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"Corentin Wauters: Gamma is one of the most famous photojournalism agencies. Some even call it legendary. How important has it been for photojournalism? Michiel Munneke: I think Gamma - but also others like Magnum, for instance - played an extremely important role from early years on, especially in documenting crucial news events around the world. It's important to realise that in those days you had magazines like Life and the Picture Post who very generously allocated tens of pages to events like the war in Vietnam, for example. Those publications and photographs made a huge impact on their readerships. I think it's fair to say that the founders of Gamma, like Raymond Depardon - although he moved to Magnum at the end of the '70s - and Gilles Corron, who died in 1970 in Cambodia, can be classified as legendary. They played a very important role in news documenting in those years. Raymond Depardon said that in 1966 you only had to travel far away and take three shots to get published in magazines Paris Match or Le Nouvel Observateur. How has the profession of photojournalism changed since Gamma was founded? If Depardon was saying that competition for space in publications like Paris Match or Le Nouvel Observateur is stronger, then he's absolutely right. Competition is far more severe. Circulations are going down, advertising revenues are shrinking, and consequently budgets for journalism and for photography are being cut. image Nowadays its very rare that publications send photographers for assignments overseas. Take a renowned magazine like Time. They still have photographers on staff but they very rarely get assignments to go overseas. It's a sign of the times. Gamma, but also other big photojournalism agencies like Sipa, were founded in Paris. The city had a big name as a centre for photojournalism. To what extent is that true today? I think for those years it was really true. But now, in the era of globalisation and digitisation, it doesnâ

"Journalists everywhere are starting blogs and entering the next phase in the history of journalism. Whether you call it Journalism 2.0, or a shift in media consciousness. It's pretty clear, the game has completely transformed. Transformation for the Better As the future of journalism unfolds, we're beginning to see just how beneficial this shift is for the writers out there. 1. We can interact directly with our audience. 2. We can write for a small audience, about what we care about. 3. We can profit directly, and immediately, from our writing. 4. We can build a reputation for ourselves, outside of an institution. The challenge is that journalists have to overcome a radical shift in thinking: whereas in the past we just concentrated in writing, and our business did all of our marketing and publishing. Us journalists of the future have to become a one-man journalistic machine. We have to take our writing from the idea to the audience all by ourselves. In blogging, there are a lot of things you need to consider to hit that mark of success. Suddenly, it isn't as easy to just write and publish blog posts! Know these most important tasks you need to do for your blog:"

reuters photographers in the field

"Think blogs, Tweets and social media are a waste of time? Then think again. It's all about building a fanbase and reaching out to a wider audience through online word of mouth. Diane Smyth speaks to four professional photographers who've made it pay. "

Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed American photographer and long-time photojournalist. McNally is known worldwide for his ability to produce technically and logistically complex assignments with expert use of color and light.

When It Comes to SEO, a Picture Is NOT Worth a Thousand Words By Levi Wardelllevi-wardellcloseAuthor: Levi Wardell See Author's Posts (1) Recent Posts * When It Comes to SEO, a Picture Is NOT Worth a Thousand Words Levi Wardell is a Washington, D.C.-based marketing professional and photographer. With 10 years of experience in online marketing for companies of all sizes, Levi currently focuses on helping fellow photographers leverage the power of search engine optimization. You can follow Levi's blog at his Web site. Levi's photography has been seen in office settings, local newspapers, marketing documents, and most recently on display at the Mark Whistler Gallery in Baltimore. When traveling for work, Levi oftentimes found himself searching the Web for the best places to photograph in various cities. With no consistent luck finding such a resource, Levi created a directory for all photographers to enjoy -- The Best Places To Photograph Directory. in Business of Photography on December 8th, 2008 As a photographer, you face unique challenges in optimizing your Web site for search engines. Fundamentally, you want your site to showcase your work; unfortunately, a picture is not worth a thousand words to Google. Sure, Google takes hundreds of variables into consideration when building search engine result pages (SERPs). But while a human can look at your photographs and feel the expressed emotions, understand the story you're telling, and get a sense for what your expertise is, a search engine needs to be told with text. That's why, for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, it's important for your site to combine text-rich content with a solid visual representation of your work.

In 2002, Alec Soth traveled with his wife to Bogotá, Colombia to adopt a baby girl. The baby's birth mother gave the new parents a book filled with letters, pictures and poems for their new daughter. 'I hope that the hardness of the world will not hurt your sensitivity,' she wrote. 'When I think about you I hope that your life is full of beautiful things.' During the two months that the Colombian courts processed their adoption paperwork, Soth set about making his own book for his daughter. Soth recently completed this book, Dog Days Bogotá. On November 9th, an exhibition of this work will debut at Weinstein Gallery in Soth's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Soth discusses Dog Days Bogotá with his intern, Carrie Thompson, a photography student at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Christopher Anderson on objectivity

On the eve of the election, a number of Magnum photographers have been venturing into American to capture what they can of this historic moment in time. The project is called InSight America. But rather than publish this work as a book a year after the fact, Magnum is posting the work online and on the fly. I caught up with Alex Webb after his recent journey to Ohio:

Mr. Jackanory (Andrew Hetherington) recently visited Alec Soth's studio in Saint Paul, Minnesota to film the fourth episode of his "inside the photographers_studio" series. Originally posted on Whats the Jackanory.

