good:
Elemental is a documentary, currently in post-production, that follows three iconoclasts who are obsessed with nature and driven by a deep desire to change the status quo. One of them is Rajendra Singh, an Indian government official gone rogue, who has mounted a national crusade to save the Ganges River. During a 33-day shoot, we traveled down the river with Singh—from the glacial source in the Himalayas to where it meets the sea in the Bay of Bengal. Watch the trailer for Elemental here.
All images taken by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee.
Slideshow: Take A Trip Down the Ganges With This Documentary Film Crew - Environment - GOOD
I highly suggest following the link to watch the trailer for Elemental. It looks phenomenal.
You can also donate to the project here.
Watch and share. Enjoy!
and help.
Lions. Jeremy Irons. National Geographic donation of $.10 to lion and big cat conservation in Botswana for each view
Dirty thunderstorm from the Eyjafiallajokul volcano in Iceland.
That is amazing. Living in an urban environment and working in an office 5 days a week can make you forget how amazing nature can be. This is a great reminder of what’s just outside.
Paso Robles, CA // 2010
I have not read the book, but I knew the story from when its tragic end had initially unfolded for the public. Having just finished watching Into the Wild, I feel compelled to mention it and its wonderful soundtrack here. Eddie Vedder did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of the film and complementing the story of a brave and foolish young man.
But I can relate to Chris McCandless, the man who is the tragic hero at the center of Into the Wild. There were times that I seriously considered running off into the woods to live off the land, both in Alaska and later in Colorado. I specifically remember reading a book about a boy who did exactly that, living in the trunk of a dead tree with nothing more than a pocket knife, his wits, and his love and respect for nature. There’s a certain romantic quality to it at almost any age, I suspect.
Even today there are times that doing such a reckless and antisocial thing is still extremely appealing. To say fuck it all, and go where the wind and your feet take you. To not be ruled by the rat race and the dollar and the lies we tell others as well as ourselves.
There’s a hilariously painful moment in the movie where Alex Supertramp (McCandless) asks about the best location to launch a kayak into the river, and a park services employee informs him there is a 12 year waitlist if you have a permit. Otherwise you have to pay for the privilege.
And part of me understands it, and accepts it — the rules and regulations, the system in place — and another part of me wants to rebel against it, and wonders what it was like 150 years ago without the red tape and the invasion of modernization and the population explosion and people’s carelessness magnified to such an extreme that these things became necessary. It was brutal, that much is certain, but it was also raw in a way that might be desperately lacking today. And I think that McCandless saw that, and made the decision to seek it out and find those forgotten qualities in nature and in himself.
Was he naive about the brutality of the Alaskan wilderness? Certainly, but we all are naive in one way or another, and probably in no less crippling ways. His cost was his life — but who’s to say that our cost isn’t the same, only in a different way? It’s something to think about.
And anyway, I highly recommend checking out both the movie and the soundtrack, both of which are surprisingly compelling and well done.
“I think she thought the camera was my mouth, which is every photographers dream.”
