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Film has gone the way of the tintype, at least in Japan. According to this report, hardly any film camera were made or bought in Japan in the last two months—so few, in fact, that a trade organization, the Camera & Imaging Products Association, has decided to stop compiling sales figures for film cameras. The question is, are you sad about this?--David Schonauer
The great American artist Robert Rauschenberg died yesterday at 82. You can read the New York Times obit here. As critic Michael Kimmelman puts it, Rauschenberg obscured and blurred the boundaries between almost every artistic medium: "Building on the legacies of Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, and others, he thereby helped to obscure the lines between painting and
sculpture, painting and photography, photography and printmaking,
sculpture and photography, sculpture and dance, sculpture and
technology, technology and performance art — not to mention between art
and life."--David Schonauer
Steven Meisel has done it again, this time shooting actress/model Eva Mendez for a story in Italian Vogue. In the various images, she wears corsets, sucks her toes, and exposes her breasts. No doubt "Access Hollywood" will be all over this story, which I suppose is justification enough for the photos. But they don't need any other justification--they're pretty great, period. Is it me, or is Meisel getting better and better? Mendez has already bared her bottom for a PETA ad. She's also signed on to be the face of Calvin Klein Underwear--so we're wondering what's left for her to show?--David Schonauer
Yesterday I bumped into the inimitable Laurie Kratochvil, photo editor par excellence, who told me to make sure and read the profile of digital retoucher Pascal Dangin in this week’s issue of The New Yorker
The profile is interesting, in the thoughtful, thorough, and long way that New Yorker articles tend to be. But it raises some important points about the art of photography now.
Dangin is the owner and resident genius of Box Studios in New York, the place where lots of big fashion photographers, magazines, and advertisers get their images perfected for print. “His success lies…in his ability to marry technical prowess to an aesthetic sensibility: his clients are paying for his eye, and his mind, as much as for his hand,” writes the article’s author, Lauren Collins.
At this point I think we’re all aware of how important retouchers have become to the photographic process. Often, as the article points out, it is Dangin who creates a successful image by altering the work a photographer has already done.
So I have a question I’d like to put out into the world: Should retouchers like Dangin be given photo credits when their work results in something useful? If it truly is his artistry that makes an image work, shouldn’t we know that? Of course that might upset lots of photographers. But what do you think?
(Above: A photo of Dangin for the New Yorker by Josef Astor. I don’t know if it was retouched.)—David Schonauer
Maybe the partying came later, I don't know. But the stage looked pretty dreary in this photo as Dmitri A. Medvedev spoke after being sworn in as Russia's new president. At left, of course, is Vladimir V. Putin, the former president, who has already been named prime minister by Medvedev. The two pale power brokers don't look like this arrangement is going to be much fun for either of them. The space between them is odd, at least to my eyes, suggesting some emotional if not political distance. (On the other hand, if Putin had been standing right next to Medvedev, it might have looked as if he were working a puppet.) As it is, both men seem to be striking identical rigid stances, which might be reassuring to Russians who prefer a strong and closely controlled state. Still, Putin's the man here--the darker coat and hands clenched for a fight. (Maybe it was just cold there.) Meanwhile, Medvedev has those furry microphone breasts. The press pool image, which ran on the front page of today's New York Times, was taken by Dmitri Astakhov. I suppose this is what they call red carpet photography in Russia.
Award season continues apace, and the next big show will occur one week from tonight when the International Center of Photography presents its coveted Infinity Awards for 2008. But the word is already out about who’ll be receiving prizes this year.
I’m happy to report that the Young Photographer award will go to Mikhael Subotzky, whose documentary work depicting life in South African prisons (below) also earned him an American Photo Emerging Photographer award in 2007. A portfolio of the work that appeared last year in Aperture was nominated for a National Magazine Award as well….so this has been a big year for Subotsky.
The award for Art this year goes to Edward Burtynsky, whose large-format work explores the connections between landscape and industry. His pictures from China (above) have achieved a kind of cult status at this point.
The photojournalism award will go to Anthony Suau, who has covered a number of important stories over the past 20 years, including the war in Chechnya. He has recently worked on a project documenting the US during the Iraq war. Suau won the Infinity Award for Young Photographer in 1986.
