Visual Journalism

I am as big a fan of Dorothea Lange as you will find. Take away all the issues around her life, just her work alone is amazing stuff.

But to make a musical about her life? Uhhh … hmmm … okay, I won’t pass judgement on this. Because, well, I like the overture … oh, wait, I just listened to the Excerpt from Maynard … I may judge this soon …

(Thanks to Donald Winslow for the lead.)

I’ve posted links to some similar collections, but the Denver Post has, again, eclipsed everyone else with their collection of color images from the 1930s and 1940s. Maybe it’s just me, but these images are fascinating because we’re so used to seeing the subjects in black and white.

A neat look at what may – or may not – be in The Mexican Suitcase, which was brought to light in 2007 containing lost negatives from Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour.

(Thanks to Greg Mironchuk for the link.)

In the late 1950s, W. Eugene Smith moved into a New York City apartment building known as the Jazz Loft. He made more than 40,000 images of musicians playing for the fun of it, along with hours and hours of audio recordings. Now, the show is on the road.

(Thanks to Abriana Welch for the inadvertent tipoff to the video.)

Kendrick Brinson, a co-founder of Luceo Images and a Grady College Photojournalism alumni, has her on-going story on Sun City up on the New York Times’ Lens blog. She’s been working on this story for a while, looking at the life of seniors in this Arizona community.

It’s a great set of images – full of life, beautiful light and great little moments. Spend some time with it, worth your while.

I suspect I’m going to have to find a reason in the next few years to head to the University of Texas at Austin – they’ve just acquired a 200,000 print archive from Magnum Photos. What a research opportunity … heck, what an opportunity to experience history.

The article says it’s only the print archive, not the copyrights to any of the images. Which would mean they can’t sell or distribute the prints, but may be able to do exhibitions and make them available for researchers.

A second thanks to Greg Mironchuk for the heads up on this.

National Geographic has had a DVD set of all their issues out for a while. (A previous CD-ROM version caused a little bit of a legal issue for them, as well.) Now, they’ve created a newer version that’s delivered on a hard drive. And is updatable (though there’s no hint as to what an update will cost).

Who’ll be interested in it? Well, certainly anyone who’s interested in world culture, anthropology, sociology and geography. The search functions, as described, would make this a great teaching and research tool. Just the ability to page through whole editions of the magazine, without having to watch your bookshelves sag under the weight … to see the stories and images as they were originally published, complete with all the advertising around them … I may have to start counting my change jar.

During our March photojournalism weekend workshop, I put several of our guest editors around a table and lead a series of conversations about the state of journalism. In the first, on using social media for journalism, I was joined by John Curry, Visuals Director for the Augusta Chronicle, Walt Stricklin, Director of Photogaphy for the Birmingham News, David Labelle, author and former photojournalism professor, Minla Shields, the former Senior Editor for Planning at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Mike Haskey, the Chief Photographer for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

Here’s their take …

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(28:14)

My apologies for the digital noise – we learned to have everyone turn off their iPhones before the next recording.

If you’ve never watched Rear Window, you should. But this has nothing to do with that. Monica Almeida has a post up on the New York Times’ Lens blog about shooting from her car.

Another reason why you should have your camera with you all the time – you never know what you’ll see.

Time.com has posted an audio slideshow of more color photos from the depression, complete with a simple narration that tells some of the back story.

I know it’s silly, but it’s so darn cool …