Neil Chowdhury

Government Takes On Journalism’s Next Chapter

This article in the New York Times today disturbed me on a number of levels. The old business model of journalism is dying due to the instant availability of free content on the internet, but what is the solution? Here government subsidy is being pitched as a possible alternative. Of course this raises huge questions. If the US Government pays for journalism, how do we avoid the obvious conflict of interest? If the government doesn’t want a story to get out, they can simply withhold funding from any news organization that dares to report it.

I would argue, however that this is already happening on a more subtle level. Big journalistic organizations have already consolidated ownership to a few huge corporations to which the government is beholden through campaign contributions and other influence. We haven’t had a truly free press in a long time. The current zombie press has no independence from it’s corporate masters. Do we really know what is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, or the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico? What about the dozens of countries where the US is involved in covert military activities that we never even hear about?

Unfortunately, the great hope of optimists, the progressive movement, etc., so called “citizen journalism”, falls prey to ideological bias even more easily, as this phenomenon has no oversight and is responsible to nobody. In our so called “Age of Information”, the overwhelming stream of information to which we have become addicted contains an undifferentiated muddle of fact, fiction, and propaganda. The line between fact, opinion, and outright falsehood has become irrevocably blurred, or simply erased. This situation places on the individual the responsibility to distinguish the real from the spurious, but who has the time, knowledge, and perspective to sort through this overwhelming mess? At the end, we will all choose to believe whatever best suits our world view. Things are getting mighty blurry here at the back of Plato’s cave. Rather than a common agreement on the nature of history, current events and reality, it seems our society is splintering into loosely defined groups of individuals, all having their own take on what is really going on. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all, but isn’t a more or less common view of reality the foundation of culture, society, and nation-state? In the modern age, a free press in which we could all more or less believe has been instrumental in creating that common experience that forms our views & binds us as a people. Now the future of this institution is in grave doubt, the scary part is that nobody knows what will replace it.

Well, this is supposed to be a blog about photography, so I will end with the idea that the new context sensitive editing abilities of Photoshop CS 5 seem to me a perfect metaphor for the era in which we are now living. I can’t wait to get my hands on that so I can effortlessly make the world look the way I wish it was-just like the new journalism!

Not often am I blown away by a young photographer. This guy rules: http://jamesdodd.net/projects/. Check out his Olympic Dreams project.

So I got this email a couple weeks ago from Kristen Rudisill, a professor of cultural studies at Bowling Green State University. She asked me for a couple of prints to include in a symposium and art exhibition that she and Shaurya Kuma were curating called the Asian Popular Culture Symposium. This is to run from April 14-16 in conjunction with the Contemporary Indian Art Exhibition. I’m excited that my prints McIndia, and Another Man’s Treasure will be included in the show. I wish I could get to Ohio for the symposium, as it looks like it will be interesting. The schedule is below, just in case anyone reading this is a little closer to the heartland!

Asian Popular Culture Symposium

April 14-16, 2010

Bowen-Thompson Student Union
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio
FREE to all!

Wednesday, April 14
5:00-9:00 PM: Symposium Kickoff Event!
CLAZEL Theater, Downtown BG

Thursday, April 15
Room 207, BTSU
Popular Culture Colloquium Series, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
“Time Continuity in Japanese Animation: A Media Theory of Anime”
Speaker: Satomi Saito (German, Russian, and East Asian Languages, BGSU)

Room 316, BTSU
Opening Remarks, 1:00 – 1:15 PM
Kristen Rudisill and Jeremy Wallach (Symposium Co-Organizers)

Session One, 1:15 – 3:15 PM
“The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and New Directions in Asian Popular Culture Studies.”
Speaker: Ian Condry (Japanese Cultural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Discussants: Larissa Heinrich (Comparative Literature, University of California San Diego), Jeffrey Brown (POPC)

Session Two, 3:30 – 5:30 PM
“Remixes in Urban North India: Toward a Postlinear Model of Musical Circulation and Hearing”
Speaker: Paul D. Greene (Ethnomusicology and Integrative Arts, Pennsylvania State University)
Discussants: Nilanjana Bhattacharyja (Music, Colorado College), Christopher Williams (Center for POPC Studies Fellow)

Friday, April 16
Room 314, BTSU

Session Three, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
“Peering Into Deep Waters: Exploring Both the Breadth and the Depth of a South Asian Folk Epic”
Speaker: Brenda Beck (Sophia Hilton Foundation, Ontario, Canada)
Discussants: Deeksha Nagar (Mathers Museum of World Cultures), Esther Clinton (POPC)

Session Four, 1:30 – 3:30 PM
“Theatrical Eugenics in Japan: Anthropometry and the Takarazuka Revue.”
Speaker: Jennifer Robertson (Anthropology, University of Michigan)
Discussants: Jennifer Prough (Humanities and East Asian Studies, Valparaiso University), Jack Santino (POPC)

Session Five: Panel Discussion, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
“The Future of Asian Popular Culture Studies”
Featured Participants: Peter Kvetko (Salem State College), Invited Symposium Speakers, Puja Batra-Wells and Nicholas Ware (POPC Department Graduate Students), Jeremy Wallach (moderator) and members of the BGSU Faculty

Performance/Film Screening, 7:30 – 11:00 PM, BTSU Theater
Featuring BGSU’s own G.A.M.E.; Others TBA.