The Applied Photography award this year will go to fashion photographer Craig McDean. Photographer Taryn Simon wins the Publication award for her book “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar.” (Read an interview we did with Simon here.) The Writing award will go to Bill Jay for his 2007 book “Bill Jay’s Album.” The Trustees Award is going to actress Diane Keaton, who is also a longtime photography enthusiast. And the Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Malick Sidibe, the renowned Malian photographer.
I’ll be at the awards show and post on all the goings-on from there.—David Schonauer
Last Friday marked the debut of this ad, featuring a mug shot of Lindsay Lohan after her arrest last year for drunk driving. I finally saw it today in the New York Post. Somehow it doesn’t seem right to me to use this kind of image in this way. I’m not sticking up for Lohan and her repeated arrests and serial-rehab ways. But does she deserve this?
The ad is not an anti-drinking-and-driving ad. In fact, it is paid for by a restaurant and liquor group that is campaigning against the mandatory installation of ignition interlocks. These devices analyze a driver’s breath, and if they detect alcohol they won’t let the car start.
These would be great for drunks like Lindsay, says the ad, but bad for all of us who want some wine at lunch. “No more toasts at weddings,” we are warned. “Let’s stop drunk driving without eliminating our traditions.”
That’s a shaky argument—the ad wants us to eat our cake (beer at the ball game before the drive home) and have it too (remove drunk drivers from the road).
The deft use of symbolism is the key here: The ad creates a two-tiered system of drunkenness—an “us” and “them” in which “us” are responsible imbibers and “them” are pretty much without redeeming value—a position that Miss Lohan now finds herself in. A certified cultural scourge, she becomes in this ad a convenient foil, staring at us from the police photo and inviting us to feel ever more virtuous about our own behavior.
Lindsay Lohan doesn’t have anyone but herself to blame for her life. But this ad let’s the rest of us off the hook when it comes to our own responsibility.—David Schonauer
The lead on almost every story about last night’s National Magazine Awards show in New York will focus on National Geographic and how it won three awards—two for photography (more on that in a second) and one for General Excellence.
I was at the awards, and I was a judge in the Photojournalism category (won by Geographic). And I love that magazine, so it wasn’t a surprise for me that it won all those awards.
What surprised me was how oddly funny former baseball player Lenny Dykstra was as a presenter last night. Dykstra was there because these days he’s also a magazine honcho, having launched a title called The Player’s Club, which is supposed to provide financial and lifestyle advice to pro athletes. (Do they really need that? Probably. According to this story, Dykstra’s magazine is having a difficult birth, in part because he spent $400,000 on a launch party.) At any rate, he enlivened the proceedings considerably, just as he once did the Mets locker room.
Back to the awards: Go here for a complete list of the winners. As I noted, National Geographic picked up the award for Photojournalism, for a story about malaria in the July 2007 issue shot by John Stanmeyer. It was a great piece featuring true photojournalist story-telling, and I was glad it won.
Here’s an observation for the American Society of Magazine Editors, which administers the awards through the Columbia University Journalism School: Since this was a photo category, you shouldn’t list the writer of the article ahead of the photographer in the official press releases you send out.
National Geographic also won the National Magazine Award in the Photography category, which honors use of photography in three complete issues. Geographic won for its March, April, and June 2007 issues.
In the Photo Portfolio category, Vanity Fair won for a story by Annie Leibovitz called “Killers Kill; Dead Men Die: A 2007 Hollywood Portfolio” in its March 2007 issue. Annie was in the audience, as editor in chief Graydon Carter accepted the award. She was smiling and didn’t seem any the worse for wear following the controversy over her Miley Cyrus pictures.—David Schonauer
1. Austria’s House of Horrors
Some news photos are exploitive. Some simply feed our interest in the macabre and horrible. The shot above is a little of both, but also absolutely necessary. It shows the interior of the cellar pf the Austrian house in which Josef Fritzi, imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years. During that time, as we know now, he fathered seven children by her. When I heard first heard the story I began to prepare myself for the photos that would inevitably follow. But I also needed to see this chamber of horrors. The photos provide evidence that is crucial to our ability to really understand the story. What seems impossible to believe can be believed after seeing this image. What contradicts our common understanding of human behavior is proven to in fact have happened. Fritzi’s acts are not fable or superstition—not simply evil—because we have seen the room where it really happened. We need the photo to give the story meaning.
