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Born in Beijing, Ai Weiwei grew up in difficult circumstances; his father Ai Qing – a poet, was persecuted and exiled to a western province by the Chinese Communist government. This happened during the Anti-Rightist movement, which was campaign during 1957 that was a reaction against the Hundred Flowers Campaign which had promoted pluralism of expression and criticism of the government. Qing was persecuted after defending Ding Ling and was then accused of “rightism“.

Din Ling was a woman placed under house arrest in Shanghai however, she escaped and made her way to Yan’an. There she became one of the most influential figures in Yan’an cultural circles.

After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, Ai Qing was hailed as a great national poet.

“It’s powerful only because someone thinks it’s powerful and invests value in the object”

– Ali Weiwei

One of Ai Weiwei’s most notorious pieces “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” incorporates what Ai has called a “cultural readymade” as a big inspiration to him was Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades” which caused Ai to develop great appreciation towards his work.

In his piece, Ai drops a 2,000 year old ceremonial urn. Despite it’s considerable value, it also symbolic and cultural worth. The Han dynasty (206 BC – 202 CE) was considered a defining period in Chinese civilisation, so for Ai to deliberately allow this priceless artifact to shatter at his feet was the equivalent to him throwing away the inheritance of cultural meaning about China.

This piece sparked outrage with some people as it was seen as a careless act, to simply destroy something with such high value. Some people calling him out for doing so, however Ai simply countered with “Chairman Mao used to tell us that we can only build a new world f we destroy the old one” which refers to the widespread destruction of antiques during China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and the instruction that in order to build a new society one must destroy the si jiu (Four Olds) : old customs, habits, culture and ideas. Therefore, when Ai let’s go of the urn, he let’s go of the cultural and social structures that impart value.

During the beginning of 2016, Ai created a new piece that caught a lot of attention. Throughout the previous year, he visited Lesbos which was renowned for a gateway for refugees into Europe. There, he got his hands on a total of 14,000 discarded life jackets after the authorities provided them.

Once he had the life jackets, he went to Berlin and strung up all the vibrant orange jackets on the pillars of the Konzerthaus venue overnight. In 2015, over 1 million migrants arrived in Europe by the sea routes, then in January 2016 more than 400 had perished in their desperate attempt to get across.

Ai’s piece in New York – “Arch” is one of a series of pieces scattered around, the series being based around refugees and immigrants.

Peter Essick is a photographer who specialises in environmental photojournalism – his main focuses being nature/environmental themes. He is also an author, drone pilot and a speaker, he was named one of the most 40 most influential nature photographers in the world by Outdoor Photography Magazine UK.

Essick has been influenced by many noted American landscape photographers such as Carleton Watkins to Robert Adams.

Essick is also an author of two books, that contain his pieces “The Ansel Adams Wilderness” and “Our Beautiful, Fragile World ” he has had a solo exhibition showcasing his work at the Booth Western Art Museum, Yoho National Park: A Canadian Gem, Lumière Gallery and at Compositions in Nature.

He has photographed stories for National Geographic on several occasions revolving around different environmental issues such as climate change, high-tech trash, nuclear waste and freshwater. Other pieces of his work have been published in international magazines.

Marty Knapp first began his journey as a self-employed photographer in 1988 when he quit his day job to pursue his passion for photography. At first he developed film as well as custom prints for clients in his darkroom and doing smaller photoshoots such as weddings, portraits and made slides for artists. He used his free time to experiment and explore his creativity.

In 1990 his work began to take off, meaning by 2000 he opened “Marty Knapp Photo Gallery” with his wife. There they showcased his pieces and also offered classes to photographers who wish to be coached in the art of black and white photography.

Knapp only started using digitally captured images during 2010 where he developed some prints from scanned negatives. The following year he created his first silver gelatine prints.

Currently he stated he uses a camera which was converted to record infrared light in order for him to capture a series of “dream-like” images from light that is beyond the range of the human eye.

He has also published a series of books:
– West Marin Moons
– Starry Night at Point Reyes
– Point Reyes, 20 years

It took me a while to come across his website, but once I found it I was hooked. The use of the infrared camera truly helps him create works of art also, as the images are in black and white it only seems to add to the beauty of it.

Personally, I believe that Marty Knapp has an incredible eye when it comes to photography and what helps him is his way with finding the correct lighting. For example, Inverness Ridge [above] he truly captures the essence of the landscape.

Kari Greer is a photographer who specialises in wildland fire and editorial photojournalism. Greer works alongside the National Interagency Fire Centre to help bring awareness of the damage that forest fires cause.

She first began to explore this interest during her college years where she worked on a Forest Service fire crew in Washington.

Some of Greer’s work has made an appearance in numerous articles and other publications such as:
– Outside Magazine
– National Geographic Adventure
– Wildland Firefighter
– The New York Times

The Prichard Art Gallery is the first thorough exhibition that presents Kari Greer’s pieces.

In 2015 alone there was a total of 10.1 million acres burned in the US – the length and size of forest fires are prolonging the project. The goal is to bring more awareness to the issues at hand as well as helping people understand it, Greer’s photographs need no words to describe the images as they tell their own stories.

I knew I wanted to do a research page on forest fires, as I personally feel as though it is a topic we are all very aware and yet so oblivious to at the same time. Admittedly, there are moments where things such as forest fires are out of our control but I believe that a lot of people have the mindset of “out of sight, out of mind” that is, until it is in an area close to them and their home.

There are several natural causes that can lead to forest fires such as:
– Dry climate
– Lighting
– Volcanic eruptions

However there are people who do something as small as not putting a cigarette out properly – simple, yet easy to forget, which can set some grass or bushes on fire which is all it takes due to how rapidly a forest fire will spread. It had been stated that the most common direct human causes of a forest fire are:
– Unlit cigarettes
– Arson
– Sparks from equipment

Back in 2013, UN developed a series of ads to bring light to some of the sexist “autocomplete” after Christopher Hunt, the Art Director had become aware of some of the incredible sexist google “suggested” searches.

