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Photo: Bob Shell

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Bob Shell

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……….Nothing new to report on my case. But I really don’t expect to get a ruling from the court until around the middle of the year. Courts move at their own speed, and the general rule seems to be the longer the better, because that means they are actually considering everything. My case generated a massive amount of paperwork, and the court must go through all of it to consider my claims.

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I got a letter the other day from one of the models who worked with me on the bondage book back in 2003-04. She said she got to wondering about what had happened to me and did a Google search and found out where I am. Like every model I ever worked with, she knows that I am not guilty. I told her about TWS and suggested that she post here about what it was like to work with me, so maybe she will.

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One lawyer I know made the point that the cops and prosecution had from June 2003 until my trial in August of 2007 to search for any model I worked with who would say anything negative about me. They couldn’t find anyone. If I really had been the serial molestor they portrayed me as being, they ought to have been able to find at least one of my earlier victims, but they found no one. That should have meant something to the jury. I don’t think they really thought things through and simply voted with a knee-jerk reaction.

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I also don’t think the jury understood how sentencing works. Not one of the sentences they gave me was very long, and I believe they assumed that all of them would run concurrently. Indeed, running sentences concurrently is the norm. But in Virginia the judge makes that decision, not the jury, and the jury can’t even be told that they have the option to recommend concurrent sentences. My judge ignored the VA sentencing guidelines and ran my sentences consecutively. The guidelines called for 1 1/2 to 3 years. But the Virginia guidelines are merely recommendations, they carry no force, and judges routinely ignore them. I don’t know why they even bother to have guidelines.

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If the jury in a state of Virginia case asks the judge if sentences will be run concurrently or consecutively, the judge will tell them that it is none of their concern! The jury is not allowed to know!! But the law requires that jurors be fully informed prior to their deliberations. None of this makes any sense, since a jury can intend a light sentence and a judge can arbitrarily convert it into a very long sentence. The more research I do on this, the less sense it makes.

About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author and former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Center, Pocahontas, Virginia for involuntary manslaughter for the death of one of his models, Marion Franklin. He is currently working on his appeal.
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Editor’s Note: To read more letters from prison by Bob Shell, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click the green icon. To learn more about the case log on to www.BobShellTruth.com.

William Burroughs

Posted on May 11, 2012

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In 1972, Rolling Stone magazine sent me and writer Robert Palmer to London to do a feature article on William S. Burroughs. William greeted us cordially; despite his outlaw reputation, he was a complete gentleman. We stayed a week, and had a terrific time. We also met Brion Gysin (William’s closest friend), who showed us his “Dream Machine,” a revolving flicker device that caused visual fireworks in the viewer’s brain. Bob and I also enjoyed Burroughs’ awesome intelligence and his controversial ideas about addiction, conditioning, and control.

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Photo: Charles Gatewood

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Rolling Stone loved our article, and made me their New York photographer (they were based in San Francisco) later that year.
In 1975, Crawdaddy magazine asked me to photograph Burroughs and Jimmy Page as they interviewed each other. Burroughs was back in America now, and we met in his downtown Manhattan loft. Burroughs disliked being photographed, but he remembered me and was warm and friendly, even giving my camera a rare grin.

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Photo: Charles Gatewood

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In 1975, William Burroughs wrote the text for my first book, Sidetripping. I was so thrilled. Shortly thereafter, Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas. I never saw him again. He died in 1997 at the age of 83. By introducing my photography to the world, William Burroughs changed my life, big time. Thank you so much, William!

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Photo: Charles Gatewood

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Photo: Charles Gatewood

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Last year I published Burroughs 23, a handmade artist’s book with DanaDanaDana, a noted San Francisco art book publisher. Burroughs 23 contains all the best photos from both my NYC and London shoots. To view the book (and the boxed set of my Burroughs prints), go to www.Burroughs23.com.

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Photo: Charles Gatewood

Editor’s Note: To learn more about Charles Gatewood’s work log on, www.CharlesGatewood.com

Photo: Ryan Feit

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Ryan Feit

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……….Entrepreneurship used to be setting up a large factory. It used to be knocking on doors for months to convince a bank or wealthy investors to provide you millions of dollars before you could operate. But everything we know about entrepreneurship is changing. This is what Entrepreneurship looks like today.

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Photo: Ryan Feit

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Today, all you need to build is a laptop. The computer has replaced the hammer and the Internet has replaced the assembly line. The cost to create has declined exponentially.

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Photo: Ryan Feit

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Only one thing remains constant. It’s all about the team. The right team can operate like a heat-seeking missile, varying its path in a rapidly changing landscape in order to succeed. Nowadays teams are more agile and can work together from across the globe.

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Photo: Ryan Feit

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SeedInvest will change the game. For the first time in history, entrepreneurs don’t need to knock on doors to find and convince the 1% to invest in them. They will be able to pitch millions at once and raise small amounts from lots of people.

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SeedInvest empowers entrepreneurs to raise capital in a way that has never been done before. Convince “The Crowd” and fund your business. Fail and you’ll know your idea wasn’t worthy.

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Photo: Ryan Feit

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For the first time in 80 years, anyone will be able to invest in the new restaurant down the street or the next hot startup. SeedInvest is about the 99%. You don’t need to be rich, you just need a computer. Join us at seedinvest.com.

About The Author: Ryan Feit is enrolled in the MBA program: Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

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Editor’s Note: To read more articles by Ryan Feit, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.

Vietnamese Poster

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Toan Nguyen

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In this series, I explored the contrast between the country where I’m originally from, Vietnam and America. There exist two different regimes in each country. Vietnam is a communist regime while America is a capitalist country. Although very different in its governmental and social structure, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a single-party state. The central role of the Communist Party was reasserted in all organs of government, politics and society. Only political organizations affiliated with or endorsed by the Communist Party are permitted to contest elections. These include the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, worker and trade unionist parties.

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Vietnam

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The authoritative government maintains its power using various methods including propaganda. Propaganda posters can be seen everywhere on the streets of Vietnam. Posters provided one of the few effective means for the Government to communicate directly with the predominantly rural population of the country. The overall theme that many of these posters accentuate, is that Communism is the best form of government and ideology to ever exist. For example, the text in the first image translates “The Party is hope, the Party is intellect”. The symbol of hammer and sickle appear on almost every propaganda poster in Vietnam, representing Communist ideology.

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Vietnamese Soldier

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The solder in the photo stands to guard an army base. The Vietnamese army is occasionally deployed to disperse a gathering crowd. Thus this soldier represents force in the Vietnamese government way of maintaining power.

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Times Square NYC

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The next series of photos were shot in America. The first shot was taken at Times Square in New York. This location is widely known for massive billboards and banners. Times Square thus epitomizes the heart of capitalism, in which the audience is bombarded with advertisements, a form of propaganda. This therefore raises interesting questions of whether or not there is a stark difference between Vietnam and America because one uses propaganda to maintain power, and the other uses it to sell products – yet the method and effect on the populous are pretty much the same.

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Occupy

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The fifth photo was captured during the Occupy Wall Street movement. The OWS protests are against social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial services sector. Their slogan “We are the 99%”, addresses the growing income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. This movement which this photo captures, questions the effectiveness of capitalism.

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Protestors

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The final photograph in the series depicts two women with their lips sealed. The sign in front of them reads “No Money, No Voice”. This message conveys a lack of freedom of speech and also raises questions of whether there is a difference between communism and capitalism as freedom of speech is absent in both regimes.

About The Author: Toan Nguyen is a freshman enrolled in the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Class of 2015.

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Editor’s Note: To read more articles by Toan Nguyen, go to the search bar at the of the page: enter name and click green icon.

Summer Palace Reflection

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Karl Gerchow

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……….My trip recently to China provided an opportunity to explore two cities – Shanghai and Beijing – largely through the lens of my camera. I specifically wanted to observe and capture images and scenes that normally escape my notice on trips such as this. I’m am avid traveler – and was one even before business school – however taking a camera with me everywhere on a trip, crouching down, leaning, or contorting my body to get the right shot was a new way to experience a city for me.

