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Reflections on Palestine

This is a photography blog, not an outlet for political commentary. However, I cannot stay silent on issues that affect me as a photographer, an American citizen, and a human being. For some reason that I still have not figured out, Palestine is a controversial topic. Reasonable debate about the issue has been replaced with overblown rhetoric, charges of anti-Semitism, and heated emotion on both sides. It is not my intent to add to the hot air on a blog that is supposed to be about photography. But I will spend one post telling you what I think and what I saw.

Two Brothers First things first: If you are in any Western country, particularly the United States, you are not getting the whole story about this conflict. I’ve been studying this conflict for over 16 years now. Every day I read news about the region from a wide variety of sources, from Israeli newspapers to Palestinian blogs. I’ve communicated with some of my Palestinian friends on a daily basis over the last three and half years. And, now, I’ve been there twice. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, you are not getting the whole story about this conflict.

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Jerusalem Photos Complete

I want to thank all of you for your patience as I deal with some family issues and edit thousands of photos from my trip. I took approximately 14,000 photos during my trip, with about 2,000 of them being in Jerusalem. I’ve finally made my way through all of the Jerusalem photos and have uploaded them to Flickr. I’ve included a few of my favorites (some of which you may have seen already) from Jerusalem below…

You can see the entire Jerusalem set here. Next up, I will be going through about 12,000 photos from the West Bank! Stay tuned!


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Kids


Dome of the Rock


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Death in Nablus

June 24th, 2008 | 4 Comments | Posted in Featured, My Photos, The Traveling Photographer

This morning we awoke to news that the Israeli army had entered the city last night and had killed two Palestinian men, one of whom was a student at An-Najah University. Apparently, the IDF was looking for a militant from Islamic Jihad and had entered a Nablus neighborhood where they believed he was located. According to eyewitnesses we talked to, the Israeli army blew open the door to a university dorm building and then broke into the dorm itself. One person, a student at An-Najah was shot fifteen times while still laying in bed. The second person, allegedly the man the IDF was looking for, appeared to have been injured by explosives set by the IDF and may have been shot afterward.

I was able to gain access to the dorm building to take photos as soon as the Palestinian police had given me the green light after they finished their search for any unexploded ordinance. The scene inside was surreal. A large hole had been blasted through the wall into the apartment next door. Furniture and personal belongings were strewn about almost as if a tornado had gone through. In the bedroom, you could see blood that had already soaked into the mattress and spilled on to the floor.

I don’t think I quite realized what I was shooting when I was shooting it. You just go into a zone and start shooting. It really didn’t hit me until later that I had photographed a scene where, only a couple hours earlier, two men had been killed.

After photographing the building, my fellow photographer, who I call Judge, took me to Rafidia Hospital where we heard there was going to be a martyr parade through the city. Despite the morbid nature of the event, I have to admit I was quite excited for the opportunity to photograph something I had only previously seen on the news. When we arrived at the hospital, however, we learned that the bodies had been taken to Jenin, which is where one of the young men was from.

Reuters is reporting that both young men were militants. One from Islamic Jihad and one from Hamas. From what I gather, one may have, in fact, been affiliated with Islamic Jihad but it is unlikely that the other was associated with any militant group. In fact, Israel, at first, denied killing two people. It was only later that this was changed and they claimed the second person was with Hamas. Doubtful.

Anyway, here are a few photos…


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Fridays make for slow days in Jerusalem

June 13th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Featured, My Photos, The Traveling Photographer

Between the Jewish Sabbath and the Muslim day of prayer, Jerusalem is much quieter on Fridays. Many of the shops are closed and, consequentially, the streets are nearly as crowded. I still walked around a bit through the Armenian and Jewish quarters but I didn’t stay out for too long. I’m currently working on a presentation for the workcamp. Each of the international volunteers was asked to give a short presentation on their country of origin. Since so much is already known about the US and since we couldn’t possibly cover the whole country in a short presentation, each of us from the US decided to give a short presentation on where we’re from within the US. So, for example, I am giving a short presentation on my hometown, Pittsburgh, PA. And that’s what I’m working on now…

I do have a few photos from today, though. They are below…

Tomorrow’s the big day! We leave in the morning for Nablus!


