In two years of global warfare, America had yet to see almost any pictures of dead Americans.
Then, in September 1943, an issue of Life magazine arrived in people’s homes and at their corner newsstands. It forced them to confront a stark, full-page picture by George Strock that showed three American servicemen sprawled on Buna Beach in New Guinea; two face down, one supine; their lifelessness unmistakable even in a still photograph.
While the industry is going through it’s most radical changes since its small and short existence, it seems that everyone is caught staring at the headlights. Many violent issues are affecting the way business is done today, with possible long lasting repercussion, yet it seems that all are taking cover under a business as usual blanket.
When Ed came to Stanford a few months ago for an Aurora Forum on the What Matters book, I was reminded how unsatisfactory the term “documentary photographer” is when applied to someone like him. Years before multimedia became a buzzword, Ed and his wife Julie Winokur were leading the way into “multi-platform” storytelling, including exhibitions, books, websites, videos, multimedia, and educational programs. Ed explains how they are now exploring “feedback loops” between documentarians, their audience, and the subjects, so that the people in the photos and the people looking at them contribute as much to a story as the person behind the camera.
“Addario’s dedication to demystifying foreign cultures and exposing the tragic consequences of human conflict is drawing much-needed attention to conflict zones around the world and providing a valuable historical record for future generations,” the MacArthur Foundation wrote in a statement announcing her award.
The ‘Bang-Bang Club’ were photographers who risked their lives recording the violence of the townships. But a new film about them has left some of them worried
Photoquai, the biennial festival of photography based in Paris aims to to raise the international profile of artists previously unexhibited or little-known in Europe. It also aims to foster cultural exchange — and the vibrant interchange of different world views.
The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You™, but it’s also an inspirational 3-part “ecosystem” created by world-renowned photographer, Chase Jarvis. Introducing an iPhone app that allows you to shoot, edit and share your images; a book that celebrates photography with any camera; AND a thriving, online community made of iPhone images from around the world.
No subject we’ve tackled in the first four months of the Lens blog has touched quite so raw a nerve as our Sept. 4 post (”Behind the Scenes: To Publish or Not?“) about a decision by The Associated Press to distribute a photograph taken in Afghanistan by Julie Jacobson. It showed Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, 21, of the Marines, after he was mortally wounded during a Taliban ambush last month.
How do the revolutions in the media economy (detailed in the first and second post of this series) affect photojournalism? Given both the crisis in the distribution of information and the new opportunities for the structure of information, what futures are there for photojournalism?
Roman Ambramovich has installed an anti-paparazzi “shield”. Lasers sweep the surroundings and when they detect a CCD, they fire a bolt of light right at the camera to obliterate any photograph.
Early this morning, nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the appearance of a “special edition” New York Post blaring headlines that their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most alarming thing about it: the news came from an official City report.
Distributed by over 2000 volunteers throughout New York City, the paper has been created by The Yes Men and a coalition of activists as a wake-up call to action on
climate change. It appears one day before a UN summit where Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will push 100 world leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon
emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December. Ban has said that the world has “less than 10 years to halt (the) global rise in
greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet,” adding that Copenhagen is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.
Some people said if the Federal Government doesn’t take steps to prevent the importation of the killer-phone, the country is going to witness crime explosion. Those spoken to by Daily Sun are, however, pessimistic about the ability of the government to stop the deadly phone from finding its way into the country.
There’s nothing more fascinating than looking at candid shots of the unassuming public. Those shots become even more interesting when a skilled street photographer finds the sweet spot timing of the perfect juxtaposition. Matt Stuart, is one of those photographers.
“Now that I think about it, a lot of little things have sort of slowly added up, like when they reduced my lunch hour to 30 minutes last October,” Durkee said while walking CFO Janice Dugan’s poorly behaved English bulldog, Twombly, a task that cannot be found in Durkee’s extensive job description. “In and of itself, I suppose that isn’t really that terrible. Until you consider the five different job-title changes I’ve endured over the past two years and the fact that I had to buy my own computer for work.”
The smells, the children so excited, desperate for the diversion that the tall white fella provided from the crushing boredom of a life without hope, the adults, shamed into lethargy by their inability to pull themselves out of a mire not of their own making… I’d seen it before in the camps and out stations where the Aborigines had gathered on the edges of town, in the remote deserts and coastlines… refugees in their own country.
Matt Lutton: I’ve been trying for the last two weeks to put together some sort of introduction to my ongoing project about the destruction of a large Roma camp here in Belgrade, and words have really failed me.
