A few days back The Big Picture ran a massive photo of something microscopic... Obama. Although Obama and microscopic make for an oxymoronic duo at the moment, University of Michigan researchers decided to use Obama's mug to represent nanotechnology. According the The Big Picture "For visualizing the scale, most measurements below are in microns - one micron is a millionth of a meter - human hair is approximately 100 microns thick. " Obama is in the ether.

The Big Picture also constructed a gallery of other microscopic visions...

After talking to Matt Sayles last night, we both agreed that Callie Shell should become Obama's personal photographer. Her intimate portraits of the next president are unparalleled. Check out her work on The Digital Journalist.

Last week (I know, the time delay is despicable) I attended a Humble Arts Foundation show curated by John Feinstein at New Century Artists. According to the artistic statement, the photographic show featured a peculiar and idiosyncratic body of work paralleling the peculiarities and idiosyncratic nature of contemporary life... The blog 'subjectify' extrapolated additional themes of the show which apparently included the reaction against "office entombment" and our gratification with "mundane interactions with nature". But is this demand for comprehension in an an exponentially unraveling world materializing in 'strangeness', disillusionment with physical realities, and a general dip into nihilism? I mean, come on, do we really have to go there?

It seems basic to me. A common theme that's discernible everywhere from stock imagery, advertising, art, to the ever-growing green movement, is 'back to basics'. I personally work in the 'entombed office environment' that subjectify analogizes to Eric Percher's office portrayals-- and it's really not as suffocating as it's so often proclaimed to be. What I find smothering is not the homogeneous physical environment that Percher visually captures, but what all of us, ESPECIALLY photo bloggers, deal with everyday-- multitasking our facebook with our email with our blog rolls with our iphone with our ipod with our newsalerts. This influx in technology translated as information is where the concept of liberation becomes entombment-- we inundate ourselves and frenetically suffocate.

I see 'Things are strange' as less about a look at the paranormal, but as more about a revisiting of antiquated normalcy. Most information is attainable in our contemporary world, so incomprehension through a disconnection is an attractive prospect. We have a need to revisit undiluted curiosity apart from our current satiation thanks to wikipedia... Maybe we want to be confused.

When I think about these things, my attention turns to photographer Lee Materazzi. Materazi creates abnormal situations where her subjects find their heads dislocated in unnatural positions. The appeal of imagery comes from the aesthetics of the content, but also from the fact that Lee doesn't use any Photoshop manipulation. Technical trickery is laid aside for unadulterated content. Back to basics, where the image is just plain strange and where the mystery isn't spoiled by a modern toolbox.

Last night I attended the panel discussion "Louped In: The Photography Editors" held at FIT. On the panel: Lisa Berman from Entertainment Weekly, David Carthas from Blender, Nancy Jo Iacoi from Orchard Represents, Michele McNally from The New York Times, Michael Norseng from Esquire, Zana Woods from WIRED. The smorgasbord of talented editors was fairly un-diversified, due to the fact that all but one of the editors mostly work in a particular genre of imagery-- editorial portraiture. It was interesting to hear anecdotes about Britney Spears in Esquire, or publicists leading their clients astray, but the salient question wasn't overtly asked. Are all of the publications that you are representing going to soon disappear?

When a question was ambiguously proposed concerning budget cuts, the answers were muted... Considering that CondeNast and Time Inc. just underwent some severe 'alterations', the question seemed like a pertinent topic. It was eclipsed. Michelle McNally from the New York Times was the only panelist to directly address the question, in what I thought was an enlightening answer. She mentioned that there are more opportunities for journalists now more than ever before because of digital outlets, that photographers are becoming videographers, multidimensional producers and artists. Embrace the tools. After such dismal predictions-- the end of newspapers and journalism as we knew it-- Michelle firmly claimed no.

With plans to consolidate titles-- Men's Vogue into Vogue, the newly launched Portfolio, practically gone-- it seems like the blockbuster news-stand is diminishing... Hopefully, the long-tail portals and the smaller mags wont overtake the giants, or absolutely disappear, but coexist with the venerated publications. It's a tricky time, and we're all learning how to extend play time into the future. Ill trust in Ms. McNally's point of view.

For the past five days or so, I have been wondering around with a Virigin Mary bag filled with camera, video, and audio gear in Oaxaca, Mexico. After trying oysters for the first time, I was invited to attend photographer David Alan Harvey's Dia de los Muertos workshop two weeks prior to the start of this adventure. I emphatically agreed, and found myself last Saturday morning stranded in Mexico city waiting for my brief flight (which offered free Modelo!) to Oaxaca.

The intensive workshops consist of long periods of shooting combined with in-depth morning critique sessions led by David and influenced by the rest of the class. The constant cycle of feedback and work is a pressure-cooker, but has produced obvious results in the students-- David has stressed the concept of personal vision and a stylistic approach over techincal refinement, and has influenced his students to push behind stereotypical images. Some of the portfolios developing are beyond impressive.

