Photos: The Dust Bowl 1930’s USA

The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to prairie lands in the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by severe drought combined with farming methods that did not include crop rotation or other techniques such as soil terracing and wind-breaking trees to prevent wind erosion.

During the drought of the 1930s, without natural anchors to keep the soil in place, it dried, turned to dust, and blew away with the prevailing winds. At times, the clouds blackened the sky, reaching all the way to East Coast cities such as New York and Washington, D.C….more

In this March 25, 1935 file photo, children cover their faces during a swirling dust storm while pumping water in Springfield, Colo. The Dust Bowl was manmade, born of bad farming techniques across millions of acres in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. Now, even as bad as the drought is in some of those same states, soil conservation practices developed in the aftermath of the Dust Bowl have kept the nightmarish storms from recurring. (AP Photo, File)

Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Arthur Rothstein

Son of farmer in dust bowl area in Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Photo by Arthur Rothstein

Title: Four families, three of them related with fifteen children, from the Dust Bowl in Texas in an overnight roadside camp near Calipatria, California
Creator(s): Lange, Dorothea, photographer

See the rest of these astonishing pictures here on The Denver Post website

Steve McCurry – India a photography exhibition London

At The Chris Beetles galley until February there is an exhibition of Steve McCurry’s images from India. I would say a bit of a must for anyone interested in portrait, travel, street or humanitarian photography.

Chris Beetles Fine Photographs

3-5 Swallow Street, London, W1B 4DE

Full details here

Pictures of the Week: December 29, 2012

Pictures of the Week is a Denver Post Plog that gathers the strongest photojournalism from around the world.

See more from this stunning gallery here

Brass Bands, an Indian wedding tradition, photographs from The Denver Post

The wedding season in India lasts for four months. During wedding celebrations the bridegroom’s family normally hires a brass band service to play at the wedding procession, in which the groom’s family dances all the way to the wedding venue where the bride’s family waits to receive them. The members of the band come together during the wedding season to perform and earn $10-12 per wedding

Singh, member of a brass band, pauses as his other members perform during a wedding procession in New Delhi

Members of the brass band play as fireworks are set off during a wedding procession in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi December 11, 2012.  Picture taken December 11, 2012.    REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal

Atar Singh, 45, a member of a brass band, pauses as his other members perform during a wedding procession in New Delhi December 7, 2012.   Picture taken December 7, 2012.    REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal

See all from this gallery on The Denver Post pblogs here

Steve McCurry app

If you have an iphone or ipad then get this app. It is a collection of Steve’s most memorable portraits and a video of the great man talking about his work. Not only will it help you to kill those bored moments it will also improve your photography just by getting you to look at great photographs every so often

Here is the link you need

Whilst you are at the app store you might also want to check out the excellent Fotopedia Women here is a link to that

you should also have a look at the Fotopedia Heritage, a whole library of pictures from heritage sites around the world. Going somewhere interesting check out what you will see there, even better upload your own pictures here is the link for that