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Swazi Lo-Fi
Swazi Lo-Fi
ubique


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Camera: Apple iPhone 4S
Date: Oct 9, 2014
Date Uploaded: Oct 29, 2014

Viewed: 323
Comments: 15
Favorites: 0

This is a cover shot for a photo essay titled SWAZI LO-FI

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AuthorThread
12/07/2014 09:53:44 AM
Brilliant on so many levels. I hate to admit that I did not know ( or forgot) about Swaziland. One more example of the limitless cruelties humans can inflict on others. Thankfully you have softened the story with the clever introduction of Paolo and his beautiful low tech photographs. In support of Herman's comment I too will see these images in my imagination much longer than any the safe handed McCurry might have taken. Thank you for sharing this wonderful essay.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/11/2014 01:54:46 PM
I am partial to anything with some wit in it. So I have read your essay a few times, and enjoyed it each time. As I wish be as proficient in it as you are, please write a "How-To"tutorial for the DPC site. Hehe.

The images though, are so powerful and cohesive, that they just take over my memory after completion of the essay.
Further proof thereof is the follow-up/extended reading reported in the comments.

The "Dymo" heading letter type is inspired.

Message edited by author 2014-11-11 13:57:30.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/09/2014 09:15:47 PM
What a marvelous essay of fascinating photos and disturbing information, all leavened by your wit. Thank you. I hope that Swaziland can soon emerge from the double darkness of tyranny and poverty.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/06/2014 09:48:14 PM
Bouno means good in Italian, that's what I think about this!

One day the injustices will be gone, not long now, just wait.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/06/2014 02:12:56 AM
Thanks for those two links in your very generous comment, John. Should any other readers come this way, I commend the two linked articles in the daisydavid comment. Swaziland and its people are a beautiful, sad tragedy.
11/06/2014 12:14:28 AM
"Nkulunkulu Mnikati wetibusiso temaSwati" Certainly an enlightening backstory. Such sadness and despair, thank you for bringing it to our attention. Your essay works brilliantly for me on many levels, the artistry of the images, your wit and self parody, the darkness of mood, the presentation of political information and social comment that invites investigation, the paradox of a society so at odds with itself and the world. After further outside reading,the injustices make me so angry, I feel impelled to do something positive, while your presentation brings momentary but serious comic relief. An essay of true proportion that presents a serious statement gloved in craft. I'm sure Khathazile and Erykah Badu would have something to say as well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/02/2014 03:21:22 PM
Originally posted by jin_tonic:

At first glance I see humor in your essay, then I see the sigh between the lines…


That's what I meant to say.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/02/2014 03:19:38 PM
Your introduction is hilarious and your photo essay is sobering, but funny, too, in a dark way. But I'm already selling it short. The photos that are not screenshots have their own, very human, spirit.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/02/2014 02:48:54 AM
Well Paul, do not expect to be invited to the next wife-taking feast..

I've lived next to Swaziland my whole life, and it really is sad how it is being run as a chieftainship. All facts about the country is unfortunately true.

Thoughtful writing, perfect layout. Add to that some soulful images and this is such a gem. Thank you.

  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/02/2014 01:37:54 AM
Very well done. Loved the snippits of news to accompany the images. Made me smile too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/01/2014 01:43:52 PM
Not even humor can take politics out of Paolo Buono any longer!
He accepted the job, took his camera and began alertly the voyage but little by little when he started to use his handkerchief too often and then the back of his sleeve to wipe his face he realized that it was not dust but tears that fogged his eyes and his hands trembled.

He might have remembered vaguely of a photographer named Peter Beard, but that guy never published in WTF magazine.

Your photos are so often filled with end-of-the-world melancholy and sometimes helplessness and always with a distant beauty. Or is it the place? Or the topic?
In any case, we will never look from now on at any "glossy reassuring National Geographic" pictures in the same way. Actually, I never did, and always looked for alternate or at least additional views. LO-FI or not.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
11/01/2014 04:00:36 AM
Originally posted by jin_tonic:

... the sigh between the lines…

How very beautiful. I wish I'd thought of it. Thank you.
10/31/2014 07:16:23 PM
At first glance I see humor in your essay, then I see the sigh between the lines…
  Photographer found comment helpful.
10/31/2014 07:13:15 PM
WTF Paul? This is quite the story and I want to believe it’s all true. I hope the Swaziland police come knocking at my door inquiring on your whereabouts. I’ll probably ask them more questions about this mysterious photographer than they ask me. Your low fidelity images, as you call them, are a treat without this additional layer you created. The photographer with a conscious takes this to another level. A very enjoyable essay that makes this whole exercise worth the effort. Thank you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
10/31/2014 01:36:10 AM
I would have liked to subscribe to WTF? magazine, but I hear they fired that Paolo guy. He was my favorite. Rats.

(A striking, sobering essay.)
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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