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January 2008 
The Portfolio of... I never knew ice could be so pretty.
WHNPA Student Contest The White House News Photographers Association Student Contest Committee announces a new contest open to students from around the world to compete for the honor of WHNPA 2008 Student Photographer of the Year. WHNPA sponsor, Digital Railroad, will host the competition website and the award for the winning student photographer. The contest submission page will open on February 1, 2008 and entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. on March 1, 2008. The judging will be open to the public and will take place on March 15, 2008 in the Ward Building at American University. Please read the competition guidelines on their webpage and direct any questions to the committee's email address, studentcontest [at ] whnpa [dot] org. The student winner will received a scholarship and prizes which will be announced on the website.
Scarred by Abuse
Yet another great multimedia piece from the kids in Raleigh. Travis Long delivers a heartbreaking story of abuse and a failed system designed to protect, that left one family member dead and left for dead. The threats of "You will die, I will kill you" and the stories of him digging graves for the family members bodies sent shivers down my spine. It's one thing to read it, it's another to hear it in the victim's voice. [cross-posted at MultiMediaShooter]
The Audacity of Ambition My new daily mantra: The audacity of ambition -- and innovation I don't want to work for an industry that is content with the status quo. I don't want to work for an industry that is afraid of innovation. I don't want to work for an industry that blames its readers when things go bad. I don't want to work for an industry that is scared of risk -- and success. I don't want to work for an industry that is scared of change. I don't want to work for an industry that is afraid to have a conversation with its users. I don't want to work for an industry that is content to die. I want to work for an industry that believes in its audience. I want to work for an industry that can admit it was wrong. I want to work for an industry that has the audacity to innovate. I want to work for an industry that always wants to improve, even when it's on top. I want to work for an industry that always strives to be the best. I want to work for an industry that believes there is no such thing as good enough. I want to work for an industry that puts innovation first. If this is the last stand for the American Newspaper, I don't want to go out without a fight. I want to shatter paradigms, destroy cherished icons and push the envelop of innovation. And if all those efforts fail, I want try again. I don't want to admit defeat without at least trying. If I lose, I want it to be because I had nothing left to give. I don't want to lose because I decided it was too hard to win. I want the audacity of ambition -- and innovation. What do you want?
The Portfolio of...
Photographer's Eye View John Harrington gives us a great insider's look at how various photographers covered the President's State of the Union last night. It's interesting to hear what they're looking for and how they're working from the limited shooting positions they're given.
My week: Martin Parr
The Portfolio of...
Confessions of a Rock Photographer: For years she has photographed the rich and famous but kept her own life strictly private. Now a new film opens the shutter on Annie Leibovitz's drug addiction, love life and delayed motherhood.
The Unpublished Dan Winters In his 23-year career, our most celebrated contributing photographer has captured all manner of luminaries -- from Angelina Jolie and Bono to Lance Armstrong and the Dalai Lama -- for myriad magazines. But many of his favorite portraits have never been printed. Here are ten of his unseen best.
The Portfolio of...
Missing Capa Archives Found The suitcase -- actually three flimsy cardboard valises -- contained thousands of negatives of pictures that Robert Capa, one of the pioneers of modern war photography, took during the Spanish Civil War before he fled Europe for America in 1939, leaving behind the contents of his Paris darkroom. Capa assumed that the work had been lost during the Nazi invasion, and he died in 1954 on assignment in Vietnam still thinking so. But in 1995 word began to spread that the negatives had somehow survived, after taking a journey worthy of a John le Carr� novel: Paris to Marseille and then, in the hands of a Mexican general and diplomat who had served under Pancho Villa, to Mexico City. And that is where they remained hidden for more than half a century until last month, when they made what will most likely be their final trip, to the International Center of Photography in Midtown Manhattan, founded by Robert Capa’s brother, Cornell. After years of quiet, fitful negotiations over what should be their proper home, legal title to the negatives was recently transferred to the Capa estate by descendants of the general, including a Mexican filmmaker who first saw them in the 1990s and soon realized the historical importance of what his family had.
Echo of the Past Thirteen years ago, when working for a tiny little paper in what was then a rural part of Illinois that would one day turn into a suburb of Chicago, photojournalist Scott Strazzante began visiting a Harlow and Jean Cagwin's family farm. Eventually the 119-acres gave way to the the sprawl of a subdivision. Recently Strazzante began documenting life in a cul-de-sac on what used to be the Cagwins farm. The similarities are astounding, and best seen when presented as an amazing series of diptychs. "The results are a photographic wonder, as the past bleeds into and is reflected in the present, as eras and lifestyles and the tools of life -- and, indeed, some emotions -- seem to merge."
