The Trump administration is not backing down.
via PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2025/04/16/ap-photographers-are-still-barred-from-the-white-house-despite-court-order/
The AP says a photographer and reporter were blocked from attending the news conference with the self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator”, even though a U.S. federal judge siding with the Associated Press last week.
Right about 10 years ago, I wrote an article that went viral and sparked a lot of debate. At the time, AI was just starting to show the tip of its beak, and image manipulation was already in full force thanks to a variety of very potent software like Adobe’s Photoshop. The origin of the … Read More →
via Thoughts of a Bohemian: https://blog.melchersystem.com/not-real-but-true-what-photojournalism-must-protect-in-the-ai-era/
My conclusion at the time—which also still holds—was that it wasn’t the tools that mattered in judging the authoritative and authentic quality of a photojournalistic image, it was the intent. The photographer’s intent.
https://blog.melchersystem.com/not-real-but-true-what-photojournalism-must-protect-in-the-ai-era/
Sebastien Boncy is a photographer and teacher based in Houston. • BA: Thanks for chatting. And belated thanks for sending your book a few w…
Link: http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2025/04/q-with-sebastien-boncy.html
Man… I’ll keep the novel short. I was really interested in what I would later learn was the Szarkowski canon, but my professors having come from a very postmodern perspective were not interested in revisiting or deepening or complicating any of that MoMA photo stuff. Someone like Earlie Hudnall was living down the street and we were never told about him. Geoff Winningham was teaching about one neighborhood over and we were never told about him. Provoke never came up. Magnum never came up. Atget was seen as a joke that the Surrealists played on the world. We saw bits in photo history, but in studio these were not traditions that really came up. So I was making photographs against the current. Then you throw in the very important factor that all but one (and an important one she turned out to be) were white Americans with very little curiosity past their own educations, and school was often painful.
https://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2025/04/q-with-sebastien-boncy.html
‘At this stage we are no longer able to facilitate a guest from a state-controlled Russian organisation.’
via PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2025/04/14/russian-photographer-no-longer-welcome-at-world-press-photo-awards-ceremony/
World Press Photo has disinvited a Russian photographer from the awards ceremony in Amsterdam after the competition awarded him a prize in its 2025 competition.
Matthew Genitempo is someone I consider a friend. A friend whose work has long been an inspiration for me. When he and I started talking about doing something for Lenscratch, it was his suggestion that we put our work in conversation. Our books—Dogbreath and A Poor Sort of Memory—were made in different deserts, but explore
via LENSCRATCH: https://lenscratch.com/2025/04/matthew-genitempo-tracy-l-chandler-in-conversation/
Our books—Dogbreath and A Poor Sort of Memory—were made in different deserts, but explore similar territory. Both are portraits of coming of age through a tangle of grief, nostalgia, and the psychic residue of place. What started as a conversation about our individual processes turned into something deeper: a dialogue between two bodies of work that seem to be speaking the same language, just with different accents. I am happy to share this space with Matt and our conversation with all of you.
https://lenscratch.com/2025/04/matthew-genitempo-tracy-l-chandler-in-conversation/
A popular saying tells us that a photo is worth a thousand words. But what’s the value of those words if they have no meaning?
via Thoughts of a Bohemian: https://blog.melchersystem.com/the-next-photography-revolution-isnt-more-its-meaning/
Modern photojournalism, too, is often guilty of the same sin. Too many photographers lean on the image-as-statement: this happened here. They stop at the event, never asking what it means, why it matters, or what comes next. The visual language becomes mechanical—predictable, hollow. If every image is worth a thousand words, we are living in a cacophony of empty phrases.
https://blog.melchersystem.com/the-next-photography-revolution-isnt-more-its-meaning/
The AI will offer up relevant recommendations.
via PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2025/04/10/ap-adds-ai-powered-search-to-its-vast-content-library/
The Associated Press (AP) has introduced AI search to its content library which, the news and picture agency says, will make it easier to discover and use its vast collection of visual, audio, and text content.
https://petapixel.com/2025/04/10/ap-adds-ai-powered-search-to-its-vast-content-library/
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other White House events
via Poynter: https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/the-white-house-must-lift-its-ban-on-the-associated-press-judge-rules/
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other White House events
The Trump assassination attempt dominated proceedings.
via PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2025/03/14/the-incredible-news-photos-that-won-the-2025-eyes-of-history-contest/
Evan Vucci of the Associated Press picked up Political Photo of the Year for his already iconic shot of Trump waving a fist in the air moments after being shot at. Meanwhile, Jabin Botsford of The Washington Post won Photographer of the Year in part for his sequence of shots taken that same day.
