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Dorothea Lange: The Photographer As Agricultural Sociologist By Linda Gordon To a startling degree, popular understanding of the Great Depression of the 1930s derives from visual images, and among them, Dorothea Lange's are the most influential. Although many do not know her name, her photographs live in the subconscious of virtually anyone in the United States who has any concept of that economic disaster. Her pictures exerted great force in their own time, helping shape 1930s and 1940s Popular Front representational and artistic sensibility, because the Farm Security Administration (FSA), her employer, distributed the photographs aggressively through the mass media. If you watch the film The Grapes of Wrath with a collection of her photographs next to you, you will see the influence.1 Lange's commitment to making her photography speak to matters of injustice was hardly unique-thousands of artists, writers, dancers, and actors were trying to connect with the vibrant grass-roots social movements of the time. They formed a cultural wing of the Popular Front, a politics of liberal-Left unity in support of the New Deal.

Photographic truth and manipulation February 23rd, 2009 We know photographs can be false yet we want them to be true. Indeed, the desire for photographic veracity has persisted, perhaps even intensified, even as knowledge about image manipulation becomes more widespread. Reflecting on the Oscar ceremonies, MediaGuardian has documented the widespread use of Photoshop to enhance celebrity photographs in fashion and gossip magazines. Every cover, says one media insider, has been altered to some degree, with some of these changes exposed in the "Photoshop Hall of Shame" and "Photoshop Disasters". So common is the practice that when an October 2008 Newsweek cover of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was not airbrushed, conservative anchors on Fox television complained that this amounted to liberal bias. (Fox knew about the political power of such changes because it had earlier manipulated the photos of two New York Times journalists it wanted to discredit).

The Research Center Collections are central to the VSW mission to support the "creation, presentation, collection, preservation and education" of media based arts. VSW's focus on the aesthetics, cultural history of media, and social use of images has developed a collections policy which includes both creative work and vernacular images, as well as items that represent the history of media use. The Independent Press Archive has 5000 artist's books -- the largest collection of artists' books in upstate New York. This Archive is complemented by the Illustrated Book Collection, which contains illustrated books published from 1694 to the present day that display all aspects of engraving and photo-engraving practices and all forms of imaging technologies from wood engraving to xerography. These collections are supported by a Research Library of 20,000 books concentrating on the areas of photography, filmmaking, video, bookmaking, media studies, and the cultural practices of image making. The Photograph Collections contain 27,000 original photographic or photo-mechanical prints made by 2,200 known photographers and more than 600,000 examples of vernacular or anonymous images in the form of lantern slides, stereo cards, snapshots, postcards and news agency photographs. These collections hold examples of every type of photographic practice from the family snapshot to the fine art print and include work of every era from the daguerreotypes of the 1840s to digital prints from the present day.

Academics and artists at London Metropolitan University worked with photographer Paul Trevor to make a selection of his images of East London digitally available to artists, students and researchers. The Collection includes 500 images (chosen from a total of 120,000) of the Spitalfields area from the 1970s to the 1990s, a period of rapid social and physical change. The Paul Trevor Collection is part of a larger archive project at London Metropolitan University, which will eventually include oral as well as visual narratives, that aims to represent aspects of the lives of local East End communities in their distinctive social, economic and political contexts. The process of producing this photographic dimension of the archive was lengthy and gave rise to challenging questions. What are the aesthetic, historical, and social dimensions of creating a photographic archive and how might these be related? Which factors contribute to the construction of a photographic archive as a relevant resource for public history and/or academic inquiry? How can aesthetic and social/political discourses work together to achieve this end?

Photographs The photographs collection is a key resource for the visual history of London during the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes work by both professional and amateur photographers and covers most aspects of London life. It contains some topographical and architectural images but the main emphasis is on social documentary. Notable bodies of work include: * Early topographical views of London by Roger Fenton, c.1857 * Construction of the Metropolitan District Railway by Henry Flather, 1860s * London street life by John Thomson, c.1876 * Historic London buildings by Alfred & John Bool and Henry Dixon, 1870s & 1880s * Poverty in the East End by John Galt, early 1900s * Impressionist views of London by Alvin Langdon Coburn, early 1900s * Suffragettes by Christina Broom, early 1900s * Street and river scenes by George Davison Reid, c.1930 * East End homes by Humphrey Spender, early 1930s * London street life in the 1930s by Margaret Monck, Wolfgang Suschitzky and Cyril Arapoff * Underground shelters during the Blitz by Bill Brandt, 1940 * Bomb damage to the City of London during the Blitz by Arthur Cross and Fred Tibbs, 1940-41 * London street life in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including work by Nigel Henderson, Roger Mayne, Paul Styles, B J Green, Cory Bevington, Jerome Liebling, Lutz Dill, Jim Rice and Paul Trevor * Topographical views of London by Edwin Smith, 1960s * Contemporary work by many photographers including Yoke Matze, Anna Fox, Alan Delaney, Paul Barkshire, Tim Daly, Chris Dorley-Brown, Tom Evans, John R. J. Taylor, Ed Barber, Magda Segal, Paul Baldesare, Dave Trainer, Paulo Catrica, Ronen Numa, Angus Boulton, Janet Hall, Dave Young, Michael Donald, Jason Wilde, John Davies, David Turner Tom Hunter and Mike Seaborne

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.

