Jacob Holdt in the news

I am a big fan of Jacob Holdt. When I was in elementary school he was touring the Danish schools with his dias-show "Amerikanske billeder". These pictures of ghettos and racist confrontations made a big impression on me. Both the pictures themselves, but also the story of this self-declared tramp, who went on a journey to places where most people would be afraid to go, and in these places portrayed the faults of the American society.

Jacob Holdt is now making headlines again with his new photo exhibition "The Ghetto in our Hearts" where he declares that Denmark is more racist than present-day USA.

Read also:
Wikipedia about Jacob Holdt
From Politiken: "Danmark har overhalet USA i racisme" (in Danish)
The new exhibition "Ghettoen i vore hjerter" (in Danish)

Bring your alpaca

I was browsing mailinglists, and read in a review of the Smart car, that the reviewer found the Honda Fit a better choice for a small fuel-efficient car. Of curiosity I googled "Honda Fit", since I know what a Smart looks like, but I had never heard of a Honda Fit. Apparently, the Honda Fit is a small car with a big interior. On their website Honda illustrate how you can fit five people, or a surf board, or your bike, or your alpaca... in the car.

Illustration courtesy: Honda Fit interior photos

Music photos from Roskilde 2008

Elvis has added photos from Roskilde Festival to his homepage. You will find photos from Jay-z, Tumi and the Volume, Juan Formell y los Van Van and Joan as a policewoman.

Photo courtesy: Elvistiger.nl

Visit trynen.dk

Katrine Mosegaard has updated her homepage with cool photos of her recent works. Go check it out!

Gallery online

After many months of absense, my gallery is now online again. This time powered by Coppermine photo gallery.

See my gallery at www.glyn.dk/gallery

The usual suspects

The professor has been murdered. As a service to the community, the glyn.dk CSI dept. presents you with a lineup of the usual suspects. If you have any information concerning the crime, please leave your comment on this post.

If you want to participate in the investigation of the DNA found on the scene, please contact the DNA labs.

Jesuslovesyou

Photo taken at Copenhagen Central Station end of June 2007. Copyrighted under share-alike license - attribute glyn.dk.

Scary: Pro-Ana

I find it a good initiative to once again draw attention to the problem of anorexia nervosa among young girls, which is commonly thought to be inspired by the ever thinner models on the catwalk. From an ad like the Nolita ad, there should be no doubt that an anorectic body is not an incarnation of beauty, but the sad result of a sick mind.
The scary thing is that this ad has been critisised for being an inspiration for the anorectic girls. I did not want to believe that anyone could ever be inspired by this photo, but then Nola showed me some websites made by supporters of the pro-ana movement. In their world view, anorexia is not wrong and no sickness, but an ultimate level of control over your body. They encourage each other with photos of ever more bony bodies and write tips to each other on how not to eat when you are hungry, the easiest ways to puke, and burn extra calories at every possible occasion. That is scary - and really sick.

Illustration courtesy: The Furor Over an Anorexia Ad - TIME magazine

Clever scam

I got a pretty clever scam email the other day, advertising for a website with native art of some sorts. The tone was like a personal invitation, no misspellings, and plausible names for the organisations involved. The only thing that gave it away was that it was not addressed to me.

Today I saw a clever scam website. They pretend to do a competition for amateur photographers, maximum of one photo per contestant. They promise a grand prize and official publication of all winning photos. From the upload page there is nothing strange, other than that there are no links to e.g. winning photos. I knew immediately it was a scam when I saw the root page of the site, where they ask you how much money you want them to send you if you fill in the form(!!!). Of course every contestant is declared a winner, and you can buy (!) a plaque with your name on it and a (bad quality) book containing all winning photos, that is every crappy photo that was uploaded to their site.

Beware of similar scams and when in doubt, just do a few minutes googling the website or organisation name before giving away your email address or even worse: sending them money.

First stop Copenhagen

Schiphol has changed one of the fruit bars in the shopping area to a Starbucks Coffee - reminded me of a cold afternoon in New York sipping a steaming hot Starbucks Chai Latte. In the plane from Schiphol to Copenhagen I sat next to two blond young women, twins, wearing exactly the same outfit and makeup. I asked them politely to take their photo and they accepted, so I got a few shots at the last-minute-taxfree shop in Copenhagen. During the shot I realised that these two women were far more different than you would think by first glance. You cannot tell everything by appearance alone.

Miruna and Bram

Last weekend Miruna and Bram got married in Amsterdam. It was a lovely day with sunshine and happy people, and umm nice petit fours for the reception. The church wedding will take place in Bucharest in August (sorry Miruna, I can't make it then). Cheers and best wishes!

Thanks to Abbie for the photos.

Hamburg photos

A selection of photos from Hamburg are now online on picasaweb. The photos from the marathon are also there, unlisted, just ask me for the link.

A bientot Nola!

I wish you a nice trip to La Reunion. We all expect to see nice underwater photos soon. Do not forget to enjoy the chocolate...
See you again in August!

Photo courtesy: Marc Pelissier on Webshots.com

Photos from NY

The gallery is now updated with my photos from New York.

Please comment on this post if you ever saw this sketch (in red on the right) in other cities than NY or Nijmegen... just curious...

New York photo gallery

Of course I will bring my camera for my trip to NY, but I doubt that I will be able to compete with this collection of excellent NY photos from BetterPhoto.com

First photo from Norway

Per managed to take a snapshot of me while I was... er... explaining something to Christian...

Thanks to PAJ for the photo

Tips for NY

I registered for the conference, I booked my ticket, found a place to stay and now I am getting really excited about my trip to New York March 28 to April 8. If you have ever been to New York I could use some firsthand tips on what to see and where (not) to go, what to try while I am there etc.
If you answer that it depends on my interests, I can tell you that my main interests for this trip are: arts of all kinds, photography, meeting people and salsa dancing. Any good ideas? :)

Illustration courtesy: olucas.wordpress.com

Praktica MTL 5B

I bought a new camera this weekend. Actually I was looking for at more wide-angle lens for my Nikon, so I can make some nice landscape photos in Norway next week. It is a bit difficult with the 85mm that I currently have, and as you might remember my old zoom lens from the F-50 is broken.
Browsing a second hand shop for nothing in particular I found a much better solution than buying a new (used) Nikon lens: I found a Praktica MTL 5B, with a 1.8 50mm lens, in a leather case, a shade for the lens and a remote release device, everything in for less than €40,-
I went to get a new battery and tested the camera several times yesterday, and everything is in working order. Cool!

Illustration courtesy: Steve Foster Praktica MTL5B

Fan photo

I received a new fan photo today (I somehow lost the old one): a 4 by 6 mm print of Malthes passport photo. Thank you, Dr. Jens.

Photo courtesy: Malthes homepage

Almost Purple Hearts

Did you know that the american army does not offer pension to soldiers wounded in car accidents or land mine explosions during the war but only to soldiers wounded in a fight (Purple Hearts)?

The Purple Hearts exhibition is touring US high schools and all over the World to emphasize the irrevocable damage the war inflicts on the life of young soldiers.

Photo courtesy: http://www.purpleheartsbook.com/