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.
Do you like to remotely trigger your camera? Do you also like iPhones? Enter Satechi's BT Smart Trigger. For $44.99, this little guy will happily trigger your camera's shutter via Bluetooth. It also works as an intervalometer, meaning you can time lapse with the greatest of ease...in between Angry Birds Star Wars. At the moment it only works for iPhones and Canon DSLRs, although they are planning to add compatibility with the Galaxy SIII and the Galaxy Note 2.
By stitching together 48,640 individual frames, a new image, taken for the BT Tower in London, has broken the record for the largest panorama in the world. The image was taken using a rig of seven Canon 7D cameras, each equipped with a 400mm lens plus extender. What does this mean? Well, if you live in London, it means a lot of people are going to be able in look into your window.
The winners of the 2013 World Press Photo Contest have been announced, with the photo of the year going to Paul Hansen from the Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter. His image was a haunting photo of a group of Palestinian men carrying the bodies of two small children, who were killed during fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces.
Old and nervous people, rejoice! Apple’s scientists are at it again, and this time, they’re busy making camera phone pictures less blurry! Apple has filed for a new U.S. patent about a method to “capture and store images continuously from a device’s camera before a user presses the shutter button," and then automatically select the best image.
This means, your device will take pictures before you press the shutter. That’s right folks… psychic phones. Then, based upon factors such as exposure time, image contrast, focus, dynamic range, etc., the opinionated phone selects the best image of the set.
Greek law enforcement officials are facing investigation after ‘allegedly’ airbrushing out a black eye and face lacerations that the police may or may not have given to a young man and his three other bank robber friends.
Greek government officials have admitted to some photo alterations, but they would really insist you believe that it was done only to make the robbers more noticeable in public. It has nothing to do with making them look like half a Japanese Anime character.
Sometimes a Journey song can wax poetic. “Small town girl…lonely world.” We’ve heard it before. But for whatever reason, it’s the song I can’t get out of my head while I’m sitting with Jenny Woods in a small, Persian restaurant in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Standing a towering five-foot-nothing and with a demeanor that couldn’t ruffle a sleeping kitten, Jenny, or Bunny Jenny, as she goes by, is a photographer from a very small town in Florida.
PHLEARN has just released part two of their interview with Erik Almas – which continues to be one of my favorite interviews with a photographer recently. It’s refreshing to see an interview that not just explains the technical aspect of shooting and storytelling, but the reasoning behind them. Erik is a great example of technique and creative vision working together.
