Moving Walls in Amman

Yesterday I went to the Moving Walls Documentary Photography Exhibition. It was really refreshing to see an art show in Amman that was actually good. I enjoyed most of all the work there. I heard about it because my friend Tanya Habjouqa was exhibiting her Lebanon war work. Below are some images, check it:


This was one of many great photos Tanya had up

This was Andrew Lichtensteins work titled "Life Inside the Prison Boom"



Gary Fabiano's project called "Property". It documented poverty by photographing the poor and their objects. I personally thought it was well executed but over all it seemed like a college student thesis project.

This project sparked my interest the most. I've seen Edward Grazda's book and it was kool to see his images in person. I was interested in it because it was similar to the project that i have been shooting for 4 years now, the South Asians in New York. His stuff is a little more specific to Mosques but that of course is part of South Asian Life in NY. (Tanya told me she liked my work on this subject alot better :)


James Nubile's project "Freedom's Wake" was my favorite. Every image was powerful, and compositionally brilliant. I hadn’t seen this before and it really made the show for me.


It was good to see a black and white doc photo exhibition after a long time. It recharged my batteries. I gotta get back to new york and finish my project.

Website Redeisgn

I'm in the middle of redesigning my website. If anyone has comments or suggestion please let me know.

Black and White is the true color of Photography

I truly believe that Black and White is the way photographs should be taken. Yesterday I just set my camera to black and white and started shooting that way. I get a certain satisfaction from shooting black and white and I think its because we see the world in color and many times color can be very distracting. Once color is taken out of the scene we start to observe and enjoy what we see. I think this abstraction makes you really look at an image. If it’s a portrait of someone you will look into their eyes and not just at the color of their eyes. I sometimes think color is a wall that distracts your perception between you and a photograph. Once it is taken away, you see what is actually there. I know a lot of people will disagree with that just because by taking out color you are distorting the reality of what is actually there.

I don’t completely agree with my point either because I think there are certain photographs that are meant to be in color. Similarly I think there are certain photographers who best shoot in color (steve mccurry being one). I’m just sayin this is the way I prefer shooting.

Waiting to leave at the Farm House

This weekend we went to a friends farm house. We just chilled around the fireplace, this dude played his guitar and sang the most impressive fake Spanish I have ever heard. It was good fun. If you know a bunch a people in Amman it isn’t that bad of a place. I mean I still think it will get boring after a while but you can come up with things to entertain yourself, such as this.

What was interesting though was that ever person there was talking about leaving. Its as if Amman is just a place full of people waiting to leave. Brian is leaving to Beirut, Rupert is going back to the UK, I am going back to New York, and other people there were talking about moving to Canada or Jerusalem or ‘any place but here’. I feel like half these people will end up just staying. Not because its impossible to leave but because in another year or two they will be comfortable. With their job, their life. For example if I stayed at nox for another year it would be really difficult for me to leave. Because of many reasons. Amman will start to feel like home. I will build relationships here and will become close to people and that just another set of friends I’ll have to leaving. My job, I would have more responsibilities, and will have begun a career that would look very promising in the future. So I guess this is the right time to leave. I don’t wanna stay and become ‘comfortable’.

Turtle Resurrection

Last night before I went out I fed my turtles and realized that one of them was turned upside down just floating in the water. I banged on the tank for a lil then poked it around, no response. I concluded it died. I didn’t think it would make me sad but I was a lil disappointed in myself for taking such poor care of them. I left the house thinking I would give it a proper burial tomorrow morning.
This morning I wake up to prepare for the funeral and see that both turtles are alive and kicking around. YES! So I immediately cleaned out the tank and took the turtles out of the balcony and let them roam around a lil in the sunlight and to celebrated their living!

Links you Might enjoy

Shit
I guess it's and accomplishment: Worlds Youngest Dr.
The worlds biggest Joint not being rolled
First grader brings "baggie of cocaine" for show-and-tell
Accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Get a Free Playstation 3!
Meals on wheels is giving pet food to the elderly
Will Smith thinks teachers are useless

In Between
Apple Mouse Pro belt buckle

The Shit
Robert Fisk: Civil war in Lebanon
Joy to the World: Bush is coming to Jordan!
Circumcision of girls 'not Islamic'

Google Reader Rss

I just found out what RSS and XML is and discovered The Google feed reader (google.com/reader). Its a way to organize all the blogs you regularly check into one area. This was you dont have to surf from page to page. The reader tell you when a blog is updated. Pretty kool. To subscribe to think blog just enter (http://www.atifateeq.com/atom.xml) into the "Add Subscription" section
of the reader.

