The Constant Siege

[clayton cubitt's working notebook]

See also:
claytoncubitt.com

Nerve: The Daily Siege

Katrina: Operation Eden

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Josef Koudelka
Josef Koudelka
Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter
I spent a great deal of my life being ignored. I was always very happy that way. Being ignored is a great privilege. That is how I think I learned to see what others do not see and to react to situations differently. I simply looked at the world, not really prepared for anything. Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter puts “Father of Color Photography” Eggleston to shame. 1958.
Saul Leiter puts “Father of Color Photography” Eggleston to shame. 1958.
Guy Bourdin
Guy Bourdin
Raymond Depardon, New York City
Raymond Depardon, New York City
Jean-Paul Goude, Grace Jones
Jean-Paul Goude, Grace Jones
Oliviero Toscani
Oliviero Toscani
One of my favorite images of all time. Jean-Baptiste Mondino shoots Seal.
One of my favorite images of all time. Jean-Baptiste Mondino shoots Seal.
Jean-Baptiste Mondino also has a cooler name than you.
Jean-Baptiste Mondino also has a cooler name than you.
Irving Penn is 91 years old and he still kicks your ass.
Irving Penn is 91 years old and he still kicks your ass.
But with enough research and funding, it is not inconceivable that one day the scientists could produce a steak or a lamb chop. Is in vitro meat the future? - Times Online

The Wealth Food Chain

A rough thought exercise in understanding relational wealth:

The average poor citizen of the Third World earns $730 per year.

Working poor Americans make about $16,000 per year, or could eat almost 22 third-worlders (although you wouldn’t know it from life-expectancy).

Middle class Americans make about $57,000, eating about 3.5 working poor, or 78 third-worlders.

Upper class Americans make about $500,000, eating almost 9 middle-class, or 31 working poor, or 685 third-worlders.

Bill Gates is worth about $58,000,000,000, eating about 116,000 upper-class citizens, or a little more than a million middle-class, or 3.6 million working poor, or 79.45 million third-worlders.

John D. Rockefeller, at his height, adjusted for 2007 dollars, was worth over $318,000,000,000, eating 5.5 Bill Gates, or 636,000 upper-class Americans, or 5.58 million middle-class, or 19.88 million working poor, or 435.6 million third-worlders.

That’s a lot of tasty tasty third-worlders.