Soth's Schtick He's a fussy photographer working with a fussy camera, and by the time he's set up the camera and the shot, the subject's instinct to perform has long ago expired, which is exactly what Soth wants. That's one reason he avoids shooting celebrities: They're trained to turn it on as needed and that drives him crazy. "They can even do it with their eyes!" he says. Instead, Soth's photos feature ordinary people who he has interrupted and detained for the better part of a day.From being told "call me when you get 10 great pictures" to selling $20,000 prints, this is a great read about how Magnum wunderkind Alec Soth got his start. [via Tim Gruber]
Mountain Workshops, Finally Finally... The MOUNTAIN WORKSHOPS 2007 site is online. You can view the photos and multimedia shows from the students stories of Danville, Kentucky. But delve deeper, I always love watching the behind the scenes videos and interviews with the faculty and staff, because I always learn something from them. Little nuggets of wisdom, like Jonathon Newston saying, There's one thing that all really good, great, whatever photographers have in common... at one point in time, they all sucked. And we remember that moment. And we remember what it felt like to want something so bad. To be... better.
Great 8
Raleigh News and Observer's resident bad asses Jason Arthurs, Shawn Rocco, Ethan Hyman and Travis Long all had a little something to do with the promo for their most ambitious multimedia project yet: 8 bands, 12 videos and a multimedia interface light years beyond anything they've ever tried to pull off.
According to Arthurs, if insomnia doesn't kill them first, the whole project will be up on Friday at www.newsobserver.com/great8. Then if you're lucky enough to be in Chapel Hill, on Saturday night, three of the featured bands are doing a show and they are screening the videos about each band there. What a neat symbiotic relationship it all has... [cross-posted at MultiMediaShooter]
VII Photo Expands To Represent Non-Member Photographers The VII Photo agency announced a new division this week called VII Network, which will represent projects by photographers who are not VII members. At its launch, the VII Network is representing seven freaking incredible freelance photojournalists: Eric Bouvet, Jessica Dimmock, Tivadar Domaniczky, Balazs Gardi, Ben Lowy, Stephanie Sinclair and Donald Weber. VII Network will represent these photographers exclusively worldwide, says VII managing director Frank Evers.
Not Forgotten Every death is a tragedy. But when someone is murdered, it is an act of violence against the victim, their family, their friends and every one of us," says Yurman. "Homicide victims are not just statistics. They are our neighbors and our family. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle photographer Will Yurman wanted to make sure their deaths were Not Forgotten. So he took on an ambitious multimedia project in 2007, documenting the stories of more than 50 homicide victims in the Rochester area, and trying to capture portraits of life, in death. Hear him talk more about how this project came about.
The Eyes of History The Eyes of History have seen it all and they declare that: Jahi Chikwendiu of The Washington Post is the White House News Photographer of the Year. Jay L. Clendenin of the Los Angeles Times took the Political Photo of the Year. And The Washington Post's Travis Fox won Best Multimedia Package for his Crisis in Darfur package.
20,000 Twenty days. Twenty thousand still images. A single message. Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk captures the issue of global warming in a video created entirely by using still images.
Chronicling A Dream
Photographer Camilo Jose Vergara has spent more than 30 years shooting murals of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. around the country. In doing so, he's gotten a close look at the poor urban neighborhoods that King spoke of. The New York Times is featuring a slideshow of Vergara's work on its Web site. And you can hear Vergara discuss his work on NPR.org. Also, on a related note: Check out rare, previously unpublished pix from the Life archive on Time.com. [via PDNPulse]
The Photos Not Taken The Photographs Not Taken is an interesting collection of essays by photographers -- like Alec Soth, Amy Stein and Nina Berman -- about the times they didn't use their camera. This collection is a series of photographs not taken with a camera, but, instead, lived and remembered. Here the basic set of rules that apply to the making of a photograph are put into reverse; instead of looking out into the world through a camera lens, this series of essays looks directly into the photographer's eye and mind and focuses on where the photographs come from. In some of the essays you detect a hint of sadness, a sense of regret and loss, in others there's a trace of pride in having chosen to live in the moment rather than simply witnessing it from behind the camera.
Library of Congress meet Flickr The Library of Congress has started uploading a portion of its most popular collections to Flickr. There are about 3000 images uploaded so far under a new copyright license devised with Flickr for institutions. This seems like a much better approach than the clunky PhotoMuse being developed (slowly) by ICP and the George Eastman House which appears to have stalled out altogether. LoC is hoping this example encourages other public collections to try a similar approach and I would hope that ICP and GEH abandon their custom effort and begin using their funds to make more work available more widely through Flickr, plus allowing the Flickr community faster and better descriptions and keyword tagging. More info over at LoC.gov. The LoC images uploaded thus far appear to have a max size of 1024 wide, which is much smaller than what's available for download directly from the LoC site. Some of those are high-res TIFF format scans suitable for making your own prints from (or purchasing through something like Shorpy.)
