This post has been long overdue. Fitting I write about this on the day one of America’s best newspapers, the Rocky Mountain News, published it’s final edition. The economy and the newspaper business is in utter turmoil.
Last month, I found myself on the wrong end of an involuntary staff reduction. I’ve got nothing to hang my head about. I’m happy with the work I did during my time here at the FLS. It came down to decisions and circumstances far out of my control. Sadly, I’ve witnessed many talented friends, colleagues and scores of people I’ve never met finding themselves in the same position.
On Monday, Sept. 15, mere hours after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy in New York City, Sotheby’s was throwing open the doors of its London headquarters for the most extravagant sale in the auction house’s history. The sale, of 223 new artworks by Damien Hirst, brought in more than $200 million — nearly 10 times the total receipts of the previous record-holder for a single artist, a 1993 auction of 88 Picassos that reaped around $20 million. It was a level of consumption that, particularly when viewed against the concurrent collapse of the financial-services industry, almost immediately acquired a nostalgic air, the last gasp of the art boom.
On February 27th, 2009 the Rocky Mountain News, 55 days short of its 150th birthday, closed. A 21 minute video feature about the closing of the paper appears on its website and is embedded below.
A number of makers are getting the message that users want different options. Sigma offered the large-sensor DP line, Panasonic kept the megapixel count down and went for a fast lens with its LX3, and now Fuji is trying something entirely new with the F200EXR: Three cameras in one, including two vastly under-represented types.
Matt Eich, a student from Ohio University, has been selected as the 2008 SportsShooter.com Student Photographer of the Year by a panel of judges gathered together at the Adorama Camera Building in New York City, Thursday, February 26, 2009.
Winner
Balazs Gardi, VII Network
“THIRST” Water is life, and since the earliest days of human civilization, it has also been the source of conflict. As global supplies of fresh water diminish, and human population grows, the tensions surrounding access to water are rapidly amplifying.
Some of you have argued with me that the public has a right to Warren Jeffs’ private writings, and that argument is bolstered by the fact that he has been convicted and is in jail. I’m okay with the fact that you don’t agree with me, and I appreciate your thoughtful responses. However, this thing is really sticking in my craw and I’m just not convinced that this release was not an absolute violation of privacy rights that should concern every American citizen for the precedent it sets.
A regular contributor to Rolling Stone, Wired, and ESPN Magazine, young photographer Peter Yang emerged out of the Austin journalism world and hit the ground running full-force with his masterfully lit, intimate portraits of political figures, actors, rock stars and cowboys.
