I chose the iPF6100 for testing because for me it represents the sweet spot in the line. For many fine art photographers a 24″ printer is about as big as can be handled outside of a commercial print studio, and also is able to produce prints that are usually as large as one needs. Readers should be aware that these four models are quite similar, except for paper size capabilities. (The 6100 is also not that much larger than the 5100, for those that are deciding between the two, though of course it doesn’t have a multi-sheet cassette feed for sheet paper, only single feed,the same as all other 24″ and larger printers).
The iPF6100 sells for about US $3,500. It’s main competitors are the HP Z3100 at about $4,800 and the Epson 7880 at $4,000. This makes the Canon the least expensive of the three, though there are promotions available which make shopping for price a matter that you need to conduct yourself on a local basis. In any event, the major differences to be noted are that the HP, though it costs quite a bit more, has a built-in spectrophotometer and self-profiling capability. Of course another difference that separates the three models is that the HP and Canon printers allow use of either matte or photo black inks at any time, while the current large format Epson pigment ink printers (excepting the 64 ” / $15,000 Epson 11880) require that these inks be swapped, a time consuming process and one that can cost $75 or more in wasted ink.
Aperture 2 delivers over 100 dramatic, new features including advanced image processing,
a streamlined interface, faster performance, and unprecedented Mac integration
Apple this morning has released Aperture 2, a new version of its pro imaging application for Mac that boasts over 100 new features. The application is available for the cost of shipping to those who purchased Aperture after January 1, 2008; otherwise it’s a US$99 upgrade, or US$199 for a new license.
Driftless: Photographs from Iowa (Duke University Press, 2007) by Danny Wilcox Frazier came out with Frank’s words of praise as the forward to the book.
I stumbled across a copy of it a few weeks ago in the Harvard Book Store and was drawn to the images before I read anything about Frank’s role in making them known. Frazier’s decision to consider the effects of people and resources migrating from failing rural economies to the coasts and to cities was very interesting in itself but the images made the topic all the more severe. It is “as though the heart of America were being emptied.”
Continuing the pimping (not in the Chelsea kind of way) of Hollywood’s actors and Oscar nominees, NY Times Magazine has an article featuring the people they thought were the breakthrough actors of 2007. Along with it though are some wonderful photos taken by one of my faves, Ryan McGinley. Overall the photos aren’t his best, it kind of feels like he made them a little more mainstream and a little less conceptual. But it’s also kind of cool to see him shooting big name actors and actresses.
Mac OS X 10.5.2, released today as a free update to the current version of the Mac operating system, adds support for RAW files from the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, Canon PowerShot G9, Hasselblad CF-22, Hasselblad CF-39, Leaf Aptus 75s, Nikon D3, Nikon D300 and Sony Alpha DSLR A700.
Once installed, applications such as Apple’s Aperture, iPhoto and Preview should be able to view and convert RAW files from these cameras. Non-Apple applications that draw on the same OS-level code may be able to as well, though some may require updates of their own to utilize the expanded RAW file support.
Olaf Otto Becker is one of my favourite landscape photographers. Given his new book Broken Line has just been released, I asked Olaf whether he would be up for a conversation, and I was very excited when he agreed to one.
I don’t know if Douglas Kirkland has ever thought of becoming a director, but all his images contain the rich, contradictory synthesis of the stills from a successful film. If he had become a director instead of a great photographer, he would have told stories of men and women on the run from reality, reckless lovers considered mad by the world around them, exalted in their attempt to make sense of the events in life which nobody around them can understand. The perfect stills in his book, Freeze Frame, in my opinion, make up his film. It does not matter that the story refers you back to other famous films; all directors quote the colleagues they love and Douglas uses them to narrate his film. The camera (let’s call it that) focuses on the central characters – isolated, laughing, tired, concentrated, in thought, arm in arm, in a trance, but always detached and far from the universe surrounding them, the universe to which they seem not to belong. A world which looks at them with indifference, as though they were misfits desperately searching for a connection, for an impossible story.
My first encounter with a movie star was with Elizabeth Taylor in Las Vegas. I looked directly into her violet eyes and said, “I’m new at this magazine. Could you imagine what it would mean to me if you gave me an opportunity to photograph you?”… A beat of silence, then she said, “Come tomorrow night at 8:30.”
The photo session was a great success and was published worldwide. Thus, my career working in the movie industry was launched.
All doors seemed opened to me and everyone around me vigorously encouraged all forms of experimentation. I carried my camera through this period with a child’s wide-eyed wonderment and exhilaration. I was living a fantasy and I felt my mission was to record everything, from the beat of the flower children and the fashion of the day, to the brightness and shadows in the lives of movie stars.
We have fun, don’t we?” Douglas Kirkland calls from downstairs after a long day of working on this book, arguing and laughing. Editing thousands of images to create “Freeze Frame” was both an emotional and exhilarating process, watching our life through the work, discovering images we didn’t remember existed, seeing ourselves through the 40 years of our marriage.
Our relationship began in 1965 in Paris on the film set of “How to Steal A Million,” with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. I was a 21-year-old student at the Sorbonne; my mother worked for the film company. Douglas came to take pictures of the movie stars and romanced me by the Seine. We fell in love, continued our love affair while meeting in London, Rome, Venice and Madrid. It was my first taste of working together and it was wonderfully exciting and romantic. We eventually got married in Las Vegas late one night.
