As the official information technology partner of the 12th IAAF World Championship in Athletics, Epson is going to organise a number of exciting events that coincide with this world championship to be held in Berlin from the 15th to the 23rd of August 2009. This is the seventh time that the printing giant is sponsoring this international event since 1997.

The IAAF World Championship will feature over two thousand top athletes from more than two hundred countries and looks set to become the largest sporting event of this year with an estimated total of more than 6.5 billion viewers across the globe and 500,000 on-site spectators.

The Berlin Olympic Stadium is the setting for the world championship which will also play host to the final phase of the 700km charity run to be organised and sponsored by Epson. This charity run will be held prior to the world event and will start from Epson’s German headquarters in Meerbusch.  Epson is also planning to organise special 'behind the scenes' tours for journalists and give out prizes for the IAAF Fantasy Athletics game and other in-stadium competitions.

The main highlight of these events though will see Epson dramatically transform Boulevard Unter den Linden, one of Berlin's main access roads into a giant street gallery, displaying a stunning collection of international photographs from the world of athletics, captured by some of the most famous photographers of the past 125 years. These photographs will be printed as 200cm x 135cm high quality images by using Epson’s top-end large format printer, the Stylus Pro GS6000.

Drawing a parallel between Epson’s commitment and the dedication of international athletes, Andrea Koepfer, Manager Corporate PR & Sponsoring EMEA, Epson Europe, said: "Just as the athletes drive themselves to exceed ever higher targets, we are dedicated to providing products and services that exceed the expectations of our customers. Coordinating the IT systems for such a major event relies on speed, accuracy and reliability – a challenge that provides the perfect opportunity for Epson to showcase its innovative imaging and printing technology."

As the IT partner of the championship, Epson will supply advanced technology like high precision, touch-screen commentator information systems (CIS) and the Epson performance evaluation system (EPE) to enhance the flow of information to commentators, journalists and athletes. The state-of-the-art systems will provide instant access to performance data, statistics and results at the touch of a finger.

The Epson performance evaluation system will generate three-dimensional analysis of the placement of athletes' feet on the take-off board for the long jump and the length of the hop, step and jump phases of the triple jump. This information will be used for TV graphics and to update the commentator information system.

Featuring the work of photojournalist Arul Horizon, “Off the Rings” was like bringing the circus back to life.

A circus has a life of its own and Arul Horizon’s photographs portrayed the art form in all its glory.

The exhibition showcased different moods of circus artists captured by Horizon – principal photographer with The Indian Express – over four years across various circus venues. The striking picture collection looks deeper into the seemingly alluring life of circus artists.
 
According to Horizon, “The 75 photographs in a way show the real picture of the circus group ‘Rambo’.” Horizon has captured the numerous facets exceptionally well. In his hunt to capture the intricate details of the busy lives and emotions of these artists, Horizon accompanied them all the way to Surat.

The photographs take the viewers behind the circus curtains once the show is over and the lights are off. They provide a vivid depiction of the hard work and sufferings that these artists endure to entertain the audience. Horizon recalls, “I was amazed when one of the clowns was down with an illness on show day but still went out in the ring and left the audience in splits. There was a couple who rushed to the ring for their performance minutes after their wedding. I was deeply touched when I came across a trapeze artist who had to now slip into the apparel of a joker because he broke his back while performing.”

Ryan Lobo recounts the horrors of filming documentaries in three conflict zones.

"If the Taliban attacks you, we will defend you to the death," says the Afghan poppy farmer via our translator.

"But there are just a few of you," I reply.

"Yes... we will all die if they come, definitely, 100 per cent."

When I recount this anecdote to a table at Koshy's, everyone laughs and the conversation turns back to how all the pubs close at 11.30pm these days, how Bangalore's going back to the stone age, and what we must do to fight this Draconian measure (someone suggests we stage a protest at Queen's Statue).

In 2007, I had the opportunity to travel to three "war" zones - Iraq, Afghanistan and Liberia - while making documentary films and taking photos for various clients.

I met survivors and killers, aid workers and impoverished, broken people in countries steeped in suffering, war and violence. I had long conversations with men who had committed the most unspeakable crimes. Most of the time, I spent long hours in these places, waiting and doing nothing.

Conflict zones can be stressful, and it's not always bullets or bombs that I was troubled by. There were the auxiliary stresses of working in environments of fear and distrust; corrupt cops; bureaucracies; 19-year-old Texans with 50 calibre machine guns and road rage issues; the stresses of dealing with people who secretly wish with all their hearts that they could see you on a grainy YouTube video getting your head sawed off; worst of all, perhaps, working alongside people with entirely different world views (read: moronic) on intense and complicated subjects - "Yeah, I say we draw a line down the middle of Eye-Raq, and split the goddamn country into two - one half for them Soo-nees and one half for them Shee-yas!"

Huge amounts of money are spent on films and photos that often end up as slickly-edited, politically-motivated trope; they are not really close to the truth as one experiences it. Questioning one’s purpose and integrity is essential and I often feel I may have been compromised in subtle ways – easy to discuss away and rationalise, to keep deadlines, manage within budgets or please demanding clients. Sometimes I question my purpose in having gone to these places. The process does not end, especially if the finished documentary film is mediocre or worse, edited far away from the field, by people who have never left their cities, in a construct where advertising revenue and ratings are of paramount importance. I prefer photography to film, which leaves one in control to a great extent.

What resonates in quiet moments – sometimes months or years after a shoot – are the people whom I worked with or interacted with in some cases, very briefly: the people you bond with; eat with; promise eternal friendship to; see at the corner of your eye while speeding past. And then desert. They come in all shapes and sizes: drivers and security contractors, little girls in desolate villages far removed from a chance of education, former mass murderers with compassion and an understanding of human nature beyond the ordinary, simple acts of kindness from people who have suffered immensely, and other more abstract and intangible experiences. I often come away from these encounters with a sense of guilt and cannot really explain why.

Most challenging to me are the looking-glass experiences of personal suffering, empathy or fear that one offers oneself. To have experienced environments of desolation, violence, loss and fear, and to return to animated discussions over dealing with terrorism at friends’ houses while they complain bitterly about the new pub timings, where a mojito costs more than what they pay their 14-year-old domestic help. Valid points about vacuous issues in exploitative and violent contexts.

The most depressing thing about working in conflict zones is not the fear of death. It is coming back home, and realising that the landscape of suffering is the same everywhere.It is seeing the same thing - perhaps, the seeds of the same thing - all around us, in our conversations, in our reactions and in myself.

On the positive side, I don't get stressed about most things that stress most people; I speak my mind, I enjoy traffic jams, as they provide me with time for stillness, I see humour in some pretty humourless situations and have stopped watching television, fact is, I have sold my TV.

I enjoy cooking my own breakfast and each morning sip my tea and look out of a window overlooking an old Bangalore cemetery I live next to for several quiet and enjoyable minutes. I exercise more and enjoy my food, music, time, family and friends because I am incredibly lucky, fortunate and blessed to have them.

Umeed Mistry is a nature lover, photographer, closet writer, scuba instructor and chocolate addict, with a deep and special affinity for the ocean.

Having learned to dive at the age of fifteen he has spent the last twelve years attempting to get as intimate as possible with the ocean and her children. Umeed’s journey into underwater photography began in 2005 while managing a dive centre on the little island of Bangaram in the Arabian Sea. The earlier years spent underwater, observing the movement of light and the behaviour of the magical creatures that inhabit this liquid realm, provided him with an almost instinctual aptitude for photographing life beneath the surface of the sea.

He was awarded the Better Photography Landscape Award for the image titled ‘Sipadan’, and went on to win the Better Photography Photographer of the Year 2007 Award for his panoramic depictions of Bangalore city.

Aside from bringing the beauty of the oceans to homes across India, Umeed uses his images to educate people about the fragility of marine habitats in the Indian Ocean. He has spent the last seven years diving extensively around the Lakshadweep islands in the Arabian Sea, the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the numerous islands of Malaysia and Indonesia.

A fish out of water in the metros, he stays connected to nature by creating environmental awareness curriculums, giving talks to school children and creating presentations on sustainability for the Indian Green Building Council. Umeed is happiest with a backpack or scuba tank strapped to his back, his eye looking through the lens of a camera.

The images in this collection have been photographed in the oceans around India and South East Asia, except for ‘Jellyfish’, which was photographed in California.