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Wuzhen

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I soon settled on a concept where a reflection, projection, or echo was an integral part of the image, if not the image in its entirety. Throughout the trip, I was left in awe of the speed of China’s progress and economic activity that we have all heard so much about. However, through this trip it became clear to me that this development has come at significant cost: traditional buildings are being torn down without an appreciation for historic value, pollution is rampant, and the country-side is little more than patches of green paddies between sprawling mega-cities.

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My first image, “Gardens of Nurtured Harmony” is an inverted reflection through a pond of the Emperor’s Summer Palace (the title of this photo being its literal name in Mandarin) in the outskirts of Beijing. It reflects the China of old, rich in culture and historical significance. Much like the Forbidden City, this palace was off-limits to all but the Emperor and his immediate family, leaving outsiders like the shadow in the bottom right of this picture left to wonder what lay beyond.

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My second image, taken in Wuzhen – a small water town in the outskirts of Shanghai – again captures the China of old, but this time a manufactured one. In an effort to show foreigners what these water towns looked like prior to being displaced by sprawling apartment complexes, the Chinese government restored a village to what it would have looked liked several hundred years ago. I have done my part, editing for age.

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French Quarter Lamp

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The third image is the shadow of a European-styled lamp taken in the French Concession in Shanghai on the tail end of a sunny day. Shanghai was one of the few places in China (Hong Kong aside of course), that saw colonial powers bring trade and cultural influence to its doorstep. The street names in the concession, once in French, have all been reverted to Mandarin, but shadows of the neighborhood’s past remain.

Development Blur

“Development Blur” was taken on a high-speed rail while traveling at 190 mph through the Chinese “country-side”. The train stands as an example of China’s achievements, but also provides insight into the level of over-development China has seen in the last decade. Sadly, in a 5 hour train ride from Beijing to Shanghai, this industrial landscape was 80% of the view.

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Lost of Translation

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My fifth image, titled Lost of Translation, was taken through a revolving door leading out of a bank in Shanghai. English or any other language other than Mandarin for that matter, is rarely spoken in China, and so communicating with others can be particularly difficult or frustrating. This warning sign shows how difficult it can be to understand even images across cultures. I had no idea what was being conveyed here. More importantly, in this shot I show what Shanghai is to China – the future, modern and new, but relegated to look like every other modern first-world city I’ve been to. This could very well have been taken in Paris, Cape Town, Tokyo, New York, or Buenos Aires.

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They say everything comes at a price, and in the case of China’s rapid rise to industrialization, that price has been paid dearly by the environment. Perhaps it is because I am from Costa Rica, a country that inches along the development scale but which defends its environment vehemently, that I found the ecological impact of this rapid development so troublesome.

About The Author: Karl Gerchow is enrolled in the MBA program: Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

A Life Left Behind

Posted on April 20, 2012

Machu Picchu

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Dan Liu

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I still remember my interest in Peru started from a Machu Picchu jigsaw puzzle; a birthday present from my parents when I was little. Since then I have always been dreaming to travel to this seemingly unreachable country, and feel the mysterious Inca culture. A number of pictures were taken in Cusco, the place that used to be the capital of the Inca Empire: a place that witnessed the history of Inca. The city itself feels like a textbook, you can learn a lot about Peru and Inca culture from it – if you are modest enough.

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Cusco

I was attracted by the balcony in the above photo and the design of the side of the building when spontaneiously just when I was about to take a picture – two Peruvian women in traditional clothes entered the cameras view. This beautiful painting in front of me almost brought me back to 500 years ago – until I realized that one of them was talking on a cell phone.

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Rail Station

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My curiosity led me to see the rails that used to take people from Cusco to Machu Picchu directly. The service was stopped a few years ago due to a flood. Even though I almost missed my flight because of this unplanned adventure, I was very happy that I made it. This is the only train that connects Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town) to the outside world. It told me another story about Cusco and Peru. My favorite picture of Cusco was the Cathedral of Cusco. The construction began in 1550 and was completed a century later. Even though it is considered one of the most splendid Spanish colonial churches in the Americas – you can still find the Inca vestiges through the non-Christian imagery that is carved on the main entrance door: figures of Pumas, the Inca representation of the Earth.

