A photographic moment in the life of the planet

Sunday, all over the world, photographers took their cameras out of their cases to simultaneously record a moment in history.

The New York Times, Lens Blog sent out an appeal last week to amateur and professional photographers, anyone with a camera, asking them to take a picture on May 2, 2010 as close to 15:00 UTC/GMT(Greenwich Mean Time) as they could get.  You could use what ever equipment was available including cell phones.

The idea was to capture an international mosaic of photographs that would stitch together that particular moment happening all over the world.  i had stumbled upon the challenge the day before and decided to participate by photographing Cane Bay beach. Time here was 11:00am.

Its not easy to take a picture at exactly 15:00 so the initiators of the exercise gave us a minute or two wiggle room on either side.  When i first reflected on the exercise i thought it sounded easy, just watch the time and shoot as close to 11:00am as i could.  The thought of thousands of people all doing the same thing all over the world was inspiring.  Who were they i thought and what would they photograph?  i didn't even know what i was going to photograph i just had to see what was happening when i arrived at the beach.

Little did i know, that not only would i be shooting pictures but i would also be interacting with people i had never met and wouldn't have had it not been for this exercise.  When i arrived at the beach i experimented by taking pictures of the view, the umbrella shades, signs, people etc. 

When Calvin and Hugh walked up to me and asked me to buy some of their tamarinds i knew i had my subject.  i watched them try to sell some to a group of men on the beach, but walk away unsuccessful. As the moment was getting closer i began talking to the men who turned out to be from Spain.  Calvin and Hugh had trudged on down the beach and i thought i had lost them.   

i explained to the men in my rudimentary Spanish what i was doing and they agreed to let me take their picture.  They got so enthusiastic that by the time Calvin and Hugh had come back up the beach they called them over to have a group pose and buy some tamarinds;  lucky for them the return visit turned out more lucrative.  i snapped away.

i have to say i completely enjoyed interacting with the men and boys and thought to myself how much joy and fun it had created for all of us.

i took my photos, went home and downloaded them only to realize my watch and clock on the camera weren't in sync.  i was devastated thinking i had blown the moment.  Luckily the time stamp on the photo i used was almost right on the money and i uploaded it to the Times site.  i have been anxiously waiting for the results ever since.

As of Sunday evening more than 10,000 photos had arrived at the blog site and been uploaded. The deadline for final uploading is this Friday so there are many more to come.  i have visited the site every day looking for more information. Monday i found this quote from the editors in relation to the global portrait they were trying to assemble.

 "So far, that portrait seems to be one of surprising tranquility."

Well, when i read that line i felt even more energized and committed to furthering the "peaceful" mantra instead of the "violent" mantra that dominates our communications.  It was Sunday when this little exercise took place and Sunday is a day of rest, but keep in mind "Tranquility" doesn't sell; it doesn't sell newspapers, tv ads, or radio spots, melee and chaos do and so they get top billing through out the week.  What is really happening out there is not the constant violence and mayhem we get bombarded with daily.  Yes, it happens, but not all over the world and not all the time.  What is happening is a lot more peaceful and the photo montage will elucidate this.

Humans are relatively peaceful and challenging your community's delusions about constant violence is your responsibility.  Just look around, how much violence is happening to you in your life as you read this.  Not much I'll bet.

Please understand that a sign of a closed world view is its refusal to risk falsification.The violence meme has got to be challenged.

The editors went on to say: "Another impulse discernible among the early submissions was domesticity. Rather than looking for broadly symbolic visual emblems, readers concentrated on showing their worlds(and maybe a few more cats, dogs, tulips and coffee cups than we hoped to see, if truth be told)."

We were only allowed to send in one photograph per person and  the complete mosaic won't be up until all the pictures are downloaded.  The editors intend to display all photos received as long as they are in compliance with the rules. According to the website an interactive gallery should be available soon.

You can go to the New York Times website, www.nytimes.com and search for "A Moment in Time" if you are interested in seeing photos from all over the world after they put them up.
Right now you can go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/1423809@N23/pool/ to see about 200 of
the thousands that were sent in.  These are a private individuals attempt to get some of them out there sooner as we are all anxious to see something.  When the project is complete they will have a map that you can click on for the view at that moment in time. i look forward to seeing the finished product and am thrilled that the photos turned out to be so "TRANQUIL"