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INTERVIEW - "Interview with Gilles Peress: Images, Reality and the Curse of History"

William Eggleston: The Tender-Cruel Camera by Thomas Weski 'I don't particularly like what's around me.' I said that could be a good reason to take pictures. He said: 'You know, that's not a bad idea.' Around the middle of the sixties, in the middle of the night, William Eggleston was standing in one of the first industrial photofinishing laboraties, watching hundreds of color photos being churned out of the developing machines on endless reels of paper. Countless such visits were to sharpen Eggleston's awareness of the world of images and its amateurish, unpretentious treatment by the masses of people who had their color snaps developed and printed in this laboratory overnight. For Eggleston, this confrontation with visual mediocrity was an altogether exciting and unforgettable experience and was to become an important basis for his later work.

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).

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."

live books interviews with photographers

The EOS 5D Mark II, one of the latest offerings from Canon, is the world's first dSLR camera to offer Full HD video recording capability. But what if you want to capture great sounding audio to accompany your great looking video? The 5D MkII records stunning video clips at a 1080p resolution with a frame rate of 30fps, but the audio is recorded with a tiny built-in mono microphone. Thankfully the camera also includes a stereo 3.5mm microphone input that will enable you to capture much better audio than that offered by the built-in mic. Shooting video on the MkII is very easy. Check out the full 5D MkII review from B&H's own Allan Weitz for an in-depth look at the camera itself, and additional details on shooting video. With the right external microphone, recording great sound is easy too.

In the summer of 1973, photographer Stephen Shore set out on that quintessential American adventure - the cross-country road trip. Starting in New York City, he made a long loop around the nation, going through Michigan, North Dakota and Idaho, off to the West Coast, and then followed a southern route all the way back to New York. During his month-long trip, he kept extensive records, noting where he stayed, what he ate and what television programs he watched. He collected postcards of the places he visited, kept all of his receipts and, not unexpectedly, took hundreds of pictures. Now, 35 years later, his entire journal has been reproduced and published in a book fittingly titled A Road Trip Journal.

There are few single works of art that have changed the direction of their medium. In 1959, one book dramatically altered how photographers looked through their viewfinders and the way Americans saw themselves. The Americans was the work of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, and the National Gallery of Art is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the book's American debut with an exhibition. Curator Sarah Greenough says The Americans was actually reviled when it was first published in the United States. "Popular Photography asked a number of writers to critique the book and almost all of them were very negative," Greenough says. "It was described as a sad poem by a very sick person."

AKE Group The world of the 21st century presents many risks to the effective development and prosecution of business, particularly in developing markets. While modern communication has created the impression of a global village it has distorted our perception of the reality of risk. Since 1991 AKE has helped clients perform more effectively despite the risks of their operational environment. Our holistic approach to risk mitigation seeks to provide solutions with the aim of assisting our clients: 'To protect the integrity of the operation in order to maximise potential' AKE's six service lines: Intelligence, Security, Training, Medical, Contingencies (Emergency Planning, Crisis Management and Crisis Response) and Insurance create a unique capability to deliver effective solutions for clients. AKE provides integrated solutions, added value and Assures Integrity

Setting the Standard Setting the standard: A commitment to front-line journalism; an obligation to front-line journalism. A September 2000 Freedom Forum European Center report and transcript on safety standards for journalists working in dangerous zones.

Jun 2001 [Freelance] Advice for photographers covering demonstrations Before covering any demonstration, time spent on preparation usually pays off in keeping safe and getting good pictures.

Press Freedom and Safety ©FIP A press freedom violation can be an assassin's bullet, aimed to kill an investigative journalist, and to intimidate and silence his colleagues. It can be the knock on the door from the police, bringing in a reporter to question her on her sources, or put her in jail with or without a proper trial. It can be a restrictive media law, which puts the power over editorial content into the hands of censors and press courts.

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.

Journalist Safety Contacts

On Assignment: Covering Conflicts Safely Guide for reporting in hazardous situations.

The IFJ Launches Website for Ethical Journalism Campaign Welcome to the Ethical Journalism Initiative website - a new campaign to rekindle old values in media worldwide launched by the International Federation of Journalists. The future of media is the hot topic everywhere, particularly as journalists and others wrestle with the rapid changes in the way journalism works. In troubled times of political tension, social conflict and economic turbulence people yearn for reliable and quality information. Journalism provides the analysis, context and commentary that keep citizens informed and allows them to play their part in the life of society. The role of media in helping to build democracy has never been more important, but how will journalism in future deliver the service people need? [..]

About Welcome to my site. Here you will find summaries of my work, videos to watch, papers to download, images to study and links to pursue. I have three areas of interest - photography, multimedia and politics. I am particularly concerned with (1) how documentary photography, photojournalism and satellite imaging visually enact our world; (2) how multimedia technologies are transforming the capacity of photography to tell stories about our hybrid world; and (3) how issues of identity and representation help structure international politics. A full CV/resume is available here. As professor of cultural and political geography at Durham University in the UK, I am associated with the Durham Centre for Advanced Photography Studies. In 2009 I have a fellowship at Durham's Institute for Advanced Study to work on photographs from the Sudan archive for my 'Geopolitics and Visuality' project.

David Rose was a founding staff photographer with the Independent and Independent on Sunday. He has covered many issues in Britain, Europe and the developing world.\n\nHe now works for a range of National and International titles and undertakes commissions for corporate clients. He has won several major UK and Overseas Press Awards.\n\nRepresented by Panos Pictures, London