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THEORY - "The Treacherous Medium: Why Photography Critics Hate Photographs " The Treacherous Medium: Why photography critics hate photographs Boston Review, by Susie Linfield In 1846, Charles Baudelaire wrote a little essay called "What is the Good of Criticism?" This is a question that virtually every critic asks herself at some point, and that some have answered with hopelessness, despair, even self-loathing. Baudelaire didn't think that criticism would save the world, but he didn't think it was a worthless pursuit, either. For Baudelaire, criticism was the synthesis of thought and feeling: in criticism, Baudelaire wrote, "passion … raises reason to new heights." A few years later, he would explain that through criticism he sought "to transform my pleasure into knowledge"-a pithy, excellent description of critical practice. Baudelaire's American contemporary Margaret Fuller held a similar view; as she put it, the critic teaches us "to love wisely what we before loved well."

THEORY - "Walker Evans and American Life" Scavenging the Landscape: Walker Evans and American life Afterimage, Jan-Feb, 1996 by Melissa Rachleff The Great American Depression, spanning the 1930s, inscribed into the culture a psychic crisis. Faith in industrial ingenuity, heralded as "progressive," came unhinged. By 1933, four years after the stock market crash, one quarter of the work force was unemployed.(1) Into this dilemma came a multitude of photographic projects, the most famous of which were sponsored by the federal government in the form of agencies that provided relief to farmers, the unemployed and others. The most completely realized project was the documentation of conditions faced by displaced farmers, recorded by the Historic Section of the Resettlement Administration (RA), later the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The socially-oriented photographic book made its appearance, as did the photographic magazine, best exemplified by Life in 1936. Many of the best known American photographers came to prominence during the Depression, including Berenice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks and Margaret Bourke-White. Of all the photographers from that era, one represented the quintessential photographic style of the Depression while remaining an elusive figure in photographic history: Walker Evans (1903-1975).

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

"Following up on our previous coverage, Marco Vernaschi let us know that the Pulitzer Center has published another post about the subject, "Uganda: Response to Critics." The post includes both a response by Vernaschi and a note from the Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer. The response specifically addresses questions raised by A Developing Story and Vigilante Journalist and includes a link to an interview with a Ugandan lawyer about the inadequate police response to the murder of Margaret Babirye Nankya, as well as a video of Vernaschi's interview with the girl's mother. Of specific note, also, is Vernaschi's statement about removing another photo from the project, this one of a child's coffin. Three bodies were exhumed in a separate case and this coffin was one of the exhumed bodies."