Photojournalistic

Bryan Bedder is a freelance celebrity photographer based in NYC. This week Bryan was hired to shoot few key events during Art Basel in Miami, which ended yesterday. Three days ago, while on a break from assignments, Bryan had a horrible accident: while at the beach, he dove into a sand bar which caused his C5 vertebrae to fracture and slip, which pinched his spinal cord. Bryan is now in ICU, totally immobile, far from home and really needs your help.

I’ve just read a comment from a photographer who said it’s time to stop shooting in black and white. He claimed we don’t see the world in black and white and it was something only done in the past due to the limitations at the time and it’s time to move on. Here’s a number of reasons why I think it’s critical to shoot black and white from time to time, and how it can help nurture your photographic eye.

Layoffs of photo staff continue at one of the world's largest news companies. Thomas Szlukovenyi, the Picture Editor for North America, and Peter Jones, the chief photographer for Canada and the Canada and North American Sports Photo Editor, were axed this week in a move of continued downsizing at Thomson Reuters that gained significant media attention during its first round of major layoffs that began last summer. There is speculation that Europe and the Middle East East could be next.

Cinematographer Danny Cooke spent a week with his guide Yevgein, known as the Stalker, exploring Chernobyl and the city of Prypiat, Ukraine. He came back with a haunting and beautiful video which is essentially a time capsule of the city, frozen by a devastating nuclear disaster that occurred nearly 30 years ago. His aerial shots are especially quite stunning.

Chances are you’ve all seen this iconic photo of Che Guevara at some point. But do you know who took it? Magnum, still arguably the most esteemed photographic collective in the world, announced the sad news last week that one of it’s longest serving members, Rene Burri, passed away aged 81. This post celebrates the life and work of Burri, and sheds a little light on what made him such a special photographer.

Philip Lee Harvey recently went to Ethiopia for Lonely Planet to photograph the world's most inaccessible church... 2,500 feet up and carved into the side of a mountain. The view from the top? Nothing short of spectacular. Amazingly, the Abuna Yemata Guh Church in Tigray, Ethiopia was carved by hand, and the art inside becomes even more incredible when one takes into account that the artist (and anyone who visits) had to make the climb to do it. Talk about devotion.

Eric Crosland is the director of Sherpa Cinema, a collective of artists who produce some pretty amazing stuff. Crosland recently went to some rather remote parts of Iceland with Dave Mossop and John Trapman working on capturing some landscapes, something for which Iceland is a mecca. While there, the Icelandic eruption occurred and Crosland was ready with a Phase One.

Mike Drew is a Calgary-based photojournalist who's worked for the publications such as the Calgary Sun and the Toronto Star since 1978. Recently, Mike was challenged by the guys at TheCameraStoreTV to try and shoot film for a day while working as a photojournalist to see if it was still a viable option for the type of work he does.

The most expensive and largest book project of the 20th century was Helmut Newton's SUMO, which sold out at $15,000 per copy, complete with its own book stand (the book is about as big as a medium-sized seven-year-old). Now, Annie Leibovitz' SUMO follows in its footsteps. At 476 pages, the Taschen-published art piece comes enveloped in your choice of four different dust jackets and is limited to 10,000 editioned copies, with the first 1000 coming in a leather-bound hardcover with a signed 20" x 20" archival pigment print and all four dust jackets.

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, many NY based photographers and film makers found themselves documenting one of the most traumatic events in American history, the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers.

Ed Keating, Pulitzer Prize-winner, career photographer of over thirty years and mentee and friend of Robert Frank (the most celebrated American documentary photographer probably ever), is one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met. I filmed and edited this exclusive Fstoppers interview, as his insight was just too good not to share. No matter what type of photographer you are, I’m sure you can all take something of value away from this video interview.

Photographer Knut Egil Wang documents the annual migration of Norwegians to sunnier destinations, as they look to escape the darkness and cold of Norwegian winter. Wang captures the strangeness and bliss that comes with transplanting oneself for a few months each year in a series titled “Southbound” or “Syden.”

Wyatt Neumann took to Instagram to post photos he took of his daughter on a road trip. While she was clothed in some images, she was fully or partially nude in a number of them as well. But to Neumann, there was nothing unusual about a two-year-old girl without clothes. What he though was perfectly innocent, many called child pornography. The extreme hatred grew across the Internet, and overnight, his Instagram account was shut down.

By now, many of you have seen the news coverage surrounding the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting took place on August 9, 2014, with the demonstrations and looting beginning shortly thereafter. Unsurprisingly, nearly every major news outlet has a team in Ferguson to cover the events. I’m sure many of you know about the tear gas, rubber bullets, arrests, Molotov cocktails, military presence and pleas for peace in the streets. That said, you may have missed the coverage of incidents directly involving the media. Here’s a summary of some of the media-related incidents that have occurred in Ferguson.

