Photographers Blog

An accordion for Ablogin

Vasily Fedosenko

Mar 15, 2012 23:24 GMT

By Vasily Fedosenko

To Vladimir Ablogin, it may still seem like a fairy tale, but as he touches his new squeezebox “garmoshka” accordion, which had covered thousands of miles to find him in his dilapidated wood hut, he knows what has happened is real.

I arrived in his run-of-the-mill Russian village in the Smolensk region at Belarus’s border on an early December morning to take pictures of local peasants voting in Russia’s parliamentary election. Looking like it was still from the Soviet era, the election day soon turned into a rare holiday in this backwater settlement, which was until recently prosaically named “Gryaz” (Mud).

Paying little heed to my presence and already warmed up with Russia’s national tipple, a bare-footed Ablogin sat on a bed in his higgledy-piggledy home, playing a traditional Russian “garmoshka” button accordion to amuse his audience of several women and men.

He played his scarred and worn-out folk instrument adroitly, running his fingers down its buttons and squeezing joyous tunes out of its tired bellows. Displaying no avid interest in the vote — now overshadowed by Ablogin’s improvised show — his few spectators quickly ticked their ballot papers and cast them in a portable ballot box standing nearby.

from UK News:

Best of Britain: Work and play

Brits work hard and they play hard. This week's Best of Britain includes photos of people doing both.  There's a photo of dozens of people seeking to break the world record for naked rollercoaster riders as well as suited up City workers heading to their offices with the Tower Bridge in the background.

There are photos of workers checking up on Big Ben and chimpanzees checking each other. Also included are grouse hunters, Fringe Festival entertainers and a laughing Prince Charles as he attends the Highland Games.

Streets of Wootton Bassett

Suzanne Plunkett

Jul 23, 2010 18:43 BST

A historic market town with a distinctive 17th century town hall, Wootton Bassett is worth a visit – but the crowds that gather here with grim regularity are rarely interested in the tourist sites. Instead, as British troops face a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, Wootton Bassett, west of London, has become synonymous with the repatriation of soldiers killed in action.

After they arrive at a nearby air base, the bodies are driven slowly through the town en route to a hospital. For the past two years, townsfolk have joined grieving relatives in paying spontaneous tribute to the passing dead.

Covering the repatriation cortege is an uncomfortable assignment. There is always awareness that some people think photographing and filming mourners at a moment of emotional vulnerability is a thoughtless intrusion. Even after scores of similar ceremonies, this feeling of awkwardness is evident, including at the latest one I attended on July 22. Friends and family of soldiers line one side of a narrow road in Wootton Bassett while photographers and television crews face them from the opposite side.

The timing of the procession of flag-draped hearses is always an uncertainty. Participants on both sides of the narrow street usually arrive early, often ending up standing face-to-face for hours with little or no interaction. Such was the case as we waited under brooding storm clouds, and blazing sunshine. The bereaved fidgeted in their heavy dark attire, as photographers perched on stepladders and shifted their heavy cameras in aching arms. I believe it is out of respect that very few pictures are taken before or after the procession. However, in the few minutes as the coffins pass and flowers are laid, photographers snap away, capturing raw and painful emotions.

A break in choreography on the campaign trail

Suzanne Plunkett

May 4, 2010 16:51 BST

On tightly-choreographed campaign trails there aren’t many photo moments that haven’t been carefully planned beforehand by spin doctors, so when Gordon Brown made an impromptu visit to a hair salon in Oldham, there was a ripple of excitement.

Such unscripted moments create great opportunities for photographers because they offer a glimpse of reality and inject a human element into often monotonous days of speeches, handshakes and platitudes.

Brown had been pressed into visiting the Academy hair salon by owner Sue Fink, a brassy woman who wouldn’t take no for an answer when she collared Brown at a community centre. Brown, appearing embarrassed, mumbled his consent.

So Brown’s entourage traipsed over the road to the salon, where his minders – clearly wary of straying from pre-arranged programme – tried to stop the press entering. Fink was having none of it, throwing open the salon door and inviting them all in.

The spin doctors needn’t have worried; it was a rare moment in which a chuckling Brown, warmed by Fink’s good humour, offered a genuine flash of the human being that he often struggles to project.

A town of grief

The coffins of six British soldiers killed in Afghanistan are driven though the streets of Wootton Bassett in southwest England November 10, 2009. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Since the early 2000′s, the bodies of fallen servicemen and women from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places have been repatriated to RAF Lyneham. They pass through the town of Wootton Bassett on their way to the coroner in Oxford. This has led to family members, friends, locals and mourners from further afield assembling along the route of the funeral cortege. It is an emotionally charged event that garners wide media coverage every time.

A man cries as the hearses carrying the coffins of five British soldiers are driven through the streets of Wootton Bassett, southern England March 11, 2010. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

This was the second time that I had covered this story, the first being just a few weeks ago. Then again yesterday as five servicemen were repatriated. Standing on stepladders to facilitate a clear view over the hearses sounds conspicuous at such an event. And it is. There is no getting away from it. In order to document what is happening, we need to be able to see it.

Mourners react as coffins are driven though the streets of Wootton Bassett. REUTERS/Andrew Winning (L) and (C) Stephen Hird (R)

I noticed yesterday that photographers kept shutter bursts to a minimum. This isn’t some High Court snatch picture opportunity. This is a story that requires grief to be documented as sensitively and delicately as possible, as I am sure every photographer working in Wootton Bassett yesterday, as on every previous occasion, was touched in some way by the sadness caused from the loss of loved ones.

A mourner holds a white rose as hearses carrying the coffins of two British soldiers are driven through the streets of Wootton Bassett in southern England February 5, 2010. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Snowed under

So what do you do when the TV and radio news are all telling you not to travel, and then you receive a group SMS from your company saying stay at home?

Well it’s the worse snow storm to hit London in 18 years and all you want to do is get out there and shoot it.

I get to my car and as I am wiping the snow off it I look up at the window and see my kids looking at more snow than they have seen in their lives. I watch their little faces light up as it dawns on them that all this snow means only one thing — NO SCHOOL. Now let’s face it, that’s just about as good as it gets.

As I head into the office I start to call the guys. I know Darren Staples has a long journey to Cambridge and want to make sure he’s on his way. I call him at 6:30 a.m. and he’s already there, left his house before 4 a.m. to make sure he beat the weather. The same thing happens as I call the London team, they are dressed to impress in all-weather gear and in situ and already taking pictures.