Photographer of the Week

After a two week hiatus, the P.O.W. section has been updated. We’ve been caught up preparing for workshop so the blog has slowed down a little lately, sorry about that. Once workshop is over you can expect this thing to be update much more frequently.

In the meantime, check out the Photographer of the Last Two Weeks – Elliot Hess and Ed Matthews.

Magazines

As I went through school there where three different online magazines that really had a large effect on how I saw pictures, how I saw myself as a photographer and what I wanted for myself as a future photographer. And, so, in order to pass a little visual inspiration your way I wanted to share them with you.

The first is Handheld Magazine, which is run by the exceptionally talented photographer Amber Laforet. Amber is married to Vincent Laforet, who you can read more about in some of the posts below. Amber was publishing Handheld while she was still a student and about to finish school, and when I first discovered it I was just beginning. Handheld exposed me to a deeper world of photography and story telling, and one of the things I like most is that the pictures also come with journal entries and I was exposed to the heart, soul and mindset of those photographers. One of my favorite journal entries is HERE.

Later I stumbled onto Blueeyes Magazine, run by the multi-talented John Loomis. From the Blueeyes site: “Blueeyes Magazine is an online documentary photography magazine devoted to publishing new long-term project work. It is a labor of love created by a dedicated group of people who believe in the power of still photography…On a more complex level, Blueeyes is a movement against negative trends in photojournalism that have limited the freedom, self-expression, and evolution of documentary photography as a young medium of mass communication. The magazine strives to publish longer, more personal, and more intricate bodies of work, in direct contrast to the traditional models of the newspaper photo story or the over-simplified, stereotypical coverage of broadcast journalism outlets.” Blueeyes is phenomenal, and you would be doing yourself a great favor to check it out. Please check out the archive section as well, where you will find two of my favorite projects – “Lost on Route 93” and “The Lubavitch“. Those of you who were at the Dirty Dozen meeting will recognize a few pictures from both of these essays. And if you weren’t at the Dirty Dozen meeting you have a second chance, we will be meeting this Thursday at 8:00 to look at your Grit assignment pictures. (Are you working on you grit assignment?? You should be working on your grit assignment.)

And last but not least is A Photo A Day. Commonly abbreviated to APAD, their website displays a new photo each day. What you don’t know from just the website is that they have a very active list serve with hundred of photographers off all levels of talent, from beginners to photographers who win the College Photographer of the Year and National Photographer of the Year Competition. What is awesome about this group is that you get to see their pictures and hear their thoughts and then they turn around and get to know you, your pictures and critique your work. Please check out A Photo A Day.

Working (thinking) harder.

Most of my friends know that I’ve had a thing for Vincent Laforet, his pictures and his work ethic for a long time and I though I might as well include all of you in that circle. Laforet is a man of many talents and after years as a staff photographer for the New York Times he now serves as their first contract photographer in addition to undertaking other freelance work. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his work in Afghanistan following September 11, created a group of iconic images defining Hurricane Katrina, and was named on of PDN’s 30 under 30 (30 under 30 is a contest through which PDN selects the 30 best photographers in the country under the age of 30). Laforet is nothing if not a dedicated, passionate and hard working photojournalist and it is because of his work ethic he has skyrocketed in the world of photojournalism. Beyond just going out and working, working working Laforet is also thinking. From how to get access when nothing is possible all the way to how he’s going to take a major event witnesses each year by millions of people, like the U.S. Open, and show it to them in a way they’ve never seen before – Laforet is using his brain.

There’s a slew of pictures made by Laforet that I could use to illustrate this point, but the most recent is a series of photographs he created of major sporting events using tilt shift lenses. Using these lenses allowed him to control the depth of field and focus, and thereby boiling the event down to it’s real essence: the winning moment, the breaking wave, the finish line.

The New York Time did a special piece with Laforet where he talks both about his motives for shooting these images and the thought process that created it. To see that piece, and I really recommend that you do, click HERE.

James Nachtwey

For some reason James Nachtwey has come up a lot lately in some of our discussions. We’ve talked a lot about how on the level of local or world wide news as photojournalists we make the pictures that the rest of the world bases their opinions on, and about the different responsibilities that entails. To go with that theme I am posting a talk by James Nachtwey which was presented at a T.E.D. conference in March. In speaking about his decades as a conflict photographer he speaks about how when a photo catches the world’s attention, it can truly drive action and change. Again, the world might not always change as a result of what we shoot, but if nothing else it is important that we are there. Our task is to document our world as it exists today, and all the good and bad things that saturate it. Photojournalism isn’t just a job, it’s a calling, and as such you are all very lucky to be the next generation to embrace that calling. One of my favorite pieces from this video is when Nachtwey talks about his own responsibilities as a photographer. He says, “I am a witness, and I want my testimony to be honest and uncensored. I also want it to be powerful and eloquent, and to do as much justice as possible to the people I am photographing.”

