For female photojournalists of all nationalities, The Canon Female Photojournalist Award has announced that it is open for entries until the 26th of this month. The €8000 (roughly $11,096) award is intended to help its recipient “produce an ongoing one year project which will lead to an exhibition or showing at the Festival in the 2015 edition.”
Effingham, Illinois-based photographer Tytia Habing’s ongoing series “This is Boy” beautifully captures the dichotomy of peace and wild energy inherent in its subject-her young son. The series, presented exclusively in black and white, features Habing’s son over a period of several years. Usually with her son as the sole subject, the series displays a remarkable range of emotion as he shifts from contemplative, to vivacious, to vulnerable.
While Minneapolis-based photographer Cameron Wittig is probably best known for his intriguing portraits of musicians like Haley Bonar and Andrew Bird, I discovered him through his humorous project, “Duluth Typologies”. The series features houses built on steep hills in the small town of Duluth, Minnesota. Using a simple adjustment of angle, the houses in “Duluth Typologies” appear to be sliding into the flat ground beneath them, creating a humorous commentary on the potential of imagery to lie.
When I first came across Guilherme Brasileiro’s series “Delicadezas” on Instagram, I was pulled in by a seemingly nonsensical, quirky theme: dozens of portraits, cropped close featuring men and women, each holding a hand under their chin. The energy of the series struck me as open and full of warmth; the subject’s reaction to the pose they had been asked to assume was usually very apparent (some looked amused, a good few looked self-conscious, and some had really obviously embraced the idea).
Conjuring memories of the now arguably-infamous decision by The Chicago Sun-Times to lay off its entire photography staff, The Orlando Sentinel has informed its staff photographers that, soon, their jobs will no longer exist. As part of a restructuring plan to attract increased readership, the paper is shifting to a more “videocentric” approach.
One does not often associate violent protests and the threat of sniper fire with portrait studios. However, photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind’s recent portraits of protestors and fighters in Kiev, Ukraine make us question this apparent disconnect. Taylor-Lind's stunning and revealing portraits were taken with a medium-format film camera between outbursts of violence, documenting the men and women fighting for their freedom in Kiev.
Thomy Keat is a photographer based in Paris. Although corporate photography makes up much of his job, Keat says street photography is “the thing that makes me want to keep doing what I do as a professional photographer.” Pulling strong stylistic influence from his commercial work, Keat’s street photography is full of contrast, bold lines and repeated colors.
Publications allowing individual photographers access to their Instagram accounts is an increasingly common practice, and helps to foster a more intimate look at a photographer’s process. For example, Time Magazine allowed several photographers access to its Instagram account after Hurricane Sandy, enabling the magazine to update its almost 600k followers in real time.
Jeffrey Mckee is a Lawrence, KS-based photographer and a graphic designer for the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. His colorful portraits, created with Polaroid instant film, evoke a sense of dreamy playfulness.
Like so many 20th century processes, Polaroid photography is a format far less common than its digital counterparts. However, equipment and film for instant photography have been made more accessible in recent years.
