Friday Shout-Outs, Oh-Yeahs, and Awesome Accomplishments

This week in Shout-Outs, one photographer gets inside of Foxconn (the place that manufactures just about all of today’s popular electronic devices), and another photog teaches me a whole lot about China. Yet another photog comes up with a great idea to promote himself (and wins an award for it), and another puts all of his panoramic images together into one big print collection.

Shout-Outs are a regular Friday thing, and you can be part of it too. Send us suggestions! If we think it’s worth shouting about, it will show up here in the blog on a Friday. To submit something, scroll to the bottom to see how.

GETTING INSIDE FOXCONN
Thomas Lee, a journalist-artist and filmmaker-photographer based in Hong Kong and New York City recently completed an documentary assignment from inside of Foxconn, “the secretive yet world-dominant Taiwanese electronics manufacturer who makes Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Sony PlayStation, Nitendo Wii, Dell computers, was under unfamiliar scrutiny,” he writes.

Foxconn City – Images by Thomas Lee

Foxconn has been getting increased exposure after 11 of its employees committed suicide this year, most by leaping from company dormitories.

Anonymous labor-abuse stories — harsh working conditions and hours, subdued human interactions, constant monitoring, cold and rude management culture — readily emerged from Foxconn’s biggest manufacturing plant Longhua Science and Technology Park in Shenzhen, China. The 3 square kilometers factory complex, dubbed Foxconn City, houses more than 300,000 migrant workers and operates like a small town with an array of restaurants, stores, banks, a fire station, a hospital, an auditorium, and Olympic-size swimming pools.

Lee created some really nice image. He had great access to the areas and people within the company, including Foxconn’s founder and chairman, Terry Gou.

A WINNING SELF PROMO
Congrats to Jimmy Williams, a commercial and fine art photographer based in Raleigh, North Carolina. He and his team were recently awarded first place in the Extraordinary Non-Traditional Promotions category of the PDN Self Promo competition.

Their “Music Makers NOW SEE HEAR!” promo effort won top honors in the yearly competition sponsored by Photo District News.

“We mailed this promotion to creatives to promote my environmental portrait photography. The 16-page booklets are housed in 10″ x 10″ vintage record jackets,” he said. “This ‘visual album’ showcases twelve portraits of Southern Musical Masters and includes an audio-visual CD with music tracks and a slide show I’ve narrated. A Web version of the CD was also e-mailed to creatives.”

“The results were incredible,” he said. “I have never received so many e-mails and calls. It also generated press in publications such as Rangefinder and Communication Arts. It’s generated jobs, especially in the heath-care market where intimate portraiture is essential.”

Members of Williams’ team include Rob Story (art direction); Andy Mendelsohn (copy writer); Bill Blankinship (video editor); and Patrick Emmons (web microsite developer.)

PANORAMIC PRINTS
Photographer Sean Phillips lives and works in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He specializes in photographing really beautiful outdoor landscapes, and put together a collection of his panoramic images, all of which are available for sale as prints directly from his website.

The images look really nice, and putting all of these panoramic images together in a single gallery is a pretty good idea!

Panoramic Print Collection – Images by Sean Phillips

CHINA’S WISH LIST
James Whitlow Delano is a documentary photographer based in Asia, where he has lived for 17 years. I found a link (via Twitter) to one of his projects, and not only was I treated to some really wonderful images, but I learned a hell of a lot about the politics of China.

His project, titled “China’s Territorial Wish List” mixes images and text to tell the story of the many regions of the globe that China would love to get their hands on.

He starts with a summary of the area, and the follows up with “China’s Chances of Success”. Fascinating. I learned a lot today.

China’s Territorial Wish List – Images by James Whitlow Delano

ONE GRAND VACATION
My good friend Jessica Stuart recently took a month-long trip to the Grand Canyon, where she and several others in her group toured the entire canyon, traveling about 286 miles, on rafts and kayaks.

Now that’s a sweet vacation!

She recently uploaded a whole bunch of photos from her trip. This one (below), showing a horseshoe game in action, is my favorite.

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I am always looking for things to include here in our Friday Shout-Outs – so if you have anything you think is worthy, let me know. One great way to do that is to post a note to Twitter with my name in it (@heygrover) and that way I won’t forget it later. Don’t have Twitter? Email me, grover-at-photoshelter-dot-com.