British artist James Nares is one of the more than 8 million people who live and work in New York City. Though he wasn’t born in the concrete jungle, he has adapted to it quite well, calling it home since 1974. Nares, who focuses most of his creativity on paintings which are frequently made using a single brushstroke, spent the better part of the last three years raising the funds needed to film New York City in super slow motion. Using a Phantom Flex HD camera – which is capable of shooting up to 10,750 frames per second – is the same camera used to capture hummingbirds and NBA players in flight.
After shooting 16 hours of film, which had to be downloaded in six second increments, Nares edited the film down to one hour of continuous footage and accompanied it with a soundtrack from his friend Thurston Moore of the band Sonic Youth. The finished product, which is appropriately titled Street, is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Speaking about the film, Nares says:
“There’s a beauty in the dignity of everyone in the film and it just feels good to me to feel this love for humanity. It sounds so corny, because any one of those people could have some ghastly side to them, but for a brief moment I can suspend all of that and just enjoy being part of this world and being part of New York City.”
Sometimes we just need to take a step back and slow things down in order to truly grasp and appreciate our fellow man. Similar to Nares’ vision, The Fourth Estate Leadership Summit aims to do just that. The Summit is a four-day conference, Invisible Children style. That’s a thousand students learning about justice, advocacy, and global citizenship through new Invisible Children media, amazing speakers, tangible action steps, and, obviously, an epic dance party.
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