Motley Crue bassist, Nikki Sixx is a recovering addict. But cameras, he says, are his new drug. He has been a musician, a writer and a radio host. His new passion is photography. To be honest, I was pretty surprised by his images. They are empathetic, penetrative and incredibly personal. He has teamed up with Leica to photograph a two-part interview series.
WARNING: GRAPHIC It's incredibly difficult for many people of the world to have a point of reference on this type of tragedy, but this image my be one of the most tragic images that I have seen in recent memory. It is both devastating and incredibly heartbreaking. The image is of a male and a female, embracing in their final moments. The couple hasn't been identified, nor is their story known. They were found about 2am buried under fallen concrete with blood coming from the man's eye like a tear.
Jeff Bridges has been nominated for six Academy Awards and has won once (for 'Crazy Heart'). He can now add another honor to his list of awards. This week at the 29th annual Infinity Awards, he is being nominated for his photography. 'The Dude' has been shooting on-set images of the films he has worked on since 1984, and his work gives us a peek at a world most people never get to see.
“These new ways might be found by men who could abandon their allegiance to traditional pictorial standards—or by the artistically ignorant, who had no old allegiances to break. There have been many of the latter sort. Since its earliest days, photography has been practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training, who were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a science, an art, a trade, or an entertainment, and who were often unaware of each other's work…
A captivating photograph often tells a story. That story is – more often than not –the story of the one taking the picture. Sometimes the story is obvious, and sometimes not so much. It’s in that delayed gratification that we are able to explore the nuances –when we have to reach into the subtleties for meaning behind a photo. Lara Jade is a classic example of this and her images are a vivid interpretation of her life.
Al Jazeera English just premiered the first episode of their new show, "The New African Photography." Following a time of great turmoil for Africa, the show centers on the changing image of the continent as told through the eyes of photographers. The goal is to ultimately replace the images of famine and war that often come to mind and with images that redefine what Africa is becoming today.
In 1991, Brian Masck photographed famed football player Desmond Howard in what has become known as "The Trophy Pose" in reference to the Heisman Trophy. That image has become recognized as one of the greatest photographs in sports and has gone on to be published all over the world in everything from Sports Illustrated to advertisements to the cover of a video game. At the moment, Masck is involved in lawsuits suing several entities that have used the image without his permission, including Sports Illustrated, Nissan and Desmond Howard, himself. Desmond Howard wasn't super thrilled with that and decided to countersue Masck over the use of his likeness.
...pretty outstanding and powerful photos. Every single image that was awarded the prize was taken by photographers covering the war in Syria. What's particularly unique about the winner of the "Breaking News" category was that there was not a solitary winner; the award was shared by five photographers.
Photographer David duChemin posted a pretty provocative rant on his blog yesterday. This rant needs a warning, though: COPYRIGHT LAWS MATTER, and SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO FIGHT FOR UNFAIR USAGE OF YOUR IMAGES.
That being said, this isn’t an opinion that is going to be agreed with by everyone. Some are going to support it, and some are going to hate it.
Here in New York, we finally had a day that that you could actually call "warm." To celebrate, here is a BTS of the Guess shoot for their 2013 Spring/Summer collection shot in Bora Bora, Tahiti by Yu Tsai. I've always been a fan of the direction that Guess chooses to go with their campaigns. It has a seemingly effortless sex-appeal. A great thing to take away from this BTS is that, although every person on set is an incredibly talented professional, the fundamentals of what they are doing is rooted in simplicity.
Members of the Ukrainian feminist group, Femen, have declared April 4th "Topless Jihad Day" in support of a Tunisian women who has been threatened with death for baring her breasts online. Amina Tyler originally posted an image of herself topless with the words "Fuck your morals" written across her chest on the Femen-Tunisia Facebook page.
The boom for shipbuilding occurred in the early part of the 20th century, fueled by the demand for warships and ship repair yards. It was also the only method of intercontinental travel. But the 1920's gave it its steepest decline - with unemployment reaching almost 40% by the end of the decade. It wasn't uncommon for communnites based almost enetirely around shipbuilding to have nearly three-quarters of its entire city in unemployment.
Some of you may have heard of David Douglas Duncan - famous for his war images, portraits and being a close friend of Pablo Picasso. His Leica M3 was sold for $2.19 million - the highest price ever paid for a commercially manufactured camera. Although the camera's price has to do mainly with the images that came from it, it was also one of only four Leica M3Ds ever created - the "D" stands for Duncan. The cameras were 'battle hardened' to withstand some pretty tough situations.
The good people over at PHLEARN are at it again, this time with a great little tutorial on creating skin texture from scratch. I find that healing (or whichever method you use) under the eyes in particular tends to destroy the most texture, so this is a great way to put some back in.
An image can be an incredibly powerful thing. Someone once told me that a picture isn't worth a thousand words; it speaks a thousand languages. On the 44th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's wedding, Ono tweeted an image of Lennon's bloodied glasses - the glasses he was wearing when he was slain over 30 years ago.
The Verge recently interviewed Markus Spiering, Flickr's 'head of product.' Since Spiering has taken over in 2011, Flickr has received a visual face-lift and an updated iPhone app among other things. Flickr was starting to get lost amidst Instagram and Facebook, but with over eight billion photos from over 87 million users, it doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon.
Warning: The following interview contains adult language, adult situations and nudity.
Michael Donovan rules. It says so on his website. It also says so on his Tumblr. It says so anywhere you’d find his name. And to be perfectly honest, believe the hype. Michael Donovan does rule. This is why I’m here, in a Lower East Side bar that never left 1982, having a drink and trying to hold a conversation while Asian fetish porn plays on TVs that I’m sure were taken from the dumpster behind a Motel 6.
Smithsonian Magazine has just announced the 50 finalists in their 10th Annual Photo Contest. The contest received over 37,600 entries from photographers in 112 countries. They have narrowed that number down to 50...10 in each category. Categories include: The Natural World, People, Travel, Americana and Altered Images.
With the current state of the photography business flooded by part-time professionals, Ourspot (or something like it) was ultimately inevitable. The website, which launches in San Francisco today (New York and Los Angels coming soon), is an online marketplace where anyone can hire an amateur photographer for as little as free to as much as a few hundred bucks.
It’s six o’clock in the evening; Joey Lawrence and I are having what could only be described as the trendiest cups of coffee in all of Williamsburg at that very moment. To be fair, this part of Brooklyn takes its coffee (as well as its trendiness) very seriously. Outside, it’s not unlike being inside of a freezer during a power outage – it’s bitingly cold, wet and smells like something somewhere is spoiling. Luckily, we’re inside, sans rainwear, meeting over a table made from reclaimed wood while Edison bulbs on simple fixtures drip unassumingly from the ceiling.
