Astonishing Combat Photography by Tyler Hicks

In the past couple of weeks, New York Times photographer Tyler Hicks has been publishing a series of astonishing war pictures from Afghanistan. In today's paper, he vividly captures a life-and-death struggle that occurred when Taliban fighters ambushed U.S. troops along the Korangal River. Go here for the story. The Times's website also has a multi-media account of the story. In the photo above, Specialist Robert Soto runs for cover as two other U.S. soldiers crouch behind rocks. The images bring home the intensity of the fighting in Afghanistan, in a way I haven't seen before.--David Schonauer

Annie Leibovitz Tops List of ICP's 2009 Infinity Awards

The International Center of Photography has announced the list of recipients of its 2009 Infinity Awards. This year's Lifetime Achievement award goes to Annie Leibovitz, who previously has received the Infinity Award for Applied Photography.
     The awards will be presented on May 12 at Chelsea Piers, Pier Sixty, in Manhattan. This marks the 25th anniversary of the prestigious Infinity Awards.
     Other nominees include Italian photographer Letizia Battaglia, who receives the Cornell Capa Award for her work in documenting the Sicilian mafia in the 1980s. Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi wins the Art award. Geert van Kesteren receives the Photojournalism award for work in Iraq. And London-based Tim Walker is recipient of the Applied/Fashion/Advertising award. Continue reading for the full ICP press release list of winners--David Schonauer

Kristol and Hamell Debate Iraq War Imagery

There was a very interesting discussion today in New York about the role of war imagery and how if affects the views of the public. Sponsored by the Independent Film Channel and held at Michael's restaurant (a favorite media hangout), the forum covered all aspects of the state of the media today. When the discussion turned to public access to war imagery, conservative pundit William Kristol squared off with liberal pundit Pete Hamill. Hamill said the public should have unfiltered access to images of the war in Iraq in order to form a realistic idea about the human costs of the conflict. Kristol said that Americans were capable of understanding what happens in war without seeing "blood and brains." Hamill held that "there is no sense of whata reality is on the ground by editing out corpses. Kristol said it was a matter of taste.  Do you think Americans have seen a fair, realistic depiction of the war? Or have the military and mainstream media censored the truth from us?--David Schonauer

Epitaph For Digital Railroad

The news that Digital Railroad has shut down its servers is sad if not unexpected. It was clear the business was in trouble when the Diablo Management Group took control and chief executive Charles Mauzy departed with other employees. Nonetheless, I was shocked to hear that a notice had been posted on the DRR site today saying that it was shutting down. That left a lot of photographers around the world in the lurch. Apparently competitor PhotoShelter is offering a special rate for former DRR subscribers. I am a friend of DRR founder Evan Nisselson, and he sent me a note this morning, which I share here:

It is a very sad day! I am very sorry for our members.
     There are many variables that have helped and challenged the success of DRR. There are many things that could have been done differently and I am sure we all have learned through the process – I know that I have.
     I evolved to chairman of the board almost a year ago and since then have had no control and limited input.
     After Diablo Management took over the board and operations of the company on Oct. 10th I tried to gather people to acquire the company back. I came very close but unfortunately it didn't happen. These
didn't materialize for several reasons including the very challenging financial times we are in.
     After these initiatives didn't materialize - Diablo wouldn't even return my emails or calls. We kept advising that the members needed and deserved advance notice if the company was going to turn off the
platform but after this advice from several people - Diablo Management only gave members 24 hours to transfer images.
     Unfortunately sharing this perspective doesn't change anything but I hope it helps clarify a bit.

Best,
Evan

The history of the Internet is filled with the names of products and companies that are no longer with us. The fact that new VC funding wasn't available now isn't surprising either, given the state of the economy and tight credit markets. Does anyone have thoughts about what went wrong here?--David Schonauer

The Power of a Single Image

I meant to put up a post a couple of weeks ago, when I opened up my new issue of The New Yorker and saw the black-and-white portraits of men and women who’d volunteered to serve in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pictures, made by New York photographer Platon, who is now a staff photographer for The New Yorker, are handsome, assertive, and intimate. They are really something special, and you can view the entire portfolio here.
      I got busy and didn’t mention them on the blog, but then yesterday I read Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times, in which she discusses former secretary of state Colin Powell’s decision to make an endorsement in the presidential race. Powell noted, both to Dowd and on television talk shows, that it was one of Platon’s images that convinced him to endorse Barack Obama.
As Dowd wrote:

But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards — the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star — and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith.
     "I stared at it for an hour,” he told me. “Who could debate that this kid lying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?"

Powell decided he’d had enough of derisive political campaigns that claimed to know which Americans are “pro-America” and which are not. It was one image that clarified his thinking.
       I can predict that we will see some comments about this post, charging that I am interjecting politics into a blog that is supposed to be about photography. There is no doubt that politics is the subtext here, but this post is about photography. Please look at Platon’s images, because they are beyond politics. No matter who you support in the election, you will be moved and made proud by these faces. Images-even one picture-can make a huge impact.-David Schonauer

      

Photos that Matter: On the Frontline in Georgia

When Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent troops into the Republic of Georgia in August, photojournalist Jonathan Alpayrie rushed from his home in New York to cover the fighting. Like many other journalists who traveled to the region, he viewed the sudden war as a major story with international implications.
     Unlike a lot of those other journalists, however, Alpayrie, a freelancer who shoots for Getty Images, was not heading to Georgia for the first time. He was, in fact, way ahead of the story.

