Half the history of Converse is about basketball, and the rest is about something far more complicated, about the ways a plain sneaker is consistently adored by anticonsumer consumers. A Converse on a teenager now is about remaining authentic and cool, while selling out in every possible way. It is perhaps the neatest trick in footwear history, and who would have thought it, when Marquis Mills Converse first started making simple, rubber-soled work shoes at a factory outside Boston in 1908?
You have heard by now that Polaroid film is dying. Rightfully, no, but inevitably, yes, and we have few words to appropriately state our reaction (of the few we have, the following do share company: appalled, mystified, f*cking pissed).
Of course, while we are all justified in experiencing some emotion over this unnecessary loss, there are those among us who have even more right to mourn (see also: picket, riot, send death threats, etc.). One of them is Grant Hamilton, an Iowa City-based professional photographer who cites a 1975 Polariod SX-70 as his camera of choice – and who will, come next year, be to find a new medium.
Join us as we A) Take a moment of silence for a great thing lost; and B) Chat with an artist who is approaching some serious changes.
Travel represents one of the most popular content submission areas for the PhotoShelter Collection, and as such, we are becoming increasingly more selective about the types of images that we accept. The following guidelines are prescriptive for travel photography, although some concepts will extend into the general realm of stock photography.
These days, what’s driving me batty isn’t so much whether I win a contest or not (presently I’m ho-hum on the matter), it’s the day-to-day photography that I’m nitpicking to death while trying to grow my work and make it closer to perfect than the usual rift-raft. Take for example this feature I photographed earlier.
Digital photography destroys memory, he believes, with its ability to erase. Art school is another problem, teaching students to be blind. Editors are worse—they poke the artist’s eyes out. Photography: one minute it’s not art at all. Then perhaps it is. And then again it is not. That’s Robert Frank.
“There are too many images,” he said. “Too many cameras now. We’re all being watched. It gets sillier and sillier. As if all action is meaningful. Nothing is really all that special. It’s just life. If all moments are recorded, then nothing is beautiful and maybe photography isn’t an art anymore. Maybe it never was.”
National Press Photographers Association president Tony Overman today filed another written complaint with Major League Baseball’s commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig over MLB’s revised terms and conditions for credentials for the 2008 season, and addressed the issue of whether MLB intends to integrate into their credential agreement some of the National Football League’s credential rules that apply to audio, video, and photos.
Sacha Baron Cohen, who is in Kansas shooting his film Bruno, which centers around his gay Austrian news reporter character, has been terrorizing various locations around the state, including Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport:
“Officials there are reviewing its media policies after the so-called German documentary film crew made a scene inside the main terminal on Friday. ‘We were lied to,’ says Assistant Airport Director Brad Christopher. ‘We were duped.’ Authorities say the film crew was not who they said they were. Last month, the group contacted Wichita airport officials about shooting part of their documentary on American culture at Mid-Continent. They arrived Friday and were shown around. Airport employees say they seemed professional. That is, until the cameras came on and the clothes came off. Witnesses say it almost looked like pornography. In the middle of the terminal, the film crew began stripping down. They were escorted out of the airport by police, and told to leave. Wichita Police, along with the Attorney General, are investigating the prank. Airport officials say it wasn’t necessarily illegal, but it was unethical and highly inappropriate for a public location where security is paramount.”
IN the heavy, noiseless air of desert country, an Aboriginal community is out hunting when the sound of a camera shutter cuts the air like a bullet from a gun. Heads turn, questions are asked and the — usually white — photographer is suddenly centre stage in an inquisition.
The curtain of suspicion can hang heavily in such cases between image-taker and subject, prompting a turned away head or a shielding hand. It can provoke unease on the part of a person viewing the image that it has been captured opportunistically, even sneakily.
The absence of such telltale defences and doubts is what strikes one immediately about Conversations with the Mob, photojournalist Megan Lewis’s 240-page collection of photographs and conversations with the Martu people of northwest Western Australia. The 100 large-format pictures have not emerged from a fly-in, fly-out form of photography but from a mutually trusting relationship that took time to build
The Aperture changes keep on coming: Apple today has released Aperture 2.1 for Mac, an update that incorporates various bug fixes and feature tweaks. But the centrepiece of this version – the seventh Aperture-related software release from Apple in a little over six weeks – is the rollout of image editing plug-ins to Apple’s pro photo management and RAW conversion application. While Apple has included an example plug-in of its own, the roster of outside developers already working on plug-ins is the real story: among early plug-in creators are Nik, with Viveza, and PictureCode, with Noise Ninja.
