Accusations of Genocide Along the West Side Highway

Today I stopped to take some cell phone photos of protestors, protesting against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Every time I ride downtown, I pass them. A small group of about 30 protestors, are always stationed by 40th street and the West Side Highway. Next to them a group of cops to maintain law and order. Today the group had grown to a few hundred. Maybe the crowd has grown because today was  perfect spring day, or perpahaps it is because the  time for Olympics is growing closer. The protestors were loud and made their presence heard with the aid of megaphones. "50 years of genocide,"  "China lies, people die," They shouted. 

Earlier this week, May 2nd was Holocaust Remembrance Day. Seems lately reminders of genocide are all around me. I just about finished Samantha Powers book "Problem from Hell", and find myself dumbfounded that no matter how many times acts of genocide are brought to light the first response, ( after denial) of the world community, is to argue as to weather or not it is in fact genocide or a mass atrocity. Whatever the case,  I took pause for a moment just as the protestors wanted me to, to think about the people in Tibet and those who fled Tibet, on this beautiful Sunday in NYC. 

Besides images shot from today, are also some shot on Armenia's Remembrance day , April 24th from Yerevan.

First blog entry from Edgecombe Ave.

 

From my friend's apartment on Edgecombe Ave in Harlem, I begin a blog. A place where I will write my travel/shooting adventrues and daily revelations  (when I have ones worth sharing).  

I am getting ready for a trip to Armenia where I will shoot at the Tsiternakaberd Memorial (genoicde memorial) on April 24th, Armenia's Rememberance Day. Jason Sohigian recently interviewed me about my upcomming trip for the Armenina Weekly in Boston and Hetq. online magazine from Yeravan.While in Armenia I plan to shot for some humanitarian organizations as well, including the one Jason works for, the Armenian Tree Project,  an organization that is reforesting parts of Armenia.

 Yesterday I rode my bike down and then cross town on 34th St. to meet the director of the Fund for Armenian Relief to talk about what I could shoot for them. At a traffic light I to took a cell phone shot of the Empire State Building. The city all new to me from the vantage point of my bike seat, my preferred method of transportion since returning to NYC in September last year. Later I ended up at the Strand bookstore where I found "The Last Survivor" on the history book table. It is the first book cover my photography graces. The book is about a man claiming to be a suvivor of Dachau, who hangs out there giving unofficial tours, who most likely is not a survivor at all, just a crazy person obsessed with history. My assignment was to capture the essence of the town of Dachau. At the same time I shot the museum and grounds of the former concentration camp for my project on Dark Tourism sites around the world.  Of all the books on all the many tables at the Strand, to find one of my images right before me was kind of special. Hence, I took another cell phone shot, with my sneakers included in the foreground.