Documentary photographer Eugene Richards – who famously quit Magnum twice – has now left the VII Photo Agency. Speaking to PDN today, he said he left about a week ago and the choice was “personal preference,” motivated by the agency “going in a different direction.” He said he wishes VII well. “Sometimes you don’t fit,” he added. Richards said he has no plans to join another agency. Richards was voted into VII in 2006.
Check it out here.
One thing that never changes on a White House trip, no matter where in the world we are travelling, are the extremely long days on the go. You are running off planes and into the back of deafening military helicopters which sometimes spew hot oil all over your clothes, and then jump into the motorcade. Repeat three more times in one day and you start to get the picture. Actually I love all of it. It’s definitely an adrenalin rush and sometimes it’s adrenalin alone that will get you through a tough day. We normally assemble at 6-7am and sometimes finish at midnight if there is a state dinner or such. On one of the days, we awake in Tanzania, fly to Rwanda for a full day’s schedule, then get back on the plane and fly six hours to Ghana. On the last day, we leave Ghana, cover Bush’s historic trip to Liberia, then overnight on Air Force One back to Washington. The long days working in unfamiliar environments, hoping you don’t have to break out the satellite phone to transmit your pictures (we never did), and constant time zone changes eventually take their toll on everyone and thankfully most trips don’t last more than a week. But the longer it goes, the more “silly” things start happening to people, sometimes with painful consequences.
Check it out here.
Lawrence Looi, 31, who has been a staff photographer with news agency News Team for the last three years, had been sent to cover a protest on public roads outside the International Conference Centre on Thursday morning when he was approached by a police constable who objected to having been photographed.
According to the written complaint, a copy of which has been seen by EPUK, the officer held Looi by the upper arm and asked him to delete any photographs that had been taken of police officers. The officer also asked Looi to identify himself, but refused an offer to see Looi’s NPA-issued National Press Card.
Check it out here.
Detroit Free Press photographer Rashaun Rucker was named Photographer of the Year by the Michigan Press Photographers Association Saturday in its 55th annual Pictures of the Year contest.
Rucker, 29, is the first African American to win the award, which celebrates a year’s worth of exemplary visual storytelling.
“I almost cried,” Rucker said. “Even though I won, this is recognition for all the people at the Free Press who helped me throughout the year.”
Check it out here.
I’ve always considered myself a serious photojournalist. I’ve covered hard news and social issues, documenting the history of Utah through grief and pain, joy and wonder. Throughout my career as a documentary photographer I never thought I would ever have to ask a subject, “Do you want to take your shirt off?”
Check it out here.
This was the summer of 2006, and Melanie Blanding, a photographer from Roanoke, was in the Democratic Republic of Congo to take a series of portraits of women scarred by war. The women are victims of violent, often monstrous sexual assaults, and their numbers appear to be growing.
Picture a photographer in Africa to document wartime casualties and you might envision a strapping, grizzled veteran loaded down with cameras. But that’s not Blanding.
Check it out here.
David Griffin is the director of photography for National Geographic magazine. To talk about the power of images, he shows us some of the best photojournalistic images published in National Geographic. Of twelve images, including Steve McCurry’s famous photo of an Afghan refugee, and an amazing shot by Nick Nichols of Jane Goodal touching an ape, one was an amateur, submitted through Geographic’s new amateur site, Your Shot
Check it out here.
Documentary photojournalist Eugene Richards has a long career of producing powerful projects on social issues such as drug abuse, mental illness and aging. He is now working on a project on the impact of the Iraq war titled “War is Personal.” Helped by a grant from National Geographic Magazine, he is traveling around the U.S. to work on a series of stories mainly about veterans and their families. PDN recently sat down with Richards at his home in Brooklyn, N.Y., to talk about the project.
Check it out here.
I made these pictures a few months ago. I took vacation for 3 days and drove about an hour south of portland to shoot a mini – story about a homeless family moving into a home. its not a unique story – i have even shot it before. but, that doesn’t matter. we often choose to not do a story because its been done before. what does that mean? homelessness has been “done” to death. so we shouldn’t cover it?
the photos will never be published anywhere but here. so i suppose i shot them for the blog (which seems weird to me). but, i shot them for Geana and the kids too.
Check it out here.
Outlets including The Associated Press and Sports Illustrated, and groups including the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE), are asking MLB to change the credentialing terms for the upcoming baseball season.
This is the latest in a series of disputes between the press and sports leagues, which are increasingly trying to take control of photographs and other elements of media coverage.
In the new set of conditions for issuing 2008 press credentials, MLB states that “still pictures or photographs of any game cannot be used as part of a photo gallery.”
Check it out here.
