Author: Trent

  • Family sues for photos of dead athlete

    From the Columbia Daily Tribune:

    When University of Missouri-Columbia football player Aaron O’Neal collapsed in July on Faurot Field, a Tribune photographer (Jenna Isaacson) captured the scene. Now lawyers for the O’Neal family want access to more than 600 digital photos taken shortly before the athlete’s death.

    Here.

  • Photographer held for hours by police

    Photographer held for hours by police

    From WABC-TV:

    Ben Hider, Photographer: “Three police officers ran at me, immediately, telling me to stop where I was.”

    "Emptied my pockets, searched me, frisked me, started telling me about the recent terrorist threats in America over the past five years and 'haven't I been watching the news?'" Here.

  • Banksy takes on the Melbourne Street Art Scene

    Banksy takes on the Melbourne Street Art Scene


    From the Guardian, via Wooster Collective:

    What is disappointing about the authority’s attitude is that Australia is probably still the only country in the world to have elevated a graffiti writer to the status of national public hero. Arthur Stace was an alcoholic from the slums of Sydney who found God while listening to a Baptist preacher in a hostel in the 1940s and took to writing the word “eternity” on the ground in chalk. He rendered it in meticulous copperplate script more than half a million times across Sydney over the next three decades, becoming an urban legend before his death in 1967 at the age of 83. He has since been honoured by a plaque, a range of council-approved merchandise and was the centrepiece of celebrations when the word “eternity” in his trademark hand was lit up in 100ft-high letters on Sydney harbour bridge to mark the new millennium.
    Here.

  • Catching up with Alec Soth

    Catching up with Alec Soth

    From PDN, Alec Soth on his Niagra project:

    I drive a van from home. I always stay in motels. I normally stay on the Canadian side. The only things I look for in a motel are wireless Internet and a windowless bathroom for changing film. When I ask the clerk if they have these two things, they usually give me a suspicious look.

    Here.

  • PDN'S 30

    PDN'S 30

    From PDN, their annual list of the top 30 upcoming photographers:

    “My best work,” Nina Andersson says, “Is what I’ve done when I’m not thinking too much when I shoot it. My best work is spontaneous.”

    Here.

  • Crucifiction

    Crucifiction

    From the game Roma Victor:

    Brighton, UK. Britain will witness its first crucifixion for almost two millennia later this week, when Cynewulf is nailed to a cross as punishment for ganking other players as they first appear. Cynewulf, (in real life a 27 year-old electrical engineer from Flint, Michigan, USA) has no need to worry about suffering any permanent pain to his hands or feet, however, as this barbaric sentence is due to be carried out in cyberspace; in the virtual world of Roma Victor®.

    Here.

  • Living with AIDS: Peru, by Larry Towell

    Living with AIDS: Peru, by Larry Towell

    From Magnum Photos, part one of photographer Larry Towell’s Living With AIDS photo essay, this one in Peru. As always, Towell’s eye is sharp.
    Here.

  • Q&A with photographer shot in Iraq

    From PDN, Q&A with Toby Morris of ZUMA Press:

    When it first happened, I was really embarrassed to be the photographer who got shot. Because you know that your peers might say, “That guy Toby, he’s a hot dog.” But I’m not Robert Capa, man, I wasn’t standing on top of the trench. I was there more to take portraits than to get news photos anyway.

    Here.

  • Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman

    Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman


    Deep-Sea Comics, publishers of Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman, and other comic books by David Boswell.

    Reid Fleming, the crazy milkman, is known for the phrases, “I thought I told you to shut up!” and “I am not bald, I get my hair CUT this way!”

    Here.

  • Photo Books Show Two Different Iraqs

    Photo Books Show Two Different Iraqs

    From PDN:

    With the benefit of more time, two recent photo books have tried to show the war from new angles. They take fundamentally different approaches: one from the viewpoint of the American solider, the other from the viewpoint of the Iraqi citizens.

    Here.

