State of the Art

Science as Art: Stereo View of Mars Moon

That super-camera on the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter has done it again. This time in 3-D, almost. What you see here is a stereo view of the Martian moon Phobos. The Orbiter is equipped with a camera what scientists call the HiRISE camera (it stands for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) which is a ridiculously long name for a camera, no matter how good it is. But we’ll forgive them, because some scientist at the control has the soul of an artist.
   The HiRISE made two different snaps (scientists call them “observations”) of the Martian moon on March 23. The two images were made ten minutes apart and show roughly the same features, but from slightly different angles. They were then combined to made a stereo view.
    As my colleague Russell Hart points out, that’s essentially how stereo aerial images used to be made. But in this case we’re talking about vastly greater distances. Go here for more information, and to see a short video clip of both HiRISE observations.—David Schonauer

Deadline Announced for Chapnick Grant

The deadline to apply for the 2008 Howard Chapnick Grant is July 15th, according to the W. Eugene Smith Fund, which administers the Chapnick Grant. The application itself can be downloaded here. The $5,000 Chapnick Grant is not meant to fund the creation of photographs, but rather to support the ancillary field of photojournalism, such as editing, research, and management.--David Schonauer

AP Photographer Ordered Released in Iraq

According the news reports, Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, seen here, has been released from custody by an Iraqi judicial committee, nearly two years the U.S. military detained Hussein on the grounds that he had been working with terrorists.
    The decision by the Iraqi panel seems to be based on a new amnesty law. For now, however, Hussein, 36, is said to remain in custody at Camp Cropper, a U.S. facility near Baghdad.
    As we reported last year, for much of the time during his detention, Hussein was simply hidden away from view without actually being charged with any crimes. Last September, the Associated Press publicly pleaded with the U.S. military to either charge him or set him free.
    The military says it captured Hussein with two insurgents in 2006, including Hamid Hamad Motib, an alleged leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. The military said he had “close relations” with terrorists. Associated Press said its own investigation produced no evidence that Hussein had done anything to cause his detention.
   “The amnesty committee took only a few days to determine what we have been saying for two years,” said AP president Tom Curley.--David Schonauer

Remembering Magnum’s Burt Glinn

The renowned Magnum photographer Burt Glinn died yesterday at his home in East Hampton, New York at age 82. The cause was kidney failure and pneumonia. Magnum has a memorial to Glinn up on its website, along with a portfolio of his images.
     Glinn worked for Life magazine from 1949 to 1950, but tt is impossible to discuss his career and impact on photography without considering Magnum. He joined the agency in 1951 as an associate member, among the first Americans—along with Eve Arnold and Dennis Stock—to do so. He became a full member in 1954. He was among the first (and the few) Magnum photographers to take on corporate work—pointing the way for the financial survival of the agency. He covered the war in the Middle East in 1956, covered the Cuban revolution in 1958, and later did color work for Life, Paris Match, and other magazines.
     One of the magazines he shot for was Holiday, the great travel magazine of the era. Holiday was just a little before my time, but I once found a box of old Holidays that someone was throwing out, and it was while looking through those mildewed copies I came to an appreciation of Glinn’s work. The standout was a color essay on Japan—beautiful, grand, and often haunting. Holiday employed the world’s finest photographers—the late Arnold Newman was also a regular contributor—and Glinn was certainly among that group.
     You would certainly have to say that his coverage of the Cuban revolution was a career highlight, and you get the impression that he understood clearly the historic importance of the event. The shot above shows Glinn caught up in the sweep of the moment. Here is how the tale according to the Magnum tribute:

Glinn was attending a black tie New Year’s Eve party when he was told that Batista had fled Cuba. The course of action became clear: trade the champagne for a late night ticket to Havana. By 7am the next morning, Glinn was chasing the revolution, making photographs as, “everybody got whatever weapon they could get their hands on…and they were all of a sudden brave revolutionaries.”

It’s not just a good story—it’s a description of the romantic life of a Magnum photojournalist. In Glinn’s case, the romance was real.