TO BUY THE DVD of the War Photographer go here: http://firstrunfeatures.com/shopsite_... IN THIS SCENE: James philosophizes on photography's importance and responsibility to humanity. "Why photograph war? Is it possible to put an end to human behavior which has existed throughout history by means of photography? The proportions of that notion seem ridiculously out of balance yet that very idea has motivated me." - James Nachtwey ABOUT THIS FILM: War Photographer is the 2001 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature that follows preeminent war photographer James Nachtwey for two years as he bravely documents the harrowing realities of Kosovo, Rawanda, Indonesia, and the West Bank.

A Gear Guide For Going Freelance By David McIntyredavid-mcintyrecloseAuthor: David McIntyre See Author's Posts (2) Recent Posts * Nine Essentials (Besides a Camera) You'll Need as a Freelance Photographer * A Gear Guide For Going Freelance David McIntyre is a photographer for Black Star based in China and Hong Kong since 1995. Prior to becoming a freelance photographer, he was a staff photographer for The Phoenix Gazette. He has also worked for UPI, the Associated Press, EPA, Asiaweek Magazine, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Baseball America, and the minor league baseball teams in Denver and Phoenix before they had Major League teams. Visit David's Web site. in Business of Photography on March 13th, 2009 I've read the articles and postings about newspaper layoffs, and I've gotten my share of e-mails from former staff photographers asking for guidance. As someone who's been freelancing for most of my career, what's the first advice I would give to those of you striking out on your own? Get the right equipment. A lot of corporate and editorial assignments require portrait work, for example - which requires lighting gear. But most new freelancers don't realize they will need more than their one shoe mount strobe. Others may have more or less gear than what I find works best. But here are my recommendations for the equipment you'll need to fulfill the majority of requests from potential clients.

Your Camera Is an Agent for Change 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 Photojournalism on September 16th, 2008 As photographers, we often use our cameras to make money - shooting weddings, editorial, advertising, stock photography, etc. Yet the camera can do more than help us earn an income. As Dorothea Lange put it, this powerful tool can teach people "how to see without a camera."

New York Times Magazine Withdraws Altered Photo Essay UPDATE, 5:57 p.m. ET: The New York Times has published a new editors' note about the altered photo essay that was published in Sunday's Times Magazine. The newspaper says "most of the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show." The note does not address which photos were altered, or whether the photographer misrepresented them to the editors. PDN has tried to reach Edgar Martins, the photographer, but has not heard from him. Here's the Times' note: "A picture essay in The Times Magazine on Sunday and an expanded slide show on NYTimes.com entitled 'Ruins of the Second Gilded Age' showed large housing construction projects across the United States that came to a halt, often half-finished, when the housing market collapsed. The introduction said that the photographer, a freelancer based in Bedford, England, 'creates his images with long exposures but without digital manipulation.' "A reader, however, discovered on close examination that one of the pictures was digitally altered, apparently for aesthetic reasons. Editors later confronted the photographer and determined that most of the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show. Had the editors known that the photographs had been digitally manipulated, they would not have published the picture essay, which has been removed from NYTimes.com."

"Unmasking Photo Opportunities, Cubistically In a 1994 photograph we see U.S. soldiers invading Haiti, lying on the airport tarmac pointing their rifles at unseen enemies. The heroic image supports the claim of the U.S. government that it is invading to support democracy, liberating a neighboring country from a dictatorship. The curious reader [of the future], however, might want to place the computer cursor on the image. Another photograph appears from beneath it; it is of the same scene but from another vantage point. U.S. soldiers are pointing their guns not at any potential enemy but at about a dozen photographers who, lined up in front of them, are photographing them. In fact, the photographers are the only ones doing any shooting."

Through its own production, support, purchase and retrieval, Amber has built up a significant photographic collection. Where possible, we're putting this work online. The photographic engagement with the North of England has produced a remarkable enough body of work, but since Side Gallery opened in 1977, this has been extended through exhibition purchases and donations to include a wide-ranging representation of the international classic and contemporary documentary that continues to inspire us. Where we hold the rights and/or where the photographer gives permission, we're committed to putting as much of this work online as possible. As funding allows, new exhibitions will appear and some exhibitions will be developed further.

