I just want some clarity on where the iPhone Hipstamatic debate stands, 10 months after the Winter controversy.
So, I was wondering…
– Are iPhone Hipstamatic images fully accepted now?
– Do others find them as compelling as I do?
– Is content still king?
– Is it cheating or easier to make a great image with an iPhone?
– Can they be entered in contests and compete side by side with photos made with more traditional tools?
Category: Photojournalism
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iPhone Hipstamatic- still bad for photojournalism?
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The Heyday is Now
This is a sermon, so feel free to mutter an occasional amen or shout a hallelujah. And like any congregation of believers, you probably already know some of the things I’m going to say. But we are here to reinvigorate our faith, so please be seated while I take the pulpit, thump the mic and clear my throat.
You are living in the best time in history to be a photojournalist.
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CNN Digital hires Director of Photography
CNN Digital welcomes Simon Barnett, who starts today as Director of Photography. In this role, Barnett will oversee how the network’s photography will be used across CNN’s web, tablet, mobile, and emerging platforms, as well as lead the vision for integrating photography into CNN’s multimedia journalism efforts. He is based at CNN’s global headquarters in Atlanta, and will report to CNN Digital’s VP, Executive Creative Director, Marisa Gallagher.
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LA Times publishes graphic front page photo of US soldiers with Afghan corpses
Times Editor Davan Maharaj said, “After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops.”
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On the Hipstamatic Journalist
The problem here is that using a Hipstamatic/Instagram app is not at all “a different aesthetic than people are used to seeing” – everybody and their grandmother are now using those apps or filters. On top of that, these apps mimic old film cameras. So it’s not a different aesthetic at all – it’s a trendy aesthetic. In fact it’s so trendy and popular that Facebook just paid $1b to buy Instagram – a site centering on those kinds of images!
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A Few Thoughts for the Weekend:-)
This is a business of bounces, sharp turns, unexpected events, lean times, occasional joyous celebrations, and bouts of euphoria measured in slices of seconds. No matter what, be it an excellent day in the field, or a humdrum day filing pictures or doing billing, it is punctuated almost incessantly with the intrusive reality of just how difficult this is to do, over the long haul. Wonderful, but tough at the same time.
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Look3 Report: Stanley Greene on Luck, Film and Supporting Young Photographers
A central theme of many of Greene’s stories was the recurring role that chance has played throughout his career, in large and small ways.
“I honestly believe photography is 75 percent chance, and 25 percent skill,” he said in response to a question from an audience member toward the end of the talk. “In accidents, we really discover the magic of photography.”
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Trang Bang: 40 Years Later
It’s difficult to explain to someone who has grown up in the world of digital photography just what it was like being a photo-reporter in the all too recently passed era of film cameras. That there was, necessarily, a moment when your finite roll of film would end at frame 36, and you would have to swap out the shot film for a fresh roll before being able to resume the hunt for a picture. In those ‘in between’ moments, brief as they might be, there was always the possibility of the picture taking place. You would try to anticipate what was happening in front of your eyes, and avoid being out of film at some key intersection of time and place. But sometimes the moment just doesn’t wait. Photojournalism – the pursuit of story telling with a camera, is still a relatively young trade, but there are plenty of stories about those missed pictures. In the summer of 1972, I was a 25-year-old photojournalist working in Vietnam, where I spent two years trying to cover the events of that war. Some stories present themselves in more obvious ways than others, but as the U.S. began winding down direct combat roles and encouraging Vietnamese fighting units to take over the battle, there were moments when trying to tell that story presented enormous challenges.
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A Tyranny of Ones
There just didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day that I could manage so that the work load of both shooting and file management was done with confidence and competence. In addition, I was exhibiting signs of retrograde camera envy. Besides the digital cameras at hand, I wanted to shoot with my 1940s Speed Graphic, a beautiful old beast of a press camera, with a 1943 aerial recon camera lens on it. I have shot with this camera for a decade, and find that when I look into its amazing viewfinder, I see things I just miss with my digi cams. The old lens, long and fast, sees the world in a very different way than the Canons, and in many ways IS a perfect foil for the smaller more agile counterparts. First, it uses Film. There is no practical affordable digital back for a 4×5” camera at least not yet, and frankly I kind of hope no one develops one anytime soon. There is, in the use of film, film holders, and a semi ancient camera, something very satisfying, very “I have to get this in ONE shot,” something very, shall we say, Romantic.
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I’m Sick of Pretending: I Don’t ‘Get’ Photography
Jesus Christ, that’s depressing. For a photo to be W.PPA-worthy, it apparently has to make you involuntarily curl into a ball and cry all the water out of your body, so next tip for spotting a good photo: If it instantly makes you want to kill yourself to escape all the horrors and evil in the world, you’re on to a winner.
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2012 Summer Olympics – David Burnett
I am not saying that there is no good to be had from the new technologies. Far from it. The new cameras let us make pictures that were never even imaginable a dozen years ago. But in all of that, in the rush to bestow the crown of technical achievement upon the head of digital photography, I think we risk losing a piece of the soul of all our work. And whatever each of us can do as individuals to get beyond the norm, the expected, the predictable, and the obvious that is what photography in the new century demands of us.
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Coups de Cœur ANI 2012: David Sperry
From social uprising to civil war, Syria has one of the most complex narratives of the Arab Spring, a fractured society with a myriad of viewpoints but seemingly no solutions. As the battle for Aleppo drags on neither Assad’s forces or the loose umbrella of the Free Syrian Army appears to have the ability to win decisively. The conflict becomes increasingly radicalized and the population becomes further divided. This reportage is a view of Syrian life on the edge, as Aleppo, the largest city and commercial capital of the country, slides deeper into the abyss.
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Review (of sorts): Interrogations by Donald Weber (in actuality an investigation of the shoot-the-messenger syndrome)
Photography essentially is a feel-good exercise for ourselves: We look at photographs to feel good. We want to feel good.
It is important to realize that this is usually true even when photographs make us feel bad: it is precisely the fact that we know we should feel bad that can result in our enjoyment.