Israeli rock star Ivri Lider invited me backstage at Webster Hall tonight when he swung through New York City on a North American tour that hits D.C., Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  We made some images for the creative commons; click on them to download higher resolution sizes.

Rock on, Ivri, shalom and welcome back to New York.

Hillel Mintz posted a quick interview with me about my perspective on Israel after having traveled there twice for the creative commons and Wikimedia projects.  Go here to read it.

Speaking of Israel, tonight I will be photographing Israeli rock star Ivri Lider at Webster Hall.

Earlier today I met with a couple of local New York literary scenesters to discuss the formation of a new website.  We began its design.

I looked through my 2008 Tribeca Film Festival photos at the premiere of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler‘s Baby Mama and found some new shots to upload for the Creative Commons.

Liya Kebede – (born January 3, 1980) is an Ethiopian model who has appeared on the cover of US Vogue twice. According to Forbes, Kebede was the eleventh highest-paid model in the world.

Justin Theroux – (born August 10, 1971) is an American actor, screenwriter and director.

Sigourney Weaver – (born October 8, 1949) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress, best known for her roles as Lt. Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series and as Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters movies.

Chevy Chase – (born October 8, 1943) is an American Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer, and television and film actor. Born into a prominent family, Chase quickly became a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live, where his Weekend Update skit quickly became a staple of the show. Chase is also well known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon’s Vacation films.

These images are licensed Creative Commons and are part of a public art project.  Click here to see more.

As if the Bush legacy of horror can’t get any worse, apparently the photos that Obama decided not to release show how our torture policies during the flopped invasion of Iraq were shockingly carried out.  Reports the UK Telegraph:

The latest photographs relate to 400 cases of alleged abuse between 2001 and 2005 in Abu Ghraib and six other prisons. Mr Obama said the individuals involved had been “identified, and appropriate actions” taken.

Maj Gen Taguba’s internal inquiry into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, included sworn statements by 13 detainees, which, he said in the report, he found “credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses.”

Among the graphic statements, which were later released under US freedom of information laws, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas in which he says: “I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s ***…. and the female soldier was taking pictures.”

The translator, an American Egyptian, is now facing a civil court case in the United States.

Retired Major Gen. Antonio Taguba oversaw the U.S. investigation into the abuses at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison.  The unreleased photographs are rumored to number close to 2000 in total.  Taguba went on to say that he supports Obama’s decision to not release the images because they would imperil American troops.  “The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it,” said Taguba.

It certainly turns my stomach, as an American.

One week after the shocking suicide of rising star Lucy Gordon, the British actress’s death remains a mystery to the public.  Here is what is known:

• Lucy’s boyfriend, Jerome Almeras, a cameraman in his 40′s who found the starlet hanging from their ceiling when he woke up, has been cleared of any suspicion.    Initial reports were that the couple had been arguing.
• Gordon was in love with Almeras.  “She told me she was in love with her boyfriend,” said Michel Haddi, who photographed her for the Italian issue of Vanity Fair. “I told her she must like older men. She looked like a girl with a plan. She had everything to go for. I was going to visit her and her boyfriend in Paris.”
• She left two suicide notes.  One note was for her family; the other detailed how her remains and estate should be disposed of.
• Elizabeth Simpson, Gordon’s agent, is also in the dark about the death.  “My team and I are baffled and devastated by this wholly unexpected tragedy and our sympathy goes out to her family…”
• A close, unnamed friend of hers had recently committed suicide, and Gordon was deeply affected by the loss.
• Richard Gordon, Lucy’s father, also said the suicide “came out of the blue” and has not indicated whether the suicide note he received shed any light on her motives.

The public is left wondering why she would end such a promising, young life.

The most commonly-held belief is that she killed herself because she was distraught over her friend’s suicide.  This is such a let-down, if that’s the case.  Contemplating suicide is common, but as Gordon learned, it is selfish because of the devastation left behind to the ones who loved you.  For Gordon to experience that pain, and then not see or care that her actions would inflict an even worse pain upon her family and loved ones, would be a disappointment.  The man she loved found her hanging in the bedroom when he woke in the morning.  That is severe.

Hopefully a better answer will be forthcoming.

Last week one of the most influential Israeli websites, Israelity.com, profiled some of my 2007 images of Jerusalem that are found on Wikipedia.  Many of these images are reproduced in numerous places around the Internet and published in books, free of copyright restrictions for their use.

This image of the Israeli countryside is used by both Wikipedia and Encyclopædia Britannica, amongst others

It was particularly exciting to have this website profile my images because the Israel you see in the media bears no resemblance to the reality of the country.  Israelity.com is an attempt to show the nuances and life of a culturally rich and diverse nation, which most people know little about outside of conflict.

I have taken two trips to the country as part of my public art project that explores information as art.  The information the public receives about Israel is incomplete, distorted and myopic.  My photography was an attempt to show a bigger picture of the country, its people and its landscape.

Check out Rachel Neiman’s piece about some of my work from the 2007 trip.

