New Photo Blog from the New York Times

The New York Times has launched its new photography showcase on its website. It's calls Lens,and it features portfolios and behind-the-scenes videos from a host of the newspaper's photographers. As regular readers of State of the Art will have noticed by now, I'm a big fan of the photography from the Times, so I'm pretty happy to see this new blog. You really have to check out Stephen Crowley's video piece on Oval Office photo ops. It's a sobering looks at how political photojournalism is manufactured. Hurray for Lens.--David Schonauer

Headline of the Day

"Pfewww...." And I slept right through it, when I could have been waiting to see if the world was about to explode on FOX NEWS.
    Actually, this post really doesn't have much to do with photography, unless you're a photographer working for the Boston Globe, or a Globe reader who admires the financially-troubled newspaper's photography.
    In any case, as the headline (from Huffington Post) makes clear, unions and the Globe's owner (the New York Times) have come to a cost-cutting agreement to keep the publication going...for a while.--David Schonauer

The 10 Most Photographed Cities

Life.com ives us the list, derived from Flickr's "most popular" tags. I really thought the most-photographed would be New York. I was wrong; it was number two on the list. The winner? Look for your jolly old self.--
David Schonauer

How We View Obama

Last night I participated in a symposium of sorts on one of my favorite blogs, Bag News Notes. The topic was how the Obama presidency has been presented in pictures over the course of its first 100 days. Michael Shaw, who writes the blog, had picked out a number of interest images made since January 20, some of which I knew and other that were new to me. One of those was the image here, which shows the new president greeting general at the Pentagon on January 28. (The photo is credited to Getty Images.) It's always tempting to apply amateur Freudian analysis toimages like this, but I was amazed at the body language here. The president, dominant male, has his finger outstretched...(hmmm)...while the generals guard their privates. You can read the transcript of the discussion here. And speaking of pictures of the president, what do you think of Nadav Kander's photo of the cover of yesterday's New York Times Magazine (below)?-David Schonauer

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

Kim Kardashian, Before and After

Most of us know that all non-candid photographs of celebrities are retouched. We understand this implicitly because the said celebrities never allow the un-retouched images to be published. We just take the perfection as a matter of technological reality, then continue our binge-purge diets. So it might have been a public service when, for a few moments, the website for Complex magazine published an un-retouched photo of Kim Kardashian. Soon, that version was replaced by the retouched version, which lightened and tightened the reality TV star. Some astute observers were able to get both images to compare (above). Yes, it might have been a public service. More likely a mistake, though. The images are credited to Mathias Kurka/Corbis.--David Schonauer

Subversive Art at TackyWeddings.com

This comes from by "Best Photo Websites Ever" file: tackyweddings.com is filled with subversive insider art. It features photos made by amateurs that reveal the truly enormous range of bade decisions people make at weddings. Let this be a lesson: If you're getting married, keep ALL CAMERAS out of the hands of non-professionals. Thanks to Buzz Trend for bring this website to our attention! Herewith, a few examples:

Shotgun marriages are funny in theory, not in practice.

Bridal grooming and drinking are not humorous, despite what you think.

 

Salem Witchcraft Weddings were so 1997.

Don't ask, don't tell. --David Schonauer

A Pre-St. Pat's Day Toast, with Photo

We're closing the May/June issue of American Photo, and I'm looking forward to witnessing the annual St. Patrick's Day festivities in New York tomorrow. I happened to come across this article on the National Geographic website, which included the photo here of a statue of St. Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland. It was taken by my friend Chris Rainier, and reminds me why I want to see Ireland some day. My wife asked me this morning who St. Patrick was, and now, after reading the National Geographic piece, I can tell her. (He did not chase the snakes from Ireland, as legend would have it. The ice age did that. In fact, St. Patrick is almost as American as apple pie.) Have a great day of it tomorrow.--David Schonauer

The True Stories About Five Pictures Made Famous on the Internet

Please go to one of my favorite websites, cracked.com, to read about the true stories behind five badass pictures that have become famous on the Internet. Example: The Hyena Man, who looks like he roams "the wastes, scavenging for what scarce little water remains in that desolate landscape, fending off marauding bands of Junk Raiders." Real story: He's sort of a traveling showman. --David Schonauer

liveBooks Launches Photography Blog

The internet has been a blessing for creative industries because it has given their actors the ability to interact, debate, and inspire each other, no matter the physical barriers. And now with RESOLVE—a new blog from liveBooks—photography has found a home for its global community.

Former American Photo senior editor Miki Johnson—now the social media editor at liveBooks, a company that builds sites for photographers—is at the helm of RESOLVE, which debuted a few weeks ago. The blog publishes news, op-ed content, and advice that Johnson has gathered from photographers, editors, curators, and agency representatives. With this communal forum, industry professionals can discuss of-the-moment issues in photography.

We found the blog to be particularly useful in de-mystifying certain aspects of the industry that are rarely taught, like transitioning between photo niches or learning the business ropes. For example, the top story on the blog today is this discussion of what to expect when an agency takes its cut from the sale of your pictures—making the blog perfect for emerging photographers.