French photographer Antoine Bruy spent three years documenting the lives of men and women who have abandoned society for the wilderness of Europe for his fascinating “Scrublands” series. After photographing in five European countries, Bruy is turning his attention to the United States; specifically, remote settlements in the Appalachian Mountains.

When it comes to portrait photography, your camera, your light, your years of photographic know-how counts for little if you don't have a subject with substance. The power of a portrait is in the people. Do you reveal their essence? Do you tell their story?

Choosing a subject with substance was not a problem for Wired Magazine but for journalist James Bamford and photographer Platon finding him was.

It took almost a year to arrange to interview and photograph Edward Snowden in Moscow, where he has sought asylum.

That’s right. You! No matter what your skill level, there is a project in this world that is perfect for you. Are you going to get paid for this project? Nope! This one is going to be a freebie.

Now I know what you are thinking. "Whoa Whoa Whoa, stop the clock! You want me to work for free?”

Yes, that’s exactly what I want you to do. And here is why.

I recently noticed that a handful of photographers were producing images that had a look as if they were stills captured from films. A couple of the most well known photographers of this genre are based here in New York so I got them together and challenged them to not only come up with a dynamic personal project on the fly incorporating this cinematic look, but to share with us how it is achieved. Read on to find out how it all went down...

We all have our own motivation for the images we choose to make. Every photographer has that little voice, that driving force pushing you toward the goal, or that feeling in your gut when you really nailed it.

Maybe that works to your advantage now, but at some point, it’s likely to break loose and run wild…for better or for worse.

Lynsey Addario is an amazing photographer and an inspiring human being; she's a photojournalist who is literally changing the world. Be warned, parts of this video are graphic. In this episode of National Geographic Live! Addario talks about some of her incredible stories - from being in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, to imbedding with the Marines, to being kidnapped in Libya, to maternal mortality in Sierra Leone (her images led directly to more doctors in the area) and covering the rebel uprising during the Arab Spring. Addario is a living example of the power of photography and its ability to make a genuine difference.

My friend Mykii Liu shared this video on his Facebook this morning and I really felt like I had to pass it on. This film focuses on a young woman who talks about the simple things she has, why she has them and what they mean to her. Not only is the message great, but the manner in which this is filmed is also fantastic.

It is no surprise, we have a trash problem in America. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the average American produces more than 4 lbs of trash per day, which has doubled since the 1960's. Gregg Segal decided to tackle this problem, by photographing a series of people lying in their own trash in efforts to show the waste in our daily lives.

The ability of identifying various qualities of light and knowing how to interpret that light is essentially a core concept of photography. One must learn how light translates to an image in order to successfully convey one’s vision and develop a style. In this 5 1/2 minute interview, photojournalist Ed Kashi chats with Marc Silber about his growth as a photographer by way of understanding light.

Every once in a while I come across a photographer or project that blows me away in terms of content, just in time for Independence Day weekend, B&H released this video of Stacy Pearsall, US Airforce Veteran and combat photojournalist, telling the story behind one of her latest and largest project, photographing veterans. Take a look.

This spectacular series of postcards are from a private collection owned by graphic designer and photographer, Marc Walter. Walter specializes in vintage travel photographs and has one of the largest collections in the world. This collection has been compiled into a new book entitled, An American Odyssey. The photochroms started out as glass negatives such as this: Mississippi Landing, Vicksburg

thinkTank's ongoing series, "About A Photo," is a tremendous peek into the process of some amazing photographers. The series has the featured photographer narrate the story of one of their images. In this episode, William Albert Allard speaks about his photograph of a cowboy named Stan and why he doesn't take a photo of someone - but into them.

Josh Newton is all too familiar with shooting under pressure as a professional wedding and musician photographer. Recently though, he had a wedding shoot that's gotten him national press for it's high stakes and unbelievably gorgeous results. Josh was able to take some time out of his busy schedule for a brief interview to talk about his now famous forest fire wedding shoot.

Released this past weekend, Britain's Sunday Times Magazine pays tribute to some of the most iconic and powerful photos from the last century in a short video they've entitled "Photojournalism." The simple two minute video creatively adds motion to the images, in an attempt to bring back the feelings and emotion the photographers were facing during the time these powerful images were captured.

A year ago today the Chicago Sun-Times laid off their entire photography department, replacing veteran photographers with freelancers and reporters armed with iPhones. This move left 28 people without jobs, including pulitzer prize winning photographer John H. White.
White, in a statement to Poynter, said, “It was as if they pushed a button and deleted a whole culture of photojournalism.”

Benjamin Lowy, a photographer represented by Reportage by Getty Images, met Scott Sutton, a man panhandling, outside the Union Square movie theater in New York last November. Scott was holding a sign that read "Give selflessly and you will reap endlessly," and Benjamin walked over.