Photographers on Twitter: How They Use It By Qiana MestrichqianamestrichcloseAuthor: Qiana Mestrich See Author's Posts (6) Recent Posts * Braving the Sight Unseen: Interview with Blind Photographer Timothy O'Brien * Photographers on Twitter, Part 2: My Favorite Tweets * Photographers on Twitter: How They Use It * Photography Empathy: How You Feel Is What You Get * Your Camera Is an Agent for Change Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, of Panamanian and Croatian heritage, Qiana Mestrich has studied photography and its history for more than 15 years. Trained as a fine art photographer, Qiana's personal work ranges from portraiture to still life and landscapes. As a world citizen, she's also documented her travels to countries like Panama, Cuba, Trinidad & Tobago, the U.K. and more to come. View Qiana Mestrich's fine art photography on her Web site or read her blog, Dodge & Burn: Diversity in Photography. in Business of Photography on December 4th, 2008 What is Twitter? You may have heard of it from many different sources like the social media geeks in your life. Perhaps it was through corporate news like the recent Twittering Moms against Motrin incident or how the online shoe retailer Zappos uses this micro-blogging platform to transparently communicate with its customers. Regardless of what you've heard, it all started with a 14-year old Jack Dorsey (now CEO) who way back when wondered: what if you could create an instant messaging service to easily and quickly share your status with friends and vice versa? Personally, I created my own profile after reading that NASA's Phoenix Mars lander was posting updates of its mission on Twitter. Soon after choosing my profile picture and a photo to customize my Twitter background, I discovered there was a whole world of online communication happening-with over 3 million users all sending messages to each other, in 140 characters or less. Within the Twitter-verse, I've found many who identif

How social networking is changing journalism A conference in Oxford explores the interaction between the internet and the news industry * Comments (1) * Buzz up! * Digg it The morning of the Oxford Social Media Convention focused on the impact of social media. Especially interesting were the statements on the panel 'Breaking news: the changing relationships between blogs and mainstream media'. Richard Sambrook, the director of the BBC Global News Division, said that the impact of social media was overestimated in the short term and underestimated in long term. Mainstream media are adopting social media especially with blogging and twitter, he admited, but nobody discusses the effects on the long term.

My work on foreclosed homes in Detroit has actually been a continuation of a project that started in Fort Myers, Florida in September 2008. For me the major concentration of the work is on the houses or what's left of the houses. I chose to photograph them mostly straight on like my street work in a very blunt fashion. To let the houses speak for themselves. After going to Florida and continuing in Detroit I realized that foreclosure is one part of a circle. There is homelessness, job loss, economic difficulties, etc, etc, etc. In Detroit the problem is not only a subprime problem it's a problem of people who lost their jobs. And this has been going on for many years. So it's a much more serious situation. When I went to Detroit - even though I had known that the city was pretty desolate - I was amazed that a major city in America in 2009 can look like this.

Now printable! Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency Many, many people asked me to create a single PDF version of all 15 posts in my RGMP series on this blog. It's done. Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency (PDF; 536 KB) This 42-page document is fully linked and usable online in most Web browsers, or in Adobe Reader, or in Preview on the Mac OS. In other words, you don't need to print it. But if that's what you want, go right ahead.

Now printable! Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency Many, many people asked me to create a single PDF version of all 15 posts in my RGMP series on this blog. It's done. Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency (PDF; 536 KB) This 42-page document is fully linked and usable online in most Web browsers, or in Adobe Reader, or in Preview on the Mac OS. In other words, you don't need to print it. But if that's what you want, go right ahead.

"Now this is going to be fun…. We're excited to announce our first batch of Wordpress + PhotoShelter plugins that allow you to: 1. Integrate your PhotoShelter photos and galleries into your Graph Paper Press themes for Wordpress 2. Allow your visitors to search your PhotoShelter photos from your site's sidebar 3. Pull in your PhotoShelter gallery updates into your site's sidebar If you are a photographer who uses PhotoShelter, these integration plugins will enable you to manage your portfolio, blog, and PhotoShelter photos and galleries all from one site. The combination of Wordpress, PhotoShelter and our themes and plugins will push your web presence into the future, allowing you to connect with clients, promote, sell and license your work all from one place."

"The documentary "Restrepo," directed by Mr. Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, will open Friday. Last week, Mr. Hetherington sat down with Mr. Kamber in Midtown Manhattan to talk about the film - and much else besides. Their remarks have been edited for brevity and clarity."