Rick Smolan is a former Time, Life and National Geographic photographer best known as the co-creator of the Day in the Life and America 24/7 series. He and his partner, Jennifer Erwitt, are the principals of Against All Odds Productions, which specializes in the design and execution of large-scale global projects that combine compelling storytelling with state-of-the-art technology. Many of their books have appeared on the New York Times best-seller lists and have also appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Fortune and U.S. News and World Report. More than five million of their books adorn coffee tables around the world; titles include America at Home, UK at Home, 24 Hours in Cyberspace, The Power to Heal, Passage to Vietnam, One Digital Day, and From Alice to Ocean.
Smolan has long been a force for exploring culture through photography. The “Day in the Life” photography series that he founded — best-selling photo books that captured life in America, Japan, Australia, the Soviet Union … — were an ’80s cultural phenomenon. (Rare was the coffee table without at least one of them.) In the 1990’s his production company, Against All Odds, investigated the storytelling powers of interactive CD-ROMs with “From Alice to Ocean”, a narrative of a cross-Australia trek, “Passage to Vietnam”, exploring that country as it opened up and “24 Hours in Cyberspace” which took a snapshot of the Internet in its infancy.
“Blue Planet Run: The Race to Provide Clean Drinking Water to the World” provided readers with an extraordinary look at the water problems facing humanity and some of the hopeful solutions being pursued by large and small companies, by entrepreneurs and activists, and by nongovernmental organizations and foundations. The book is a showcase of powerful, inspiring, disturbing, and hopeful images captured by leading photojournalists around the world who documented the human face of the crisis and its possible solutions.
His most recent project is “The Obama Time Capsule” which offers readers a unique feature: each copy of the book integrates each readers’ photos into an historic and collectible time capsule. Every copy of the book is printed one at a time using HP’s Indigo technology and each copy is unique. “The Obama Time Capsule” generated more than 70 million media impressions including feature stories on The ABC Evening News, USA Today, CNN’s Situation Room, Entertainment Weekly, etc.
Fortune magazine describes Smolan’s company, Against All Odds as “One of the 25 Coolest Companies in America.”
What: TEDxBerkeley (invite-only)
When: Saturday, April 3rd 2010
Who: 700 passionate thinkers & doers
Where: UC Berkeley
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TEDxBerkeley is curated by UC Berkeley and the executive team from the Berkeley Computer Science Undergraduate Association (CSUA). Thanks to our sponsors, Dorsey & Whitney.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxBerkeley, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxBerkeley event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.
[...] Keltner – Psychologist and UC Berkeley Professor. Rick Smolan – TEDster, Author, Photographer. Bradley Voytek – Neuroscientist and UC Berkeley Student. David [...]
[...] someone that has fallen in love with photography over the last few years, I listened intently as Rick Smolan, author and photographer, described how he followed his passion during college. I loved hearing [...]
[...] Keltner – Psychologist and UC Berkeley Professor. “Compassion is contagious!” Rick Smolan – TEDster, Author, Photographer. Bradley Voytek – Neuroscientist and UC Berkeley Student. David [...]