Archive for the ‘Paparazzi Ethnography’ Category

Trondheim: Integrated Operations

Posted in Paparazzi Ethnography, tagged Subsea Factory, Trondheim on September 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

9/30: Arriving early to get a lay of the land catching a glimpse of workers taking a breath before the launch while exploring spaces first-hand without admonition associated with overstepping boundaries during ritualized activity.

Center for Integrated Operation Conference, September 30- October 1

The event begins with a few introductory comments from Arild Nystad, Chair IO Center/NTNU and a short video depicting graphic design innovations in knowledge communication in the oil and gas industry.
Up now is Unni Steinsmo, President of SINTEF, largest research concern in Norway, talking about technology, generic developments that have daily impacts on oil/gas development and society more generally. Unni points out the diversity of the IO Center as measured by the various academic and industry partners involved, including the number of partners, publications, MA and PhD degrees. Sustainability framed in terms of carbon capture and sequestration but also in terms of IO capacity for introduction organizational and technical innovations.

Plenary I: Intelligent Petroleum Fields and future technology challenges in Oil and Gas
Session chairs: Frans van den Berg, Shell and Arild Nystad, IO Center

Tord Lien, Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy. Introduced as having taken an MA degree in history at NTNU, 2003.

He begins, “I’m happy that you mentioned my MA degree at NTNU even though it isn’t in energy [audience chuckles]”. The future of the Norwegian continental shelf.

Opening of Ekofisk [petroleum well] in 1969, a dramatic event. Today, nevertheless, projects today on hold, rising development costs and declines in production taking place raise concern.

General tendency is that Barents sea will be developed. Goliath [production] opening up next year, licensing rounds increasing, maturity in Nowegian continental shelf being revisited through enhanced production and new licensing.

The Subsea Factory: Solving complex technical challenges. Industry must be initiator of handling developments in industrial sector and government needs to take a back seat or provide funding. Government’s role is to create frameworks of innovation through public funding support, as an example, RCN’s Petromaks and Petrosams research and development.

Helge Lund, CEO, Statoil, speaking now on technology enablers for increased efficiency. “Thank you for the opportunity to address this expert audience [Last week in Trondheim addressing 500 students on how to address challenges of development] – contributing with some reflections on oil and gas environment. Last few months have illustrated how volatile the world is these days, instability in Middle East (Iraq, Syria), Russia and Ukraine, Africa (Nigeria), almost got a new country in Europe (Scotland) which would impact oil and gas companies.”

Three issues that industry needs to deal with communities, climate and competitiveness. Community: Industry needs access to reservoirs, but also dealing with new areas closer to communities, and there are higher expectations than not creating harm, but also to share the benefits of development which is much more than royalty and tax share. Tanzania, last month during a gas discovery, you could grasp the sense of expectation.

Climate: Last week at the UN attending climate meeting, an urgent fight, and could feel the personal pressure to be a part of the solution as a representative of the industry. We need to provide these resources with less CO2 emissions, requiring new policies to stimulate innovation and new innovation, and society should put forth a sufficiently high price on CO2 in order to address the issue. Carbon intensity is an integrated part of how Statoil addresses moving forward, integrating what those figures might be in decision making. [US Dakotas] Bakken off-gassing, has been converted to CNG dramatically reducing flaring and halted field composition on gas; Peregrino, looking for transport solutions and reducing energy consumption.

Competition: build in more production, reduce complexity through innovation (industrial standardization across operators and suppliers, fast-track projects, lower costs) – providing huge potentials through simplifications — achieving plug-in play rationality. Integrated operation “as I see it” is an enabler. A broad set of centralized centers, saving cost and improving possibility of efficient operations and decision making. Technology can make companies, make industries and transform societies. No doubt, technologies will continue to change oil/gas development in the same way geopolitical conditions influence the context.

[Questions by participants] Expectations of a CO2 price of $50-$75 per ton. By 2020, reconfiguring $50 per ton (which is low), in order to keep licenses to operate and continue to move gas to replace coal.

Cristina Pinho, E&P Executive manager, Petrobras commenting on upstream services and its enormous scale. The most challenging aspects of development is the human capital issues, but the most rewarding also is the team implementation.