“When we came across these searches, we were shocked by how negative they were and decided we had to do something with them,” Hunt said, the idea then developed where they had portraits of women and had the google search bars over their mouths, to give the illusion of “silencing” them.

They not only did it on sexism, they also did a series aimed at the racist searches.

The copy writer, Kareem Shuhaibar said that it proves just how much of a long way we have to have gender equality and it was a wake up call to see those negative searches.

The beauty community on YouTube has had it’s fair share of drama, with people having a platform to voice their opinions its no surprise as there are always a group of people who disagree with one another. Although there are so many positive aspects of having such a large following on YouTube, there of course, are negatives. Recently, the 19 year old “beauty guru” came under fire after a friend, Tati Westbrook, made a video addressing some of his toxic behaviour.

James Charles first earned his fame from being a beauty guru, being the first male spokesmodel for CoverGirl Cosmetics and being very openly gay, however he is also known for the controversies he has been involved in.

Tati’s lengthy video (43 minutes) explained that he had acted in a disgusting manner towards a waiter at her birthday meal – the 37-year-old said that she explained that the waiter was in fact straight, James simply replied with “It doesn’t matter, I’m a celebrity” this sparked fury from his fans. Originally people were unsure on if this was true, but the waiter later released his own video explaining – including recordings of a call with the YouTuber and even screenshots from direct messages, the pair shared.

The waiter, Sam, admitted he wasn’t certain of his sexuality due to the fact he hadn’t experimented. After his sister got him to message James –  a casual conversation with typical small talk. At some point James invited him to a hotel room, not thinking much of it Sam happily went there, where they began talking for a bit before making out.

After this, Sam said he left and after a few days he send James a text politely explaining that he was quite certain he wasn’t gay. James didn’t seem too keen on Sam’s response, even after Sam told him he wished to split on good terms.

In a text conversation James said to him “You’re not straight, no matter how many times you tell yourself” this is not the first case of James trying to pressure straight men into thinking they are either gay or bisexual.

This also, is not the only allegations against James at the moment as even bigger celebrities such as Zara Larsson, after the whole situation started trending on Twitter, the 21-year-old revealed that James had tried this with her boyfriend multiple times despite knowing he wasn’t gay.

There was another incident at the beginning of the year involving the model Gage Gomez after a photo surfaced of the pair together at Coachella back in April. Rumours had it that they were dating – despite any proper evidence. However, James later replied to a fan who asked about them saying “Nope unfortunately I am still very single. This boy played me for months on end and is a disgusting con artist. I’m thankful I had my friends with me to protect me” the tweet has later been deleted but he also had tweeted “This is no one’s fault but my own because my dumb a** continues to go for the same type of insecure cute boys and it gets me hurt every. single. time. I f*****g hate myself” this sent fans into a frenzy as they tried to defend him – instantly accusing the model of using James for his fame and popularity.

The model in the end created a YouTube channel solely for the fact of sharing his side of the story stating that he was creating the video to bring light to the “lies, false allegations and more importantly – the slander” as it was not only affecting him, but his friends and family also.

He denied the allegations that he was using James for his money and fame, before posting a longer video explaining in detail what happened between them.

According to Gage, he and James began talking during January 2019. He had made it very clear that he was straight, he also said that James kept insisting that they meet and got angry when the model was unavailable due to his busy schedule before he later accepted meeting up at Coachella.

James has even recently stated that he does not consider himself to be “completely gay” because of his attractions to girls and trans guys as well as the fact he pursues straight men. This statement caused a lot of controversy especially now since he claimed the waiter, Sam, was “not straight no matter how many times he told himself” leading to a lot of backlash.

This scenario is a perfect example of some of the negative aspects of social media. People such as James Charles use their large following to their advantage – he used his platform after Gage declined any romantic advances because he knew the majority of his fans would easily go after Gage and throw abuse his way.

However after he deleted his tweets, he apologised to Gage over text where he said he tweeted them out of anger because his fans had caught on which he didn’t want happening…despite posting the image of the two and tweeting about his rejection.

Although Gage contacted him to apologise and to set things straight, James was nothing but hostile the entire time. During the end of the conversation Gage gives up with arguing and simply asks James to clear his name however, he takes this as an opportunity to argue.

He claims Gage used him for his fame and played with his emotions as he had got him into Coachella and because Gage had not “informed him” that he was not gay in the first place, he was in the wrong as he lead James on, etc.

James then refuses to clear his name as it would “give him more attention and more followers” to which Gage said he completely understood that James has dealt – and continues, to deal with hate and negativity on daily basis but in this case James is choosing to make his life hell, rather than just letting the two of them sort it out between them rather than his angered fans fighting for him.

Gage even said that he did like James – as a friend and did not feel any attraction to men and he did not mean any malice from the whole situation but completely understood what James was feeling and knew why he was upset. Gage once again apologised and asked if they could just drop everything and move on, both going their separate ways as it would be easier on both of them.

However, this all turned out to be allegations as James Charles released a video with the title “No more lies” where he proved his innocence by showing text messages between him and Jeffree Star – another big name in the beauty community, who had joined in the accusations calling James a “predator” and saying that he knew there was “something wrong with him”.

He was quickly shut down after fans pulled up tweets that Jeffree had posted back in 2010 where he too, boasted about the fact he “loved” straight guys, some fans even argued about his song “Straight Boys” as he used to be known for his music.

James showed the messages shared between the pair proving that he was in fact not in the wrong.