Category Craft

Entries 313 Total

That Tree

May 8, ’13 4:11 PM

I had better not ever hear a student say there’s nothing worth photographing … The Denver Post’s Plog looks at a year’s worth of images by Mark Hirsch of the same tree.

Yep, 365 photos of one tree, all shot on his phone.

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Building Connections

May 5, ’13 2:48 PM

The International Center of Photography has announced their Infinity Awards recognizing outstanding achievements in photography. Eight awards were given and MediaStorm produced films on each of the winners.

David Guttenfelder’s is a great look into how his work out of North Korea has come about. If you mouse over the right side, you can see the play list and watch his. (Of course, the Jeff Bridges one is worth watching, too.)

That quote at the end, about building connections, is why we do this work.

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Look3 Festival

May 3, ’13 2:34 PM

One of these summers, I’m going to make the run up to Charlottesville, Virginia, for the Look3 photo festival I’ve never heard anything but praise for this … and I always have a conflict, it seems.

I need to put it on my 2014 calendar …

(Thanks to Justin Ide for the reminder.)

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Simple vs. Small

Apr 24, ’13 3:09 PM

Over at The New York Times’ Lens blog, Whitney Richardson has a story up about Paul Kwilecki and his photographs of Decatur County, Georgia. Well worth a read and a walk through the gallery.

But it raises a couple of question that, probably, only I can answer … why did Mr. Kwilecki reach out to Duke University to help with his archive? I guess I know that answer – because the University of Georgia doesn’t have a photographic reputation. I want to change that so badly it hurts.

His work is exactly the sort of thing I want housed here, that I want to work with, that I want to help people see and discover.

“I am frequently asked by people who have not seen my work why I spend my life documenting one simple place like Decatur County, Georgia,” he wrote. “People confuse simple with small; they’re not the same thing.”

We may be a small program, but I certainly hope we are not simple.

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Choosing Your News Source

Apr 3, ’13 1:01 PM

Technology has changed the way many of us learn information. Used to be, you went to the library or turned to the news. One was old and out of date, the other was in a big building downtown. (Insert rimshot, which one of my students now keeps loaded on her laptop during class … I love these kids.)

We do now live in an age where “information” can come from all sorts of sources. There are the traditional newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs, online publications, social media and even from the sources themselves. And that … well, that worries me. Because you’d think if I wanted to know what the president was doing, his office would be the best place to go for that information.

Except, it’s not. It’s probably about the worst because it isn’t going to put it in context – they’ll tell me what he did and what they hope it means, but that’s different from what it actually means. It’s the difference between news and PR – what’s the source? Is it reliable? Is it biased?

All of this is covered in an AP story by Nancy Blake that looks at the images coming out of the current White House – those from the president’s photographer and those that journalists are not being allowed to make.

The will for presidents to get their story out without media intervention has always been there.

What’s different now, says Mark Jurkowitz of the Pew Research Project for Excellence in Journalism, is new technology that allow the White House to distribute its own content far more widely and effectively than past presidents could. At the same time, it’s getting harder for cash-strapped news outlets to resist using photos, video and other content supplied by the White House.

Be concerned and support your local journalists.

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Dave Labelle at Grady College

Mar 29, ’13 10:55 AM


Dave Labelle at Grady College

On Thursday, March 28, the National Press Photographers Association’s Student Chapter at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication brought Dave LaBelle to campus. The room was packed, here’s some of what was said.