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From the roof of Petra Hostel

June 12th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Featured, My Photos, The Traveling Photographer

After I woke up from my brief afternoon nap, I met a few of the other volunteers on the roof of the Petra Hostel. The weather was nice and cool, even to the point of being a little chilly as the sun set. A big change from DC! Who would have thought that I’d have to go to the Middle East for cooler weather!

Anyway, while we were up there, I also took a few shots of the Dome of the Rock. You can see them below…


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Goodnight from Jerusalem!

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Photowalking Jerusalem - Day 2

June 12th, 2008 | 3 Comments | Posted in Featured, My Photos, The Traveling Photographer

Last night, right as I was about to go to bed, I met up with four of the other volunteers. We ended staying up pretty late talking and getting to know one another. That didn’t stop me from getting up bright and early this morning to continue touring around the Old City of Jerusalem.

Today, we walked the Via Dolorosa, visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western (Wailing) Wall, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock. That’s quite a bit of walking for only half a day…. and quite a few photos! In my first 24 hours here, I have already taken more photos than I took for the entire three weeks I was here last time. Needless to say, when I get home I will be editing photos for months!

Anyway, on to the photos! These are some of my favorites… There are a few more over at Flickr.


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First shots from Jerusalem!

June 11th, 2008 | 5 Comments | Posted in Featured, My Photos, The Traveling Photographer

Fortunately, the wifi signal is my room has turned out to be pretty stable. So, I have uploaded a few shots from my brief walk today. Nothing great yet, as today was really more about getting some food, getting acclimated, and refamiliarizing myself with the narrow maze that is the Old City.

I’ve been in touch with two of the other international volunteers and I plan on meeting up with them tomorrow. I believe there are a few other people also staying in the Petra Hostel as well and I’m sure we’ll find each other.

Anyway, on to the photos…


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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre


The Church of the Holy Sepulchre


The Church of the Holy Sepulchre


Old City - Jerusalem

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Shalom from Jerusalem!!

June 11th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in The Traveling Photographer

Just a quick note to let you all know that I have arrived in Jerusalem! The flight wasn’t too bad, though it’s tough to ride 10 hours in Coach after having traveled in business class for my last trip. Anyone want to donate to upgrade my flight back? Haha…

Anyway, I did a little walking around the Old City this afternoon. I’m staying in the Petra Hostel near Jaffa Gate. I will be meeting up with some of the other international volunteers here, as well.

There is some flaky Wifi in my room but I don’t know if it’ll be stable enough to upload photos. Regardless, there are plenty of Internet cafes around so I expect I’ll upload some photos tomorrow.

Tonight, I’m just gonna take it easy and stick close to the hostel. A lot of the shops are already starting to close for the day and I don’t really want to wander around the Old City at night by myself. Last time I did that, I stumbled on to a Hamas pep rally. But that’s another story.

Anyway, goodnight from Jerusalem! I hope to have some photos up tomorrow!

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On my way to Jerusalem

June 10th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Featured, The Traveling Photographer

Hello everyone! Today’s the day! I almost feel like it snuck up on me… I’ve been so preoccupied with my other travels that this one hasn’t even felt… “real”. Well it does now. I’m currently sitting in BWI awaiting my flight to New York where I’ll board another flight that will take me to Tel Aviv around 1pm Jerusalem time.

I’ll be staying in Old City of Jerusalem for the first few days… I am so psyched about taking photos there! I am probably the least religious person you can find but Jerusalem is just… amazing. While in Jerusalem, I will be meeting up with a few of the other international volunteers, as well.