Chon Fui Chai, General Manger Smart Fields, Shell, sharing a journey to smart fields, stressing Organizational capability through structure, behavior, sustainability; Dealing with big data, collecting and using the right data, algorithms that convert sensing to sense making utilizing industry standards and predictive analytics; Consistent screening and technology deployment in projects through project screening and follow up…

General discussion with the speakers at the panel stage: investment costs up by 75-80 percent, with development profits up only by 4-5 percent. What is going on with this, asks Arild Nystad. Responses: Differentiating where we need standardization and industrialization versus innovation and creativity.
Lunch

Plenary II: Proactive Operations
Session chairs: Jon Staekebye, Kongsberg OGT and Prof. Bjarne Foss, IO Center/NTNU

Up now is TNO’s Ruud van der Linden, talking about mature fields. TNO runs contract applications somewhere between industry and academia, founded by government with industry application, “similar to Norway’s Sintef”. Modeling of flow phenomena which they use for optimization of well extraction.

[Note to self – with Vidar Hepsø, STS scholar and petroleum anthropologist, sitting as my neighbor at the table, I am reminded of one of his articles where he points out how geological mapping of reservoir knowledge does not rely on photography (realism) as a form of truthful knowledge.

Instead, for example, the body of a geologist to determine scale.

I noticed Ruud van der Linden use photographic image of a well-bore to depict reality, versus a previous image on gas extraction represented in the form of a graph which I communicated to Vidar as a data point.]

Prof. Bjarne Foss, Dept. of Engineering Cybernetics, IO Center/NTNU: Transforming mechanical artifacts into intelligence. Downstream increasingly automating complex operational decisions by merging: real-time process data, with mathematical models and mathematical optimization.

Moving this process upstream — capitalizing on shrinking margins (downstream has always attempted to get by on capitalizing on small margins, and market affect that is now moving to the upstream). Looking for a system over time that can assure highly continued optimization.

“party”
“no-party”

Plenary III: R&D and Innovation
Paulo Viana, IO Coordinator, PETROBRAS — A project has to end, because it is a project, but the structure has to provide model for facing the future in an effective way, a transformative layer, so that each function sees the other function and collaborates and integrates.

Up now is Jon Kvalem, Director, IO Center/Institute for Energy Technology, talking about collaborative environments in the oil and gas industry. Thinking about what IO Center has achieved in collaboration and Innovation – utilizing new IO technologies, SOFIO. Structured Observations with Feedback of IO Interaction (SOFIO). There is the IO Map (Risk visualization prototype) and the scenario visualizer. Referring now to Statoil’s Logistics and Emergence of Response Center and ENI capability development and organization development — challenges in the Barents Sea.

“impression management – recognizable logo seen at a distance“

Senior Vice President, Statoil, Lars Høier, speaking on standardization is the new innovation. Moving into an area of cost cutting – we just have to think differently and define the next generation standards. A lot of opportunities if you attack it in the way of standardizing the industry context. The relationship between research and industry in standardization: More complex projects; capital costs increased; high oil price but lower margins (is seen consistently); Research and technology is part of the solution.

Using examples from Norwegian continental shelf. (1) Fast model update first in use 2010 (Grane Snorre, Sverdrup, Peregrino, 8 other committed); Pin Point first use in 2010 – better well placements for well drilling (Asgard, Njord Hyme, Snorre); AICD Valve and iRips (Barents Sea, 8 wells on Troll = 2400 valves).

Fast track, 40% less time to production; US onshore lowering drilling cost; Cat rigs, higher operational efficiency; Floating storage units; Stadardized equipment and modules; Vertical x-mss trees; Standard production weeks; Subsea on slim legs — A lot of innovation to success [uses the word “attack” repeatedly to talk about lowering costs in the context of standardization].

Technology of deep dive — subsea factory. Subsea Factories – Brown field factories — that we plan to tie in. technology elements as simplification

Second day
Torstein Sanness, Managing Director, Lundin Norway, focused on organic growth strategy and exploration. Replacing reserves. Around since 2004. New Norway – High North, same size as the Norwegian sector on the continental shelf. Keeping the company focused looking at oil liquids with 60 licenses. If you want to be at the edge and try technology before anyone else, and be in a major discovery every third year, you need innovation. Open culture meeting with workers every week demonstrating growth.

