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Black Star Rising is a blogzine designed to educate professional photographers, amateur photographers and photography buyers alike. Black Star has a long history of mentoring our photographers and clients, and Black Star Rising is an attempt to extend this ethos of teaching -- and caring -- to a broader audience. We hope you find it of value, and that you'll come back often.

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."

Death as Contributing Background By Dennis DunleavydennisdunleavycloseAuthor: Dennis Dunleavy See Author's Posts (20) Recent Posts * The Intelligent Machine: The Camera in the 21st Century * What Should Power Look Like? * Photojournalism in an Age of Contrivance * Rush of Innovation in Photographic Technology Shows No Sign of Slowing Down * Do Embedded Photojournalists Actually Work for the Pentagon? Dennis Dunleavy teaches and writes about visual culture, digital photography and ethics, new technologies, and society. For more than 20 years, he worked as a correspondent and photojournalist across the U.S., Central America, and Mexico. Today, he is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Southern Oregon University. He is the author of The Big Picture blog. in Photojournalism on May 27th, 2008 The body is lifeless - embedded into the concrete and dust that once was a school. Framing the faceless gray form, a handful of Chinese soldiers in green camouflage gently sweep the ground around her. There are five soldiers, two with shovels, one pointing at an object inches away from a limp hand. The viewer is forced to look down upon shadows and rubble. We do not know this person. She is one of thousands of victims from the earthquake that shook China to its core two weeks ago.

Photojournalists Are Getting Artsier -- But Is That What Audiences Want? PDF Print E-mail Written by Dennis Dunleavy Monday, 04 February 2008 ImageWalter Benjamin once suggested that there is no single, absolute, or correct interpretation of a picture, since every viewer brings something unique to the process. At the same time, photojournalistic conventions often constrain how a viewer responds emotionally and intellectually to pictures.

The Beauty of the Slideshow - Now Available to Everyone By Stanley LearystanleylearycloseAuthor: Stanley Leary See Author's Posts (38) Recent Posts * Still Images Plus Audio Can Be More Effective Than Online Video * Teaching Is a Great Way to Learn * Telling Stories with a Telephoto Lens * If Your Pictures Aren't Good Enough, You're Not Close Enough * What Kind of Photographer Are You? Stanley Leary is a Black Star photographer who has been telling stories for more than 20 years as a photojournalist. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Business Week, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Chicago Tribune, NY Times, World Book Encyclopedia, Information Week, Popular Mechanics, Technology Review, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, and many other publications. in Video and Multimedia on January 20th, 2008 Even before the Internet, I appreciated the slideshow. I created presentations with multiple projectors and audio, and I was always impressed with what the combined media could communicate. Even compared to video - where you move right through a moment so quickly you can miss the subtlety of it - the slideshow has its unique charms. The problem, in the old days, was that you had to have the audience present to deliver the program; it was a lot of work for a small number of people. The printed page reached a much larger audience. Today, with the Web becoming the leader in delivering the news, we are no longer limited to printed words and still images on the page. Rather than publishing a quote, we can deliver audio of the interviews and the experience, giving a story authenticity in a way that we couldn't achieve before. We can create slideshows for everyone - to watch whenever they choose.

Is Video a Trojan Horse for Photojournalistic Ethics? By Anh StackanhstackcloseAuthor: Anh Stack See Author's Posts (12) Recent Posts * Is Video a Trojan Horse for Photojournalistic Ethics? * Why You Should Be Worried About Proposed Orphan Works Legislation * Up Your Price with Limited-Edition Photography * Tips for Creating a Winning Portfolio * How Professional Photographers Can Generate New Business with Flickr Anh D. Stack is editorial director of Black Star. in Photojournalism on November 13th, 2008 Tension has always existed between television and print journalists. While casual observers tend to write this off to ink-stained newspaper staffers being jealous of the higher profile -- and paychecks -- of their TV brethren, the reality is that significant differences exist in how TV and print news organizations gather the news.

Restoring Trust in Photojournalism: Black Star Rising Talks with Dr. Hany Farid By Scott BaradellscottbaradellcloseAuthor: Scott Baradell See Author's Posts (125) Recent Posts * Sometimes, Improvisation Is Not All It's Cracked Up to Be * Dealing with Fragile Artist Syndrome * Fake Chuck Westfall Gets Under Canon's Skin * Newspapers Are Running Out of Time to Solve the Problem of Content Theft * Stock Photography's Hidden Costs -- and How to Avoid Them Scott Baradell edits and contributes to Black Star Rising. A former newspaper journalist and executive for Belo Corp., Scott is an accomplished brand strategist who leads the Idea Grove agency. He has nearly two decades of experience working closely with professional photographers, both as a journalist and as a corporate photography buyer. in Photojournalism on August 6th, 2007 Photographers have been manipulating images ever since Abraham Lincoln's head was attached to John C. Calhoun's body in one of Lincoln's most famous portraits. But today, digital technology has made tampering easier and more pervasive than ever. Some believe the trend threatens the public's fundamental faith in the practice of photojournalism. In this context, Dr. Hany Farid should be a hero to photojournalists and lovers of photojournalism. Farid, who runs the Image Science Group at Dartmouth College, has emerged as a leading authority on digital forensics. His team has developed some of the most advanced software currently available to detect photo manipulation. While media organizations - increasingly rocked by photo-doctoring scandals - have not yet invested in Farid's technology, it seems only a matter of time before this occurs. Here's our Q&A with Farid: