The Media Equation – At The Journal News, Everyone’s Laid Off and Welcome to Reapply – NYTimes.com:
Specifically, the 288 news and advertising employees at The Journal News were told that jobs were being redefined and that they all would need to reapply for the new positions and that by the time the re-org music stopped, 70 of them would be without jobs.
What fresh hell is this?
Photographer Antonin Kratochvil | Outside Online:
The world is full of bold photographers who earn their keep by traveling to rough regions. Kratochvil towers above them all, in large part because his extraordinary background gives him a preternatural cool—not to mention credibility—that can’t be taught. “In what we do, the most important faculties are instinct and intuition,” says photojournalist Chris Anderson, who calls Kratochvil his mentor. “Antonin is the embodiment of instinct. His persona is that of an ogre, but he is frighteningly intelligent, the most astute observer of human behavior I know.”
Ron Haviv: Saving film from Serbian warlord Arkan | RESOLVE — the liveBooks photo blog:
This month we have a story from Ron Haviv about an encounter with the Serbian paramilitary leader Arkan (at right) while he was covering the Bosnian War during the 1990s. With a little smoke and mirrors, Ron saved his revealing images from confiscation and helped share the horrors of ethnic cleansing he saw with the world. Much of the work is collected in his book, Blood and Honey.
Mellow actor gained intensity for gritty photojournalist
story:
And now he’s in Cannes to promote something a little less hunky and a little more serious: The Bang Bang Club, an upcoming movie, which may not be released for a year or so, about four real-life press photographers whose pictures of African suffering helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa.
Kitsch plays Kevin Carter, a legendary photojournalist who took a picture of a starving child in the Sudan, dying, while a vulture perched nearby.
“By far the most challenging role I’ve ever had in my life,” he said, and for several reasons.
Showcase: Not Peace, but Not Always War – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com:
In his project, “Uncertain Identity,” the photographer Dhiraj Singh seeks to document a Kashmir that is defined by more than the decades-long dispute between India and Pakistan over the area.
PDNPulse: An Ugly August: 3 Videos of Angry People Attacking Journalists:
It’s a dangerous world out there. Maybe it’s the late-summer heat, but several violent altercations between journalists and subjects have been caught on tape this month. Here are three of them, including a scary incident yesterday in Pennsylvania involving several photographers.
Photo Business News Forum: US Presswire “Steps In It” With MLB and Getty Images:
As the boys of summer were just getting into the swing of things, US Presswire hired an unemployed Peter Toriello after he was laid off from Getty four months prior where he was in charge of the Getty’s MLB relationship. USPW announced Toriello’s hire as “Director of Global Sales and Business Development” on March 4, 2009. What they didn’t announce was that in addition to Toriello’s physical capabilities, they also obtained a valuable knowledgebase of information about how Getty was handling the MLB contract. With Getty losing the NFL to the AP, the MLB deal becomes that much more important to Getty’s cache. What is in question is what potential proprietary trade secrets might Toriello have taken and/or shared with US Presswire, if any?
via Kahuna
Inventing Twenty-First Century Photojournalism – PDN:
As the debate over the future of journalism—how it will be created, distributed and paid for—rages in boardrooms and in the media, the role of photojournalism is rarely discussed. When newspapers talk about charging for content distributed online, there are clearly no guarantees that a new online revenue model will reinvigorate traditional photojournalism clients.
PDN recently sat down with VII Photo Agency managing director Stephen Mayes to discuss how the agency’s business is evolving and to get his take on photojournalism in the new millennium.
SEC Revises Controversial Credential Policy:
News organization’s objected to the SEC’s original credential agreement because it prevented newspapers from using video and audio game highlights on their Web sites, put time-limit restrictions on post-game and pre-game audio and video; restricted photo usage online to editorial content only (no archives or sales); granted the SEC and universities licensing privileges to use a newspaper’s images for their own use; and prohibited blogging or Web publishing during the course of a game.