Dinner comments Torstein Sanness

Pieter Kapteijn, Director, Fossil Future – Norway’s capability cluster (government, business, academia). Quotes John Lennon, “Life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans”. Sierra Oil and Gas. Presented the idea of “Smartness”. Fascinated by Helge Lund, what do leaders of IOCs worry about, what IO (innovative operation) really is and what it offers, what we have achieved, the role of leadership in IO. The true belief in leadership that technology can make a difference. Worrying about higher costs that eat into the margins. Not confidence that they will find the resource, moving into more difficult areas, the resources discovered are more challenging, expensive EOR, Arctic, there are new competitors.

Disintermediation– Service companies are becoming exploration and production companies; A defining debate for oil industries is climate change – creating pressures.

Becoming an increasingly competitive company, looking at complexity and wanting to find simplicity — when faced with such challenges what do you do? In the past, simple, low risk –defer projects and investments; quick results –laying off staff, tried and tested; chase cost reduction–sell assets; minimum disruption–no changes to business model. But what if these changes are more fundamental? At what point do you make structural changes to business? Invest in new capabilities: Create new partnerships- creating new ecologies to allow business to move faster; rethinking and redesigning business.

At the core: cybernetics. Looking at systems thinking to look at the organization of your business.

Creating an enabling organization. Creating an environment that works. Business value of IO [smart wells] has been proved in the field: and we have only scratched the surface. Creating a better risk profile. How do we make something that is integrated across disciplines and make it work.

Are you trying to control or enable; are you standardized or organic; do you want hierarchical or flat; is it a tight or loose organization; address all these issues. Bent-Ove Jamtli begins with an anecdote of his early experience in the army with Helge Lund, working in a small Saami town in the High Arctic, and talking about search and rescue.

Vegard Evjen Hovstein, CEO of Maritime Robotics AS. [cybernetics in certain ways became the surprise word over the past two days with a few folks paying homage to its meaning in the context of IO, ed.]

Vegard referred to this interesting automatic versus autonomous systems, referring to the Center for autonomous marine operations and systems in the Arctic.

Up now is Eldor, remote operations in the context of IO presented by Ove Heitmann Hansen, Managing Director, Eldor AS. Moving remote operations to even more remote. Why should pilots be sitting at the front of the plane with the best view? Why not move them back with a computer screen, or off the plane altogether. Similarly, using information technology to change work processes to achieve better decisions – technology enables remote control of equipment and processes. Functions and personnel can be moved from offshore to onshore.

Generation 1 case – BP Valhall, offshore and onshore control room with shared control responsibilities. Level 2 Partial Onshore Control – shared control from a remote location – at Valhall this means offshore & onshore control room with shared responsibilities for operations and surveillance between offshore and onshore. Generation 2 case – Total’s Martin Linge – One control center with four control suites —

Final panel: Trond Lilleng, Statoil; Tony Edwards, StepChange Global; Kaare Finback, Knogsberg; Pieter Kapteijn, CEO Sierra; Arne Holhjeim, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

Lilleng: IO steps, production to projects, moving gradually stepwise expert stepwise establishments.
Edwards: Managing inherent complexity; value chain integration.
Finback:
Kapteijn: Pervasive sensing, unlimited computing power, plug and play modeling, unlimited data capture, unlimited bandwidth, molecular/nano scale engineering
Holhjeim: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate — good management, efficient, as much resource out of the ground as possible, minimize environmental impact.

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Law-of-the-sea – U Tromsø

Posted in Paparazzi Ethnography, tagged Tromsø on September 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Legal issues of Arctic energy development, September 24-25

Energy Law Conference Program

University of Tromsø

I attended presentations at U Tromsø, Norway’s Arctic University. The energy law conference this week provided discussion onHigh North oil and gas developments and challenges from a juridical perspective.
Else Berit Eikeland, Member of Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Official, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, keynoted on sustainable development in the Arctic and circumpolar cooperation at the Arctic Council.

She emphasized that opening new areas of petroleum development in Norway is a democratic process and that peace and stability, even in these demanding times of embargoes on Russia is the focus of Norwegian representation at the Arctic Council.

The Law of the Sea is the legal framework for this area and in her presentation, she refers to Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the Norwegian shipping concern, using an image created by DNV, for which she credits the firm in her discussion about areas of increased marine traffic in the Arctic.

Ms. Eikeland also refers to climate change as the “most important [issue] to the Arctic Council”. Here, she utilizes and image produced by US tax-payer funded National Snow and Ice Data Center, which she does not credit.