Time Inc. and Getty Revive Life Brand Again

Time Inc. announced today that it has partnered with Getty Images to jointly launch a new website called Life.com. The website will offer free, downloadable images from current and past photographers. It is scheduled to go live early in 2009.
         The images will be available only to consumers for non-commercial usage. In a press release, Time Inc. senior vice president Andy Blau promised that consumers would be able to "interact intimately" with the available imagery. Apparently that means printing photos for personal use, sharing photos with others, and "purchasing photo albums of user-made collections."
         The imagery will include Life's entire collection, including previously unseen images. That's cool. Getty will be contributing archived content as well as current imagery. The new site essentially represents Getty's effort to spread its business beyond  publishing and advertising and get into the consumer area. I'm not sure the Life reputation has much left to offer to the kinds of people who search the internet for imagery, but it probably won't hurt. --David Schonauer

Perpignan Finale: No party, but straight talk with Brent Stirton

Visa pour l'Image always wraps up with a big party Saturday night after the biggest projection of the week. This year's included visual surveys of the U.S. presidential campaigns, the Beijing Olympics, Kenya, and Iraq, plus 15 other projects and the presentation of the Canon female journalist award and the Visa d'Or News award -- or at least it was supposed to. When I got to our table at the Place de Republique at 8:30 the rain was light but steady and only got worse for the next half hour. Around 9 a message went up on the screen that the slideshow was canceled. Then one that the party would still go on at the Place. It is supposed to happen at the Couvent, the largest venue where most of the exhibitions take place, which has two floors and an uncovered interior patio. Soon calls were made and the buzz was that the party was still on at the Couvent. But on our way to Couvent around 11 we saw crowds walking back, saying the party was canceled but there was a little VIP party going on that no one could get into. Casey Kelbaugh (of Slideluck Potshow fame) and I decided we had to see it with our own eyes, and found a small mob hanging around the Couvent gates, looking annoyed. (Casey has great photos of this and most other important moments from the week up on his blog at the SLPS site. See above image, © Casey Kelbaugh) A few minutes later people started booing and calling to the guards, who rather ostentatiously stood around the Couvent with a German Shephard on a leash.

Perpignan Saturday: David Douglas Duncan, Brenda Ann Kenneally, and a heated photoj debate

Saturday, the last official day of professional week at Visa pour l'Image, started out with a press conference by David Douglas Duncan, the grandfather of modern conflict photography. At 92 years old, Duncan dodders a bit, with a rough combination for a press conference: achingly slow speech with an unrelenting memory for every minutiae. Those who sat it out, though, were rewarded with moments of inspiring passion. While remembering a young soldier sitting in the unimaginable cold of one Christmas in Korea, Duncan had to stop as tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm getting choked up, and it happened 50 years ago. Can you imagine?" he said, going on to reveal the source of the story's pathos. Asked what he wanted for Christmas, the soldier replied simply, "Give me tomorrow." Obviously Duncan's award-winning images from the conflict came from a place of extreme sympathy. "I don’t understand how doctors can go home at night and see this kind of tragedy and not be shattered as I am now," he said. Duncan also railed against censorship by "the creeps in Washington," which he called "criminal," and recognized that most of the work he'd done in Korea would simply be impossible in today's conflict zones. "I’d like to go to Iraq or Afghanistan and be told I can’t photographed something," he said, with a touch of mischievousness and anger. "Who says? I’d say, you’re talking to the oldest guy in the business you bastard, so shoot me." In his eyes it was unconscionable not to recognize the ultimate price paid by soldiers by publicizing images of their struggles and death. "To hell with it," he grumbled finally as he abruptly left the stage -- only to be pinned into a corner by a mob of admirers, all with flashes blazing. It was strange to see Duncan in a blaze of flash light, his arms raised, half in a celebrity's, "Yes, thank you" embrace and half in an eye-protecting squint, but I can't say I don't understand the admiration. (The image above, by Duncan, was one I mentioned from his exhibition as one of the best -- and most unsettling.)

Perpignan Friday: Getty awards, parties, and an emotional anniversary slide show

After the inspiring but heart-wrenching conflict-photographers symposium Friday morning, Getty presented slideshows of its five grantees for editorial photography this year. I have mentioned the most recent three before -- David Gillanders, Lynsey Addario, and Eugene Richards -- and I was already pretty familiar with their work. The two earlier grantees I wasn't familiar with, but very impressed by. Ian Martin's biography reads like many photojournalists: after early awards for his work, he started a wedding photography business to actually support himself and his family. The project that won the Getty grant, on South Africa's poor white communities, marks his re-entry to the photojournalism world. Although Richards' film and photography series War Is Personal was the one that really brought tears to my eyes, Lorena Ros's portraits of adults who were sexually abused as children certainly softened me up (see above). The simple portraits are paired with images of the spaces where the abuse took place or spaces that triggered those memories, and both will eventually be joined by archival images of the victims at the time of the abuse as well as audio interviews about their experiences. Jean-Jacques seemed unimpressed, complaining that we lack information about who the abusers were or what these people have gone through -- but to me this is precisely why the project is so powerful. It's not the abusers we should focus on, as the news media too often has, but the victims whose lives have been irrevocably scarred by the abuse. It's also important just to see these people and recognize that they look just like anyone else -- considering that one in four girls and one in seven boys are sexually abused before they reach the age of 17, they undoubtedly look just like someone you know.