In our May photo annual, PDN published 46 Reasons To Love Photography Now, a highly opinionated list of inspiring artists, innovations, idiosyncracies and current trends compiled by PDN’s editors. And we asked you to send us the things that inspire you about photography today. Readers have told us- in prose and even verse—about the timeless joys that still excite them about this business.
Check it out here.
The New York Times features a gallery of images from the UEFA (Union of European Football Association) between Manchester United and Chelsea played on a rain-soaked field in Moscow yesterday. After playing to a 1-1 draw in regulation time and two 15-minute overtime periods, Manchester United finally won on penalty kicks in this emotionally-charged contest.
Check it out here.
This Saturday, 5/24, Subliminal Projects Gallery will be releasing a very limited amount of this week’s OBEY Lotus Ornament print . We are implementing a new program for local fans in Los Angeles. Prints are going to be $45 (tax included) and can be purchased by CREDIT CARD only. Beware Ebayers! We are going to be making some policies regarding the prints so anyone who intends on ebaying their print, thanks but no thanks, you are not welcomed! Please visit subliminalprojects.com for hours and info.
Check it out here.
The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin hosts “Inside El Salvador,” a photography exhibition of more than 100 black-and-white images concerning the country’s civil war and its aftermath.
More than 30 images taken by award-winning documentary photographer Donna DeCesare, an associate professor in the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin, focus on the end of the civil war and its consequences on the population.
Check it out here.
On the day it was announced that Sen. Ted Kennedy had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage opened his show by interspersing audio of Kennedy singing “Ay Jalisco No Te Rajes” with clips of news reporters discussing Kennedy’s diagnosis and audio from Kindergarten Cop in which Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character says, “It’s not a tumor.” Later, Savage played the Dead Kennedys song “California Über Alles” after stating: “The poor guy’s been suffering for years, you know? Unfairly he’s been accused of alcoholism, but we see now that it was something much more deep-seated. And so, to cut this out in some respect for Ted Kennedy, here’s a tune coming at you from the Dead Kennedys. Go ahead and play it, please.”
Check it out here.
The judge in R&B singer R. Kelly’s child pornography trial has ejected a newspaper’s sketch artist from the courtroom.
Judge Vincent Gaughan says the artist for the Chicago Tribune violated the strict code of conduct he’s established for the courtroom by creating images of jurors for publication.
Check it out here.
At this hour there are at least 6 media trucks parked just outside the gates of the ranch.
Around 2 this afternoon, the Texas Rangers were set to strike, and aborted the strike once they saw the trucks.
They then ordered sheriff Doran to get the media trucks away from the ranch.
Everyone inside the Ranch expects the raid to commence once the media leaves, or for the rangers to corral the media “For their own safety” away from the compound so they can do their “Search”.
Check it out here.
A Chinese magazine has been shut down for printing pictures of scantily clad women posing in rubble for a special report on the country’s devastating earthquake, officials said on Wednesday.
The New Travel Weekly, a small lifestyle magazine, ran photos of sultry models in their underwear amid the debris in an issue that hit the stands on Monday – the first of three days of national mourning.
Check it out here.
Speaking of China, and explosions– here are some images from a Chinese wedding that took place during last week’s terrible earthquake in Sichuan Province. Unbelievable how the scene changes so quickly, and how the photographer keeps documenting. Terrifying.
Check it out here.
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) will vote at the end of May on seven amendments to its bylaws, including whether to change its name to The Society of Visual Journalists, Inc. (SVJ). The reason for the proposed change is to acknowledge how the industry and NPPA membership have evolved over the past 50 years. The current name “no longer adequately represents the Association or its membership.”
Check it out here.
