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Episode III - Enjoy Poverty is the second in a series of three films by Martens that raise issues regarding contemporary image production. For Episode III Martens travelled for two years with his video camera in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an area marked by humanitarian disaster, questioning why the Western 'poverty' industry are benefactors rather than the people in the images. Working with Congolese photographers, he attempts to guide them in earning a living from poverty photography - a project doomed to failure. Episode III was screened at London's Wilkinson gallery for several weeks this winter, and during that time Martens spent an evening discussing his work with ArtReview's J.J. Charlesworth. This is Part I of that discussion.

"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

Episode III - Enjoy Poverty is the second in a series of three films by Martens that raise issues regarding contemporary image production. For Episode III Martens travelled for two years with his video camera in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an area marked by humanitarian disaster, questioning why the Western 'poverty' industry are benefactors rather than the people in the images. Working with Congolese photographers, he attempts to guide them in earning a living from poverty photography - a project doomed to failure. Episode III was screened at London's Wilkinson gallery for several weeks this winter, and during that time Martens also spent an evening discussing his work with ArtReview's J.J. Charlesworth. This is the second and final part of that

Words of Wisdom: Chad A. Stevens on learning important multimedia skills Posted by Jessica Stuart, October 1st, 2009 No Comments » We're kicking off a new series on the blog, talking with educators and journalism students about the value of Journalism school and the multimedia skills students need to start their careers. There has been a lot of discussion lately on whether it's worth it to go to Journalism school, and whether students are learning the multimedia skills they need to be successful in a pretty rough market. As the school year gets back underway, we're getting more and more questions from students wondering what skills they need to acquire to land jobs. Obviously, there are no simple answers to these questions, but we hope to offer up some words of wisdom for students and others interested in the profession, especially during this time of transition. Chad2 We're going to kick it off with Chad A. Stevens- a former MediaStorm Producer, who is now an Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

Words of Wisdom: Chad A. Stevens on learning important multimedia skills Posted by Jessica Stuart, October 1st, 2009 No Comments » We're kicking off a new series on the blog, talking with educators and journalism students about the value of Journalism school and the multimedia skills students need to start their careers. There has been a lot of discussion lately on whether it's worth it to go to Journalism school, and whether students are learning the multimedia skills they need to be successful in a pretty rough market. As the school year gets back underway, we're getting more and more questions from students wondering what skills they need to acquire to land jobs. Obviously, there are no simple answers to these questions, but we hope to offer up some words of wisdom for students and others interested in the profession, especially during this time of transition. Chad2 We're going to kick it off with Chad A. Stevens- a former MediaStorm Producer, who is now an Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill.

VII Photo Panel: Why Photography Still Matters Long, long ago, when picture magazines arrived in millions of homes once a week, and people still read newspapers, a news photo could have an immediate impact on public opinion. Images of fire hoses turned on men and women wanting to exercise their right to vote mobilized thousands of voter registration volunteers. An image of a naked girl running down a road to flee a napalm bombing curdled public opinion about an already unpopular war. But in today's fractured media, with so few publications showing serious photography, can a photo really make a difference? The answer, according to participants in the panel discussion held last night at the VII Photo agency office, is yes. Each panelist-a Congressional aide, a human rights activist and a photojournalist-gave examples of the surprising and sometimes unexpected ways that photos of human rights issues have moved individuals to take action.

VII Photo Panel: Why Photography Still Matters Long, long ago, when picture magazines arrived in millions of homes once a week, and people still read newspapers, a news photo could have an immediate impact on public opinion. Images of fire hoses turned on men and women wanting to exercise their right to vote mobilized thousands of voter registration volunteers. An image of a naked girl running down a road to flee a napalm bombing curdled public opinion about an already unpopular war. But in today's fractured media, with so few publications showing serious photography, can a photo really make a difference? The answer, according to participants in the panel discussion held last night at the VII Photo agency office, is yes. Each panelist-a Congressional aide, a human rights activist and a photojournalist-gave examples of the surprising and sometimes unexpected ways that photos of human rights issues have moved individuals to take action.