Storified by Mark E. Johnson· Fri, Mar 29 2013 07:52:38

Half hour to go & the crowds are gathering in the halls for DAVE LABELLE in the #UGAVJ Drewry Room, sponsored by @NPPA ‘s student chapter.Mark E. Johnson
ERMAGERD DERVE LABERLE!!!! #ugavj #tooexcitePatricínha
Anyone else see the resemblance? #ugavj <a href="http://t.co/vgAZPMNujt" class="">pic.twitter.com/vgAZPMNujt</a>Damien Salas
OMG DAVE LABELLE #ugavj #thankscody @cbschmelterHilary Maloney
Dave LaBelle talks to (and hams it up for) #ugavj <a href="http://t.co/X07wDma1tO" class="">pic.twitter.com/X07wDma1tO</a>Maura Friedman
I know that Dave knows how to connect with people based on the amount and length of time he’s making eye contact with everyone. #ugavjPatricínha
LaBelle talked about shooting the legendary basketball coach John Wooten, who opened up and told him about his wife’s passing.
"Nell was the only girl that I ever dated, that I ever kissed, that I ever loved." Trying not to cry. #ugavjPatricínha
Fav person Dave LaBelle has shot was Coach Whooten, who wrote a letter to his wife Nell every month for the 20 years after her death #ugavjMaura Friedman
"Don’t put your lips on anything you don’t plan on keeping" -Dave LaBelle #UGAVJDamien Salas
He spent a bit of time talking about his past and how that has affected his approach to storytelling.
Dave LaBelle’s favorite word? Compassion. #ugavjPatricínha
"I’ve been blessed to have a lot of bad things happen to me in my life." Me too, Dave. Me too. #ugavjPatricínha
LaBelle’s compassion comes from empathy, says he was "blessed by hardships" that have focused his motives #ugavjMaura Friedman
"No one in this room has been as poor as I have, yet I’m the richest one in the room." – Dave Labelle, visual journalist #ugavjSophie Frankham
"One you have your motives pure, it changes you. It changes how you interact with human beings." – LaBelle #ugavjJamie Gottlieb
He went on to talk about his approach to photo stories …
"Most ‘photo stories’ are merely a group of pictures that end up in the same place..good stories are about relationships" -LaBelle #ugavjMaura Friedman
Let your subjects speak. Honor them enough to let them speak..and through that, you’re going to tell people how you feel -LaBelle #ugavjMaura Friedman
Photo stories need characters, hurdles and resolutions. Photos give information the same as words on a page. #ugavjMaura Friedman
Little details enrich stories. It’s the same with picture stories. Find relevant, telling details, not just ones fill your slideshow #ugavjMaura Friedman
Main point: picture stories do not occur in one place. #UGAVJWil Petty
"Try to take photographs of what something feels like, not what it looks like." Dave Labelle #UGAVJWil Petty
"When you get done looking at a picture story, you should have some feeling." Dave Labelle #UGAVJWil Petty
"The ability to project and to see yourself in every person’s role" Dave Labelle on what makes great storytellers. #UGAVJWil Petty
You begin with curiosity. #DaveLaBelle #ugavjShanda Crowe
Not gonna lie, pretty close to crying over those pictures and story of the guy with the burns. #UGAVJWil Petty
“If you want to move people, make pictures that make us feel like what it is to be them.” -Dave LaBelle #ugavjShanda Crowe
"With every privilege comes responsibility." Dave LaBelle #UGAVJWil Petty
"The subjects heal by telling stories and I heal by telling stories." Dave LaBelle #UGAVJWil Petty
He helped us convert a few kids and reinforce the belief that this, visual storytelling, is incredibly important.
If you’re at all interested and journalism and you’re missing Dave Labelle in the Drewry Room right now then shame on you #ugavjLaura Thompson
the term "world changer" can seem pretty figurative. and then you meet someone like Dave LaBelle. #ugavjHilary Maloney
I met the most inspiring man today. My goals in life completely changed within 2 hrs. Thank You Dave LaBelle. #ugavj <a href="http://t.co/u0va7R7bLU" class="">pic.twitter.com/u0va7R7bLU</a>Lexi Deagen
You can get his books through his web site, The Great Picture Hunt, and you can learn more about him through a series of videos Francis Gardler did about him a few years ago.
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Was Your Road Trip Like This?

Mar 26, ’13 11:03 AM

Nice gallery up over at CNN.com looking at the work of Paul McDonough did while road tripping across America in the 1970s. Some fun stuff in there, makes me rethink how to shoot my vacation photos.

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Sneaking Into Iraq, Ten Years Ago

Mar 25, ’13 8:55 AM

Yunghi Kim has a story up on National Geographic’s site about her efforts to get into Iraq at the start of the war a decade ago.

I hesitated before posting this because a casual read may encourage others to try what she did, to cause others to believe this wasn’t as difficult or harrowing as it probably was. With a decade’s worth of memories between the experience and the writing, there are sure to be details that have been left out.

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Notes on Book Publishing

Mar 22, ’13 11:41 AM

Yesterday, we had our second annual Business of Visual Journalism symposium here and one of our speakers, Laurie Shock from Shock Design, left a copy of her presentation to share. Since I had a lot of requests, I’ve posted it online.

I did pull out a lot of the images she used because of some copyright concerns as well as to get the file size down. Towards the end, there is a ton of links and good information about the process of book design. Well worth going through, even if you didn’t make it to the talk.

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The Business of Visual Journalism

Mar 21, ’13 11:30 AM

Today’s the day … here’s the line up, all in the Drewry Room of Grady College. If you’re nearby, stop on in.

  • 2, Billy Howard, talking about balancing commercial and personal work
  • 3, Laurie Shock, talking about working with photographers on book and large projects
  • 4, How Did You Get Here?, a panel of alumni talking about how they took their UGA VJ knowledge and turned it into a career. Featuring Lindy Cordell (ABJ ’09), wedding and portrait photographer, Caroline Kilgore (ABJ ’07), photo director at Atlanta magazine, Jackie Reedy (ABJ ’10), communications consultant for Chik-fil-A, Ashley Strickland (ABJ ’10), assistant producer at CNN, Jon-Michael Sullivan (ABJ ’10), The Augusta Chronicle, and Autumn Vetter (ABJ ’09), recently at the Forsyth County News.

We should have live tweets on the hashtag #ugavj, as well.

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