Disposable Words

23/12/2015

Photographer Austin Andrews visits the Namib Desert and finds some of the world's tallest sundials.

Sixteen angles on the vast sand seas of the Namib Desert.

23/10/2015

Filing from Pretoria, South Africa, photographer Austin Andrews covers today's landmark march on the Union Buildings.

Large-scale student demonstrations broke out at universities across South Africa this week against planned fee increases.

19/06/2014

In the second part of an ongoing series examining the last remaining British colonies, photographer Austin Andrews visits the military outpost of Ascension Island.

Spending any amount of time on Ascension, one gets used to hearing the phrase it's a working island a lot.

16/06/2014

In the first part of an ongoing series examining the last remaining British colonies, photographer Austin Andrews takes an inside look at Saint Helena.

Midway between Africa and South America in the lonely South Atlantic, St Helena wears its status as one of the world’s most remote inhabited places as a mark of pride.

07/03/2012

Writer Matthew Clayfield and photographer Melanie Cook recently visited China. Their first series from that country takes a look at the capital.

The Great Wall of China does not immediately strike one as a great feat of human ingenuity, but rather as a testament to all-consuming paranoia.

01/03/2012

Disposable Words photographer Austin Andrews reports from Rio de Janeiro with a series of photos from last week's Carnival.

Of the not-insignificant number of events around the world billing themselves as the greatest show on Earth, the Rio Carnival has a thicker-fingered hold on the title than most.

27/02/2012

Matthew Clayfield takes to Moscow's Garden Ring to report on the opposition's final protest before next weekend's presidential election.

Just north of Patriarch Ponds, where Bulgakov had the devil appear, protesters started milling about early with the intention of preventing his return.

19/02/2012

Reporting from Afghanistan, photographer Austin Andrews takes the heartbeat of a failing state on the streets of Kabul.

Rebuilt since 1992 to a reasonable facsimile of its pre-war shape, Kabul is a functioning city first and a fortified war hub second.

26/12/2011

In his latest photo series from Afghanistan, photographer Austin Andrews returns to the flightline for a quiet goodbye to Canada's last combat helicopter.

The flightline at Kandahar Airfield loses another flag as flight crews disassemble and ship out Canada's last combat helicopter from Afghanistan.

19/12/2011

As the final Canadian soldiers return home from Kandahar, Disposable Words photographer Austin Andrews profiles the dismantling of the Canadian war machine in Afghanistan.

For all the ink, here and elsewhere, given to its Operation Attention training mission in Kabul, Canada's largest operation in Afghanistan remains the comparatively unheralded Mission Transition Task Force (MTTF).

10/12/2011

Disposable Words photographer Austin Andrews takes a look at a city that will come to define the 2010s more than almost any other.

Rio de Janeiro is a city of many faces, few of them subtle.

02/12/2011

One hour left to help co-editor Matthew Clayfield cover the 2012 Russian presidential elections.

After covering Mexico's Bicentenary of Independence in 2010, Matthew Clayfield is now preparing to provide independent coverage of Russia's 2012 election.

02/12/2011

It is time for Labor to stem the votes bleeding to the shamefully unscrutinised Greens, and at the same time steal a march on the Liberals, by taking a brave decision on gay marriage.

08/11/2011

Disposable Words photographer Austin Andrews documents one of Canada's last-ever games in the Kandahar Hockey League in this rather unusual series from Afghanistan.

Of all the strange and unlikely pleasures to be found on the coalition bases of southern Afghanistan, the hockey rink at Kandahar Airfield must rank among the most surreal.

31/10/2011

Earplugs aren't required for photographer Austin Andrews' new photo essay from the Kabul Military Training Centre, but they may help.

Increasingly prized by the NATO-led international military campaign as their ticket out of Afghanistan, the eight-year-old ANA has swelled in numbers since 2008 and is projected to reach 250,000 by 2015.

31/10/2011

Filing from THE PEANUT GALLERY, Disposable Words' Tim Boots tracks Labor's demise in Australian politics to some little-heralded corners.

Karl Bitar, the most recognisable faceless man in Australia, recently abandoned his position as ALP National Secretary to take a job in government liaison with Crown Casino.

11/10/2011

Filing from Afghanistan, Disposable Words photographer Austin Andrews profiles the country's fledgling air force from its main hub in Kabul.

The newly reactivated Afghan Air Force has a long way to go before it catches up with its brother and sister divisions in the country's domestic security forces.

03/10/2011

Co-editor Austin Andrews reports on Afghanistan's first music festival in 35 years. Click through for the full radio story.

And it was organised by an Australian! Hack - Shoving the J into journalism, Hack is triple j's half hour program covering current affairs, music, politics and culture with youth in mind. triple j is the place for the best new music from around Australia & the world. Listen via radio or stream tripl...

03/10/2011

Tim Boots files from THE PEANUT GALLERY on Tony Abbott, Pauline Hanson and Australia's enduring colonial fears.

The first time I saw Tony Abbott, I thought he was pretty boss.

25/09/2011

Filing from Afghanistan, Disposable Words photographer Austin Andrews returns with a fresh series of photographs from the burial ceremonies of slain Afghan ex-President Burhanuddin Rabbani.

One week to the hour after insurgents were engaged with coalition and Afghan forces in a fierce nineteen-hour siege that had Kabul and the world on edge [...]

14/09/2011

Co-editor Austin Andrews' first series of photographs from Afghanistan is now online.

A fresh spate of attacks since we entered the country on Friday have contributed to making the past thirty days among the most vicious since the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001.

05/09/2011

Help fund co-editor Matthew Clayfield's latest freelance project.

After covering Mexico's Bicentenary of Independence in 2010, Matthew Clayfield is now preparing to provide independent coverage of Russia's 2012 election.

02/09/2011

Co-editor Austin Andrews' ISAF media accreditation has come through. Coverage of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan begins in September.

15/08/2011

Filing from The Peanut Gallery, Tim Boots bemoans the life of a media monitor in Australia's polluted mediascape.

Australia's talkback stations and the Murdoch press have a symbiotic relationship that is as necessary as it is odious.

16/06/2011

Reporting from last night's Vancouver riots, Disposable Words photographer Austin Andrews takes us to the front lines: http://t.co/NYLm9NY

Rioting hockey fans took to Vancouver streets in droves Wednesday night following a hometown loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

04/06/2011

In an all-new THE RABBIT BITES, Matthew Clayfield looks at the dubious connections between Hugo Chávez and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

That many on the Left admit the FARC's crimes only reluctantly is telling.

30/05/2011

Filing from THE PEANUT GALLERY, Tim Boots bemoans the shambles that Australian politics has become—which is another way of saying the shambles that it will remain for the next two years.

The novelty of minority government has long since worn off. The longest election campaign is over.

30/05/2011

In an all-new THE RABBIT BITES, Matthew Clayfield takes a look the world's newest most-wanted criminal, and ponders what sort of threat he poses to US security.

The demise of Osama bin Laden has left the Sinaloa Cartel's Joaquín Guzmán Loera, or El Chapo, the most-wanted man in the world.

30/05/2011

In an all-new THE RABBIT BITES, Matthew Clayfield rails against a news media that cannot see beyond birth certificates and wedding dresses.

This week has done little to disprove Alexander Cockburn's First Law of Journalism: that the media should always confirm existing prejudice, rather than contradict it.