I already wrote about the death of prominent writer and theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.  I just wanted to post a copy of London-based The Guardian‘s use of my portrait in their May 12, 2009 obituary in their print edition, which is not found on-line.  Special thanks to the Guardian‘s obituary department for sending me a complimentary copy.

Click on the image below to enlarge and read it.

Yesterday British actress Lucy Gordon was found hanging from her ceiling in her apartment in Paris.   It is believed that she committed suicide; however, no further details have been released, according to the BBC.  It was two days before her 29th birthday.

The portrait below was taken by me on May 1, 2007.  It’s difficult for me not to look at it and think about what she would have seen in her life just two years into the future.  She was extraordinarily nice and accommodating.

Lucy Gordon by David Shankbone.  22 May 1980 – 20 May 2009.
As with all of my photography, this image is licensed Creative Commons and may be reproduced and altered without my permission.  Click on it to download a higher resolution.

Lucy was found by her boyfriend, who said he was sleeping when she hung herself.  Neighbors reported that the couple had not been getting along.  After her unnamed boyfriend found her, he ran down the street outside of their apartment screaming: ‘Call the police – my friend has hung herself!’

Lucy’s father, Richard Gordon, 60, made the following statements:

‘The whole family is so proud of Lucy, and we always have been.  We have loved her so much throughout her life.  We called her Lucy because she was the light of mine, her mum Sue’s, and her sister Katie’s lives. Lucy was a lovely, generous and unselfish person who always gave so much thought to other people and put them before herself.‘

Gordon recently finished a biopic about celebrated French singer Serge Gainsbourg in which she played Gainsbourg’s lover, iconic actress and film director Jane Birkin.  Gordon was oft-compared to Birkin in life.

I photographed Gordon at the 2007 Spiderman 3 premiere.  Oddly, I uploaded the photograph to Wikipedia at a time when she did not have an article.  I probably have around 40 or 50 portraits sitting on computers at home of people who either do not have a Wikipedia article, or who I do not recognize but are notable for some reason since they are posing for me on the red carpet at Tribeca.  I do not usually upload these images because of the time involved (finding out who they are and/or the time involved in Photoshopping and uploading an image for which there is no place for it on Wikipedia).  Lucy Gordon was an exception to that.  I found her captivating.

I tried to find a home for her portrait, so I put it on the Oxford High School article, which was her alma mater in England.  At the time, it was one of the few places where she was mentioned on Wikipedia.

Eerily, the mood in Marianne Faithfull’s The Ballad of Lucy Jordan is a fitting soundtrack to this post:

The filmography of Lucy Gordon:

• 2001: Perfume (as Sarah)
• 2001: Serendipity (as Caroline Mitchell)
• 2002: The Four Feathers by Shekhar Kapur (as Isabelle)
• 2005: The Russian Dolls by Cédric Klapisch (as Celia Shelburn)
• 2007: Serial de Kevin Arbouet et Larry Strong (as Sadie Grady)
• 2007: Spider-Man 3 by Sam Raimi (as Jennifer Dugan)
• 2008: Frost by Steve Clark (as Kate Hardwick)
• 2009: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by John Krasinski (as Hitchhiker)
• 2009: Cinéman (as Fernandel‘s friend)
• 2010: Serge Gainsbourg, vie héroïque (as Jane Birkin)

It takes an iconic conservative judge like Richard Posner to state, very plainly, why the Republican party has become such a spectacular basket case [emphasis added]:

By the end of the Clinton administration, I was content to celebrate the triumph of conservatism as I understood it, and had no desire for other than incremental changes in the economic and social structure of the United States. I saw no need for the estate tax to be abolished, marginal personal-income tax rates further reduced, the government shrunk, pragmatism in constitutional law jettisoned in favor of “originalism,” the rights of gun owners enlarged, our military posture strengthened, the rise of homosexual rights resisted, or the role of religion in the public sphere expanded. All these became causes embraced by the new conservatism that crested with the reelection of Bush in 2004.

My theme is the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings. That the policies are weak in conception, have largely failed in execution, and are political flops is therefore unsurprising. The major blows to conservatism, culminating in the election and programs of Obama, have been fourfold: the failure of military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives; the inanity of trying to substitute will for intellect, as in the denial of global warming, the use of religious criteria in the selection of public officials, the neglect of management and expertise in government; a continued preoccupation with abortion; and fiscal incontinence in the form of massive budget deficits, the Medicare drug plan, excessive foreign borrowing, and asset-price inflation.

By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

Bravo, Judge Posner.

I’ve uploaded the vast majority of my portraits from Tribeca (191 images).  Here are a few that were overlooked my first skim through the 10 days of photos I shot at the festival.

Connor Paolo – (born July 11, 1990) is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the adolescent Alexander the Great in Oliver Stone’s Alexander and his portrayal of Eric van der Woodsen on The CW series Gossip Girl.

Brian Williams – (born May 5, 1959) is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, the evening news program of the NBC television network^.  Williams replaced Tom Brokaw on December 2, 2004.

Richard Meier – (born October 12, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American architect known for his rationalist designs and the use of the color white.

Leslie Bibb- (born November 17, 1974) is an American actress and former fashion model.

It’s all about freedom – these images are Creative Commons. Click here to see more.