just get smiles everywhere and take photos as free as a you were shooting your personnel garden, the police, or the people around won't disturb your open photo workshop : God Bless Tourism !
I don't understand this exaggerated awareness about the camera, or is it just about the media ? thus that most of the Tunisian think that all local photographers are working certainly for a newspaper, and their rear is justified as the press has been publishing unauthorized photos of many people without any permission for decades (the law has been fixed a few years ago), and all those photographers were pretending to be just making photos for joy or as souvenirs !
But the point is that Tunisian don't really understand photography, except wedding or ID portrait, here in this country we don't trust a man with a Camera, just because we don't know him or we haven't asked for his services, we don't see the photos with art issues as they could harm our life making us uncovered.
It's in the late years with the increasing popularity of the digital photography, that usual people shoot in the open air and that people are accepting those devices becoming a usual tool to memorize warm moments or just for fun, led by the outnumbering of the cell phones with camera, the freak is still on, but it's getting less expressed to avoid getting damned as a retarded and primate person.
For the police two main reasons are making photography a real state enemy:
First, as those toys cam make videos, they have lately a useful tool to many people who started a propaganda videos, sex scenes or event took shocking videos who instantly spread over the web. Two stories are making sense to this : Two high school teacher shoot their self while making love, and the other is about a dancing policeman.
Secondly, the terrorism threat is making our national security more aware of ... everybody, yes me and you and the guy pissing on the wall, as I've said before, we have no thought about art coming through photos, if you're making a photo of the metro, you're certainly getting ready to blow it, if you have take photos of an office, you'll certainly come by night and steal its precious documents and if it's not you, you'll certainly send it to someone else, if ever you have no intention to any of those terrifying actions, someone in the web will use you photos as a material to harm our beloved republic. In one word, we don't need your photos you can still make peaceful pencil drawings in a paper.
I have asked to colleagues graduated in law to find to make research and find me all about photography in the Tunisian law, the output will be published as soon as possible, and then I'll get rid or may be of all this stupid behavior.
Finally, I just want to say , that I want make photos for fun, I don't want to get nagged by a dirty bastard every time I tried to make an artistic photo,I don't want to harm none, and I'd like to hear from your experiences and how do you faces such problems.
This is just a republish of an article I did write 2 years ago, since that things haven't changed a lot.
The f/10 is a exposition made up of a group photographers coming out together from an illustred experiement, in fact I know a lot of those guys and they do great works with their stuff this I'm expecting a lot to see.
The vernissage will be Tuesday April 15, 2008 at 18:30 at the El Teatro(In the mectel hotel) while the exposition will continue in place till the end of the month.
The first time I visited Tunisia was in the 1960s not long after the country had gained its independence from France and President Bourguiba was in power. The country was just beginning to dip its toe into the rapidly expanding river of tourism.
...Close by is the real Tunisia, the medina at Sousse, the troglodyte dwellings at Matmata, the desert market at Douz, the Chott and the mountain oases. The photography is exciting and challenging and for a Muslim country--the least restricted that I have experienced.
Sousse, Tunisia's third largest city, is an unusual combination of beach resort, industrial port and Islamic city. Each part of the city is separate, so you pass from one world to another quickly and totally. The old medina is a maze of winding streets and endless photographic opportunities--the ideal place to start your journey and become acclimated to the country.
This was a fascinating journey with plenty of photographic opportunities, so I was very happy to retrace my steps in February 2003 leading a group of 15 photographers from the Northern Region of the Royal Photographic Society.
By [David Duchemin]
Copyright created and registered in England, is secured ipso facto in the other countries subscribing to Berne convention of International Copyright. These countries are as follow: Algiers, Belgium, Denmark and the Faeroe Islands, France and its colonies, Hayti,Italy,Japan,Liberia, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Tunis, under this convention the photographer must comply with the formalities of his country (The country of origin), and he obtains in the other countries the degree protection of production which granted to natives in these countries. The degree of protection varies ...
Who is Slim Gomri?
...Born August 7, 1969, in Tunis, Gomri obtained a diploma in life and earth sciences and worked as a high school teacher in Tunis.
Involved in various projects from the beginning of his JCI career, Gomri became JCI Rades President in 1996...
Why is Gomri Involved in photography?
“My father was an amateur photographer,” says the past JCI Vice President. “As a child, I used to ‘play’ with his black and white pictures. Since then, I loved this ‘magical machine’ and started using it later. I also welcomed and adapted to the arrival of digital photography.”
Gomri considers photography a passion. “It’s a way to express thoughts, ideas, and opinions,” he says. “It’s a wonderful tool that lets you share unique and unforgettable moments, places and situations with others.”
He also considers photography a means to promote social progress. “Photography is a very powerful tool,” says Gomri. “As an intern in a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) in Washington, D.C., I was amazed to see projects involving youth and photography to deal with issues like corruption and conflict resolution.”
When asked for advice on how to succeed in photography, Gomri said, “There is no mystery with photography. Just like anything in life, to succeed you have to love what you’re doing and be yourself.”
Why the Exhibit in Washington, D.C.?
Gomri loves Tunisia. “I live in a nice country, small but diverse and full of colors and light,” he says. “I wanted to share this diversity with Americans, interest them in my country, and make them curious and willing to discover Tunisia. I will also try to deliver my view of my country to the visitors of the exhibition.”
“My humble goal is to contribute, through photography, to building cultural bridges and enhancing understanding and dialogue between citizens of the United States and Tunisia,” explains Gomri. “More dialogue and more exchanges remove fear, misunderstanding and seeds of conflicts, and contribute to a better world. I also hope to break many stereotypes on both sides and contribute to dialogue through photography.”
The recent war between France and Tunis which upset government of the latter and made the Tunisian a sort of department of France has not benefited M. Chazal for he was an intimate acquaintance of the Bey fifteen months indeed M. Chazal was an inmate of the at Tunis for the Bey's brother is an accomplished thanks to our host tuition Very soon the came to appreciate the value of photography and like wise man he cast about for a thorough master who could the art root and branch His brother however the more apt pupil although the Bey himself was imbued with the importance of photography that he upon establishing a private studio for himself C. Chazal was sent for and given carte blanche both in respect construction and expenditure and the consequence was in a few months the Bey's palace at Tunis boasted one the most complete photographic establishments The of glorious old Carthage or rather what is left of are very close to Tunis as every student of the knows full well and this spot afforded plenty of scope to the Royal photographs.
Do not photograph such things as foreign embassies, government offices, military installations, army manoeuvres, troop movements, etc however good a picture they may make. The police have instructions to question photographers who seem interested in "sensitive" sites. You risk being detained temporarily and you will probably lose your photographs.
By [DECLAN MCCULLAGH]
Avenue de la Marine, future avenue Jules Ferry then avenue Habib Bourguiba and now Avenue 7 Nocembre, shot in 1885 by the French Bertrand Bouret.