"On the Internet, everybody is a millenarian. Internet journalism, according to those who produce manifestos on its behalf, represents a world-historical development-not so much because of the expressive power of the new medium as because of its accessibility to producers and consumers. That permits it to break the long-standing choke hold on public information and discussion that the traditional media-usually known, when this argument is made, as "gatekeepers" or "the priesthood"-have supposedly been able to maintain up to now. "Millions of Americans who were once in awe of the punditocracy now realize that anyone can do this stuff-and that many unknowns can do it better than the lords of the profession," Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who operates one of the leading blogs, Instapundit, writes, typically, in his new book, "An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government and Other Goliaths." The rhetoric about Internet journalism produced by Reynolds and many others is plausible only because it conflates several distinct categories of material that are widely available online and didn't use to be. One is pure opinion, especially political opinion, which the Internet has made infinitely easy to purvey. Another is information originally published in other media-everything from Chilean newspaper stories and entries in German encyclopedias to papers presented at Micronesian conferences on accounting methods-which one can find instantly on search and aggregation sites. Lately, grand journalistic claims have been made on behalf of material produced specifically for Web sites by people who don't have jobs with news organizations. According to a study published last month by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, there are twelve million bloggers in the United States, and thirty-four per cent of them consider blogging to be a form of journalism. That would add

Much has been written about the questionable research, writing, and presentation of indigenous people in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in Jared Diamond's New Yorker article, "Vengeance Is Ours: What can tribal societies tell us about our need to get even?"  I would like to place the article and discussion of it in a more general context of media ethics and media coverage of indigenous people. Moreover, I would like to consider it in the context of the important work that indigenous people around the world are doing, to tell more accurate stories - in their own voices - and to create their own media outlets and networks.

Brighton Photo Biennial Memory of Fire: The War of Images and Images of War festival review and interview with curator Julian Stallabrass by Guy Lane The Brighton Photo Biennial offers an in-depth exploration of the photography of war. Ten exhibitions, in locations across the South Coast, examine various aspects of the production, use and circulation of imagery during wartime. At the heart of the Biennial is a comparison of photojournalism from the Vietnam and Iraq wars, featuring - amongst others - the work of Larry Burrows, Don McCullin, photographers from the North Vietnamese Army, Bilal Hussein and Stephanie Sinclair. Harriet Logan's photographs of women in Afghanistan are afforded a solo show; as is Philip Jones Griffiths' Agent Orange project. Dutch photojournalist Geert van Kesteren presents edits from his books, Why Mister Why? and Baghdad Calling. Themes of censorship and obscenity are addressed in an installation by Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn. The representation of war by contemporary art photographers - including Simon Norfolk, Paul Seawright and Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin - is the subject of a further exhibition. Julian Germain hosts a display of pictures made by military personnel based in Portsmouth. And separate shows of material from the First World War (by Frank Hurley), and the Mexican Revolution, suggest historical parallels to the more recent work. The Biennial, titled Memory of Fire: the War of Images and Images of War is described as an opportunity for visitors "to experience a range of imagery and to reflect critically on the different elements and contrasts." It runs from the beginning of October for six weeks. Below, curator Julian Stallabrass discusses some of the diverse issues and topics raised by the show.

THEORY - " Robert Frank: Dissecting the American Image" Robert Frank: Dissecting the American Image By Jno Cook for Exposure Eagazine, Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 1986 What a poem this is, what poems can be written about this book of pictures some day... -- Jack Kerouac When I first saw Frank's photographs in The Americans [1] I understood nothing of them -- yet they demanded comprehension. I later realized that even when exhibited singly in museums, they still evoked their placement in the book -- like quotations from a sacred text they called up entire passages, themes, subtle connections to other photographs. Here started a journey into The Americans in an attempt to understand not just the photographs, but the book. It has been a journey among museum archives, borrowed books, and xerox machines. It has meant searching out other Frank fanatics, engaging in endless and at times pointless discussions and arguments, and planning forays into literature and foreign languages.

Photographies seeks to construct a new agenda for theorising photography as a heterogeneous medium that is changing in an ever more dynamic relation to all aspects of contemporary culture. Photographies aims to further develop the history and theory of photography, considering new frameworks for thinking and addressing questions arising from the present context of technological, economic, political and cultural change. Photographies will investigate the contemporary condition and currency of the photographic within local and global contexts. The editors seek research papers and innovative visual essays, shorter papers engaging new debates, review essays evaluating publications, cultural events, key developments, exhibitions and conferences. Photographies aims to: - establish a sustained and dynamic forum for the development of the history and theory of photography, - consider new frameworks for thinking and addressing questions arising from digital technologies and economic, political and cultural change, - examine contemporary uses and currencies of the photographic within local and global contexts, - identify, develop and discuss emergent critical debates and practices, - publish work in the humanities and social sciences which has a bearing upon our understanding of photography thereby locating debate within a wider community.