Canadians are fond of telling Ms. Eikeland that living next to the United States is like “sleeping with an elephant”, a description she finds apt to describe Norway’s relationship to neighboring Russia.

But she points out that Norway and Russia are working hard to establish science relationships in fisheries (15 years) with successful stock management as a result.

Also, there is close dialogue in energy arenas and on and oil spill regulation for maritime shipping and offshore oil and gas development. Russia is a key to understanding development for Norway, and there is ongoing work on bilateral agreements with Arctic Council. Russia is “much more important to Norway than [is] Sweden and Finland – [because of the access to the Arctic Ocean, and the people located across the northern Norwegian area]”.

Nothing is binding in the Arctic Council (8 Arctic member states, 6 permanent observers and “a lot of outside specialists”), e.g., there is “no East/West division in the Arctic Council [and] interest is much more defined by geography, coastal states and economic interests in the North”. She describes the group as the “most successful multilateral political institution” [but what is the impact of decisions that are non-binding, ed.].

Tromsø as Arctic capital of the world.

Günther Handl, Tulane University School of Law and Kristoffer Svendsen, KGJ Centre, University of Tromsø, spoke of managing the risk of offshore oil and gas activities, identifying the key issues regarding compensation of transboundary pollution damage.
This was an interesting talk about international legal instruments that govern or address oil spills. When there is environmental damage, there is a cost to restoring and replacing natural resources; there is diminuation of value of those resources prior to bringing them back through reinstatement and restoration of environment; whenever such restoration is not feasible, it introduces components for proper compensation for all loses.

“Problem lies in the fact that for all ESS [ecosystem services] – we don’t have a market, or market-based mechanism – and cannot calculate in monetary terms – and [some argue that] nature restores itself and no need for compensation”. But [in fact] in domestic law, we do have a number of statues that provide compensation for ecosystem services. There are environmental liability directives in Europe. In America there is […]. And in China, there are regulatory programs under development.

So there needs to be proper methods for [determining] eco-system losses – of non-use values. Habitant equivalency analysis. Address impacts on systems and create an equivalent on another area. Service to service approach, creating important domestically. BP aggressively undermining claims on Macondo [oil spill] – conversely federal governments will argue aggressively for compensation.

Nengye Liu, Marie Curie Fellow, School of Law, University of Dundee, discussed the European Union in the context of enhanced governance of offshore oil/gas operations in changing Arctic conditions.

To envision EU as an Arctic player (observer of Arctic policy) – The EU competent to act. There is no specific Arctic mandate. Does the EU really need an Arctic Mandate? Of course not. EU should initiate a “common reporting standard for accident and activities” and outline what measures will take place if companies fail to report. Offshore oil and gas: require common standards to facilitate business.

How to enhance EU enforcement – EU has no teeth. Article 10 – what is their task to ensure safety in oil and gas. “To assist… only on request… assess [but not enforce]”.

As a matter of course, Norway should export standards as a product – working with EU oil and gas –promote Arctic legally binding regional agreements

Nigel Bankes, U Tromsø and U Calgary came up to the podium to compared unitization provisions of Norway and Russia on agreements in the Barents Sea and those of other framework unionization agreements.

First step was the unity of deposit clause in delimination agreement between UK and Norway; Second step is the framework agreement on TB – transboundary reservoirs — Unitization are party agreements versus dispute resolution at the level of the state.

Tina Hunter, U Queensland, gave an insightful talk on harmonisation of oil spill prevention and response in the Barents Sea, questioning if this is at all possible.

There are soft laws or legal regimes, but they should be binding and not simply guidelines.

Standards and best practices (Norway, UK, Canada, Norway) are now migrating to the safety case regime: proving to the regulator that the facility is as safe as possible (safe as reasonably possible), and based on nuclear reactor models. Those who create the risk should be best able to mitigate risk.

Deepwater Horizon/Montara – well integrity. No inspections – with the presumption that the operator is doing what it should do. Well integrity and well inspection is at the heart of protecting the Arctic. Read for example, Anthony Hopkins‘ Dangerous decisions. (In the rest of the world) there is well blow out Prevention versus ONLY oil spill response at present in the Arctic.

