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All content © Michelle Jones 2006-2007
I don't know how I missed this story for a year but I did:
One year after his arrest, an Associated Press photographer is still being held at a prison camp in Iraq by U.S. military officials who have neither formally charged him with a crime nor made public any evidence of wrongdoing.
This isn't a book about guns. It's a book about people. - Kyle Cassidy
Photographer Kyle Cassidy's upcoming book Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes looks absolutely incredible. The book won't be out until August 2007 but there is a generous selection of photographs and text from the book available online.
via kottke
Tags: photography, Armed America, Kyle Cassidy
There is no doubt that everyone was operating under a state of hyper alertness and suspicion on the Virginia Tech campus on Monday after the tragic events there. Given those events and the environment it's perhaps understandable that police arrested and held Shaozhuo Cui, photo editor for the Virginia Tech student newspaper, on the grounds that as a young man of Asian descent he was a "suspect matching the profile" of the shooter that had been described to police. Even Cui finds it understandable
"I can't blame authorities for any of their actions, and I certainly understand that they need to do what they feel is best in a dangerous situation."
What isn't understandable though is why the police, even after they cleared and released Cui, are still holding on to his equipment. His camera, camera bag, media cards and the images they contain and even his IDs are still being held, as of Tuesday April 17, by the police.
"But as a student journalist, I don't feel it's appropriate that authorities continue to hold my camera and my work without any further explanation."
Obviously deepest thoughts and sympathies go out to the entire Virginia Tech community. That being said this is a story worth following and paying attention to. The student photojournalist did nothing wrong and he deserves access to his equipment and his images. Even in the darkest times we can't ignore cases of journalists being silenced either through force, or in this case by keeping images away from the photographer who captured them.
via PhotoAttorney
Original Story: Student photographer detained during Virginia Tech crisis, equipment confiscated
Update: More details from the photographer at Collegiate Times
PopPhoto's State of the Art blog has a really interesting entry about the Israeli Security Wall, how photojournalists are drawn to it and specifically Kai Wiedenhöefer's new book about it title simple The Wall.
Lee & Sachi spent 2006 traveling around the world. They documented their experiences in 29 countries both in words & images on their blog. The images include some breathtaking panoramic pictures. Well worth checking out.
See their Flickr feed for larger versions of the panoramas.
via DSLR Blog
Photographer John Loomis has a very interesting blog post talking about how photographing his loved ones helped him develop his shooting style.
Photographing my family became the way through which I was able to find my own voice in a sense. I was free to shoot things anyway that I liked, and to try new methods and techniques that stuck me in the work of my heroes. And in shooting people that I love I was connected to the deep well of emotion that can reside in a photograph that makes it rise above images made without such care for the subject.
In the blog post he mentions that his essay Life After Grammie is "To this day the best body of work that I've ever created." I haven't seen enough of his work to agree or disagree with this statement but it truly is excellent, moving work. I recommend everyone have a look at it. I can only hope to produce such a strong, moving piece of work someday.
PJ Chmiel is a graphic designer who is touring a big chunk of the Eastern and Southern United States (and a little bit of Canada) on his beloved scooter Ramblin' Man. He's keeping a very detailed and interesting travel journal but even more interesting are the thousands of pictures he's posting to Flickr. He photographs things he finds interesting along the way, hostels and motels he's stayed in, people he's met on his journey. It's a great big slice of "This American Life" and I'm loving every frame of it.
He doesn't always have an internet connection so he uploads in bulk when he can. That means not every thing is titled, tagged and labeled but he's working on it and the images are well worth looking at even if you don't know specifically what town in Vermont or South Carolina or Louisiana they came from.
Tags: photography, documentary photography, americana, flickr