Today I'm in San Francisco giving a lecture to the Society for Photographic Education. After presenting my pictures and the story of how I became a photographer, I'll likely be asked if I have any advice for young photographers. Instead of giving just my two cents, I thought it would be cool if I could also offer some advice from my fellow photographers at Magnum. I emailed my colleagues and received 35 different responses.

American photographer and journalist Eve Arnold delves into her relationship with Marilyn Monroe, whom she photographed possibly more than any other photographer. This documentary explores the general relationship between a photographer and her living subject, as well as the specific task Arnold accomplished in capturing a cinematic icon.

" I was introduced to the work of Trent Parke (born in Australia in 1971, a member of Magnum since 2007) by a mutual friend, the photographer, Matt Stuart. He showed me two books by Parke, both self-published. The first was The Seventh Wave (2000), photographs of Australia's beaches, by Parke and his partner - now wife - Narelle Autio. A more intimate and egalitarian collaboration is hard to imagine. Without the list at the end explaining which pictures are by whom it would be impossible to tell them apart. Much of the action takes place in or under the waves. You don't look at this book. You open it and plunge in. Whoomp! Immediately, you're immersed, submerged. They're like pictures of being born, of people exploding into life beneath the sea, or bursting through the surface and into being. It's as if evolution has been speeded up and compressed so that the origins of life on the planet turn, in a split-second, to the creation of an individual human life. In the same breath it's mythic and candid - street photography from Atlantis! In one photograph we get a blurry echo of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel. Here it's two hands almost touching underwater, one clutching a ball of burning light. In a related picture - included in the Minutes to Midnight series - we see the birth of the photographers' own son, erupting from the water, dragging the umbilical cord like a lifesaver."

Photographs of a man accused of the attempted murder of a photographer in Mozambique, Africa, have been released.Photographer Kypros Kyprianou (pictured), who grew up in England, claims 'bandits' tried to kill him in a remote African villagePicture credit: Copyright Kypros Kyprianou

Photographic truth and Photoshop April 17th, 2009 Photography's anxiety about truth, manipulation and reality has been on show recently. In different ways and from different contexts, people have been asking: "how much Photoshop is too much"? From the realm of fashion, French Elle is being celebrated for running a cover story in which the models photographs have not been 'Photoshopped' (thereby confirming, as I've noted previously, that digital manipulation is the norm in this visual domain). From the world of photojournalism, blogs like 1854, PDNPulse and the Online Photographer (with a follow-up here) have been buzzing with the story of the Danish photographer Klavs Bo Christensen who was excluded from that country's Picture of the Year competition for excessive colour manipulation of his Haiti story. Along with two others, Christensen was asked to submit his RAW files to the competition judges who felt that the colour in his photographs had been excessively saturated (their debate can be heard here), and removed his images from the competition as a result. Christensen was subsequently happy to have his files put on the web for comparison and discussion, thereby performing an important service to the photographic community.

The Photographic Library Directory is a unique resource that provides a broad range of visual solutions to enhance the creative process. The categories listed include : * Stock Images from the leading stock photo libraries. * Fashion Photographers, fashion, advertising & editorial shoots. * International fashion image resources, trend or season fashions. * Stars & Celebrities, hollywood stars, entertaiment, music and film celebrity images. * Archive Collections, international collections of historic & social importance. * Free Photos, clip art collections & Illustrations. * Moving Images, stock film footage, newsreels & motion picture archives. * Photo Agencies, the leading photo & editorial agencies. * Fine Art, prints & poster art. * Libraries and Museums, historic world maps, manuscripts and atlases. * Documentary Photographers & photojournalist resources. * Student Galleries, creative minds from the Leading Art & Design centres of excellence.

Getting A Story Made at National Geographic After talking with several National Geographic photographers about shooting for the magazine I became intrigued with the process of getting a story made. The collaboration between the photo editors and photographers and then the photographers involvement in all the steps along the way is unique and important to how they make stories. More magazines should spend this kind of time with their contributors. The few times I've had photographer come into the office and present their images to us have been incredibly rewarding and certainly I think made the story that much better.

Annie Leibovitz, Photographer, "Women" [Random House], "Photographs 1970-1990" [Harper Collins]; 15 Slides from "Women" [Random House]; 5 Slides from "Photographs 1970-1990" [Harper Collins] /// Richard Avedon, Photographer; 6 Slides from work soon to be published in the New Yorker