Close to Home – Photographs by Kalum Ko | Essay by Magali Duzant | LensCulture:
Periodically returning from New York to his hometown in British Columbia, Kalum Ko’s keenly observed ongoing series charts the emotional push and pull of the community he grew up in.
Istanbul — A Mosaic of Dreams – Photographs and text by Andrei Furnea | LensCulture:
Amidst chaotic beauty, tales of trials echo through alleyways, reflecting the human spirit, vibrant colors, and dynamic stories of Istanbul.
Rocío – Photographs by Austin Quintana | Text by Marigold Warner | | LensCulture:
Austin Quintana’s documentation of life in New Mexico taps into a sense of timelessness, picturing a place that feels as though it hasn’t changed in centuries.
World Press Photo apologizes for controversial Ukrainian photo placement.
via PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2025/04/01/world-press-photo-apologizes-for-controversial-placement-of-photos-from-ukraine/
World Press Photo apologized for its controversial decision to present two award-winning images captured by two different photographers as a thematic pair. One of the images showed a six-year-old Ukrainian child suffering from panic attacks following Russian artillery shelling, while the other showed a wounded pro-Russian militant.
The exhibition “American Job“ at ICP contends with the roles of images, policy, and activism in forming the American Dream.
via Aperture: https://aperture.org/editorial/how-have-photographs-shaped-our-idea-of-work/
An exhibition contends with the role of images, policy, and activism in forming our relationship to labor and the American Dream.
https://aperture.org/editorial/how-have-photographs-shaped-our-idea-of-work/
We would like to thank everyone who submitted to the inaugural Lenscratch Art + History Competition. We were impressed by the enormous number of compelling bodies of work, making it challenging to select just five outstanding projects. History and Art have been deeply intertwined for centuries. The winning projects we are featuring this week had
via LENSCRATCH: https://lenscratch.com/2025/04/oleksandr-rupeta-art-history-competition-second-place-winner/
Ukrainian documentary photographer Oleksandr Rupeta has spent much of his time photographing social anthropology and social conflicts around the world. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, he has focused on the war there. In “Stages of Air,” he captures the dissonance between the peaceful landscapes of Donbas with the horrors of combat.
https://lenscratch.com/2025/04/oleksandr-rupeta-art-history-competition-second-place-winner/
We would like to thank everyone who submitted to the inaugural Lenscratch Art + History Competition. We were impressed by the enormous number of compelling bodies of work, making it challenging to select just five outstanding projects. History and Art have been deeply intertwined for centuries. The winning projects we are featuring this week had a clear connection to history—exploring
via LENSCRATCH: http://lenscratch.com/2025/03/jared-ragland-art-history-competition-first-place-winner/
After casting my vote on Election Day 2020, I visited Spring Hill in Barbour County, Alabama, where on November 3, 1874, a White mob attacked the Spring Hill polling station, destroyed the ballot box, burned the ballots inside, and killed the election supervisor’s son. Many of the perpetrators of the massacre were known, but no one was ever convicted
http://lenscratch.com/2025/03/jared-ragland-art-history-competition-first-place-winner/
How Each Pillar of the 1st Amendment is Under Attack – Krebs on Security:
This story explores a slew of recent actions by the Trump administration that threaten to undermine all five pillars of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedoms concerning speech, religion, the media, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government and seek redress for wrongs.
The AP says its White House ban has delayed reporting, weakened access and chilled other journalists, and wants a judge to temporarily lift it
via Poynter: https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/white-house-associated-press-hearing/
“We’re basically dead in the water on major news stories,” said Evan Vucci, the AP’s chief photographer in Washington, D.C. He and White House correspondent Zeke Miller testified Thursday during a hearing for the AP’s lawsuit challenging the ban. The AP is seeking a preliminary injunction to temporarily lift the ban as its lawsuit makes its way through court.
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2025/white-house-associated-press-hearing/
The best photojournalism from around the world.
via PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2025/03/27/world-press-photo-2025-shines-a-light-on-global-issues/
World Press Photo has announced the winners of its 2025 World Press Photo Contest, showcasing some of the world’s best photojournalism and documentary photography.
https://petapixel.com/2025/03/27/world-press-photo-2025-shines-a-light-on-global-issues/
Examining the high price those documenting devastation in Gaza pay.
via bellingcat: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/03/27/gaza-israel-palestine-shot-killed-injured-destroyed-dangerous-drone-journalists-in-gaza/
Gathering aerial footage of Gaza is a dangerous task, and Bellingcat along with our partners at Forbidden Stories, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Der Standard, Paper Trail Media, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and RFI identified several cases where drone journalists were killed or injured shortly after capturing aerial images.