When I was researching this post (yes, we actually do a little legwork on some of these things sometimes, thank you very much), I came across savetheredwoods.org, which has on its front page a beautiful mosaic photograph of a redwood tree.   I’m going to show you a small version here, but I think you probably need to click the link to see a larger, more beautiful version.

I recognized (and not only because his name is at the bottom) this as the work of James Balog, who has received the title of “extreme photographer” in some circles.   This is probably due to the fact that to get that image of that redwood, Balog has to repel from the top of another giant redwood, taking pictures all the way.

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Digital Cameras have made it possible for us to take pictures of absolutely everything, in every place and even though I have my moments where I wonder how good of a thing that actually is, overall I love being able to document when and where I please.

This month WIRED has a contest that might just be perfect for me and for other digital photographers who like to explore their location with photography - they want you to submit your best city photo. It can be something clean and snazzy or something dirty and gritty, whatever you choose. You simply submit the photo via WIRED and then vote on other submissions.

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Cpl. Jason Bogar was killed in action on July 13 in Afghanistan. When he died though, his experience in Afghanistan and Iraq didn’t go with him thanks to photographs Bogar took while he served.

NPR has a piece up on Bogar, his three tours of duty and the photographs he took while on them. After he was killed his family looked back at all of the photos he had sent them:

portraits of Afghan children, many of them with eyes rimmed black with kohl that stare right into yours. In others, women peer suspiciously through jewel-colored headscarves. A baby clutches a fistful of his mother’s pleated burqa in his dimpled fist.

takepart to support the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and takepart again to read more on Bolgar and to listen to the NPR piece. Also go below the jump for more of Bolgar’s images.

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Dorothea Lange (May 25, 1895 – October 11, 1965), famed Depression-era photographer, has a new book out on her work entitled Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs and Reports from the Field, written by MIT professor Anne Whiston Spirn. The book looks at Lange’s photographs and includes her own descriptions of the photographs.   Lange was a part of a group called the Farm Security Administration and she, along with others, was sent out to document peoples living conditions in hopes of building public support for government programs. The photographs she returned with were nothing short of amazing - visual keys into the doors of what life was really like.

Is that isn’t media inspiring action, I don’t know what is..

Inspire yourself by listening to NPR and learning about the new book and takepart to read an excerpt from the book. It’s an inspiring story of a woman who as she put it “knew (know) what we could make of it if people only thought we could dare look at ourselves”

Also, more of her work after the jump..

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Stephen Wilkes‘ new show, The Construction of the Olympic Stadium and Other Chinese Public Works, at ClampArt Gallery depicts a nation in massive transition. Perhaps massive isn’t even the right adjective when one considers that China’s recent economic rise is the largest and fastest growth experienced by a single nation in recorded history. Wilkes’ photo exhibition presents public works on a whole new scale, one suited to fit the world’s most populous nation.

Views of construction for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (”The Data Center”of which is seen left) and the massive Three Gorges Dam (seen below the jump) - the largest dam on earth projected to supply 10% of China’s electricity needs - show a present day society with the appearance of something straight out of science fiction.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

“The First Time I Every Saw Your Face” May Be the First Time You Hear About Ewan MacColl

California’s Gay Marriage Ban Overturned & 5 Ways To Take Action

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Nicole Hughes:

“Bottlemania” Book Takes Bottled Water Industry To Task

Arnold Tells Automakers To “Stop Whining” About Tougher California Emissions Standards

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Andy Kondrat:

Department of Energy Forecasts Large Increase In Wind Power Usage

Edward Norton & Gavin Newsom Speak To Congress About Environmental Building Practices

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Jon Popham:

Spencer Tunick Strips Hundreds Naked

Lichtenstein Sculptures At Fairchild Garden In Miami

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Giulia Rozzi:

Does Being Ethical Pay?

Is the Anti-Female Genial Mutilation Campaign Offensive?

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Gina Telaroli:

A Global Look At Media On Pangea Day

Everything Cinema: Brody Takes On the Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard

Spencer Tunick stripped hundreds of willing participants naked over the weekend for a new photography installation shot in Austria. The American photographer, who has taken nude to a whole new level, snapped photos of 1,800 disrobed subjects in an Austrian soccer stadium that will play host to this year’s 2008 Euro Cup Finals. Tunick arranged the subjects throughout areas of the stands, having been prohibited from using the grass playing field due to official’s concerns about wear and tear. According to the photographer’s website:

“This very special ephemeral installation that we are inviting you to be part of is devised to capture and combine the spirit of sports, the grand sweeping waves of stadium architecture and the abstract relation of the human form to modern structures,”

It is indeed one of this writer’s great regrets to have not taken an invitation to appear in Tunick’s 1997 installation in Times Square, NYC seen above. At the time the photographer’s works were much more guerilla-style affairs, which involved the invitees showing up in robes at 5AM at the selected location, and quickly stripping and running out into the street for the shots like a (literal) flash mob. Since then both Tunick’s fame and the scale of his work has grown immensely, to the point where his 2007 Mexico City - Zocalo, MUCA/UNAM Campus installations (shown below) included upwards of 18,000 subjects.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Mother’s Day is this Sunday (don’t forget!), so be sure to take a look at some of the great posts we’ve put together in celebration of moms everywhere! Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Top 10 Mother’s Day E-Cards

Hillary Andrews Will Not Lick Bob Stokes’ Swizzle Stick

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Nicole Hughes:

Top 10 Green Gift Wrap Ideas For Mothers Day

Peak Oil Strip Tease

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Andy Kondrat:

Tornado Devestated Town Rebuilds As Green Model Community

Radiohead Attempts An Eco-Friendly World Tour

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Jon Popham:

Nepalese Art Photography: Rubin Museum of Art

America’s First Wind-Powered City

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Giulia Rozzi:

Women For Women International Celebrates Mothers Day

Even More on the Kentucky Derby

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Gina Telaroli:

Video Blog: The Week In Social Action

The War Now Tomorrow and Forever

New York City’s Rubin Museum of Art is currently showing two fascinating exhibits from the exotic & troubled Kingdom of Nepal. From the Land of the Gods: Art of the Kathmandu Valley presents highlights of the Rubin’s collection of Nepalese artifacts spanning over 1000 years and straddling the Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions which dominate the region.

Nepal in Black & White: Photographs of Kevin Bubriskie showcases a small portion of images from 35 years of visits to the remote Himalayan country. Bubriskie, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in the 1970’s , returned to the country in 1984 to further document a way of life he felt slipping away. In his words:

“The realization that not only my camera but also the modern world was making ever-increasing intrusions into even the most remote areas of Nepal compelled me to document a time and way of life slipping inexorably into the past.”

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Gorgeous urban landscapes of China’s largest city are captured in the photo exhibit “Megalopolis Shanghai”, now showing at New York City’s Von Lintel Gallery. The GÃttingen, Germany based father and son photographer team of Horst and Daniel Zielske show us the most populous city in the most populous country in the world in all its glory. The pair have been working since 2002 creating these vibrant, colorful depictions of Shanghai’s skyscrapers, rivers, highways & plazas.

According to the gallery,

“In this series of pictures, the two photographers - father and son - present Shanghai between fiction and reality as the `city of tomorrow`. The focal point of their photographic work is the architecture of the city`s streets, a critical investigation and analysis encompassing the subject of urban landscape. In a long-term project begun in November 2002, they have been documenting the metropolis Shanghai as an urban composition, a man-made architectural living space and enviroment of unprecedented and unimaginably gigantic dimensions. The resulting images are of immense visual beauty.”

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