Auctions Begin, and New York Is Art Town

New York will see a battle of very different cultures this week. It will be Hockey Town, as the New York Rangers face off against the New Jersey Devils in the NHL playoffs. And it will be Art Town, as the big auction houses hold their spring photography sales, followed on Thursday by the annual AIPAD Photography Show, where the world’s top dealers put on an art fair at the New York Armory. I love hockey, but my job is art, so that’s what we’ll focus here throughout the week.
     The auctions got off to a rousing start last night at Sotheby’s, with the sale of the  Quillan Collection. The excitement actually started last week, when Denise Bethel, head of the photo department at Sotheby’s in New York, announced that one lot was being withdrawn from the sale until further historical research could be done about the image—research that could prove it to be the oldest photo image ever made.
     There was also some nervousness going into the spring sales over whether the lagging economy would put a break on what has been a dynamic art market. The results of the Quillan sale show that great quality—and this material is really some of the highest quality ever offered at auction—still commands high prices.
      Edward Weston has been the star of recent auctions, and he came through again on Monday night. His “Nude,” dated 1925 (above), sold for $1,609,000, a new record for the photographer. Another highlight of the auction was Paul Strand’s 1923 image titled “Rebecca,” which sold for $645,800. A more modern piece, Richard Avedon’s “Marilyn Monroe, May 6, 1957, New York City” (below) was estimated at $70,000 to $100,000 but fetched a notable $457,000. All together the sale brought in a very, very healthy $8,901.350.

2008 Pulitzers For Photography Announced

The Pulitzer Prizes for 2008 were announced yesterday, including the awards for the two photo categories. The prize for Breaking News in Photography went to Adrees Latif of Reuters for his image of a wounded Japanese journalist lying in front of a Burmese soldier during riots in Myanmar last September (above). The Japanese  journalist, Kenji Nagai, later died.
    The Pulitzer for Feature Photography was awarded to Preston Gannaway of the Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor. Gannaway spent months photographing a local woman, Carolynne St. Pierre, who had terminal cancer (below). After the woman's death, Gannaway continued to photograph her family as grieved.
    Latif, 34, was born in Pakistan and lived with his family in Saudi Arabia being immigrating to Texas in 1980. He worked with the Houston Post before joining Reuters.
    Gannaway, 30, has worked for the Concord Monitor since 2003. A native of North Carolina, she began her career with the Coalfield Progress in rural southwest Virginia. She also interned at the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Bangor (Maine) Daily News.--David Schonauer

Where to Go and What to See

First off, I have to note that the AIPAD show is going on in New York this Thursday through Sunday. Most of the art community will be tied up there, but if you can drag yourself away, there are a couple of interesting shows going on, especially at the big museums.

Today in New York, The Met is putting up its second show in its new contemporary photography gallery, showcasing pieces from the permanent collection that represent moments when photographers turned their cameras on the art of photography itself. In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery will show the first major exhibition of turn-of-the-century New York portrait photographer Zaida Ben-Yusuf.

There are also two collaborative shows that mirror each other interestingly. First is the Mentors show at SVA's Visual Arts Gallery, which exhibits work by photography BFAs that has been inspired by their mentorships with prominent members of the arts community. Second, the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts, is displaying work from its Photosynthesis project, where the museum connects high school photographers with important photographers and curators and then displays their final work.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: "Mike, President of American Ocean Corp.," by Michael Dalton, from Mentors at SVA)

Nigel Barker Document's 2008's Seal Hunt

On America’s Next Top Model, photographer Nigel Barker faces the fiercest fashion that Tyra Banks can throw at him. But Barker came face to face with real ferocity recently when he went to Canada on behalf of the American Human Society  Humane Society of the United States to photograph (and videotape) the annual hunt for seals hunt (Yes, it’s springtime, when the days grow balmy, blossoms appear, and men with spiked clubs kill baby seals.) Recently I went to see him at his Manhattan studio to look at his pictures and video clips, which were made on two separate trips to Prince Edward Island—one prior to hunt (see video clip here) and one during the hunt itself. Barker’s blog has some pretty dramatic images and tales about the two shoots. I think it’s brilliant of the Humane Society to enlist someone from the fashion world—the seals are killed for their desirable fur—who at the same time can document the practice.
     The seal hunt got lots of negative publicity a decade or so ago, and a lot of people kind of assumed it was stopped. But according to National Geographic Canada’s “harvest limit” for 2008 was set at 275,000 harp seals, which is 5,000 more than in 2007. About 800 seals were killed on March 28.
      Back to Barker: I don’t think I’ll spill too many beans by revealing that we are working on a story about him, which will appear in our September/October issue. (The whole issue will be focused on fashion.) He’s even shot an entire fashion story exclusively for AP. Those pictures, however, I will keep to myself for now. From his work on America’s Next Top Model, Barker has become one of the best-known photographer’s in the world. He also produced VH1’s reality show about up-and-coming photographers, called The Shot. I think our article will show him to be fairly fierce in his own right.—David Schonauer