Here are some cool pix i came across

An ill painting made on the bottom of an elevator




Tetris bookshelf. Tetris is one of the only 2 games i enjoy playing. The other being Mario Kart

Mid Week Festivities

Today at work we went out instead of ordering in. I never thought it would but sitting infront of a computer all day drains your evergy. Taking breaks and getting away from the desk helps a shitload.

Since this week is the last week before the December issue needs to be put out, i have to stay at work late almost everyday. So after 14 hours of work i wanted to go out for what i thought would a quiet night. grab some food and just chill with a couple of people. This is what ended up happening

First some dude knocked over a drink right on to Ruperts shoes and they got completely fucked





Then the vane stickers came out and ended up all over the place.


2am We left the spot and I wanted to get somthing to eat. So after posing for a couple of pictures we headed to Hashems. A falafel place open 24hours downtown. I'm am almost certain we were way to loud and annoying for everyone else who was there.

posing on top of cars is what i do best


The aftermath

the end

Night out at Parana

I absolutely hate house music but after a long week at NOX and a few weeks of not doing a lot I decided that I was gonna go out even if every club here plays house/techno/trance. I was in the mood and there was a huge annual party at a club called Parana. So what the hell, I went. Considering the amount of money I paid to get in, I made sure I had fun.

The new One Love Cranberry

Reppin

Rupert Bday...

Rupert's (my flatmate) birthday was yesterday. We went out and did a lil dinner and drinks thing but the real party is on friday. Here is what ended up happening.


Thats me from Rupert view..
Birthday celebrations in teh office..
The birthday boy reppin...umm....something
The office
The Amman Crew up to no good..

The wizeekend!

There are little gun shops all over the area where i live. i'm going to photograph them more. its pretty interesting. Old ass dudes sittin in a store full of guns.
Yeh Rupert(my roomate) keep trying. I told him he wouldnt last a day in the hood.
Dinner with the crew...
Food shopping
Dolly Shahine on the new NOX cover
Good Movie
Vane
Sleep
Repeat!

Me Vs. TV

How much TV can a person watch? From experience I will go ahead and say: a 'fuckin' LOT!
I had a long weekend this time around cuz it was the kings fathers birthday. (All Hail the ex-king!) When the weekend started I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I know this would be a real uneventful boring weekend. Just cuz there is nothing to fuckin do here, especially when you dont have internet at home. I have the ability to entertain myself for hours if I had that luxury. And I don’t just because its real hard to get it if you aren’t a Jordanian citizen. It’s almost not worth the hassle.
Any way, all I did was sit on my ass, wake up late, cook, watch a lot of TV, and when I say a lot I mean A LOT. I feel like I’ve lost brain cells.
I watched the Departed. Yes I enjoyed it but its hard to watch a movie which everyone has told you is exceptionally good. My mind holds a real high standard for it and then I’m afraid of getting disappointed (which didn’t happen with this movie, but does happen occasionally). I also watched ‘lady in the water’. It was aight…I’m not gon say I didn’t like it, I did. I donno, it was a good take on the idea that originality is dead. Watched the whole 5th season of The Sopranos before I realized I didn’t have the last disk. Gay!

Good Song: Aisha by Khaled (its Arabic and French)

Back to the same 'ol same

So I'm back in Jordan doin the same damn thing. Its hard to like living in Jordan even a lil bit after coming back from New York. Which is why I told my boss that I’m not stayin with NOX after finishing the Feb issue (which is the end of January). He was mad chill about it, he understands that this is not my lifestyle and I gotta to go back.

Interesting Robert Fisk article about Saddam’s verdict.

First night out was pretty crazy. People were celebrating Halloween here so there were a bunch of parties that we hopped around to.




This guy is def VANE!
This is how bright it was when we got out...

Pic's to Jordan

The NY Hustle

It's gotta say "Detain ME, I'm a Terrorist" on my face because everywhere I go I get sent to a separate room at immigration and questioned. Even coming here when I got to Amman I was questioned. I have no idea why. It seems like they just have to call out a certain number of people and ask them random ass stupid question by law, cuz it makes no sense. They pull me aside, ask me questions and then let me go. Whatever, its almost like I’m used to it and expect it.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
So for what I been doing in NYC check out the following posts on the Vane blog:
Friday, October 27, 2006: The work never ends...
Sunday, October 22, 2006: De La Vega Callabo Tee

I was busy doing something every day. After being in New York for a couple of hours it seemed like I had never left. The first night there I was surrounded by my friends, we were right back in LES doing the damn thing. Not knowing where to go, but ending up somewhere 15 heads deep, doin it.
In terms of vane, it really feels good to be back personally contributing to direction, design, decisions, etc… The new set of tees look fire. Cant wait for that to drop. Anyway… I got pix to upload but I forgot the card reader at home. So I’ll do that first thing tomorrow. Until then if you haven’t copped the Vane Royalty hoodie, you can preorder it now (If your part of the family click here ).