State of the Art

The Little Lens That Could

The Lensbaby, an ingenious optic that brings view-camera style selective focus effects to digital, 35mm, and medium-format photography, just keeps on rockin'. The new movie-camera version of the lens, which we've covered in this space before, has been used by director Eric Schmidt to shoot a new music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Girls in Their Summer Clothes." Watch it (below) and you may long for something sharp!
--Russell Hart

Photoshop For Free

In the never-ending circus to attract Web-based imaging customers, Adobe has tossed a thousand-gallon hat into the ring with its new Adobe Photoshop Express, now available for free in a beta version. First-look bloggers warn that this is Photoshop Lite — not the full-fledged imaging tool used by pros but a simple, free photo-editing version for newbies.

Meanwhile, rival tech giant Google is upping the ante with an API to enhace its Picasa Web Uploader service. As Adobe and Google — two companies who have snared market share in several imaging sectors with user-friendly designs — battle it out, Bill Gates and company must be fuming. May the friendliest imaging interface win. — Jack Crager

New York Love Story Continues

Anyone have any great first-hand stories about John and Yoko? Now would be a great time to hear them...

That's because I could use the material. Not to tout my own horn, but I will be taking part in a panel discussion on the famous couple, and I've been asked to spread the word. The event will be held at 3 pm Saturday, April 5, at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street.

The main speaker will be photographer Allan Tannenbaum, who published John & Yoko: A New York Love Story (Insight Editions, $45), a remarkable collection of his pictures of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. American Photo chose this book among last year's best in our Jan/Feb roundup, and we also ran a Web-exclusive interview between Tannenbaum and myself.

A veteran NYC photojournalist, Allan knew John & Yoko for several years but became especially close to them during the latter half of 1980, as they emerged from five years of seclusion to publicize their Double Fantasy album. Tannenbaum got rare access to their lives and made exceptionally intimate photos, among the last ones of Lennon before he was killed. He'll be showing and discussing these images in an illustrated lecture at the museum.

Iconic Decline

Photo © Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times

As an amateur guitarist and rock-and-roll fan, James Blake Miller may well marvel that he's made "the cover of the Rolling Stone." But he's probably not thrilled about the context.

Miller's picture is not on this week's RS cover — that honor goes to Chris Rock — but Miller is the subject of one of the main feature stories: "Home From War: Tragedy of the Marlboro Marine." The story recounts the sad journey that Miller's life has taken since his face became famous in an iconic photograph (above) — a shot of Miller in Falluja, Iraq, made in 2004 by imbedded photographer Luis Sinco for the Los Angeles Times.

The picture — which seemed to capture at once the steely resolve, grimy entanglement, and weary disillusionment of U.S. soldiers in Iraq — became widely known and emblematic of the war. "To my surprise, the image became iconic, capturing a sense of the front line in a young Marine's face," Sinco wrote later in the L.A. Times.

But after his return home, Miller's life began to unravel, and he became a different kind of symbol: a medically discharged former vet who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, wartime flashbacks, and social isolation. Sinco continued to follow Miller's story and created a moving multimedia piece called "The Marlboro Marine" on the photojournalism website mediastorm.org (as we recounted in American Photo's March/April story on "The Photographer as Director").

Where to Go and What to See

One of my readers complained last week that I had only included three shows outside NYC. It's inevitable that I know more about what's going on in my own cities than others, but I'd also like to point out that the art calendar ebbs and flows constantly...this week is a case in point. Because there are three big art shows in NYC this week, everyone seems to have been holding their breath until now. This week constitutes a deluge—yes, including some big shows in OTHER cities, too.

An annotated list:

• Bond Street Gallery (NYC): A brand new gallery with an opening show extravaganza including James White and Harold Feinstein.
• Slideluck Potshow XI at the Chelsea Art Museum (NYC): Food and photography (and booze, of course). If you haven't made it to one of these slideshows yet, you really ought to do yourself the favor.
• Sundaram Tagore Gallery (NYC): My "thanks for introducing me to this artist I obviously should have known about" award this week is for this Subhankar Banerjee exhibition. It's hard to make  landscapes transcendent, but I think you'll agree that's what these are.
• J. Paul Getty Museum (LA): Ten Years in Focus: The Artist and the Camera. I think the name says it all.
• Hallmark Museum (MA): Lili Almog, Linda Butler, and Stella Johnson: Three blow-you-away-good women photographers in one place.
• Corcoran Gallery of Art (D.C.): Photos from the renowned collection of Norman Carr and Carolyn Kinder Carr.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Subhankar Banerjee)

Follow the link below for details on these and many more photo events around the country.