2. The Texas Polygamy Ranch
Photographer Tony Gutierrez of the Associated Press has been covering the story of the Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, and his images have appeared in publications around the world. The ranch was home to a polygamist sect and was raided by state authorities after they received allegations of physical abuse by a 16-year-old girl. The authorities removed some 400 children and arrested leaders of the sect. Gutierrez has pictures of the aftermath of the raid, including aerials of the ranch’s compound and shots of members being loaded onto busses by child welfare officials. The shot below shows a member of the sect holding a picture of his family, now in state custody. I found it online today, along with the latest news to emerge from Texas—authorities announced that more than half of the teenage girls taken from the ranch have children or are pregnant. Here, the picture is given meaning by the context of the news. And the news isn’t good.--David Schonauer
If you missed hearing the interview with National Geographic Photographer Annie Griffiths Belt (above) on NRP NPR last Sunday, you can go here to listen. It’s really a terrific insight into the working life of a photographer. And the whole thing is absolutely charming, since it’s about Annie.
The interview coincides with the release of Belt’s new book, “A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel: My Journey in Photographs.” The book tells of how Belt, one of the first female photographers at National Geographic, managed to combine her professional life and her personal life. In the interview, she talks about how she learned to pack in order to take her two young children with on assignments. She found that diapers could fill dual uses—for her kids’ bottoms and to wrap about fragile photo gear. She says diapers are in fact the best cushioning material she’s ever found.
That’s very practical advice. It got me to wondering what other everyday items people repurpose to make their photographic lives easier...let's start a list. —David Schonauer
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the recipients of it Fellowship grants for 2008. Among the 190 awards, seven went to photographers. Go here for the complete list of winners. These are the photographer recipients:
1. Michael Berman, artist and photographer, San Lorenzo, New Mexico.
2. Elijah Gowin, photographer and Assistant Professor of Art and Art Histroy, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri.
3. Builder Levy, photographer, New York City.
4. Fredrik Marsh, photographer and Senior Lecturer in Art, Otterbein College, Columbus, Ohio. (The image above is by Marsh.)
5. Greg Miller, photographer, Coventry, Connecticut.
6. Ardine Nelson, photographer and Associate Professor, Department of Art, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
7. David J. Taylor, photographer and Associate Professor of Photography, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
If you noticed that Columbus, Ohio was well reprsented among the winners, you're right, but it gets better: Ardine Nelson and Fredrik Marsh have been life partners for 27 years.
According to the Guggenheim Foundation, the 190 winners were chosen from a group of 2,600 applicants.--David Schonauer
I’ve been keeping a secret for a while now, and it’s time I just let it out, so here goes: I totally don’t follow the whole Flickr thing. I check out images there from time to time, but I don’t know who the big stars and major personalities are. By now I should be an upstanding member of the Flickr community, since I write about photography, but instead I spend all my spare time working.
So I was really interested in a piece in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine by Vigrinia Heffernan about Rebekka Guoleifsdottir, describes as “one of Flickr’s most popular photographers.
The point of the story was that some savvy photographers have learned how to perfect a “Flickr style”—images that look good in thumbnail form, with fulsome digital manipulation—and how to work the social networking aspect of the site to make herself more popular.
As the piece points out, Guoleifsdottir, who lives in Iceland, isn’t shy about posting images of herself (above, for example). She eventually became so popular on Flickr that she was hired to do a Toyota ad campaign.
I’d be interested in hearing from Flickr members if they believe there is particular style of photography that defines a new aesthetic. Do film images really get shouted down because they seem out of focus? Is it wrong to game the Flickr system in order to become popular? (Analog artists have been doing that forever.)–David Schonauer
Last night at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Manhattan, the Overseas Press Club handed out its awards for journalism from abroad. The OPC awards include four very coveted photojournalism prizes. (For a list of all the winners, go here.) Photographers from Getty Images won three of them, leading the ceremony’s host, Ann Curry of NBC News, to comment that she saw “a pattern” at work.
The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award (for reporting that requires exceptional courage and enterprise) went to John Moore of Getty Images for his images of the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Accepting the award, Moore told the black-tie audience that he’d been adopted as a child, then went on discuss the role that luck, or perhaps fate, plays in photojournalism and in life. He recalled that on the day of the assassination “something” told him to move away from Bhutto’s car. He avoided being killed himself and was able to photography the chaos that followed.
Paula Bronstein of Getty Images won the John Faber Award (for photographic reporting in newspapers or wire services) for her coverage of the Bhutto attack. The judges said her images “document human vulnerability in a world shattered by the now familiar deadly destruction of suicide bombing.” Bronstein is a well-traveled photojournalist who has often found herself in dangerous situations.