Thinking about regulation within its context – instead of simply extending North Sea to the Barents area. Barents 2020 (DNV) uses baseline from north sea development – a whole range of responses for well control – where are your nearest responders. How long does it take to mobilize your human responses, etc.

Catherine Banet, U Oslo, Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, Petroleum and Energy Department, talking about third-party access regimes to LNG terminals in the Arctic region and asking whether it is possible to put Arctic LNG terminals into competition. Export terimals and import terminals. Three cases for considering third party access. She refers to the Snøvit, which is currently up and running, and to the Yamal project, which is in the process of development, and the Alaska project, which likely will take some time because of economics.

Nevertheless, each a has different regulatory situation despite their present state of development and success.
Finally, there was Maria Madalena das Neves, KGJ Centre, U Tromsø, who considered the protection of energy investments in two Arctic territories, Svalbard and Greenland — in Greenland – increased energy demand requires increased grids and electricity – and there is a desire to develop a more integrated grid system across the continent as well as substituting diesel for more environmental friendly alternatives. They are looking for experts from outside to help opening the market. There is some criticism that they are rushing in [to Arctic oil and gas developments] to quickly.

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LNG Global Congress

Posted in Paparazzi Ethnography, tagged London on September 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

9/21: The day following the end of the LNG Global Congress, I met over lunch with interfax energy reporter Tom Washington. At the journalist’s suggestion we met near the Thames river, at Brasserie Blanc. The day prior, we had chatted briefly over lunch at the LNG gc Congress and I had so many questions that I implored him to meet with me for lunch the very next day.

As Tom explained, journalists play a role in determining prestige among firms and spokespersons. Energy journalists are interested primarily in numbers. Through numbers (annual production, forecasts on production, revenue) they aim to tell a story about the fortunes of industry.

Since they are reporting and not editorializing, they specifically employ a quote by an expert in order to fashion a particular interpretation.

That is, a quote gives surface legitimacy to their interpretation of the story based on what they understand the numbers to convey.

As an example, consider Tom’s reporting on the Yamal discussion at the LNG gc event in his article that came out several hours after our lunch titled Yamal LNG affirms its faith in China for financing.

We talked for some time of Tatiana Mitrova, who I met at Skolkovo in the outskirts of Moscow, just prior to her ascendance at Russian Academy of Sciences.

Her presentation at LNG gc was instructive as always, discussing the evolution of Russian gas policy, describing the industry’s shift from traditional contract (subsidizing economy and low taxes for production – protection from the state, monopolistic structure of market without question) to New Deal, where prices are reaching Henry Hub level for industrial consumers, while taxes are increasing, and more players, Novatec/Rosneft are “hungry to reduce Gazprom’s share”.

I should just mention that other persons of note in attendance at the LNG gc included Ralf Dickel, who I first met in Moscow during his deliver to the oil and gas congress when he was director of European Energy Charter, and then last year at the Energetics Conference in St. Petersburg.

9/18: Just off the coffee break and now listening to Takao Kasumi, Deputy General Manager, Paris representative of Tokyo Gas. In the post Fukushima landscape, LNG (liquified natural gas imports) are a big issue in Japan. What is perhaps more unexpected is the high expectations of shale gas imports from the United Sates.

I asked earlier, actually, of Senior Analyst Javier Diaz, Bentek Energy, a unit of PLATTS, whether all this US gas would potentially come from Alaskan efforts to commercialize North Slope natural gas. His response provided before everyone and sundry was that the project (announced recently in Alaska news as going forward) was totally uneconomic, without even a projected time horizon of delivery. The 45-60 billion dollar project no longer is talked about in terms of 10 to 20 year time frames rolling into the future.

Anyway, back to Takao who just finished, and we are moving on to Jose Ramon Arango, Leader of Liquid Bulk Segment, Panama Canal Authority, who will be speaking of everything [except the tariff rates].

LNG [liquefied natural gas] Global Congress, London

Global LNG Pamphlet

Panama. The transshipment center for the Americas since the 1600s. A lot of impressive photos presented both on current development in widening the canal, but also computer graphic imagery depicting how it will appear when completed.

Andrew Clifton, General Manager, SIGTTO — talking about achieving a level of reliability that makes LNG shipping “almost invisible”. US, UK, France, were the three main developers of LNG vessels, and responding on the French achievement is Jean-Francois Castel, Manager Business Development, Gazocean GDF Suez.

