Recently in Photography Category
Wow. It's been a while since I've been excited about something a company is doing so perhaps I'm a little overly giddy but Flickr's partnership with the (US) Library of Congress is just so cool. This joint project, known as The Commons, seeks to have acquire richer descriptions and information for photographs in the Library of Congress' photograph collection.
You're invited to help describe photographs in the Library of Congress' collection on Flickr, by adding tags or leaving comments.*These beautiful, historic pictures from the Library represent materials for which the Library is not the intellectual property owner. Flickr is working with the Library of Congress to provide an appropriate statement for these materials. It's called "no known copyright restrictions."
Hopefully, this pilot can be used as a model that other cultural institutions would pick up, to share and redistribute the myriad collections held by cultural heritage institutions all over the world.
Essentially the Library of Congress is going to throw historical photographs from their collection into their Flickr account. We, volunteers will help catalog/identify/describe those photographs by adding appropriate tags and comments. This is a very cool project that allows community involvement, by using new technology in the process of documenting history the preceded us. Meaning, yes we can make and document history and we do everyday with our Flickr accounts but we can also record and describe historical photographs that predated us. We can make historical photographs more relevant and more easily found by increasing the knowledge and information associated with them.
I've been without a Flickr pro account for nearly a year because I haven't needed the space or any of the pro bells or whistles. Supporting projects and initiatives like this totally makes me want to get a pro account again just to support Flickr.
I totally love the openness of this project. I also love Flickr's note about being involvement with this project:
Any Flickr member is able to add tags or comment on these collections. If you're a dork about it, shame on you. This is for the good of humanity, dude!!
The photo editors from Wired Magazine have chosen their favorite photos of 2007. They made sure to be clear that these are their favorite photos not necessarily the "best" photos (whatever that means). I'll be honest, I only really like, either from an artistic or a technical standpoint, 3 out of their 10.
Though it's not even remotely the same situation I can't help but think of the Lane Hartwell situation when I see my local public radio station (which is my favorite radio station in the world by the way) asking for photo submissions. There is absolutely no payment for these photos should they be used by the station, and oh year the station claims ownership to any photos submitted.
Read the whole story and my hopefully rational letter to the station about it
If you haven't been following the Lane Hartwell situation Derek Powazek has a really good wrap up of events up to this point.
Lane has just released her statement about the situation and it has caused me to reaffirm my complete support of her and her actions. Many people have said they're happy when others steal their works because it means the work is good enough to steal or they're happy when people steal their works and then create new works because hey new stuff is cool. That's great for those people. I encourage those people to release all of their works under the appropriate Creative Commons license and be happy and merry and bright with all the sharing and the stealing. I don't mean that sarcastically. If you don't mind your work being taken and re-used that's great but here's my issue: the creator, gets to choose if people can take and re-use his work. If someone posts his work on the internet and explicitly says that all rights are reserved then all rights are reserved by that artist. End of story. If the artist releases his work under a creative commons license that allows use or perhaps the artist even just says, basically, sometimes people steal my work but cool sometimes cool stuff comes out of that theft so I'm just going to say "ok take my stuff" that's fine, but each and every person creating original work, in my opinion, gets to make that decision.
And I think that saying "people on the internet are going to steal so suck it up" is bullshit. That's kind of like saying "people in the real world are going to commit armed robbery so suck it up." Yeah, some people on the internet steal stuff just like some people in the physical world steal stuff. That doesn't make it right in either instance.
It's that time of year again. Reuters has released their Pictures of the Year 2007.
There is some amazing work in this collection but at least a couple images I would describe as "disturbing" because of the gore or violence contained in them. So consider yourself warned if you're easily disturbed by violence and its aftereffects.
I’ve been carrying my point and shoot with me a lot lately instead of my DSLR. I shoot a lot of “what I’m eating” and quick location shots for Consuming Louisville and I find that for the shots I need to take my point and shoot works brilliantly. It does what I need it to do and it fits comfortably in my small bag. A year ago I packed my DSLR everywhere and I hardly ever picked my point and shoot up. I was still in the “gearhead phase” of my life as a photographer. Even if my point and shoot would have worked great in a situation, even if I didn’t need the fire power of my DSLR the DSLR was always what I reached for because you know, I’m a photographer, my DSLR is my baby and I’ve got to always use it. Or so I thought.