The Sixties and early Seventies were a period of abundance for photojournalism and we enjoyed the best of it. We lived like millionaires without the responsibility of being rich, staying in the best hotels of Europe and mingling with the “aristocracy” of the cinema. It was all very unpretentious, full of joie de vivre, and we embraced it heartily.
In the climate of fear surrounding Bhutto and Pakistan in general, due to the deteriorating security situation and massive double suicide bombings that marred her homecoming in October, the days of hundreds of thousands of supporters attending political rallies were a thing of the past. On my way to the rally both my hotel concierge and taxi driver had warned me of the dangers of attending Bhutto’s rally as there had been another suicide bomber apprehended before detonating his explosives at a rally the previous day in Peshawar. With the benefit of hindsight, it seemed like the writing was on the wall.
The security at the gates into the park was very thorough and once inside the security seemed much better organized and the rally went ahead as expected. There were a handful of local wire photographers there along with John Moore of Getty Images and myself. We were leaving after the rally, assuming Bhutto would make a quick exit for security reasons, but hundreds of supporters managed to break through the barriers in the park and surround her convoy as she tried to make her departure. Once again she came out of the sunroof and started greeting her cheering fans as her vehicle crawled along the road. I was about 20 meters from her vehicle and started shooting with a long lens as it turned and came towards me.
I first heard of the misery enveloping the Central African Republic last year when CAR was chosen by numerous organizations as one of the world’s most underreported and neglected stories. While Darfur and the Congo seemed to generate ample media attention, the situation in CAR was unknown to all but a few. Located in the center of Africa and sharing borders with Chad, Sudan, the D.R. Congo and Cameroon, CAR is nearly the size of Texas with a population just over 4 million people. Since gaining independence from France in 1960 the poverty-stricken nation has experienced a succession of coups and attempted coups. In the last decade alone it has experienced almost constant rebellion, leading to a state of anarchy in most of the north of the country. CAR is one of the world’s poorest nations with an average life expectancy of only 39 years. With no electricity outside of the capital and virtually no paved roads, it is a land abandoned.
POCZERNIN, Poland — This wind-swept village is bracing for an invasion of demons, thanks to a priest who believes he can defeat Satan.
The Rev. Andrzej Trojanowski, a soft-spoken Pole, plans to build a “spiritual oasis” that will serve as Europe’s only center dedicated to performing exorcisms. With the blessing of the local Catholic archbishop and theological support from the Vatican, the center will aid a growing number of Poles possessed by evil forces or the devil himself, he said.
I needed some time to recover from my marathon road/plane trip covering the presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani before posting anything here. I spent a week from sunrise to sundown with his campaign criss-crossing every corner of South Florida, where he spent most of his campaign rhetoric and dollars trying to secure the state, which he lost.
People always ask if it’s fun work following around a campaign, and to be honest, as tough as it was physically and mentally, it was fun. There is an aspect of witnessing history that I truly respect and admire I have the opportunity to do in this field.
GridIron Flow, a new workflow management technology designed to work with Photoshop, the Creative Suite, and other tools. Since then the product picked up a Best in Show nod at Macworld, and now you can see it in action in a video on their site. In it company CEO Steve Forde shows Flow managing a workflow spreading across Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and InDesign.
My first day on the ground in Kenya, I went into Mathare with a group of photographers after hearing that there had been some problems. Two mobs were facing off on the main street leading into the Nairobi slum. Once the dust had settled, I met an Italian photographer by the name of Enrico Dangnino. He was pretty shaken up. He had blood stains on his clothes and told me that earlier in the day they had witnessed a near lynching but were able to save the man’s life.
The tale of the warehouse-turned-loft building by the banks of the East River in Brooklyn seemed a familiar one, at first.
Artists move into a decrepit building, quietly rehabilitate it, live and work there. The city eventually catches on and issues a flurry of violations, forcing the artists into the streets. Developers circle, landlords yield and sell. Condos ensue.
The roughly 200 residents of 475 Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg were determined that their story have a happier ending. After all, the landlords were on their side — an unusual alliance. So the residents tackled every violation they could at the building, an 11-story warehouse that had been home to artists, photographers and musicians for more than a decade.
this modern day “revolution cliche” also hangs (or rather hung) on my living room wall….mine is an original, signed, full-frame fiber print given to me by Korda himself after we had both consumed i do not know how many Havana Club mohitos…we went long into the night after the opening of my “Cuba” exhibition in Havana in 2000..Alberto died just a few months after our Havana “all-nighter” , in Paris during the opening of his own retro exhibit…
Alberto Korda was a motivated photographer…..”my main aim was to meet women”, Korda confessed in a New York Times interview towards the end of his life…and his second wife (but not his last) was a top fashion model……hmmmmmm… well, motivations aside, Korda is represented by prestige galleries throughout the world and was Fidel Castro’s personal photographer for 10 years after the revolution…you may see an interesting film by Hector Cruz Sandoval titled “Kordavision” which was released after Alberto’s death..this film and the above photograph are not so popular in Miami where many of the “non- recipients” of the Che/Fidel revolution have lived for the last 40 years…
:
