Interview with James Estrin of the NY Times | 100 Eyes:
James Estrin is a New York Times photographer and one of the editors of a new on-line feature called Lens, a blog dedictated to photography. 100eyes was recently spotlighted on Lens and I thought it would be interesting to learn more about the new site and get some added insight into photography at the New York Times.
Photo Stirs Speculation on North Korean Leader – NYTimes.com:
On June 14, the state-run Central TV showed what it said was a still photo of Mr. Kim posing with a group of soldiers indoors during a visit to a military unit. The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, said Tuesday that it looked remarkably similar to a photo the North Korean government had said was taken April 25.
Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson: Books: The New Yorker:
Anderson is very good at paragraphs like this—with its reassuring arc from “bloodbath” to “salvation.” His advice is pithy, his tone uncompromising, and his subject matter perfectly timed for a moment when old-line content providers are desperate for answers. That said, it is not entirely clear what distinction is being marked between “paying people to get other people to write” and paying people to write. If you can afford to pay someone to get other people to write, why can’t you pay people to write? It would be nice to know, as well, just how a business goes about reorganizing itself around getting people to work for “non-monetary rewards.” Does he mean that the New York Times should be staffed by volunteers, like Meals on Wheels?
PDN: The Five Biggest Photographers on the Internet:
For our highly subjective list of the five biggest photographers on the Internet, PDN focused on the ones who dominate each of five popular platforms: blogging, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. For this exercise, we considered only photographers who are primarily known for their online work. We also avoided those who are best known for writing gear reviews.
Subway Graffiti Artist Iz the Wiz, Michael Martin, Dies at 50 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com:
“Look at any movie shot on location in New York from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, and you will very likely see an Iz the Wiz tag,” Mr. Walker said. “He told me once that in 1982 he went out every night and did at least a hundred throw-ups” — letters filled in quickly with a thin layer of color. “People can’t fathom it.”
In Iran, Journalism Makes Use of Unverified News – NYTimes.com:
“Check the source” may be the first rule of journalism. But in the coverage of the protests in Iran this month, some news organizations have adopted a different stance: publish first, ask questions later. If you still don’t know the answer, ask your readers.
World Press Photos Impress, Disappoint – The Moscow Times:
The photographs themselves are printed in relatively low quality on a flimsy cardboard base and metal stands — presumably to minimize the cost of their jet-setting. This makes experiencing them firsthand feel rather cheap and deprives them of a greater power they would undoubtedly have in the pages of a newspaper or magazine.
“Reverie” – first feature film shot entirely on the Nikon D90 | Nikon Rumors:
A feature film shot entirely on the Nikon D90 has been completed, and is in the process of being released
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: Worst of the Worst of the Worst… of the Worst:
In my ongoing mission to torture Beware of the Blog readers with insufferable nineteen seventies kitsch I have sunk to a new low. I would have sunk to this earlier but this did not hit the internet until this week. I thought it could get no worse than The Brady Kids – Wonder Woman crossover. I was wrong. Roy Clark, jonesing for even more stomach-churning hokum than Hee-Haw could offer, called up the chick from One Day at a Time to help host a roast and celebration of Fred Flintstone. Not the real Fred Flintstone but one in a giant foam outfit. Along for the ride, defying all stone-age continuity, are other Hanna-Barbera characters in oversized cloth forms : Jabberjaw, The Banana Splits, Snagglepuss, Hong Kong Phooey, The Hair Bear Bunch and on down the line. The laugh track seems to be enjoying itself immensely (although if you listen closely you might hear a bit of a retch track). This is truly the worst thing I have ever seen
women with cameras…. | burn magazine:
one of the most rewarding things for me to come out of the Magnum meeting now going on in London is the inclusion of Spanish photographer Cristina Garcia Rodero as the newest full member of our agency….out of the approximately fifty members of our agency , only eight of them are women…..this is a painful reality…..no matter where i travel and am faced with an audience of photographers, the question is always asked of me “why are there not more women in Magnum?”…..indeed….perhaps more importantly, the question should be, why aren’t there more women in our craft in general???
Coding Horror: The iPhone Software Revolution:
Here’s how far I am willing to go: I believe the iPhone will ultimately be judged a more important product than the original Apple Macintosh.
Book Review – ‘The Last War,’ by Ana Menéndez – Review – NYTimes.com:
The narrator of “The Last War” has received an anonymous letter accusing her war correspondent husband of infidelity. So, unfortunately, did the book’s author. It speaks to Ana Menéndez’s maturity — as a woman and a writer — that her novel doesn’t go where it might have. It doesn’t constitute literary payback.
Too much Michael Jackson? – Tim Rutten – Los Angeles Times:
Newspaper editors and TV producers undercut the value of serious news media when they let website hits and social media volume dictate their coverage.
TMZ Was Far Ahead in Reporting Jackson’s Death – NYTimes.com:
For more than an hour, TMZ was essentially the only outlet claiming that Mr. Jackson was dead. Television and newspaper journalists read the TMZ report but largely held off on repeating it, for fear of making a mistake. Still, the bulletin traversed the Web with remarkable speed, creating a stark divide: on the Internet Mr. Jackson was dead, and on TV he was still alive.
PDNPulse: Getty Awards “Good” Grants to Stephen Ferry, Karen Kasmauski:
Stephen Ferry has won a grant to support his project for Human Rights Watch, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Widespread Threats and Political Violence Against Colombian Civilians.”
Karen Kasmauski has won a grant for a documentary project for Save Our Cumberland Mountains.
False photos as a Statement about Photojournalism | dvafoto:
John Vink over on this post on Lightstalkers brought up a very interesting case: two students, Guillaume Chauvin (23) and Rémi Hubert (22), upon winning a Paris Match photojournalism prize, announce that they have faked the pictures in their entry as an exercise and indictment of photojournalism.
Showcase: A Magazine Worth Its Price ($25) – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com:
Gary Knight can’t help himself. He has to go against common wisdom.
When photo agencies were converging and getting bigger, he helped found VII, a collectively owned boutique agency that produces the finest photojournalism. When experts on popular opinion said that content wanted to be free and that audience attention spans were shrinking, he helped start Dispatches, an intellectual journal, in words and photographs, that costs $25 for each quarterly edition.
5B4: Playas by Martin Parr:
If I understand correctly, Martin Parr and the publishers of his new book Playas, Editorial RM and Chris Boot, left all creative control of the book to the printer they employed in Mexico. That is, the design, sequencing, format, everything. This decision was made after asking several different low cost printers to design a cover and then Martin picked the best (or worst depending on how you look at it) and that company won the job to do the whole production. The result may be the best Martin Parr book in quite a while.
Letter From Europe – Is Free News Really Worth the Price? – NYTimes.com, by ALAN COWELL:
It may be tempting, perhaps, to argue that, finally, that oft-reviled beast — the mainstream media — has been left in history’s wake. After the demise of typewriters and Telexes, the time of the tweet has arrived. The view is not universal, even among tech-friendly journalists.
“My zeal for Twitter knows a limit,” wrote Jack Shafer, editor at large of the online publication Slate, saying the welter of messages from the streets of Tehran was “more noise than signal in understanding the Iranian upheaval.”
