Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol'

Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' is a fantastic read. Apart from the obvious fact that his books are hugely engaging and entertaining

- this one is no different - there is another theme of this book that interests me.

He deals upon the subject of Noetic Science and this has just captured my attention so completely. There are a lot of theories that

I believe to be true and have always done so - more in faith than in factual evidence. This book goes a long way to proving some of

those faiths to be truths. He passes over the idea of Entanglement theory. That we are all connected together in this whole unit

and that our combined presence has the ability to change realities. That the one most powerful gift we have as a human race is

that which we already hold. Our minds can create matter, our thoughts can change our worlds if only we were awake to be able to do

it. We have a wealth of knowledge hidden in plain sight and access to wisdom if we would only choose to see it. I have a lot of

belief in ideas like this and this element of the book has only helped to propel my interest and make this an even more exceptional

read!

Link to buy the book on Amazon here.

50 people, 1 question - Youtube

This is just beautiful. The way it is edited and the energy and thought behind it. It is purely beautiful. I would urge everyone to watch this.

Link here: 50 people, 1 question

Flak Photo

Flak Photo sends out a photo to their mailing list everyday with a photo that they have selected for the day. I find it's like a little bit of inspiration to your email inbox everyday...

http://flakphoto.com/

Sally Mann - What Remains

Sally Mann's 'What Remains' is a very inspirational DVD about her life and her work. She speaks about her work gone by, her children and new work. It is a very personal insight, with views of the relationship between her and her husband and the effect of his illness in their lives. It is an interesting watch for anyone, even with no interest in photography, but phenomenally fascinating if you do happen to have an interest. Her life is inspiration to me. The idea that you can have the life you want - live in the country with a massive house and have your family so close while still pursing and achieving a respectable career is massively inspiring. The place of my life that I find myself in, I feel that the combination of these things is always a sacrifice that has to be considered so I am very welcoming to the idea that they can be combined harmoniously.

I would recommend watching it, it really opened new doors for me. It can be bought of Amazon.com (link here) but word to the wise, it is a Region 2 DVD so will be American and will need a multi-regional DVD player if your playing it in any other wonderful part of the world.

J. K Rowling Graduation Speech Harvard 2008

I have just come across this very moving speech by J.K Rowling at a Harvard graduation ceremony 2008. Her views on entering the world from the safe place of education and the impact that you can have on the world is inspiring and devout. Being a recent graduate myself, it reaffirms the need I have to succeed and questions what my version of success and merit is. I do believe that her speech comes from the heart and will impact for all that listen to it, whether they were there or not, intended for or not.

To listen to her speech click here.

Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape Photographs by Jonathan Torgovnik

Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape

Photographs by Jonathan Torgovnik

(Presented in conjunction with Heather McClintock:The Innocents: Casualties of the Civil War in Northern Uganda)

This is an Aperture Foundation exhibition that I came across. Having come across this series of work once before in a competition, I am very excited to see that it is now in an exhibition! I am sure it will be a fascinating experience and would be going myself if I had the chance!

All the following information is from Aperture and can be found at this address.

Opening reception: Friday, January 22, 2010, 5:00 pm–7:00 pm Exhibition on view: Saturday, January 23, 2010 –Saturday, March 13, 2010 FREE Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art 161 Calhoun Street Charleston, South Carolina (843) 953-5680 Related Programming: Artist Lecture with Jonathan Torgovnik Friday, January 22, 2010 4:00 pm–5:00 pm Panel Discussion The Politics of Presentation: Finding a venue for challenging documentary projects Saturday, January 23, 10:00 am–12:00 pm

Each panelist will give a brief overview concerning their organization's engagement with challenging work, and share a few stories about how the organization has been able to persevere in this rarefied area. Panelists: Jonathan Torgovnik, photographer; Heather McClintock, artist/photographer; Heather Dwyer, Blue Earth Alliance; Melissa Harris, editor-in-chief, Aperture magazine; Tom Rankin, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University; Mark Sloan, moderator and director and senior curator, Halsey Institute. This important exhibition and book Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape (Aperture, May 2009) brings together photographer Jonathan Torgovnik's powerful documentation of the accounts of thirty women who were subjected to massive sexual violence by members of the notorious Hutu militia groups during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Due to the stigma of rape and "having a child of the militia," the communities and few surviving relatives of these women have largely shunned them. The portraits and testimonies featured in Intended Consequences offer intensely personal descriptions of these survivors' experiences and the challenges they face today, as well as their conflicted feelings about raising a child who is a living reminder of horrors endured. The exhibition includes a multimedia installation produced by MediaStorm, which gives visitors the chance to hear heart-wrenching stories from the survivors themselves. This project is a collaboration with the Open Society Institute, Amnesty International, Foundation Rwanda, and MediaStorm. Intended Consequences is made possible, in part, by generous support from Henry Buhl; SanDisk; Artis—Contemporary Israeli Art Fund; and the Consulate General of Israel, Office of Cultural Affairs, in New York. Additional support is provided by Amnesty International and Kodak.

Michael Itkoff

Michael Itkoff is one of the founding editor's of Daylight Magazine. I came across his personal work which doesn't appear in the magazine. Instead preferring to keep the two seperate, I had a look at the work he makes for himself.

I particularly liked the series 'Between two lakes' and could relate to the idea of resonating with a place and returning to photograph it time and time again. The photos hold true of this idea and you can tell the photograph has connections to this place other than fleeting second photographs. I suspect that infact if I were to visit this place it would not hold for me the depth and connection that it has for Michael Itkoff.

Thw website holds some great photography and I would recommend anyone to give it a look.

Link to Michael Itkoff's website here.