Oaxaca is a phenomenal city to shoot in-- the light is consistently vibrant, and the landscapes are multigenerational and rich in terms of texture and layors. From the beef, bags, queso and marigolds of the market, to the solitude of the northern wall of the cathedral in the main zocalo, images are so obviously extractable.

Here are a few images from the experiences in the city at large, and the community this workshop has created...

I attended a fantastic presentation of images from Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey's workshop "At Home with David Alan Harvey". Harvey held classes in his Brooklyn based studio and invited guest speakers such as David Griffin, Director of Photography at National Geographic, and Mary Anne Golon, past editor of Time Magazine, to present during the last workshop. The images were diverse, but the body of work was solid, considering the one-week time frame students were permitted. One of my favorites was a dreamscape series shot by photographer Kyunghee Lee, who traveled all the way from Korea to attend the workshop.

Jennifer MacFarlane's Images from Cambodia

Jennifer MacFarlane, of pixcetera blog fame for her images of Manu Chao, had an opening last week at (Eco)Compassion featuring images shot for Glamour Magazine of the sex slave industry in Cambodia. MacFarlane traveled with reporter Marianne Pearl to shoot the story. The images are striking portraits of precocious children, forced into the industry at age seven. I previously interviewed Jenn about he project, and that piece can be found here.

Earth From Above, an exhibit by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand featuring environmental images 4 ft by 6 ft large, is coming to New York next Spring. I wanted to generate buzz about the images, considering the literal magnitude of the prints, as well as the stunning nature of the content they contain. I especially enjoy the Iraqi tank graveyard, which looks like a confused beetle colony....

The Boston Globe's Big Picture blog has the story.

I haven't blogged in quite a while, but I'm proud to have a comeback tour featuring the site Women in Photography..

I went to Aperture on Monday for the kickoff of a new series of educational lectures curated by Laurel Ptak of I Heart Photograph. This particular event featured the creators Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips of the female-centric online gallery, Women in Photography, and two of the featured artists on the site, Elinor Carucci and Robin Schwartz.

After an introduction explaining the reasons behind WIP's conception, Elinor Carruci discussed her personal work while flipping through never seen images. If you're familiar with Elinor's style, the work is painstakingly intimate, revealing beautiful yet embarrassingly tender moments.. The portfolio transitioned into images of her children enraged and delicate; the vulnerability once unraveled in herself tenfold within her children.

Robin also touched on the odd vulnerability of her child, Amelia. Her series, Amelia's World, is a surreal portfolio of her crystalline-eyed child interacting with animals. The scenes aren't hesitant dog pettings in the park, but are of feeding deer sandwiches, or sitting alongside a wild elk in the woods. One of the first things often seen in a portrait is the portrait taker... but within the images of Amelia, the quiet and intricate relationship between mother and daughter struck me even more so than Amelia's complete acceptance of her animal kingdom.

Many women photograph familiar relationships, and are subtly criticized by the greater world as being 'complacent' in their role as a woman photographer. Amy Elkins presented a myriad of statistics showing the small percentage of female photographers within museums and galleries, regardless of the percentage of females within the field. There are undercurrents defining niche subjects as traditionally female verse male, and these unfair delineations have perpetuated a severe sexism within photography. Women in Photography is devoted to undercutting these designations by showing that quality work by women, is quality work regardless.

The hullabaloo of fashion week has dissipated leaving a lovely collection of delights.

Stylelist.com hired V. Nina Westervelt to shoot backstage and front row during the Spring 2009 presentations, and she came back with quite an impressive portfolio of portraits. Nina's shots, caught on a medium format camera using a spotlight flash, leave the celebrities unpolished. It's as you found snapshots of your best friend's high-school party...with some familiar faces standing next to the keg... There is a disassociation from the perceived reality of Fashion Week, and a candidness usually not attributed to the likes of Kanye West, Nicole Richie, or pretty models...

Click here to see the works.

In case you haven't checked out some of the content that Pixcetera has been running during the past DNC and RNC, I would advise perusal.

The Obama pano is alongside Hillary in the DNC Panos gallery, looking oh so fabulously Hellenistic.

Some audio updates, thanks to Dave Rogowski, from the last days of the DNC, including a powerful statement from actor Richard Dreyfuss, and a song from Melissa Etheridge.

Audio and image outtakes from outside the RNC. Featuring ice sculptures, cardboard birds, spiky hair, and more.

A disco-hall revival with a colonial dress-up contest.. no just kidding, it's Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic shot by Jennifer Midberry. Gotta love the shot with Paul supporter throwing up his rock-and-roll index finger like the cover of a Pearl Jam album....