Category: Obituaries

  • Sven Nykvist, 83, a Master of Light in Films, Dies

    NYT:

    “I was fortunate to work with Ingmar,” he said in 1995. “One of the things we believed was that a picture shouldn’t look lit. Whenever possible, I lit with one source and avoided creating double shadows, because that pointed to the photography.”

    In his films, especially those with Mr. Bergman, light assumed a metaphysical dimension that went beyond mood. It distilled and deepened the feelings of torment and spiritual separation that afflicted Bergman characters. But in scenes of tranquillity filmed outdoors, the light might also evoke glimpses of transcendence. The sumptuous scenes of a Scandinavian Christmas in “Fanny and Alexander” burst with warmth and a magical, childlike joy.

    Here.

  • The Death of a Fighter

    DigitalJournalist:

    I had never met Catherine Leroy before doing the interviews for my book Shooting Under Fire in 2002. I had heard the legends, of course; how she arrived in Vietnam in 1966 with one Leica, no experience and even less money; how she parachuted with the 173rd Airborne in a combat operation; how she lived like a Marine and swore like one too; how she was wounded, only a shattered camera around her neck saving her life. Of course I knew the photographs she had taken, the anguished picture of a Navy Corpsman unable to save the life of his Marine buddy, the first photographs of the North Vietnamese Army in action, and many others, not only from Southeast Asia but from Lebanon and Northern Ireland as well. It wasn’t until I opened the front door of my New York apartment that I let in this whirlwind that blew in and out of my life until the end of hers.

    Here.

  • War Photographer Catherine Leroy Dies In California

    From PDN:

    Leroy was part of a generation of photojournalists who made their names in Vietnam – some others include David Burnett, Don McCullin, Gilles Caron, Larry Burrows, Tim Page and Dirck Halstead – by taking advantage of the access afforded to journalists there.

    “We rode in military planes, did helicopter assaults during operations, walked with units, everywhere, anytime,” Leroy recalled in a 2002 interview with PDN. “We were not subjected to censorship. It was unprecedented, and it will never be repeated again. We have now entered ‘the brave new world’ where disinformation and censorship are being implemented and access reduced to photo opportunities.”

    In the same interview, Leroy described her how she traveled to Saigon at age 21, with a Leica and $150 and no combat experience. “I had never heard a gun fired in anger before, and I spoke three words of English,” she said.

    Here.

  • Fausto Vitello, R.I.P.

    Fausto Vitello, R.I.P.

    From Supertouch:

    Fausto Vitello, publisher of Juxtapoz & Thrasher magazines & a seminal figure in the worlds of skateboarding & underground art died suddenly on Saturday afternoon, April 22, 2006. Check back for updates as they become available. This photo of F.V. was taken in 1978. He will be missed…

    Here.

  • Tribute to Gordon Parks

    From The Digital Journalist, a series of remembrances and photo galleries on the late photographer Gordon Parks:

    We at The Digital Journalist want to acknowledge that with his death on March 7th of this year not only has photography lost a giant, but so too has humanity, so we offer in this issue a mix of his work and recollections from people who knew him well and loved him for it.
    Here.

  • Thomas J. Abercrombie dies; Photographer for National Geographic

    From the Washington Post:

    Mr. Abercrombie dived with Jacques Cousteau, which he said was “like swimming with a fish.” While suffering from typhoid in the Himalayas, he amputated the frozen toes of a pilgrim as gangrene set in. He slipped off his yak in Afghanistan and narrowly escaped plunging into a 1,000-foot chasm. In Venezuela, he was knocked off the top of a mountain-climbing cable car and bore the scar to the end of his life.

    In 1965, while traveling through Saudi Arabia’s “Empty Quarter,” his sport-utility vehicle broke down, forcing him to repair the radiator hose with items from his first-aid kit and patch another leak with a poultice of camel dung and barley paste.

    Here.

  • British cameraman shot by Israelis was murdered, says jury

    From the Mail & Guardian:

    The shooting death of British cameraman James Miller by an Israeli soldier in Gaza was murder, an inquest jury found on Thursday. The jury also said Israeli authorities had “not been forthcoming” about how and why Miller (34) was killed by a single shot fired by the soldier.
    Here.

  • The Web This Morning

    Artist- Michael Slack

    Game Art – I am 8 bit

    Photography – Preparations for Khmer Rouge trials, Cambodia, by John Vink, Magnum Photos

    NYT – The Wild Web of China

    NYT – Gordon Parks, Master of the Camera, Dies at 93