Getty photographer Brent Stirton won the Feature Photography Award for his pictures of gorillas that had been slaughtered in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The images, which appeared in Newsweek magazine, are absolute showstoppers (see above) and have been winning awards in a variety of photo competitions. Stirton was named as one of American Photo’s “Heroes of Photography” in 2007 for his coverage of environmental issues in Africa. (He is also the photographer asked by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to make the official photographs of their baby Shiloh in 2006.)
The non-Getty winner of the evening was Cedric Gerbehaye of Agence Vu in France. He won the Olivier Rebbot Award (for photographic reporting in magazines or books) for images made in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions have died as a result of civil unrest. (See below.) Gerbehaye is a Belgian photographer who traveled to the DRC with the Doctors Without Borders organization.—David Schonauer
The May edition of Paris Vogue features some very, very interesting images of actress Julianne Moore, shot by Mario Testino. Oh, the fashion blogs have been buzzing with opinions. Some people loved it. Others...more on that later.
Moore has graced the covers of dozens of magazines--there is something about her alabaster skin, red hair, and ability to freeze a glacial expression that photographers and editors love. Her cool elevates what would be a fashion picture into something kinda artistic. (Helmut Newton could do it with just about any woman, but he really could do it with Sigourney Weaver.)
Some bloggers really resented the crotch-on-the-cover thing. Lewd? With Moore's presence, I think the crotch was unnecessary. The inside shot of her in a sheer top is neither lewd nor unnecessary--it's brilliant.
Several of the blogs I read seemed most upset with the fact that Moore is posing for shots like this at age 47. That's ridiculous. Sexy is sexy, and sometimes 47 is sexiest.
The important thing here is to note that this is Paris Vogue, and it fits perfectly into the culture and tradition of that magazine. Your opinion?
Age aside, Moore looks a lot better than Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover of the May American Vogue. She's been Photoshopped into something unrecognizable.--David Schonauer
Here’s some good news for people who love photo books—and all books for that matter.
If you are one of those people, you may sometimes feel guilty about trees being cut down for paper. But the editor’s of the Bookseller magazine in the UK now assure all of us that books are environmentally good. Their thinking is that books lining the walls of homes actually provide a type of insultation, reducing energy usage for heating.
The science behind the claim—spelled out in an article in the Telegraph newspaper—isn’t really spelled out, as far as I can tell. But it’s an intriguing idea, and very welcome, I can tell you. I’m tired of carrying around a paper-lover’s guilt. I believe in photo books as collections of history, as art objects in their own right. My office (above), which contains stacks and mountains of photo books, lined against walls and piled high on tables, must be the most energy efficient office in New York.
I know I'm not alone in this. A couple of weeks ago I was interview photographer/book packager Rick Smolan, who confessed that a lot of his friends try to make him feelbad about making books. (Rick is one of the people behind the popular "Day in the Life of..." series, so he's go a lot of trees to answer for.) But, as he told me, there is nothing like books in terms of reproducing images with great power and authority. The Telegraph article says that a survey of people in the UK found that many more would rather have a home library than a home theater system. I wonder if the same would be true in the U.S. Let's start our own informal pole: What would you rather have, a home photo library or a home theater?
—David Schonauer
I saw this week's Time magazine cover while getting coffee at our local newsstand, and I must tell you, I felt odd about it. As a visual device, the idea of using Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II image of the flag raising at Iwo Jima as the basis for a cover about global warming...well, it seemed just over-labored. I can't quite bring myself to equate the bitter fight for Mount Suribachi with the effort to control climate change. I think for me it's an aesthetic thing, however, not an emotional one. According to this report, some war veterans also object to the cover, on very emotional grounds. (I don't agree with the guy who says Time's editors are going to hell for this. I just don't like the cover.) Who's right? Should iconic images be off limits to other uses? --David Schonauer
There's been lots of fallout since our first post on "The Leaf," above. The image was to have been auctioned last week at Sotheby's in New York, but was withdrawn because of the controversy caused by an essay in the Sotheby's catalog. The essay, by Dr. Larry Schaaf, speculated that the image was not made by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839, as commonly thought, but by Thomas Wedgwood nearly 30 years earlier. Today the New York Times has an interesting interview with Schaaf, in which he very firmly says the image was not by Talbot:
“Someone could obviously come along and say that these images are all in fact Talbots, but they would be wrong," says Schaaf.
