Category: Editor’s Choice

Todd Heisler’s Photos of Dementia in a California Prison

Behind Bars and Beginning to Forget

Todd Heisler spent four days photographing the members of a unique program at the California Men’s Colony that pairs inmates with dementia with caretakers — other inmates.

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/behind-bars-and-beginning-to-forget/?pagewanted=all

There are constant reminders of the outside world at the California Men’s Colony. The prison, nestled in the seaside mountains outside of San Luis Obispo, is routinely enveloped by a thick fog that rolls in from the ocean at dawn. Seagulls and other birds fly overhead, stop occasionally to perch on the razor wire encircling the yard, and fly away at a whim. The birds are a reminder of the world outside, which many people in this prison will never again experience.

February 26, 2012
Mark Murrmann: Just a Performance

Link: The Leica Camera

There’s an element of trying to capture a realness, a kind of spontaneity to both that’s appealing. But of course in punk, like just about anything else, there’s definitely an element of performance, controlled chaos and building off of what’s come before. To that end, covering music, especially larger bands, reminds me of when I was covering Congress. It’s funny, when I’ve shown my portfolio to editors, I’ve been knocked on more than one occasion for including music photography. I was told that work is “just capturing a performance.” Hell, outside of spot news or street photography, just about everything a photojournalist shoots is “just a performance.” Sports? No doubt. Politics? Hell yes. Especially today, in the reality show soaked world we’re living in, you pull out a camera and people perform

February 24, 2012
scott dalton – so close, so far: daily life and cartel violence in ciudad jurez

Link: burn magazine

As a photographer I am interested in the often-fragile relationship between people and the places they live, in how individuals, environment, and history combine to create a region with its own culture. In my project ‘So Close, So Far: Daily Life and Cartel Violence in Ciudad Juarez’, I am exploring these ideas through images of daily life in a place where the drug war calls the very concept of “daily life” into question. Combining environmental portraits and documentary reportage, I hope to document this tragic and historic time in the life of this city, when cartel violence forges an uncertain new reality.

February 12, 2012
Bruce McCall explains the artist’s drive for absurdist retrofuturism

via
Link: Boing Boing

February 12, 2012
World Press Photo Winners Gallery

Link: World Press Photo

View the entire collection of winning images from the 55th World Press Photo Contest. The winners were selected from over 100,000 images submitted to the contest.

February 10, 2012
MOMENTS OF THE HUMAN CONDITION

Link: Peter Turnley

February 8, 2012
Misha Friedman’s Photographs of Tuberculosis

Saving Lives or Photographing Them?

Misha Friedman quit his job at Doctors Without Borders to freelance as a photographer. His images of tuberculosis in Russia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine are haunting. But Mr. Friedman isn’t sure how much good they have done.

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/saving-lives-or-photographing-them/?pagewanted=all

Misha Friedman’s photographs of tuberculosis are dark, black-and-white glimpses of passing lives. In many of the frames — shot in Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Russia — there is a wandering, ghostly presence.

February 8, 2012
Syria Under Siege: Photographs by Alessio Romenzi

LightBox | Time

Read the latest stories about LightBox on Time

via Time: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/02/08/syria-under-siege-photographs-by-alessio-romenzi/#1

Photographer Alessio Romenzi has been among just such enemies of the Assad government: with fighters of the Free Syrian Army and with the people of Bab Amr, a rebellious district in the besieged city of Homs. On assignment for TIME, he took shelter with local families in a basement of Bab Amr. No one dared to step outside or even venture upstairs for fear of government shells crashing onto them. Bodies were dragged into homes from the street so they would not rot in the open. The dead littered the corridors. It was too dangerous to hold funerals. Romenzi counted 25 civilian fatalities in just two hours of bombardment in his immediate area. As he wrote in an email, “The word ‘safe’ is not in our dictionary these days.”

February 8, 2012
Sony World Photography Awards shortlist unveiled

Link: British Journal of Photography

The 2012 edition of the Sony World Photography Awards is just around the corner – coming to London in April. But, the World Photography Organisation has today announced its shortlisted photographers

February 2, 2012
The Death of the Editor and the Rise of the Circulation Manager

The Death of the Editor and the Rise of the Circulation Manager

A century-old critique of everything that’s wrong with media values today.

via Brain Pickings: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/30/bliven/

so long as we have a monetization model of information that prioritizes the wrong stakeholders — advertisers over readers — we will always cater to the business interests of the former, not the intellectual interests of the latter

February 2, 2012
Michael Carlebach’s Photos of a Goofy South Florida

Odd Shadows in a Sunny Land

“All this is out there,” he said about these brief, quiet and sometimes deliciously odd tableaux. “It’s easily ignored, but at our peril, if we forget who we are or if we think the only important stuff is what’s smack in the middle of the limelight.”

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/odd-shadows-in-a-sunny-land/?pagewanted=all

Before Art Basel, Miami Beach and “Miami Vice,” there was another South Florida.

It was cheesier, scarier, goofier and much closer to the bone. Times Square with alligators. “Funny and depressing at the same time,” said Michael Carlebach, a photojournalist, photographic historian and educator.

January 30, 2012
The Veterans of Evgueniy Ivanov

Link: La Lettre de la Photographie

The 360-degree panoramas of Evgueniy Ivanov tell the private life of the Great Patrioic War at the beginning of this century. These tracking shots of life depict a nation and its heroes.