Anyway, I will be updating Twitter while I am traveling and it is probably the best and quickest way to get updates on what I am doing. As for Internet access, if it’s anything like last time, I will have access to the Internet for about an hour a day, depending on if I feel like walking to the Internet cafe on any particular day. As a result, I am going to do my best to post something each and everyday so you can read (and see) what I’m up to. I can’t even estimate how many photos I’ll end up with after this trip, but I will be posting a couple a day to give everyone a taste.

In the meantime, the volunteer camp in which I am participating also has a blog if you’re interested in reading it. It can be found at the following URL:

http://hopefortomorrow2008.blogspot.com/

I think that’s about it… Talk to you all from Jerusalem!

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Where’s Shawn? Wanna blog?

April 11th, 2008 | 6 Comments | Posted in Featured, Site News, The Traveling Photographer

Just a quick update in case many of you were wondering why the slower frequency of posts this past week. First and foremost, work has actually kept me pretty busy. I’ve been trying to close out a few things before I go on vacation next week and, as a result, I really haven’t gone out to shoot since last week.

But despair not! I am extremely excited about some upcoming photo opportunities coming my way and I’m looking forward to sharing them all with you…

Where Will I Be? And Why?

Short answer… All over the place. Long answer below:

- Next Friday, my girlfriend and I are heading to Paris, France for a week. I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone with a camera how excited I am to photograph this city.

- Within a week of returning from Paris, I am tentatively scheduled to head off to India for two weeks on a work trip. Even though the trip is really for my day job, I will definitely be bringing my camera equipment to document as much as I can.

Hamas Graffiti- Finally, within a month of returning from India, I’ll be heading off to Israel/Palestine for a couple weeks to do some volunteer work with kids on a refugee camp. I will likely spend a day in Tel Aviv and 2 to 3 days in Jerusalem before heading to a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank for two weeks. I am considering putting up a small, low-overhead blog to document my day-to-day adventures in Palestine. I’ll certainly be letting everyone know once I decide.

I’m actually brainstorming some journalism-type mini projects that I could work on while I’m in India and the West Bank in the hopes of building a respectable portfolio.

If you have any ideas, suggestions or specific things you’d like to see documented while I’m in any of the countries above, you can contact me here or leave a message in the comments below.



The Bad News

Due to the timing of my India trip I had to withdraw my registration for Artomatic 2008. I simply wasn’t going to have enough time to put together a decent display. However, if you’re interested and you live in the DC Metro area, registration is still open.

Also, as I mentioned last week, I am also still working on a new project that will hopefully be launched soon. I’m wrestling with the timing of it only because I don’t want to be out of the country in its first two weeks of existence. More info coming soon…

The Good News!

Since I will have less time to post longer, in-depth articles for the site while I’m hopping from country to country, I’m looking for guest bloggers! Here are the rough conditions (and benefits):

1) Before and after the content of your article, there will be a small blurb about you with a link back to a site you specify. I can’t offer you an insane amount of traffic. My site gets anywhere between 200 and 500 visitors a day and I currently have about 240 subscribers. Not a whole lot but it might help a few people generate some new traffic or subscribers.

2) You can repost your article on your own site if you wish. I know how hard it can be to come up with a long, in-depth article and I want you to be able to use it as much as you can. After all, you wrote it! All I ask is that you link back to your content here… For example, a small blurb that says “This article can also be found…” with a link to your article on this site.



3) I can’t pay you. BUT I will let you embed your own ads in the content of your article. Just like the one above, for example. Perhaps one to two ads per article depending on the length of the post. We can work this out later if you’re interested.

4) Please proofread your content. I’m not going to have a whole lot of time to read, re-read, and re-read multiple drafts of the same story. I might make an editorial suggestion or two, or correct a mistake or two (we all make mistakes, right?), but if there are too many errors in spelling, punctuation or grammar, I may just turn down the article.

5) The normal rules of blogging apply… check your sources, reference your sources, credit images that aren’t yours, make sure your post is accurate, etc.

If you’re interested in submitting some content, please contact me below and make sure to include a link to one of your best articles so I can see your writing skills.

I know some of you have some fantastic blogs… I look forward to hearing from you!

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