Mary Ellen Mark has the rare ability to make her empathy visible. I believe, but cannot prove, that this is rooted in how she connects to her subjects. The photographic artifact is proof of that connection. This is not rooted in photographic skill or artistry—Avedon did not have it, nor does Penn, and I very much admire their work. Robert Bergman does, as did Diane Arbus.
Working for Mary Ellen was a rich experience on at least two levels: First, by expecting serious attention to the work at hand she made me a better printer (and a better photographer). Second is the not insignificant pleasure of working with good photographs.
Photojournalist and World Press Photo 2006 winner Finbarr O’Reilly answered questions sent to him live yesterday in a feed setup by Reuter’s. Really worth a listen as he’s well spoken, tells what it’s like to be a photojournalist in conflict areas with great anecdotes and answers the following questions
We continue to watch amazing photographs of the U.S. Airways Flight 1549 crash and rescue pour in.
The star of the early coverage is a Florida tourist named Janis Krums of Sarasota, Florida, who was on one of the ferry boats in the Hudson River in New York when the plane crashed. Krums posted a photo from his iPhon
One of our favorite books of last year was a small self-published paperback called All Most Heaven. The book documents two years of Santiago Mostyn’s life as has he traveled across America.
Gary Knight says he wanted dispatches to be “highly portable,” so each issue is a blocky little book 5 ¾ X 7 ¾ inches, small enough to fit in a camera bag, briefcase, or jacket pocket. The magazine, which has published lengthy photo essays by Yuri Kozyrev, Antonin Kratochvil and others, is distinguished by its modest, plain brown paper cover.
Everything is Terrible explain their utterly perfect name: “The way I see it, there can only be great movies and terrible movies. Mediocre movies are the absolute worst. The fact that our name ends in an exclamation point is because we love the fact that the world sucks. We want to rub our faces in it.” Or, if you prefer more of a battle cry, “Terrible, which is everything! Therefore everything is worthy and thus every quality of everything is Terrible! Hence forth and so one making everything Terrible!”
Here are some of my favorites so far – all featuring really creepy men.
Dying patients navigate the end of life with the help of the Baylor University Medical Center palliative care team. Photos and video by Sonya N. Hebert
On Sunday, I covered the first day of searching for 6-year-old Adji Desir. He was last seen outside of his grandma’s home in Farm Workers Village in Immokalee, Fla. — a migrant town about 40 miles outside of Naples. They have kept searching with no leads.
Around my town of Huntington Beach, a couple of pretenders to the Aryan throne did arise. There were gangs with names like SFU, which is perhaps the most original gang name ever, since every city has at least 3 under the same name, and the Huntington Beach Skins. They weren’t as organized though as the Metzger gangs. To me they seemed like amateur hour. I mean for Christ’s Sake, they didn’t even have any stickers to hand out. How the hell can you run a racist group without stickers?
Then the “Battle of St. Simon Jude Fair” happened. In fairness to the WAR and AYM skins, the H.B. Skins were very minor league, especially for a White Pride/Power type outfit. After all, their leader was a Hispanic kid, and one of the number ones was a Jewish dude, who had a swastika tattoo, and was nicknamed “Cornball”. With people like that running the gang it was obvious they would self implode before ever being a real threat to us.
Duncan Family Portrait, Tennessee 2008, photographed by Lucas Foglia from his Re-Wilding project. [Re-wilding: the process of creating a lifestyle that is independent of the domestication of civilization.]
Here’s a little peek at a page from Robert Crumb’s forthcoming Book of Genesis, a literal adaptation from the first book in the Old Testament. It’s been years-in-the-making
You have recently self-published the photography book, A Room With A View. What made you decide to show the work in this way?
‘I decided from the get go that this was going to be a long-term project. I had been shooting it for three years and just kept filing the negs away before I figured out how I wanted to present it. There were a lot of images. Early on I knew that it was all going to be about volume and repetition. The pictures don’t necessarily stand alone by themselves.
Many of you will know MURRAY BOWLES as the GILMAN STREET photographer. He’s no longer in attendance at every show the way he once was, but during the first few years the club was in operation, he turned out enough photos – invariably black and white – to start his own Gilman museum.
I mean, he could start his own Gilman museum; he hasn’t actually done so as far as I know, but my one-time business partner and LOOKOUT RECORDS co-founder DAVID HAYES has compiled a nice little collection that’s well worth having a look at if you’re at all interested in the early Gilman scene.
Philadelphia Weekly has a good story about photojournalist Jim MacMillan, who left his job at the Philadelphia Daily News and found a new platform for his work through independent online journalism. MacMillan is a great example of how to use online services like Twitter and Facebook to share your professional work outside of traditional media.
A former railroad town, Ogden is redefining itself and becoming one of the outdoor capitals of North America while still maintaining it’s “rough around the edges” western flair.
The portraits (by Brian Nicholson) in this 12×12 inch, 360-page book showcase the lives of those who make this city great. By indiscriminately blending all walks of life, income levels, skill sets and backgrounds into one unified body, the artist has created a masterpiece of history for generations to come.
On the day Barack Obama was elected, a strange new feature appeared on the website of the New York Times. Called the Word Train, it asked a simple question: What one word describes your current state of mind? Readers could enter an adjective or select from a menu of options. They could specify whether they supported McCain or Obama. Below, the results appeared in six rows of adjectives, scrolling left to right, coded red or blue, descending in size of font. The larger the word, the more people felt that way.
All day long, the answers flowed by, a river of emotion—anonymous, uncheckable, hypnotic. You could click from Obama to McCain and watch the letters shift gradually from blue to red, the mood changing from giddy, energized, proud, and overwhelmed to horrified, ambivalent, disgusted, and numb.
It was a kind of poll. It was a kind of art piece. It was a kind of journalism, but what kind?
In a conflict where the Western news media have been largely prevented from reporting from Gaza because of restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera has had a distinct advantage. It was already there.