US LNG vs. Russian Pipe Gas: who wins. Will Russia remain the lowest cost producer in Europe? by Theirry Bros, European Gas & LNG, Global Research & Strategy, Societe Generale. A lower overall European gas price will make Chinese extract low cost gas from Russia. But Russian production costs are very low. Apparently, Russia is observing US export of LNG, watching the potential terminal buildup for exporting to Europe, wanting to keep a threshold beyond which would destroy price stability.

Yamal LNG Update, Will Yamal LNG be cost effective for European Supply? Christophe Malet, Deputy Director Marketing & Shipping, Yamal LNG. Multiple candidates of super giant natural gas fields across the northern peninsula of Yamal. Production company moving toward production and trade entity.

Envisioning utilizing Northern Sea Route during the Arctic Summer (June through September) — within two weeks distance to eastern markets making it comparable distance to middle east. During winter, Yamal would go west to Europe across Norway to transfer gas onto conventional vessels that would then provide shipments to the East.

Total investment cost of project, 27 billion dollars for the three trains. Requirements of an Arctic fleet + a conventional fleet to transport from lower latitudes + condensation infrastructure. Arctic vessels around 2015.

Port of Sabetta, Yamal. Malet shows actual photos of the development of the location, indicating 3000 persons at the site, a commercial air strip being constructed, “it’s beautiful”. [fabulous photographs, ed.]

“As Tatiana [Mitrova] highlighted this morning, sanctions have created uncertainty in Russia these days”…”Yamal has significant momentum to date because its shareholders had a pre-committment and show continued support for handling the new uncertainties, whether over technology transfers or access to financial markets”. The fundamentals of the Yamal are very strong and valuable proposition – for asian markets, and European markets. A project that will bring a constant flow besides Europe, which is ideally located to access additional production.

Now up: John la Rue, Executive Director Port of Corpus Christi providing update on the US LNG Exports. Shows the US gas transmission lines. Talking about various projects with an opportunity to “see 10-12 billion dollars going into the ground” per project.

An interesting discussion about flaring – burning natural gas – and the attempts to cut back on flaring from days to hours.

In one of my favorite books, Ancient City, Fustel de Coulanges builds lifeworlds around the smallest bits of data. I always think of it when looking at photographs, especially poor images like the one above that I took with the photobooth camera on macbook.

If we take just one fragment from this image, we can see quite a bit about the nature of what constitutes the staging of verification in energy knowledge at this particular event.

In this case, the “pleated” blue cloth-like folds that conspicuously hang down from the elevated “stage” onto the carpet, indicating excess and heightened sensation of a location titled floor or ground, where people walk, and the elaborated distance from which people speak or address those on the ground floor.

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Kristiansund Workshop

Posted in Paparazzi Ethnography, tagged Averoy, Kristiansund on September 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Working in the Realm of Celebrity: Gorman Form

Nordic Light International

Day 5: Final day, printing and wrap-up.

Day 4: critique morning. Talking about the nature of light and being conscious of where portrait light exists, especially using screens, and ensuring handlers watching the light as they hold the panels.

Lunching and Dining @ Nordic Light

Day three 9/5 – Beginning of Critique discussion: Bringing out the subject. Really getting in and taking control. I asked to what extent celebrities are knowledgeable about the photographic process, and whether it makes sense to describe that activity. But Greg points out, from plenty of experience, that the celebrity form creates certain conditions on a continuum that stretches toward insecurity or solitude especially since celebrity folks do have experience in front of the camera.

Greg is one of the few persons I do not bother arguing with because the presence of his empiricism is so full and broad, it is simply good knowledge.

Using Lightroom in moderation. Clarity –

Day two 9/4 – End of Critique discussion: A general discussion about what constitutes photography versus graphic design, and where the line is in determining the differences. What I find interesting is the emphasis Greg places on photographers and high-concept artists, for example, and little discussion of magazine editors, art gallery owners, and all what constitutes the industry decision makers (similar to academic worlds of peer reviewers determining disciplinary boundary).

Critique: Finding areas of interesting light – tips and techniques. Talking about portraits. Introduction to Light Room and beginning to see some differences between Leicas, Canons, Nikons.