Judges at NPPA’s 2008 Best Of Photojournalism competition at The Poynter Institute today picked winners in the categories International News Picture Story, Enterprise Picture Story (Smaller and Larger Markets), Best Published Picture Story (Smaller and Larger Markets), and in the new category Investigative Issue Picture Story.
The Scotsman’s Ian Rutherford has been named photographer of the year for a record fourth time.
Ian picked up the prestigious gong at the annual First ScotRail Press Photography Awards in Glasgow last night.
His winning portfolio included shots of troops from the Royal Regiment of Scotland returning from Iraq, the Open Golf and the Highland Open surfing competition. His previous successes came in 1994, 1997 and 1998.
Laurel points us to the excellent work of Texas-based photographer Mike Osborne. His Press Pictures series (made at Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express News, and LA Times
Chances are if you aren’t emo, you hate emo. But you likely don’t hate this straight-haired, massacre-lined subculture as much as the Mexicans do. In recent weeks, a wave of emo bashings has swept across Mexico, several news agencies have reported, fuelled by punks, rockabillies, goths, metalheads and basically anyone who’s not emo.
According to Daniel Hernandez, who’s been covering the anti-emo riots on his blog Intersections, the violence began March 7, when an estimated 800 young people poured into the Mexican city of Queretaro’s main plaza “hunting” for emo kids to pummel. Then the following weekend similar violence occurred in Mexico City at the Glorieta de Insurgents, a central gathering space for emos. Hernandez also reports that several anti-emo riots have now also spread to various other Mexican cities. Via the Austin American Statesmen, several postings on Mexican social-networking sites, primarily organising spot for these “emo hunts,” have been dug up and translated. One states: “I HATE EMOS!!! They are not even people, they are so stupid, they cry over meaningless things… My school is infested with them, I want to kill them all!”
Judges picking winners in the Web site categories of NPPA’s 2008 Best Of Photojournalism competition have released the following partial results, along with judges’ comments, from the contest’s host site at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
On the third full day of judging at NPPA’s Best Of Photojournalism competition at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, judges picked winners in the categories Domestic News Picture Story, International News, General News, Enterprise, Natural Disaster, and Environmental Picture Story.
THE reminiscences of Hitler’s favourite photographer have been published in a new book. Heinrich Hoffmann made a small fortune from photographing the Führer, but his nest-egg was seized by the Allies and he died in poverty in 1957.
Before his death, he gave a series of interviews to Joe Heydecker, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and a fellow photographer. Heydecker, who died ten years ago, gave instructions to his publisher that the Hoffmann conversations were not to be published until now.
The result is The Hitler Picture, a memoir from the man who, more than any other, helped sell the myth of the “Führer Superman” to the German people.
I’m happy to report that Photoshop Express, Adobe’s new online tool for organizing, editing, and sharing images, has launched in beta form. Some highlights at a glance:
Includes tools for applying spot healing, distortions, sharpening/softening, color tweaks, image filters, and more
Offers 2GB of storage space for storing images
Supports tie-ins to Facebook, MySpace, and Picasa
Runs in any browser on Mac, Windows, or Linux using the Flash Player (v9)
Will include an AIR-based desktop version (useful for editing images offline) and printing services
Will remain free, with paid service adding more functionality
Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve to feature photos and interviews by the finest young image makers today. Verve is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve will also point you to new photo agencies, publications and inspiring multimedia projects.
Then, the business starts to struggle and stock sales start to crumble and suddenly divorce. And, wham, the money is all gone and the business is really drying up and suddenly you’re a 49 year old former wunderkind thinking “what in the hell am I going to do?” If you’re Chip Simons you hit the effing reset button, sell all your gear, pack your shit in the car and drive from New Mexico to east 13th street in NYC and start pounding the streets again.