>by J Carrier
After an election widely condemned as fraudulent, Kenya – a country long known as a beacon of peace and prosperity in a region of war and lawlessness – witnessed a previously unseen level of tribal bloodshed in which over 1,000 people were killed. After several intense days of widespread clashes, revenge killings and mayhem, nearly 1 million Kenyans were forced to flee to their ancestral homelands or to camps for the displaced.
Check it out here.
Brad Mangin:
The email arrived on December 21, 2007. Subject: “Invitation to judge POYi.” The words that followed stunned me: “Greetings from Pictures of the Year International. My name is Rick Shaw and I am the director for the international photojournalism program. It is my privilege to invite you to participate on the judging panel for the 65th annual Pictures of the Year International competition (Newspaper and General Divisions).”
Holy cow. Was he serious? I immediately called Rick and told him I would be honored to judge POYi. I would not be going to spring training to cover the Cactus League till the end of February, so this fit perfectly into my schedule. I knew this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity would help me learn a lot and grow as a photographer. Having the chance to look at thousands of photographs over a six-day period with a panel of three other judges was a chance I wanted to take advantage of.
Check it out here.
Getty Images announced today that Ian Martin and Lorena Ros will each receive $20,000 in funding, enabling them to pursue new documentary photography projects. In addition, each grant recipient receives collaborative support from Getty Images photo editors as they implement their winning projects.
Ian Martin’s project, “Hidden Minority: South Africa’s White Poor,” looks at the little-known problem of white poverty in post-apartheid South Africa.
Lorena Ros’ project “Silent Witness” documents the impact and prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in America while providing survivors with a safe, respectful way to address and share their experiences.
Three or four years ago I had an editor to tell me to get a photo of a guy coming out of court but he was really mean and was probably a murder suspect and I should hide in the bushes to get his picture. Really, that is what I was told to do. Frankly, I am not a hide in the bushes/ambush kind of guy.
Check it out here.
For one weekend, the entire city of Bowling Green was up for grabs.
Ten UK students participated in a photojournalism and multimedia workshop two weekends ago and set out to document life in the Western Kentucky community. Diverse stories were not hard to find.
Check it out here.
Here’s a tip to other journalists covering the Clinton campaign from here on out: Do not identify yourself as a journalist. Simple as that. Hide your credentials; do not whip out your notepad; put your camera in your pocket; do not sign the media sign-in sheet. Because that way, the Clintonistas will not be able to ID you as working press and do their damnedest to guarantee you can’t actually work, unless you’re willing to do it on a barricaded riser away from the actual people attending the event. Sorry, lady, ain’t in the transcribing business — especially when your guy didn’t say much besides the usual blah-blah-blah.
“Excuse me, you have to get behind the barricade,” said a Clinton campaign worker who softly grabbed my arm about 30 minutes before Clinton finally showed. She pointed to the riser upon which the local TV outlets had perched their cameras. When I asked why I had to move, she said it was to keep cameramen from lugging their tools through the crowd. “But all I have is this notebook and this pen,” I said, standing next to a Clinton supporter and Unfair Park reader with whom I’d just been speaking.
Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair is the winner of the 2008 Alexia Foundation Grant for professionals, and Matt Eich, a senior photojournalism major at Ohio University, is the student winner, the Alexia Foundation announced today.
The Alexia Foundation for World Peace was established by the family of Alexia Tsairis, an honors photojournalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University who was a victim of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight #103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988. She was returning home for the Christmas holidays after spending a semester at the Syracuse University London Centre.
Check it out here.
In anticipation of his visit to UCSB on March 3rd, where he’ll show his latest work and discuss the role of journalists in the modern world, Marcus Bleasdale spent some time chatting over the phone from his home in Norway. He’d just returned from Kenya, where he said the politicians and international community should be “ashamed” for standing by “toothless” while another round of ethnic cleansing occurred.
Check it out here.
London-based photojournalist Marc Vallée originally brought a private civil action for up to £15,000 against both the police force and its commissioner Sir Ian Blair alleging assault and breaches of the Human Rights Act. Under the terms of the settlement the Metropolitan Police have not accepted any liability.
Vallée, 39, was hospitalised and left unable to work for a month with back injuries which he alleges resulted from being manhandled by a police officer while covering the Sack Parliament protest in London’s Parliament Square on 9 October 2006.
Check it out here.
Alexia Tsairis was a photojournalism major at Syracuse University who used her camera as a means to draw cultures together. But in the winter of 1988, life took a turn for the worse when 35 Syracuse students were killed in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103-Tsairis included.
After she passed away, her parents were determined to support students with the same passion.
“After the crash, they came to the university looking for a way to memorialize Alexia,” said David Sutherland, an associate professor of journalism. “We came up with this concept that is getting better every year.”
The Alexia Foundation for World Peace supports budding student and professional photographers as they capture and share stories of the world.
Check it out here.