Greg Gorman reads a long quote written by Rob Carr, professional retoucher: “We can split an atom to light a city or destroy a city” – as a quote is applied to discuss photographic Light Room retouching, in a refractal kind of way, in attempt to make the image meet the human experience. Retouching influences the viewer on where to look, and does not affect an artificiality of the logic of the camera [paraphrase of the quote]. “Does Placido Dominigo’s clenched fist underscoring a [musical point represent an artificial contribution]?”.

Working in the Realm of Celebrity

Day One.

9/3: Greg Gorman. Need to spend time, break down the barriers and building a relationship with the subjects you shoot, working as a team. Taking 15 to 20 minutes to take the shot. Spend 15 minutes setting up the shot, lighting, getting things calm, and then have your 5 minutes to take your shot. Single point light source in most cases, and additive, higher ISOs with LCDs.
An introductory treatise on the courage to take risks in the role of creativity and to withhold the commercial response so strongly present in our lives, e.g., 20 years ago, Greg would shoot Tom Waits over a 10 hour period, whereas, last year for the London Times, he was given 30 minutes (in a Chinese restaurant in L.A.). Talking about his covers for Interview Magazine. The power of celebrity and familiarity (showing images of Bet Midler, Tom Cruise, Schwarzenegger, Jagger, Basinger, Coster). Shooting motion picture campaigns, Tootsie, Big Chill, Meet Joe Black, Pearl Harbor (a couple hundred movie posters).

Never listen to whatever anyone has to say about the person your taking photos of, just use your own judgment and you have no idea about what anyone is going through at any one time, e.g., Al Pacino on the set of Scarface. Finding models that are exceptional for style (e.g., Bruce Weber). Finding personal subject matter versus the commercial drive. Taking a lot of work when you young, because it is available. Commercial assignments maintaining the integrity of personal style.
As Gorman shows us, his career spans back to the late 1960s, and has included photographing Everyone. When you are doing your work, the layout, design, you have to maintain control. You have to direct the project to the final form. When shooting, walk 360 degrees around the subject to see what starts to make sense. Greg also presented images taken on streets in South Asia which represent quite a contrast to the familiarity of his celebrity photos.

Critiques of images coming up now, with professional comments by Greg on images we have given him for initial assessment. Soon to breaking out in two groups, lighting, models, infrastructure.

Critique #1: tonality matching skin tone, bringing more edge in the picture. Stressing not centering images. Moving images out of center. What is in the image that does not add anything to the photograph. Cropping: crop the images for the images, don’t compromise the integrity. Move more closely into the subjects. Getting rid of as much excess as you can. The more you can move (draw) the person into the image the better (vs. Mary Ellen Marc who privileges surrounding). Strengthening the image.
Critique #2: my photographs. Good composition. Balance of frame is fine. Filling the frame with information. Look for horizon lines.
Critique #3: Kicking light up into the eyes; squaring off eyes; shaving light off bald heads tops to cut down attention.
Critique #4: Push your black points to retain depth, because losing three-dimensions is common when moving to a two-dimensional world. Look for cropping and shifting to black and white.
Critique #5: You don’t want to give up information but if it is distracting from the subject you need to crop it.
Critique #6: When you’re the photographer, you know the subject, the context, the situation – and the work is to make the photograph create the context after being truncated from its historical condition. When there is an abrupt lack of information our eye dismisses it, so you have to bring things into view.

How to see light – never be able to do better, than to understand single point light (natural) – pay attention to how light drifts off, and how much is available, and hitting the subject. Watch ratio of lighting.

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Bodø Salted

Posted in Paparazzi Ethnography, tagged Bodø, Sandhornøy on August 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Sandhornøy – Salt

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norge

Posted in Paparazzi Ethnography, tagged Tromsø on August 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

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Helsinki

Posted in Paparazzi Ethnography, tagged Helsinki on June 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Art of Recycling

7/8: I had the pleasure this week of working with potential U Helsinki postdoctoral researcher Daria Gritsenko, now PhD candidate (filed dissertation May and expecting degree October), who is studying geopolitics of Finnish and Russian maritime fuel transportation and port authority public sector administration (St. Petersburg, Viborg, Primorsk).

Our cultures of expertise collaborative research came by an introduction of her advisor, Dr. Veli–Pekka Tynkkynen, U Helsinki Professor in Russian Energy Policy at Aleksanteri Institute and Department of Social Research.

