When Tim Mantoani’s not shooting on assignment, he’s documenting venerable lens men who have collectively captured decades of culture and celebrity with their own cameras. Legendary rock photographers Jim Marshall and Ethan Russell have sat for 20 x 24-inch Polaroid portraits, as have Walter Iooss, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Pete Turner, Mary Ellen Mark, Elliott Erwitt and Roberto Salas. He sees the story in each face, and in each place, and lives to gives them voice through his work.
“Less is More” with New Pro Compact Cameras from Canon:
Piemonte added that along with dropping overall resolution on the G11 to create larger individual pixels on the imaging chip that absorb more light, the new buzzword for the G11 is its “high sensitivity system.” The system combines the new 10MP chip; optical image stabilization; and the camera’s Digic IV image processor to produce better images in low light at high ISOs, she said.
PDNPulse: Twitter Photographer Asks Sky News to Pay Up:
Neale told OJB that his experience shows the dangers of social media for citizen journalists. We think it also illuminates a new dynamic that’s evolving in news coverage. Social media users can quickly share other people’s photos and videos without assuming any risk. Not so with news outlets—who have budgets and reputations at stake.
Letter from Top News Outlets Protesting Off-The-Record Briefings Sent to 600 Press Secretaries:
Added Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative: “In today’s age of Twitter and blogs, an ‘off-the-record’ speech will be publicized, just not by reporters. It just doesn’t make sense anymore and the practice should stop.”
Essay: Storytelling With Pictures – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com:
I was nine years old, living in a small town in south Florida, when I read Grey Villet’s “The Lash of Success” in Life magazine — one of the very few extras my family could afford. The pages of Life were filled with images of President John F. Kennedy, the space program and rising stars of television. Yet it was the subject and style of “Lash” — about a businessman sacrificing his humanity in pursuit of success — that had the greatest impact upon me. I have never forgotten it.
Seeing Money: Stop sabotaging your profit margin | RESOLVE — the liveBooks photo blog:
So far in his “Seeing Money” column, Doug Menuez has covered several important topics for starting a photo business: getting loans, managing your expenses, and staying on top of Accounts Payable and Receivables (see his blog for more on cash flow and “must pays”). Here he explains why being “busy” is not the same thing as being profitable — and how to figure out which one you are.
Canon unveils PowerShot G11 : Digital Photography Review:
Professional photographers will benefit from the G11’s greatly expanded dynamic range. Canon’s new Dual Anti-Noise System combines a high sensitivity 10.0 Megapixel image sensor with Canon’s enhanced DIGIC 4 image processing technology to increase image quality and greatly improve noise performance by up to 2 stops (compared to PowerShot G10). The PowerShot G11 also includes i-Contrast technology, which prevents high-light blowout whilst retaining low-light detail – ideal for difficult lighting situations.
Treasures From National Geographic Society’s Underground Trove – NYTimes.com:
“Photojournalism has really only recently been recognized in the fine-art world,” said Maura A. Mulvihill, vice president for the society’s image collection and sales. “And we are sitting on this vast, amazing collection, and started wanting to find a way to get it out into the world.”
Blurb is well-known as a digital book-making company. Their CEO, Eileen Gittins, and I have had a chance to sit down last year when we were comparing notes about putting together a national seminar series, and more recently, we’re both partners to the Magnum Expression Photography Award. PhotoShelter has used Blurb before to develop marketing pieces, and while the end result was good, I always had the desire to have more control over the output than their software allowed (I worked as a graphic designer in college).
So I was very pleased to find that they now support “PDF to Book” capabilities, which means I could design my own book using a product like Adobe InDesign. This new process gives a few distinct advantages
Diversifying with workshops: rewarding but hardly easy | RESOLVE — the liveBooks photo blog:
In the ’90s, Australian photojournalist Jack Picone covered eight wars in ten years. Then, like so many, he recognized that assignments were dwindling and decided to diversify in several areas, especially workshops. Based in Bangkok, Jack brings a non-Western mentality to his workshops, involving local photographers and inviting the community to see the final-night slideshow. Jack’s next workshop, with fellow Australian photographer Stephen Dupont, will be in Sydney and Melbourne in early October and November. But regardless of where they happen, as you’ll see from Jack’s comments, workshops are anything but easy — they are a lot of work for inconsistent money. The big reward is still helping students improve.
