Visual Journalism – Notes from aside the camera

February 18, 2021

The Royal Photographic Society Journal Now Online

This is very, very cool – the Royal Photographic Society has made nearly 160 years worth of their Journal available online, every issue from 1853 through to 2018. As a way to look back at great work and how great work was discussed, this is a tremendous resource.

Advice & Learning/Craft/Tech Talk/Thoughts & Theory

February 17, 2021

Why I Love Photography

Nice piece where Terry Fouche explains why he loves photography. This line resonated with me: A day will come when maybe I can’t pick up a camera anymore and when that day comes and people look at what I left behind, I want them to say this person loved people, this person honored people and we can see it in...

Advice & Learning/Craft/Photojournalism

February 17, 2021

On Gordon Parks

We can never learn enough about Gordon Parks. R.C> Baker at The Village Voice wrote up a brief on an exhibit of his work and included this, in talking about one of Parks’ iconic images: “That’s the photograph I made of her, in the government building, in front of the American flag, with a broom in her hand and a...

Advice & Learning/Good Work/Photojournalism

February 17, 2021

An American Project

Arghhh … the High Museum in Atlanta has an exhibit of Dawould Bey up according to an NPR piece by Karen Michel. Only running through March 14 and I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be – unless they’re doing private showings …

Good Work/Photojournalism

February 14, 2021

What Inspires You?

Great thread started by Lewis Bush on what, outside of photography itself, inspires you. For me, it’s music and one painting. I want to make photos like that painting, lost in the moment, on the edge of the space.

Craft/Good Work/Thoughts & Theory

January 18, 2021

Accidental Art

Interesting look at how we have been interpreting news images in the same way as fine art over the last few years. Now I need to poke through the accidental Renaissance Reddit thread …

Craft/Photojournalism

January 8, 2021

Inside the Capitol

I am still processing the events of Wednesday. Three journalists from The New York Times, including photojournalist Erin Schaff, wrote up their experiences from inside the building. It is terrifying.

At Work/Business & Industry/Photojournalism

January 2, 2021

Two Hundred Fifty Things a Photojournalist Should Know

In 2018, architectural critic and designer Michael Sorkin published a list of Two Hundred Fifty Things an Architect Should Know. Sorkin, who wrote for the Village Voice for many years, was an early victim of the pandemic. I heard excerpts of his list on a podcast one evening in the spring and it got me to noodling. Every few mornings,...

Advice & Learning/Business & Industry/Craft/Journalism/Photojournalism/Thoughts & Theory

November 23, 2020

Making the Invisible Visible

This NPR piece by Richard L. Harris, ostensibly a review of a new monograph of Mary Ellen Mark’s lifetime of work, may have given me a theme for my spring Documentary Photojournalism course. As journalists, we are charged with shining light into the dark corners of our world – to make the invisible visible. Given how dark our world has...

Advice & Learning/Good Work/Photojournalism

September 30, 2020

The Value of Metadata

My colleague Kyser Lough sent this along – a look back in time to when Jose R. Lopez photographed Ruth Bader Ginsburg on her first day on the Supreme Court. Why is this important? Aside from it being a very strong image, it was his ability to find that image, 27 years after it was made – this is a...

Business & Industry/Journalism/Photojournalism/Tech Talk