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Cathedral of Cusco

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Hostal

About The Author: Dan Liu is enrolled in the MBA program: Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Adachi: March for Trayvon Martin

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Ryun Hobbs

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……….On March 26, The 1,000,000 Hoodie March was held in honor of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old boy shot and killed a month prior on February 26, 2012. There is still much confusion and accusation surrounding his case – such as whether the shooter, George Zimmerman, was chasing after Trayvon, or if there was an altercation. However, some facts are undeniable. There is a 17-year old who is dead and a big reason is because his hoodie made him look “suspicious. Communities of all racial and social groups throughout the nation became enraged at this unjustified murder, demanding that justice be served. This is a series of photos taken before the arrest of George Zimmerman, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Trayvon march.

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I first saw this woman pushing a baby stroller while holding the march poster in the early stages of the procession. Adachi (Adachi.photography@gmail.com) is no stranger to protests, having photographed many of them herself. Her passion for capturing the essence of justice, however, does not stop her from being a caring mother. Both of her children accompanied her as they made a stand together.

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Skittes and Juice

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Some people never are content with sitting back and staying silent. This woman is such a person – she is “armed” with the Skittles and iced tea that Trayvon also possessed at his death, but she is also armed with her voice. Her numerous badges, like military ribbons, flash ceremoniously in the sunlight, making statements about the different inequalities in the world.

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March for Trayvon

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Despite his tough exterior, this man is a peaceful giant. Holding up his sign with extreme ease, he calls for the end of violence and the beginning of peace. “Children are our future,” the sign says, and the image of the shaking hands between cannot help but evoke memories of the late Doctor M. L. King, who had dreamed long ago of a community that rose above racial tension.

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March for Trayvon

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Protesting is almost never a solitary thing. Here, a family expresses their dissatisfaction together, bound to each other not only by their blood but by their mission. It is often easy to forget about murder victims’ families when first learning of the case, but seeing this family and their signs made me wonder how the Martin family Is faring. Condolences go out to them for their loss.

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Love

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As seen in the pictures above, advocates for justice and equality come in all shapes and sizes – spanning multiple ethnic and age differences. After all, we are all a community that must stick together when it is necessary. What keeps everyone together is a bit of anger, a bit of dissatisfaction, and a lot of love – for each other, for the victims, and for what is right.

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R.I.P. Trayvon Martin

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Not everyone’s voice is always heard, but many want to try whatever they can to make their stand as strong as possible. Here, two people sign large canvases of the late Trayvon Martin, which were delivered to his family after the march. Although it may not be a protest sign, it is still a testament to the expectation of receiving equal rights, instead of stereotyped caricatures.

About The Author: Ryun H. Hobbs is a senior enrolled in the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Class of 2012

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Editor’s Note: To read more articles by Ryun Hobbs, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.

Ryan Feit: Cuba

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Ryan Feit

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……….Make no mistake, times are hard in Cuba. Cuba has been frozen in time for the last 50 years. As a result, Cubans have struggled through countless bouts of famine, rations, and crises. The economy collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union and has been in a downward spiral ever since.

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The older Cubans believe the Socialist propaganda they read in the papers. They seem completely unaware that the world has evolved since 1960. They argue about world events from decades ago and assume that mobile phones and the Internet are simply science fiction.

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Ryan Feit: Cuba

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The architecture is timelessly breathtaking and is evidence of its storied history. However, the houses and apartments have been washed away by time, exposing the real Cuba.

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Yet despite the relentless challenges, the people endure. Music carries the Cuban people just as it has for decades. Havana moves to a collective Salsa beat which puts a smile on the face of even the poorest Cuban.

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Cuba: Ryan Feit

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And they work with what they have. You won’t hear a single complaint that once again it’s a pulled pork sandwich for lunch and rice and beans for dinner.

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Ryan Feit: Cuba

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But the younger generation is excited for the future. They stand up tall, realizing they posses something special. They know that the time is getting close now and they are ready to reveal themselves to the world.

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Ryan Feit: Cuba

Photos by Ryan Feit: Copyright 2012

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About The Author: Ryan Feit is enrolled in the MBA program: Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

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Editor’s Note: To read more articles by Ryan Feit, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.