Paint with light.

At some point we’ve all tried the paint with light thing with a long exposure and a flash light. That technique in itself produces some amazing photography, as evidenced by people like Dave Black. To change things around you can also get in front of the camera and use the flashlight to “draw” an image.

However, when you combine that approach with video a whole new world of imagery is opened up, which is exactly what Sprint has done in one of their recent commercials. They shot still-camera time exposures of themselves drawing with flashlights, and animate the still frames to absolutely beautiful effect. The complexity of creating something like this boggles my mind. Conveniently, we also have a behind-the-scenes clip that explains a little about the process of how something as elaborate as this was created. When you get done watching these videos, take a minute to visit the Sprint site mentioned at the end of the commercial, which is pretty interesting itself.

The behind-the-scenes version:

There is a group of performance artists in Japan who have been producing work similar to this for years. They call themselves PIKAPIKA, and you can see one of their pieces here.

The Dirty Dozen’s first speaker: Dave Pierini

We are very, very fortunate to be having Dave Pierini from the Jasper, In., Herald come to speak in just a couple of weeks. For more info check out the Dirty Dozen page.

Weddings

A few of you have talked to me lately about shooting weddings, and the various difficulties that creates. As a student I always had a tormented relationship with shooting weddings: I loved the money they created, but I hated shooting them. A big obstacle was the fact that I had to use lights which was an almost entirely foreign concept for me until the very end of school. As photojournalists, however, you have a great marketing advantage as the “photojournalism” style wedding is very much in style right now and will probably stay that way for some time. These days I really enjoy shooting weddings, beyond the fact that they pay well. Weddings are a great tool through which you can experiment with lights, “models”, portraits, etc., – and the knowledge which you gain from these experiments will go a long way to helping you move into more freelance work, magazine work, agency work and the like.

To help you along you way here are a few photojournalism style wedding photographers who do very well for themselves, and produce some really amazing work. One of my biggest obstacles when I was a student, in addition to lights, was having a list of ideas for how to shoot a weddings. Having to come up with 15 different bride and groom portraits on the fly is a bit intimidating, but by studying the work of these photographers you can go into your next wedding with a plan for what you’ll shoot and how you’ll do it. This will kill off a lot of the stress and at the same time allow you to focus on making really great images.

Check out: John and Joseph Photography – Based out of the West coast, this duo creates some unbelievable photography.

Joseph Victor Stefanchik – While in college Stafanchik was runner up for the Pulitzer Prize, but lost to the Berlin Wall coming down. Since then he has been primarily a wedding photographer in addition to working for a period at the Dallas Morning News.

Docuvitae – Docuvitae is a group of photographers based out of Los Angles who do everything from film work, weddings, commercial work and magazines.

Brain Wagner – One of my favorite people of all time, Brain Wagner is one of the most talented and committed photojournalists I have ever known. Wagner is now based out of Knoxville, Tenn., shooting weddings in addition to his own personal projects.

Baraka – Thursday

Just a reminder that Baraka is going to be show this coming Thursday at 9:00. It is also an unofficial Dirty Dozen meeting, so I was going to take the opportunity to ask you all a few questions about your relationship with photography. Some things to think about over the next couple of days are: What do you want to do with photography/photojournalism? (Do you want to shoot on a hobby basis, be a professional photojournalist or the next James Nachtwey?); what do you want out of the Dirty Dozen over the course of the year; what are you passionate about (photo or otherwise); if you could be one thing (professionally) in 5 years what would it be and how will you get there?

Also, to give you a taste of what Baraka is about, I posted a 9 minute clip in the Dirty Dozen section of the blog.

The future is now.

A friend passed this on to me a couple of months ago, and after watching the demo my jaw hit the floor. After watching the demo you’ll have an idea how this new technology could seriously direct the way we interact, visually, on the web. One of the many exciting practical applications of Photosynth is how it could allow us to have a print like layout for newspapers brought to the web, and then made unobtrusively interactive.

From the T.E.D. website:

“Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around
the Web, Photosynth (based on Seadragon technology) creates breathtaking
multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all
expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this
standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a
freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant
grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. “Perhaps the most
amazing demo I’ve seen this year,” wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007.
Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and
experience digital images.”