Avenida Soledad, Havana, Cuba, 2018. © Michel Botman Photography
Sesenta años de soledad (Photo gallery)
The Republic of Cuba was born following the ousting of the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in January 1959, a year of particular personal significance. Since then it has endured sixty years of diplomatic isolation under US embargo. Sixty years of solitude …
Do not ask what freedom can do for you …
To women in Paris, New York, Brussels, London – or Ottawa on “Hijab day” – who lawfully claim the freedom to wear the burqa or the niqab, I would say: Think very carefully, not only about your individual rights, in our free, liberal societies, but indeed about your collective responsibility towards fellow Muslim women around the world who don’t have such rights.
You should all examine cautiously this not-so-innocuous symbol of oppression, because if you don’t see anything wrong with the niqab today, then what will you say tomorrow, when, once again, a young Muslim girl is disfigured, stoned to death or murdered by her own father for choosing to dress in a “too westerly fashion?”
You can’t have it both ways. Freedom and responsibility are forever intertwined. You can’t advance ideals of equality, freedom, tolerance and women’s rights by embracing a symbol that unequivocally stands against them.
To paraphrase JFK, I would venture to say: “Do not ask what freedom can do for you, … but what you can do for freedom!”
15 year old Lisa Borch sentenced in September 2015 to nine years imprisonment after stabbing her mother to death. (Screen capture via YouTube)
Few stories could be more heartbreaking than the story of Lisa Borch, the tragically misguided teen from Denmark, victimized for years by Muslim men twice her age, abused, manipulated, brainwashed and ultimately programmed to kill. The story of two victims fatally wounded by religious intolerance – a bleeding mother and a broken daughter.
Yet, the very same day emerged another story, in the heart of old Europe – a story of women standing up courageously for their rights and liberties.
Diametrically opposed stories of despair and defiance.
Gerard Harris. Let’s Start a County! Tarragon Theatre, Toronto July 2015, © Michel Botman Photography
A Wimbledon Final of the spoken word.
Gare Centrale sous la pluie. Brussels, circa 1980. © Michel Botman Photography.
— C’est une histoire de grands hommes. Une histoire triste qui se murmure. Une histoire comme d’autres qui font l’Histoire. Comme celles qui soufflent sur les braises et sur nos âmes. Comme celles qui font craquer les digues à Scheveningen. À Scheveningen, petit. Continue reading
Pride of Israel, 2013 © Michel Botman Photography
Commentaries on the all-so-important theological article published in The Times of Israel on April 17, 2015: Is kosher switch really kosher for Shabbat?
“It’s my country …” Schoolkids taking a ride home at the back of a construction truck. On the road to Esmeralda. Ecuador, October 2014. © Michel Botman Photography
I travelled through Ecuador with my friend Gary a few weeks ago. On the bus from Otavalo to Esmeralda, a young man was sitting alone on the bench right in front of us. In his early twenties, short hair in a Mohawk, he was drinking beer after beer, burping loudly and tossing can after can through the window, along the Andean roads that meandered towards the coast. Continue reading
“The Shadow of a Doubt.” Self Portrait of an Agnostic. © Michel Botman Photography 1980, north49exposure.com
After resisting for years the song of the sirens, I reluctantly took the plunge on facebook yesterday. Isolation from distant friends and family “de la vielle Europe” got the better of me. I longed for the bond, although virtual and cyberspaced. As I duly filled out my on-line profile, I stumbled on the “What is your religion?” question. I usually give two responses to that rather inquisitive and unattainable query – both equally true and agnostically defensible: Continue reading
Self Portrait, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 2012. © Copyright Michel Botman Photography
Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with a small cancer. Nothing major at all. Nothing grand. A pesky malignant nodule, the size of a shriveled plum, sitting insidiously over my Thyroid was surgically removed. It took a bit of a toll on me, but I am much better now, thank you. I am, as medical professionals peremptorily declared; “in remission” – suspended temporarily between life and death, as we all are, most often in blissful denial.
Michel and Noah, Toronto Island, 2001 (© Copyright Michel Botman Photography)
Sometimes, one goes back in time, searching for memories. This 15-year old story is for Noah:
Canon EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM, f/8.0, 1/125s, ISO 2500. Copyright Michel Botman Photography ©
Since I often get questions about the equipment I use, I have decided to embark on a quick practical comparison of my favorite Canon L lenses; the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM, and EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM.
Young South African Supporter. Cape Town, 2011. Copyright Michel Botman Photography ©
A few weeks ago, on the way to school, Jesse, one of the many bright kids in our carpool, and our son Noah were discussing Machiavellianism. Jesse made a particularly interesting and surprising comment on human nature and political systems.
The invisibility of the ubiquitous
Ai Weiwei exhibition, AGO, Toronto 2013. Copyright Michel Botman Photography ©
I have started exploring the iPhone as an on-the-go option for personal documentary work. I recently took a couple of interesting images with an iPhone 5, roving the Bowie and Ai WeiWei exhibitions, at the AGO, and Rick Mercer Report show at the CBC. The results were rather surprising …
By Noah Botman
Juvenile Olive Ridley turtle, Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. © Michel Botman Photography, 2013.
In July 2013, I was fortunate to travel to Costa Rica with my family to experience the incredible biodiversity in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
michel botman
