washingtonpost.com:
The reporter, David Rohde, 41, was taken captive Nov. 10 with local reporter Tahir Ludin and their driver, while he was in the early stages of researching a book on Afghanistan. News organizations, including The Washington Post, did not report on the abduction at the request of the Times, which feared that publication of the news could endanger the lives of the men.
Greg Mitchell:
In fact, what I witnessed in the six months after we found out about it was the most amazing press blackout on a major event that I have ever seen: at least in the case of a story involving such a prominent news outlet and a leading reporter. I wonder how strongly, if at all, this non-reporting will be criticized in the weeks to come.
Scott Bourne « Photofocus:
I am not interested in exposure – I am interested in getting paid for my work – just like everyone else is.
ROSS DOUTHAT – NYTimes.com:
Mark Helprin could have ignored the barrage; he could have sifted it for arguments worth replying to. Instead, he decided to write a furious treatise against the comment-happy horde. The resulting book, “Digital Barbarism: A Writer’s Manifesto,” is a vindication of the aphorism about the perils of wrestling with a pig. (You get dirty; the pig likes it.) Helprin can be a wonderful wordsmith, and there are many admirable passages and strong arguments in this book. But the thread that binds the work together is hectoring, pompous and enormously tedious.
DAVID W. DUNLAP – Lens Blog – NYTimes.com:
There are plenty of distractions at the circus, where every character seems slightly larger — and a whole lot more colorful — than in real life.
That’s exactly what Damon Winter didn’t want when he envisioned a series of portraits of the circus performers in the Coney Island Boom a Ring, a special summer presentation by Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey that opened on Thursday.
photo-eye:
Lisa Kereszi’s first monograph, Fantasies, interweaves images of the empty interiors of strip clubs with photographs of new burlesque dancers to create a narrative in between the environment of a fantasy and the expression of one. The tawdry nocturnal spaces are an emotional void, paralleling the possible emptiness of those who occupy the stages of the strip clubs, as well as those who fill the seats as patrons. According to Kereszi, the new burlesque performances have a more palpable joy than stripper routines, but Kereszi’s images of the burlesque dancers in persona still exude a certain sadness and a reality that is rough around the edges. Kereszi draws back the curtain on fantasy and reveals its details, enticing the imagination of the viewer, yet simultaneously exposing the reality of fantasy’s ephemeral nature.
JAMES ESTRIN – Lens Blog:
Ed Kashi is a photojournalist and filmmaker who has spent the last 30 years documenting social and political issues. In his new book, “Three” (PowerHouse books 2009), images are stripped of their context and arranged in triptychs, relying on visual or metaphoric cues.
George McLeod – The Globe and Mail:
When we stopped, an officer grabbed me, pinned my arm behind my back and led me into the bowels of the Interior Ministry headquarters – where so many Iranian dissidents ‘disappear’ Mistaken for a protester in Tehran, Globe freelancer George McLeod was captured and beaten by riot police. This is his story.
Via PDN
Chase Jarvis:
I’ll pick my favorite image from all those uploaded and I’ll give that person my beloved iPhone 3G. Announced Wednesday 6/24.
Holly Stuart Hughes, PDN:
A European photographer who was arrested in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday was not subjected to violence, but says, “other colleagues have not had such good luck.” Speaking to PDN by phone Wednesday night, the photographer says other journalists described being beaten and having their cameras and memory cards destroyed.
lens culture:
This edition is packed with wonderful new discoveries including a rare, intimate look inside the working studio of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein from American photographer Laurie Lambrecht; extraordinary glass negative portraits from 30s Poland by Stefania Gurdowa (which have provided the material for our favorite photobook of the year so far: Negatives are to be Stored); and Andrzej Kramarz’s innovative images of the eclectic collections and bizarre jumbles of objects he discovered over two-and-a-half years photographing flea markets in Krakow.
We’re also featuring some recent work from Roger Ballen, who has published a beautiful and disturbing new photobook, Boarding House (click here for an exclusive audio interview with the artist), and artful documentation of decades of car crashes by former Swiss police photographer Arnold Odermatt. There’s coverage of Czech artist Vladimir Zidlicky’s 30-year retrospective — an important survey of the artist’s surreal, experimental and abstract nude photography. And Laura Domela’s fun, personal portraits of real-life characters (misfits, pioneers, entrepreneurs, artists, troublemakers) from a small gold mining town in Alaska.
Gadget Lab | Wired.com:
Are you a Nikon shooter? And an iPhone owner? Are you jealous that those pesky Canon fanboys get to remote control their DSLRs directly from the phone itself? Are ya?
LAY FLAT:
Lay Flat is a print publication devoted to promoting the best in contemporary fine art photography and writing on the medium. Each issue is assembled by Shane Lavalette in close collaboration with an invited guest editor. Photographers and writers from across the globe are encouraged to submit their work to be considered for publication.
Thoughts of a Bohemian:
A woman copied 24 songs, she gets fined $1.92 million dollars. That is $220,000 a song. Corbis looses 16,000 images, they get fined $7 dollars per image. Justice anyone ?
CLICK NOTE: Watch it bigger at the Vimeo link and you’ll be blown away.
I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.
Here is the first SprintCam v3 showreel, made for NAB 2009 exhibition.
Mostly 1000FPS shots, made during a recent rugby competition in the Stade de France, Paris.
Feature Shoot:
Angus Rowe MacPherson was born and raised in the tundra of the Canadian high arctic. He built a darkroom at eleven — commandeering one of the household bathrooms — so that he could print pictures of the world around him. He has been making pictures ever since. He moved to Toronto in 2004, where he snagged a job with a top commercial photographer. Since then, he has been shooting for advertising and entertainment clients, while also focusing on his own work. Recent projects include a study of independent wrestlers, a staged underground table tennis showdown, portraits of drag queens, and stylized explorations of banal daily life, where you’ll find at least one fake ham.
lenscratch:
Ferit Kuyas was born in Istanbul, studied architecture and law in Switzerland, and has spent a lot of time in China. His most recent work, City of Ambition, showcases the city of Chonqing.
Yes Men:
In a front-page ad in today’s International Herald Tribune, the leaders
of the European Union thank the European public for having engaged in
months of civil disobedience leading up to the Copenhagen climate
conference that will be held this December. “It was only thanks to your
massive pressure over the past six months that we could so dramatically
shift our climate-change policies…. To those who were arrested, we
thank you.”There was only one catch: the paper was fake.