With its official launch Wednesday, National Geographic Assignment will represent the following photographers: William Albert Allard, Stephen Alvarez, Ira Block, John Burcham, Jimmy Chin, Jodi Cobb, Pablo Corral Vega, Bruce Dale, David Doubilet, Annie Griffiths Belt, Justin Guariglia, Bill Hatcher, Beverly Joubert, Tim Laman, David Liittschwager, Michael Melford, Michael Nichols, Paul Nicklen, Michael O’Brien, Randy Olson, Jim Richardson, Joel Sartore, Brian Skerry, Steve Winter, Gordon Wiltsie, Alison Wright and Mike Yamashita.
Check it out here.
My wife noticed a huge plume of smoke rising above O-Town today and I decided to chase it down. It was a controlled burn near the lake and it took forever to get there. When I arrived, there were a ton of cars and people lined up to see what it was all about. I don’t have any idea who put this sign up but I thought it was hilarious.
Check it out here.
Portraiture might be the most challenging photographic endeavor. It is a complex interaction between the photographer’s intent, the subject’s preconceptions and ideas, and the viewer’s background. So how do photographers manage to make great portraits? I have long been a fan of Dutch photographer Hellen van Meene. Her portraits of adolescents possess an extremely quiet and forceful beauty.
Check it out here.
Last year about this time David Griffin, National Geographic’s director of photography, and Elizabeth Krist, a senior photo editor, walked into my office and asked if I had any ideas on how we could photograph Stonehenge in a way that would be new and different. It was a natural question. David was already thinking about high-dynamic-range photography, and I’m the digital-tech guy at the magazine. I had an idea, but it came with a catch—I wanted to be the photographer, anything to get out of the office and into the field.
My idea started with a hand-built camera that had caught my interest at Photokina two years earlier—a panoramic film camera that had been adapted for digital use by Dr. Kurt Gilde in Germany. The camera can make a digital image that’s 49×90 millimeters wide using a sliding adapter mounted with a Phase One P45 digital back; three images stitched together result in a file with over 100 megapixels of resolution. I wanted to use this technology to capture three unique exposures at different times of the day and night, then stitch them into a continuous panoramic that showed Stonehenge over the course of time. Coincidentally the panoramic would fit perfectly on a magazine gatefold—three pages of a spread where one page folds in as a flap.
Check it out here. Via Rob Galbraith
Audiences packed the Felix Meritis cultural centre in central Amsterdam to see the winners’ presentations. Boldwill Hungwe (2nd prize, Spot News Singles), a news photographer from Zimbabwe, revealed that his image of an opposition rally in the beleaguered country (above, top) was taken on a digital compact camera, because neither he nor the paper he works for could afford a digital SLR camera.
“I knew that the camera couldn’t shoot a sequence so I had to wait for the right moment,” he told CPN. “Luckily I got the one that told the story the best.” He added that working as a local newspaper photographer in Zimbabwe is difficult due to the restrictions and threat of torture.
Check it out here.
Deb and I had the good fortune to cross paths with James Whitlow Delano because of the Blue Planet Run book and Redux Pictures. His images of China’s desertification caught our eye for the book (They didn’t make the final edit). But more than the subject of the photographs, it was the tone, the feeling and what they convey that held our interest.
I’ve always thought that the highest standard for photojournalism is to create images that serve the publishing environment for the day but that remain relevant beyond the day. Another way of saying this is to make images that are as at home on a museum wall as they are on a page.
James’ photos linger in the mind and the eye.
We were able to catch up with James just before he traveled from his home in Japan.
Check it out here.
CONGRESS is considering a major reform of copyright law intended to solve the problem of “orphan works” — those works whose owner cannot be found. This “reform” would be an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to the public.
Check it out here.
Most assuredly, the AP has a new contract. We first reported about it here (A New AP Contract Emerging? – 5/14/08), and more than one copy came our way from several readers. Of note in their paperwork, was the disparity between pay from bureau to bureau.
You have until June 1, or about 2 weeks, to indicate your intent to object to this or sign it. If you don’t sign by June 1, you won’t be getting any more AP assignments.
Check it out here.