Aims & Scope Third Text is an international scholarly journal dedicated to providing critical perspectives on art and visual culture. The journal examines the theoretical and historical ground by which the West legitimises its position as the ultimate arbiter of what is significant within this field. Established in 1987, the journal provides a forum for the discussion and (re)appraisal of theory and practice of art, art history and criticism, and the work of artists hitherto marginalised through racial, gender, religious and cultural differences. Dealing with diversity of art practices - visual arts, sculpture, installation, performance, photography, video and film - Third Text addresses the complex cultural realities that emerge when different worldviews meet, and the challenge this poses to Eurocentrism and ethnocentric aesthetic criteria. The journal aims to develop new discourses and radical interdisciplinary scholarships that go beyond the confines of eurocentricity.

Digital Images and Fair Use Web Sites Maryly Snow Librarian Architecture Slide Library University of California, Berkeley I'm going to discuss digital images on the World Wide Web using three fair use web sites as examples: SPIRO, the visual public access catalog of the Architecture Slide Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Vincent Van Gogh Information Gallery; and the Art Imagebase from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This presentation is structured into three segments: introduction to the notion of fair use web sites; presentation of the three fair use web sites; problems and idealized solutions for the use of digital images in fair use web sites.

From Pixels to the Printed Page Eight photographers discuss the pros and cons of digital photography in their businesses: How they use it, what they like and hate, what the clients think, how to bill for post-production time, where the technology is going and where it needs to go.

Centurion conducts its flagship risk assessment and hostile environments training courses nearly every week in the UK and once a month in the USA. Our scheduled Hostile Environments and Emergency First Aid Training (HEFAT®) courses are open to all-comers and encompass a wide range of subjects geared towards minimising risks to personal safety for those who live or work in volatile regions. These residential training courses include discussions and practical exercises on Mines and Booby Traps, Weapons and Ballistics, Emergency Navigation, Kidnapping, Personal Security, and a great deal of field emergency first aid training that assumes definitive care is not immediately available. At least 68 per cent of our training takes place outdoors. Each week our instructors pass on life-saving skills to those who travel to places that are exposed to a higher than normal degree of danger.

The iconic South African photographer, in conversation with Max du Preez, discusses the literary influences on his work, including Athol Fugard and Herman Charles Bosman.

December 14, 2008 On the Road Robert Frank discusses his book, "The Americans," with Philip Gefter. The book is an intimate visual chronicle of common people in ordinary situations drawn from several trips he made through his adopted country in the mid-1950s.

Learning To Take Photographs the Martin Parr Way By Peter Terzian Posted Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008, at 9:00 AM ET Martin Parr is taking a picture of my breakfast. Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss in the FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAILGet Slate RSS FeedsRSSShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Single PageSINGLE PAGE Yahoo! BuzzFacebook FacebookPost to MySpace!MySpaceMixx MixxDigg DiggReddit RedditDel.icio.us del.icio.usFurl FurlMa.gnolia.com Ma.gnoliaSphere SphereStumble UponStumbleUponCLOSE Click to view a slide show.With an impish smile, he glides behind our chairs, leaning over our shoulders to neatly frame pale yellow eggs, fat sausages, grilled tomatoes, and racks of thin, evenly toasted slices of bread. The 12 photographers gathered in the dining room of the Northbank Hotel-eight men, four women; some professionals, some enthusiasts-study him eagerly. We are on the Isle of Wight, a roughly diamond-shaped piece of land in the English Channel, for an educational weekend with Britain's pre-eminent documentary photographer. Occasionally Parr discusses technique and technology with individual members of the group, but mostly we learn by watching him. The lesson is simple: Photograph what you love.

Multimedia journalism is one of those terms often used to refer to a wide range of online content. Recently, I began a discussion with my students at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism to define exactly what the term means and how we can harness the many forms of online media to produce quality journalism. We started by first asking what a multimedia story is not. After all, go to any news website and you are certain to see stories being told using a combination of media. But just because an online story has multimedia elements does not mean that it is a multimedia story.

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.