I’ve evolved and progressed further down my path as a photographer. I can now embrace the notion that it really is not the camera you use. The camera is just a tool. In some situations the small tool is all you need. But not only do I now use whichever camera will work for the job I also don’t care what camera you’re using. I can’t recall the last time I felt compelled to ask someone what specific camera she uses. Lenses? Yes, I love to chat about different lenses but Canon or Nikon? Who cares. 5D or Rebel XTi? So not important to me. It’s the work you’re producing that matters.
In my professional and documentary work naturally I still use my DSLR but that’s because it’s the right camera for the job, not because I feel the need to justify my existence as a photographer by pulling out the largest and most expensive camera I own. Those toy camera enthusiasts? They might be on to something. I think a toy camera might be my next gear purchase.
I've been trying to think of a way to describe photographer Zoe Strauss and her work. I've been failing but it turns out that's ok because a recent article in Heeb magazine did it for me.
“They just aren’t pretty,” my grandmother declared after walking in and quickly out of Zoe Strauss’ solo exhibition at Silverstein Photography this past summer. I was startled. I had spent the last month visiting the people and landscapes in this captivating exhibition, staring at candid portraits and hoping to learn more of their stories. But for all my fascination with Strauss’ subjects, my grandmother was correct—her photographs are not pretty. Rough, raw and often bleak, they expose forgotten and overlooked neighborhoods and residents, giving us a window into hidden worlds. They can often be disturbing or downright brutal, but it is each image’s honesty and quiet beauty that make Strauss’ work so poignant.
I said recently that right now I'm very interested in photography that is glossy and pretty and can take me out of the real world a little bit. The one exception to this is Zoe Strauss. I can't explain what it is about her work that appeals to me so much but it does. Check out Strauss's blog for updates on her work, shows and her recently being awarded a United States Artists Fellowship.
I got an email today about Box.net's new OpenBox service which allows the editing of photos stored online.
OpenBox allows you to "bring the power of web applications directly into your existing Box account". Translation? If you're storing and sharing photos with Box.net you can right click on any photo in your Box.net account and edit the image with Picnik
What is Box.net?
Box.net is an online storage and sharing service that gives you access to your files from anywhere. With Box, you can access important documents from your desktop computer, laptop, or even mobile phone. Once you've uploaded your files to your online storage on Box, you can also share them with anyone, anytime — Box makes online web file sharing simple.
It is with great pleasure and greater pride that we present the winning entries of our second annual American Photo Images of the Year Competition. Many photography contests are held around the world each year, but the Images of the Year Competition is unique in the breadth of photography it showcases, from photojournalism to fine art, from advertising work to student work, from nature photography to wedding photography. The competition represents in the strongest terms American Photo's commitment to finding and publishing the best photography in the world, from professional photographers and amateurs alike.
Winners include Annie Leibovitz in the Commercial Work category, Martin Schoeller in the Portraits/Wedding category and Michael Kamber in Photojournalism.
I won't argue at all with the portrait or commercial winners. That Sopranos image? Classic. Clooney? Same thing. Is it wrong to admit that that is the kind of photography that appeals to me most right now? Naturally the photojournalism winner is stunning but I find I don't have the internal fortitude to experience much work like that these days.
National Press Photographers Association has a nice feature about student photojournalist Andrew Worrall, the 19 year old freshman to be at the University of Missouri at Columbia's media convergence program, who shot some very compelling images of the Minneapolis bridge collapse yesterday. He was on his way to a Minnesota twins game when he heard about the collapse on the radio. He had some gear and his high school press pass with him and got into the thick of things.
A full day after the bridge first fell, Worrall was asked what he thinks about Wednesday's experience in retrospect. "It really pushes my ethics; it's definitely hard to shoot people suffering and tragedy in general. But I'm happy if I can make the world a better place by sharing my vision through my lens."
