journalism
“Think before you press the shutter. It’s frustrating that today, even more than in the time of analogue photography, you often come back with a lot junk. Nowadays, it’s too easy to get a picture-click-clack; the camera works for you, but you need to use your brain, look closely and react fast. Don’t go out and expect that things will be wonderful-photography is hard work.”
-Thomas Hoepker
Photojournalist Chris Hondros was killed by a grenade while covering the Libyan conflict in 2011. A book of his works will be published in April 2014.
There’s something so very heroic about a person who not only dies for their job, but dies for their passion. Rest easy my good man.
Read more at The Guardian.
Father and Daughter Playing Guitars, David Turnley
The year is drawing to a close and that’s when the ‘Year’s Best Of…’ lists start coming together. StereoGum is my go to for albums and Nat Geo for travels. A new favorite is Fubiz, a French photography blog that is full of fantastic, inspirational photographs.
This is Fubiz’s Best Photos of 2013. You’ll probably recognize some of these, maybe not, but they’re all powerful in their own way…maybe not so much Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMA’s, but memorable nonetheless.
Hope you’re 2013 was as good as mine!
Best Photos of Year 2013. Thank you Fubiz!
Photographer Jimmy Nelson spent 3 years photographing tribes that have remained untouched by time. In a series titled ‘Before They Pass Away’ exhibits a beautifully captured and eye opening documentary. Makes you wonder what could’ve been had technology not progressed.
I wanted to witness their time-honoured traditions, join in their rituals and discover how the rest of the world is threatening to change their way of life forever. Most importantly, I wanted to create an ambitious aesthetic photographic document that would stand the test of time. A body of work that would be an irreplaceable ethnographic record of a fast disappearing world.
-Jimmy Nelson
See the whole series at Before They Pass Away.
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I found this beautiful photo series Strangers by photographer Shane Connaughton. There’s something so quiet and serene about them, the way they’re grainy and ambiguous in subject. The series is shot in a photo journalistic way, but leans more towards conceptual and abstract; less focused on subject and more so on the comprehensiveness of daily life. That is exactly what makes it unique-it’s journalism and art at the same time, which is not an easy feat.
See more beautiful images at Connaughton’s Flickr.
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ICP Curator Discusses Selfies
“People need to figure out who they are and how they fit into our culture. Self-portraiture, frankly, is a great means of doing that.”
-Christopher Phillips, curator of ICP.
The quote from the Today article gives a new perspective to the selfie, one that I hadn’t thought of before. Selfies seem to be frowned upon but looking at them as self-portraiture-as a work of art and self expression-makes them something to be appreciated. Interesting.
Read up at Today.
And while we’re on the topic, did you know that the term ‘selfie’ has officially been added to the dictionary? Among other words such as 'twerk’, 'srsly’, and 'geek chic’.
Here’s a recently famous selfie, taken from a girl who was at a Beyonce concert!
Happy 100th Birthday Robert Capa
Robert Capa turns 100 today! The International Center of Photography and Magnum Photos (co-founded by Capa himself) have teamed up to put together a 100 day exhibit featuring his works. Each day the exhibit presents a new Capa work, along with another photograph that ‘visually responds’ to the Capa photograph. The audience is invited to 'get closer’ and to respond by posting their own photos via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Capa is one of the most noted war photographers in history, having covered five major wars: the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War.
See Magnum Photos for exhibit updates and be sure to tag #getcloser when posting your own photos.
Read more on the exhibit at Time Magazine.
Photographer Michael Wolf’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ serves as a documentary of the ups and downs (literally) of daily human life. Setting up a camera and tripod, Wolf takes pictures of Google Street View images and captures everything from people falling off bikes to cars on fire.
Reminiscent of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s 'decisive moment’ and the humorous photos of Weegee, this series is a redefined and modernized approach to photojournalism. Some praise him for his smart series and others accuse him of appropriating the images from Google. I personally see this series as an amusing look at humanity; it’s something that we, as humans, can all relate to when it comes to the smaller disasters of daily life-that moment you fall off your bike in front of others, that moment you can’t hold it, that moment your car starts smoking…
Not to mention, we all take part in the voyeurism that is today’s internet. Maybe Wolf is the ultimate troll of Google Street View!
See more of the series at Word Press Photo, who awarded Wolf with an Honorable Mention in 2011.
Michael Wolf - Hong Kong: Front Door/Back Door (published 2005)
“Wolf’s trip through one of the most densely populated areas of the world is also a journey through a strangely underpopulated place, inhabited only by the traces of city dwellers.
The dark back alleys that crisscross the city are home to objects that, at first glance, seem to be discarded—the random detritus of the man-made world. Under the scrutiny of Michael Wolf’s photographic eye, these objects become fascinating installation pieces, while the abstract patterns of the buildings reveal the beauty and order that underlie the apparent chaos of the city.”