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.
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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.
in Books
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A double amputee Iraqi translator lives as a refugee in America. Photos by Ramin Rahimian
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Editor in Chief Chris Johns selects some of his favorite photos published in National Geographic magazine in 2008.
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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 Journalism
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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.
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I think I’ve managed to balance things out through a few simple techniques that I’ve been refining for years. I still sometimes feel frazzled and info-whelmed, but that’s rare. Most of the time, I’m on top of my workload and my muse. Here’s how I do it:
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A photographer who spent his whole life photographing and painting around his home neighbourhood of Elephant and Castle in London was arrested under anti-terror laws and jailed, his DNA and fingerprints taken. He was released after five hours, once his Member of Parliament intervened. Under current policies, his DNA will remain on file forever — though the EU has ordered Britain to cease this practice.
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Via.
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This would be a perfect weekend to stay in and get your work in order for all the year-in-review contests, don’t you think? Many of the most noteworthy photo contests have deadlines this month. Here’s our roundup of them.
in Contests
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Sandy Colton achieved mastery as a photojournalist. He achieved this by working as a photographer, an editor, a champion for the Eddie Adams Workshop, a father of two great photojournalists/editors, a husband, a friend and mentor to many others. Through all this he came to photograph without photographing and to understand the importance of giving back to the community.
in Obituaries
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The question was always a problem for Richard Avedon. Even in the final decade of his life and career as the most celebrated, ridiculed, honored, debated portrait and fashion photographer of his time, journalists and critics would posit the same intolerable, unbelievable notion: Is photography really art? And it didn’t sound much kinder coming from his friend Charlie Rose, playing the genial provocateur and devil’s advocate for the TV viewers at home in 1993. Anyone watching could have detected Avedon’s moment of pain. “Listen, that is such a bogus and nitwit thing to ask .”
in Photography
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Welcome to the Best Photobooks of 2008 interactive feature — a new and expanded version of what has become a cherished photo-eye tradition. In the window above you’ll see a list of prominent photographers, publishers, editors, writers, critics and publications who have been kind enough to share their picks for the top 10 (or so) books of 2008. Clicking on any name will give you their list, and clicking on any book will show all the other lists on which it appears.
in Books
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Last September we showed you the Chicago Tribune’s splashy, graphics-intensive redesign. We thought the design looked nice, but apparently it wasn’t good enough to stop the catastrophic downward slide of the entire newspaper industry.
In fact, readers hated it so much that the Tribune is undoing many of the changes. Today the Tribune published a special cover flap announcing its responses to reader complaints. Among the problems: Readers didn’t like the larger photographs.
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Remain calm. This whole recession thing just may be a great opportunity in disguise. Here are 10 things you can do to help power your photography business through these stormy economic seas:
in Photography
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Firmware v1.0.7 for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, released today, addresses two image quality shortcomings: the “black dots” phenomenon widely discussed on Internet forums, plus a more rare instance of vertical banding when the camera is set to sRAW1. The new firmware “improves and mitigates” these problems.
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The Australian newspaper reports that news photographers are playing cat-and-mouse with the Israeli military as they try to cover the fighting in Gaza.
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If you’re hearing few howls and seeing little rending of garments over the impending death of institutional, high-quality journalism, it’s because the public at large has been trained to undervalue journalists and journalism. The Internet has done much to encourage lazy news consumption, while virtually eradicating the meaningful distinctions among newspaper brands. The story from Beijing that pops up in my Google alert could have come from anywhere. As news resources are stretched and shared, it can often appear anywhere as well: a Los Angeles Times piece will show up in TheWashington Post, or vice versa.
in Journalism
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Today I find inspiration in everything. It could be a song, a painting or a parking lot in Queens. I feel very confident as an artist and want to explore everything. I am not interested in being pigeonholed by concept, format, subject or process. I will go wherever my curiosity and inspiration takes me. In some ways my photographic journey is like a bird building a nest. There are bits and strings and twigs everywhere and they all have stories. Through photography I collect and present these disparate pieces and gradually form them into a cohesive vision over my career.
in Interviews
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Roger Ballen has been making disturbing photographs in South Africa for many years now. In an exclusive audio interview for Lens Culture, he talks about a wide range of topics, including how he found his “voice” as a photographer, his working methods and philosophy, why he uses flash lighting, the violence of nature in South Africa where he lives, the similarities between geology and photography (he holds a Ph.D. in Mineral Economics), and more.