Sony Alpha 850 Review – Luminous Landscape:
Sony has clearly decided that they want a major slice of the DSLR pie and are pulling out a lot of the stops to make this happen. With the new A850 they are taking no prisoners, undercutting their only real competitor, Canon’s 5D MKII, by 25% in terms of price. Few observers thought we’d see a 25MP full-frame camera for under $2,000 this soon, but I can’t see anyone complaining about it, except maybe the competition.
AMERICANSUBURB X: INTERVIEW: “John Tusa Interviews Don McCullin”:
It can’t be easy bearing the title of the world’s greatest war photographer, but that’s only one of the burdens that Don McCullin carries around with him. But after 20 years of confronting the world with unforgettable images of war, from Congo to Biafra, to Beirut , to Cambodia , and of course to Vietnam , and many, many more, he doesn’t have much alternative. It all used to be addictive too. By his own admission, McCullin used to be ‘a one-war-a-year man’, but then it grew to two, and then to three, until it had it stop; not, you understand because wars stopped, or killing stopped, or inhumanity stopped, but because there came a natural limit to ‘looking at what others can’t bear to see.’
Keeping a Visual Diary in a War Zone – At War Blog – NYTimes.com:
Christoph Bangert adds: When I spent about two months on assignment for The New York Times in Baghdad this year, I proposed to Stephen Farrell, who was in charge of At War’s predecessor, the Baghdad Bureau blog, that I post one picture online every day during my stay in Iraq.
Lo-Fi Zumi-Cam Shoots Blurred, Film Style Video | Gadget Lab | Wired.com:
And now we have a digital video equivalent of the Lomo, an antidote to quality and hard-drive eating files we suffer today. The Zumi shoots both stills and video at either ISO 100 or 800. You can pick the resolution: Hi (1600×1200) and Lo (320×240) and the images and movies are captured to a microSD card (included in the kit, along with USB adapter).
iPhone Remote Control Adds Nikon Support, Auto-Focus | Gadget Lab | Wired.com:
The software is a big upgrade from the original, and adds support (at last!) for Nikon DSLRs, as well as a slew of essential new features. To use DSLR Camera Remote you need to hook the camera up to a computer via USB cable and switch it to Live View mode. Then the computer takes over and beams the video stream to your iPhone, as well as offering you remote control of the camera.
Photography Tips and Advice from Deane Fitzmaurice | Silber Studios:
My favorite part was her description of what makes a very powerful image: Layering. No, not as in layers in PhotoShop, but in the images themselves as she shoots them. I’ve studied a lot of photography and talked with many, many photographers, but I’ve never heard this concept so well articulated. Watch the video for this; it’s worth the price of admission alone.
PDNPulse: Mary Morris Lawrence, First Female AP Photographer, Dies at 95:
Her obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle ends with the suggestion: “In lieu of flowers, Mary would ask you to join the League of Women Voters, shop at Farmer Joes, write a letter to the editor, or break a glass ceiling!”
Leica M9 will not be the only announcement on September 9th | Leica Rumors:
(18MP, full frame, not a Canon sensor). I can say that now I am 99% sure about that announcement.
The 37th Frame – Celebrating the Best of Photojournalism » DEEP SLEEP MAGAZINE – Call for Submissions:
We are making a last call for submissions to our third issue on the theme of ‘dance’ . The final deadline has now been extended to the 1st September 2009.
Deep Sleep Magazine was launched earlier this year, a brand new, quarterly online photography website founded by and featuring work from a small group of contributors sharing an office space in Shoreditch, east London. Each issue is on a specific theme and guest contributors are invited to submit a set of images based on that theme. The only stipulation is contributions must, in our judgement, fit the theme and that we are seeking photography of the highest calibre, whether from award-winning and exhibited contributors or emerging young talents in search of an outlet for their work. There’s no money involved, of course. Not for anyone. In fact, one of our motivations was to do something untainted by the demands of the marketplace. So it is very much a labour of love and we welcome anyone who would like to share in that.