This is only the beginning. Lots more will come out as further research is done. The veil is lifting on the murky history of photography prior to 1839. Couldn't be happier about that.--David Schonauer
Bilal Hussein, the Associated Press reporter who was detained and held by the U.S. military in Iraq for two years, will be released, according to reports. The move by the military comes after Iraqi judges ruled last week that Hussein is covered by an amnesty law and should be released.
The military detained Hussein in April 2006, on the grounds that he had bomb-making materials and had conspired with insurgents. An independent review of the matter by AP could not uncover evidence supported the military's assertion.--David Schonauer
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
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
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
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.
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.
Continue reading "Auctions Begin, and New York Is Art Town" »
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
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
I realize that I get a weird kick out of sports pictures that capture unintended violence. Sports with intended violence, like boxing and football (okay, plus hockey) don't do it for me as much. Am I strange? This image has been getting around lately--CBS Sports picked it as a "Photo of the Day" and I just saw it in the German photo magazine View. Shot by Steven Governo for Associated Press, it shows U.S. woman's soccer player Abby Wambach, in gold, battling with Denmark goalie Heidi Johansen, who punches the ball away (subsequently connecting with Wambach as well, it seems). The action took place in Portugal at the Algarve Cup finals on March 12 .--David Schonauer
So many celebrities complain about the ill-mannered paparazzi who follow them around. But how many go out of their way to be courteous to the photographers who have to follow them through the dark, cold streets at night? NOT MANY is the answer. In this wonderful clip, however, none other than Amy Winehouse brings her personal photo corps nice hot cups of tea. Note to Sean Penn: you'd be better off serving hot beverages to the paparazzi than picking fights with them. Or is that just a guy thing?--David Schonauer
It looks like it will take a little bit longer to rewrite the photo history books. I just got off the phone with Denise Bethel, director of photographer at Sotheby’s in New York, and she told me that a controversial image that was to have been included in a sale next Monday has been withdrawn from the auction. According to at least one historian, the image could prove that photography was invented not in 1939 1839, the date commonly given for the birth of the medium, but nearly 30 years prior to that.
In the past few days the photo world has been buzzing about the image, a “photogenic drawing” (above) that until now has been attributed to the Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot and dated 1839. However, the Sotheby’s catalog attributed the image to “Photographer Unknown” and included an essay by photo history Larry J. Schaaf speculating that the image was in fact may by Thomas Wedgewood “in 1805 or earlier.” Wedgewood was a member of the family famed for making fine china and was known for experimenting with photographic processes.
When the essay appeared, it stirred up a hornet’s nest of commentary from other historians. “We knew this was going to happen,” said Bethel. “We knew that if we put it out there we would get this discussion going.” With more speculation dribbling in, Sotheby’s decided to postpone the sale of the image until further clarification of its origins could be made. This doesn’t mean that Schaaf was wrong in his assertions. It does mean, however, that in the next weeks and months we are going to be learning a lot more about the birth of photography.
Continue reading "Sotheby's Withdraws Potentially Historic Image from Auction--For Now" »
Say what you will about Madonna, she knows more about the power of still images than any other modern celebrity I can think of. The only other star I can think of who took as much care in etching a photographic identity was Marlene Dietrich. In Madonna's case, of course, the genius lay in how many different identities she could assume. This image is from the fabulous layout in the new Vanity Fair by Steven Meisel, who has always been best at shooting this icon. By fabulous, I mean it's a real page turner, which you can literally do by going here. The website also lets you browse the many, many stories it has run about Madonna over the years.--David Schonauer
Regular readers know I’ve been posting (here and here, for instance) about the legal battles over the estate of Marilyn Monroe. The fight, between the heirs of several photographers and the estate that controls Marilyn’s name and image, is not only fascinating, but also important to any photographer interested in the future of copyright protection.
The fight has turned into a real slugfest. Every once in a while one side gets knocked to the canvas and you think the whole thing is over. Then there is a reversal of fortune, and the swinging starts again.
It’s happened again. And now the fight is going to get really interesting.
The latest development in the case occurred in a courtroom in California, where U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow ruled that Marilyn was not a resident of California when she died in 1962. The ruling represents a big win for the heirs of photographers Milton Greene and Tom Kelley, who both famously captured Marilyn on film. Now the action will move to New York, where, according to the court, Marilyn really lived. Don’t you love the law?
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