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February 2008 
The Portfolio of...
The Portfolio of...
Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner Ah... I've been on vacation for a week, and just returned to learn of all sorts of fun photo happenings. My apologies if this is old news to some of you, but I thought I'd post it to the blog, lest I forget. POY judging has taken on a life of its own this year. And one judge, Brad Mangin, talks about judging 18,000 photographs and declares "I am not a moron." The Virginian-Pilot's Stephen Katz has been crowned Newspaper Photographer of the Year... Chicago Tribune photojournalists Scott Strazzante and Kuni Takahashi finishing second and third, respectively. Magazine Photographer of the Year went to Getty's John Moore, who had a hell of a year documenting things like the intense aftermath of the assassination of Pakistan Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto (if his story on that doesn't win the Pulitzer, I don't know what will...) Thomas Van Houtryve placed second and Moises Saman took third. Strazzante also won the coveted Community Awareness Award for his decade long diptych project on the changing face of the Illinois landscape, from family farm to subdivision. Getty just announced their recipients of their most recent round of $20,000 grants for editorial photography. Ian Martin's proposal is on the "Hidden Minority: South Africa's White Poor," and Lorena Ros will be documenting the impact of "childhood sexual abuse in America while providing survivors with a safe, respectful way to address and share their experiences." And last among the big winnings from a slew of impressive photojournalists is the Alexia Foundation Grants, the professional award went to Stephanie Sinclair, and the student winner is Matt Eich. Both of whom have been pushing the boundaries of visual supremacy in the last few years.
And a Song Shall Carry Them Home My buddy Victor Blue recently completed a story on a group of migrant workers from Stockton, California who returned to their village in Mexico for its annual festival. He did it to try and put a face on the thousands of folks who work anonymously in the fields of this country, and to put a face on the immigration issue as a whole. The multimedia project does a pretty good job of both.
The Portfolio of...
The Raw File Workshop Another good workshop was just announced...
The Raw File Workshop will give you 6 Days on Independent Media Production, Social Justice, and Activism. Join Brenda Ann Kenneally and guest documentarians as well as prominent forces who work in multimedia production, social justice & activism, media ecology and visual anthropology for seminars covering funding, collaboration, multimedia production, publishing, and distribution of independent social documentary projects. The workshop will be limited to 15 full-time participants. Contact Denise Ofelia Mangen at denise@visualmeans.org for details regarding single day attendance. Participants are responsible for meals, travel and lodging, though recommendations will be provided. We welcome applicants from any medium – photography, video, radio, word… Applicants must have a long-term social documentary project near completion or in process. Participant projects will be considered for publication at The Raw File. Workshop fee: $2000. Participant inquiries:
Photographer Without Legs Returns Stares  Kevin Connolly has been getting such stares all his life. That's because he was born without legs. Connolly was used to drawing double takes in his hometown of Helena, Mont., but when he went to Europe and turned heads there, too, he decided he'd had enough. Connolly got out his camera in Vienna, Austria, and turned it on the people who were staring at him.Check it out here. [via PDN Pulse]
MediaStorm Workshop Here's a golden opportunity to harness the power of the best multimedia story tellers of our time! The MediaStorm Advanced Multimedia Reporting Workshop in New York City is an intensive, hands-on educational experience in advanced multimedia storytelling. Over the course of a week, participants will work in three-person teams, reporting and editing in collaboration with a seasoned multimedia professional to produce a multimedia project for distribution across multiple platforms. Each team will produce a professional-quality, ready-for-publication, multimedia story. And if you want to learn how to be a better multimedia story teller... GO! You'll be learning from the best.
iHole This may very well be the best use of an iPhone box EVER. As the site says, it is "the revoluntionary analog photographic device constructed from the recycled packaging of digital technology." We present to you.... the world's first iHole.
Eddie Adams Applications & Audio The fine folks at the Eddie Adams Workshop folks are now accepting applications for Barnstorm XXI. If you haven't gone before, you should. For me, it was an eye-opening experience as a student, and now going back as staff it's been equally incredible and life changing.
POYi Judging of the 65th annual Pictures of the Year competition is now underway in Columbia, Missouri. And you can watch the winners trickle in on their website.
Raw Take Deb Pang Davis and Mike Davis have launched Raw Take, a blog dedicated to sharing their conversations with photographers. The first interview is with Brown W. Cannon III. And yes, for the uninitiated, that's THE Mike Davis. Current features photo editor at the Oregonian, former White House Photo Editor and the driving force behind Copley's greatness (when the likes of Rob Finch, Scott Strazzante, the Plonkas, Todd Heisler and Scott Lewis were coming up through those little suburban papers). [thanks Rob] And as he said, "I'm pretty sure this is going to be awesome."