January 27, 2012
Bharat Choudary’s Photos of Young Muslims

Challenging the Silence of Others

After confronting anti-Muslim hostility, Bharat Choudhary – himself a Hindu – set out to document how young Muslims navigate their way through the fears and stereotypes imposed on them in the West. His journey has taken him across several continents and c

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/challenging-the-silence-of-others/?pagewanted=all

Bharat Choudhary has seen the power of religious hatred up close. After the 2002 sectarian riots in Gujarat, Mr. Choudhary counseled victims who had been paralyzed or raped during the violence.

His clients were Muslims. Mr. Choudhary is Hindu.

January 26, 2012
New Postcards From America Limited Edition Photography Book

LightBox | Time

Read the latest stories about LightBox on Time

via Time: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/01/26/postcards-from-america-the-box-set/#1

The Postcards from America box book, in a signed edition of 500, is available exclusively at www.postcards.magnumphotos.com

January 26, 2012
JEFF BROUWS: “It Don’t Exist – The Impact of Sprawl and Suburban Build-out on Inner City America” (2009)

JEFF BROUWS: “It Don’t Exist – The Impact of Sprawl and Suburban Build-out on Inner City America” (2009)

“It Don’t Exist”, The Impact of Sprawl and Suburban Build-out on Inner City America

By Jeff Brouws (lecture delivered at SPE’s conference in Dallas), March 28, 2009

I’ve been photographing the American cultural landscape for the past twenty years. U

via AMERICAN SUBURB X: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2012/01/jeff-brouws-%e2%80%9cit-don%e2%80%99t-exist-the-impact-of-sprawl-and-suburban-build-out-on-inner-city-america-2009.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americansuburb+%28ASX+%7C+AMERICAN+SU

I’ve been photographing the American cultural landscape for the past twenty years. Utilizing different series that I’ve done involving the everyday urban and suburban places we encounter, I’ll strive to make visual and verbal connections between these overlapping territories of American life while sticking to our theme of how sprawl has affected inner city environments.

January 24, 2012
Success Stories: Cole Thompson

Success Stories: Cole Thompson

Cole Thompson’s work has been on my radar for a number of years. I have always appreciated his well-crafted images and all that he brings to the table in terms of being a professional. His newsletters are as elegant as his work, and everything is presente

via LENSCRATCH: http://www.lenscratch.com/2012/01/success-stories-cole-thompson.html

for the last several years I have practiced what I call “Photographic Celibacy.” My photo magazines are donated, my books gather dust on the shelf and I do not seek out new work on the internet. Not studying other photographers work has been very helpful and I give this technique much of the credit in helping me unearth my vision and to become more creative.

January 23, 2012
“Murder is My Business” – Photos by Weegee at I.C.P.

Weegee’s Killer Decade

Arthur Fellig prowled the streets of New York with a stogie, a Speed Graphic and an unmatched feel for the real city. A new show, “Weegee: Murder is My Business,” shows how.

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/weegees-killer-decade/?pagewanted=all

A sprawling show devoted to an intense decade in the city’s history opens Friday at the International Center of Photography. “Weegee: Murder Is My Business” delivers on its promise, and then some, showcasing the work of the legendary photographer Arthur Fellig from 1935 to 1946.

January 20, 2012
Famous Photogs Pose With Their Most Iconic Images

Famous Photogs Pose With Their Most Iconic Images

Tim Mantoani takes portraits of famous photographers holding their most iconic or favorite photos in his new book Behind Photographs: Archiving Photographic Legends. Mantoani has shot over 150 of these portraits in the last five years.

via WIRED: http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/01/famous-photogs-pose-with-their-most-iconic-images/all/1

The Tank Man of Tienanmen Square. Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston in victory. The portrait of the Afghan Girl on the cover of National Geographic. Many of us can automatically recall these photos in our heads, but far fewer can name the photographers who took them. Even fewer know what those photographers look like.

Tim Mantoani hopes to change that by taking portraits of famous photographers holding their most iconic or favorite photos in his new book Behind Photographs: Archiving Photographic Legends. Mantoani has shot over 150 of these portraits in the last five years, most of which are contained in the book.

January 20, 2012
SOPA And Photography

SOPA And Photography – A Photo Editor

You have the DMCA so you don’t need SOPA (or PIPA). Like many have suggested SOPA is like banning cars because bank robbers use them to get away. Overkill basically. And, in the wrong hands, ripe for abuse. Also, there are some serious problems with the w

via A Photo Editor: http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2012/01/19/sopa-and-photography/

let’s not kid ourselves here. As much as Hollywood and media conglomerates want to protect their businesses, Google and Facebook want to steal it. Nobody is fighting for your rights. They’re simply deciding who will be in control of the copyrighted material you produce

January 19, 2012
Conversation: Chris Johns, Editor, National Geographic Magazine

Chris Johns – Editor, National Geographic Magazine

A CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS JOHNS FIRST IN A SERIES ON “DECISION MAKERS” Chris Johns was named editor in chief of National Geographi…

via burn magazine: http://www.burnmagazine.org/dialogue/2012/01/interview-chris-johns-editor-national-geographic-magazine/

If you get afraid of making mistakes, you are toast. You’re done. You’ve got to have courage. You’ve got to believe in yourself and the people who you surround yourself with, that you can go ahead, and your going to weigh the options, your going to be decisive, but a lot of its going to be visceral. This is really important because when it comes too intellectual, it becomes too cool. But when it becomes more visceral, and I’m not talking about flying off the handle, but there’s a gut thing.

January 18, 2012