EXHIBIT: Contemporary Indian Art
Shaurya Kumar and Kristen Rudisill, Curators
Thursday and Friday, Third Floor, BTSU

Sponsored by the Department of Popular Culture, Center for Popular Culture Studies, Department of Ethnic Studies, Department of Sociology, School of Art, Department of German, Russian and East Asian Languages, Department of English, Women’s Studies Program, Department of Musicology/Theory/Composition, Asian Studies Program, Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, Kala Fine Art, ECAP, and CLAZEL Entertainment.

Hope to see you at the opening!

EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ART OF THE DIASPORA

I’m excited that my work is going to be shown in the Erasing Borders 2010 exhibition.

This show will open at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey on April 2. The opening reception is the following Friday, April 9, 6-8pm.

The Exhibition will then travel to the Twelve Gates Gallery

305 Cherry St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel:215 253 8578
Fax:215 238 9122
Email: info@twelvegatesgallery.com
Web: www.twelvegatesgallery.com

and then:

August 3 – 24

The Guild Art Gallery
45 west. 21st Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10010
Tel: 212-229-2110
Email: info@theguildny.com
Web: www.theguildny.com

Here are some links with more information:

Invitation
Schedule of Exhibitions
Participating Artists
Curator’s Statement

And here’s the work I will be showing:

Title: Street Barber, Mumbai
Medium: Digital Photograph, Digital Pigment Print
Dimension: 18×24″
Date: 2008

Title: Street Barber Boy’s Haircut in Fort Area, Mumbai
Medium: Digital Photograph, Digital Pigment Print
Dimension: 18×24″
Date: 2008

Title: Street Barber Shaving Customer in Fort Area, Mumbai
Medium: Digital Photograph, Digital Pigment Print
Dimension: 18×24″
Date: 2008

Title: Street Barber Shaving Customer in Fort Area, Mumbai
Medium: Digital Photograph, Digital Pigment Print
Dimension: 18×24″
Date: 2008

Be confident but not cocky, be able to articulate clearly what you are doing and why you are doing it, but leave room for interpretation, be engaging and brilliant, but not egocentric, accept criticism when offered, but have confidence in your work and vision, be ready to speak but also know when to listen, answer questions intelligently and ask intelligent questions, don’t be a know nothing or a know it all, be able to relate your work to other artists and influences, but have your own voice.

That’s me at the right, awaiting Dawoud Bey’s keynote address.

I’m back from the national SPE conference in Philly, tired but inspired. The conference (my third) was a great chance to reconnect with old friends and to make some new ones. I was really amazed how many people I knew there. It was like a 4 day house party with 1200 guests, but instead of dumb drinking games, we had engaging and informative speakers, discussion panels, and endless opportunities for networking. This might have been a drag, except for the fact that everyone there was some sort of creative photographer, artist, curator, educator, publisher, or some combination of the above. The hotel was abuzz with incredible creative energy the whole time, as new ideas were hatched and old ones transformed. Along with some incredible fellowship, I was happy to also receive a lot of positive feedback on my new photo work, a body of large format portraits that I have been a little bit unsure of. Seeing the massive portfolio sharing event on Saturday night made me realize that this truly is a time of incredible diversity in the photographic field. A vast range of different people are doing a vast range of different work, and while there are indeed discernible trends, the limited range of styles shown at contemporary galleries barely scratches the surface of what many talented artist are producing. To this I can only add, curators, please get your acts together & expand your horizons! Hopefully some of them took note of what was going on in that enormous room, bursting with new creative voices, in order to refresh their visions of what photography can be. As far as my own work goes, alas, I did not connect with that mythical art dealer/curator/collector ready to invest their infinite inherited wealth on supporting my creative efforts, but I got what I needed, which was the support, encouragement, and intelligent critical analysis from mentors and peers that will reinvigorate my energy and determination to go home and work even harder to do what it takes to push my art to the next level. While some of this work, such as trolling the internet looking for exhibit submission opportunities, designing and disseminating promotional material, writing letters, or spending untold hours in front of the monitor with Wacom pen in hand plotting Photoshop paths, might seem tedious and wearying, all the fantastic creative work I saw, as well as the success of my fellow artists I heard about gave me enough motivation to push through the sleep deprived nights to ready my work for the next grant submission, gallery call for entry, etc. One of these days it will be me opening that letter from the Guggenheim foundation! Seeing the tears of joy on the face of one very um, experienced photographer who recently enjoyed that honor, and the heartfelt admiration and genuine delight of his old friends at the conference was a great reminder that there is no excuse not to keep trying!