    The books:


  • Will Wright: Dream Machines

    From Wired:

    Like the toys of our youth, modern videogames rely on the player’s active involvement. We’re invited to create and interact with elaborately simulated worlds, characters, and story lines. Games aren’t just fantasy worlds to explore; they actually amplify our powers of imagination.

    Here.

  • Imelda Marcos, in PowerPoint and Plastic

    Imelda Marcos, in PowerPoint and Plastic

    From the New York Times:

    “I don’t wear jewels anymore,” she announced. “They stole all my jewels. These are recycled garbage that I make into jewels.”

    “It’s beautiful,” she said. “Here, I have a plastic ring. I did it. I designed it. I have hundreds and hundreds. I have a room full of jewels made of plastic.”

    “I’m more bejeweled than before,” she said. “Bejeweled with garbage.”
    Here.

  • 2 Years After Soldier's Death, Family's Battle is with Army

    2 Years After Soldier's Death, Family's Battle is with Army

    From the New York Times:

    “There is so much nonstandard conduct, both before and after Pat was killed, that you have to start to wonder,” Mr. Tillman said. “How much effort would you put into hiding an accident? Why do you need to hide an accident?”

    Here.

  • Rabid Lassie on MySpace

    Rabid Lassie on MySpace

    There’s finally a Rabid Lassie page on MySpace. Four songs are there.

    Here.

  • Portfolio Workflow Videos

    From Extensis:

    Photographer Digital Workflow.

    This demo will outline how to use Portfolio as a complete workflow tool. From downloading and back-up to editing, sharing and archiving all inside of Portfolio. Learn how to simplify your workflow and have complete control over all of it’s steps.

    Here.

  • Advance Workers for Bush Impersonated Reporters

    From the Washington Post:

    “They didn’t show any cards or anything,” Akins said. “They just came up and said they were with the media, and then they said they were with Fox. They just talked to us and asked us about rebuilding our house. Then, after everything was over with, they approached us and they were laughing, and they said: ‘You know, we really weren’t with Fox. We’re government, Secret Service men.’ ”

    Here.

  • Duplex Planet

    Duplex Planet

    Duplex Planet, where David Greenberger has been asking questions to the elderly for over 25 years. A sample:

    WHY IS MUSIC IMPORTANT?

    FRANK KANSLASKY: (Laughs) Not to me it ain’t!

    LEO GERMINO: Because it’s very, very outstanding. It’s important to make
    people feel better, too.

    FRANCIS MCELROY: Because it’s the run of the country, and it’s very
    popular among all people.

    BILL NIEMI: Well, it sort of relaxes a person’s mind.

    CHARLES SHEA: Without it there’d be no happiness.

    ABE SURGECOFF: It brings melody to the people.

    HERMAN SEFTEL: It tunes up the system.

    DORA GURKEWITZ: We’re lonely people and we live alone, so we like to have
    music.

    HENRY TURNER: It soothes the nerves. And it keeps you from getting bored
    too. Of course my radio was stolen from me.

    HOWARD SHERWOOD: Well, I think it’s a great day starter, starter of the
    day. Most people put their radio on and it brightens up the day. If we had
    a lot more music and less arguments things would be a lot better – all over
    the world. In a lot of these countries you aren’t allowed to put music on.

    (from Duplex Planet issue # 97)

  • Street Photography Protected… Barely

    Street Photography Protected… Barely

    From the New York Times:

    When Erno Nussenzweig, an Orthodox Jew and retired diamond merchant from Union City, N.J., saw his picture last year in the exhibition catalog, he called his lawyer. And then he sued Mr. diCorcia and Pace for exhibiting and publishing the portrait without permission and profiting from it financially. The suit sought an injunction to halt sales and publication of the photograph, as well as $500,000 in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages.

    Here.

  • Before and After Abu Ghraib, Abuse

    Before and After Abu Ghraib, Abuse

    From the New York Times:

    In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball.

    Here.

  • Top-Down Review for the Pentagon

    Top-Down Review for the Pentagon

    From the New York Times:

    In sum, he has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld must step down.

    Here.