London’s Lazarides Gallery looks to open their latest exhibition on August 14th, 2009, featuring the artwork of internationally renown French artist Invader. The show looks to run through September 17th, 2009.
11 Unintentionally Hilarious Hip-Hop Videos | The Rap Up:
Silliness has always been a part of human nature, but it appears to be more fashionable now that we have an assortment of tools to document our goofiness. After all, YouTube and other video sites gave independent directors a chance to showcase their work, prepubescent rappers a chance to gain recognition, and hip-hoppers an outlet for round-the-clock unintentionally comedy. Here are th 11 Most Unintentionally Funny Hip-Hop Videos:
When I am asked about my work, one of the questions that often comes up is ‘How much difference does it make that I am a woman?’ And I have to agree that it does make a huge difference, that plenty of the situations I have been in would not have been accessible to a man, or if a man had been present the atmosphere would have been very different.
Right now I am working in Saudi Arabia and for the first time, in a strange contradictory way, it seems actually to be a disadvantage to be able to get so close. I will try and explain…
The world’s most expensive photography books | Art and design |guardian.co.uk:
The production of limited-edition photography books has provided a lucrative trade for art book publishers, even in a recession. As glossily packaged collector’s items, coffee-table tomes can fetch up to six-figure sums. But are they artworks in their own right? We take a look at some of the most expensive photobooks of all time
I’m excited to announce the first Conscientious Portfolio Competition, which hopefully will turn into a regular feature (to be held at the end of each Summer). The winner of the competition will have her or his work featured here on this blog, in the form of an extended conversation/interview (which, of course, also showcases the photography). Details below.
Just days after Sarah Palin’s selection last August as the Republican vice presidential candidate, a photo of a bikini-clad, gun-toting Palin blitzed across the Internet. Almost as quickly, it was revealed as a hoax—a crude bit of Photoshop manipulation created by splicing an image of the Alaska governor’s head onto someone else’s body. From start to finish, the doctoring probably took no more than 15 minutes.
How Could Annie Leibovitz Be on the Verge of Financial Collapse? — New York Magazine:
Annie Leibovitz clearly hated what a lifetime-achievement award implied about her—that the best days of her 40-year career were behind her. “Photography is not something you retire from,” the 59-year-old Leibovitz said from the stage, accepting the honor from the International Center of Photography last May at Pier 60. She was turned out in a simple black dress and glasses, her long straight hair a little unruly, as usual. Photographers, she said, “live to a very old age” and “work until the end.” She noted that Lartigue lived to be 92, Steichen 93, and Cartier-Bresson 94. “Irving Penn is going to be 92 next month, and he’s still working.” Then her tone turned rueful. “Seriously, though, this really is a big deal,” she said, hoisting her Infinity Award statuette, her voice quavering to the point where it seemed she might cry. “It means so much to me, you know, especially right now. It’s, it’s a very sweet award to get right now. I’m having some tough times right now, so … ”
Showcase: A Modern Ozymandias – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com:
When Richard Mosse traveled to Iraq last spring, he was intrigued by paradoxical scenes of U.S. troops living in Saddam Hussein’s former palaces: weight machines in a courtyard, makeshift dorm rooms in a marbled hallway and barbecue grills overlooking an artificial lake that the dictator once stocked with fish.
Human Nature: Doug Fogelson’s Overlapping Exposure Process:
Earlier this year photographer Doug Fogelson released The Time After, a book that considers humanity’s troubled relationship with the natural world through an exploration of lifecycles and time signatures, which he visualizes using overlapping exposures created in-camera. His process yields complex images in which the subjects—people, urban architecture, street scenes, plant life, clouds, deserts and oceans, photographed in different locations around the world—intermingle and interact.
