Uncategorized – Adam Aton

This is Tom and Renet Weller, whom I am writing about as part of my investigation into the rental homes and landlords in Columbia, Missouri. Their house doesn’t have a furnace. Rather, they have a waist-high storage heater and two space heaters (one pictured here).

On blogging and moments of clarity

It’s dusty around here….

This is my first post since my trip to the Philippines almost a year ago. I depart for Brussels tomorrow, so I suppose it’s time to fire up the ol’ blog again.

I’ve been told I’m a slow writer; I prefer to think of myself as methodical. (I’ve rewritten this paragraph a half-dozen times.) Blogs demand a completely different approach — casual, off-the-cuff, dare I say stream-of-consciousness. Rather than reconcile my habits with reality, I’ve found it more convenient to ignore the blogosphere. (Do they still call it that?)

Writing is hard, especially when you feel like it’s important to get it right.

When I was in the Philippines, I witnessed a rawness that ranged from beautiful to chilling: potbellied children climbing through sewage; a knot of spectators cheering for street chess; a government official and a rebel chatting about their families. I felt, and still feel, an enormous pressure to convey these experiences properly. Tarnishing them with hackneyed storytelling seems like a cosmic injustice, and it weighs on me whenever I set fingers to keyboard.

But if the alternative is letting those moments slip away, unexamined for fear imperfection, then I suppose it’s time to grow some balls. I can’t promise I’ll update this every day; I will say that I’m going to make it my sandbox for practicing, experimenting and growing as a writer. (And photographer, but that’s a different post.)

Motoring around Manila

Taxis are for tourists.

For eight pesos (about 20 cents), you can hop onto one of the colorful, if tight, Jeepneys that circuit Manila. They go everywhere, and in some parts of town seem to outnumber every other vehicle.

Sometimes they don’t actually stop, just slow down enough for someone to grab a hold of the back. You have to stoop through the small opening above the rear bumper and crouch-shuffle past the other commuters to take a seat on one of the parallel benches along the sides.

Then you pass along your fistful of coins to the driver, who is simultaneously collecting fare, giving change, shifting gears, honking his horn, negotiating traffic (a challenge all its own in metro Manila) and sometimes yelling into his cell phone too.

The first Jeepneys were fashioned out of surplus or broken-down Jeeps the American military left behind (thus the name). They’re often jerry-rigged out of whatever parts are available—and not just car parts. Instead of a gas tank, this Jeepney uses a water bottle to feed fuel into the engine.

Security in Manila

There are security guards everywhere in Manila: the bank, the mall, my hostel, hospitals, I think I even saw one at a restaurant. And they’re no rent-a-cops. These guys carry shotguns, pistols, batons, handcuffs and who knows what else.

On one hand, I know nothing will go down around a bunch of armed guards; but on the other hand, I’m uneasy about why so many owners appear to think they’re worth the expense. Everyone I’ve met in Manila has been extremely friendly, even in the bad neighborhoods like Payatas, but seeing these guys around reminds me to cradle my camera close to me.

(On a separate note, I haven’t seen any actual police officers around. Strange.)

Pictures of Grandad

I brought my camera with me to visit my grandfather, Charlie Aton, yesterday. I made some worthwhile photos, I think. Halfway through shooting I opened the blinds without adjusting my camera settings, so some (like this one) came out overexposed. Thank Zeus for Photoshop.

Grandad doesn’t get around like he used to—and that wasn’t too great to begin with, either. He mainly uses his walker to steady himself as someone helps him lower himself into his wheelchair. He has struggled with hip problems since his bomber crash-landed in England after taking damage over Nazi Germany.

Given his mobility issues, he keeps most of his things within reach of his armchair. He spends most of his day sitting here, watching TV and occasionally nodding off.

(This picture is maddeningly close to following the golden ratio. Oh well, close enough for a Hail Mary shot.)

Tibetan self-immolations

Radio Free Asia’s interactive map of Tibetan self-immolations

One hundred seventeen Tibetans have doused themselves in fuel and set themselves ablaze to protest Chinese authority in general and their intrusions specifically into the Tibetan and Buddhist ways of life.

Yet this has received very little attention in the Western media. Add it to the list, I suppose.

Boonville’s Best Gentlemen’s Club

Four weeks and 6,480 pictures later, here’s my audio slideshow about the Boonville Airport. There are some things I’d still like to change: the stop-action is a bit messy, and there’s not as much visual unity between the pictures as I would like.

But I’m happy with how it turned out, and it was a lot of fun to make.

Tinkering

I’m not happy enough with this project yet to call it “finished.” I put together a rough cut of my audio and pictures, and it’s *alright*, but I headed back out to the airport yesterday to get a little more.

All told, I think I collected an hour’s worth of audio yesterday. Getting pictures yesterday was sort of a secondary concern, but I got two or three usable ones.

I’m still not wholly comfortable with audio slideshows—by which I mean, I’m still not great at getting material for it. I’m very comfortable getting singles & captions, and I’m not UNcomfortable working with audio. But I’m not very good at balancing the two. And while I’m happy with a lot of the pictures I’ve taken here (and I’ve taken many—about 3,000) I’m not sure they mesh together in a cohesive way.

But whatever. I’m better at audio slideshows than I was five months ago, so I suppose that’s something.

Finding an angle

Well, it’s almost over. My airport project is due Wednesday; I think I have all the pictures and audio I need, but we’ll find out when I begin putting it together.

I hope inspiration strikes as I transcribe my interview, because my grasp on my story angle is… loose. I’m running with the “airport as a clubhouse” angle, and the interview I just had with Jim seemed to follow that pretty well. But I suppose it remains to be seen if my interview and photos mesh, and furthermore if they mesh in a way that accommodates my intentions.

Shooting in tight quarters

This is one of the better pictures of John Taylor, the Boonville airport manager who took me up in his plane.

The cockpit was a bit tight—not to mention I had two cameras strapped around my neck, blowing in the wind from the open cockpit window (just off-frame to the left).

It was here that the 17-35mm earned its keep.