A Different View on Iraq by Jehad Nga

The New York Times website has some photographs that deserve to be seen. The pictures were made by a young photographer named Jehad Nga ("Inga"), who was one of American Photo's Emerging Artists in 2007. In his new project for the Times, Nga has made dramatically lit portraits of U.S. soldiers in Iraq; the pictures go with audio interviews in which the troops explain their feelings about the coming U.S. withdrawl from Iraq. Here you see the news photo reinterpreted for a new generation of readers. There is no attempt at naturalism, but instead the cinematic quality we've become accustomed to in film documentaries. These aren't just soldiers; they're stars. I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with the pictures in the context of a newspaper. But I do know they are spectacular. You're feelings?--David Schonauer

2008 Arles Wrap-Up

This year designer Christian Lacroix was the artistic director of the Les Rencontres d'Arles Photographie festival which took place from July 7 to the 13.

We owe him a number beautiful moments:
    •    The extraordinary fashion series by Richard Avedon for the New Yorker in 1995 titled “In Memoriam of Mr. and Mrs. Comfort: A Fable,” one of the most beautiful fashion shoots ever done.
    •    “Les Insoumises” An exhibition of 30 daguerreotypes of the most important courtesans of the end of the 19th century.
    •    The history of fashion through pictures, videos, and films: an exhibition assembled by Olivier Saillard.
    •    Stefanie Schneider, Pieter Hugo, Ethan Levitas, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Jeffrey Silverthorne, Vanessa Winship and the rediscovery of the work of Jerry Schatzberg.
    •    An exhibition titled “Lettres d’Amour (love letters),” pictures and videos of Patrick Swirc dedicated to the women who recently left him. On a side note: they met again at the exhibition but left each on their own.
    •    A nice exhibition of still life of the French Vogue with the rediscovery of a photographer of amazing talent and completely forgotten since 1980: Daniel Jouanneau.
    •    A beautiful projection of fashion images from Francoise Huguier.
    •    And as the closer, an ensemble of the images of the invasion of  Prague in 1968 from Josef Koudelka, a great moment of happiness, emotion, and photographic intensity.

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.

Where to Go and What to See

This week's big art happenings are all in Miami because...well, wouldn't you rather be in Miami this time of year? This will mark Art Basel's sixth year and Pulse Miami's third year in the tropical Florida town. And this year AIPAD, the huge international art dealer's group that runs its flagship art fair in New York every year, has also jumped on board. Plus, with several other smaller exhibits and fairs feeding off of these three major players -- it might just be time to get the sunglasses and Bermuda shorts out of storage.

For those of us staying in the chilly northern climes, I recommend the photographer talks at the School of Visual Arts (especially Jonathan Torgovnik, who I, like pretty much every else, love), and the holiday party for Magnum Magnum, this year's huge commemorative book on, you guessed it, Magnum, with each photographer seen through the eyes of another member of the collective.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: Portrait of a Bollywood actor, © Jonathan Torgovnik)

Photojournalism Alive and Well, Photojournalists Not So Much

It's nice to see that a great photograph can still be truly arresting. As I was sorting through our mail earlier this week I found myself staring at the new Newsweek cover. It's a "quiet" shot, an expanse of mountain range in grainy black and white. But then, I think that's what struck me about it. It is so completely antithetical to the usual news-glossy cover fare. (Even with the all too common fear mongering of the headline "He's Still Out There. The Hunt for Bin Laden.") It was no surprise, thus, to discover the image had come from the skilled hands of Magnum photographer Paolo Pellegrin. I am pleasantly surprised, however, to see that Newsweek is plumbing such rich sources for images. Even without the threatening headline, this image conveys the vast and ominous nature of our Afghanistan involvement, embodied in the very land where it is taking place. And I have to applaud the magazine for trusting that its readers are savvy enough to get that from such a subtle picture--another pixelated blow-up of Bin Laden's face is the last thing we need.

Newsweek also deserves credit on a second front, for the inside pictures by John D. McHugh from Getty.