Israeli photojournalist Ziv Koren is one of the most successful photojournalists in the world and mostly known for his unique/striking Arab-Israeli conflict images. In the past 25 years he won multiple prestigious international awards and captured some iconic news photos we all know and appreciate. Recently Jared Polin sat down with him in his studio in Israel for a very interesting 45-minute video interview that you won't want to miss. [Interview starts at 1:16:30]

A great street photography photo, like any well shot candid photo, is a combination of good light, composition and the right moment. You have to go search for that combination of interesting light and people. The hardest part of street photography is you have to create the context for your photos. It is your job to convince people they should be invested in this picture you took of a complete stranger.

What happens when two filmmakers get together, fill a suitcase with camera gear and hop on a plane? In the case of Preston Kanak and Brent Foster, a great work of digital cinema. With only a rough idea of what they wanted, much was left to chance as these two spent 8 days in Havana, Cuba. Read on for the final film and some insight from the creators.

About a month ago, I traveled to Southeast Asia to put THE ULTIMATE, PORTABLE TRAVEL PACK (shortened name, rights still reserved) to the test. Several people asked for a follow-up. How did this tiny, travel kit work out? …Did I even get any pictures I liked? …And most importantly, did I lose everything gambling on a high-stakes Muay Thai tournament, only escaping with my life and seven fingers? Read on to find out.

In this episode of National Geographic Live! Martin Schoeller travels to a very remote part of the Brazilian Amazon, deep inside the largest section of protected rainforest in the world. Schoeller photographs the Kayapo tribe as they are traditionally as well as documents how they are coping with the changes that have been brought on by the modern world. He applies both a photojournalistic approach to the story as well as his more-known style of lit portraits, and both are pretty stunning.

At 60,000 years old, the Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest, longest-running culture on Earth. Amy Toensing photographed them for National Geographic, lending her intimately deep sense of storytelling to the sad and tragic history of their culture and the bond they share with their land.

Have you ever wanted to be invisible? That's the question Thomas Hurst, creator of COVR Photo, is asking. COVR Photo is an iPhone case with a sliding prism that, when slid into position, allows the photographer to take photos without being obvious.

One week from today I’ll be on the other side of the world, shooting a personal project that’s been years in the making. On the one hand, I have to be prepared for all kinds of situations. On the other, I can’t bring a suitcase. What do I bring… what do I leave behind… and can I get away with only one shirt?

Actors/celebrities Kristen Bell And Dax Shepard are on a mission to make paparazzi stop taking photos of celebrities’ kids. They know it will be hard to make it illegal, so they are trying a different approach: make magazines and media outlets stop buying celebrity children photos from the paparazzi.

This is not an educational piece or a product review. This is also not a post showing the creative and artistic work done by people in the industry. It is just a post about a very unique use of the GoPro camera. While it is not creative, artistic or educational, it is very important to watch this video. It shows us what news cameras will never be able to show: the real POV of the war in Syria.

I'm always fascinated by what makes the best photographers think they way they do. What shapes their ways of seeing? In the current climate of photography, it's easy to get lost in everything technical. We can often lose sight of the most important thing about photography...why we photograph. In this video from Steve McCurry's Youtube channel, we get a glimpse at what goes on in the master mind of perhaps the world's greatest living photographer.

Alison Wright is a tremendous inspiration as a photographer and a human being. In this always fantastic episode of National Geographic Live! we are shown just some of her adventures and a glimpse of her unrelenting fearlessness. After almost being killed in a bus crash in Laos in 2000, she persevered though a recovery process where she was told she would have trouble with mobility and never work as a photographer again. Two years later, she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Daniel Arnold may already be known to some of you. With over 30,000 followers on Instagram he has certainly built an audience for his work. He has even been called the best photographer on Instagram...after his account was shutdown when he uploaded a topless photo of sunbathers one fateful day. Arnold has since returned and it seems his plans for notoriety on Instagram may have hit a new high when it was reported he made $15,000 in a single day using the platform.

In this fantastic video from National Geographic Live!, documentary photography Chris Rainier talks about his adventures around the world, the myriad cultures he's encountered and the power of photography to translate an emotional response to the art that exists all around us. Rainer began his career as the last assistant to Ansel Adams - a position he doesn't take lightly and one that helpe define is way of seeing.

"All good things must come to an end." It's a common theme throughout this special by National Geographic in which we follow Steve McCurry on his quest of shooting the last roll of Kodak Kodachrome film ever made. It's a pretty daunting and heavy assignment to be sure - one McCurry is no stranger to. That fact is even more apparent when we learn that it was McCurry who asked for the final roll.

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.

Over the last two days, Kiev, Ukraine has seen its worst violence since the Soviet era, with the death toll now at 75. Fighting between police and protesters escalated when protesters used Molotov cocktails and lit several fires in the city square. This video - shot on a drone - shows the epic devastation from above, and I believe this may mark a very significant turning point in photojournalism. Has the public's desire for the theatrical become too large a part of journalism?

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.