mapjd@lcc

Playing "god" in a digital age: The thin line between art and the subjectivity of photojournalism Jarle recently commented on the post "Crazy light", in which I wrote: "We are constantly challenged to make scenes that are less than interesting, more interesting." The question that this raises, however, is when and how are the conventions of honest visual reportage bent for the sake of making images more compelling? Jarle continues: Correct. We all strive to make our photos more interesting. But, ethically and philosophically speaking, isn't this in direct conflict with the "our pictures must always tell the truth" mantra? There's often a thin line between photojournalism, "art" and subjective, commentary photography. And, playing the devil's advocate, what's the difference between adding motion blur in Photoshop and using a slow shutter speed? I'll start out by agreeing with much what Jarle has said here. From a purist perspective, "Straight" photography should be a style of photography that records what the eye witnesses without elaboration or embellishment. For the most part, this form of photography, what is photojournalism today, has remained pretty much true to form. At the same time, it is possible to find quite a few examples of photojournalism from the 1980s to the present day, that deviate from the normal conventions.

Reporting War - why do they do it? lcc1.gifPolis has taken to the battlefield with three talks by journalists back from the frontline: A multi-media man who has been shot in the course of his work for the Guardian and others; a top TV camera journalist who runs his own production company and has made films for the likes of Newsnight as well as a documentary feature out next year; and an Iraqi who has worked through the recent war and now trains a new generation of journalists. All of them had strong motives for taking the risks and making the extraordinary effort that conflict journalism demands. Here's a report on their talks to students at the Polis course at the London College of journalism.

War Reporting: the view from the frontline lcc2.gifWar has come to Polis in the shape of a course I teach at the London College of Communications. After the delights of my 90 minute-long 'history and concepts' lecture we got the real thing from journalists who work at the frontline. And our two guests this week have certainly seen conflict up-close. Newspaper foreign correspondent Kim Sengupta and American photojournalist Danfung Dennis are both outstanding war journalists who take their trade seriously. This report from Polis intern Molly Kaplan.

The woman who became the face of the Great Depression 03.12.2008 | Author: Miguel Garcia-Guzman | Posted in Photography Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange This is quite interesting, one of the the girls in the picture of Dorothea Lange, who was 4 years old when the image was taken, remembers her mother and the great depression … full article with videos here. I always wonder how people that are portrayed in epic pictures like Migrant Mother felt about it. If you like this image as much as I do, you can get a full file with a high resolution scan here, and print it at home -as I did.

MediaStorm produces 'Condition: Critical, Voices from the War in Eastern Congo' for Médecins Sans Frontières

Online Exhibition: "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography" The National Portrait Gallery recently opened an exhibition that explores the work of six photographers-Katy Grannan, Jocelyn Lee, Ryan McGinley, Steve Pyke, Martin Schoeller, and Alec Soth-who, through their editorial assignment work, "each bring their distinctive 'take' on contemporary portraiture to a broad audience." "Their work," reads the curatorial statement, "builds upon a longstanding tradition of photographic portraiture for the popular press and highlights creative possibilities for twenty-first-century portrayal." For those who won't find themselves in Washinton, D.C. anytime soon, an online exhibition was created and can be found here; however, according to the site, there are additional portraits in the gallery that do not appear in the Web exhibition.

Improving a bad contract It is all too common for a publisher to ask you to sign a work agreement that cancels your rights while imposing new obligations on you. But you can protect yourself. First, learn to recognize bad contract terms. Second, be ready to propose fairer terms. Below, we present an example of an extremely bad contract - one that is actually being used by a New York publisher - along with a point-by-point explanation of what's wrong and what would make it better.

Friday, December 05, 2008 Four Reasons to Consider Working for Free The U.S. stock market has been cut in half. And some countries have it worse than we do. Companies are shedding jobs like there is no tomorrow. And heaven help you if you work for a newspaper or a magazine. The US auto industry is on the verge of imploding. People are losing their homes to foreclosure. And, on the off chance that you had the nerve to try to buy something, credit is almost impossible to come by. It is against that backdrop that I would like to talk about working for free.

Amazing Photojournalism: Where to find the best in news photography Tuesday, November 18, 2008 The internet is full of photojournalists that are capturing the world in new and innovative ways. The following sites are showcasing the best of the medium and are an inspiration to professional and aspiring news photographers everywhere:

An Interview with Garry Winogrand from Visions and Images: American Photographers on Photography, Interviews with photographers by Barbara Diamonstein, 1981-1982, Rizoli: New York Garry Winogrand is one of the most important photographers at work in America today. His sophisticated snapshot-aesthetic pictures celebrate ordinary events, and transform them with precise timing and framing into astute visual commentaries on modern life.

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.

William Eggleston: "I am at war with the obvious." William Eggleston, a hero to so many photographers, finally agreed to talk about his art while a camera was running. I haven't seen the film yet (I'm going to order it today), but I thought I'd share this inspiring clip to go along with your Monday morning coffee. Wow.

LIGHTING KIT FOR THE ELDERLY In Books, Friends, Travels, Videos at 12:16am Its small, airplane friendly, easy to use and very light so even photographers of, well, a certain age can lift it. Bob Krist demonstrated his lighting kit in the new Nikon SB900 video….. And people are going nuts about it, emailing him, wanting to know about every bit and piece. He showed the kit during the video, pulling out all the stuff, but not a couple of the crucial items, such as the heating pad and the flask of Geritol. He's one tough sonofagun, though I tell ya. Check out the fight we had on the set…..

Video filmed by Guardian photographer Dan Chung entirely on a production Canon EOS5DmkII and adapted Nikon and Zeiss lenses using manual focus. The camera was purchased to use solely as a video camera with existing Nikon kit. The film was shot an edited in about twelve hours directly after picking the camera up from a Beijing camera store and charging the battery.

Monday, December 08, 2008 Cheap, Soft, 360-Degree Light I was up in New York recently, and saw a video production unit filming in the lobby of my hotel. They were using cheap paper lanterns as light modifiers for their point-source continuous lights. Very cool thinking, IMO.

Snapshots From the American Road Rober Frank interview in the nyt dec 2008 WHILE his dark, penetrating eyes still radiate intensity, Robert Frank, at 84, is not as mobile as he used to be, shuffling in slow motion around a modern one-bedroom apartment in a high-rise on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His wife, the artist June Leaf, explained that they rent the apartment because it is harder for him these days to navigate the nondescript three-story house where they have lived, a few blocks away, since the 1970s.

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.