An End to Community After nearly four years, Flint Journal photojournalist Steve Jessmore is closing the books on Sense of Community, his photo column chronicling daily life in the Michigan city. More than 170 subjects were profiled in the column, which took a close -- often optimistic -- look at the diverse society that makes up Flint, and how it struggles to overcome economic and crime-related hardships. Additionally, Jessmore is leaving the area to take an editing position at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. On a personal note, I wish him much success out east, and would like to thank him for all his hard work on what was easily my favorite photo column ever. Inspiring stuff, Steve. [Mad proppers to Gerik over at photocolumn.org for bringing this to light.]
The Moment it Clicks Joe McNally's new book The Moment it Clicks will hopefully make you see the light, and learn how to use it. What makes the book so unique is the "triangle of learning" where (1) Joe distills the concept down to one brief sentence. It usually starts with something like, "An editor at National Geographic once told me..." and then he shares one of those hard-earned tricks of the trade that you only get from spending a lifetime behind the lens. Then, (2) on the facing page is one of Joe's brilliant images that perfectly illustrates the technique (you'll recognize many of his photos from magazine covers). And (3) you get the inside story of how that shot was taken, including which equipment he used (lens, f/stop, lighting, accessories, etc.), along with the challenges that type of project brings, and how to set up a shot like that of your own.
TWAC It saddens me that the Truth With a Camera workshop has been cancelled for 2008. "This was a very difficult decision to make ... it was not just a financial, but a very emotional decision. Most workshops have the backing of a university or organization that provides working space, equipment, administrative support, etc. Several of us work year round with no pay, and we make up the differences between income and expenses. I like to think that Edom persistence was at least partially responsible for getting us through each year," it's founder, Dr. Vme Edom Smith said.
Promo Cards Rob Haggart, the now exposed photography director behind A Photo Editor, made a great post today about promo cards. Also see the Flickr set.
Interview with Melissa Lyttle "I think semantics are important. I don't call myself a photographer, I'm a photojournalist, and that carries a lot of weight in the newsroom with them trusting me to go out and actually tell the story that's there." Aphotoaday founder Melissa Lyttle was interviewed by JoEllen Schilke on WMNF 88.5 last Friday. In her interview she talks about aphotoaday, her personal approach to photojournalism and her upcoming presentation at the Arts Center in St. Pete on Monday. Listen here, her segment begins about 35 minutes in.
Double Negative Exactly 35 years after taking his Pulitzer-winning photo of an injured girl in Vietnam, Nick Ut shot another young woman in distress - Paris Hilton. Both pictures made news worldwide. And both are depressingly of their time. "It's a strange feeling because I know I will never take another photograph that's as good as this - not as long as I live. When I look at my photograph of Kim and my photograph of Paris Hilton, I think they are both good pictures, in their way. I suppose the big difference is that I grew to love Kim, whereas... well, frankly, I don't give a damn about Paris Hilton.'
Multimedia Journal Multimedia guru Richard Koci Hernandez has a project that recently started out as random notes/worksheets to help some students and it's turned into a 60 page book. Multimedia Journal will show you how to tap into your creativity by guiding you through a variety of activities that will prod your imagination so you can capture new ideas for multimedia storytelling. The exercises are intended to jump-start your creative energy. "This project has forced me to practice what I've been preaching and I hope it can help you or someone you know," said Hernanadez. His new book is hot off the presses at Blurb! Take a sneak peek (at the first 15 pages) and place your order if you're so inclined.
The Portfolio of...
Best of the Best The 2007 Year in Pictures: (any others?? send me an email! apad [at] aphotoaday [dot] org)
Pennsylvania Avenue "The Southeast end is the sort of America that tourists come from. The Northwest end is where tourists go to. One avenue, many paradoxes, many echoes." I'm digging Andrew Cutraro's piece in last week's Washington Post Magazine on The Two Sides of America's Boulevard.
DAH Fund Congratulations to Sean Gallagher, who is the first recipient of the David Alan Harvey Fund for Emerging Photographers. Sean's essay on the desertification of China's Western Gansu Province where the fast moving desert is literally swallowing up farmland and communities was according to DAH, "stylistically powerful and journalistically relevant....and worthy of more financial support to keep Sean continuing on this significant body of work..."
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