The Cream Will Rise

So I've been meaning to post for a couple days now, since attending the Magnum @ 60 seminar on Saturday at the New York Public Library, part of Magnum's 60th anniversary festival. The panel discussion was a pleasure, as it put in conversation four of the agency's best respected and most eloquent photographers--Susan Meiselas, Larry Towell, Gilles Peress, and Phillip Jones Griffiths--along with documentary film maker Keith Beauchamps who valiantly held his own as the lone panelist who was younger than 40, not white, not a photographer, and not a member of Magnum. It was so enjoyable to hear them debate because, although they tackled topics that have been thoroughly hashed over on every photography forum--the photographer's responsibility, the malleability of digital images, the changing role of agencies--they tackled them with the combined knowledge of a century of image taking and nearly that much time sitting around discussing exactly these points with other photographers.

The thing that finally drove me to write, though, was something that Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey said at tonight's Magnum Festival event, Drinks with Magnum at The Half King in Chelsea. It's all about authorship, was Harvey's easily put but infrequently achieved advice. "You have to have something to say." And that got me thinking, again, about Larry Towell's complaint that during the open portfolio reviews Magnum held last weekend, he saw way too many photographers who didn't know how to tell a story. "There was no thread, no consistency, and very little purpose," was his assessment...much like the "avalanche of images" that the Magnum photographers also complained about. The AP, Towell told the audience, sent NO photographers to the affected areas when the tsunami hit Indonesia. Instead, it handed out digital cameras to people on the ground (if anyone can verify this, I'd love to know more about it). "There were lots of pictures," he said. "But I don't remember any of them."

Magnum Portfolio Reviews Open to the Public

In case you missed it in the flurry of events this month for Magnum's new festival and 60th anniversary celebration, the revered photo agency has opened up portfolio reviews to interested photographers. Now, like most portfolio reviews, some money will have to change hands ($250 now, $300 after June 13), but the return would seem to be worth it: a sit-down with three Magnum photographers targeted to your expressed area of interest (book publishing, editorial publishing, fine-art, commercial), a free 20x24 digital print from sponsor HP, and, most importantly, the rare opportunity to build a relationship with some of photography's best-respected shooters. Reviewers will include Larry Towell, Alec Soth, Susan Meiselas, Trent Parke, David Alan Harvey, Jim Goldberg, and Mark Power. A few more may even be brought on to handle the high volume of participants, which right now is not being capped.

~Miki Johnson

PHotoEspña Festival Notes: 6/1

When I arrived at Teatro Circo Price this morning to see the winners of the Fondation HSBC por la Photographie award, I was already very familiar with one honoree. I had seen much of Julia Fullerton-Batten's work during the selection process for American Photo's 2007 Images of the Year Competition, in which she was awarded a prize for her editorial work. The images by Fullerton-Batten at the Teatro were from her personal projects, which rely heavily on her training as an editorial and commercial photographer, employing the lighting, makeup, and casting of that industry. In her photos from the Teenage Stories series, adolescent girls are shown among detailed miniatures of highways, cities, or shipping ports. But while the girls are big enough to wreak havoc on the toy-like worlds around them, they instead are shown in attitudes of pain, bewilderment, and disaffection. Seeing the series in beautifully made oversize prints (as it was surely meant to be seen), I was struck again by the subtly disturbing way the girls are shown as both powerful and stranded—doubtlessly due in large part to the world of fashion that Fullerton-Batten references.

Have Your Portfolio Reviewed by a Magnum Photographer

Here’s a chance to have your photographs seen by the best in the business. But you might want to go in with a thick skin.  As part of the Magnum ’07 Festival in New York City in June, the agency is organizing a portfolio review, in which three Magnum photographers will be ready to offer critiques your work—and they say they’ll be brutally honest.

The date is June 17, from 9:30am to 5pm at MILK Studios at 450 West 15th Street in Manhattan. Deadline for registration is June 13, and scheduling will be done on a first-come-first served basis. The price is $250. For more information, email reviews@magnumphotos.com
--David Schonauer

Where to Go and What to See

Your trusty events compiler is going to be out of town for a few weeks at the end of May, so I'm leaving you with a three-week dose of things to get out there and see, especially since many galleries go to sleep for the summer. These listings should carry you through June 3, when I return from, among other things, covering the 10th year of Madrid's PHotoEspaña photography festival. Hasta luego.

~Miki Johnson

(Photo: © Jean-Christian Bourcart, from Stardust)