Daria skills includes identifying the integrity of phrases within sentence structure, providing a stiffening-of-the-neck experience when listening to her commentary regarding clarity at critical junctures across the page.

As with previous project description drafts we worked with, many of the items that have been sitting there — as if on proud display — through the critique of Daria, now appear as sunbathers, as if loafing on the page instead of taking initiative on the actual existing project.

It is an art of recycling.

From the special attention we now gather the following insight on correct scientific etiquette for deliberation toward future project research:

Item (1) the expert brings with her a vocabulary that in-advance represents an organically direct connection between empirical (or worldly) experience and firm grasp of the disciplinary register;

Item (2) there must be some total grasp of the object of focus from which present discussion goes forth, and thus, from now on, we impose acute requirements for having done one’s homework prior to meeting at hand.

Item (3) we impose a (likely voracious) appetite for improvement with all its requisite of personal preference of will to improve, that is, undiminished by insecurity, ambivalence, or cynicism.

Oh bother. The main luxury here is just…what inspiration when working alongside true collaborators and, of course, the joy of the work itself – to open up space with time to work through the details of research.

Bravo!

Thank you, again, Daria!

Wooden Entrance: Academy of Finland

7/7: A meeting at Academy of Finland, Culture and Society Research Unit with Science Adviser, Dr. Satu Hiiha-Cissokho, Hakaniemenranta 6.

Fascination with walking up wooden steps to a steel and glass building that houses state administrative functions. There, right in front of the modern structure rises the smell of old-world pinewood lumber baking under the summer sun.

Somewhere buried in this blog are references to Martin Heidegger‘s appeal to (wooden, leather) materials that take affect of human presence, what Dr. Nuccio Mazzullo instructed as the location where “human action comes into focus”.

A sentiment perhaps belonging to memories from anyone’s guess of what a high-altitude (Squaw Valley) or, in this case, high-latitude household wooden-deck-feeling can taste like after the complete thaw of winter snow — all the while, now cracking in summer splendor.

Is it no surprise that the Academy of Finland entrance does not double as a sunbathing platform?

Hot summers are a serious issue.

For me, the official “Finnish Summer” takes place on the 8th floor of the Stockmann Department store in the center of Helsinki — a culturally important shopping experience, according to the continuous intercom service announcement wafting inside of the building.

Nevertheless.

Most folks seek out a strip of pine deck upon which to lie, sun, and laze. Behold, the bitty quay located just minutes stroll from Academy of Finland.

Inside the building, I was presented with a ready-made security badge printed prior to my arrival.

The building lieutenants offered me directions for taking a seat in waiting rooms where several types of chairs to choose from lay about, providing me with a typical entrance experience [note to self].

Inside the conference room, a wall-hanging bronze plaque with the engraving Academy of Finland [Suomen Akatemia in Finnish] provided a moment of reflection.

Satu was quite generous with her time. She has special knowledge about European Research Council (ERC) operations, meaning that she belongs to a rarefied class of person living today across Europe who can actually make contact with a real-life person inside the ERC building in Brussels.

It was with great pleasure and humility that the meeting took place at all.

Satu invited me to an opportunity to think carefully about submissions to ERC, and also, to take some photographs of our meeting location. Academy of Finland recently moved into this wooden entranced steel glass building, now occupying two entire floors.

In the end, wondering aloud during dinner over the unique design feature that is visible at street level from the appearance of lines drawn on glass from the outside of the building, I thought about whether it curtails the view from inside, when looking out on the Helsinki landscape.

It is an empirical question. The image above provides a measure of affirmative confirmation.

Yellow Interiors: Aleksanteri Institute

It is always a pleasure to meet with Anna Korhonen, Aleksanteri Institute administrator of research and grants. We shared several hours brainstorming over Marie Curie ideas in true collaborative spirit.

In the conversation, we turned to the specificity of expertise held by consultants, posing to ourselves the question: what is their basic trick, for example, in guiding knowledge to users for developing projects?

Speaking frankly, the added value of Aya van den Kroonenberg (apart from her cool name) is the ability to separate the clutter from the object at hand and to create a sanctified space where only practical activity and the art of focus can narrow the distance between oneself and objects of inquiry.

It is a rarefied talent that as social science researchers contemplating such things in the hallways of Aleksanteri Institute, made us tittle as we held our heads in wonder.