Oh Angry Journalist Pointless job in a failing industry led by ignorant people with no creativity. And photographers, who are all stuck-up, selfish bitches who think they are better than everyone else. [thanks Trent]
These are some great tips on
Photographer's Journal: A View of Chad's Refugee Crisis This is a stunning collection of images by Noor photographer Jan Grarup. I can't stop looking at this one....
SX-70 film Demo film of the Polaroid SX-70 made by Charles and Ray Eames but set to a soundtrack of The Cramps performing Garbageman. [via Kottke] Granted, the video is a little strange, but it makes me a little sad about Polaroid's recent announcement that they're going to stop making instant film. Because there is something so tangible and real and fun about it.
THIN star dead Polly Ann Williams, one of the women featured in Lauren Greenfield's THIN, the HBO documentary about women battling eating disorders, died Friday, Feb. 8 in what media outlets are calling an apparent suicide. On her website, Greenfield remembers WIlliams as "an extraordinary woman with unforgettable gifts... In her short life, she touched more people than most people do in their lifetime and I know she was very proud of the contribution she made in the eating disorder community." [via PopPhoto's State of the Art blog]
This One Goes Out to... The Ones We Love is a project highlighting young and talented photographers from around the world. Each artist contributed six photographs of the person(s) who is most important to them, taken outdoors in a natural setting. The goal of the website is to portray the people who are loved, cherished, and inspirational to these artists, and also showcase the differences and similarities in the photographs each of them took within the same guidelines.
Saved from a Lynching From The Vigilante Journalist blog: My first day on the ground in Kenya, I went into Mathare with a group of photographers after hearing that there had been some problems. Two mobs were facing off on the main street leading into the Nairobi slum. Once the dust had settled, I met an Italian photographer by the name of Enrico Dangnino. He was pretty shaken up. He had blood stains on his clothes and told me that earlier in the day they had witnessed a near lynching but were able to save the man’s life. The report from that day is now up on the internet and can be viewed on the Paris Match website. The commentary is in French so I will give a brief summary in English. Basically a Luo mob got hold of a man from the Kamba tribe whom they now consider to be an enemy. He was simply trying to cross through the neighborhood to get to his home. The mob attacked him with weapons, kicked him and began dousing him with gasoline, presumably to set him on fire. Enrico, and his colleague, Luc Delahaye, decided to intervene and managed to spare his life. The photographs leading up to that moment are an incredible document, first because it is surprising that they were able to photograph the scene, and second, because it shows how too many have died in the streets of Kenya over the last month. Please take the time to view the slide show by clicking here -- with the warning that by the very nature of this violence, these images are graphic.
World Press Winners are up. And it's nice to see so many friends, and friends of APAD, amongst the winners. A huge congrats to Chris Detrick, Ben Lowy, Travis Dove, Justin Maxon, Carolyn Drake and Carol Guzy!! Also, the international jury of the 51st annual World Press Photo Contest selected a color image of the UK photographer Tim Hetherington as World Press Photo of the Year 2007. The picture was taken in September 2007 and shows a US soldier resting at "Restrepo" bunker, named after a soldier from his platoon who was recently killed by insurgents. The 2nd Battalion Airborne of the 503rd US infantry is "This image shows the exhaustion of a man - and the exhaustion of a nation," says jury chairman Gary Knight, and adds "We're all connected to this. It's a picture of a man at the end of a line." Fellow juror MaryAnne Golon commented: "I use all my energy to have people notice bad things. There's a human quality to this picture. It says that conflict is the basis of this man's life." This year, a record number of participants from 125 countries sent in their work, a total of 5,019 photographers, which is an increase of 12.5% compared to 2007. The total number of images submitted is 80,536. Of all participants 80% chose to enter the contest by uploading their work online.
Portrait Pointers Many photographers, curators, bloggers, etc. answer the question: What makes a good portrait? I do have specific ideas of what a good portrait may consist of, but I am often amazed at the portraits I come across that do not abide by any of these "rules." Many of these images are truly spectacular. And it further reminds me that good art is made up of many things, and this question can almost never really be answered, at least not with any certainty. And in related fashion, ever wonder what it's like to photograph someone famous? And more importantly, what those superstars think of having their picture made, and the final product?? In a nice Guardian article, photographers and their subjects show that there are two sides to every portrait.
1200 f 5.6 B&H is selling a used Canon Super Telephoto 1200mm lens for $99,000. As for image quality, even wide open it's quite lovely. Stopped down to f/8 and f/11 it's actually quite remarkable. How remarkable? From midtown Manhattan we were able to read the street signs on the corner of JFK Boulevard East and 43rd St. in Weehawkin New Jersey when viewing image files at pixel resolution. Oh, did I mention that's about 2 miles away? What you get for your money is a monster lens with an angle of view of about 2 degrees on a full-frame 35 mm camera. The lens weighs 36 pounds and there are more than 12 and less than 20 of them in existence.
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